Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

or the ol' Greydog....

 

I continue to have difficulties with my truck. So when I got a load assignment today with a very tight delivery window, I called up HQ and told 'em "No way I can deliver that load on time." I had 9:53 on my drive clock and the delivery was 10:04 away. Under normal circumstances where I am not having to pull over on the side of the road every few minutes because my truck has shut itself down, I could conceivably make that delivery. But these are not normal circumstances. And since this was a delivery for Abilene's 2nd largest customer, they usually like to make those on time.

I called 'em around 10:30am. Our normal procedures seem to be "Completely ignore the problem and hope that nobody brings it up again before 5:00pm when I can go home". So long about 3:00pm I started making more phone calls trying to get some movement. And at 4:45pm I told 'em "I would really appreciate it if you guys didn't make me *guess* what you want me to do with this load."

That seemed to generate some movement on their end, and I was given a phone number to call. One of my fellow Abilenees. So I called the number and the dude answered. I explained that I was calling about a load swap, and I hadn't even gotten halfway through the sentence when he informed me that he'd been a driver for 39 years and I shouldn't have picked up the load if I couldn't make delivery and there was no way in hell he was going to deliver the load and he'd already done Abilene a favor the day before and on and on and on, just a non-stop litany of whiny crap. I told him I was calling him because I'd been told to call him, and again I didn't even get halfway through the sentence when I was interrupted by another rant.

So I told him I wasn't interested in listening to him complain and I hoped he had a fantastic evening and then I hung up on him. He was still firmly in rant mode when I clicked the button.

I can understand that folks may not want to rescue a load for whatever reason they have, but that's between them and HQ. I'm just doing what I was told. Don't throw a tantrum at me about it, because I absolutely do not care.

 

On the tour this week,deadheaded to Chesapeake for the Michigan drop yesterday,dropped that today ,now I'm on the Toledo to West Memphis,been a good couple weeks.
Suppose to be home Saturday,but recap won't allow it,I'll just get home asap.

 

New decoration for the truck, courtesy of a split-tandem flatbed and the tight parking spots here at the TA in Wytheville.

 

OUCH!!!!!! Been to that TA often and like so many other truckstops the parking spots are either too small or angled in the wrong direction making them a blind side back. The good old rule of G.O.A.L. might have prevented that but a lot of today's drivers think that they "got it" until it's too late.

 

That left a mark....

 

I understand those split-tandem trailers can also be a little squirrelly when backing up.

Last time I parked at that TA, someone dinged my side mirror with their trailer backing into a spot. So this time I made sure to fold my side mirrors in so nobody would hit them.

I can report that nobody hit my side mirrors. So that was a success, at least.

 

Did you confront the scoundrel?