Maverick .... from a wife's perspective

Latest update.

Redcoat has gone from Rome, NY to Oswego, NY to Minster, OH, to Leipsic, OH and is now on his way to Talladega, AL.

He had a devil of a time finding the con in Oswego but eventually found it by accident. He picked up five coils there and took them to Minster, OH. Here's a picture of his tarp job.


He said the people at the place in Minster reminded him of his Covenant days. When he arrived, there were three Western Express drivers there waiting to unload. They told Redcoat that the people told them it would be eight hours. Cripes! Redcoat went to the office and waited at the window while the woman in there finished her conversation with a co-worker about the fight she had the night before with her boyfriend. Didn't even bother to acknowledge Redcoat standing there. Finally she finished her story and turned her attention to Redcoat who was by now starting to lose his patience.

She checked him in and told him to go back to Door #3 and wait. So he drove around to the back, parked and waited....and waited....and waited. Then he tried the horn thinking they didn't realize he was back there. Still nobody came. He figures he'll make good use of his time and decided to remove the tarps. He took his time. Still nobody came. By now he's getting pissed so he goes back to the office and the woman tells him who to look for. He has a wander around looking for the guy and finally finds him. The man tells him that production takes priority over unloading and that it could be up to a 10-hour wait. Redcoat is like, What production??? It's Saturday! Then he mentions something about how drivers are mistreated and how their time means nothing.

He goes back to the truck and sits for another 15 minutes or so then decides to have another go at the office but now nobody is in there. So it's back to the truck to wait some more.

He decides to QC his fleet manager to let him know about what is going on since he is really being delayed at the con. He finds he can't use the QC because he's inside the building so he puts a couple chains back on the coils and drives back outside. He QC's that they're telling him it's going to be up to a 10-hour wait and what does Mav want him to do?

Eventually he drives back to Door #3 and it's open but there is nobody around. He waits and finally the man waves him in. Apparently dude must have called Maverick and complained about Redcoat's "attitude" because Redcoat got a phone call from his FM asking what was up. Redcoat explained what had been going on and I think his FM tried to smooth some ruffled feathers.

Redcoat gives the man the paperwork and he asks what Redcoat's problem is. By now, Redcoat is like, dude, I got no problems. Then he takes off the rest of the chains and binders -- one at a time stowing each one before he removes the next. Redcoat said it took them all of three minutes to get him unloaded after pissing about for three hours.

Next stop was up the road in Leipsic to pick up a single coil. Redcoat tried to anticipate the load and went ahead and put the cradles in place and strapped them down so he'd be ready to load quickly.

He followed two other flatbeds into the plant and booked in. These people were the exact opposite of the ones in Minster. The admin people were nice as could be and very helpful. Only bad thing was this coil was eyes to the front so he had to turn the cradles around. So much for being proactive. After he finished, the woman asked him if he knew about the short cut to I-75 and Redcoat said 'no' so she drew him a quickie map to get him back to the interstate. Very much appreciated. Here's a picture of his single-coil tarp job. Redcoat says the only thing he doesn't like about it is the wood sticking out from under the tarp in front. Other from that, he's happy with his work.


Redcoat spent the weekend at a Pilot in Kentucky while he reset and should be down in Talladega by this afternoon. At some point this week, Maverick is going to try to get him to Little Rock to get his TWIC card squared away after that little fiasco last week. By the way, his FM said that he WOULD get paid for the 230 miles he drove out of his way on the Mobile wild goose chase so that's nice.

Stay tuned.

 

Latest update.

OK so Redcoat has made his way from Talladega to Birmingham to Houston to Jackson. Then he got dispatched to pick up some particle board from Louisville, MS headed to Teutopolis, IL. Currently he's at my mom's resting for a day planning on leaving out Sunday.

You know, when you're sitting waiting to be loaded/unloaded, it gives you time to make observations. Redcoat has a very droll, typically British, wit. While sitting at one of the con's, he watched various companies trucks bringing in coils. All had different combinations of plastic/canvas/tarps on the coils. Everybody brought in their load, covered every which way from Sunday, and for every truck, the forklift driver picked up the coils and placed them all in the same place, uncovered, outside in the yard.

After unloading in Madison, MS, Redcoat hung out at the Pilot until he got his next dispatch. When he pulled in, there were three other Maverick trucks there. As soon as you see that, you immediately think, ####, I'm going to be here a while. As it turned out, Redcoat only had to wait an hour or so to get his next job.

While he was there, he struck up a conversation with one of the other Mav drivers and come to find out dude was Driver of the Year for 2005 (I think that was the year). The man clued Redcoat in to the covered-coil-in-transit-but stored-outside observation. He said he had wondered the same thing and asked one of the workers at the plant about it. The man took him over to where they were unwinding a coil and showed him how even though the outside of the coil was rusted from sitting in the weather, as soon as they unwound it down one layer, the metal was still shiny. He said that not having the coil covered on the truck allows the wind to force the rain further into the coil causing rust deeper down in the layers.

Hmmmm .... that actually makes sense.

Guess he'll have to quit complaining about having to tarp coils that are unloaded to sit outside.

You know, when you know WHY something that seems to make no sense has to be done, you don't mind so much having to do it because now there is a logical reason for it.

Stay tuned.

 

Latest update.

On Monday, Redcoat put in his request for holiday time off in Petersburg, VA. I am up here for the week visiting my grandkids and will be having a rare holiday dinner with my son and his family.

Redcoat picked up a load in Teutopolis, IL and made his way to Mount Sterling, OH with it (just south of Columbus). He then immediately got an assignment to pick up a load in Columbus headed to Madison, MS.

Hmmmm ..... not exactly in the direction of Virginia.....

So he gets on the QC to ask what was up and finds out that his FM forgot to put his request into the computer. So now Maverick is scrambling trying to get something for Redcoat headed east instead of west.

First his FM rescheduled the delivery in Madison for the 30th instead of the 25th to buy some time to get things sorted out. In the meantime, Redcoat gets to the shipper in Columbus and is 10th in line to get loaded. He asks if he can load early and manages to get in, load, and get tarped and chained all done a half hour before he was scheduled to be there.

After that, he heads to Beckley, WV to meet another Maverick driver to swap loads. The man is already there waiting and it's a 5-hour drive for Redcoat to get there from Columbus. He gets there at 1900 (plus or minus a half hour) and they swap trailers. The man Redcoat meets lives in the area and is only 90 miles from home. So now his load is due in Madison, MS on Monday. Redcoat now has a load going to Springfield, VA which is 120 miles up the road from Petersburg. It is scheduled to be there in the morning and he is 300 miles away.

Once his FM gets to work in the morning, Redcoat will find out if the load still has to be delivered Wednesday or if it can be slipped to Monday. If it can wait, then Redcoat can slide across I-64 to Richmond and have Thanksgiving dinner with my son and his family whom he has never met.

If he has to deliver tomorrow, it will be late in the afternoon before he gets to Petersburg but at least he will still get a day to meet the family on Thursday.

Stay tuned.