Snackbar is chillin'....at Shaffer

This is what the inside of my windows looked like this morning here in Altoona, IA. A cool -5 outside

Went to fire up the reefer this morning, to thaw it out for the washout(it was 0.9° inside the box) My next load is a dry, but protect from freezing load, so I will also have the set point ready after loading, so all I have to do it turn it on and go. The TK unit didn't like it when I asked it to fire up. It sputtered and bucked for 20-30 seconds before smoothing out, and was really noisy for a bit as the cylinders got heated up.

 

Now, here is one thing that has perplexed me since coming back to this company. It has to do with the 'wellness check' message. Some days it get sent at the 12th hour, sometimes it doesn't get sent at all. I asked my AM to just turn it off all the time, I don't need any babysitting, and he said they can't unless I'm on hometime. But I got to the FJ yesterday morning at 11:30, and as of 10 min ago, I still hadn't gotten any message...so I guess maybe he found the off switch after all.(BTW, they really don't care about your wellness, it's just their way of saying "you need to get moving" without actually using those words because that would piss too many drivers off)

 

They knew that when they hired me back...but a Peoplenet message won't fix what's wrong with me.

 

Got to the shipper and they claim my appointment isn't until tomorrow. After double checking with their scheduling people upstairs, they confirmed it. They said it's a light day, so they'll go ahead and work me in, but again, a load with some sort of foul up...I don't think I have had one load this month without some sort of miscommunication, bad load info or a total fuster cluck.

 

Unique situation. With the newer units we have, they won't go into high speed with the doors open. This shipper wants the unit at a minimum of 40° before loading it. I had it at 55° prior to backing in, but it is so cold outside, backed up to their dock, the best this thing can do on low speed is the 30's. They had me pull out and shut the doors to warm it up, within 10 min at the dock with the doors open it went from 55° to 42°.

 

With the doors open, a lot of our trailers stay on low speed, and on low speed these units don't put out that much heat. I had it set 10-15° above the box temp and it just couldn't keep up with single digit outside temps.

 

All told, they didn't do bad at all getting me loaded, even as a 'work in". Shaffer said I had an 11 am pu appointment, I was loaded and rolling out their driveway by 14:00. I've had actual appointments take longer. 44,500 lbs of Helman's Mayonnaise in big buckets.