So after I'd waited at that truck stop for 24 hours, I drove to the Georgia terminal.
I have been told by many people (including two dispatchers) that if I'm
empty and waiting on a load, and if I'm within an hour of a terminal,
that I should drive to the terminal because the vast majority of the
time, that's where my load will originate. So I did.
And that was apparently the wrong thing to do. In the last fifteen
minutes of the drive to the terminal, I received the three qualcomm messages
about my new load, a message asking me why I was driving to the terminal, a
voicemail and then multiple qualcomm messages telling me I'd been taken
off the load and it had been given to another driver.
I have been dispatched for several hundred miles of deadhead before, so
driving 40 miles to a terminal wasn't so farfetched. The dispatcher
told me that she'd try to find me another load, but that I might be
sitting at the Georgia terminal until Sunday night (it was mid-day on Friday at this
point). She did find me a brokered load that picked up in Chattanooga
at 9pm and delivered in North Carolina the next day. I called a head to
the dispatcher at the North Carolina terminal and asked if he had any loads
out for Saturday. He told me to call him back in an
hour and he'd try to find something. He did. I'd have a load waiting
for me.
The delivery point of my load from Chattanooga was hard to find. My
phone gps wasn't working in the mountains/hilly western part of North
Carolina, so I'd asked the broker for directions. They hadn't given me
a number for the delivery facility, so I couldn't just call and ask the
people who were waiting for me. The broker had me driving in the wrong
direction off the interstate, through a small town and on roads that
I'm pretty sure weren't weighted for a truck. I spent an hour driving
around that small town until I finally just went back to the interstate
and took the crossroad off to the west. I made it exactly at my
scheduled time, so I wasn't late. It took them less than half an hour
to unload me and then I headed to the terminal, which was a few hours away.
The lot at North Carolina terminal was as full as I'd ever seen it. There was almost no
place to drop an empty trailer. I dropped off my trip envelopes, found
my new trailer and hooked to it, did a pre-trip and got out my maps and
did some trip planning. It was Saturday afternoon and I couldn't make
my first stop until 9am on Monday in southern Indiana. I had lots of
time. I drove to the middle of Kentucky and then pulled into a truck
stop for the night. The next day, I drove to a Love's about 45 minutes
from my first stop (there weren't any truck stops of rest areas closer
than that because it was a small town about 30 miles off the
interstate).
I got up early and was at my first stop about 10 minutes before they
opened. It was only one piece of freight, so it didn't take long and I
was on my way. My second stop was the Indianapolis terminal. I called
ahead, so they'd be expecting me and was able to unload there right
away. My third stop was on the north side of Indianapolis. I got there
right after they began their hour lunch break, so I had to wait. Due
to the layout of their docking area, I had to wait for a driver who was
there before me to finish unloading before I could pull into a bay to be
unloaded. This was my biggest stop, as far as how much freight was
being taken off the truck. It took foreeeeever.
My next two stops were in Kokomo, Indiana. They were scheduled for
Tuesday, but since I'd made good time, I'd be able to make it to both
before they closed. I called ahead and asked if they'd receive it that
day (Monday). I've never finished a trip an entire day ahead of
schedule before. I sent a message to the dispatcher letting her know
that I"d be empty and available that afternoon.
My next load didn't pick up until 6pm on Wednesday, west of
Indianapolis. I drove down there and parked at a rest stop a few miles
away. It was the same facility I tried to pick up at on New Year's Eve,
but had to wait two days (because of the holiday) for them to take
freight off because my GVW was over 80k. I tried to call ahead to see
if my load was ready early (it was supposed to be a drop and hook), but
no one could give me an answer. I got there a little before 6pm and was
told that they'd be doing a live load. I moved my tandems and pulled
into the assigned door. It took them over an hour to load me. I went
to the scale and I was about 150 pounds under 80k, but I couldn't get
the weight distributed legally. I pulled back into my door and they had
to take pallets off until they could remove a 500 lb one that was in
the middle of the trailer. It took about eight weighs, but I did
eventually get legal, but only after sliding my fifth wheel as far back
as it would go to take weight off my steer tires. I was at the shipper
for almost four hours. Another driver from my company had arrived after me, was in a
bay a few lanes over and got out of there pretty efficiently. Luck of
the draw, I suppose. I'm not looking forward to the next time I have to
pick up from there.
The load went to a distribution center in southern Mississippi, same as
last time. Same route. I liked the familiarity of it. Knowing the
procedure of the delivery, no trouble finding the place, not getting
lost, etc. I hope more loads get to be comfortable like that for me.
I sent a qualcomm message to let dispatch know that I'd be empty and
available late Wednesday night, but after I'd delivered, I still hadn't
heard anything from them (other than being told I'd be dispatched by
someone at the Mississippi terminal), so I pulled into a rest area about 10 miles north of
the town where I'd delivered. This morning, I was told to drive to the
Mississippi terminal. I got there, but loads out weren't ready
(and wouldn't be until the next day), so I dropped my empty and
bobtailed to a truck stop to do some much-needed laundry. They said
that a load out for me would be ready sometime on tomorrow.
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