The drive into Huntington Beach was fairly uneventful (except for the toll booth automated payment process experience--more about that later).
Coming down I-15 into the San Bernardino area in the early morning hours was a sight to behold (reminded me of the view of Albuquerque yesterday morning). Shortly thereafter, it began to rain steadily (and I thought all the rain was over for awhile). Traffic wasn't too bad. Then again I "rush hour" at 4:30 AM. It's rather amazing to see how many folks (truckers not included) who are getting a head start so they can be at the office on time (either that or they are all stock brokers who need to be at their office for the opening bell on the East Coast)
I decided to use a short stretch of toll road to get to my destination (per my QualComm instructions). At the first toll booth, they had an attendent. I got in line behind a guy who was literally scraping change from all over his car to try and pay the toll (so all of us in line had to wait). The next toll booth I went through was all automated. You could put any bill denomination (up to $20.00) into the machine and pay the tolls. By now it was nearly a steady down pour. Have you ever tried putting a soggy bill into an automated payment machine? It's quite an experience. You even may find you dredge up curse words you haven't used in decades. But I digress. After spending a few minutes attempting the impossible (and laughing hysterically alternating with words of the aforementioned language), my intellect kicked in and I retrieved a fresh, dry $5.00 bill (oh that reminds me, I need to find where I tossed the soggy one in the truck). Much better. The machine from hell...er...the machine accepted the bill the first time. Then it took me a few seconds to realize I needed to push a button to print a receipt. Ahhh, nothing like the feeling of success. I climbed back into the truck, throughly soaked by now, and proceeded on to my destination without incident. Oh, by the way, the guy who was digging up change at the first toll booth approached me at the second toll booth while I was busily engrossed in the art of making a machine accept soggy U.S. Treasury paper. He asked me "Do you have change for a $50.00 bill?" I apologized and said I didn't. Must be nice to have sizeable bills on hand--accept when you're going through a toll system.
Found my delivery place OK and after being unloaded, my next set of directions were to go up to the drop yard near by and pick up a trailer and deliver the contents a few blocks (literally) away. Why another driver who brought the trailer here couldn't have done the same thing is beyond me. My guess is that he ran out of hours or got here during the weekend when the business wasn't open.
I met some great people with good attitudes at both of my delivery places. That really helped me cope with how the rest of the day went.
I brought the empty trailer back to the yard and swept it out (something I'm noticing a lot of drivers do not do (even though they are supposed to) so that it's ready for the next guy. Then I hooked up my trailer that would take me home. That's when the day started "heading south." My dispatcher is trained by the company to compute the time it takes to deliver the load on time a certain way. Drivers, on the other hand, are taught differently on how much time it will take to deliver a load on time. Sure enough, my dispatcher figured my ETA (estimated time of arrival) to be at noon on one day while I figured I'd make it by 9:25 AM the next morning (Gee, do you think there are ever fireworks between dispatchers and those who drive the freight?). This is big deal since if the load isn't delivered on time, the driver is always the one to blame except for extentuating circumstances that can be verified by God (OK perhaps a little exaggeration here, but not by much!) So--dispatchers never take the blame for loads not being delivered on time; truckers do get the blame every time if the load is not delivered on time with few exceptions. Me thinks that system needs to be addressed and tweaked a bit!
So I explained to him how I was taught by my company to calculate the time it takes to deliver a load. His reply to that was basically "I've been trained a different way." Well then, there's the problem. One company is training two different methods to two sets of people. HELLO! Don't ya think everyone would be more productive if the same training methodology was used throughout the company? However, I'm fairly confident that the this is how the company wants it. That is to say, by having the dispatcher say give ETA and the truck driver another ETA, the load will most likely get there on time as differences are worked out. I don't agree with that philosophy one bit. For a consultant's fee, I'd be happy to 'splain it to whomever at my company wants to listen.
So then, after Mr. K (my fleet manager) and I really didn't agree on the time the load was to be delivered, I set off to take on 25-gallons of fuel at a truckstop just down the road. I've never seen a busier and crazier truck stop. One look at the line for fuel prompted me to park the truck and take my half-hour break. During this time I Qualcomm'd Mr. K and informed him that I would wait between 1-2 hours to take on 25-gallons of fuel (I had over 3/4's of a tank but the company has to buy a certain percentage of fuel from every state it drives in). After going round and round on whether to find/try another truck stop nearby, he finally said that since its only 2-hours, just wait it out (This was after I suggested another fueling option an hour away where the lines wouldn't be as long). Good thing that I added extra time to my ETA for delivering the load. You just never know what can slow you down on a trip.
It took me exactly one-hour to wait in line to fuel, then fuel, and then wait inside for the front desk to give me my receipt. So much for making good time at the start of this trip!
I ended up staying in a different truck stop in the same area that I had stayed this morning. I ate a quick meal, talked to the family, showered, and crashed!
I enjoyed my time in the LA area. Yeah--the traffic can get kind of nuts at times, but the scenery sure makes up for it. Tomorrow I'll be routed a different way then the way I came here. That's because snow has closed some of the passes on I-40 that I drove to get here. So, now I'll be taking the northern route through Neveda, Utah, Wyoming, and North Dacota to get back home.
miles driven = 251
8:54:37 AM
back to top |
