Today's trip to 3 destinations in the greater Chicago, IL area started early and ended early. I was back at the warehouse by 11:00 AM.
Mr. N. asked if I wanted to take some short trips with the remainder of the time I had left in the day. "Sure" I said (it will be a somewhat slow week for drivers as inventory is being done at the warehouse on Tuesday). I headed to Cudahy, WI to pick up a trailer; deliver it to Plymouth, WI; take an empty trailer to Oconomowoc, WI; and then take a loaded trailer back to Cudahy, WI. However, a not-so-funny thing happened at my first stop in Cudahy, WI.
As I was leaving to go to Cudahy, WI, Mr. N implied that the information for the run(s) would be sent to me over the QualCOMM (Q). However, by the time I got there (45-minutes later), the information still hadn't come over the Q. So, I parked the tractor (no trailer) on the side of the one-way road that went around the building directly in front of the very small parking lot in front of the entrance to the building. I put on the hazards and turned the engine off. I went inside and found what I thought was the right bills for the first part of the journey. However, I told the office manager that I wanted to verify the information just to make sure I was not taking the wrong load. I climbed into the truck and called dispatch. While I was talking to Mr. J (who was unable to locate the information at the moment to send over the Q, I felt a sturdy nudge that jostled the truck. a maroon van had backed into the tractor. A sinking feeling entered into my gut. I put Mr. J on hold for a moment and stepped out of the cab. By this time the driver of the other vehicle got out of his van and was inspecting the damage to his vehicle. There was a slight scratch on his rear window and a slight scratch on the lower part of his left rear bumper. You couldn't really tell that he had me (a fact he conveyed in so many words). However, he did manage to put a nice bend to the driver-side cowling of the truck. You could definitely tell that something had bent it inwards. Sigh...the sinking feeling in my stomach was not going away.
So, I told the man to wait a minute and climbed back into my cab. I picked up my phone and informed Mr. J of what happened. After expressing his condolences, he instructed me to call Corporate Safety (CS). That sinking feeling sure wasn't about to go away anytime soon! I explained to Ms. A at CS what happened. She then told me to call the police. She would also get a claims adjuster over there right away to look at the damage. I was also to see if the other driver would sign a non-injury form that we kept in our accident kit.
Well, after speaking with Ms. A, I got back out of the cab and proceeded to tell the other driver the chain-of-events that would begin to unfold shortly. He wasn't exactly thrilled at the process for he had places to go and people to see (it turns out he was or seemed to be an independent route vender sales and fill-up-the-machines guy). Right around this time, the office manager appeared and told me politely (but curtly) that I wasn't supposed to be parked there in the first place and needed to move my truck to the side of the building. I was a bit taken aback at her direct manner but complied and moved the truck. I hadn't planned to be there but a few minutes, but since I couldn't confirm my load plan, I was there much longer than I anticipated I would be (I think the driver backed into me just shy of the 10-minute mark of my truck being parked there. At any rate, there were no signs telling me I couldn't park there (temporarily or otherwise) and the oil drips from previous diesel trucks parking there seemed to indicate that place was as good as any to park there--at least for a few brief moments.
By this time, my mind was beginning to settle down after racing a bit after the backing incident. So, now it was a matter of waiting for the police and claims adjuster to show up. The police showed up in about 20-25 minutes. By this time, the other driver had decided to go into the air conditioning of the building as it was sunny, hot, and humid out. I explained briefly to the police officer what happened: The driver of the van packed straight out of the parking lot (about 200-feet) and hit the tractor (why he didn't turn around before proceeding out of the lot I'll never know). I believe I told the officer that the other driver had mentioned that he wasn't even looking where he was going but rather at a car in the parking lot (guess he was admiring it or something). The other driver then came out with the office manager. The office manager promptly had some quiet words with the officer (hmm...I wonder what exactly she was saying since she wasn't a witness to the incident). Then the officer took some information from the other driver and them from me. Only he didn't take my driver's license information from me since I was parked and not moving (I began to see a little light at the end-of-the-tunnel). Then he suggested that perhaps a police report wasn't necessary--he would file it only if the other driver thought that the damage assessment report (from the soon-arriving claims adjuster) was excessive. In other words, since the damage seemed so minor, he suggested that the other driver deal with it without filing a police report. I don't know about anyone else, but I thought that was very wise on the part of the officer--why make an official police report when everything seemed so minor. If the other driver wanted to settle this out of his own pocket, so be it.
So, in short order, both the police officer and the other driver drove away leaving me to wait on the claims adjuster who showed up 30-minutes or so later. He asked me of my version of the story, took a fair amount of pictures, and then was off. He also seemed to hint that I had nothing to worry about. Well that light at the end of the tunnel seemed to be getting closer!
So, after waiting about 2-hours for this incident to be taken care of, I was finally ready to pick up my loaded trailer and hit the road. Only, I still hadn't received any information about my load on the Q. So, I called dispatch. They scrambled and finally (10-minutes later), I had my load information arrive on the Q. So, I went inside the building, located my paperwork, signed it, and then proceeded outside to hook up to my trailer. Only I couldn't find it. So back inside I went and inquired as to the whereabouts of the trailer. The office manager consulted with another individual and they concluded that some of the trailer number digits were turned around. Once corrected, I was back outside to locate the trailer which I then hooked up to. Only there was no seal on the doors. In fact, the doors weren't even closed (the trailer was still backed up to the dock). So back inside I went to the office manager and asked where the seal was. She consulted with another individual. Then she produced a new seal. I scratched out the old seal number on 3-copies of the paperwork and wrote down the new seal number on the 3-copies of the paperwork. As I was leaving she smiled and said if I'm here another 5-minutes they would have to punch a time clock and get to work around there. Well at least I no longer was on her list of individuals (for the moment) who wasn't doing something right. I think she actually started feeling sorry for me--the place seemed to be bad luck for me (and I don't believe in luck).
Again outside, I closed the doors of the trailer, sealed it, and then finally started towards Plymouth, WI. I had just enough time to get there, drop the trailer, and bob-tail back to the warehouse before my 14-hour day expired (needless to say I never made the other stops). At least when I dropped the trailer, I didn't get soaked in the rain storm that about to descend. I even managed to miss hitting a doe on the way back (I don't know about you but I haven't ever seen a deer sprint across four-lanes of traffic in pouring rain) and then saw the storm blow over and the sun come out.
Well...tomorrow I'm hoping is nothing like today! I believe I'll be doing some rail yard loads. I'll call dispatch in the morning!
Oh...what did I learn today? Make sure you get the information for your trip before you take one foot towards your destination!
miles driven = 368
PostScript: Last Friday's trip to Minneapolis was fairly uneventful (unlike today's!).
miles driven = 669
7:31:43 PM
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