One of Those Days... This morning's delivery to Chicago, IL was late by 15-minutes. I knew that was going to happen because I started at 5:00 AM and it takes a minimum of 2-hours to arrive at this stop from Milwaukee, WI (not including the 15-minute pre-trip inspection of the tractor/trailer). I despise being late for appointments. In this case, I couldn't do anything about it unless I refused the load (and I'm not sure there was anyone else to deliver it).
After arriving at my stop, the location was woefully unprepared for the large delivery they were receiving. Consequently, I was there for just over 4-hours until the trailer was unloaded.
Since I sensed that this would be one of those days where I wouldn't be driving a whole lot, I decided to get the tractor washed at the Blue Beacon in Oak Creek, WI (more on that in a moment). However, after making that deduction, I was offered a 3-drop route for tomorrow in Minnesota. However, there was no way I would arrive there this evening and complete my 10-hour break before my first appointment time. So, I declined the Minnesota run. (After arriving back at the warehouse, later on in the day, I was again asked if I was sure I didn't want the Minnesota run. The subtle "implication" was that with creative logging in my log book, I could indeed make the Minnesota run tomorrow and no one would be the wiser--accept me. As much as I want the miles, I again declined the invitation.) So dispatch assigned me to Madison, WI tomorrow morning and I'll be delivering to 2-locations there. Hopefully, there will some additional miles in the afternoon or this week will be a short mileage week.
In my experiences with getting the tractor washed at the Blue Beacon truck wash location in Oak Creek, they have done a good, thorough job. However, this time around, the boys in the south bay in Oak Creek did a less than impressive wash. There were chunks of something (dirt? bugs?) on the hood, the rear duals had not been cleaned properly, it appeared that they neglected to rinse some parts of the truck as I found obvious streaking in places (diesel tank for instance). In short, I expected better. My company got a cheap wash job. I think I'm going to have to watch them like a hawk the next time around which means waiting for the north bay to open up (that's the bay where you can watch from the window in their office). Either that, or I'm going to need to find a new Blue Beacon location each time I get the truck washed. It's true that you'll get the best service the first time you show up anywhere. Once you're a "regular" customer, you'll be treated well--but not as well as the first time you showed up. That's too bad--especially for my company because I think they have a standing contract with Blue Beacon.
Well this was one of those weird days where nothing went quite right. I figure I've got another 30-60 days before I'm due for another one! (grin)
miles driven = 225
5:19:56 PM
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