Friday, September 12, 2008

Texas Love Bugs And Hurricanes

This is a picture of Eddie's windshield, full of weird little Love Bugs which hit us as we were traveling through Texas on our way to deliver our load; but that's not the only thing that's going to his us in South Texas since Hurricane Ike is on its way! This is the second hurricane in thirty days that we're going to have to evacuate from.

We picked up a load in Arkansas and arrived in Texas early in the afternoon. When we got to the plant, we discovered the place to be empty. Closed. Not a soul around except for the security guard at their gate. Apparently the entire plant had evacuated at ten that morning, fleeing for their safety. What didn't happen though, was a phone call to us.

Are you telling me that NOT ONE PERSON thought it might be a good idea to call and tell the drivers who were hauling the load THEY ordered that they weren't giong to be there?? I was, as they say, rippin' mad!

As you may all know by now, Ed is the nice one. So after he made several phone calls to the agent, customer service, compliance and a few other people he thought might be able to help, we were at a standstill. It was time for me to take matters into my own hands.

I made a few phonecalls to the company we were delivering to (they had other locations that were not in the path of the storm, so I contacted them) and got hooked up with the "3rd in command" at the facility, according to the man who took my initial call. Well. Things moved pretty quickly after that. I asked if we could deliver to one of their other locations so we didn't have to ride around with their load on our truck till who knows when, and would be able to get out of town before the hurricane hit. The guy I talked to agreed and we wrapped up the call within twenty minutes.

So although the change added an additional 300 miles to our trip, we don't have to sit in our truck keeping an eye out for Ike's eye.
The only thing left for me to do now is to get paid on those extra miles, and since I'm sure I can make it pretty damn clear that we don't work for free, that's going to be an easy one to take care of.

10 comments:

MeHereNow said...

That picture is GROSS! I don't like bugs - I drove a little too fast this morning to remove ONE wasps from my windscreen and you had like a gazzilion! UCK!

Two hurricanes eh? You're the truckers version of Holly Hunter in Twister! I hope you're safe from Ike. Keep us updated.

Saretta said...

That's really, uh, gross... But you are great for getting things taken care of! I love an assertive woman!

~**Dawn**~ said...

Love bugs & two hurricanes? Are you sure you're not really in Florida?!

Anonymous said...

I think you guys are cursed for hurricanes. Drive some place way North, how about Alaska?

Anonymous said...

Sorry that last comment was from Greggie.

Decorina said...

Those love bugs are a mess, aren't they? Why don't you tell the folks here why they are called love bugs?

Man, you are some kinda typhoon Mary, aren't you?

The Daily Rant said...

MHN and Saretta: I know, they are gross. You should see our grill!!!

Dawn: I know! I've heard you have them there too. But at least they aren't Palmetto bugs!! ICK.

Greggie: You KNOW I would love going to Alaska. Mmmm...cold weather. I LOVE it!


Decorina: I included a link to Wikipedia, giving some description of love bugs. Am I missing something? All I know is the inundated our windows in loving little pairs! LOL

As for the typhoon comment - boy, isn't that right! I'm currently sitting in wind and rain caused by this hurricane and I'm not telling ANYONE where I'm going next! I don't need another hurricane following me! :)

~**Dawn**~ said...

We have all manner of freakish and/or prehistoric-ish creatures. Lovebugs. Palmetto bugs. Frogs that I swear can flatten out like a pancake & then puff right back up to normal size. This really is a bizarre place...

Gil said...

I'm sure you'll get paid as the customer wasn't there to accept the load and the customer authorized delivery to another location. I hope you get a load to a nice place real soon.

Anonymous said...

Man I was thinking about you guys last night. We felt some effects of Ike way up here in Missouri... strong wind and lots of rain.

I know you guys have to be a lot closer than we are. Did it blow you away?