Monday, July 18, 2011

Things Are Going Just Swimmingly

We're sort of like fish in a tank when we're waiting on our load; we can't really leave, because we're being paid to be "on call". When the load is ready, we have to be nearby and prepared to get behind the wheel to begin our cross-country journey.

We've been waiting for three days, going into the fourth. Ed had a few things left to do on the truck and I really wanted to get a pedicure, so the extra time worked out pretty well for us. I probably should have also done laundry, but since I have enough clothes in the truck to outfit the cast of a Broadway show, I'm holding off until next week.

I'm not going to lie, it's a little irritating to be hanging around not really knowing when the load will be ready, but ultimately, it's not the worst thing. You see, for us as a team, we have to figure out who's going to sleep and who's going to drive. And when you're told the load will be ready at a certain time, we plan around that information. When we don't have that information, planning is impossible. Who sleeps? Who stays up? Who drives first?

The load was supposed to be ready on Friday. It wasn't. Then Saturday morning. Then Saturday afternoon. Then Saturday in the "wee hours". Then Sunday morning. Afternoon. Evening. "Oh, definitely by ten." PM. Not ready. Then this morning at ten. But we didn't get the call. So we called at noon and were told it would be ready in a few hours. When we called in a few hours, they said tonight at eight. It's well past eight and the load is still not ready. The newest update is, once again, the "wee hours".


So for now, we wait...in the air-conditioned "tank", both of us getting a little shut-eye until they ring our phone and tell us where to be.



4 comments:

Gil said...

At least you are on hold in one of the more beautiful parts of our country! Just think how much fun it would be if you were waiting around some fun place like Brownsville, TX?

Team Caffee said...

It is very frustrating when this happens. Do you guys get detention time when this happens.

We stay on a set schedule of who drives when. We change between 2 and 3 in the morning which works well for us. Bob is a night person and I am a morning person.

When we sit to long I start going stir crazy as you are right we cannot leave the truck as we are on call and need to be ready to move.

Project Girl said...

What is the load? Do you know why it's delayed? (Is it still being manufactured or something?) So interesting to those of us who don't know much about this industry...

The Daily Rant said...

Gil: OMG, I'm so glad I'm not in Texas!! You know I would hate that!!

Team Caffee: Yep - we do get detention.

Project Girl: We are hauling aircraft parts. It's delayed because of manufacturing. They think it's done and then someone finds something that needs to be tweaked or repaired or whatever. I should have have included that in my post. I didn't think anyone would be all that interested in THOSE details. :)