This day got ridiculous.

A trailer came into the Brownsville yard around 1:20 pm.  I texted the manager as soon as it came in - not going to be able to make 7:30 am load time tomorrow morning. 

I heard nothing back from him, got busy doing my pre-trip inspection and paperwork.  I texted him again half an hour later - So what are you going to do? He texted back "I'm working on it".  Then he asked if I could make the 10:30 spot.  Probably was my answer.  So, I was still dumped with this ridiculous Houston run.  Whatever.

I then texted him and said I would just leave Monday morning and get there before 11:00 am.  It was then he decided to call me after he said the work order says 8:00 am delivery time.  Yes, I had replied, but they give us til 11 since they are playing this game where we have to load one day and deliver the next.  It USED to be a 1 day trip - load, drive down there, deliver, go back. 

This manager needs to get his shit together.  But then again, they didn't give him any training.  According to him, the company is broke - coronavirus, other divisions are bleeding money - they didn't want to train him, just ask other dispatchers questions. That's just plain stupid and putting that person in a position of failure.  We got into a very lengthy discussion about this particular account. NO one wants to do it. Because of the fact the customer decided it should be a two day run instead of one.  So, you're gonna get paid $300 wasting two full days of your time with this nonsense. That's not even a days' worth of pay. 

He basically pleaded with me to have it there by 8:00 am. I said fine, but please get this situation clarified, as I went into the entire history of 1 day run, to 2 days be there at 8:00 am, to 2 days - be there by 11:00 am, even tho the paperwork says 8.  He said he was going to try to get more money for the trip and how much do you think it is worth?  It's worth two days worth of driving at least.  He stuttered on that one - well what does he expect? Why should I be required bow to the whims of a stingy customer? Who in our company decided it was okay to just leave the pay the same after stretching this worthless run into 2 days?

It was going to be a long day, I could tell.  I didn't even feel like driving today, just one of those things where I'd rather be home lounging around or doing something - anything - other than driving a truck.  250 miles up the road, a pickup truck passing me honks his horn and starts pointing backwards. 

I look in my mirrors a lot, I make sure tires aren't blown.  They can catch on fire if they get hot enough and then you have a real problem, tho fires usually only happen when 2 tires blow that are side by side to each other.  Those little fire extinguishers they put in trucks might be good for a spot fire, I doubt they'd do much to wheels/tires heated up.  Well I looked in my mirror again - I had just looked before he honked - saw nothing, but I pulled over.  Amazingly, this guy also pulled over. 

I met him at the back of the trailer.  A tire cap came off the tire, completely off, and was wrapped around the axle.  It was dragging 4 feet out the back of the trailer.  He said it was throwing rubber chunks behind it.  It was completely impossible for me to see this because it was an inside tire on the rear axle.  The tire hadn't blown, it was still holding air, it just didn't have the tread on it.  The dude got down under the trailer with his knife and cut the tread out of there.

I wondered how long that thing was like that before someone finally decided to get my attention?  I thanked him profusely and we parted ways. I drove another 30 miles on that thing, as long as it didn't blow I didn't care, I was on a very tight schedule and if I could make it to the TA Truckstop, I could get it fixed a heckuva lot faster at the tire shop than sitting on the side of the road.  I wouldn't have tried it if the trailer was loaded.

Without going into the ridiculous details of what happened at the shop, an hour and 15 minutes later I was on the road again.  I was still not feeling it - driving that is - plus I didn't get my normal nap on my "break". My break was sitting around waiting for a tire to be replaced.  I texted the manager at the tire problem - he never replied.  I just told him what was going on and that it might affect my return time and that might affect whether I make it back to the yard in time to get the mandatory 10 hour break and get to the plant on time. 

Just to say here, the loading plant is a stickler on drivers being on time.  THEY don't care if they're behind schedule because of a plant problem - and don't bother to contact anyone to tell us they're delayed, but if we are late, they raise hell.  And then we get notified by management. I am almost never late, the only time that happens is if there is a problem with the assigned trailer. 

This new manager needs to decide whether he's going to keep the job or not.  If a driver contacts you with problems, at least acknowledge it.  Anyway, I ran into several traffic incidents after leaving there and though, well, whatever. I can't control any of this, if I don't make it back in time, it's not my problem. Because if it was the previous manager, she would have already reassigned this load to someone else. 

I made it back to the yard with 5 minutes to spare.  In 10 hours, I'll get up, have basically no time to do anything but get dressed, get on the clock and leave.  No, I didn't go home. Seemed like a waste of time to go home just to go to bed and then get up 7 hours later and come back to the yard. Maybe if I lived closer I would have, but not 37 miles each way. 

And then, after loading, I have to make the decision whether to take the truck back to the yard and go home - or - drive down to Houston and spend the night in yet another truck stop.  It's probably going to be drive to Houston, because if I go home, I'll have to get up at 2:30 am to get back to the yard and then drive down in the middle of the night.  That is the part that bothers me. Either way, drivers are making sacrifices to get this 8:00 am load there and yet we are getting paid dirt to do it. 

I dunno what I'll do, make that decision tomorrow when I'm leaving the plant.  I just think it's ridiculous - and so does every other driver and actually, so does this new manager - to have to sit around 14 hours because this customer demands we get loaded one day and deliver it the next. This new dude said he was going to address this situation, I hope he does.

It is 1:00 am and it's time to go to bed.