9:11 AM Saturday morning.

Trip down here - I'm in Brownsville - not terribly bad considering I didn't sleep worth a crap.  

This will mark the first time in 4 trips down here that I finally get some holdover-detention pay.  No trailers here last night, another driver ahead of me will get whatever comes in here first - tho normally they come in with 2 trailers almost at the same time whenever they do come in here.  Like, 10 minutes after the first one comes in, the second one shows up.  

All fine and dandy, my manager contacted me at 11:00pm - last night - asking "did you pick up an empty?".  Why is he contacting me that late at night? No idea, I had already gone to sleep and had forgotten to turn off my ringer.  Won't be making that mistake again for a while.  I have no obligation to be answering non-essential questions at near midnight.  

If you've read this blog for any length of time you know that I am a very light sleeper and once I wake up, it takes a while or a long time to get back to sleep.  

Again, at 8:00 am, the dispatcher this time, contacts me and asks about picking up an empty?  Umm, no, I"m sure she already knew that, not like they can't see exactly where I am at with GPS - and, I continued, the other driver is also waiting.  

I'm seeing if this drags out long enough that I can't make a 7:30 am load appointment tomorrow morning.  The saga of two "privileged" drivers who get nothing but Brownsville runs continues to drag on, as I was contacted yesterday with a run, told to cancel that, then another run, told to cancel that because there are "issues".  

The issue? The dude that boasts how the company will never train me how to unload trucks refused to take the load to Ohio on Sunday for "I don't know how to unload the trucks" - which is a lie from the pit of hell for I talked to a highly experienced driver a while back who said he had taken this dude to one of the trailers and showed him how everything works and how to unload.  In the case of what we deliver, it's not rocket science, nothing near as entailed as the Nitrogen and Oxygen I was learning over in Connecticut.  

So, I got bumped for what would have been a second Brownsville run in a row - after having not had any of them for almost 2 solid months - because of this dude.  Pissed me off, to be frank about it. This guy has been around for almost 6 months now and they aren't forcing him to learn. 

So yes, I did say something to the dispatcher about it, this stuff grows old.  "Uhh, btw, Edgar showed him how to unload a while back".  This dispatcher apparently isn't happy about this situation either, but only because other drivers continue to complain about it.  Literally, if we don't say anything, they'll just let it ride indefinitely.  These two drivers that are literally getting nothing but gravy runs have been her for something like 6 to 8 months now, transferred over from other divisions where I'm sure they would have had to have known/learned how to unload whatever they were hauling before.  That's the way it works in this company.

She texted back that she is tempted to start sending them on Oklahoma runs only and let them stew until they decide it's rather important to know how to do every aspect of this job.  Yes please.  Not that that will happen, but getting bumped by another driver who has far less seniority because of this endless excuse is irritating to say the least.  I might have had yet another chance at detention pay for it would have had me down here on Sunday and that's one of the best days to get here in terms of no trailers available. 

The whole deal with Brownsville run is you get a 2 day run that pays for 3 days of driving when you get overnight detention.  That's the deal.  Less miles, more money, easy peasy.  Of course everyone likes and yes, of  course it should be evenly distributed to everyone, not just 2 people that come up and down here all the freaking time. I flatly stated to the dispatcher that this was the first time in almost two MONTHS that I have had one of these runs. She said she would keep that in mind.

Yes, please and thank you.  "Yes sir".  So at least if nothing else - I was polite to her - a bit straightforward about it but that is the way I do most things, nothing new there - but firm enough to get my point across.  So I'll take the Ohio run and put this nonsense out of my mind at least temporarily.  I mean, it's 2,000 miles round trip so if nothing else, it's a good paying run but you're running hard to try and get it done in 3 days, if at all possible.

Leave the yard and the first goal is to get to Farina, Illinois.  That's 710 miles up the road.  You can't have any lengthy delays, if you do, you can cancel that idea.  After that, you drive the 300 plus miles up to the plant, hopefully get offloaded as soon as you get there - you call ahead and let them know you're coming and is it possible to unload me today? type of thing - then you try to make it back to Farina.  If you look at GPS at Farina on satellite view - really small town - there is a huge truckstop right off of I-57 there. It's never filled up because it's not a major brand name truckstop, always a parking spot there, which makes it an even more desirable destination, you don't have to worry about parking.  

If you don't make it back at least that far, good luck in making it a 3 day run.  Is it mandatory to do it in 3 days? No, it's desirable to get any of these runs over and done with as fast as possible, go home, spend time with dogs/kids/surrogate family before having to go back out again.  

But, here's the deal: If they don't get a trailer in here for me before, umm, well about now - 9:30 am - which is almost impossible, there is no way I will make it back to the yard in time to get a 10 hour break in time to get to the plant to get loaded.  Impossible.  Now, this new manager has attempted to rid us of all  detention pay, a thing all of us said something about, something of which I stated in person, to his face that we like and the company should like since they are making a large amount of money off of it as well - well he's obviously trying to get the plant in Mexico to get two trailers up here in time to get us on the road to get back to the yard in Longview.  

But I know how this works.  The local drivers hook up to the loaded trailers we pull in here, take them across the border and bring empties back over. That's usually a 2 hour process. I don't even think they're in the yard yet.  If they are, they haven't hooked up to those trailers and so I'm not getting out of here before noon at the earliest.  See, they take the loaded ones to their yard across the border which is where their OTR Mexico drivers hook up and take them to the plant in Altamira.  

That's the way it's gone down here for the almost 3 years I've been coming down here, I doubt the new manager has been able to change that, it wouldn't make any sense for them to cross the border with tractors only.  I'm just thinking out loud here, I may get off of the Ohio load and someone else can take it up there.  My objection to it is that they don't unload you until the next day after you arrive - meaning you're sitting there for up to 18 hours. Last time I went up there, they changed everything and had a night worker there unloading. Which was great, I got up there, got unloaded and get the Hercules out of there.  Back to Farina and it was a 3 day trip - it was the only time I've ever been able to do that run in 3 days.  But now, some other driver disputed that and said that they had reverted back to their normal shifts, but he as "not sure" about that.

I am not in love with sitting around a plant for 18 hours doing nothing and not getting paid a dime to sit there and wait - it's the not getting paid part that is baloney to me.  If they want this stuff up there, then get someone there at the plant to unload it. Otherwise, pay us.  We are on time, they should  have to deal with it one way or the other.  

Whatever the case, James/Taylor/kids went to Missouri yesterday.  She wasn't going to go because of the Corona virus scare, but since she tested negative, they decided to go anyway.  It was preplanned a while back until she got that fever and came down sick.  I do have a problem with them going up there: untold number of stories saying people have tested negative only to get another test - and even show negative then and then yet another test after they remain sick and find out they do, indeed have the virus. They're going to visit another grandma up there in her 80's I do believe. If she gets that virus, that's almost like a death sentence.  I hope Taylor doesn't have it, her fever has been gone a couple of days at least.  

Regardless, the 5 year old 2 nights ago was almost in tears because I told him I had to go to work the next day - which he knows means I'll be gone for several days usually.  I dunno why that boy is attached to me so much, but he is. I mean, we horse play alot lol.  He's almost grown up with me - sans the 2 years they were in Georgia.  I was around when he was a baby, missed the 2 to 3 year old stage and then caught the 4 and now 5 year old stage. He started kindergarten last week, he's a "big boy" now lol.  Anyway, he took his wristband off - it says "I can read, I rock!" and put it on my wrist. Declared I can have that until I get back and then he gets the wristband back.  Oh yes, you'll get it back!  

Good that they can go visit that particular grandma. She's only been down once to visit and she's getting up there in age.  

The dispatcher just texted.  I told her that they haven't even moved the empty trailers out of the yard, much less thinking about bringing in empty ones, I'd suggest you start working on plan B for getting that load up to Ohio.  They know that there are 2 trailers coming up today - they don't know when they're arriving.  Well, nothing against Mexicans, but their culture is a "take your time" culture.  They're not in a big hurry.  Especially with the rain, it rained all night long. Looks like it's clearing out here, but looks like it's raining almost the entire road up here from Altamira. Dunno how that affects them, but Mexico isn't known for it's great roads to begin with. 

Welp, that's enough for this one. I think I"ll go to Wing Stop when they open in 45 minutes and get some of their delicious wings to go.