10-14-13

It's Thanksgiving day. It's Monday. It's a rainy day. It's been a stressful day. It's been a day that started and ended in Fargo.

The stress grew out of Saturday. The plan was to leave the yard early. But upon arrival at the yard my load was not there. It arrived just before the lunch hour. The plan called for me to switch trailers in  Grand Rapids Michigan then head to our  Winnipeg yard, switch trailers again, then head down to Breckenridge Minnesota and load at 1 pm today.

I was pretty certain logging 2800 km (1700 mi ) 3 border crossings and a couple of switches in 51 hours on an EOBR was pretty much impossible. I was right. But that didn't stop me from trying.

I attended a drivers meeting this past Friday that addressed issues of communication, attitude, and stress. Seems a few drivers have come unglued of late. I have to admit that I've been on that knife edge a few times myself this past year. More regulations, driver shortages, customer demands, juggling Canadian and American HoS rules, speed limiters, and all the time shooting for your incentive bonus. I'm surprised more drivers & dispatchers don't come unglued on a regular basis.

So you're starting to see the irony in this little story? You're dispatched on a load with little if any window allowing for fuck ups or delays and the first trailer you're supposed to hook to is late. That leaves you to explain to a shipper why you can't make it to your dock appointment, in fact you can't even make it to their dock before they close for the day, and at the same time you're  begging for an appointment first thing the following morning.

I started coming unglued last night. Today I'm giving thanks that I have a wife that is understanding and loving even after dealing with almost 35 years of my bullshit. The trucking industry should be giving thanks for our families. That's the only glue that keeps my head together out here of late.