Yesterday

My pick-up yesterday had a two o'clock appointment time and I was told the shipper was very particular about it and wouldn't load me early. Fair enough. I arrived at about one o'clock just to make sure I got checked-in on time and didn't have any issues. Before I backed up to the dock, I had to slide the tandems to the rear, which involved raising a lever at the back of the trailer. The lever usually sticks and this time was no exception, so I was pulling rather hard on it when, of course, it gave. I wasn't quite prepared and my elbow smashing into the trailer frame was evidence of that. Turns out that was an omen. Once I got backed in, they had me loaded in about twenty minutes. That never happens. It was another heavy load - just under 45k lbs. Being that the DOT scales were just a few miles across the Georgia state line, I decided to stop at a truck stop and scale the load to make sure everything was legal. It wasn't. I was about 250lbs overweight on my steer axle. That never happens either. I informed my dispatcher, who told me to call the broker. I called the broker, who told me to call the shipper. I called the shipper, who seemed to not really care. His initial response was, "Well, we can't take any pallets off," and basically asked me what I wanted to do. Okay, as far as I'm concerned, I should have been home Thursday night. It's now Friday afternoon, I'm about to hit rush-hour traffic in Atlanta, I've got an overweight issue, I'm 30 minutes from the shipper that I might have to return to, and I just want to be home. As nicely as I could, I explained that I didn't care what the hell he did, but as far as I was concerned, he needed to decide how to correct the issue before I drove any farther. His idea was to reload the trailer and shift everything toward the rear, away from the steer axles. That would be great if only the trailer weren't loaded to legal capacity, which was from the nose of the trailer all the way to the 48' line. Apparently, the 53' trailer couldn't be loaded past the 48' line, I'm not sure why. After presenting that option, the shipping supervisor said I would have to sign something saying I authorized and approved it. I just drive the truck, I don't enter into legal contracts with customers. So, I called the dispatcher back and ultimately, let's just say I was removed from any further culpability regarding the issue. After sitting at the truck stop for an hour, that was all I needed to hear. So, I got back on the interstate. As soon as I got on the entrance ramp, I could see the DOT scales. We have PrePass which usually lets us bypass the scales. If the light is green, we bypass. If it's red, we have to cross the scales. I'll give a penny to the first person that can guess what color it was this time. If you guessed red, congratulations. Great, I'm about to get a ticket, the DOT is going to give me a full inspection, I'm going to be here for two hours, all kinds of nightmares flashing in my mind. And then, nothing. I crossed the scales and got the "ok" light. Wow. Either the scale I used was wrong, or the DOT really does overlook the first 500lbs. Whatever. I grabbed a gear and boogied before they changed their mind.

Next up, Atlanta traffic. I think Chicago and Atlanta are one in the same - 10lbs of stuff in a 5lb bag. The last 30 miles took about an hour and it was filled with the same "let's cut-off that big-truck" type of driver so prevalent in Chicago. After some primal scream therapy, I was feeling much better by the time I finally parked the truck. I'll enjoy a couple days at home and get back on the road Monday.