Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Well. This was rather unexpected. I am still sitting at the terminal in Sumner. Well to be fair, I'm in the truck where I can actually concentrate. The lounge is centered around a television usually depicting images of graphic violence so common in our culture these days. That aside, I have not moved my truck today. Well, maybe I moved it just a little.
I started the day figuring that I would get a plan eventually, meaning that I slept until I felt it was time to get up. Nowadays that is sometime around 0730. I was shooting for 0600, but that fell by the wayside. I spent some time in the drivers' lounge hanging out in general, more time on the banjo and some time online. It just so happened that a guy I went to orientation with had returned for a bit and we got to catch up a bit, so that was cool. Later in the morning, I got to flappin' my gums about getting out of there and joked that I would team with this dude when I saw that I had gotten a text message. You see, I opted in for this feature with which Swift will text a pre-plan to your phone. This saves me the hassle of having to go out to my truck every half hour, crank the engine and wait for the fancy qual-com to boot up. Seriously, it takes 5 minutes for it to fully wake up from sleep mode. This feature is one of the great things about Swift.
Getting back to my truck, I look a bit closer at the plan. I would be hauling returned appliances from Sumner, WA over to Greensville, OH. I have no freakin' clue where Greensville is, but I do know that Swift would pay me for 2230 miles, which is pretty sweet for this time of year. Seeing as it delivered on Monday, I would be running pretty hard, but still have time left over for a load after that. Now, when I say “for this time of year,” it is common knowledge in the trucking industry (or maybe any manufacturing industry, who knows?) that things slow down after the holidays end. The first quarter is almost invariably poor for freight, or “soft” to use the industry parlance. Especially in the Pacific Northwest. Any chance to get out of here and towards the East Coast is always welcome. Needless to say, I'm pretty jazzed about the idea of this load.
I hop in the truck, fire up the engine and patrol the yard, seeing as the trailer is here someplace. I make the first sweep. Maybe I missed the trailer. I make the second sweep. Nope. I park the truck, then get out and walk up and down the 4 rows of trailers. Not a single one matches the number I have on my plan. Befuddled, I walk into the office to see what is going on. After some searching, I am told that this particular trailer is some place in Montana. Later, I am told that it is a rail container sitting here in the Sumner yard. So I check again. Nobody has any clue about what is going on with this trailer. My DM is working his butt off trying to get things worked out because it is an awesome run. Seriously, this guy rocks.
So I play some more banjo. It feels like I am getting used to it again. I go back inside and hang out by my DM's cubicle. I certainly appreciate the open door policy here. It wasn't like this at Gordon, or at the Syracuse terminal for that matter. I help out around the office in the limited capacity that I can and wait some more for any kind of information. Finally, the customer service representative (CSR henceforth in all entries) logs off and goes home. That is to say, the name disappeared from my DM's screen, and he/she does not work in the Sumner office. The CSR's here are a pack of hilarious women who seem to be laughing as much as working. That also rocks.
In the end, nothing can be done until the CSR who created this load comes in tomorrow. Leaving me hanging for the night. If I hadn't driven for Swift before, I'd wonder how often stuff like this happens. Either way, I get another day to acclimate, but more importantly another excellent rest.
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