Just Catching Up At Long Last

I have had several opportunities to launch another missive towards this growing pile of words. It is just that I have either had to get going already or I just did not have the energy to fire the computer up and dedicate some heartfelt time in the name of endless drivel. I have no idea whether that is spelled right. So, for the sake of the uneducated...I mean crap.

I was being harassed by snow at last visit as I was trying to get my ass home for the family get together on the first of December. That turned out to be a nice outing and I was off until the 5th or so.

Then I had to get going to Jamestown and get a load of Potato Sticks and head out to Louisville, KY. My reefer broke down and I ended up losing a whole day on the deal. Jim Palmer paid nothing for this delay to me. Then I got rooked into the Schwan's load out of Walton KY going to Arlington, Texas. This load was kind of slow as I was late to my Louisville, KY drop due to the ice storm I was trying to cross in Illinois. I pulled over until it was safe and ended up 5 and 1/2 hours late to the Louisville show. I always err on the side of pulling over because simply, I do not want to know what it feels like to slide into a deep ditch at speed. All the losers at Jim Palmer are concerned with is the fact that if their load is late, they get docked. Well, I am not going to say all the losers because the safety guy is always saying on the quaalcomm to pull over and be safe. Funny though since every time I have a delay, that delay is followed by two or three very slow and non profitable loads. In fact, the drivers at Jim Palmer call it "getting spanked". Tell a driver manager that he is an asshole, get spanked. Refuse a load, definitely get spanked. Call and swear into the phone at someone, Spanky, spanka, spank, spank.

Back to safety. It seems that safety is really for the people at trucking companies to beat the driver over the head with when something goes wrong. It is also a good "cover your butt" measure when you are sending drivers with profit generating freight into harms way. The driver is the company source of income and at the same time the driver can be the biggest drain. In the form of lawsuits. It is really funny though, how quickly a driver gets thrown under the bus when something goes wrong. You can be the driver of the year and have 25 years at Jim Palmer Trucking. Just as soon as you slam into the side of a minivan full of people due to running a red light, they cast you into the fire. There is something terribly wrong with that. I mean, the driver does his job and the trucking company makes money the whole time for the most part. The fact is, that there are dispatchers, managers and all other employees making mistakes all the time that cost their companiy money. I don't even want to hear about the price of fuel going up and all that. You are preaching to the choir. It just seems that there could be a bit more loyalty on the part of a trucking company towards the driver. All this advertizing on the part of company owners and spokesmen, talking about how their respective company is so much better because they have been there, they pay more, they treat you like family, they want you to succeed in your "career" etc, etc.

Fact is, you are a number. You are a number that performs a task and provides your company with a positive number for their corporate equation. The more you perform that task, the more money they make. When you hit the icy road, they tell you to be safe and pull over. If you wreck, then there is a negative number that effects their business outlooks and forcasts. Pulling over is not what they want to tell the driver to do, but the truth in their hearts is too sick and disgusting to say out loud. There is an unwritten rule at trucking companies. That rule is, make the most money you can while shelling out the least amount of cash. There is also the rule that no one is to say this out loud much less utter the truth spoken above a whisper. There is no room for loyalty in that business equation. Frankly, I would rather be a porno shop attendent than to be one of the kiss ass losers that aspire to run trucking companies. Scumbags, one and all.

Think I am wrong? Try this on for size. My truck broke down in Washington, causing me to need a room for 2 nights while the truck was repaired. I call the dispatch and they say to find out if the hotel will take com check. Turns out, that this hotel does not. They tell me to pay for the room and they will reimburse me for it. This room was the last one the hotel had available and was not in a cheap neighborhood. I will say this...it cost $210.00 for 2 days total. The next week, the refund was $120.00. This is on top of the fact that I did not receive one dime for the time off. I could see if I let the truck go completely to hell and it broke. This was an issue with the motor I had addressed at the shop in Missoula not ten days before I broke down. I wanted to cool down before calling up these assholes to find out what fine print or needle headed policy was responsible for me being ripped off. I will let you know when I find out. dedication