Wed... Jan 6 .... Trailer Theory

Anyone who is in the truck driving industry knows that you don't want to get stuck without a trailer! When Trapper came home for Christmas he was dispatched to take his "empty" trailer to Columbia, SC. We knew it could be a mess when we went back on the board.... but....

Sunday morning we go on the board at 7 a.m. We are preplanned to pick up a load at the terminal about 30 miles from home at 10 pm Sunday night. Ok... we thought... that's easy. Trapper called the company just to ensure they knew we had NO trailer. The qualcomm was showing a live load. Here lies the problem... How were they going to live load us and us bobtail???? Can you say weekend crew????

We decided to leave the house around 5 p.m. The truck was fairly ready with all the clothes, supplies, food, my stuff (and lots of it), etc., etc. We turned the heat down, set the light timers, turned the hot water heater off, unplugged tv's, computers, and small appliances. Leaving a house for weeks at a time is time consuming. We loaded a few more things in the truck and off we were.

As we're driving our few miles he calls dispatch just to reconfirm that we have NO trailer. The dispatcher, "Hold on." Next thing.... the qualcomm... "Load Unassigned." Next thing, "Sorry, you have no trailer, we can't load you if you have no trailer." My comment... well.... I won't type that.

We make a U-turn and return home. It's funny. Once you decided to come home you are ready to come home... once you make the decision to go back out... you're ready to go back out. Period! It's a mind set!

I was willing to stay at the truck stop vs. going back home for the night. That probably sounds pathetic but upon returning we had to undo all the stuff to the house that we had just done an hour before! Being mentally worn out by this time, sandwiches were in order for dinner. I couldn't face unpacking anything out of my fully and very carefully stocked fridge in the truck!

Monday rolls around and we were dispatched to Aiken, SC to pick up an empty trailer. Ok, so let's close the house up one more time.... we arrived in Aiken and.... wait for it...... the shipper wouldn't give us an empty!!!! I just laughed.

Another call to dispatch.... this time we had to explain the circumstances of the prior day and try to explain why we are running all over the state with no trailer! Finally, we were preplanned to pick a load up at this same shipper at 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

All is well now. We have a good trailer, stocked full! We're sitting tonight in Baton Rouge, LA. Every job has it's draw backs I suppose. There must be a trailer theory though. The qualcomm doesn't allow you to send some info if you can't put in a trailer number, you can't be actually put "on the board" if you have no trailer. My suggestion... death to the trailer theory! It's hard enough out here!