I woke up at our customer's dock. A co-driver disconnecting truck from trailer tends to wake a fella up. My mind & body was sufficiently recharged from 7+ hours of deep sleep in the bunk.
My breakfast was mainly canned spaghetti, warmed in my 12V oven. I ate & cleaned everything up while Mr. H drove from our delivery location to our company's yard.
Once at the yard (OC), we dropped off our empty trailer & searched for the heavily-loaded trailer that we were assigned to take to Los Angeles. It was raining hard. We made three trips around the yard before we found our trailer. It was impossibly tucked between two other pieces of equipment, in the maintenance section. I sloshed over to the maintenance desk to ask them if there was a reason for the prohibitive parking & if they would pull it out for me, with the versatile yard-tractor. Apparently, it was on the list for mandatory attention. We were absolutely prohibited from taking it before it made a trip through the trailer bay. I immediately called my supervisors to inform them that we needed to move our delivery appointment out by a few hours. As long as I communicate effectively & verifiably, my job is complete.
We passed the time in the drivers lounge. I used the company computer to order my free boots & to check on my performance scores. (They were very nice). Mr. H made a few friends - trading stories & exchanging advice about life in a big rig.
So, here's where the title of this blog chapter was inspired. As I was fueling my tractor, prior to departure with my freshly-repaired trailer, another driver came up to me. This red-haired man was the one who dropped off my trailer for relay & ordered maintenance for it. He made it plainly known to me that the maintenance technicians didn't complete their job - that my PM sticker was incomplete & exposing me to heavy DOT fines, if I should be inspected. He went on & on about how poorly the Portland shop performs their duties. So, to conclude our conversation, I told him that I would take the trailer back by the shop & tell the head mechanic what he told me. And I did. The skinny mechanic's mouth dropped open in incredulity when I asked him about the situation. My trailer was perfectly fine & he ha just applied a fresh pm sticker to pacify "Mr. Over-zealousness." He was well-familiar with the red-haired driver & went on to tell me about how he complains about almost everything and pretends to know how to do other people's jobs better than they do - a really toxic personality. So, the moral of this experience is: Take the time to ask questions & be skeptical of those who constantly seek wrong in others.
No comments:
Post a Comment