This week has been fairly busy and this is the first chance I have had to say anything. Monday started early, I left Perrysburg at 2 AM to pick up a load in Marion, Ohio. That load was going to Canada so I dropped it in our Romulus, Michigan, yard. From there I picked up a load that was going to Laredo, Texas. Since I am no way near Texas right now, something obviously changed. That was a phone call just before I crossed the Mississippi River. Apparently there was a load in St Louis, Missouri, that needed to be picked up that day, and I was the closest driver. So once I got across the the river I headed North to our drop yard to get a trailer for the load going to Prince George, Virginia. All of this makes Monday through today look a lot like this.
To make my day really pleasant, I found out that they are going to be closing the Falcon Terminal in Toledo, as well as the ones in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Cleveland. I still have a job, but everyone that works in those terminals do not after they shut them down. They will be locating somewhere for the local drivers to park the trucks at. I am just hoping that it is some where that I feel as comfortable about leaving my car at as I am now. The real problem will be getting services done, it used to be that I could leave my truck on Friday and it would be ready to go on Monday. Now I will have to take time out of my work week at a terminal to get them done, as well as any other work that needs to be done.
The amount of freight does seem to be picking up, but it still bothers me about the amount of cost cutting going on right now. There are at least five trucks in the Toledo yard that are awaiting complicated repairs, at least two of which will need to be towed to where ever they decide to fix them at. There is also a wrecked trailer that will have to be taken somewhere. With around fifty drivers working out of the Toledo area, it really doesn't make sense to me to take away a support base for local repairs. The likely result is that drivers will not report things until they are serious to avoid getting stuck at another terminal. After all if they are serious, they might be able to get them fixed on the road, which is faster than the black hole that West Middlesex has become for trucks.
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