Youngstown, Ohio: TA

Due to the holiday I ended up with Monday off, which means I had to wait until Tuesday to get the needed permits and paperwork faxed to me. It took a few minutes to come up with a fax number, but eventually my brain kicked into gear and I called up my cousin at his business and asked to borrow his. After picking up the paperwork that afternoon it was all a matter of waiting for a load. So I was more than a bit surprised to get a phone call from my dispatcher's supervisor to give me the third degree on why I wasn't on a load. First she started with last week when my truck got shut down in Romulus, Michigan to go to Cummins and the International dealer for repairs. Then she went onto this week wanting to know why I wasn't on a load right then. She used the phrase wasn't available for a load, as if all this was somehow my fault. Almost every question she asked, after I answered she would put me on hold to verify my response. Once she found out about my waiting for permits she tried to switch me to someone else to get them, I managed to stop her before she did to let her know that I had them. Then again she was on about why wasn't I on a load. She seemed puzzled by my answer that no one had given me one. She then wanted to know who hadn't given me one, I just said who ever plans the loads, then I said Jason was my dispatcher ask him. After that she switched me to the night dispatcher and got me set up on a Beer Run out of Columbus. Which I delivered yesterday and here I sit. Yippie, 300 some miles to sit at a truck stop, a great reason to get moving this week.

The plant I picked up at in Columbus was Anheuser-Busch and it was huge. The smell made me more than a little thirsty, and I hate Budweiser. I ended up getting a load of Bud Light to take over to a distributor in Boardman, Ohio. The loading docks were about what you expected, except they have a lot of automation in place there. Robot lifts bring the beer from the line to each dock and stage it on rails for the loaders to grab from with their forklifts. Even the loading is computerized with the inbound weight distribution telling the loader how many plastic bulkheads to put in the front of the trailer to keep the weight off the drive axles. I got right in and out, but apparently there are times when the system can't keep up with the flow of trucks causing loading delays.