Romulus, Michigan: Terminal

After a very poor week I find myself with a half way decent load, that seems to be so trouble prone that I am wondering why I even bothered. It sounded simple, pick up a relay in Romulus, Michigan and take it to Terra Haute, Indiana, of course for some reason they never are that simple. My plan was to drive up here from Toledo, Ohio, at around midnight, grab the trailer and head on to the delivery. Apparently the first truck had mechanical difficulties, so they had to have a second truck recover the load, which got moving out of Toronto, Ontario, at around when it should have been getting here to Romulus. Yes, this load is out of Canada, so that means it also has to clear customs, which can sometimes take a while.

After getting the load from dispatch, my next call from them was about how it might be a bit late, and to call in first to see if it is in Romulus, before I leave Toledo. My first call to dispatch was at 10:30PM last night, the load had just gotten moving and should make it to Romulus somewhere between 1 and 2AM. So I crawled back into bed and tried to get some more sleep. My next call to them was at around 1AM to check on if the truck had made it through Customs yet, it was about thirty minutes away from the border. So I get dressed and load up my car, head to the truck, pack it, and give them another call. This was at about 1:45AM, the truck wasn't through customs, so I tell them to call me once it is through, and fall asleep.

I woke up just before 4AM, first a bit bleary eyed, since I fell asleep with my contacts in, then I made another call to dispatch, the truck had cleared customs at around 3:30AM, thanks for calling me guys. I get to Romulus at 5AM, find the trailer fairly quickly, hook up and am ready to go, right? Wrong, during my pretrip I find a light out, no big deal, and a missing mud flap, around a $100 fine in Michigan. So I check the shop, the one mechanic that is on duty, just got in, and he can't do anything on trucks until he does a yard check. So I call breakdown, after they do some checking, they tell me to wait until the mechanic here can fix me. So now this load that was supposed to deliver at 8AM this morning will now get there sometime this afternoon.

Off to the shop..