Southern Loads

After delivering in Houston I got a load of Clorox product out of downtown Houston going to a WalMart in Pauls Valley, OK. I dropped that the next morning and they gave me a load out of Nestle Purina in Edmond, OK to pick up Saturday morning going to a Winn Dixie warehouse in Hammond, LA. This ran over the weekend and just stayed in Shreveport Saturday night thru Monday morning. The delivery appointment wasn't until 2pm on Monday. A nice cold front passed through Monday with lots of rain. I kept running through it and then out in front of it and when I would stop it would catch up to me again.

After dropping the load in Hammond they gave me a load out of Arabi, LA, which is a suburb of New Orleans, to pick up Tuesday morning. I left a little early to get there since I had to drive all the way across New Orleans to get to this place. Was pretty smooth sailing really. Since Katrina hit, the rush hour traffic is not near what it used to be. You see signs of the devestation still with lots of vacant buildings still setting around. They have most of the garbage cleaned up though.

The load was supposed to load at 7:45am, but when I got there at 7am they said the pick up number I had was no good. I had to leave the premises because they are so tight there is no room for extra trucks. It took 1 1/2 hours for them to decide I did have the right number and someone had screwed up by not getting it to the security guard at the gate. The load is going to Paducah, KY and delivers Wednesday around noon.

The docks were very tight at the shipper, this is Domino Sugar which has been there forever. I had to back into the dock with a truck already in the dock on either side of me. When I got in there my mirrors had cleared the other trucks mirrors about 1/2" on the right side and just barely touched the one on the driver's side. Since the trucks and trailers were all the same length, I found I could not open my door on either side. It would open about 3" and hit the mirror on the other truck. I had to get the driver on the left side to open his passenger door so his mirror would swing forward and I could swing mine in behind his mirror. It gave me just enough room to squeeze out the door. The problem I had was the Swift driver was Mexican and could not understand English very well. He did not know what I was asking him to do. Was starting to get frustrating getting out of there until another Swift driver explained it to him. I was about ready to give him an English lesson.