The Saga Continues

Last night after waiting and searching and waiting some more, I finally found the only two employees who were working. There was no guard on duty, and they had no way of opening the gate for me. I was advised to camp out until morning.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

At 6am, the cars started arriving, but still no open gate (only Trucks enter through locked gate). By 7:15 am, I finally found someone who had access to the gate control. As I approached him, he just shook his head.  "I guess you didn't get the memo!"

Huh?? What??  It turns out that this mill had changed hours on me.   Gates locked, no admittance form 7pm to 7am...  That would have been helpful to know. I began to get a little upset with the assistant dispatcher for sending me over here with no way of getting in. Surely she must have known. They changed their hours three weeks ago.  She had to have known.  The gate keeper informed me that he, himself,  had told 3 of our drivers the new hours.  She must have just forgot to tell me.

I made my round trip in a flash because I had to be back inside the gate before they locked it again. And I made it with plenty of time to spare, but the gate was locked early, and the premises vacated.....Jiminy Crickets!!!  Is this a freaking conspiracy ?

And just when you thought it couldn't get any better....

I still have NO Power!! This truck has not been able to pull a hill ever since they turned us back up. I am pretty sure, they just did not set it up right when they reset the computer. Easy fix!  But now, I no longer have a engine brake.  I found this out when making a 8% descent with 25 mph curves that stretched out for 7 miles. Would not have been so bad if the loaded trailer I was pulling had good brakes, but this is the scrap run....So, they are sCrappy trailers, and you should already know by now that my cohorts in crime do not do pretrips. 

Tomorrow morning I intend to waste a few hours trying to find my engine brake, and maybe get me some power. Yeah sure, the truck has been in the shop for over 2 weeks, and I have been fighting this damn truck for over 8 months, but it would not be a complete week, if I did not have to get more repairs done.  Might as well knock that out on Monday. And I did find out that the 3 drivers never bothered to mention to dispatch that the mill hours had changed. Hmmmm, so maybe she didn't know.  

I think I might just take a small check and go home early...I am seriously at the end of my rope!