Never Plan, Just Be Ready

Last week (10/12/10), dispatch offered me a trip taking a crane truck from Daleville, VA to Kansas City, MO, followed by a non-CDL truck from just outside Kansas City to New Orleans. Normally, I'm not in to driving cranes unless I have to, but in checking this trip out I found a reasonable airfare back from New Orleans to Raleigh, NC, and the non-CDL easy trip to New Orleans made it interesting. I'd either take a rental car back from Raleigh, or maybe my wife would drive the 180 miles to pick me up. So given all that, I wasn't going to tow. I accepted the trip on Monday with the plan to leave on Tuesday morning, get to Kansas City Wednesday afternoon, pick up the next truck, and be in New Orleans on Friday. My driveaway mentor, Dick Williams, was lined up to pick me up at my drop point in Kansas City and take me to the next truck. It was all too good to be true in this business.

My wife took me to Altec early Tuesday morning where I found the truck, but no keys. After searching every spot I could think of, I went in to the plant and found someone that had the keys. I had the truck pre-tripped and on the road by about 8:00 AM. It was not great to be driving a crane, but it was nice not to be towing. You can't back up with a tow car attached, so it adds an extra layer of complexity to driving. And with this one, I had to back up at my first fuel stop. Go figure.

The trip to Kansas City went well. I drove about 560 miles and spent the night in sort of a rural area, Grayville, IL. I stayed at a nice motel using the Corp. Lodging Card. The fried chicken special was no longer available, so it was meatloaf, which was good.

On the road early the next morning, trying to get to Kansas City early so Dick could get me on to the next truck and headed to New Orleans. I called dispatch to get the phone number of the outfit for the next truck, but she didn't have a correct number. I should have picked up on something then, but didn't. On to Kansas City. At my last fuel stop, I called dispatch again to get the phone number, and she indicated there was a little problem. The truck I was to pick up was still in Chicago, or somewhere, and wouldn't be ready before Friday. This was Wednesday and I wasn't interested in hanging around until Friday and then starting a 2+ day trip to New Orleans. Dispatch did get on the stick and got me an early morning, 5:30 AM, flight out of Kansas City that would get me back to Roanoke at 10:30 AM on Thursday.

As I approached the delivery point for this truck just outside the Kansas City airport off I-435, I came as close as I've come in driveaway to having a major wreck. I was in the middle of 3 lanes, an 18 wheeler was coming by on the right side, when all hell broke loose in front of him with cars slamming on their brakes. I knew he couldn't stop and his only out would be my lane, but he hadn't cleared me. I went ahead and took a dive into the left lane, clearing the middle lane for him. Luckily, there was no one in the left lane. I had no time to check until I was already there. A crane tangling with a small car, or the 18 wheeler for that matter, would have been ugly. The other truck driver and I gave a wave on the good work as he passed me, but the more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. My lawyer's advice was coming back again - "Harry, you are stupid to be doing this work. There's too much liability for what you get out of it."

I delivered early, and Dick was there quickly to take me on a tour of his stomping grounds. He'd been kind enough to find me a nice motel near the airport. I had a nice visit with him, had a quick night's sleep, and was at the airport before 4:30 AM. Flight went well, and a cab ride had me back home by 11:00 AM.

It would have been nice to have had the follow-on trip. There are a lot of expenses for just one trip, and even though dispatch screwed up, it will remain to find out in settlement how much of those expenses they will cover themselves. Once again in this business, you are wasting your time to develop tight plans. They rarely work out.