Take a nap

When you work for a company, they assign you your loads. Most of the time this is a routine thing, but not always. The following is a journal entry I made some time back...

Last night I got a com* around midnight, wanting me to help with a repower** that would require me to be up and around at 0500. I'd had 5 hours sleep the night before and hadn't gotten to bed until 11 that night. If I'd slept when I'd gotten in***, I could have done it.

My excuse**** (to myself) was that I'd just missed a deadline and had my delivery set back 24 hours, so what was the difference? But if I'd been fit to drive I could have gotten in almost 500 miles in the time I'm now sitting around in, and the other guy could have gotten his break in and taken my load in when the time was right.

As it is, I slept in past 1100 and wasted money on a nice breakfast. Now I'll go take a shower. Wow. How productive.

As you can see, life lessons can be found out here. Now I try to at least get a nap in as soon as I stop for the day, in case I get surprised. After all, once you've spent ten hours off, you're fair game...

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*com: Satcom message.
The truck has a computer aboard with a satellite communicator, a GPS, and a few other toys. I'll talk about the wonders of technology another time.

**repower: Switching loads with another driver.

So called because the most common reason for doing it is that one of us can't make a delivery on time. Either something is wrong with a truck, or you (for example) would run out of (legal) hours before getting there and I (for example) won't.
So we put a new engine (and driver) under the trailer and keep going--we "re-power" it.

Under the right circumstances, this can up your mileage quickly, and/or raise your stock with a (presently desperate) dispatcher. Win-win, if you're ready for it.

Obviously this is not something you can plan on ahead of time.

***Squinting into the far past, I seem to recall having gotten in around 4 or 5pm. Certainly before 7pm. I could have taken the repower, legally. But with no more sleep than I'd gotten I didn't think I'd be safe.

****--for staying up so late, that is--