So I drop off my trailer and head a half mile down the frontage road to the local Petro to fix myself some (overdue) lunch and take a (very overdue) shower. I ate first then went inside and enjoyed a nice long shower. Shaved. Brushed my teeth. Flexed in the mirror. The usual stuff.
When I get back to my truck my satellite alert light is on, so I have a message. "Great," I think, "I already have a load."
Nope, it turns out that I've managed to forget my load lock on the trailer I brought in and there is a Mexican drayage driver waiting at our yard for me to unlock it or else they will have to burn it off. Sound familiar?
It is Friday afternoon at around 5 PM here locally. I send a satellite message in telling them I'm on my way. I phoned in to dispatch just to make sure. I get out of the parking lot and rush down the freeway the other way to get to the next exit then turn around on the frontage road to our yard, then turn at the gate. The truck is quickly parked and I rush up to the guard with my keys ready.
The trailer is gone. Somehow it is corporate policy at CFI that if another CFI driver is picking up a load you can be made to wait quite a while to get him or her to get it unlocked, else it gets burned off. If, however, it is one of our Mexican partners, a satellite beep and an unanswered phone call is more than enough authorization to cut off a lock.
As you can probably gather, I'm a bit upset. On the plus side, this means I can't haul any "high value" loads until I get to a terminal and pay the 50 or 60 bucks for a new lock.
