Murphy's World

Can't trust that day

Dear Murphy,

Ah, Monday. Wouldn’t you know it would be a Monday? I slept in, but I had plenty of time to complete my work assignment in Chicago. I hooked up in the drop yard, turned the engine off, did my checks, and…the truck wouldn’t start.

I finally reached the consignee hours later, unloaded promptly, closed the doors as I had hundreds of times before, returned to the same drop yard to sweep out the trailer…and discovered they had left a pallet inside. By this time, the CN was closed.

Awaiting disposition, I fell behind on the delivery for my next assignment. I went to a Chicago rail yard to pick up a loaded trailer. The nose of the trailer was too low for hook-up, and I couldn’t raise the front because the railroad had crushed the gearbox. I was at the rail yard for six hours. Oh, and there wasn’t a BOL in the relay box. But it must be inside the trailer, right? Wrong.

I arrived at the consignee at 3 a.m. They unloaded 35 rolls of paper, but we couldn’t find a manifest or BOL. I had to spend the night while they decided whether to keep the shipment or reload my trailer. In the morning, they contacted the shipper and got a manifest.

Three days and less than 500 miles…

William Lee

Rockton, IL

Dear William,

I’m pretty sure the late, great John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas didn’t have you in mind when he penned “Monday, Monday,” but it sure works as a theme song for your story. Wrote Phillips: “Monday Monday, can’t trust that day. Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way. Oh Monday mornin’ you gave me no warnin’ of what was to be.”® Ol’ John really had it right, didn’t he?

That’s enough strolling down Memory Lane. Let’s get back to the real world, that slice of life reserved just for truckers called Murphy’s World. Everyone knows that our world is governed by one simple law: If anything can go wrong, it will. But did you know we’re working on a couple of amendments—think of it as Murphy’s “Bill of No Rights”—that will torment drivers in situations not covered by the original law. Our First Amendment: When it rains, it pours.

In other words, when something goes wrong, expect other things to go wrong. Your story is a perfect case in point. Your engine doesn’t start, which makes you late for your delivery. You discover an orphaned pallet, which puts you further behind. Then the paperwork goes missing, which makes you later than late. I think you get the picture.

Regards,

Murphy and Lucky Dog