Tomo pulled into Clearwater, Florida late Saturday night, March 23rd and found an open lot to park his truck for the night about 5 miles away from the customer's location. He found a meeting close by and got a ride out in the morning to the meeting and then had lunch with some of the friends there. Then some of those friends drove him back to the lot where he had parked his truck ..... only to find it was not there. His truck and fully loaded trailer had been towed away!!!
Similar to the situation that he had in Tallahassee a few months previously. Only this time, they actually towed it away, while he was away to meeting. In Tallahassee, the place where he parked had been a restaurant or something and had been torn down and left a lot that was completely vacant. The Local people there, used the pathway through the lot as a short cut to avoid traffic going home to their communities. I was careful to park away from these pathways and off in the corner but yet.......
Well, by the help of these patient and kind folks that had brought him back to his truck, and a few phone calls, they were able to locate his truck 20 miles away at a shop for this towing company. After paying $1,154.00 for towing expenses for a truck and a fully loaded trailer, Tomo was able to get in his truck and drive away. The Company charged Tomo for two tow trucks and thus making an enormous bill. There goes HIS paycheck for this week!!
The husband of this couple is a trucker himself and he had previously owned a towing company himself. When he heard about the bill and the situation, he was far more angry than Tomo and actually Tomo felt bad for this man's wife and daughter that were there as well. Tomo was just very thankful and appreciative that he had their help in resolving this situation.
Finding a place to park a large truck and trailer in Florida seems to be a major challenge. So far Tomo's parking war in the State of Florida has not been successful, but hope that in the future it will turn around.
Who ever said that DRIVING A TRUCK WAS BORING??
Another interesting point about the State of Florida .... Tomo said....you know that you blend in with the area when the local people just start rambling Spanish at you and they will get this weird look on their face after they finish what they were saying when they see a puzzled look and not response on Tomo's face.
Now if the tow bill wasn't bad enough, Tomo just found out that the freight broker that he had agreed to handle a load with, decided that the load was going to be less than half of the original offer. Of course the broker denies that he ever said anything of the sort, and ...... if Tomo was to refuse the load at that point, the broker could easily put a black report on his record and reputation, which would mess Tomo up for other loads in the future.
So in the end, Tomo had to drive 300 miles unloaded (deadheading = unpaid miles) to pick up the load that was less than half of the amount he was counting on......
Ironically the money lost on this 'verbal' promise and the money for the towing expense were almost the same!! He doesn't plan to work with that freight broker again.
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