We're officially on someone else's board at U.S. Xpress. Of course, my paranoia gene is raising its ugly head. We're certainly off to an interesting start.

After I picked up the truck from Volvo yesterday, I called the USX Fuel Dept. because our odomoter (or at least our dash readout) was reset to 0 the last time they worked on it, and changed it to the actual mileage this time around. This screws up U.S. Xpress and our fuel router. Anyway, the Fuel Dept. had a conniption. They want me to call them today to see if they can figure out how to change our mileage in the fuel router again.

I also talked to Robert, the night-time guy on our new board, before I left. He couldn't dispatch us because of USX's trailer rule (that you have to have authorization to bobtail to a shipper). I waited for about half an hour to see if they gave me that authorization, and when it was not forthcoming, I came on home.

I was hoping to get the load information first to confirm what Robert told me; that our load doesn't pick up until 23:00 tonight. Ray wanted us to come over to Baxter and pick up this load as soon as we got the truck out of the shop. But the thing is that we're not on Ray's board now. We can't just up and do something that Ray wants done, and according to our new guys, this load picks up tonight at 23:00.

I checked the satcom in the truck several times last night to see if the load info had come in. It didn't come in until this morning. It confirms that the load picks up at 23:00 tonight. It also has the Tunnel Hill, Georgia terminal as a stop, and finals in Mountain Home, Arkansas. We have bobtail authorization. So at least the load info pans out.

It's that Tunnel Hill part that has us worrying. Ray said that Mara has to have some logbook training. We're scheduled to go to Tunnel Hill on a Saturday. Can she get that on a Saturday. Or (and this is the paranoid part) is U.S. Xpress just trying to get us through Tunnel Hill to fire us and make sure they get their truck back?

I suppose we'll know soon. We understand that it's a possibility, and neither of us really care. Mara is only going to be working untiil May. If we get fired ahead of time, it'll cause us problems, but we'll deal with it. I'm trying to be positive here. In the end, the thing that worries us most is that we don't know what Ray told U.S. Xpress about us. So we don't know what to expect. I admit that I've been plenty paranoid many, many times in the past, and each time we've sailed out of the terminal unscathed.

But one of the reasons we've been so paranoid is that we know all too well that whenever U.S. Xpress specifically directs you to go through a terminal, dismissal is always a possibility. They've fired people for the most petty of reasons, and we've certainly ruffled some feathers there through the years. So I suppose we'll find out tomorrow.

And if we're fired? Well, I imagine we'll rent a car, have lunch at the Cracker Barrel south of the terminal on I-75, and come home. It will not be a tragedy. But it will be damned annoying.