Truckin'

Recently, Randy's company was waiting for a shipment of steel sleeves (tubes) from a supplier in another part of China. They were being shipped via some OTR company, so they were part of a larger load of other people's shipments as well.

As the delivery date came and went and still no shipment, Randy's purchasing department naturally contacted the parts supplier for an update. The customer service person with whom they spoke apologized, but the freight company had not heard from that particular trucker in two days. While this could have been alarming, it is not terribly uncommon for a trucker to unreachable in China if their cell phone is turned off or does not carry enough balance to make calls.

A few days later, someone from Randy's company followed up again with the supplier.  The truck had been located. The drivers had been detained by the police somewhere in transit, and the entire load had been impounded. The police believed that the truck was carrying contraband among the other obviously legitimate shipments. The trucking company was actively trying to resolve the situation.

Regardless of whether this police detention and contraband story was true or not, what we can't wrap our heads around was how casually the supplier offered up this as the reason for the delayed shipment. Somehow it was supposed to be reassuring that something else in the truck's load with Randy's parts was the cause of the late shipment. I guess that would be better than production hiccups from the perspective of the parts supplier.

The parts did eventually arrive, though not before the truck went missing again without contact for a few more days in a giant, days-long truck jam.