Runnin' Hard

DATELINE: HARRISONBURG, VA, 8:00 p.m. EDT

Miles Today: 565

Oy veh! Such another long day! And yet another early start tomorrow! I think my Fleet Manager is trying to squeeze every mile outta' me as he can. (FMs get paid commissions for the miles the drivers under their care rack up.) Anyway, on to today's recap.

Up and rolling early (4:00) from Jessup, MD (a few miles south of Baltimore) to head for my delivery in Lumberton, NJ. With a fuel stop en route, that took just over 3 hours. The trip and the delivery--a drop-and-hook--went reasonably well. Afterwards I headed up the NJ Turnpike to a Petro truck stop to scan in my paperwork for the trip. (USA uses a third-party company to receive the scans--basically a fax--and send them the info so they can bill the customer, and thus pay the drivers. So I gotta' scan in the bills of lading, log pages, and any reimbursable receipts, such as scale and toll receipts, along with a cover page for every load I haul.) When I was done with that and returned to my truck, my next assignment was waiting for me.

Next up was a pickup in North Brunswick, NJ right away, with delivery in Mount Crawford, VA today. The delivery time was set for 11:59 tonight, but I'd have to take it right over in order to deliver it today as was required. Midnight was well beyond my 14 hour window for today, and I couldn't fit in a 10-hour break without going past the deadline. So haulin' a** the 300+ miles with the load was necessary.

The pickup was one for the books. First of all, my directions said that the company was the first one along the road once I turned onto it. So I pulled into the first driveway. Lo and behold, trucks making pickups were supposed to pull into the second driveway for the company. Woulda' been nice to have either that instruction OR helpful signage at the driveways. So I had to turn around in the lot and pull back onto the street to head over to the proper lot.

Once I parked there (as a helpful sign indicated), I headed into the security office to check in (also indicated on the helpful sign). They sent me walking around the corner and down the side of the building to the shipping office. No problems there as the nice lady gave me my bills and directed me back to the security office where they would instruct me on where to drop my empty trailer and pick up the loaded one.

It turns out that I had to take my empty to one lot, and the loaded one was in another lot. However, the empties lot was a mile up the road (US highway 1), and the loadeds lot was a couple miles back the other direction down 1. Why? I dunno. Makes no sense to me. Anyway, the whole shebang took at least an hour, time I coulda' used hightailing it to Virginny.

Ya' see, by the time I was ready to leave the shipper, I had 7 hours left on both my 11-hour drive time and my 14-hour work window for the day. And it was registered as 328 miles from point-to-point (and those mileages are ALWAYS on the shy side). PLUS I would have to stop to weigh the load before getting too far. (At 44,000+ lbs., I had to make sure all of the truck and trailer axles were in compliance with weight restrictions.) All in all, I didn't have ANY time for dilly-dallying.

Long story (and drive) short, I made it to the delivery right at my 14-hour mark. That was another drop-and-hook delivery, so it went quickly. And, fortunately, I found a truck stop less than 3 miles away where I've found refuge for the night. (If an activity takes less than 7-1/2 minutes, I don't have to log it, since we log our time in 15-minute increments. So the quick drive from the delivery to this truck stop fell into that black hole.)

I've already received my next gig: I have to drive 150 miles to an 8:00 pickup in the morning (in Kenbridge, VA, south of Richmond), then haul the load 560 miles to Marcy, NY, which is kinda' near Syracuse. That delivery (to a site I've delivered once before) is at 10:00 Saturday morning, so I don't have to drive the whole way tomorrow--which would be impossible, anyway, while observing the DOT hours-of-service regulations. But I'll make a goodly number of miles, anyway. I'm looking at another early-starting L-O-O-O-O-N-G day. But at least tomorrow I'll have some flexibility (after the pickup, anyway) in terms of pacing, meal breaks, and the like.

So that's the story of another day in the exciting life of this over-the-road trucker. I hope I've enthralled you. Thanks for taking a look, and keep on truckin'.