DATELINE: BOLINGBROOK, IL, 5:45 p.m. CST
Wow! 2 more days without unwelcome developments. Well, except for not getting home on time AGAIN. But at least this time I'm not missing any specific event. Anyway, here's the skinny on my past 2 days.
Yesterday morning I got up and drove 4 hours to make my delivery in Vonore, TN, south of Knoxville. That went fine, except for a wild goose chase my Fleet Manager sent me on. He wanted me to scout the customer's yard looking for a specific trailer that he was led to believe was there. It, naturally, wasn't. After I informed him of that and he asked me to check again, and I did that and replied with the same news, he found out that it was actually at a different location. 'Twould be nice if he could get proper info to begin with before involving me.
Anyway, after that delivery (an easy drop-and-hook), I had about a 2-hour wait for my next assignment. That was to head west to LaVergne, TN, just south of Nashville, to pick up a load and haul it up here to the Chicagoland area. So the drive to LaVergne and the pickup--another D&H--also were easy. That left me just a couple hours of my daily 14-hour window to get started north and find refuge for the night. That wound up being a Pilot in Franklin, KY. I was hoping to make it a bit farther, but rush-hour traffic tie-ups in Nashville slowed me down.
This morning started early again (up at 4:00 to hit the shower) for the long drive up here. (Actually, the delivery was in Woodridge.) I'd delivered to this customer a couple of times before, so I knew it'd be another D&H and I wasn't worried about arriving early. My load assignment said the delivery appointment was 4:00 this afternoon; I arrived by 2:30. After dropping the loaded trailer where instructed and finding the lone empty USA Truck trailer in their yard, I bopped over to a non-name-brand truck stop 4 miles down the highway (I-55). By the time I got here, my 14-hour work window for the day was down to about 2-1/2 hours, so if I was going to get a new assignment for a pickup today, it'd have to come soon for me to be able to make it. Well, we're now down to under an hour left---well, whaddaya know, my assignment just now came in.
My pickup is at 7:00 tomorrow morning in Mishawaka, IN, then delivers at noon in Archbold, OH, coincidentally enough at the same company where I picked up the load down to Vonore. HOPEFULLY that'll be close enough to home that Dispatch'll just let me head home from there instead of making me (wait for and) get another load. (I was supposed to get home today.) Check back tomorrow to find out.
Well, now that I know what I'm doing next, I can leave the truck and get me some dinner. Good thing, 'cuz I'm-a getting hungry. That pretty much wraps up today's tale. Thanks for dropping by. Don't be shy; send in some comments and questions about my exciting, luxurious life out here on the road. And keep on truckin'.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Beyond Belief
DATELINE: GEORGETOWN, KY, 8:20 p.m. EST
WOW! An entire day with no "surprises"! Am I dreaming? No, I'm fully awake. (Though not for much longer. Gotta get up at 4:00 come morning so I can shower up before hitting the road at 4:45.) It's quite a shock nowadays when absolutely nothing goes wrong over the course of an entire day that includes both a delivery and a pickup. So this'll be a short and boring report.
I started out at 6:45 with the quick (15-minute) drive from Beaverdam to Lima, OH. No lineup of trucks ahead of me at the delivery customer, so I got into a dock right away. And with only 7 pallets in the trailer, the unloading process was also right quick.
Back to Beaverdam to wait for my next assignment, and that came in fairly soon, too. The pickup was in Archbold, OH, up towards the northwest corner of the state, set for noon. I made the trek over there in a couple hours, arriving at 10:45. Again, I got assigned to a dock right away, despite being 75 minutes early. By noon my trailer was loaded and I was back on my way.
This load is bound for Vonore, TN, just a little ways south of Knoxville, to a company to which I've delivered 2 or 3 times before. I'd been to the pickup site once before, too, so the familiarity factor makes this whole trip that much easier. No problems en route, too, except for a little rush-hour slowdown in and around Cincinnati. But compared to other rush hours I've experienced in that town, this one was a breeze. Maybe I ought to see about buying a lottery ticket today, or rush right over for some online Poker. Nah, I'm too tired for that now.
I've stopped for the night at a Pilot down here around Georgetown. My delivery in the morning is set for 9:00, so I gotta get rolling early to get there on time. That shouldn't be a problem as long as no unforeseen circumstances rear their ugly heads.
Thanks for looking me up today. Return the favor and supply something for me to read, too (via "Comments"), please. And, as always, keep on truckin'.
WOW! An entire day with no "surprises"! Am I dreaming? No, I'm fully awake. (Though not for much longer. Gotta get up at 4:00 come morning so I can shower up before hitting the road at 4:45.) It's quite a shock nowadays when absolutely nothing goes wrong over the course of an entire day that includes both a delivery and a pickup. So this'll be a short and boring report.
I started out at 6:45 with the quick (15-minute) drive from Beaverdam to Lima, OH. No lineup of trucks ahead of me at the delivery customer, so I got into a dock right away. And with only 7 pallets in the trailer, the unloading process was also right quick.
Back to Beaverdam to wait for my next assignment, and that came in fairly soon, too. The pickup was in Archbold, OH, up towards the northwest corner of the state, set for noon. I made the trek over there in a couple hours, arriving at 10:45. Again, I got assigned to a dock right away, despite being 75 minutes early. By noon my trailer was loaded and I was back on my way.
This load is bound for Vonore, TN, just a little ways south of Knoxville, to a company to which I've delivered 2 or 3 times before. I'd been to the pickup site once before, too, so the familiarity factor makes this whole trip that much easier. No problems en route, too, except for a little rush-hour slowdown in and around Cincinnati. But compared to other rush hours I've experienced in that town, this one was a breeze. Maybe I ought to see about buying a lottery ticket today, or rush right over for some online Poker. Nah, I'm too tired for that now.
I've stopped for the night at a Pilot down here around Georgetown. My delivery in the morning is set for 9:00, so I gotta get rolling early to get there on time. That shouldn't be a problem as long as no unforeseen circumstances rear their ugly heads.
Thanks for looking me up today. Return the favor and supply something for me to read, too (via "Comments"), please. And, as always, keep on truckin'.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
And So It Goes...And Goes...And Goes...
DATELINE: BEAVERDAM, OH (Again!), 2:00 p.m. EST
Wow, has it really been 10 days since last I blogged? My, how time flies. Sorry to have left y'all with no news, but this job lately has just had a way of sapping my literary inclinations. But today I have LOTS of unexpected free time to overcome that and bang out a report. So I'd better get right to it before "the mood" settles back in.
First, though, a quick note in response to reader Heidi who wrote:
"Congratulations on the promotion! Happy to hear you're moving up in the world. - And I bet it isn't quite so lonesome having someone to talk to, is it?"
Thanks for the congrats, but it really wasn't a promotion, per se. I volunteered to become a trainer in response to posters up at the terminals promising extra pay for days with a student in my truck. Since more pay is a good (and necessary) thing, volunteering was an easy choice. And, no, it isn't quite so lonesome, but that really wasn't a problem for me before. But this truck I'm in now is quite a tight fit for 2. And what's worse than the potential loneliness is sitting in the passenger seat while the student drives. Not that I'm afraid he'll hit something, but it's just plain BO-O-O-O-O-O-O-RING! I'm not in the team driving portion of the training program, just the "Phase 1" part where I'm on duty while he's driving and vice-versa. (In teams, one sleeps while the other drives.) Anyway, back to our regularly(?) scheduled program.
Let's see, when last I wrote I was here at the Pilot in Beaverdam. Let's see, since then I (and my student) have been to Temperance (delivery) and Wyandotte (pickup), MI, Ansonia, OH (d), Moraine, OH (p), Buffalo, NY (d and a 34-hour break), Watkins Glen, NY (p), Wixom, MI (d), Woodburn, IN (p), West Memphis, AR (drop off the load and my student; pick up my next load), Louisville, KY (d), Dry Ridge, KY (aborted p), back to Louisville (p), and Lima, OH (aborted d). And my oh my has it (almost) all been frustrating.
Let's start back with the pickup in Wyandotte. There's a well-known company (not well-known for being in Wyandotte, but a nationwide company) up there that I've made pickups from 3 or 4 times in the past, but this time the pickup assignment directed us to another of the company's facilities a few miles from where I'd been before. Well to make a medium-length story short, they had sent us to the wrong facility. We actually needed to pick up our load at the one I had been to before, which is the company's central warehouse. So we ran over there and had no troubles (other than my student's unfamiliarity with setting up for and backing a big rig into a dock) picking up the load there.
The drive down and delivery in Ansonia and succeeding pickup in Moraine were unremarkable, which in retrospect given the last few days is pretty remarkable in itself. On to Buffalo where, when we arrived at the delivery, we were just about out of available driving hours. We had just enough (15 minutes, actually) to get to a nearby truck stop once the delivery was complete. Of course, the gang at HQ tried to muck things up a bit. My Fleet Manager wanted us to go pick up our next load, but I argued the point that we just couldn't legally do that. So that brought a couple other HQ personnel into the fray. Result, we just drove over to the truck stop and took our 34-hour restart break. Oh, and I didn't even mention that it took 3 hours for that delivery.
At least in Buffalo (this was on the weekend; delivery on Friday, free day on Sat.) I got my brother to come on over from his house near Rochester and take me over to the Anchor Bar for some authentic Buffalo Wings. (You DO know that the Anchor bar is where they originated, don't you?) YUMMMM! But back to our story.
Our break reached the 34-hour mark at about 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, so my student--John--and I anticipated having to start an overnight shift. We hit the sack early, then I got up at 10:00 to send in our "Back to Work" message to stimulate Dispatch to find us a load. They did after a little while (quite quickly, actually), but the pickup wasn't 'til Monday morning in Watkins Glen. So more sitting around time was in store for us. But we did get to go back to sleep for the night. On Sunday we drove over to a Pilot in Kanona, NY, a bit closer to Watkins Glen.
The W. Glen pickup was also trouble-free and relatively quick. After the day's drive we wound up in Canton, MI. The next morning we zipped up the road to the delivery in Wixom and started waiting. The company's docks (3 or 4 of 'em) were all already filled with trucks, but we were first in line, so we didn't actually have a very long wait 'til a dock opened up and we took it. However, after that we did have a long wait. Try a total of 4 or 5 hours (I forget which, and I'm too lazy to pull out my log book and look it up) from arrival time before we were unloaded. THEN we had another multi-hour wait before our next assignment came in. And THAT didn't happen 'til we gave in and drove over to Dexter, MI, which is about the closest truck stops (a TA and 2 Pilots) to Wixom. The load assignment didn't arrive 'til after we'd parked at the TA and had dinner at the Popeye's Chicken franchise inside. Next up was the pickup in Woodburn, IN, set for 6:00 the next morning. Actually, it was set for 10:30 that night, but we couldn't make it then due to the Hours of Service regulations. So we told Dispatch that and went to our bunks, to get up at 2:00 for the next work day. Little did we know what Wednesday held in store...
We did get up at 2:00 intending to get showers at the Pilot across the street before hitting the road at 2:45. Alas, we discovered that the shower credits I had on my account had expired (they do so after 5 days), so we had to do without. And so it began.
When we arrived at the pickup at about 5:35, we checked in at the guardhouse at the gate. The guard told us we'd have to wait 'til 6:20 to enter because of a shift change. And so it continued.
Once the guard opened up the gate and let us in, we proceeded to the drop yard the guard indicated so we could drop our empty trailer (we'd be picking up a loaded one). While doing that, the "yard jockey" (the guy who works there and shuttles trailers around between the docks and the yards) stopped by and asked us in the future to drop empties in the first yard (not the second, where the guard had told me to go) unless it had no available spaces. OK, not a big deal, just a minor annoyance. But it was just another thing as "it" continued.
After dropping the empty, we headed into the Shipping Office to get our paperwork. First of all, nobody was in there, so we had to wait a few minutes before someone showed. However, when we gave her the number of the trailer we were supposed to pick up and the load's pickup number, she told us that someone else had picked up the load the day before. AAAAAAAAARGH! (And so it continued). So we sent in a message to Dispatch to let them know and began to wait some more.
After a while we gave up on that wait, grabbed the empty trailer we had brought in, and headed to the small truck stop a mile or so down the road so we could have access to a rest room, food, and caffeinated beverages. Shortly thereafter we got a message back telling us to try another pickup number at the shipper. Now, the Shipping Office there had signs stating that we needed at least 2 of the following 3 bits of info: trailer number, Bill of Lading (BOL) number, and pickup number. So I sent back a message to that effect and we headed back to the shipper. By the time we got there, we had our reply: the same BOL and trailer numbers we were originally sent to get. And so it continued.
There was a line of trucks waiting to get into the facility when we re-arrived, so at least we had a few minutes to get things straightened out with Dispatch before we were at the front of the line. My Fleet manager called to get the story straight (he hadn't yet gotten to work yet when the whole thing started), and we eventually got proper data. We dropped our empty again--this time we started out in the correct drop yard, but the yard jockey (OK, "spotter" is the term most places use for that job) asked us to put it in a dock for him. Which we did with no trouble. This time everything went smoothly in the Shipping Office and we went over and hooked up our assigned trailer.
Now, this facility is one of many that require drivers to slide the trailer's tandem axles all the way back before dropping the trailer there. So the one we picked up had the tandems back and we needed to move them forward. (That's so the load's weight will be evenly distributed among the trailer's and tractor's axles and not exceeding weight limits on any axle pair.) I still don't know how or why it happened, because the trailer was absolutely locked in place in the tractor's coupling, but in trying to slide the tandems in the lot, the "Kingpin" somehow jumped out of the 5th wheel (coupling device) and the trailer fell off the back of the tractor. I've never seen that before. Just more "excitement" in that ever more wonderful day.
Anyway, it was "easy" enough to crank the trailer back up to a sufficient height (using its "landing gear" legs) to slide the yard jockey's rig under it, and then we cranked the legs the rest of the way so we could get our truck back under it.
After all that it was smooth sailing, albeit a LONG day. Well, we did have lots of rain, and especially heavy when we stopped to weigh the truck in Fort Wayne and had to get out and walk into the building. I did the driving from our 2:45 a.m. start 'til we made the scale stop. Since our goal was to get to the Van Buren, AR terminal so I could drop John off (since he'd met his requirements for Phase 1 training with me and was ready to move on to his Phase 2 trainer), we could get that far by "team driving".
I started my 10-hour required break after weighing the truck and John took over at the wheel. (By the way, the load was headed to Houston, TX, so Van Buren was on the way via one possible route from Indiana.) Early en route, before we even got to Indianapolis, I got a message to give the training coordinator a call. She let me know that I could drop John off at our West Memphis, AR terminal instead of VB, so we headed that way instead. But it still made for a long day. John actually made it all the way to West Memphis within his allotted 11 driving hours (it took him 10-1/2), so I was theoretically well-rested and ready to get a load assignment to get me back home.
When I started this tour of duty on January 21, I put in February 19 as the date I wanted to get home next. My younger daughter's 18th birthday is the 21st (today as I write this), so by asking to get home on the 19th, Dispatch would have an extra day in case they missed the target. So getting a load out of West Memphis late Wednesday night would give me a chance to get home by the weekend. However, I didn't get an assignment until around 9:00 Thursday morning. That was to grab a loaded trailer from the West Memphis yard and take it to its destination in Louisville, KY (about 1/2-way between West Memphis and home) for a 7:00 Friday morning delivery. Well, OK, that's still going according to my plan. I drove up to a Pilot just south of Louisville on Thursday. No problems to speak of.
Friday (yesterday) morning all went OK with the delivery (a drop-and-hook), except that I had to wiggle my new empty trailer out of a very tight (front-to-back, not side-to-side) spot. (That's one good thing about my new truck; it has a much tighter turning radius than my previous one...I never would have been able to squeeze out of that spot with the old one. But I digress.) Next came a little bit of a wait for my next assignment. But it was for a pickup at a company in Dry Ridge, KY (35-ish miles south of Cincinnati along I-75) that I'd been to a few times before. The load was headed for Detroit. However, the pickup time was 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. If the load wouldn't be ready early, such as when I could get there before noon, I wouldn't be able to get home or deliver the load within HOS reg's. (I don't know why the rocket scientist load coordinators can't figure these things out.) Anyway, I made the 2-hour drive up from L'ville, only to find out that the load indeed would not be ready 'til 4:00. ARRRRRRRGH!
After protesting, I got taken off that load and assigned another--back to Louisville for the pickup. Well, home for the weekend was now completely out of the picture. I'm the victim of the company's policy of "maximizing equipment utilization", i.e, making sure that some customer is paying for the miles that the trucks run. Heaven forbid that driver needs enter the picture and they allow us to drive a couple hundred miles home if no loads that way can be found. Since the yard where I park my truck while at home closes over the weekend, I gave in and re-set my requested home date 'til next Wednesday so I'll get an extra day at home. (I get 1 day--24 hours, not necessarily calendar days--for every week I'm on the road.)
But back to this load. Pickup time in Louisville was 6:00 p.m., but I arrived there at about 3:30. Yada yada, long story short, they didn't finish up loading 'til about 7:30. (And it was only 8 pallets! Far from a full load!) That left me 45 minutes of my 14 hours for the day to get to a place to park for the night. But that worked out perfectly as I got to a Pilot in Pendleton, KY.
This load is (was) set for delivery at 11:00 this morning in Lima, OH. So I dutifully got up and was on the road before 7:00 for the drive north. En route I ran into some heavy snowfall, so I had the added stress of driving through that. I reached the delivery site at 10:30, then went in to check in with Security. There the guard told me that they weren't accepting trucks today--nobody was there to unload 'em. Despite the delivery appointment on my load assignment. And so it continues.
So now I'm stuck here in Beaverdam. (At the Pilot for now; I may move over to the Flying J across the street tomorrow to do a little laundry. The washing machines and dryers at the Pilot cost $2.00 per load each! So I'll at least check out the FJ to see if they're any cheaper. And at least they have a TV lounge by the laundry machines.) Word has come down from above that I just sit here and deliver the load on Monday. So I'm getting an unplanned restart. For THIS I volunteered to stay out on the road for an extra few days? Sheesh!
So that's my latest batch of stories. Anybody wanna join the ranks of America's Truck Driving Professionals? Sorry to have been so long to add a new entry to this blog. But thanks for sticking with me and checking today. Please do send me some comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
Wow, has it really been 10 days since last I blogged? My, how time flies. Sorry to have left y'all with no news, but this job lately has just had a way of sapping my literary inclinations. But today I have LOTS of unexpected free time to overcome that and bang out a report. So I'd better get right to it before "the mood" settles back in.
First, though, a quick note in response to reader Heidi who wrote:
"Congratulations on the promotion! Happy to hear you're moving up in the world. - And I bet it isn't quite so lonesome having someone to talk to, is it?"
Thanks for the congrats, but it really wasn't a promotion, per se. I volunteered to become a trainer in response to posters up at the terminals promising extra pay for days with a student in my truck. Since more pay is a good (and necessary) thing, volunteering was an easy choice. And, no, it isn't quite so lonesome, but that really wasn't a problem for me before. But this truck I'm in now is quite a tight fit for 2. And what's worse than the potential loneliness is sitting in the passenger seat while the student drives. Not that I'm afraid he'll hit something, but it's just plain BO-O-O-O-O-O-O-RING! I'm not in the team driving portion of the training program, just the "Phase 1" part where I'm on duty while he's driving and vice-versa. (In teams, one sleeps while the other drives.) Anyway, back to our regularly(?) scheduled program.
Let's see, when last I wrote I was here at the Pilot in Beaverdam. Let's see, since then I (and my student) have been to Temperance (delivery) and Wyandotte (pickup), MI, Ansonia, OH (d), Moraine, OH (p), Buffalo, NY (d and a 34-hour break), Watkins Glen, NY (p), Wixom, MI (d), Woodburn, IN (p), West Memphis, AR (drop off the load and my student; pick up my next load), Louisville, KY (d), Dry Ridge, KY (aborted p), back to Louisville (p), and Lima, OH (aborted d). And my oh my has it (almost) all been frustrating.
Let's start back with the pickup in Wyandotte. There's a well-known company (not well-known for being in Wyandotte, but a nationwide company) up there that I've made pickups from 3 or 4 times in the past, but this time the pickup assignment directed us to another of the company's facilities a few miles from where I'd been before. Well to make a medium-length story short, they had sent us to the wrong facility. We actually needed to pick up our load at the one I had been to before, which is the company's central warehouse. So we ran over there and had no troubles (other than my student's unfamiliarity with setting up for and backing a big rig into a dock) picking up the load there.
The drive down and delivery in Ansonia and succeeding pickup in Moraine were unremarkable, which in retrospect given the last few days is pretty remarkable in itself. On to Buffalo where, when we arrived at the delivery, we were just about out of available driving hours. We had just enough (15 minutes, actually) to get to a nearby truck stop once the delivery was complete. Of course, the gang at HQ tried to muck things up a bit. My Fleet Manager wanted us to go pick up our next load, but I argued the point that we just couldn't legally do that. So that brought a couple other HQ personnel into the fray. Result, we just drove over to the truck stop and took our 34-hour restart break. Oh, and I didn't even mention that it took 3 hours for that delivery.
At least in Buffalo (this was on the weekend; delivery on Friday, free day on Sat.) I got my brother to come on over from his house near Rochester and take me over to the Anchor Bar for some authentic Buffalo Wings. (You DO know that the Anchor bar is where they originated, don't you?) YUMMMM! But back to our story.
Our break reached the 34-hour mark at about 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, so my student--John--and I anticipated having to start an overnight shift. We hit the sack early, then I got up at 10:00 to send in our "Back to Work" message to stimulate Dispatch to find us a load. They did after a little while (quite quickly, actually), but the pickup wasn't 'til Monday morning in Watkins Glen. So more sitting around time was in store for us. But we did get to go back to sleep for the night. On Sunday we drove over to a Pilot in Kanona, NY, a bit closer to Watkins Glen.
The W. Glen pickup was also trouble-free and relatively quick. After the day's drive we wound up in Canton, MI. The next morning we zipped up the road to the delivery in Wixom and started waiting. The company's docks (3 or 4 of 'em) were all already filled with trucks, but we were first in line, so we didn't actually have a very long wait 'til a dock opened up and we took it. However, after that we did have a long wait. Try a total of 4 or 5 hours (I forget which, and I'm too lazy to pull out my log book and look it up) from arrival time before we were unloaded. THEN we had another multi-hour wait before our next assignment came in. And THAT didn't happen 'til we gave in and drove over to Dexter, MI, which is about the closest truck stops (a TA and 2 Pilots) to Wixom. The load assignment didn't arrive 'til after we'd parked at the TA and had dinner at the Popeye's Chicken franchise inside. Next up was the pickup in Woodburn, IN, set for 6:00 the next morning. Actually, it was set for 10:30 that night, but we couldn't make it then due to the Hours of Service regulations. So we told Dispatch that and went to our bunks, to get up at 2:00 for the next work day. Little did we know what Wednesday held in store...
We did get up at 2:00 intending to get showers at the Pilot across the street before hitting the road at 2:45. Alas, we discovered that the shower credits I had on my account had expired (they do so after 5 days), so we had to do without. And so it began.
When we arrived at the pickup at about 5:35, we checked in at the guardhouse at the gate. The guard told us we'd have to wait 'til 6:20 to enter because of a shift change. And so it continued.
Once the guard opened up the gate and let us in, we proceeded to the drop yard the guard indicated so we could drop our empty trailer (we'd be picking up a loaded one). While doing that, the "yard jockey" (the guy who works there and shuttles trailers around between the docks and the yards) stopped by and asked us in the future to drop empties in the first yard (not the second, where the guard had told me to go) unless it had no available spaces. OK, not a big deal, just a minor annoyance. But it was just another thing as "it" continued.
After dropping the empty, we headed into the Shipping Office to get our paperwork. First of all, nobody was in there, so we had to wait a few minutes before someone showed. However, when we gave her the number of the trailer we were supposed to pick up and the load's pickup number, she told us that someone else had picked up the load the day before. AAAAAAAAARGH! (And so it continued). So we sent in a message to Dispatch to let them know and began to wait some more.
After a while we gave up on that wait, grabbed the empty trailer we had brought in, and headed to the small truck stop a mile or so down the road so we could have access to a rest room, food, and caffeinated beverages. Shortly thereafter we got a message back telling us to try another pickup number at the shipper. Now, the Shipping Office there had signs stating that we needed at least 2 of the following 3 bits of info: trailer number, Bill of Lading (BOL) number, and pickup number. So I sent back a message to that effect and we headed back to the shipper. By the time we got there, we had our reply: the same BOL and trailer numbers we were originally sent to get. And so it continued.
There was a line of trucks waiting to get into the facility when we re-arrived, so at least we had a few minutes to get things straightened out with Dispatch before we were at the front of the line. My Fleet manager called to get the story straight (he hadn't yet gotten to work yet when the whole thing started), and we eventually got proper data. We dropped our empty again--this time we started out in the correct drop yard, but the yard jockey (OK, "spotter" is the term most places use for that job) asked us to put it in a dock for him. Which we did with no trouble. This time everything went smoothly in the Shipping Office and we went over and hooked up our assigned trailer.
Now, this facility is one of many that require drivers to slide the trailer's tandem axles all the way back before dropping the trailer there. So the one we picked up had the tandems back and we needed to move them forward. (That's so the load's weight will be evenly distributed among the trailer's and tractor's axles and not exceeding weight limits on any axle pair.) I still don't know how or why it happened, because the trailer was absolutely locked in place in the tractor's coupling, but in trying to slide the tandems in the lot, the "Kingpin" somehow jumped out of the 5th wheel (coupling device) and the trailer fell off the back of the tractor. I've never seen that before. Just more "excitement" in that ever more wonderful day.
Anyway, it was "easy" enough to crank the trailer back up to a sufficient height (using its "landing gear" legs) to slide the yard jockey's rig under it, and then we cranked the legs the rest of the way so we could get our truck back under it.
After all that it was smooth sailing, albeit a LONG day. Well, we did have lots of rain, and especially heavy when we stopped to weigh the truck in Fort Wayne and had to get out and walk into the building. I did the driving from our 2:45 a.m. start 'til we made the scale stop. Since our goal was to get to the Van Buren, AR terminal so I could drop John off (since he'd met his requirements for Phase 1 training with me and was ready to move on to his Phase 2 trainer), we could get that far by "team driving".
I started my 10-hour required break after weighing the truck and John took over at the wheel. (By the way, the load was headed to Houston, TX, so Van Buren was on the way via one possible route from Indiana.) Early en route, before we even got to Indianapolis, I got a message to give the training coordinator a call. She let me know that I could drop John off at our West Memphis, AR terminal instead of VB, so we headed that way instead. But it still made for a long day. John actually made it all the way to West Memphis within his allotted 11 driving hours (it took him 10-1/2), so I was theoretically well-rested and ready to get a load assignment to get me back home.
When I started this tour of duty on January 21, I put in February 19 as the date I wanted to get home next. My younger daughter's 18th birthday is the 21st (today as I write this), so by asking to get home on the 19th, Dispatch would have an extra day in case they missed the target. So getting a load out of West Memphis late Wednesday night would give me a chance to get home by the weekend. However, I didn't get an assignment until around 9:00 Thursday morning. That was to grab a loaded trailer from the West Memphis yard and take it to its destination in Louisville, KY (about 1/2-way between West Memphis and home) for a 7:00 Friday morning delivery. Well, OK, that's still going according to my plan. I drove up to a Pilot just south of Louisville on Thursday. No problems to speak of.
Friday (yesterday) morning all went OK with the delivery (a drop-and-hook), except that I had to wiggle my new empty trailer out of a very tight (front-to-back, not side-to-side) spot. (That's one good thing about my new truck; it has a much tighter turning radius than my previous one...I never would have been able to squeeze out of that spot with the old one. But I digress.) Next came a little bit of a wait for my next assignment. But it was for a pickup at a company in Dry Ridge, KY (35-ish miles south of Cincinnati along I-75) that I'd been to a few times before. The load was headed for Detroit. However, the pickup time was 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. If the load wouldn't be ready early, such as when I could get there before noon, I wouldn't be able to get home or deliver the load within HOS reg's. (I don't know why the rocket scientist load coordinators can't figure these things out.) Anyway, I made the 2-hour drive up from L'ville, only to find out that the load indeed would not be ready 'til 4:00. ARRRRRRRGH!
After protesting, I got taken off that load and assigned another--back to Louisville for the pickup. Well, home for the weekend was now completely out of the picture. I'm the victim of the company's policy of "maximizing equipment utilization", i.e, making sure that some customer is paying for the miles that the trucks run. Heaven forbid that driver needs enter the picture and they allow us to drive a couple hundred miles home if no loads that way can be found. Since the yard where I park my truck while at home closes over the weekend, I gave in and re-set my requested home date 'til next Wednesday so I'll get an extra day at home. (I get 1 day--24 hours, not necessarily calendar days--for every week I'm on the road.)
But back to this load. Pickup time in Louisville was 6:00 p.m., but I arrived there at about 3:30. Yada yada, long story short, they didn't finish up loading 'til about 7:30. (And it was only 8 pallets! Far from a full load!) That left me 45 minutes of my 14 hours for the day to get to a place to park for the night. But that worked out perfectly as I got to a Pilot in Pendleton, KY.
This load is (was) set for delivery at 11:00 this morning in Lima, OH. So I dutifully got up and was on the road before 7:00 for the drive north. En route I ran into some heavy snowfall, so I had the added stress of driving through that. I reached the delivery site at 10:30, then went in to check in with Security. There the guard told me that they weren't accepting trucks today--nobody was there to unload 'em. Despite the delivery appointment on my load assignment. And so it continues.
So now I'm stuck here in Beaverdam. (At the Pilot for now; I may move over to the Flying J across the street tomorrow to do a little laundry. The washing machines and dryers at the Pilot cost $2.00 per load each! So I'll at least check out the FJ to see if they're any cheaper. And at least they have a TV lounge by the laundry machines.) Word has come down from above that I just sit here and deliver the load on Monday. So I'm getting an unplanned restart. For THIS I volunteered to stay out on the road for an extra few days? Sheesh!
So that's my latest batch of stories. Anybody wanna join the ranks of America's Truck Driving Professionals? Sorry to have been so long to add a new entry to this blog. But thanks for sticking with me and checking today. Please do send me some comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Rain? Up North? In EARLY FEBRUARY?
DATELINE: BEAVERDAM, OH, 7:45 p.m. EST
Rain, rain, go away, come again...in smaller quantities, please. Man, rain all day; much of the time quite heavy. And it even started late yesterday afternoon! Fortunately it let up almost completely when it was time to get out of the truck to deliver our load (in Temperance, MI) this morning and pick up our next (in Wyandotte, MI) this afternoon. But we're still roaming around in damp clothes this evening.
Anyway, we started out at 5:00 this morning from Walton, KY, where we had reached after an all-day drive from Commerce, GA. Well, along the way yesterday we did stop by Piedmont, SC to pick up that load we took to Temperance. And we had a chance to swing by our Spartanburg, SC terminal so John (my student/trainee/apprentice) could check out those digs (not to mention learn how to get to it when he's on the road in his own truck). But the driving went fine today, despite the weather. I drove the first 3 hours, then let John take over. I need to get him 50 hours behind the wheel during the 7-to-10 days he's in my clutches--er, capable hands.
By the way, I've coined a new phrase that'll soon sweep the English-speaking world (with your help, by the way). It's, "Fluster Bomb": that which happens inside your head when unexpected/unwelcome circumstances cause you to lose your focus, concentration, and normal capabilities. As in, "After that fluster bomb, I just couldn't remember how to tie my shoelaces." Whaddaya think? Is it the next big, overused piece of jargon to enter the lexicon?
But back to trucking stuff. We're taking our current load to Ansonia, OH, where we're due to deliver it at noon. But we're checking on the possibility of delivering it a bit earlier, since it is a short trip. We're spending the night at the Pilot here in Beaverdam, and it sure has gotten windy down here. The truck's really swaying to-and-fro from the "breeze".
Well, it has been a long few days, and I haven't been able to get quite enough sleep, so it's time for me to wrap this up and hit the sack. Thanks for your loyal readership. Please add "loyal comment submitter" as well, and keep on truckin'.
Rain, rain, go away, come again...in smaller quantities, please. Man, rain all day; much of the time quite heavy. And it even started late yesterday afternoon! Fortunately it let up almost completely when it was time to get out of the truck to deliver our load (in Temperance, MI) this morning and pick up our next (in Wyandotte, MI) this afternoon. But we're still roaming around in damp clothes this evening.
Anyway, we started out at 5:00 this morning from Walton, KY, where we had reached after an all-day drive from Commerce, GA. Well, along the way yesterday we did stop by Piedmont, SC to pick up that load we took to Temperance. And we had a chance to swing by our Spartanburg, SC terminal so John (my student/trainee/apprentice) could check out those digs (not to mention learn how to get to it when he's on the road in his own truck). But the driving went fine today, despite the weather. I drove the first 3 hours, then let John take over. I need to get him 50 hours behind the wheel during the 7-to-10 days he's in my clutches--er, capable hands.
By the way, I've coined a new phrase that'll soon sweep the English-speaking world (with your help, by the way). It's, "Fluster Bomb": that which happens inside your head when unexpected/unwelcome circumstances cause you to lose your focus, concentration, and normal capabilities. As in, "After that fluster bomb, I just couldn't remember how to tie my shoelaces." Whaddaya think? Is it the next big, overused piece of jargon to enter the lexicon?
But back to trucking stuff. We're taking our current load to Ansonia, OH, where we're due to deliver it at noon. But we're checking on the possibility of delivering it a bit earlier, since it is a short trip. We're spending the night at the Pilot here in Beaverdam, and it sure has gotten windy down here. The truck's really swaying to-and-fro from the "breeze".
Well, it has been a long few days, and I haven't been able to get quite enough sleep, so it's time for me to wrap this up and hit the sack. Thanks for your loyal readership. Please add "loyal comment submitter" as well, and keep on truckin'.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Another Catch-Up Report
DATELINE: COMMERCE, GA, 8:30 p.m. EST
Another short note tonight, friends. Since I got my student with me in the truck on Saturday, it's kinda' tight in here with the upper bunk lowered, so there's no comfy place to sit & work a laptop computer. Plus we've been running hard with long days, so when we've finished up working for the day we need to head to our respective bunks soon after in order to get somewhere near enough sleep for the next day.
Anyway, a quick rundown on the last 3 days:
SATURDAY
Picked up my first student driver. His name is John, too, and he's an older gent (7 years older than I). But he's a great guy and we're getting along famously. He's also already a pretty good truck driver, but just needs some practice backing these beasts into docks, parking spaces, and wherever else we may need to back 'em. I get him for 7-10 days in Phase 1, or "Right Seat" training before OK-ing him for Phase 2, which is driving with another trainer as a team. I think he's gonna do just fine.
As for work on Saturday, after I picked John up we drove up to Napoleon, OH, picked up our load (no time now to tell the story about the slowdown there) and made our way to Sterling, IL to deliver it. Afterwards, as we were running out of available work hours for the day, we found a small truck stop in Hillsdale, IL with some open parking spaces and took one.
SUNDAY
We had to get up early, just after finishing the required 10 hours of break, to drive the 200-ish miles down to Shelbyville, IL to pick up our next load. That all went smoothly, and we were soon on our way to the load's destination in Atlanta, GA. We finished up for the night at a Pilot Travel Center in Oak Grove, KY, and again soon retreated to the bunks for the night's shut-eye.
TODAY
This morning we got up at 3:15 (CST) to continue the drive to Atlanta. Our load was never assigned a delivery time, so en route we checked with Dispatch about that. My Fleet Manager told us that we still didn't have a set delivery appointment and he was checking on the possibility of having us drop the load at a drop yard just south of ATL. We had to wait over 2 hours at another Pilot just 40 miles north of Hotlanta before we got word to go drop it at the drop yard instead of delivering it to the customer.
Once done with that, we waited another 2 hours for our next assignment. And it's to pick up a load at 8:00 tomorrow (Tuesday) morning in Piedmont, SC. Easy enough. The load's (and we, too, of course, are) going to Temperance, MI, with delivery scheduled for noon on Wednesday. Also easy enough. With two of us with hours for driving, we ought to be able to make it to the Vandalia, OH terminal Tuesday night. That's the plan, at least. Tonight, though, we stopped at the TA here in Commerce (I've stayed here a few times before). It's about 75 miles from our morning pickup site, so we'll get a chance to sleep in relatively late. ;-)
Well, time to wrap up and hit the sack. Thanks for looking in today. Please let me hear from y'all, and keep on truckin'.
Another short note tonight, friends. Since I got my student with me in the truck on Saturday, it's kinda' tight in here with the upper bunk lowered, so there's no comfy place to sit & work a laptop computer. Plus we've been running hard with long days, so when we've finished up working for the day we need to head to our respective bunks soon after in order to get somewhere near enough sleep for the next day.
Anyway, a quick rundown on the last 3 days:
SATURDAY
Picked up my first student driver. His name is John, too, and he's an older gent (7 years older than I). But he's a great guy and we're getting along famously. He's also already a pretty good truck driver, but just needs some practice backing these beasts into docks, parking spaces, and wherever else we may need to back 'em. I get him for 7-10 days in Phase 1, or "Right Seat" training before OK-ing him for Phase 2, which is driving with another trainer as a team. I think he's gonna do just fine.
As for work on Saturday, after I picked John up we drove up to Napoleon, OH, picked up our load (no time now to tell the story about the slowdown there) and made our way to Sterling, IL to deliver it. Afterwards, as we were running out of available work hours for the day, we found a small truck stop in Hillsdale, IL with some open parking spaces and took one.
SUNDAY
We had to get up early, just after finishing the required 10 hours of break, to drive the 200-ish miles down to Shelbyville, IL to pick up our next load. That all went smoothly, and we were soon on our way to the load's destination in Atlanta, GA. We finished up for the night at a Pilot Travel Center in Oak Grove, KY, and again soon retreated to the bunks for the night's shut-eye.
TODAY
This morning we got up at 3:15 (CST) to continue the drive to Atlanta. Our load was never assigned a delivery time, so en route we checked with Dispatch about that. My Fleet Manager told us that we still didn't have a set delivery appointment and he was checking on the possibility of having us drop the load at a drop yard just south of ATL. We had to wait over 2 hours at another Pilot just 40 miles north of Hotlanta before we got word to go drop it at the drop yard instead of delivering it to the customer.
Once done with that, we waited another 2 hours for our next assignment. And it's to pick up a load at 8:00 tomorrow (Tuesday) morning in Piedmont, SC. Easy enough. The load's (and we, too, of course, are) going to Temperance, MI, with delivery scheduled for noon on Wednesday. Also easy enough. With two of us with hours for driving, we ought to be able to make it to the Vandalia, OH terminal Tuesday night. That's the plan, at least. Tonight, though, we stopped at the TA here in Commerce (I've stayed here a few times before). It's about 75 miles from our morning pickup site, so we'll get a chance to sleep in relatively late. ;-)
Well, time to wrap up and hit the sack. Thanks for looking in today. Please let me hear from y'all, and keep on truckin'.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Long Day, Short Report
DATELINE: VANDALIA, OH, 11:00 p.m. EST
No time for a detail-rich report today. The bare bones report:
No time for a detail-rich report today. The bare bones report:
- Started out in Brooks, KY
- Pickup in Hawesville, KY
- Delivery in Washington Courthouse, OH
- Retreated to Vandalia, OH terminal as my available hours for the day expired
- Pick up my student 1st thing tomorrow morning (he's at a hotel down the road)
- Tomorrow's assignment: Pickup in Napoleon, OH at 8:00 a.m.; Delivery (drop-and-hook) in Sterling, IL whenever we can get there
Got to get to bed now so I can get up somewhat rested at 5:15. Thanks for checking up on me. I'm not seeing near enough comments, y'all, so please let me have some feedback. And keep on truckin'.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Something New
DATELINE: BROOKS, KY, 8: 15 p.m. EST
Well, today saw a little different twist on the usual "stuff" that goes on in this job. As you recall from yesterday's report, I was in limbo regarding the load I was hauling. I was too short on hours to make the delivery on time and I was waiting to hear from Dispatch about whether someone would come relieve me of the load or if they'd reschedule the delivery date. Well, I never did get a message back from Dispatch, but around 10:00 p.m. another USA driver did show up at the truck stop to take the load. Good communication skills in that Dispatch group. But wait, it gets better.
Around midnight I got another load assignment for a pickup in Louisville at 7:30 this morning. The load was bound for Anderson, SC and due for delivery at midnight tonight. So it required a one-day haul for the 400-ish mile trip. Now, I still only had 6 hours available to drive today, so I obviously couldn't make that jaunt within the hours of service reg's. I sent a message in letting Dispatch know that fact, and they "wired" back that "The freight side is working on it", meaning they were checking their options about reassigning the load or rescheduling the delivery. Anyway, I again never heard anything back, so after a short night of sleep I got up and headed over to make the pickup. (It was around 30 miles away.)
When I arrived at the shipper, I sent in my "Arrived at Shipper" message to let Dispatch know I was there (and on time). After I checked in and got ready to back to the dock they assigned me, I had a message on my Qualcomm box. Dispatch was telling me that I didn't have an assignment and not to pick up the load; another driver had been assigned the load. (Hah! I was on time! He was late! But do you think I get any credit for that?) So I had to go back into the office, give them their paperwork back, and tell them, "Never mind." Afterwards I headed over to a Pilot just south of town (Louisville, remember?). So I've been killing time today ever since; napping, taking a walk, playing poker, and Facebooking. But I do have an exciting development to report.
I've been assigned my first student, and he's up in Vandalia, OH waiting for me. Now it's just up to Dispatch (not them again!) to get me there tomorrow (Friday). I'll get up early in the morning, let them know I'm ready for a load, and then wait for them to find and assign me something. Let's just see how long that takes this time around.
So that's today's scoop. Thanks for taking a peek today. Drop me a line, and keep on truckin'.
Well, today saw a little different twist on the usual "stuff" that goes on in this job. As you recall from yesterday's report, I was in limbo regarding the load I was hauling. I was too short on hours to make the delivery on time and I was waiting to hear from Dispatch about whether someone would come relieve me of the load or if they'd reschedule the delivery date. Well, I never did get a message back from Dispatch, but around 10:00 p.m. another USA driver did show up at the truck stop to take the load. Good communication skills in that Dispatch group. But wait, it gets better.
Around midnight I got another load assignment for a pickup in Louisville at 7:30 this morning. The load was bound for Anderson, SC and due for delivery at midnight tonight. So it required a one-day haul for the 400-ish mile trip. Now, I still only had 6 hours available to drive today, so I obviously couldn't make that jaunt within the hours of service reg's. I sent a message in letting Dispatch know that fact, and they "wired" back that "The freight side is working on it", meaning they were checking their options about reassigning the load or rescheduling the delivery. Anyway, I again never heard anything back, so after a short night of sleep I got up and headed over to make the pickup. (It was around 30 miles away.)
When I arrived at the shipper, I sent in my "Arrived at Shipper" message to let Dispatch know I was there (and on time). After I checked in and got ready to back to the dock they assigned me, I had a message on my Qualcomm box. Dispatch was telling me that I didn't have an assignment and not to pick up the load; another driver had been assigned the load. (Hah! I was on time! He was late! But do you think I get any credit for that?) So I had to go back into the office, give them their paperwork back, and tell them, "Never mind." Afterwards I headed over to a Pilot just south of town (Louisville, remember?). So I've been killing time today ever since; napping, taking a walk, playing poker, and Facebooking. But I do have an exciting development to report.
I've been assigned my first student, and he's up in Vandalia, OH waiting for me. Now it's just up to Dispatch (not them again!) to get me there tomorrow (Friday). I'll get up early in the morning, let them know I'm ready for a load, and then wait for them to find and assign me something. Let's just see how long that takes this time around.
So that's today's scoop. Thanks for taking a peek today. Drop me a line, and keep on truckin'.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Back After Another Regrettable Absence
DATELINE: SIMPSONVILLE, KY, 7;45 p.m. EST
So, have I been away from this blog long enough yet? Sorry 'bout dat, dear readers, but please refer to my usual litany of excuses. (Too busy, too tired at the end of the work days, wrong frame of mind due to job stress, etc.) Tonight I'll take just a little time to fill you in on what's what.
Since last we "spoke", I did some "terminal hopping", took a seminar to become certified as a trainer for USA Truck, ran a couple of assignments with lots of miles, and picked up a new truck. Here's a bit fuller re-cap.
From Roanoke (terminal #1 in the terminal hopping saga) I drove over to our West Memphis, AR facility in one swell foop. Whew! Long day. The next day I took my load to its delivery in Shreveport, LA, then stopped in at our terminal in that city for the night. My next assignment had me pick up a load an hour east of Shreveport the next morning (Monday of last week) and run it up to our Van Buren, AR HQ/terminal. Which was good because my trainer seminar was to start on Tuesday. So that made 4 different terminals in 4 days.
The training seminar took 3 days, and I got to spend 2 of those nights in a hotel. Woo hoo! Luxury! But once it was done it was back on the road. So Thursday afternoon I got started toward a Friday morning pickup in southeast AR. That was a nice assignment 'cuz it took me to Fort Pierce, FL and some sunshine and near-warmth. (Only into the mid-60s at the warmest when I was down there.) From there it was back north into GA for a pickup, then to our Spartanburg, SC terminal to get my new trainer truck (more on the truck to come), then into NC.
I delivered the load I picked up in GA in Winston-Salem, NC yesterday morning. Then I got a load to pick up in a town a bit further west in NC (I forget the name right now). That load is bound for Addison, IL, a 'burb in western Chicagoland. Before getting that assignment I notified my Fleet Manager that I was running low on available hours, so I'd be limited in how much driving I could do.
The full NT-to-Addison route was theoretically possible to complete within my available hours (it's due tomorrow--Thursday--morning at 8:00), but, alas, we don't live in a theoretical world. (Maybe Dispatch and Fleet Managers do; that's part of the problem for us drivers.) In the real world, snow and steep mountains slowed my progress and I now can't make it to that delivery on time tomorrow. (In fact, I can't make it at all tomorrow. I'll only have 6 hours available to drive, and it's 333 miles from here to there. And the last bit of those miles would be in Chicagoland rush hour traffic.) I let my FM know about that at around noon today, and didn't hear anything back from him about a load swap or re-scheduled delivery. So after 4:00 I sent in another message...had to repeatedly clarify and confirm my unable-to-make-delivery-on-time status for the yahoos in Dispatch...yada yada...I'm still waiting to hear a final disposition. I'll probably go to sleep without an update, then get woken up in the middle of the night by another driver who's come to take the load. That would be typical. But enough of my whining. On to news about my new wheels.
Since the trucks assigned to solo drivers only have one bunk, trainers with students need trucks with 2 bunks (obviously). So I needed a new one. When I took that seminar, the company assigned me new one right away. The problem was the truck was at our Spartanburg terminal. So I couldn't take it (and a student) right away. Hence the assignments to FL and NC in my "old" truck. (Old? It's an '08 that I got brand-spanking new last June and put 75,000+ miles on in 7 months.) But en route from GA to NC I stopped by Spartanburg Monday night to swap rides. Naturally, it was raining (and dark) when I got to move my worldly possessions between the trucks. But it was worth it for me to get one step closer to earning more money as a trainer.
The new truck is an '09 Kenworth T660. (See http://www.kenworth.com/2100_vir_t660.asp, but picture one in white with USA Truck markings.) I've seen them rolling down the roads the last couple years and thought they were a pretty sweet-looking machine. Much more attractive than either of the Internationals I've driven. But I'd heard that the Kenworths were kinda' lacking in interior roominess and storage space, two facts that I confirmed right away upon climbing aboard. The front part of the cab (where the driver and passenger seats are) is narrower and not as tall--I can't stand up fully up there. The sleeper berth portion widens out and has cool skylights (with covers for nighttime privacy), but does not have the copious storage bins and shelves of the Int'l. But, again, if USA's gonna' pay me more when I have a student in the truck, I'll put up with it.
The KW is a much nicer ride, too, even though it's a manual transmission instead of the automatic I had in my most recent International. (The students need to learn to drive the manual shift, of course, in case they get assigned one when they go solo.) It handles better and turns much tighter. Then again, the geography of the driver's seat, steering wheel, and foot pedals is not quite to my liking. (The pedals are too far forward and the horizontal part of the driver's seat is not deep enough.) But, again, if USA's gonna' pay me more...
Anyway, that's my update for today. If you're out and about scoping out USA's trucks, watch for me in my new address, #T293. Thanks for checking my blog even though I've been away for so long. Let me hear from you via comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
So, have I been away from this blog long enough yet? Sorry 'bout dat, dear readers, but please refer to my usual litany of excuses. (Too busy, too tired at the end of the work days, wrong frame of mind due to job stress, etc.) Tonight I'll take just a little time to fill you in on what's what.
Since last we "spoke", I did some "terminal hopping", took a seminar to become certified as a trainer for USA Truck, ran a couple of assignments with lots of miles, and picked up a new truck. Here's a bit fuller re-cap.
From Roanoke (terminal #1 in the terminal hopping saga) I drove over to our West Memphis, AR facility in one swell foop. Whew! Long day. The next day I took my load to its delivery in Shreveport, LA, then stopped in at our terminal in that city for the night. My next assignment had me pick up a load an hour east of Shreveport the next morning (Monday of last week) and run it up to our Van Buren, AR HQ/terminal. Which was good because my trainer seminar was to start on Tuesday. So that made 4 different terminals in 4 days.
The training seminar took 3 days, and I got to spend 2 of those nights in a hotel. Woo hoo! Luxury! But once it was done it was back on the road. So Thursday afternoon I got started toward a Friday morning pickup in southeast AR. That was a nice assignment 'cuz it took me to Fort Pierce, FL and some sunshine and near-warmth. (Only into the mid-60s at the warmest when I was down there.) From there it was back north into GA for a pickup, then to our Spartanburg, SC terminal to get my new trainer truck (more on the truck to come), then into NC.
I delivered the load I picked up in GA in Winston-Salem, NC yesterday morning. Then I got a load to pick up in a town a bit further west in NC (I forget the name right now). That load is bound for Addison, IL, a 'burb in western Chicagoland. Before getting that assignment I notified my Fleet Manager that I was running low on available hours, so I'd be limited in how much driving I could do.
The full NT-to-Addison route was theoretically possible to complete within my available hours (it's due tomorrow--Thursday--morning at 8:00), but, alas, we don't live in a theoretical world. (Maybe Dispatch and Fleet Managers do; that's part of the problem for us drivers.) In the real world, snow and steep mountains slowed my progress and I now can't make it to that delivery on time tomorrow. (In fact, I can't make it at all tomorrow. I'll only have 6 hours available to drive, and it's 333 miles from here to there. And the last bit of those miles would be in Chicagoland rush hour traffic.) I let my FM know about that at around noon today, and didn't hear anything back from him about a load swap or re-scheduled delivery. So after 4:00 I sent in another message...had to repeatedly clarify and confirm my unable-to-make-delivery-on-time status for the yahoos in Dispatch...yada yada...I'm still waiting to hear a final disposition. I'll probably go to sleep without an update, then get woken up in the middle of the night by another driver who's come to take the load. That would be typical. But enough of my whining. On to news about my new wheels.
Since the trucks assigned to solo drivers only have one bunk, trainers with students need trucks with 2 bunks (obviously). So I needed a new one. When I took that seminar, the company assigned me new one right away. The problem was the truck was at our Spartanburg terminal. So I couldn't take it (and a student) right away. Hence the assignments to FL and NC in my "old" truck. (Old? It's an '08 that I got brand-spanking new last June and put 75,000+ miles on in 7 months.) But en route from GA to NC I stopped by Spartanburg Monday night to swap rides. Naturally, it was raining (and dark) when I got to move my worldly possessions between the trucks. But it was worth it for me to get one step closer to earning more money as a trainer.
The new truck is an '09 Kenworth T660. (See http://www.kenworth.com/2100_vir_t660.asp, but picture one in white with USA Truck markings.) I've seen them rolling down the roads the last couple years and thought they were a pretty sweet-looking machine. Much more attractive than either of the Internationals I've driven. But I'd heard that the Kenworths were kinda' lacking in interior roominess and storage space, two facts that I confirmed right away upon climbing aboard. The front part of the cab (where the driver and passenger seats are) is narrower and not as tall--I can't stand up fully up there. The sleeper berth portion widens out and has cool skylights (with covers for nighttime privacy), but does not have the copious storage bins and shelves of the Int'l. But, again, if USA's gonna' pay me more when I have a student in the truck, I'll put up with it.
The KW is a much nicer ride, too, even though it's a manual transmission instead of the automatic I had in my most recent International. (The students need to learn to drive the manual shift, of course, in case they get assigned one when they go solo.) It handles better and turns much tighter. Then again, the geography of the driver's seat, steering wheel, and foot pedals is not quite to my liking. (The pedals are too far forward and the horizontal part of the driver's seat is not deep enough.) But, again, if USA's gonna' pay me more...
Anyway, that's my update for today. If you're out and about scoping out USA's trucks, watch for me in my new address, #T293. Thanks for checking my blog even though I've been away for so long. Let me hear from you via comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Checkin' In
DATELINE: ROANOKE, VA, 8:45 p.m. EST
No, gang, I didn't forget about ya'. This job's just keeping me busy; long days with tight schedules that only allow me the requisite 10-hour break each night. Not enough time to write top-quality blog reports and get the necessary sleep. And I'm too tired again to write much in-depth tonight. But I did get a quick home visit to watch the inauguration (oh, and see my family, too), and now I'm back on the road for another 4 weeks. I won't be home again 'til #2 daughter's birthday on 2/21.
Anyway, since Wednesday's return to the road I've been to Kalamazoo and Paw Paw, MI, then over to Mechanicsburg, PA, South Plainfield and West Deptford, NJ, and now I'm at our Roanoke terminal on my way to Arkansas. I'll be dropping this load at our West Memphis terminal, so I have about 650 miles to haul a** tomorrow. Fortunately this is an extremely light load, so the mountain climbs here in VA and in TN won't slow me down.
By the way, we're trying once again to get me trained to become a trainer. I'm scheduled for the training session this coming Tuesday through Thursday at our HQ/terminal in Van Buren, AR. So send me some good vibes that Dispatch doesn't screw it up for me as they did in November by not getting me to VB in time. I really do need the extra income from trainerhood.
As I stated above, I have a long day coming up tomorrow, and I need to get an early start (and a STRONG tailwind would be nice, too). Thanks for your patience with my sporadic reporting. Don't let that dissuade you from commenting here. And do remember to keep on truckin'.
No, gang, I didn't forget about ya'. This job's just keeping me busy; long days with tight schedules that only allow me the requisite 10-hour break each night. Not enough time to write top-quality blog reports and get the necessary sleep. And I'm too tired again to write much in-depth tonight. But I did get a quick home visit to watch the inauguration (oh, and see my family, too), and now I'm back on the road for another 4 weeks. I won't be home again 'til #2 daughter's birthday on 2/21.
Anyway, since Wednesday's return to the road I've been to Kalamazoo and Paw Paw, MI, then over to Mechanicsburg, PA, South Plainfield and West Deptford, NJ, and now I'm at our Roanoke terminal on my way to Arkansas. I'll be dropping this load at our West Memphis terminal, so I have about 650 miles to haul a** tomorrow. Fortunately this is an extremely light load, so the mountain climbs here in VA and in TN won't slow me down.
By the way, we're trying once again to get me trained to become a trainer. I'm scheduled for the training session this coming Tuesday through Thursday at our HQ/terminal in Van Buren, AR. So send me some good vibes that Dispatch doesn't screw it up for me as they did in November by not getting me to VB in time. I really do need the extra income from trainerhood.
As I stated above, I have a long day coming up tomorrow, and I need to get an early start (and a STRONG tailwind would be nice, too). Thanks for your patience with my sporadic reporting. Don't let that dissuade you from commenting here. And do remember to keep on truckin'.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Just Another Thursday
DATELINE: RUTHER GLEN, VA, 8:00 p.m. EST
Miles Today: 439
Oh heck, I'm getting too tired to want to write much tonight. I'll just sum up my day.
- Got up at 6:00 a.m.,
- drove to delivery,
- missed 2 turns en route 'cuz of missing "JCT xx" (highway junction) signs on the back roads,
- delivery was a drop-and-hook and went quickly,
- next assignment came in almost immediately (must have been pre-planned),
- drove to next pickup in Dunn, NC,
- pickup was real quick for a live-load,
- am on my way to Berwick, PA to deliver the load tomorrow,
- stopped for the night at the Petro here in Ruther Glen (north of Richmond)
It's getting cold here now--in the 20s already. I'm hoping there are no snow issues to go along with the deep freeze up in PA to make the driving "interesting" tomorrow so I can make it to my delivery expeditiously.
OK, that's enough for tonight, time to hit the sack. Good night all, thanks for looking in, and keep on truckin'.
Miles Today: 439
Oh heck, I'm getting too tired to want to write much tonight. I'll just sum up my day.
- Got up at 6:00 a.m.,
- drove to delivery,
- missed 2 turns en route 'cuz of missing "JCT xx" (highway junction) signs on the back roads,
- delivery was a drop-and-hook and went quickly,
- next assignment came in almost immediately (must have been pre-planned),
- drove to next pickup in Dunn, NC,
- pickup was real quick for a live-load,
- am on my way to Berwick, PA to deliver the load tomorrow,
- stopped for the night at the Petro here in Ruther Glen (north of Richmond)
It's getting cold here now--in the 20s already. I'm hoping there are no snow issues to go along with the deep freeze up in PA to make the driving "interesting" tomorrow so I can make it to my delivery expeditiously.
OK, that's enough for tonight, time to hit the sack. Good night all, thanks for looking in, and keep on truckin'.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Seein' SC
DATELINE: FLORENCE, SC, 9:15 p.m. EST
Miles Today: Only 245
Back to lots of sitting around and waiting. First of all, after getting up and driving 2-1/2 hours to get to my delivery by 7:00, once again the company didn't even open up 'til 8:00. Who the *#$^%@ is setting these appointment times, anyway? Since I arrived at about 6:45, I had a bit over an hour to wait. And, of course, there were a couple other company trucks ahead of me (who had been waiting with me on Monday at the pickup), so I had to wait 'til they were done and opened up a dock slot for me. But that wasn't so bad.
After completing the delivery, I had to wait a while again--only just over an hour this time--for my next assignment. It was for a pickup in Moncks Corner, SC, not very far away from where I delivered in Hanahan. But the pickup time was 18:45 (or 6:45 p.m. for you laymen and laywomen). That would have been beyond my 14 hour driving window for the day (I started work at 4:00 this morning), so I just headed over to the pickup in hopes they could load me early. Which they did, but only after I had to wait for another truck to get loaded in the door to which I was assigned. All in all, I was there for 4-1/2 hours or so, but once they started, they loaded my trailer up reasonably quickly.
By the time I left there, I was down to 1-1/2 hours left of that 14-hour window. So I set out north for the truck stop cluster up here in Florence. My route was US highway 52, one of those "back roads" (non-Interstates) along which are few truck stops. (More accurately, none.) It turned out to be a little longer trip than I had calculated on the map (70+ miles as opposed to 60-ish), and through a bunch of towns with stoplights and lower speed limits, so I had to go just a bit over that 14 hours to get here. I'm at a TA, and I stayed here once before a few months ago. (I recognized the area and location immediately on coming upon it, but I hadn't connected the locale with the listing in my truck stop directory when checking for possible stopping places for the night.)
Anyway, my delivery is in Bethune, SC--only another 30 or so miles from here--tomorrow morning at 8:00. So I get to sleep in a bit before I get up to catch a shower and shave before hitting the road. I think I've been to the delivery site once before, but I'll be taking a different route to it--coming from the east this time instead of from the west, as I did last time. But on the map it doesn't look too difficult to do.
Well, it's almost 9:30 now and I've been up since before 4:00, so by rights I'm getting tired. Thanks for looking in today, and be sure to keep on truckin'.
Miles Today: Only 245
Back to lots of sitting around and waiting. First of all, after getting up and driving 2-1/2 hours to get to my delivery by 7:00, once again the company didn't even open up 'til 8:00. Who the *#$^%@ is setting these appointment times, anyway? Since I arrived at about 6:45, I had a bit over an hour to wait. And, of course, there were a couple other company trucks ahead of me (who had been waiting with me on Monday at the pickup), so I had to wait 'til they were done and opened up a dock slot for me. But that wasn't so bad.
After completing the delivery, I had to wait a while again--only just over an hour this time--for my next assignment. It was for a pickup in Moncks Corner, SC, not very far away from where I delivered in Hanahan. But the pickup time was 18:45 (or 6:45 p.m. for you laymen and laywomen). That would have been beyond my 14 hour driving window for the day (I started work at 4:00 this morning), so I just headed over to the pickup in hopes they could load me early. Which they did, but only after I had to wait for another truck to get loaded in the door to which I was assigned. All in all, I was there for 4-1/2 hours or so, but once they started, they loaded my trailer up reasonably quickly.
By the time I left there, I was down to 1-1/2 hours left of that 14-hour window. So I set out north for the truck stop cluster up here in Florence. My route was US highway 52, one of those "back roads" (non-Interstates) along which are few truck stops. (More accurately, none.) It turned out to be a little longer trip than I had calculated on the map (70+ miles as opposed to 60-ish), and through a bunch of towns with stoplights and lower speed limits, so I had to go just a bit over that 14 hours to get here. I'm at a TA, and I stayed here once before a few months ago. (I recognized the area and location immediately on coming upon it, but I hadn't connected the locale with the listing in my truck stop directory when checking for possible stopping places for the night.)
Anyway, my delivery is in Bethune, SC--only another 30 or so miles from here--tomorrow morning at 8:00. So I get to sleep in a bit before I get up to catch a shower and shave before hitting the road. I think I've been to the delivery site once before, but I'll be taking a different route to it--coming from the east this time instead of from the west, as I did last time. But on the map it doesn't look too difficult to do.
Well, it's almost 9:30 now and I've been up since before 4:00, so by rights I'm getting tired. Thanks for looking in today, and be sure to keep on truckin'.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Short 'n Sweet
DATELINE: RICHMOND HILL, GA, 6:30 p.m. EST
Miles today: 584
Long day and I'm tired. Not much I can write today to follow up on yesterday's catch-up rant, anyway. Just a long drive, mostly across northern FLA on I-10 before turning north on I-95 at Jacksonville. Some rain during the day, but it cleared up toward the end. I'll be getting up early in the morning (3:30 target) to finish the drive to my delivery by my 7:00 a.m. appointment, so it's time to head off to bed.
Thanks for looking in today. Keep the comments and questions coming, and keep on truckin'.
Miles today: 584
Long day and I'm tired. Not much I can write today to follow up on yesterday's catch-up rant, anyway. Just a long drive, mostly across northern FLA on I-10 before turning north on I-95 at Jacksonville. Some rain during the day, but it cleared up toward the end. I'll be getting up early in the morning (3:30 target) to finish the drive to my delivery by my 7:00 a.m. appointment, so it's time to head off to bed.
Thanks for looking in today. Keep the comments and questions coming, and keep on truckin'.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Better Late?
DATELINE: BILOXI, MS, 7:15 p.m. CST
My apologies, gang, for taking so long to get back to this blogging thing so you could follow along on this tour of duty. But I was taught growing up that if you can't say anything nice about someone/something, don't say anything at all. And that sums up how the past week-and-a-half has been, for the most part. Let me set the stage for ya'.
It all started on my first day back in the truck, Friday, 1/2. Mrs. R.T. drove me back in the morning. (Why is she always so willing to return me to my truck after my time at home?) I waited the usual 90 minutes for my first assignment, and it set the precedent for this time out. I was to pick up a loaded trailer there at the yard where I was, and take it to 2 deliveries, the first in Coldwater, MI, the second in Grove City, OH, just outside of Columbus. However, the delivery appointment for the Coldwater stop was at 6:00 p.m. that evening. The Grove City stop would be a drop-and-hook (D&H), but set for midnight. Since that company sticks to its appointments schedule (i.e., no early live-unload deliveries), I had to wait around for a few hours before setting out from Romulus for the 2-hour trek to Coldwater. Fortunately, there's a small truck stop 1/2 mile from that yard, so I zipped over there for access to better amenities during my wait.
So in these first 11 days of this tour I have had an ungodly amount of waiting around. Highlights:
Sat., 1/3
Day 2 of the tour, and I'm assigned a noon pickup in Lima, OH. I got to the company, gave them my pickup number, and they told me that load wasn't planned. Long story short, after over an hour of bickering w/ Dispatch (the weekend crew, of course), they finally figured out that the shipper had messed up and given USA the wrong pickup number, which they duly gave to me. The kicker: my real load wouldn't be ready for pickup 'til 6:00 p.m. So I had to drive over to a somewhat nearby (15 miles) truck stop to wait for the appointed hour. All the while, my 14-hour clock was ticking, so after making the pickup I wouldn't be able to drive very far towards the load's destination in Windsor Locks, CT. (I made it to Girard, OH, almost to the PA line.)
Sun, 1/4
No huge waiting problems that day, but a lot of driving. I finished the D&H delivery with about 2 hours left of my allotted 11 driving hours for the day, and my next pickup was about a mile away. I did have to wait about 15 minutes for the next place's shipping office to open up, but that wasn't bad, considering. It was a drop-and-hook pickup, but I did have to take some time to sweep out the empty trailer I was dropping off. I finished off the day at a rest area along I-84 in NY.
Mon, 1/5
Just a full day of driving, back across PA and OH en route to St. Peters. MO, just west-northwest of St. Louis. I ended up at another rest area, this time between Columbus and Dayton.
Tues, 1/6
This day started miserably with some nasty weather, freezing rain--the worst! So I got caught in a jam within my first few miles of the day. Fortunately, the temperature was right at freezing and slowly rising, so the roads de-iced and the jam cleared up fairly soon. But I still had to drive through fog and misty rain for quite a while, making it a somewhat stressful jaunt.
I made it to the delivery late that afternoon, dropped the load and hooked up and empty, then retreated to a nearby truck stop for the night.
Weds, 1/7
This is when things really start to get "good". My next pickup was originally scheduled for midnight Tuesday, but since that wouldn't work for me due to the DOT hours of service regulations, they rescheduled it to 3:30 a.m., which is when I could get there legally. So I woke up (unintentionally) at 1:30, putzed around for a while, then hit the road at 3:00 when I completed my 10-hour break. I should mention the pickup was at the big brewery in St. Louis. (No names here for customer confidentiality purposes, but you can guess who I mean.)
So I arrived there about 3:45, and was told that the load wasn't ready yet; it wasn't scheduled 'til 5:00. The company would pre-load a trailer and take it to their drop yard, where I would retrieve it when it was ready. In the meantime, I could park over by their drivers' lounge building and wait. (There's that verb again.) They have a phone system for checking the status of loads by pickup number, so I checked that periodically. (It frequently gave a busy signal when I dialed in, to boot!) After a couple of routine checks, the message changed and said the that the load wouldn't be ready 'til 11:00. Sheesh! Further waiting. So I stretched out and napped for a bit.
Around 11:00 I checked in again. NOW the message said the load wouldn't be ready until 10:00 p.m.! OK, who allows this sort of behavior on the part of shippers? Besides, I wasn't the only driver waiting many hours. One other USA driver--who would be taking his load to the same destination as I, Beaumont, TX--wound up being there long enough to complete a 34-hour restart. Anyway, to wrap up this saga, the load didn't get finished 'til after midnight, and I just stayed there to get more sleep to get rested up for the long drive the next day. I got up, grabbed the load, and got started at 4:00 a.m. the next morning.
Thurs, 1/8
Just drive, drive, drive. I was planning to make it to our terminal in Shreveport, LA, but en route I got a message from the company's maintenance department that they wanted me to stop at a truck stop in Benton, AR to get my truck serviced. I had already passed that one when I got the message, but I was taking a quick break at the TA in Prescott, AR, which has a repair shop, so maintenance had me get the work done there. Since it was getting late in the day, Shreveport was out.
(I still haven't spent a night there yet, though I've stopped by for fuel a couple of times. I was planning to sit in one of the big, leather recliners in Shreveport's drivers' lounge and watch the NCAA Football National Championship game on the big-screen TV, but that idea went out the window. And the Prescott TA's drivers' lounge TV was on the fritz, too, so goodbye football game. See what happens when I make plans? Grrrr!)
Anyway, back to the truck maintenance. The job was for them to lube the tractor and trailer, change a couple of filters, and do an inspection of the trailer. Well, in the inspection the tech found 3 bad tires. Yada yada, check w/ USA for authorization to replace the tires, etc, etc, the whole thing took 6 HOURS! (Did I mention I've been doing a lot of waiting this time around? Ritzin', fritzin', #!@$**^#$)
Fri, 1/9
Back on the road, good 'n early to get to Beaumont by 11:00. Made it, the live-unload went relatively quickly, and I headed over to a Petro truck stop just a couple miles down the highway. It took quite a while--several hours, of course--for my next assignment to come in, and it didn't please me. My next pickup was also in Beaumont, only about a mile from the Petro where I was parked, but not 'til Monday morning. Now, I don't have shower credits at the Petro chain, so if I was gonna be idle for 2 days, I needed to get somewhere where I didn't have to pay $10 to clean up. So I decided to just stay there the rest of the night and move to a Pilot in Orange, TX, just 25 miles east, on Saturday.
Sat, 1/10
I'll just gloss over the part where I got caught in some rain walking back to my truck after breakfasting down the block from the truck stop. The part of Saturday's story that fits the theme is the traffic jam during the 25-mile schlep from Beaumont to Orange. The mid-point of the stretch is currently a construction zone, a two-lane concrete chute that narrows at one point to a single lane. Making the drive in the early afternoon, what should have been a 30-minute trip took over 1-1/2 hours!
Sun, 1/11
Nothing to go with this week's theme, except, of course, that I was sitting still and not driving paying miles. But I got a 34-hour restart out of the deal, so I have fresh 70 work hours available for the next 8 days.
Today
I got up at 5:00, hit the road at 5:30, getting back to Beaumont and the shipper at 6:00. My appointment was for 7:00, so I had left Orange early just in case of another traffic jam in that construction zone. Nope, sailed right through. However, the shipper didn't even open up 'till 8:00, so there was another wasted 2 hours. And while waiting, the place filled up with trucks. 5 other USA Trucks and several others from other companies. But I was loaded and out of there by 9:15.
Before I hit the road this morning, I noticed that one of my headlights was burned out, so Maintenance instructed me to stop by the Beaumont Petro after picking up my load to get it replaced. So I did, and that took over an hour as well. (The wait for authorization from USA through the automated system they use took MUCH longer than the actual repair.) Afterwards I just hustled as much as I could to get in as many miles as I could before today's 14-hour clock ran out. (I started at 5:15 a.m., so I had to stop by 7:15 p.m.) I made it here to a Pilot outside of Biloxi. I'm on my way to a Wednesday morning delivery in Hanahan, SC (outside of Charleston), so tomorrow I'll need to book about 600 miles.
And now you're caught up with me. Whew! Again, I apologize for my absence from the airwaves, but with long, stressful days I haven't been in the right frame of mind to re-live them in writing for you. Thanks for your patience and patronage, send me some witty rejoinders, and keep on truckin'.
My apologies, gang, for taking so long to get back to this blogging thing so you could follow along on this tour of duty. But I was taught growing up that if you can't say anything nice about someone/something, don't say anything at all. And that sums up how the past week-and-a-half has been, for the most part. Let me set the stage for ya'.
It all started on my first day back in the truck, Friday, 1/2. Mrs. R.T. drove me back in the morning. (Why is she always so willing to return me to my truck after my time at home?) I waited the usual 90 minutes for my first assignment, and it set the precedent for this time out. I was to pick up a loaded trailer there at the yard where I was, and take it to 2 deliveries, the first in Coldwater, MI, the second in Grove City, OH, just outside of Columbus. However, the delivery appointment for the Coldwater stop was at 6:00 p.m. that evening. The Grove City stop would be a drop-and-hook (D&H), but set for midnight. Since that company sticks to its appointments schedule (i.e., no early live-unload deliveries), I had to wait around for a few hours before setting out from Romulus for the 2-hour trek to Coldwater. Fortunately, there's a small truck stop 1/2 mile from that yard, so I zipped over there for access to better amenities during my wait.
So in these first 11 days of this tour I have had an ungodly amount of waiting around. Highlights:
Sat., 1/3
Day 2 of the tour, and I'm assigned a noon pickup in Lima, OH. I got to the company, gave them my pickup number, and they told me that load wasn't planned. Long story short, after over an hour of bickering w/ Dispatch (the weekend crew, of course), they finally figured out that the shipper had messed up and given USA the wrong pickup number, which they duly gave to me. The kicker: my real load wouldn't be ready for pickup 'til 6:00 p.m. So I had to drive over to a somewhat nearby (15 miles) truck stop to wait for the appointed hour. All the while, my 14-hour clock was ticking, so after making the pickup I wouldn't be able to drive very far towards the load's destination in Windsor Locks, CT. (I made it to Girard, OH, almost to the PA line.)
Sun, 1/4
No huge waiting problems that day, but a lot of driving. I finished the D&H delivery with about 2 hours left of my allotted 11 driving hours for the day, and my next pickup was about a mile away. I did have to wait about 15 minutes for the next place's shipping office to open up, but that wasn't bad, considering. It was a drop-and-hook pickup, but I did have to take some time to sweep out the empty trailer I was dropping off. I finished off the day at a rest area along I-84 in NY.
Mon, 1/5
Just a full day of driving, back across PA and OH en route to St. Peters. MO, just west-northwest of St. Louis. I ended up at another rest area, this time between Columbus and Dayton.
Tues, 1/6
This day started miserably with some nasty weather, freezing rain--the worst! So I got caught in a jam within my first few miles of the day. Fortunately, the temperature was right at freezing and slowly rising, so the roads de-iced and the jam cleared up fairly soon. But I still had to drive through fog and misty rain for quite a while, making it a somewhat stressful jaunt.
I made it to the delivery late that afternoon, dropped the load and hooked up and empty, then retreated to a nearby truck stop for the night.
Weds, 1/7
This is when things really start to get "good". My next pickup was originally scheduled for midnight Tuesday, but since that wouldn't work for me due to the DOT hours of service regulations, they rescheduled it to 3:30 a.m., which is when I could get there legally. So I woke up (unintentionally) at 1:30, putzed around for a while, then hit the road at 3:00 when I completed my 10-hour break. I should mention the pickup was at the big brewery in St. Louis. (No names here for customer confidentiality purposes, but you can guess who I mean.)
So I arrived there about 3:45, and was told that the load wasn't ready yet; it wasn't scheduled 'til 5:00. The company would pre-load a trailer and take it to their drop yard, where I would retrieve it when it was ready. In the meantime, I could park over by their drivers' lounge building and wait. (There's that verb again.) They have a phone system for checking the status of loads by pickup number, so I checked that periodically. (It frequently gave a busy signal when I dialed in, to boot!) After a couple of routine checks, the message changed and said the that the load wouldn't be ready 'til 11:00. Sheesh! Further waiting. So I stretched out and napped for a bit.
Around 11:00 I checked in again. NOW the message said the load wouldn't be ready until 10:00 p.m.! OK, who allows this sort of behavior on the part of shippers? Besides, I wasn't the only driver waiting many hours. One other USA driver--who would be taking his load to the same destination as I, Beaumont, TX--wound up being there long enough to complete a 34-hour restart. Anyway, to wrap up this saga, the load didn't get finished 'til after midnight, and I just stayed there to get more sleep to get rested up for the long drive the next day. I got up, grabbed the load, and got started at 4:00 a.m. the next morning.
Thurs, 1/8
Just drive, drive, drive. I was planning to make it to our terminal in Shreveport, LA, but en route I got a message from the company's maintenance department that they wanted me to stop at a truck stop in Benton, AR to get my truck serviced. I had already passed that one when I got the message, but I was taking a quick break at the TA in Prescott, AR, which has a repair shop, so maintenance had me get the work done there. Since it was getting late in the day, Shreveport was out.
(I still haven't spent a night there yet, though I've stopped by for fuel a couple of times. I was planning to sit in one of the big, leather recliners in Shreveport's drivers' lounge and watch the NCAA Football National Championship game on the big-screen TV, but that idea went out the window. And the Prescott TA's drivers' lounge TV was on the fritz, too, so goodbye football game. See what happens when I make plans? Grrrr!)
Anyway, back to the truck maintenance. The job was for them to lube the tractor and trailer, change a couple of filters, and do an inspection of the trailer. Well, in the inspection the tech found 3 bad tires. Yada yada, check w/ USA for authorization to replace the tires, etc, etc, the whole thing took 6 HOURS! (Did I mention I've been doing a lot of waiting this time around? Ritzin', fritzin', #!@$**^#$)
Fri, 1/9
Back on the road, good 'n early to get to Beaumont by 11:00. Made it, the live-unload went relatively quickly, and I headed over to a Petro truck stop just a couple miles down the highway. It took quite a while--several hours, of course--for my next assignment to come in, and it didn't please me. My next pickup was also in Beaumont, only about a mile from the Petro where I was parked, but not 'til Monday morning. Now, I don't have shower credits at the Petro chain, so if I was gonna be idle for 2 days, I needed to get somewhere where I didn't have to pay $10 to clean up. So I decided to just stay there the rest of the night and move to a Pilot in Orange, TX, just 25 miles east, on Saturday.
Sat, 1/10
I'll just gloss over the part where I got caught in some rain walking back to my truck after breakfasting down the block from the truck stop. The part of Saturday's story that fits the theme is the traffic jam during the 25-mile schlep from Beaumont to Orange. The mid-point of the stretch is currently a construction zone, a two-lane concrete chute that narrows at one point to a single lane. Making the drive in the early afternoon, what should have been a 30-minute trip took over 1-1/2 hours!
Sun, 1/11
Nothing to go with this week's theme, except, of course, that I was sitting still and not driving paying miles. But I got a 34-hour restart out of the deal, so I have fresh 70 work hours available for the next 8 days.
Today
I got up at 5:00, hit the road at 5:30, getting back to Beaumont and the shipper at 6:00. My appointment was for 7:00, so I had left Orange early just in case of another traffic jam in that construction zone. Nope, sailed right through. However, the shipper didn't even open up 'till 8:00, so there was another wasted 2 hours. And while waiting, the place filled up with trucks. 5 other USA Trucks and several others from other companies. But I was loaded and out of there by 9:15.
Before I hit the road this morning, I noticed that one of my headlights was burned out, so Maintenance instructed me to stop by the Beaumont Petro after picking up my load to get it replaced. So I did, and that took over an hour as well. (The wait for authorization from USA through the automated system they use took MUCH longer than the actual repair.) Afterwards I just hustled as much as I could to get in as many miles as I could before today's 14-hour clock ran out. (I started at 5:15 a.m., so I had to stop by 7:15 p.m.) I made it here to a Pilot outside of Biloxi. I'm on my way to a Wednesday morning delivery in Hanahan, SC (outside of Charleston), so tomorrow I'll need to book about 600 miles.
And now you're caught up with me. Whew! Again, I apologize for my absence from the airwaves, but with long, stressful days I haven't been in the right frame of mind to re-live them in writing for you. Thanks for your patience and patronage, send me some witty rejoinders, and keep on truckin'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)