11/2/07

That one's for you, FMCSA.

In case you didnt catch it, I said

I tossed and turned all evening. I tossed and turned all night. By the time I was legal to drive, at midnight, I managed to fall asleep for a spell. I got up at 2:30am and hit the road, exhausted as hell. It's absolute bullshit and anyone with common sense can see that the "safety advocates" are making life more dangerous out here. I could have been here yesterday afternoon and slept quietly from late last night until it was time to bump the dock this morning. Instead I hardly slept at all. I'm not one who requires a ton of sleep, but four or five hours (when I'm actually tired) would be nice.

The drive in the wee hours of the morning didn't involve much traffic so I made it to the customer at 5:15am, an hour early for my appointment. Back to the bunk for a half hour. The security guard said I would be able to check in with the receiving office at 5:45. I had one of those whacked-out, really tired dreams. Some British chick handing out hundred dollar bills while complaining about taxes and then falling into a cow pen... weird.

So, this is probably going to come across as condescending or something like that. That's not really my point of view, but I just have to say - sitting in a room full of truck drivers for an hour and a half will lower your IQ. The customer didn't allow us to wait in the truck while being unloaded, so I got to hang out in the drivers' room. I tried to beat my record in cell phone Tetris, not so much because I felt like playing Tetris but more to distract myself from the profuse bullshit that I was hearing. These guys were experts on everything from tax law to the cover 2 defense, and none of it was even close to being accurate.

After I got released from the consignee, they told me that the little side street next to the facility was a good place to park. I pulled in and drifted in and out of sleep for an hour or so before I got my next assignment. I was going 30 miles south on I-75 to get a load for a short run to Ocala, Florida. The pickup appointment was set for 2pm, but I headed down early.

Here's where the DOT math comes into play. I could wait and show up at 2pm. Then, by the time I got loaded, I would be running out of time on my 14 hour clock. I was going to have 4.75 hours left on my 70, so I would prefer to use as much of them as possible. So, the move was to try and get loaded early. No dice. They told me to check back in at 2, so I went out and took a nap. Thus, once I was rested, the feds would be ready to tell me I had to shut down again. Yeah, I know. I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

So, I got assigned to a dock at 1:45. As it turned out, the feds were not the problem this time around. I was loaded and ready to go... at 10pm. So I wound up having more than ten hours off at the shipper. Thus, I got a fresh clock and the 14 hour rule became a non-issue. The issues at that point were boredom and frustration. I got plenty of rest today, but I just didn't feel like driving much after all the hassles. So I'm about 90 miles down the road. I have to be in Ocala by 3pm tomorrow, so I'll take another ten hours here and then make the jog down to Florida in the morning.

I'm not going to mention their name, since they're a customer of my employer, but this one's for today's shipper -

Cheers.