Saturday, June 30, 2007

6/30/07

Well, the past couple of days have been... a couple of days.

I took a wrong exit on my way into Newark and wound up on a pretty skinny stretch of road. I thought the sign said to stay right for the turnpike, but apparently left was the way to go. I followed that road until I got to where I thought I was supposed to be, but nothing looked the way I expected. Rather than drive in circles and run the risk of getting into a sticky spot, I hopped the turnpike north, did a flip, and went back south to the exit I was originally looking for.

This time I saw the signs that my directions referred to. The only catch was that the directions were a little confusing from that point forward. I wound up driving around in circles for another half hour, then found the location. The drop and hook was uneventful, so I was quickly on my way to Pennsylvania.

I sat parked on I-80 for a good hour and a half in New Jersey. My CB is broken, so I don't know exactly what happened, but I have to assume there was an accident that took a while to clean up. As a result, my night got a whole lot longer than expected. I found a quiet spot to sleep outside Wilkes-Barre and called it a night.

I headed over to my shipper today and made another drop/hook. By the time I was loaded I was getting awfully hungry, so I made a fuel stop and grabbed some food. All of the hard running this week and the traffic jams have pretty much left me in log book purgatory, so today was a pretty short day after that. I have no hours left for tomorrow, so I'm stuck in Ohio until midnight Eastern. I am scheduled to deliver at 8:30am Central on Monday and I'm just about nine and a half hours from the customer, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for no delays. I should make it on time, but I'll have to get past St. Louis at rush hour. I'll be able to go around Columbus and Indianapolis in the middle of the night, so St. Louis should be my only obstacle. I usually obey the 55mph speed limits in Ohio and Illinois, but I will most likely go a little closer to 60mph on this trip. I'll still be the slowest truck on the road.

Friday, June 29, 2007

6/29/07

I am beginning to think that there is a grand conspiracy to make sure I never sleep long enough to hear my alarm go off in the morning. I was set to go at 3:30 this morning and, of course, the Conway guy woke me up at 2:45 to tell me my load was ready.

After I got the paperwork in order, I headed over to a local Cat scale to weigh the load. 16,000 lbs. on the drive axles and 35,000 on the trailer. What the hell? Have these people never loaded a trailer before? They apparently put all of the heavy boxes at the back of the trailer instead of trying to balance the weight. I checked the wheelbase laws and, since this load was going through Pennsylvania and Connecticut, the furthest back the trailer axles could go was 41' from the kingpin to the center of the assembly. As it turned out, this was just far enough to get the load legal.

Aside from the morning traffic around Dayton, the ride over was uneventful. After I got rid of the loaded trailer and hooked to the empty, I tried to lay down and get some rest. Yeah right. After an hour or two of tossing and turning, the communications system beeped. I took a look at my plan summary, then did a double-take. A pre-plan after my next run? Are you shitting me? I haven't seen a pre-plan since December. Maybe they read yesterday's blog entry and decided to actually 'plan' for a change. Either way, I'm pretty stoked.

I will have a long tough night of running tonight. I have to cover 400 miles in 8 hours. The 50mph pace isn't terribly hard, but it doesn't allow for more than a quick restroom break along the way. Then I get to deliver in Newark, NJ. Newark isn't my favorite place to be, but it's another Conway load so I get to drop and hook when I arrive. From there I'll head to Tunkhannock, PA to pick up a load bound for Missouri. This is especially cool since weekends can be a little dicey as far as getting a load. This one will provide 899 miles to keep me occupied.

The net result of this past week is that my pay period will end up around 6,100 miles. I've never been under 5,500 unless I took time off. The way this month was going, I thought for sure I would fall below 5,500 for this pay period, and I haven't taken any home time. I guess patience is a virtue.

Now it's time for a quick nap (hopefully) before the other driver gets here with my load.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

6/28/07

After a quick nap at the Indiana scales, I woke up and finished off my run from yesterday. The customer, as I had hoped, was a 24/7 outfit so there was no problem getting rid of my loaded trailer and picking up an empty one at 6am. I pulled into a neighboring parking lot and was quickly kicked out by the rent-a-cop on duty, so I had to roll down the highway to a truck stop.

We get paid twice a month, with the pay periods ending on the 15th and the last days of each month. Since this pay period has been fairly slow for me, I am hoping to jam as many miles into the last few days of the month as possible. The past three or four days have been helpful to my cause, but today was not. After sleeping the morning away outside Indianapolis, I received a dispatch to head for Fort Wayne and pick up a load for tomorrow morning. Since this is a time-sensitive load, I'll need to relay it to another driver in Ohio at 10am tomorrow. The only way to make these runs possible under the DOT guidelines is to arrive at the customer the night before and take a 10 hour break at the customer's location. So here I am. I'll get some sleep and then start work promptly at 3:30am.

The deadhead up here was only 147 miles and tomorrow's run is only 260 miles, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good run out of Ohio. I'll have some time available on my log book when I make the relay, so hopefully the planners will have something lined up for me. Lately it seems like they don't really do any planning at all. In a perfect world, knowing that a truck was on the way to a location to make a drop, the planners would be lining up the next pickup. It seems to me that they only begin looking for the next load after I have made my delivery and sent in my empty call. This often leads to unnecessary waiting. The last time I relayed at the location to which I'm heading, I had to sit there until the following day before receiving my next assignment. A repeat of that occurrence won't make me a happy camper.

6/27/07

Another late night was followed by another early morning. I was dispatched to pick up a load in Bensalem, around five miles from where I spent the night. Due to the retarded rules at the drop yard, I couldn't spend the night hooked to my trailer. I had to drop it and then park outside the yard, so this morning I got to go back and hook to it again before I left.

I was scheduled to pick up at 3pm, but I hoped to get a jump on the day so I headed over early. The load was ready when I arrived, but the paperwork was still in progress. They had me on my way at 11am. The only catch was that, according to my log book, my day couldn't start until 1pm. I pulled into a local rest stop and hung out until I was legal and then headed across Pennsylvania. My dispatch says I am to deliver in Brownsburg, Indiana by 10:45am tomorrow. I asked the dispatchers if I could deliver early and got the typical "maybe." I'll get there around 6am, so we'll see what the customer has to say.

I pulled off and tried to take a nap earlier in the day, but sleep eluded me as usual. After a fuel stop in Ohio tonight, I got to the Indiana border before I noticed that my attention span and patience were both severely lacking. That's not exactly safe, so I've pulled into the Indiana scales for a little rest. I'll get up in a few hours so I can get around Indianapolis before the morning rush hour. I haven't really taken the time to see what this will mean for my log book, but I'll deal with that tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

6/26/07

There are good days and there are bad days, but I think most days are a combination of the two.

I arrived at my customer late last night and fell asleep somewhere around 2:30am. I set my alarm for 6:15 so I could check in before my 6:30 appointment. Of course I awoke to a knock on my door at 4:50am. Usual routine.

It only took a few minutes for the guys to pull two refrigeration units off of my trailer and send me on my way. I headed across the street to the local truck stop, notified my company that I was ready to run, and laid down to get some rest. I had time available on my log book, but as early as it was, I didn't anticipate going anywhere right away.

After waking up at 8am and responding to a few e-mails, I ate some breakfast and laid back down. I woke up again at noon to use the restroom, then laid back down. When I woke up again at 2pm, I was disappointed to see that I was still #1 on the board and still not assigned to a load.

Around 3pm, I got the beep from my satellite unit. I was told to deadhead from Maine to our drop yard in Bensalem, PA. The bad part is that half my day was wasted sitting around when there was no freight for me to haul. The company would rather pay me to drive 657 miles, burn the fuel, and pay the tolls, than to have me stay put. This tells me that they must have known there was not going to be anything coming my way in Maine, yet I sat there all day and waited.

On the good side, the 657 mile run fit within one day's 11 hours. 657 miles in one day is very good mileage, not to mention the bonus for running in the northeast. On top of that, leaving in the afternoon allowed me to hit the worst part of the run late at night. Going through that stretch of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York pretty much sucks balls during the day, but late at night it wasn't too bad. There was some construction in the Bronx, but I got through okay.

Now I'm here in Pennsylvania, ready to hit the sack and see what tomorrow will bring.

Monday, June 25, 2007

6/25/07

If you've stumbled across this blog, you may be curious to know about life on the road or you might just be curious about what goes through the mind of the marginally sane. Either way, enjoy...

I woke up this morning on the ramp to I-87 in upstate New York, ready to run a full 11 hours to reach my destination. As it turns out, the run only took nine hours. I ran a route that typically would not be recommended for a big truck, but I had a very light load and lots of time, so what the hell? The day was beautiful, the scenery was impressive, the women were dressed for summer. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable ride.

When I got to the Maine/New Hampshire border, I made a call to a friend of mine who lives in Maine. It turns out we were both passing through Bangor around the same time, so we got a chance to have dinner and catch up on things.

I'll get unloaded in the morning and see what's in store for me from there.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

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