Is it football season yet? Hey, at least they're consistent. None of this "some wins and some losses" business like every other team in baseball.
Anyway, how did today go, aside from another debacle in Detroit? Pretty well, I have to say. There was nice light weekend traffic on the rest of the ride down to El Paso. When I got to the beer distibutor, the forklift guy was just finishing up with the only other truck there. He got started on my trailer pretty quickly and I was done a short time later.
I was a few miles away from our drop yard, so I headed over to park and see what the rest of the day had in store. When I got there, I checked and saw that I was #2 on the board. Not bad at all for a border town on a weekend. About ten minutes later I got my assignment. I was to take a loaded trailer from the yard and run it up to Gurnee, Illinois for Tuesday morning. Beauty. I hooked it up, grabbed the paperwork (16,000 pounds... nice!), and headed out.
The afternoon drive took me up US-54 to I-40 and across. I made it to Amarillo before my eleven hours were all used up. The odometer says 670 miles today, so that's a solid day of work. Trying to find a place to park in this town... we won't be doing that again in the foreseeable future. Pain in the ass. My week wraps up with 3,636 miles, plus $70 for the two extra stops on the Colorado run, meaning another solid paycheck is in store.
The more I hear how bad things are getting, the more my miles just keep ticking away. I actually think my company might be in a pretty good position regarding the soft economic cycle, considering that a good deal of our freight crosses the border. If we were strictly domestic, we'd probably feel a manufacturing slowdown a little more severely. That cheap labor in Mexico is probably not such a bad thing when you do what I do for a living. I really don't know though. Just thinking out loud.
Speaking of thinking out loud... Am I the only one who isn't surprised by job losses following a minimum wage increase? Isn't that what businessmen have warned us about since the beginning of time? I mean, I know that I had to cut the hours of my employees when the minimum wage went up in the 90's, simply as a matter of being responsible. Then, if someone quit, I just worked a little harder intead of hiring a replacement. Economic data seems to validate my experience. Why do certain folks who like to pontificate about "the economy" not seem to get this? I heard a sound bite from a prominent gal the other day. She was so flummoxed by some kid who said his mother's hours had been cut since the minimum wage went up. Duhhhrrrr...
And am I also the only one who is 100% convinced that extending unemployment benefits would worsen a slow economy? I've heard certain folks proposing longer and longer periods of unemployment benefits under the guise of "economic stimulus." That's not stimulus, you bunch of jagoffs. Stimulus is an effort to spur growth. To grow you need people to do shit and make money. Then they spend that money on the shit that other people are doing. That's how it works. Sitting on your ass and collecting tax money does nothing to spur growth. It prolongs whatever issues caused you to be unemployed in the first place. Why do certain folks who like to pontificate about "the economy" not seem to get this? Duhhhrrr...
But what do I know? I'm just a big dumb OTR truck driver. Getting political on my blog is usually a sign that it's bedtime. Cheers.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
4/4/08
I went to bed last night, fully expecting today to be a less than pleasant one. When I woke up this morning... well, let's talk about when I woke up this morning. I had to get up, kick the tires, and drive seventeen miles before 9am (my time). So I set my alarm for 8:20am. A half hour before I would have awakened, I got a damn beep from the satellite unit. It was a dumbass message reminding me to send in my arrival call at the shipper. So, what is it? Am I to understand that today, after two years of sending arrival calls at every shipper, I was going to forget without a reminder? I doubt it. I'm guessing that they saw that my truck hadn't moved, so they assumed I needed a wake-up call but didn't want to say as much. Whatever dude. Shitty start to a shitty day.
Things actually went quite smoothly at the brewery. There wasn't the usual logjam of trucks at the gate. This was my first trip to the Fort Collins location with this truck though. That meant that I had to drop my empty and then circle back around so they could weigh my bobtail. Again though, no traffic at the scales so it was okay. I hooked to my new trailer, strapped in the load, slid my tandems, and checked out. At that point I had some optimism that maybe today wouldn't be so bad.
Then I got on I-25. There's a certain something about being on a road where you have to downshift up a hill every two minutes for a whole freaking day. Another little feature of this particular route - You can manage to hit the morning rush into Denver and the afternoon rush out of Albuquerque in the same trip. Good times... good times. At least I got bypass signals at all the scales.
I'll have a few hours to go in the morning from here in Lemitar, where I've set up for the night. I think I'm going to grab one more load before I request my home time, despite my suspicion that I'll get sent back up I-25. I got caught in a rut last year where I kept going from El Paso to Colorado and back. In this case though, I would be directed toward home once I got back up there anyway. I'm a big boy. I can handle one more trip to wherever I'm needed, then head toward the home of the winless Detroit Tigers.
Today was payday, which is always nice. I got $24 in detention pay for a load that I pulled from Massachusetts not too long ago. That's a marked improvement in quickness for this company, in terms of paying detention. I did not, however, get my $17.50. So...
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE GODFATHER'S UPS PAY?
EPISODE 2
Okay gumshoes, last week we found the elusive money hiding out in the country of Sri Lanka. Just before our operatives swooped in though, my money escaped on a river barge and disappeared without a trace. We have received a few clues as to its present whereabouts:
1) Another former part of the British Empire
2) Never reached a consensus on its official name
3) Home to three mountain chains and three river systems
Things actually went quite smoothly at the brewery. There wasn't the usual logjam of trucks at the gate. This was my first trip to the Fort Collins location with this truck though. That meant that I had to drop my empty and then circle back around so they could weigh my bobtail. Again though, no traffic at the scales so it was okay. I hooked to my new trailer, strapped in the load, slid my tandems, and checked out. At that point I had some optimism that maybe today wouldn't be so bad.
Then I got on I-25. There's a certain something about being on a road where you have to downshift up a hill every two minutes for a whole freaking day. Another little feature of this particular route - You can manage to hit the morning rush into Denver and the afternoon rush out of Albuquerque in the same trip. Good times... good times. At least I got bypass signals at all the scales.
I'll have a few hours to go in the morning from here in Lemitar, where I've set up for the night. I think I'm going to grab one more load before I request my home time, despite my suspicion that I'll get sent back up I-25. I got caught in a rut last year where I kept going from El Paso to Colorado and back. In this case though, I would be directed toward home once I got back up there anyway. I'm a big boy. I can handle one more trip to wherever I'm needed, then head toward the home of the winless Detroit Tigers.
Today was payday, which is always nice. I got $24 in detention pay for a load that I pulled from Massachusetts not too long ago. That's a marked improvement in quickness for this company, in terms of paying detention. I did not, however, get my $17.50. So...
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE GODFATHER'S UPS PAY?
EPISODE 2
Okay gumshoes, last week we found the elusive money hiding out in the country of Sri Lanka. Just before our operatives swooped in though, my money escaped on a river barge and disappeared without a trace. We have received a few clues as to its present whereabouts:
1) Another former part of the British Empire
2) Never reached a consensus on its official name
3) Home to three mountain chains and three river systems
Thursday, April 3, 2008
4/3/08
Yeah, those directions saying that the second drop would be a bitch were quite accurate. I got unloaded in Colorado Springs and made the quick drive up to Englewood. Here's the skinny:
Then it was over to Parker for the final drop. That stop had an address but no directions. Streets & Trips had some trouble with the address and it wasn't clear to me just how I should get there. So I checked the website of the customer to get a better idea of where they were located. Their directions were off by about a mile, but at least they got the street correct. I rolled into the lot right at my appointment time, so no harm no foul. The driveway led to the back of the shopping center, between two stores. My customer was to the right, so I turned right. Nowhere to turn around. Should have turned left. So I backed down behind the other store, pulled forward out into the driveway between the stores, and 90 degree backed it around the corner toward the customer's dock. That one had a dumpster about six inches from where I needed to line up with the dock. It should have been placed closer to the building, giving me plenty of room, but I guess the garbage men just like to make it interesting sometimes. Even so, it wasn't as crazy as the one in Englewood. Good times... good times.
From there, I drove up to the Flying J in Aurora to get some lunch. My guess was that I would be getting beer from Fort Collins or soda from Denver. In either case, Aurora would be in the right direction. Even at 1:30pm, it was pretty damn crowded. There were spots open, but they were tight. It seems that I've had quite a few days lately where I couldn't back my truck worth a damn. That's one good thing about these retail store runs. They'll get that shit out of your system in a hurry. I rolled it into my space in one motion, like a pro.
I hung around for a couple of hours and then decided to take a nap. That's the one documented way to make sure I get an assignment. As soon as I started to drift off, there was the beep. My next run is a load of beer going from Fort Collins to El Paso. I have to pick up at 7am, so I set my alarm for early tomorrow morning and went back to bed. A few hours later, I was wide awake. Story of life.
Since I wasn't sleeping, I checked my directory and saw that there was a truck stop in Loveland with a big parking lot. I decided to head north and take the chance on finding a spot to park for the night. The big lot was here, but a third of it is occupied by dropped trailers. I circled for about twenty minutes until I caught someone leaving, so now I'm settled in.
Fort Collins is about 15-20 miles north of here. I'll head up in the morning and hopefully get in and out of the brewery with no major delays. I seem to remember my last beer load being a big hassle. The irony of this run has not escaped me. Fort Collins to El Paso, I-25, more I-25, and then some more I-25. This highway, of all the interstates in this country, is the one most likely to make me say, "I really could use a beer right now." Since I'll be pulling 45,000 pounds up and down the mountains, I have no illusion that the drive will be anything close to enjoyable. There will be several thousand beers a few yards behind me, and I can't have any. Life is just cruel sometimes.
Then it was over to Parker for the final drop. That stop had an address but no directions. Streets & Trips had some trouble with the address and it wasn't clear to me just how I should get there. So I checked the website of the customer to get a better idea of where they were located. Their directions were off by about a mile, but at least they got the street correct. I rolled into the lot right at my appointment time, so no harm no foul. The driveway led to the back of the shopping center, between two stores. My customer was to the right, so I turned right. Nowhere to turn around. Should have turned left. So I backed down behind the other store, pulled forward out into the driveway between the stores, and 90 degree backed it around the corner toward the customer's dock. That one had a dumpster about six inches from where I needed to line up with the dock. It should have been placed closer to the building, giving me plenty of room, but I guess the garbage men just like to make it interesting sometimes. Even so, it wasn't as crazy as the one in Englewood. Good times... good times.
From there, I drove up to the Flying J in Aurora to get some lunch. My guess was that I would be getting beer from Fort Collins or soda from Denver. In either case, Aurora would be in the right direction. Even at 1:30pm, it was pretty damn crowded. There were spots open, but they were tight. It seems that I've had quite a few days lately where I couldn't back my truck worth a damn. That's one good thing about these retail store runs. They'll get that shit out of your system in a hurry. I rolled it into my space in one motion, like a pro.
I hung around for a couple of hours and then decided to take a nap. That's the one documented way to make sure I get an assignment. As soon as I started to drift off, there was the beep. My next run is a load of beer going from Fort Collins to El Paso. I have to pick up at 7am, so I set my alarm for early tomorrow morning and went back to bed. A few hours later, I was wide awake. Story of life.
Since I wasn't sleeping, I checked my directory and saw that there was a truck stop in Loveland with a big parking lot. I decided to head north and take the chance on finding a spot to park for the night. The big lot was here, but a third of it is occupied by dropped trailers. I circled for about twenty minutes until I caught someone leaving, so now I'm settled in.
Fort Collins is about 15-20 miles north of here. I'll head up in the morning and hopefully get in and out of the brewery with no major delays. I seem to remember my last beer load being a big hassle. The irony of this run has not escaped me. Fort Collins to El Paso, I-25, more I-25, and then some more I-25. This highway, of all the interstates in this country, is the one most likely to make me say, "I really could use a beer right now." Since I'll be pulling 45,000 pounds up and down the mountains, I have no illusion that the drive will be anything close to enjoyable. There will be several thousand beers a few yards behind me, and I can't have any. Life is just cruel sometimes.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
4/2/08
That's it! Trade the players! Fire the manager! Fire the bat boy! Fire the ball girls! Fire the grounds crew! You can keep the beer vendors around, I guess. What, it's only the second game? There are 160 to go? Okay, but if they lose tomorrow, heads will roll!
This morning's drive was the kind I like. Fast speed limits, no interstates, light traffic... the good stuff. Then toward the end of the trip I was reminded that there is actually an interstate that I hate more than I-35. This load isn't terribly heavy though, so I-25 was tolerable this evening. I stopped at a rest area a little to the south and hung out for a few hours before I finished the drive into Colorado Springs. I'm glad I did that. Even arriving late at night, the traffic was pretty heavy around here. There are shopping centers along both sides of this road for several miles and my directions were fairly useless, so I had to use my Batman vision to spot the place in time. Then there was no entrance to the rear of the shopping center on the side from which I approached. I got to negotiate a crowded parking lot, with a vehicle that has no business being in that parking lot, in order to get to the other end. Then the dock was just one more in a long list of... let's call them tests of my driving ability. My directions to the next stop, although they appear to be written in Sanskrit, seem to indicate that the next one will be more of the same.
It took me a good twenty minutes to get settled in to the dock, with nobody else driving around back here. That probably equals an hour or so during business hours (like when I make the next drop). I am hoping that I'm straight enough not to require any maneuvering in the morning after I pull forward to open the doors. There's a concrete wall about eight inches from my right side and another one about eighteen inches from my left. The only approach was from the blind side, so I got to do a lot more of that walking to the back of the trailer. I guess it's just the price you pay for a life of glamour and riches.
This morning's drive was the kind I like. Fast speed limits, no interstates, light traffic... the good stuff. Then toward the end of the trip I was reminded that there is actually an interstate that I hate more than I-35. This load isn't terribly heavy though, so I-25 was tolerable this evening. I stopped at a rest area a little to the south and hung out for a few hours before I finished the drive into Colorado Springs. I'm glad I did that. Even arriving late at night, the traffic was pretty heavy around here. There are shopping centers along both sides of this road for several miles and my directions were fairly useless, so I had to use my Batman vision to spot the place in time. Then there was no entrance to the rear of the shopping center on the side from which I approached. I got to negotiate a crowded parking lot, with a vehicle that has no business being in that parking lot, in order to get to the other end. Then the dock was just one more in a long list of... let's call them tests of my driving ability. My directions to the next stop, although they appear to be written in Sanskrit, seem to indicate that the next one will be more of the same.
It took me a good twenty minutes to get settled in to the dock, with nobody else driving around back here. That probably equals an hour or so during business hours (like when I make the next drop). I am hoping that I'm straight enough not to require any maneuvering in the morning after I pull forward to open the doors. There's a concrete wall about eight inches from my right side and another one about eighteen inches from my left. The only approach was from the blind side, so I got to do a lot more of that walking to the back of the trailer. I guess it's just the price you pay for a life of glamour and riches.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
4/1/08
I headed up to Fort Worth this morning and made my drop. The security guard made me slide my tandems back before I could enter the yard, meaning I would have to back into a door with a wide arc. Normally no problem, but if you read this blog much I'm sure you know where this is going. There were about fifty doors along the side of the building where I was headed. There was one fire hydrant surrounded by a concrete curb and some concrete posts. Guess whose door was right across from the fire hydrant. That was a royal pain in the ass.
I grabbed my empty and pulled out onto the street in order to pull some nails from the floor and send in my empty call. Since I was in the Lancaster zone, I assumed that I would be chilling out for a while. There were quite a few other CTL trucks hanging around at the time. By the time I got back into my truck though, I had an assignment. It said that I was to pick up in Fort Worth this evening and then make three drops in Colorado on Thursday. In actuality, the load shipped from Haslet, a little ways to the north. One of those ZIP code things I guess.
I headed up to the Pilot in Haslet and took a nap. After I woke up, I was still about three hours early but I went ahead and drove to the shipper. That shipper also required me to slide the tandems before I could enter, but they had plenty of room to maneuver the truck. The loaded trailer was ready to roll when I got there, so I made my drop/hook and headed west. This afternoon was nice and easy, rolling along US-287 toward Amarillo. I had time to knock out a couple hundred miles before my 14-hour clock ran out. I really don't know where I am right now, so I guess I'll have to figure that out so I can catch up my log book. I know that, given the miles I've driven to here, I should have somewhere around 500 miles to go in order to get to my first stop (Colorado Springs) tomorrow night. It's a store delivery for 5am Thursday morning so I'll be able to park at the dock. I'll try to get in tomorrow after the evening's business has died down, but I'll need to be there early enough to have ten hours of down time before I head to the next drop.
This run will put me at something over 1,200 miles by the time I'm empty on Thursday afternoon. I'll also have the pay for two extra stops, so a good weekend can make it a nice week overall. From Colorado, I really don't know what to expect. It seems that I've had pretty long runs coming out of there for the most part.
My safety bonus hit my bank account yesterday. I saw that the amount was roughly 20% less than I had anticipated, leading me to think it was time for another showdown with the CTL people. I thought they had miscalculated, but it looks like a taxation issue, according to a fellow driver who checked his withholding. Apparently ConWay just takes the lazy route when it comes to taxing wages. You have the option to use Line 1a of Section 7 of Publication 15, withholding a flat 25%. That's what ConWay does, based on yesterday's deposit to my bank account. You also have the option to use Line 1b, withholding according to the tax tables, which is what CFI (and I, when I owned a business, and every other employer I've ever had) did. On the big bonuses that I used to get, the tax tables would take a huge bite, so the 25% probably would have been better. On the $400-something safety bonuses that we get here, the tax tables are nowhere near 25%. Another hundred bucks on loan to the feds, interest-free until next year.
I grabbed my empty and pulled out onto the street in order to pull some nails from the floor and send in my empty call. Since I was in the Lancaster zone, I assumed that I would be chilling out for a while. There were quite a few other CTL trucks hanging around at the time. By the time I got back into my truck though, I had an assignment. It said that I was to pick up in Fort Worth this evening and then make three drops in Colorado on Thursday. In actuality, the load shipped from Haslet, a little ways to the north. One of those ZIP code things I guess.
I headed up to the Pilot in Haslet and took a nap. After I woke up, I was still about three hours early but I went ahead and drove to the shipper. That shipper also required me to slide the tandems before I could enter, but they had plenty of room to maneuver the truck. The loaded trailer was ready to roll when I got there, so I made my drop/hook and headed west. This afternoon was nice and easy, rolling along US-287 toward Amarillo. I had time to knock out a couple hundred miles before my 14-hour clock ran out. I really don't know where I am right now, so I guess I'll have to figure that out so I can catch up my log book. I know that, given the miles I've driven to here, I should have somewhere around 500 miles to go in order to get to my first stop (Colorado Springs) tomorrow night. It's a store delivery for 5am Thursday morning so I'll be able to park at the dock. I'll try to get in tomorrow after the evening's business has died down, but I'll need to be there early enough to have ten hours of down time before I head to the next drop.
This run will put me at something over 1,200 miles by the time I'm empty on Thursday afternoon. I'll also have the pay for two extra stops, so a good weekend can make it a nice week overall. From Colorado, I really don't know what to expect. It seems that I've had pretty long runs coming out of there for the most part.
My safety bonus hit my bank account yesterday. I saw that the amount was roughly 20% less than I had anticipated, leading me to think it was time for another showdown with the CTL people. I thought they had miscalculated, but it looks like a taxation issue, according to a fellow driver who checked his withholding. Apparently ConWay just takes the lazy route when it comes to taxing wages. You have the option to use Line 1a of Section 7 of Publication 15, withholding a flat 25%. That's what ConWay does, based on yesterday's deposit to my bank account. You also have the option to use Line 1b, withholding according to the tax tables, which is what CFI (and I, when I owned a business, and every other employer I've ever had) did. On the big bonuses that I used to get, the tax tables would take a huge bite, so the 25% probably would have been better. On the $400-something safety bonuses that we get here, the tax tables are nowhere near 25%. Another hundred bucks on loan to the feds, interest-free until next year.
Monday, March 31, 2008
3/31/08
First things first - I had to deliver the load that I brought down from Virginia. The broker was right down the street from the terminal. I was idling along when I spotted the address for which I was searching. Seeing that the first driveway was obviously not a truck entry, I continued to the other end of the building. No other driveway? Surely you jest. So yeah, another one of those. I got in and found enough room to turn around and set up for what amounted to a serpentine backing job around various obstacles. I guess sometimes you do use that stuff you learn in school. In my case, it seems to be more than sometimes, but you know.
Back at the terminal, I had to thank God that ole Al Gore was kind enough to invent the internet for us. It was Opening Day in Detroit, I was in Laredo, and I got to watch the game. I snagged the IdleAire signal from the CalArk terminal across the street, giving me plenty of speed to watch the video stream provided by some anonymous fella:
Back at the terminal, I had to thank God that ole Al Gore was kind enough to invent the internet for us. It was Opening Day in Detroit, I was in Laredo, and I got to watch the game. I snagged the IdleAire signal from the CalArk terminal across the street, giving me plenty of speed to watch the video stream provided by some anonymous fella:
That's shrunk down in order to fit the blog, but you can see that the video quality is pretty solid. If only the outcome had been equally solid. Oh well, 161 games to go and we're only one game out of first. We'll get there.
The game went into extra innings as I kept inching my way up the board. Just after the final out, I got called into dispatch. Beauty timing. Then I got exactly what I expected - a choice of shitty, shittier, or shittiest. Fort Worth for tomorrow morning, Temple for tomorrow morning, or some multi-stop thing ending in Missouri on Thursday. The Missouri thing was out. I can't afford to waste half a week on that short of a run right now, given that I'm planning some home time in the near future. So I took Fort Worth. Temple would have meant fewer miles, and I still would have wound up under Lancaster's control in the morning. As it is, I got 428 miles for today so that's not so bad. Normally I wouldn't have been too happy about waiting all day for a dispatch, but given the ballgame it's all good.
So I headed north. The other good side of getting out of Laredo later in the day was that the traffic on most of Satan's Driveway, aka I-35, wasn't as bad as usual. Austin, however... I just don't have the words man. Perfect road conditions, virtually no traffic, 35mph in all four lanes. Why? No, seriously. Why? Then the freeway was down to one lane up by exit 260, causing another minor delay. I put the blame for that one squarely on the residents six miles to the west.
I stopped off at a parking area on 35W for the night. From here it will be about a 45 minute drive to the consignee in the morning. The directions say that they won't take the load more than ten minutes early, which is likely an exaggeration, but I didn't see a point in driving all the way to Fort Worth and looking for a parking space this late at night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have to wait all day tomorrow to take another overnight run out of Dallas, but I've learned not to get my hopes up too high.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
3/30/08
Yeah buddy, time for some redemption against Michigan.
(Probably not, but I hope.)
So, no alarm today, yet I wake up after four hours. I've got issues, man. Anyway, yeah. Nine hours of driving within fourteen hours today. That's not too tough. I think I might be getting a cold or something, but I'm a big boy. I'll be okay. I had lots of time to take a few breaks and be generally lazy today. There was a bit of a soaker in the western part of Lousiana this morning. Other than that, the clouds never really amounted to anything. I did a pretty good Cole Trickle impersonation and wound my way between the jagoffs who were going 25mph. Then everything opened up and the day was an easy one.
It occurred to me, as I was feeling pretty rundown today, that I've been out for quite a while this time around. I think I last left home in late January. I'm getting to that point where my motivation to be on the road is slacking off. My plan is to stay out another week or so and then put in for home time. I wouldn't mind banging out another 3,000 miles or so before then, but as long as I exceed 2,000 miles this week I should be in good shape. In that case, my budget should line up nicely for me to take a couple weeks off.
I rolled into Laredo tonight and it looked more like the typical Laredo - a ton of trucks and a ton of trailers. The last few times down here, it has looked pretty sparse. I can deliver any time after 9am locally and I'm presently #58 on the board. Given the number of trailers on the yard, I imagine I'll get out before tomorrow night.
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