Kevin White has left to take the AD job at Duke.
CHEER, CHEER for old Notre Dame!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
5/31/08
I really should learn how to sleep at night. I think that would be good. I don't know what time I finally zonked out last night, but 5:45am came quickly. I can tell you that much.
So I got up and threw a shirt on. When I opened my door, the guy in the truck next to me said that ConWay was running a couple of hours behind, so our loads were delayed. Sweet! All I had to do was show my face so nobody could say I picked up late, then go back to bed. Yeah, my load was the only one that was ready on time. Story of life.
I hooked up and circled around to the scale. I set my wheels where I usually put them for beer loads, since my weight was listed at 43,000 pounds. 36,000 on the rear axles. Well shit. So I grabbed my atlas and saw that both Tennessee and Florida restrict 53' trailers such that the center of the axle assembly can't be more than 41' from the kingpin. That's pretty damn far back, so I imagined that I could get the load legal. I slid the axle back and scaled again. 35,480. What the hell?
Back in the dock, the boss guy acted all shocked that it was so far over 34,000. Then he got the forklift guy who, I shit you not, pulled two 1,300 pound pallets off the extreme rear of the trailer. By extreme rear I mean three inches from the doors. Dipshit. Why in the hell wouldn't you put those in the middle of the trailer? So they stuck those two pallets on the trailer next to mine and sent me on my way. I scaled again, since I didn't trust their assurance that they had actually removed as much weight as they said they did. Good to go.
The drive was not bad, although I don't remember I-65 in Kentucky being so damn bumpy last time. The construction zone by Tennessee was about the smoothest part of the state. I got into Georgia and started to feel a little tired, so I stopped off at the Flying J north of Atlanta for the night. That puts me almost halfway to Orlando. I'm due in at 5am Monday but the directions say that the Orlando location is a 24/7 drop and hook site. I imagine I'll just drop it tomorrow afternoon and then put in for home time.
Since I couldn't find anything good on the radio today, I had a little time to think. That generally can't be good, but I'll let you decide. So here's what the fine staff at the Fenian Godfather Institute came up with, in terms of a comprehensive energy policy. I'll warn you in advance that we don't pussyfoot around when it comes to problem solving. We come out with both guns blazing. As such, our solutions will almost never be palatable to the people of America. Here at the Fenian Godfather Institute, we don't give a damn. We embrace the truth. "Ar thóir na fírinne," if you will.
STEP 1: ELIMINATE DEPENDENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AND VENEZUELAN OIL
A)Impose a ban on oil imports from nations other than Canada and Mexico, effective January 1, 2021. Impose a ban on all oil imports, effective January 1, 2035. Once the clock is ticking, the action will be forced to take place. If people are faced with impending shortages, they will be more inclined to embrace logical answers instead of simply whining about the problems while stonewalling the solutions.
B)Open up every imaginable source of petroleum within our borders. Drill in Alaska. Drill off the coasts. Drill in North Dakota. Process shale in the rockies. Process tar sands in the west. Use the coal in the Appalachians to produce liquid hydrocarbon. Build nuclear plants to oversupply the country with clean electricity, offsetting the diversion of coal and heating oil resources to fuel. Build refineries to process more oil than we can possibly use. Have your dentist check for oil the next time he drills your teeth. While no single approach can replace our need for foreign oil, a no-holds-barred approach to find every last drop would go a long way toward that end. Tell the NIMBY crowd to either learn to live with it or find a new backyard. A family's need to get to work and back while still affording food will always trump a hippie's desire to see an empty field of grass.
C)Require every car sold in America to run on gasoline, E-85, and M-85 by the year 2013. The ethanol is less efficient than gas, and the methanol is less efficient than ethanol. However, methanol can be derived from countless sources, including waste materials. While neither ethanol nor methanol will work to completely replace gasoline, they will introduce a regulatory influence on the market to hold oil prices down. As oil prices rise, the less efficient energy sources will become economically viable. As oil prices fall, the less efficient sources can be stockpiled or used for other energy needs.
D)Require all recycled restaurant cooking oil to be incorporated into the diesel petroleum refining process by 2020. The thermal output of cooking oil is actually better than that of conventional light sweet crude. The catch is that viscosity is different, so pure cooking oil is more troublesome to burn in an engine. By incorporating the used food product into the traditional petroleum refining process, the outcome will be similar to that of incorporating soybean oil in the production of biodiesel. That is to say that lubricity and viscosity will be affected to a negligible extent, if at all.
STEP 2: MOVE TOWARD A ZERO-OIL ECONOMY
A)Establish a $100 billion dollar trust fund, payable in tax-free cash (plus accrued interest) to the first company to sell 250,000 hydrogen powered vehicles. As time progresses, the dollar amount at stake will grow (likely substantially), increasing the incentive. We at the institute are not concerned with how many alternative cars a company builds, if nobody buys them. Only when the cars are actually selling in large numbers will any progress have been made. At such time as a given company has marketed and sold 250,000, several important steps will have taken place. First, the technology will necessarily have become affordable. Second, competitors will have tried to copy the technology and created a competitive market, most likely selling several thousand of their own cars in the process. Third, such a large market will have necessitated the repair, refilling, and maintenance infrastructure needed to support the new technology. Fourth, the trust fund being held in the capital markets will have provided liquidity, allowing interest rates to tick up, the markets to perform more efficiently, and the dollar to strengthen.
B)Acknowledge that conservation will never be the answer. Even if we reduce consumption on an incremental basis over the years, our population (not to mention India's and China's) will continue to grow. A growing population will obviously require a growing energy supply. Conservation is an illusion, created to give people a false sense of doing something good. The sooner we face this reality, the sooner we can focus on replacing oil instead of simply delaying the inevitable.
C)Require every vehicle operated by a federal government agency to operate without oil by the year 2015. Impositions on the private marketplace will lead to job losses. That's bad. By the feds taking the role of Guinea pig, a closed market will be created for the advancement of production techniques without harming the average consumer. Whoever comes out on top for the government's business will have progressed to a point that the private market can use the technology. Current options, meaning those in use today, are natural gas, electric, and alcohol powered vehicles. Each of these things requires energy from non-petroleum sources. By the time the hundreds of thousands of government vehicles are powered in this manner, the superior and inferior approaches will have begun to sort themselves out in the competitive marketplace.
D)Require 50% of the kilowatt hours used by the federal government (including buildings, battery vehicles, cell phones, and the like) to be supplied by either wind or solar energy by the year 2018. Much the same as clause C above, this very sizable test lab will force the 'sink or swim' marketplace to identify the most viable approach. At that point, the noncompetitive approaches can be discarded. If these technologies cannot compete with nuclear power, even after being given a captive audience for ten years, then we will have to face the facts and move to 100% nuclear electrical production.
E)End all subsidies for ethanol and biodiesel immediately. A technology that can not stand on its own is not a technology that our nation can trust in perpetuity. A diversion of land and resources that makes food more expensive, while having little or no effect on gas prices, is not worthy of large amounts of taxpayer money. Forcing these methods to become self-sufficient, in conjunction with Step 1, Clause C above, will further enhance our competitiveness in the global marketplace. Most likely, ethanol (at the expense of food) will go by the wayside while methanol (at the expense of garbage and bacteria) will be embraced. The market will decide. Furthermore, using food to satisfy some goofy mandate while people go hungry is immoral. Some of us are of Irish descent, and we've learned a few lessons over the centuries.
F)Provide a quarterly report to the American people. Indicate the length of time remaining until we are no longer allowed to import oil. Indicate the steps taken toward our goal during the intervening quarter. Indicate the amount of taxpayer money spent, as well as private capital spent, toward the objective. Note any and every advancement or setback to the cause. Keep people personally attached to the issue, rather than belittling the companies involved in the process. The resulting sense of community involvement, contribution, and shared ideas would likely exceed any value that we could possibly hope to monetize. After all, ours is a nation of ideas, not dollars.
G) Expand and improve high-speed rail service, reducing the number of trucks and buses required to move goods and people around the country. (My truck-driving colleagues probably say something like, "Boo! Hiss!" on this one.)
STEP 3: FOLLOW OUR NATIONAL TRADITION OF LEADING THE WORLD AND EXPORTING OUR SUPERIORITY
A)Muslim extremists - good luck getting more money for your jihad. Assholes.
B)Friendly nations - We'll help you follow in our footsteps and benefit your citizens, as long as you're on our side.
C) The rest of the world (Sweden) - Go piss up a rope.
Okay. I generally have a habit of double-checking the work of the folks at the institute. Today though, I was driving a pretty heavy truck down the highway all day so I didn't get around to a thorough analysis. Based on a cursory glance, here's what I see. Reduced dependence on volatile regions of the world - check. Reduced carbon emissions - check (High-five hippies). Job creation in new technological arenas (without a Hillary handout paying the tab) - check. Freedom and market forces allowed to work - check. Cost-mitigating forces employed - check. Time-based incentives created - check. Tax-free implementation - almost. That $100 billion would be tax money, but the ending of ethanol subsidies would cover some of the cost. I don't know man. Giving a tenth of my attention to the issue for about seven hours, it seems like this would be better than anything our "leaders" have come up with so far. Heard about Boxer-Warner-Lieberman lately? Now that's scary. Substantially higher energy costs = Great Depression #2. At least that's how I read it. The institute's approach would actually control energy prices, which is the exact opposite of the currently pending bill, while still reducing carbon emissions. Personally, I don't buy the whole global warming deal. The folks at the institute are sensitive types though, so they are concerned. In any case, the emissions would be reduced under our plan.
So I got up and threw a shirt on. When I opened my door, the guy in the truck next to me said that ConWay was running a couple of hours behind, so our loads were delayed. Sweet! All I had to do was show my face so nobody could say I picked up late, then go back to bed. Yeah, my load was the only one that was ready on time. Story of life.
I hooked up and circled around to the scale. I set my wheels where I usually put them for beer loads, since my weight was listed at 43,000 pounds. 36,000 on the rear axles. Well shit. So I grabbed my atlas and saw that both Tennessee and Florida restrict 53' trailers such that the center of the axle assembly can't be more than 41' from the kingpin. That's pretty damn far back, so I imagined that I could get the load legal. I slid the axle back and scaled again. 35,480. What the hell?
Back in the dock, the boss guy acted all shocked that it was so far over 34,000. Then he got the forklift guy who, I shit you not, pulled two 1,300 pound pallets off the extreme rear of the trailer. By extreme rear I mean three inches from the doors. Dipshit. Why in the hell wouldn't you put those in the middle of the trailer? So they stuck those two pallets on the trailer next to mine and sent me on my way. I scaled again, since I didn't trust their assurance that they had actually removed as much weight as they said they did. Good to go.
The drive was not bad, although I don't remember I-65 in Kentucky being so damn bumpy last time. The construction zone by Tennessee was about the smoothest part of the state. I got into Georgia and started to feel a little tired, so I stopped off at the Flying J north of Atlanta for the night. That puts me almost halfway to Orlando. I'm due in at 5am Monday but the directions say that the Orlando location is a 24/7 drop and hook site. I imagine I'll just drop it tomorrow afternoon and then put in for home time.
Since I couldn't find anything good on the radio today, I had a little time to think. That generally can't be good, but I'll let you decide. So here's what the fine staff at the Fenian Godfather Institute came up with, in terms of a comprehensive energy policy. I'll warn you in advance that we don't pussyfoot around when it comes to problem solving. We come out with both guns blazing. As such, our solutions will almost never be palatable to the people of America. Here at the Fenian Godfather Institute, we don't give a damn. We embrace the truth. "Ar thóir na fírinne," if you will.
STEP 1: ELIMINATE DEPENDENCE ON MIDDLE EASTERN AND VENEZUELAN OIL
A)Impose a ban on oil imports from nations other than Canada and Mexico, effective January 1, 2021. Impose a ban on all oil imports, effective January 1, 2035. Once the clock is ticking, the action will be forced to take place. If people are faced with impending shortages, they will be more inclined to embrace logical answers instead of simply whining about the problems while stonewalling the solutions.
B)Open up every imaginable source of petroleum within our borders. Drill in Alaska. Drill off the coasts. Drill in North Dakota. Process shale in the rockies. Process tar sands in the west. Use the coal in the Appalachians to produce liquid hydrocarbon. Build nuclear plants to oversupply the country with clean electricity, offsetting the diversion of coal and heating oil resources to fuel. Build refineries to process more oil than we can possibly use. Have your dentist check for oil the next time he drills your teeth. While no single approach can replace our need for foreign oil, a no-holds-barred approach to find every last drop would go a long way toward that end. Tell the NIMBY crowd to either learn to live with it or find a new backyard. A family's need to get to work and back while still affording food will always trump a hippie's desire to see an empty field of grass.
C)Require every car sold in America to run on gasoline, E-85, and M-85 by the year 2013. The ethanol is less efficient than gas, and the methanol is less efficient than ethanol. However, methanol can be derived from countless sources, including waste materials. While neither ethanol nor methanol will work to completely replace gasoline, they will introduce a regulatory influence on the market to hold oil prices down. As oil prices rise, the less efficient energy sources will become economically viable. As oil prices fall, the less efficient sources can be stockpiled or used for other energy needs.
D)Require all recycled restaurant cooking oil to be incorporated into the diesel petroleum refining process by 2020. The thermal output of cooking oil is actually better than that of conventional light sweet crude. The catch is that viscosity is different, so pure cooking oil is more troublesome to burn in an engine. By incorporating the used food product into the traditional petroleum refining process, the outcome will be similar to that of incorporating soybean oil in the production of biodiesel. That is to say that lubricity and viscosity will be affected to a negligible extent, if at all.
STEP 2: MOVE TOWARD A ZERO-OIL ECONOMY
A)Establish a $100 billion dollar trust fund, payable in tax-free cash (plus accrued interest) to the first company to sell 250,000 hydrogen powered vehicles. As time progresses, the dollar amount at stake will grow (likely substantially), increasing the incentive. We at the institute are not concerned with how many alternative cars a company builds, if nobody buys them. Only when the cars are actually selling in large numbers will any progress have been made. At such time as a given company has marketed and sold 250,000, several important steps will have taken place. First, the technology will necessarily have become affordable. Second, competitors will have tried to copy the technology and created a competitive market, most likely selling several thousand of their own cars in the process. Third, such a large market will have necessitated the repair, refilling, and maintenance infrastructure needed to support the new technology. Fourth, the trust fund being held in the capital markets will have provided liquidity, allowing interest rates to tick up, the markets to perform more efficiently, and the dollar to strengthen.
B)Acknowledge that conservation will never be the answer. Even if we reduce consumption on an incremental basis over the years, our population (not to mention India's and China's) will continue to grow. A growing population will obviously require a growing energy supply. Conservation is an illusion, created to give people a false sense of doing something good. The sooner we face this reality, the sooner we can focus on replacing oil instead of simply delaying the inevitable.
C)Require every vehicle operated by a federal government agency to operate without oil by the year 2015. Impositions on the private marketplace will lead to job losses. That's bad. By the feds taking the role of Guinea pig, a closed market will be created for the advancement of production techniques without harming the average consumer. Whoever comes out on top for the government's business will have progressed to a point that the private market can use the technology. Current options, meaning those in use today, are natural gas, electric, and alcohol powered vehicles. Each of these things requires energy from non-petroleum sources. By the time the hundreds of thousands of government vehicles are powered in this manner, the superior and inferior approaches will have begun to sort themselves out in the competitive marketplace.
D)Require 50% of the kilowatt hours used by the federal government (including buildings, battery vehicles, cell phones, and the like) to be supplied by either wind or solar energy by the year 2018. Much the same as clause C above, this very sizable test lab will force the 'sink or swim' marketplace to identify the most viable approach. At that point, the noncompetitive approaches can be discarded. If these technologies cannot compete with nuclear power, even after being given a captive audience for ten years, then we will have to face the facts and move to 100% nuclear electrical production.
E)End all subsidies for ethanol and biodiesel immediately. A technology that can not stand on its own is not a technology that our nation can trust in perpetuity. A diversion of land and resources that makes food more expensive, while having little or no effect on gas prices, is not worthy of large amounts of taxpayer money. Forcing these methods to become self-sufficient, in conjunction with Step 1, Clause C above, will further enhance our competitiveness in the global marketplace. Most likely, ethanol (at the expense of food) will go by the wayside while methanol (at the expense of garbage and bacteria) will be embraced. The market will decide. Furthermore, using food to satisfy some goofy mandate while people go hungry is immoral. Some of us are of Irish descent, and we've learned a few lessons over the centuries.
F)Provide a quarterly report to the American people. Indicate the length of time remaining until we are no longer allowed to import oil. Indicate the steps taken toward our goal during the intervening quarter. Indicate the amount of taxpayer money spent, as well as private capital spent, toward the objective. Note any and every advancement or setback to the cause. Keep people personally attached to the issue, rather than belittling the companies involved in the process. The resulting sense of community involvement, contribution, and shared ideas would likely exceed any value that we could possibly hope to monetize. After all, ours is a nation of ideas, not dollars.
G) Expand and improve high-speed rail service, reducing the number of trucks and buses required to move goods and people around the country. (My truck-driving colleagues probably say something like, "Boo! Hiss!" on this one.)
STEP 3: FOLLOW OUR NATIONAL TRADITION OF LEADING THE WORLD AND EXPORTING OUR SUPERIORITY
A)Muslim extremists - good luck getting more money for your jihad. Assholes.
B)Friendly nations - We'll help you follow in our footsteps and benefit your citizens, as long as you're on our side.
C) The rest of the world (Sweden) - Go piss up a rope.
Okay. I generally have a habit of double-checking the work of the folks at the institute. Today though, I was driving a pretty heavy truck down the highway all day so I didn't get around to a thorough analysis. Based on a cursory glance, here's what I see. Reduced dependence on volatile regions of the world - check. Reduced carbon emissions - check (High-five hippies). Job creation in new technological arenas (without a Hillary handout paying the tab) - check. Freedom and market forces allowed to work - check. Cost-mitigating forces employed - check. Time-based incentives created - check. Tax-free implementation - almost. That $100 billion would be tax money, but the ending of ethanol subsidies would cover some of the cost. I don't know man. Giving a tenth of my attention to the issue for about seven hours, it seems like this would be better than anything our "leaders" have come up with so far. Heard about Boxer-Warner-Lieberman lately? Now that's scary. Substantially higher energy costs = Great Depression #2. At least that's how I read it. The institute's approach would actually control energy prices, which is the exact opposite of the currently pending bill, while still reducing carbon emissions. Personally, I don't buy the whole global warming deal. The folks at the institute are sensitive types though, so they are concerned. In any case, the emissions would be reduced under our plan.
Friday, May 30, 2008
5/30/08
Let's see...
Rolled into the consignee at 5am, got a dock right away. (Thumbs up)
Had to get a Comcheck and hire a lumper. (Thumbs down)
Got empty by 6am when my appointment time was 7am. (Thumbs up)
Someone was already on the board, so I was #2. (Thumbs down)
Found a parking spot at the local truck stop. (Thumbs up)
It was next to a reefer. (Thumbs down)
Got enough time to take my two-hour break and complete my split. (Thumbs up)
Got enough time for about ten more two-hour breaks before my next pickup. (Thumbs down)
A thousand miles for the weekend. (Thumbs up)
Twenty-five miles today. (Thumbs down)
Lots of movies on my hard drive. (Thumbs up)
Plenty of time to watch them all. (Thumbs down)
Somehow managed to squeak over 2,000 miles and around $950 for the week, including the extras. (Thumbs up)
Have to loan my employer $50 until next week, when I get my reimbursement for the lumper. (Thumbs down)
Will be far enough from home to make a few bucks on the way back up, after I put in my request on Monday. (Thumbs up)
I'll be in Florida, where freight can be sketchy to say the least. (Thumbs down)
Someone is streaming the Tigers tonight and I have a fast connection. (Thumbs up)
They'll probably lose, since they never win their first game after traveling. (Thumbs down)
So I don't know. I guess you can flip a coin. Some good news, some bad news.
Rolled into the consignee at 5am, got a dock right away. (Thumbs up)
Had to get a Comcheck and hire a lumper. (Thumbs down)
Got empty by 6am when my appointment time was 7am. (Thumbs up)
Someone was already on the board, so I was #2. (Thumbs down)
Found a parking spot at the local truck stop. (Thumbs up)
It was next to a reefer. (Thumbs down)
Got enough time to take my two-hour break and complete my split. (Thumbs up)
Got enough time for about ten more two-hour breaks before my next pickup. (Thumbs down)
A thousand miles for the weekend. (Thumbs up)
Twenty-five miles today. (Thumbs down)
Lots of movies on my hard drive. (Thumbs up)
Plenty of time to watch them all. (Thumbs down)
Somehow managed to squeak over 2,000 miles and around $950 for the week, including the extras. (Thumbs up)
Have to loan my employer $50 until next week, when I get my reimbursement for the lumper. (Thumbs down)
Will be far enough from home to make a few bucks on the way back up, after I put in my request on Monday. (Thumbs up)
I'll be in Florida, where freight can be sketchy to say the least. (Thumbs down)
Someone is streaming the Tigers tonight and I have a fast connection. (Thumbs up)
They'll probably lose, since they never win their first game after traveling. (Thumbs down)
So I don't know. I guess you can flip a coin. Some good news, some bad news.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
5/29/08
Well, there were two basic choices for me to make today and, by golly, I think I did pretty well.
First was whether to run I-80 across Pennsylvania and then angle down toward Columbus or to stay on I-81 down to the turnpike and then go straight across to I-70. Survey says... southern route. Good call. I rolled through Harrisburg and Carlisle with no delays, then turned west and enjoyed a pretty easy day of driving.
Second was how to time my breaks vis a vis traffic and parking. I was getting pretty tired by the time I reached the last rest area before Columbus, so I decided to duck in for an eight hour break here. That should put me at the consignee early enough to get another two hours off and complete the split, plus I'll roll through Columbus and Dayton in the middle of the night. I should get past Indy before traffic gets too heavy there too. Good call (at least so far).
I got a message today saying that I had been paid $120 in layover pay. I suppose that someone disagreed with my logic in this post, although it seems to me that I got it right. Whatever man. At least it was paid in a timely fashion. I still think that they make up the rules as they go along sometimes. Anyway, that should help the week's pay catch up a little. Now if I can just get a decent weekend run, we'll be in business.
I think I might vote for this bird in November, given the current choices out there...
First was whether to run I-80 across Pennsylvania and then angle down toward Columbus or to stay on I-81 down to the turnpike and then go straight across to I-70. Survey says... southern route. Good call. I rolled through Harrisburg and Carlisle with no delays, then turned west and enjoyed a pretty easy day of driving.
Second was how to time my breaks vis a vis traffic and parking. I was getting pretty tired by the time I reached the last rest area before Columbus, so I decided to duck in for an eight hour break here. That should put me at the consignee early enough to get another two hours off and complete the split, plus I'll roll through Columbus and Dayton in the middle of the night. I should get past Indy before traffic gets too heavy there too. Good call (at least so far).
I got a message today saying that I had been paid $120 in layover pay. I suppose that someone disagreed with my logic in this post, although it seems to me that I got it right. Whatever man. At least it was paid in a timely fashion. I still think that they make up the rules as they go along sometimes. Anyway, that should help the week's pay catch up a little. Now if I can just get a decent weekend run, we'll be in business.
I think I might vote for this bird in November, given the current choices out there...
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
5/28/08
All roads lead to Hazleton. At least on nights when I'm cruising through Pennsylvania and in need of a place to park they do. Another night behind the good old industrial park it is.
I headed over to the shipper this afternoon and checked in with the lady in the office. She told me that my trailer was being loaded when I got there, around 2pm. So I dropped my empty and parked off to the side. I got my loaded trailer... at 8pm. They didn't start loading it until 7pm, right when it was scheduled. Oh well. I had hoped to get rolling early so I could cover more ground tonight and still have a shot at parking somewhere. No such luck. So, by the time I got rolling down I-81, it became apparent that my old standby would have to be home for the night.
On the positive side (glass half full and whatnot), the traffic across Connecticut was quite a bit lighter than normal by the time I got there. The load is a reasonable 20,000 pounds, so the hills aren't kicking my ass too badly. The Red Wings and Tigers both played tonight, so I had some radio entertainment to help pass the time. Good enough.
I'll have to put in a long day of driving tomorrow, hopefully getting settled in somewhere in the Indianapolis area. My delivery is set for Friday morning at 7am in Greenwood.
I guess I'll stay out and grab one more run from there before I request time off. That should get me home next week and I might actually be able to catch a ballgame when the Tigers get back to town. I thought about heading home either before or after my current run, but it's been a pretty shitty week mileage-wise. I need to bank a few more bucks. I guess that my $60 for the holiday and (God willing, if the folks at CTL do their jobs) my $180 in layover pay will mitigate some of the shortfall. I sent my layover request this morning, but I never get a response so it's anybody's guess whether or not it will be on my check.
I headed over to the shipper this afternoon and checked in with the lady in the office. She told me that my trailer was being loaded when I got there, around 2pm. So I dropped my empty and parked off to the side. I got my loaded trailer... at 8pm. They didn't start loading it until 7pm, right when it was scheduled. Oh well. I had hoped to get rolling early so I could cover more ground tonight and still have a shot at parking somewhere. No such luck. So, by the time I got rolling down I-81, it became apparent that my old standby would have to be home for the night.
On the positive side (glass half full and whatnot), the traffic across Connecticut was quite a bit lighter than normal by the time I got there. The load is a reasonable 20,000 pounds, so the hills aren't kicking my ass too badly. The Red Wings and Tigers both played tonight, so I had some radio entertainment to help pass the time. Good enough.
I'll have to put in a long day of driving tomorrow, hopefully getting settled in somewhere in the Indianapolis area. My delivery is set for Friday morning at 7am in Greenwood.
I guess I'll stay out and grab one more run from there before I request time off. That should get me home next week and I might actually be able to catch a ballgame when the Tigers get back to town. I thought about heading home either before or after my current run, but it's been a pretty shitty week mileage-wise. I need to bank a few more bucks. I guess that my $60 for the holiday and (God willing, if the folks at CTL do their jobs) my $180 in layover pay will mitigate some of the shortfall. I sent my layover request this morning, but I never get a response so it's anybody's guess whether or not it will be on my check.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
5/27/08
Do you ever get the feeling that you're on the run from something, but you just can't figure out what that 'something' is? I do. I get that feeling all the time. In a sense, I guess that it helps to have a job that keeps me on the move most of the time. Today though, not much moving and too much time to think. Bummer dude.
I woke up and backed into the dock at the consignee around 7am. After the dock worker finished unloading me, I asked if it would be okay to pull off to the side and wait for my next assignment. It seems that I've been getting loads within an hour or two lately, so I didn't want to drive anywhere out of the way if I didn't have to. I was #1 on the board, so things were looking pretty good. I fell asleep somewhere along the way this morning (tossed and turned all night last night). When I woke up and looked at the clock, it said 1pm. Surely I must have missed a message from my Qualcomm, right? Nope. No messages. Well surely I had been assigned to something and the message hadn't gone through, right? Nope. I was still #1 on the board.
I was getting hungry, so I headed south to the T/A and got some lunch. Tick tock, tick tock. At 7pm, I got my next assignment. I have to pick up tomorrow at 7pm, about an hour and a half away from here, then drive to Indiana. If the suckiness scale were 1-10, with 10 being the suckiest, I would rate this arrangement somewhere around 11.5. I chalked up the slow dispatch to the holiday weekend, so I didn't dwell on all the sitting for the past few days. I actually managed to enjoy it for the most part. I guess the holiday yesterday would be the biggest factor in having no freight today as well, but damn. Nothing until 7pm tomorrow? That blows.
I'll send in my request for layover pay during business hours tomorrow, so I have no idea how that's gonna go. Getting paid things other than mileage seems to be more of a hassle than it used to be. I was dispatched on the 23rd, with enough hours available to get here on the night of the 24th. This deadhead is less than 100 miles, so the clock is supposed to continue ticking. That means that my layover is broken tomorrow night, the 28th. Four days, with the first one free, should mean that I have $180 coming in layover pay. Why do I get the feeling that this will be another struggle to get paid what I have coming to me? I don't know man. They surprise me every now and then, so we'll just have to see.
I woke up and backed into the dock at the consignee around 7am. After the dock worker finished unloading me, I asked if it would be okay to pull off to the side and wait for my next assignment. It seems that I've been getting loads within an hour or two lately, so I didn't want to drive anywhere out of the way if I didn't have to. I was #1 on the board, so things were looking pretty good. I fell asleep somewhere along the way this morning (tossed and turned all night last night). When I woke up and looked at the clock, it said 1pm. Surely I must have missed a message from my Qualcomm, right? Nope. No messages. Well surely I had been assigned to something and the message hadn't gone through, right? Nope. I was still #1 on the board.
I was getting hungry, so I headed south to the T/A and got some lunch. Tick tock, tick tock. At 7pm, I got my next assignment. I have to pick up tomorrow at 7pm, about an hour and a half away from here, then drive to Indiana. If the suckiness scale were 1-10, with 10 being the suckiest, I would rate this arrangement somewhere around 11.5. I chalked up the slow dispatch to the holiday weekend, so I didn't dwell on all the sitting for the past few days. I actually managed to enjoy it for the most part. I guess the holiday yesterday would be the biggest factor in having no freight today as well, but damn. Nothing until 7pm tomorrow? That blows.
I'll send in my request for layover pay during business hours tomorrow, so I have no idea how that's gonna go. Getting paid things other than mileage seems to be more of a hassle than it used to be. I was dispatched on the 23rd, with enough hours available to get here on the night of the 24th. This deadhead is less than 100 miles, so the clock is supposed to continue ticking. That means that my layover is broken tomorrow night, the 28th. Four days, with the first one free, should mean that I have $180 coming in layover pay. Why do I get the feeling that this will be another struggle to get paid what I have coming to me? I don't know man. They surprise me every now and then, so we'll just have to see.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
5/25/08
I don't know what's better - the fact that I only worked for five hours today or the fact that I'll work a lot less than that tomorrow. Somehow even the parking lot known as the Cross Bronx Expressway isn't so bad when you know your day will be over shortly after getting through. If anyone can let me know how I can keep this kind of schedule and still earn a decent living, please do tell. I'll be your new best friend.
About the only downside of the day right now is that I'm in a nice little rest area on I-91, there's a nice breeze, this is a no idling zone, and the prick who just pulled in next to me is idling away. There's some kind of air line hiss thing going on and it's pretty annoying.
I'll shoot up to the customer some time tomorrow afternoon, I suppose. My directions say that there is overnight parking available, so we'll take it from there. I'm torn between going home for a few days and staying out a while longer. I guess I'll figure it out by tomorrow night.
About the only downside of the day right now is that I'm in a nice little rest area on I-91, there's a nice breeze, this is a no idling zone, and the prick who just pulled in next to me is idling away. There's some kind of air line hiss thing going on and it's pretty annoying.
I'll shoot up to the customer some time tomorrow afternoon, I suppose. My directions say that there is overnight parking available, so we'll take it from there. I'm torn between going home for a few days and staying out a while longer. I guess I'll figure it out by tomorrow night.
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