Since I showed up at Comerica Park last weekend, the Tigers have only lost once. I'm not saying that they were intimidated by my presence... or am I?
Nice easy day today. No bad weather. No heavy traffic. Just a simple cruise across Tennessee and Arkansas. I was listening to the ballgame and thinking I might go a little further today, but I decided to stop in Gurdon instead. The store to which I am delivering in Garland is a real pain in the ass to access, so I don't want to get there too early in the evening. Consequently, I didn't really stand to gain anything by getting any closer today. As it is, I'll only have four or five hours to go tomorrow.
I guess now I'll settle in and get some reading done. Cheers.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
6/12/08
[What follows is an imaginary conversation between an individual and a government entity. It is set last night at roughly 7pm]
Joe: Hey, sweet, my relay is here early.
FMCSA: Too bad you're not going anywhere.
Joe: I'm not tired right now though. I can get an early start and stop for a break later tonight.
FMCSA: We'll decide when you're tired and we say you're tired right now. Ten hours is ten hours.
Joe: That doesn't make any sense.
FMCSA: We have studies.
Joe: You would rather force me to drive straight through the night for 440 miles?
FMCSA: We're the government. We've been screwing things up for decades. We don't need advice from you.
Joe: Fucking bureacrats.
FMCSA: Fucking truck drivers.
So, after I hung out until 8:30pm, I was able to get rolling. The drive was straight across I-64, with only 11,000 pounds and light traffic, so that part wasn't too bad. Then I got to the Pilot in East St. Louis.
I could see five trucks with CFI or ConWay trailers as I pulled through the lot, so I started checking the numbers on the fenders. No. No. No. No. No. What the hell? But wait a minute. There's another CFI trailer parked nose-in down at the end. Surely nobody would set up nose-in for a 4am relay, right? Yeah, well, I guess there's no IQ section on the CDL exam. I was almost an hour early, so I backed into a space (you know, like a regular truck driver might do), and sent a message to Joplin. If the other guy was planning to get up at 4am, I wouldn't want to wake him at 3am. That just seemed rude.
I got a reply from Joplin indicating that they would let him know at 4am, so I had a little time to kill. I hadn't slept since Monday night, but I couldn't go to bed until I got rid of the loaded trailer. I was resigned to the fact that I probably would have to stay awake for another hour. Yep. And then some. Another message to Joplin. A phone call to Joplin. Another message to Joplin. Nothin' doin'. Well after the scheduled relay time had come and gone, I headed back over and knocked on the door. No answer. By this time, I was having a hell of a time keeping my eyes open, so enough was enough. I parked in front of my loaded trailer, tried one last phone call to Joplin, and then went to bed. Dude was gonna have to move his ass sooner or later. He wasn't going anywhere as long as he was nose-in and I had his loaded trailer.
Around 7:20am, a knock on my door woke me. It was my (grumpy) outbound coworker. "Why didn't you come and get me?" Dude, don't even get me started. So I re-hashed the narrative for him. He swore that he was awake the whole time, sending messages to CTL asking about me. He further said that he only received two messages from them - one saying that I had arrived and a second telling him to let them know when he was moving. Here's where I guess I'm just a little too analytical for my own good. What did he think was the purpose of those two messages? If you know that I'm there, and you know that you'll have to park elsewhere (back-in) for the relay to go down, and you know that people are waiting for you to get moving, and you know that you have a scheduled relay at 4am, and you claim not to have heard the knock on your door yet, why in the fuck wouldn't you back in to a spot at some point and look for the inbound truck?!?
Anyhow, he took the paperwork and dropped his empty trailer. I backed under it and went to bed. I won't mention the name on his door, since I'm sure he's a swell human being who simply doesn't quite grasp the concept of an early morning relay. I imagine there are greater sins than this.
Shortly after I fell into a wonderful slumber, I got a beep. You know, yesterday I was trying desperately to sleep before my inbound relay arrived. The damn satellite thing beeped to say some shit about a stolen trailer that had been recovered. Then it beeped a short while later to list the hucksters, I mean leaders, in the recruiting contest. If you add those two issues together, they mean about as much to me as Hillary Clinton's self-esteem. And I never did fall asleep.
So you fast-forward to today. The load assignment is a necessary beep. No issues there. Then what followed? A few minutes later (just imagine me at this point with weary eyes closed, trying desperately to rest), another planned load tacked onto my next one. Okay, that's legitimate. Two hours later, a beep telling me that my next load (a relay leaving the same Pilot) has inbound truck # "N/A" and outbound truck # "my number." So they woke me to say nothing, basically. Two hours later, a note about a fella who has apparently fallen on hard times. It looks like the company is going to be taking up a collection and people can participate through payroll deduction. Worthy cause, I'm sure. But when it has to wake me up, well... we'll just say I was cursing a name that I've never heard before for a few minutes.
So, moving past my bitterness and angst, what does my actual job have in store for me next? I'll be leaving the Pilot in East St. Louis with a load tonight and running it to Cincinnati for a drop/hook. From there, it's down to Kentucky to make another drop/hook and grab a load going to Texas for two drops. The smart money says that I won't face a repeat of my last trip to that shipper in Kentucky, thanks to global warming and all. I'll deliver in Texas on Monday, so this week will eventually wrap up with a little under 2,200 miles. I don't exactly jump for joy over 2,200 mile weeks. However, I also don't get too wound up when the week effectively didn't start until Wednesday, so I guess I'll be fine.
I suppose I'll try to sneak in one more nap now, before my third straight all-nighter gets here. Cheers.
Joe: Hey, sweet, my relay is here early.
FMCSA: Too bad you're not going anywhere.
Joe: I'm not tired right now though. I can get an early start and stop for a break later tonight.
FMCSA: We'll decide when you're tired and we say you're tired right now. Ten hours is ten hours.
Joe: That doesn't make any sense.
FMCSA: We have studies.
Joe: You would rather force me to drive straight through the night for 440 miles?
FMCSA: We're the government. We've been screwing things up for decades. We don't need advice from you.
Joe: Fucking bureacrats.
FMCSA: Fucking truck drivers.
So, after I hung out until 8:30pm, I was able to get rolling. The drive was straight across I-64, with only 11,000 pounds and light traffic, so that part wasn't too bad. Then I got to the Pilot in East St. Louis.
I could see five trucks with CFI or ConWay trailers as I pulled through the lot, so I started checking the numbers on the fenders. No. No. No. No. No. What the hell? But wait a minute. There's another CFI trailer parked nose-in down at the end. Surely nobody would set up nose-in for a 4am relay, right? Yeah, well, I guess there's no IQ section on the CDL exam. I was almost an hour early, so I backed into a space (you know, like a regular truck driver might do), and sent a message to Joplin. If the other guy was planning to get up at 4am, I wouldn't want to wake him at 3am. That just seemed rude.
I got a reply from Joplin indicating that they would let him know at 4am, so I had a little time to kill. I hadn't slept since Monday night, but I couldn't go to bed until I got rid of the loaded trailer. I was resigned to the fact that I probably would have to stay awake for another hour. Yep. And then some. Another message to Joplin. A phone call to Joplin. Another message to Joplin. Nothin' doin'. Well after the scheduled relay time had come and gone, I headed back over and knocked on the door. No answer. By this time, I was having a hell of a time keeping my eyes open, so enough was enough. I parked in front of my loaded trailer, tried one last phone call to Joplin, and then went to bed. Dude was gonna have to move his ass sooner or later. He wasn't going anywhere as long as he was nose-in and I had his loaded trailer.
Around 7:20am, a knock on my door woke me. It was my (grumpy) outbound coworker. "Why didn't you come and get me?" Dude, don't even get me started. So I re-hashed the narrative for him. He swore that he was awake the whole time, sending messages to CTL asking about me. He further said that he only received two messages from them - one saying that I had arrived and a second telling him to let them know when he was moving. Here's where I guess I'm just a little too analytical for my own good. What did he think was the purpose of those two messages? If you know that I'm there, and you know that you'll have to park elsewhere (back-in) for the relay to go down, and you know that people are waiting for you to get moving, and you know that you have a scheduled relay at 4am, and you claim not to have heard the knock on your door yet, why in the fuck wouldn't you back in to a spot at some point and look for the inbound truck?!?
Anyhow, he took the paperwork and dropped his empty trailer. I backed under it and went to bed. I won't mention the name on his door, since I'm sure he's a swell human being who simply doesn't quite grasp the concept of an early morning relay. I imagine there are greater sins than this.
Shortly after I fell into a wonderful slumber, I got a beep. You know, yesterday I was trying desperately to sleep before my inbound relay arrived. The damn satellite thing beeped to say some shit about a stolen trailer that had been recovered. Then it beeped a short while later to list the hucksters, I mean leaders, in the recruiting contest. If you add those two issues together, they mean about as much to me as Hillary Clinton's self-esteem. And I never did fall asleep.
So you fast-forward to today. The load assignment is a necessary beep. No issues there. Then what followed? A few minutes later (just imagine me at this point with weary eyes closed, trying desperately to rest), another planned load tacked onto my next one. Okay, that's legitimate. Two hours later, a beep telling me that my next load (a relay leaving the same Pilot) has inbound truck # "N/A" and outbound truck # "my number." So they woke me to say nothing, basically. Two hours later, a note about a fella who has apparently fallen on hard times. It looks like the company is going to be taking up a collection and people can participate through payroll deduction. Worthy cause, I'm sure. But when it has to wake me up, well... we'll just say I was cursing a name that I've never heard before for a few minutes.
So, moving past my bitterness and angst, what does my actual job have in store for me next? I'll be leaving the Pilot in East St. Louis with a load tonight and running it to Cincinnati for a drop/hook. From there, it's down to Kentucky to make another drop/hook and grab a load going to Texas for two drops. The smart money says that I won't face a repeat of my last trip to that shipper in Kentucky, thanks to global warming and all. I'll deliver in Texas on Monday, so this week will eventually wrap up with a little under 2,200 miles. I don't exactly jump for joy over 2,200 mile weeks. However, I also don't get too wound up when the week effectively didn't start until Wednesday, so I guess I'll be fine.
I suppose I'll try to sneak in one more nap now, before my third straight all-nighter gets here. Cheers.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
6/11/08
I'll just tell you right up front that I'm a miserable prick right now. Whatever I may or may not have to say, it will be through that perspective.
I went up to the terminal and it looked like a damn practical joke. There were no trailers along the north fence. Instead, they were all strewn about the middle of the yard. I don't know what that's about. Getting squared away under an empty trailer with a foot or two of clearance to the trailer in front of you is the perfect way to get back into the swing of things.
Once I got loaded at the beer shipper, I got to head down through Ohio on roads ranging from 35mph to 55mph, ahead of a 10:40am dispatch time. Gotta love those tight dispatches for no particular reason. Hauling 44,000 pounds through the hills and towns and shit is just an added bonus, as far as I'm concerned.
Down by the Ohio River, the fog went from the traditional white to some bizarre black soupy stuff. That's nice. And the directions were nonsense. And the consignee's dock faced a busy street. After I got backed in, I noticed that the paperwork says "CAN NOT TAKE 53' TRAILERS.' Par for the course, I guess.
On a positive note, I did get my next planned load information before I had to leave the dock and find a place to park. I had to head west to Cannonsville, Kentucky and set up for another overnight run, heading further west and relaying in East St. Louis. That shithole of a truckstop should be a real treat at 4am.
So I don't know man. When I was really freaking tired, like at 5:30am, I had to keep pushing through to make an ETA that had me sitting at the dock and waiting an hour to get unloaded. Now that I've fought through the fatigue and dealt with all of the hassles along the way, I have to try to sleep for a while and then do it again tonight. Whatever. I guess the miles are pretty good so far.
I went up to the terminal and it looked like a damn practical joke. There were no trailers along the north fence. Instead, they were all strewn about the middle of the yard. I don't know what that's about. Getting squared away under an empty trailer with a foot or two of clearance to the trailer in front of you is the perfect way to get back into the swing of things.
Once I got loaded at the beer shipper, I got to head down through Ohio on roads ranging from 35mph to 55mph, ahead of a 10:40am dispatch time. Gotta love those tight dispatches for no particular reason. Hauling 44,000 pounds through the hills and towns and shit is just an added bonus, as far as I'm concerned.
Down by the Ohio River, the fog went from the traditional white to some bizarre black soupy stuff. That's nice. And the directions were nonsense. And the consignee's dock faced a busy street. After I got backed in, I noticed that the paperwork says "CAN NOT TAKE 53' TRAILERS.' Par for the course, I guess.
On a positive note, I did get my next planned load information before I had to leave the dock and find a place to park. I had to head west to Cannonsville, Kentucky and set up for another overnight run, heading further west and relaying in East St. Louis. That shithole of a truckstop should be a real treat at 4am.
So I don't know man. When I was really freaking tired, like at 5:30am, I had to keep pushing through to make an ETA that had me sitting at the dock and waiting an hour to get unloaded. Now that I've fought through the fatigue and dealt with all of the hassles along the way, I have to try to sleep for a while and then do it again tonight. Whatever. I guess the miles are pretty good so far.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
6/10/08
For lack of a better description, this blows. My company requires that we report for duty by 7:30am on the day we return to work. I got up at 7:20am and called to have the dispatcher put me on the board. He said that I was #8, so I set my alarm for 8:30am and went back to bed. At 8:30, I called the automated number to learn that I was #16. Yeah, go figure that one out and feel free to share your findings with the class.
So I hung around home all day, keeping an eye on my board status. Around 4:30pm, I was assigned to a load. I called the terminal to see what kind of timeline I would be facing, so I could decide when to drive over there and get to work. I had to pick up in Howell, Michigan... at 2am. That's a little over an hour drive to pick up, plus I've been away from the truck for a while (meaning I'll need a few extra minutes to check everything over). So I need to be at the terminal when? Midnight or so, right? Okay.
Now, where does that leave us? Not enough time to take sleeping pills without being all screwed up when I wake. No chance in hell of falling asleep by natural means. A 350-something mile drive down through Ohio after my 2am loading appointment, meaning there's a good chance I won't have any time for rest along the way. Fuck.
So I went to bed and tossed and turned for a few hours. As expected, I didn't manage to fall asleep. Now I have to try to stay awake all night and into tomorrow, having been out of my truck for the last several days. The first couple of trips usually cause me to get tired more quickly than usual for some reason. This should be fun.
I have no idea how you would avoid this sort of circumstance, but it's bullshit nonetheless. The requirement that I am awake and ready to work by 7:30am, combined with an assignment to be awake and ready to work through the following night, just doesn't add up. Could one of the magical eight people who jumped me on the board this morning have been assigned to this load? Surely at least one of them worked through the night and arrived this morning, right? Could a team have been assigned to this load? Teams always have someone slated to drive overnight, right? Sure they bitch about short runs, but isn't safety the first objective? Could I have been given a reasonable pick up time (allowing some sleep tonight) or could I have been assigned sooner to this pick up (allowing time to take sleeping pills and get some rest today)?
No. Apparently none of that can be done. Instead I'll be the good little robot. This blows.
So I hung around home all day, keeping an eye on my board status. Around 4:30pm, I was assigned to a load. I called the terminal to see what kind of timeline I would be facing, so I could decide when to drive over there and get to work. I had to pick up in Howell, Michigan... at 2am. That's a little over an hour drive to pick up, plus I've been away from the truck for a while (meaning I'll need a few extra minutes to check everything over). So I need to be at the terminal when? Midnight or so, right? Okay.
Now, where does that leave us? Not enough time to take sleeping pills without being all screwed up when I wake. No chance in hell of falling asleep by natural means. A 350-something mile drive down through Ohio after my 2am loading appointment, meaning there's a good chance I won't have any time for rest along the way. Fuck.
So I went to bed and tossed and turned for a few hours. As expected, I didn't manage to fall asleep. Now I have to try to stay awake all night and into tomorrow, having been out of my truck for the last several days. The first couple of trips usually cause me to get tired more quickly than usual for some reason. This should be fun.
I have no idea how you would avoid this sort of circumstance, but it's bullshit nonetheless. The requirement that I am awake and ready to work by 7:30am, combined with an assignment to be awake and ready to work through the following night, just doesn't add up. Could one of the magical eight people who jumped me on the board this morning have been assigned to this load? Surely at least one of them worked through the night and arrived this morning, right? Could a team have been assigned to this load? Teams always have someone slated to drive overnight, right? Sure they bitch about short runs, but isn't safety the first objective? Could I have been given a reasonable pick up time (allowing some sleep tonight) or could I have been assigned sooner to this pick up (allowing time to take sleeping pills and get some rest today)?
No. Apparently none of that can be done. Instead I'll be the good little robot. This blows.
Monday, June 9, 2008
6/9/08
Bah, humbug. I have to go to work in the morning, but staying here and sleeping until noon sounds a lot better to me.
Alas, bills to pay. I spent plenty of money this time around, just like I do on every trip home. So I'll call in bright and early and have the dispatcher put me on the board. If I'm #1 or #2, I'll have to head to the yard right away. If I have a few more people ahead of me, I can go back to bed for a while. I suppose time will tell.
I managed to get my laundry done, mail out some things, and stop by Dunham's to get a jump rope. Then I went to my parents' house to visit with my niece and nephew, as well as enjoy one more cookout before I have to head back out. I forgot about taking my truck to the shop, but there is nothing major to worry about. I'll get to it soon enough.
Alas, bills to pay. I spent plenty of money this time around, just like I do on every trip home. So I'll call in bright and early and have the dispatcher put me on the board. If I'm #1 or #2, I'll have to head to the yard right away. If I have a few more people ahead of me, I can go back to bed for a while. I suppose time will tell.
I managed to get my laundry done, mail out some things, and stop by Dunham's to get a jump rope. Then I went to my parents' house to visit with my niece and nephew, as well as enjoy one more cookout before I have to head back out. I forgot about taking my truck to the shop, but there is nothing major to worry about. I'll get to it soon enough.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
6/8/08
I don't know how it is everywhere, but around Detroit we have sort of a mixed blessing when it comes to hot, sunny days at the ballpark. Half the young ladies have you thinking, "Thank God for tiny garments." The other half have you thinking, "Holy shit. Cover that up." The odd thing about our fair region is that, around here, the folks in the first category dress the same as those in the second.
So the game was fun. Hot as hell, but fun. They've gone to 16 oz. beers this year, as opposed to the 24 oz. offerings in years past. That sucks. I didn't try to do the 'per-ounce' math to see what was costlier. I just know that having a smaller beer means that you need a refill more quickly. (I've done studies.)
After the stirring win for the Tigers, we headed down to Mexicantown for dinner. The gorgeous waitress from Costa Rica had me convinced that I was in love, but that really just means I wanted to sleep with her. No such luck.
Now that I've wasted all of my time at home, I'll have to get some things done tomorrow. I need to get the truck over to Dearborn for a little work. Then it's the old laundry done, bills paid, loose ends tied up routine. Probably leaving town Tuesday.
So the game was fun. Hot as hell, but fun. They've gone to 16 oz. beers this year, as opposed to the 24 oz. offerings in years past. That sucks. I didn't try to do the 'per-ounce' math to see what was costlier. I just know that having a smaller beer means that you need a refill more quickly. (I've done studies.)
After the stirring win for the Tigers, we headed down to Mexicantown for dinner. The gorgeous waitress from Costa Rica had me convinced that I was in love, but that really just means I wanted to sleep with her. No such luck.
Now that I've wasted all of my time at home, I'll have to get some things done tomorrow. I need to get the truck over to Dearborn for a little work. Then it's the old laundry done, bills paid, loose ends tied up routine. Probably leaving town Tuesday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)