"Virgo - Today, instead of getting all embarrassed when someone points out what a great thing you did, you'll get a great sense of pride! This is as it should be -- and it's a sure sign that you are growing in the right direction. As your ego grows sturdier, your ability to be open-minded grows stronger as well. You'll no longer take things as personally as you used to, because your skin is getting thicker and you are realizing that if you screw up every now and then, the world will not fall apart."
I've used excite.com as my start page pretty much since the WWW replaced telnet portals as the main access point to the internet. There's a little section with the horoscope every day. Obviously, I'm not the astrologically inclined type, so if I happen to see what it says I usually chuckle. Holy shit is this one ever wrong, though. Usually it's some 'great things could or could not be on the horizon, depending on your approach' or other generic nonsense. This time they tried to make assertions. Big swing and a miss by the horoscope writer. I screw up all the time, the world hasn't fallen apart, and I lost the ability to give a damn about twenty years ago. The thick skin part was particularly funny. Oh well, they'll probably get it right tomorrow when they say the exact opposite.
So what were we saying, anyway? Tales from the road? Okay.
Quick drive over to the shipper this afternoon. It was the place that I remembered, so that helped. Particularly poignant was the knowledge that the sign on the driveway is one for an adjoining soccer facility. The place is closed on weekends, so I just had to make a drop/hook and leave a signed copy of the bill of lading in a designated box. There was another CTL driver at the shipper, trying to figure out what to do since his bills were not there. Hopefully they got him sorted out. It would be a bummer to get stuck without a load for the weekend.
This load is a heavy SOB, that's for sure. 45,000 pounds of paper to drag through the mountains all evening is never a lot of fun. Per usual, the slower cars would pass me on the way up and I would ride the brakes until I could pass them on the way down. That makes for quite a frustrating drive. About an hour after I left the shipper, I realized that I had forgotten to slide my tandems back when I dropped my empty trailer. Oh well. My horoscope says that the world won't come to an end.
I got about fifty miles into Ohio and decided to stop for a bite to eat. I could smell the garlic from Sbarro when I walked in, so pasta sounded great to me. I walked in at 9pm. Sbarro closed at 9pm. Damn. McDonald's it is. I guess I'll go to sleep here in a little while and roll on to Taylor in the morning.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
6/20/08
Mama said there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this my mama said...I got up nice and early so I could call in and get squared away with an empty trailer. I was promptly unassigned from the North Carolina run and sent to a trailer shop to get an empty. I guess, if you can read the post below this one, you probably know that I wasn't terribly shocked.
So I headed over into Pennsylvania and checked in with the guys at the trailer shop. "I don't have any good CFI trailers." Well sir, what exactly does that mean for me? "There's one here and it has a hole in the floor." Super.
I called Joplin again and explained the situation. Then they sent me across town to a KMart DC to grab an empty there. On my first pass through the lot, I didn't see the trailer that I was told to get. Second time around, I spotted it. It's one of the old 'ConWay Now' trailers with the ugly teal logos. I hooked up and got back in the truck. The trailer was jammed tightly between two others, so I was going to have to pull it out before I could check it over. Away we go... or not. The damn wheels didn't turn. I had no way to get under it and see what was going on, so I dragged it out into the lot. A pair of nice skidmarks formed an arc behind me. The first step in that situation, as I understand it, is to make sure everything is hooked up right. Yep, all good. The second step, as I understand it, is to see if the drums are frozen to the shoes and try to knock them loose. Tried that. No go.
I got under the trailer and I could hear air hissing out from somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. Even still, the truck was running and pumping in enough air that the spring brakes should have released. As all this was going on, I was assigned to a load picking up in Burlington, New Jersey and going to Taylor, Michigan. I called the road service guys and the fella on the phone tried to talk me through a couple of possible fixes. One thought was to back off the slack adjusters so that the wheels would turn, then pull it to a shop to find the issue. However, he said that if there was an air problem, that would be no good. The brakes would just tighten back down. I'm not anything close to a mechanic, but those guys know what they're talking about so I didn't want to get stuck on the road with my brakes locked up. So they called a repair shop. (Incidentally, it was the same shop that I had just left.)
I spoke with my fleet manager, who told me that the load had to pick up in Burlington by 4:30pm. It was 11am at the time and Burlington was around 200 miles away. If we're talking about crossing Jersey, then 200 miles equals at least four hours. 11am + 4 hours = 3pm. So I had an hour and a half to get moving. The CSRs were calling the customer to see if the pick up could be any later, and I was hoping that the repair guys would come quickly, so we stood pat with the load assignment and played it by ear.
A couple of hours later, I still hadn't seen the repair guys, so I was unassigned from my second load today. They showed up not long after that and crawled under to take a look. The main guy said that, at first, they thought I had a blown air chamber. I hadn't found a blown air chamber, but again I'm not a mechanic. After they checked it over though, they said the air should have been fine. The hissing that I had heard earlier was just excess bleeding out of the air bags. What happened next was slightly embarrasing but rather amusing. The little hispanic helper guy took a hammer and a crow bar and went hog wild on the brake drums. And my truck was freed from bondage. Apparently they had just frozen up and I hadn't hit them hard enough. I guess that's a lousy reason to call a shop. In my defense though, I don't think I would ever unload on my company's equipment like that. I mean, he was pounding the shit out of that crowbar.
So, ready to roll, I got back on the board one more time. I asked the security guard if he knew where I could park and get a bite to eat. I swear he said "Wal Mart," but I guess not. He said go down there and turn there and so forth, so I did. I saw a little convenience store with a truck parked out in the back, but I was looking for Wal Mart. Nope. To add to the fun, the road was closed just past the convenience store. I had seen the signs, but I had also been told (I thought) that there was a Wal Mart. I fully expected to turn into a nice big parking lot and then go back the way that I came. I had to back up about a quarter mile until I found a wide spot where I could pull a U-turn. Thankfully, everybody else knew that the road was closed so nobody drove up behind me.
I pulled off to the side of the road on a wide gravel area and waited for whatever came next. I was awfully hungry but I'm definitely not in any danger of starvation at this stage of my life. It was maybe ten or fifteen minutes until I got my assignment. I had to go 130 miles west and get a load headed to... Taylor, Michigan. These guys ain't screwing around with the old home time request this time, are they? My load doesn't pick up until tomorrow afternoon, but that's fine. I'll obviously be home before my medical card expires on the 26th, which was the most important part.
I was rolling westward on US-30 this afternoon when the combination of hunger and traffic got the best of me. I stopped off at a little truck stop east of Lancaster and parked it for the night. I can't imagine that it's much more than twenty or thirty miles from here to the shipper. Then it's about 500 miles to home. I think I've been to this shipper before, as the directions sound somewhat familiar. If so, I'm headed for a little skinny road driving with a wicked heavy load tomorrow afternoon, at least for a little while. Then it will be a long evening of lugging it up and down the hills on the turnpikes.
The people who live next to the truck stop apparently don't secure their wi-fi connection, so I have nice quick access for the night. Alas, nobody is streaming the ballgame. Bummer.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
6/19/08
4:30am - the line between grownup and juvenile, I guess. That's when I normally (juvenile) manage to fall asleep but today I (grownup) started work at 4:30am. Yuck.
The idea was to make it to the consignee a few hours early and try to catch another assignment today. By 9am it was time to give up the dream. I was tired as hell, so I ducked into a rest area and slept for a couple of hours. On the positive side, I've made it back above the Mason-Dixon line (where I belong) and the weather is much cooler. I haven't had to idle my truck to sleep for the past few days. Even this morning with the sun up, I was able to crack the windows and it was plenty cool enough for me to doze off.
After I woke up and continued eastward, I realized that I still hadn't been given a drop number for the shipment. The stop location information for the customer in Wilkes-Barre said that a drop number was required, so I sent a message asking if one had come through yet. When I got within ten miles of the consignee, I still hadn't received a reply to that message, so I called. The lady on the phone spoke with the customer service people and told me that I didn't need one. As I pulled into the consignee's driveway, I got a reply to my satellite message. Same thing. CSR says we don't need a drop number. Good enough.
The drop yard was nice and easy to navigate and I found a good empty trailer. By 'good' I mean that everything was working properly and, just as importantly, it was squeaky clean inside. Five minutes that I don't have to spend sweeping out a trailer are five good minutes in my book. I had spotted a gravel area near a building with a 'for lease' sign as I drove to the consignee, so I headed back over there with my empty to wait for my next assignment to come through. I was #1 on the board with a few hours still available today.
It didn't take long to get that next assignment, so that was cool. I was sent to drop off my empty at a new customer in New Jersey. The good news was that I had until midnight to cover 140 miles. The bad news was that I started today at 4:30am, so I was only legal until 6:30pm. Ahhhh, New Jersey at rush hour... nice.
As I headed south on the Pennsylvania Turnpike toward I-80, I had an inclination to turn on my CB. I really don't know why. I never have my CB on unless there's something about which I want to hear. Today though, for whatever reason, I reached up and turned the knob. I caught the tail end of a conversation in which some local guys were telling some long haul guys how to go further east on some back road and then catch back up with I-80 eastbound. Quick decision time as I passed through the toll booth. I decided that there must be a reason for five big trucks to be turning down a road that didn't look all that inviting, so I skipped I-80 and followed along. Good call. It turns out that I-80 was being closed off and on for construction and it was backed up for several miles. We came out past the east end of the work zone and cruised right along on a wide open freeway. Sweet.
After fighting my way through the parking lot known as I-287 this afternoon, I got to the new customer and looked for someone in charge. Habla Ingles? There was one white dude at the far end of the docks. I guess I would be considered a racist by today's standards, since I assumed that he was the boss. My assumption was correct and he told me that I could drop my empty in any open door. Groovy. It turns out that they have contracted us as what the guy called "our in-house carrier." So we'll be pulling freight for them on a regular basis, drop/hook style. You gotta start somewhere though, so I was giving them the first empty trailer to load.
After that I had to call Joplin again. The Qualcomm system won't let me put myself on the board without an empty trailer, so I had to ask a dispatcher to do it for me. He said that he did and that I was #1 again. Cool. Not having anywhere to park, I hopped on the Jersey Turnpike and went north a few miles to the first rest area. Even with a bobtail, parking was tight. I found another bobtail parked in a space, so I backed in behind him and headed in for some dinner.
When I came back out, I found that I was not on the board. Normally I would have just let it slide until morning, since I didn't have the hours to go very far anyway. I needed to get on the board and request home time though. I know I was just home recently, but my medical card expires next week and my father's 50th birthday party is next Saturday. The most efficient thing to do is just to head home and get my physical done up there. I've worked my ten days so I'm entitled to request home time. I sent a message asking why I wasn't on the board. I quickly received a reply saying that it was fixed. After verifying that I was on the board, I immediately put in my request. Thirty seconds later, I got a load assignment. I'm guessing that they were assigning me the load as I was sending my request, since it's going to North Carolina. It should be fine though. We have shippers all over down there and I should have an easy time heading north.
After I accepted the load, I got a message telling me to correct my response with the proper trailer number. Son of a bitch. Here we go. I answered with a message explaining that I have no trailer and then waited for the next reply. The reply never came through. Directions to the shipper came through. Directions to the consignee came through. The stop summary information came through. No answer on the trailer situation, no dispatch to the shipper, no message about northeast pay, and no fueling recommendations. Basically I'm in limbo. The CTL web portal says that I'm still assigned to the load (I'm number zero), it indicates that my home time request is active, and it does not indicate that I've been dispatched to go anywhere. The curse of the nonexistent trailer strikes again.
I called a little while ago and spoke with some chick to find out what they were going to do with me. I'm sure she means well. We'll just leave it at that.
I tried to help out by suggesting that the ConWay in Newark may have an extra trailer laying around. The response - "Sure, probably, call me if you find an empty," was not quite satisfying to me so I'll talk to my fleet manager in the morning. I'm not going anywhere without a dispatch. For starters, I expect to be paid for miles that I drive in service of my employer. Secondly, I'm not going anywhere near that Godforsaken location unless I know for sure that my employer wants me there. Thirdly, whoever set me up to drop my empty at the new shipper may have had something in mind as far as picking up a new wagon. In the past, I've gone to repair shops and such to retrieve trailers that have been serviced. For all I know, that's what they wanted me to do this time as well. Fourthly, since my home time request and this load assignment appear to have passed one another in satellite orbit, they may end up changing their minds about sending me to North Carolina. It wouldn't be the first time. Since I don't know for sure, I'm staying put until morning. My presently assigned load picks up at 12:30pm on the west side of New Jersey. I'll have plenty of time to get a trailer and get over there after the Joplin starting lineup gets to work tomorrow.
The idea was to make it to the consignee a few hours early and try to catch another assignment today. By 9am it was time to give up the dream. I was tired as hell, so I ducked into a rest area and slept for a couple of hours. On the positive side, I've made it back above the Mason-Dixon line (where I belong) and the weather is much cooler. I haven't had to idle my truck to sleep for the past few days. Even this morning with the sun up, I was able to crack the windows and it was plenty cool enough for me to doze off.
After I woke up and continued eastward, I realized that I still hadn't been given a drop number for the shipment. The stop location information for the customer in Wilkes-Barre said that a drop number was required, so I sent a message asking if one had come through yet. When I got within ten miles of the consignee, I still hadn't received a reply to that message, so I called. The lady on the phone spoke with the customer service people and told me that I didn't need one. As I pulled into the consignee's driveway, I got a reply to my satellite message. Same thing. CSR says we don't need a drop number. Good enough.
The drop yard was nice and easy to navigate and I found a good empty trailer. By 'good' I mean that everything was working properly and, just as importantly, it was squeaky clean inside. Five minutes that I don't have to spend sweeping out a trailer are five good minutes in my book. I had spotted a gravel area near a building with a 'for lease' sign as I drove to the consignee, so I headed back over there with my empty to wait for my next assignment to come through. I was #1 on the board with a few hours still available today.
It didn't take long to get that next assignment, so that was cool. I was sent to drop off my empty at a new customer in New Jersey. The good news was that I had until midnight to cover 140 miles. The bad news was that I started today at 4:30am, so I was only legal until 6:30pm. Ahhhh, New Jersey at rush hour... nice.
As I headed south on the Pennsylvania Turnpike toward I-80, I had an inclination to turn on my CB. I really don't know why. I never have my CB on unless there's something about which I want to hear. Today though, for whatever reason, I reached up and turned the knob. I caught the tail end of a conversation in which some local guys were telling some long haul guys how to go further east on some back road and then catch back up with I-80 eastbound. Quick decision time as I passed through the toll booth. I decided that there must be a reason for five big trucks to be turning down a road that didn't look all that inviting, so I skipped I-80 and followed along. Good call. It turns out that I-80 was being closed off and on for construction and it was backed up for several miles. We came out past the east end of the work zone and cruised right along on a wide open freeway. Sweet.
After fighting my way through the parking lot known as I-287 this afternoon, I got to the new customer and looked for someone in charge. Habla Ingles? There was one white dude at the far end of the docks. I guess I would be considered a racist by today's standards, since I assumed that he was the boss. My assumption was correct and he told me that I could drop my empty in any open door. Groovy. It turns out that they have contracted us as what the guy called "our in-house carrier." So we'll be pulling freight for them on a regular basis, drop/hook style. You gotta start somewhere though, so I was giving them the first empty trailer to load.
After that I had to call Joplin again. The Qualcomm system won't let me put myself on the board without an empty trailer, so I had to ask a dispatcher to do it for me. He said that he did and that I was #1 again. Cool. Not having anywhere to park, I hopped on the Jersey Turnpike and went north a few miles to the first rest area. Even with a bobtail, parking was tight. I found another bobtail parked in a space, so I backed in behind him and headed in for some dinner.
When I came back out, I found that I was not on the board. Normally I would have just let it slide until morning, since I didn't have the hours to go very far anyway. I needed to get on the board and request home time though. I know I was just home recently, but my medical card expires next week and my father's 50th birthday party is next Saturday. The most efficient thing to do is just to head home and get my physical done up there. I've worked my ten days so I'm entitled to request home time. I sent a message asking why I wasn't on the board. I quickly received a reply saying that it was fixed. After verifying that I was on the board, I immediately put in my request. Thirty seconds later, I got a load assignment. I'm guessing that they were assigning me the load as I was sending my request, since it's going to North Carolina. It should be fine though. We have shippers all over down there and I should have an easy time heading north.
After I accepted the load, I got a message telling me to correct my response with the proper trailer number. Son of a bitch. Here we go. I answered with a message explaining that I have no trailer and then waited for the next reply. The reply never came through. Directions to the shipper came through. Directions to the consignee came through. The stop summary information came through. No answer on the trailer situation, no dispatch to the shipper, no message about northeast pay, and no fueling recommendations. Basically I'm in limbo. The CTL web portal says that I'm still assigned to the load (I'm number zero), it indicates that my home time request is active, and it does not indicate that I've been dispatched to go anywhere. The curse of the nonexistent trailer strikes again.
I called a little while ago and spoke with some chick to find out what they were going to do with me. I'm sure she means well. We'll just leave it at that.
I tried to help out by suggesting that the ConWay in Newark may have an extra trailer laying around. The response - "Sure, probably, call me if you find an empty," was not quite satisfying to me so I'll talk to my fleet manager in the morning. I'm not going anywhere without a dispatch. For starters, I expect to be paid for miles that I drive in service of my employer. Secondly, I'm not going anywhere near that Godforsaken location unless I know for sure that my employer wants me there. Thirdly, whoever set me up to drop my empty at the new shipper may have had something in mind as far as picking up a new wagon. In the past, I've gone to repair shops and such to retrieve trailers that have been serviced. For all I know, that's what they wanted me to do this time as well. Fourthly, since my home time request and this load assignment appear to have passed one another in satellite orbit, they may end up changing their minds about sending me to North Carolina. It wouldn't be the first time. Since I don't know for sure, I'm staying put until morning. My presently assigned load picks up at 12:30pm on the west side of New Jersey. I'll have plenty of time to get a trailer and get over there after the Joplin starting lineup gets to work tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
6/17/08
As I was lounging around last night, I got a pre-plan for a load picking up after this morning's drop. That allowed me to get an idea of how to route myself and set up for today. Beauty.
When I woke up this morning, I shot a message to Joplin, asking if anyone had spoken to the consignee about the fact that I had no bills. I got a reply indicating that the customer service people had contacted the consignee, and that a delivery receipt on its own would be fine. Of course, there was still one small catch. The information that goes on the delivery receipt comes from the bill of lading. I could get an order number and load number from my load assignment. I had the information of the consignee from my stop location. I didn't, however, know what I was hauling, who sent it, or from where it came. So I called in and my fleet manager told me that it was copper from the mine in El Paso. Okay, that'll do.
It was an easy drive over to Vincennes. Once I got there, I filled in whatever information I could on the delivery receipt and headed inside. The forklift guy grabbed the MSDS and the packing list from the back of the trailer and, of course, there was a spare copy of the bill of lading. So he made me a copy and the whole issue turned out to be a non-issue.
Once unloaded there, I headed down to Evansville for my next pickup. My appointment time was noon, but it was a drop/hook location so I decided to try getting it early. That didn't quite work. The empty that I dropped when I got there and the loaded trailer that I hooked a couple hours later were one and the same. I still got out before noon, so it wasn't so bad.
Then it was eastward across Indiana and then up I-71. Just outside Louisville, I stopped to top off the tanks and grab some cheap cigarettes for my father. Another five miles up the road, traffic started slowing to a crawl. I flipped on the CB to listen. Of course, nothing on my side other than gawkers looking across at the southbound side. As I approached, it was quite a scene so I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick photo. Once I rolled past and saw what I saw, I deleted the photo. That was, man, that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. I won't get into the details of the scene, because it left me a little shaken up to be honest with you. If the gawkers hadn't been holding up traffic, I wouldn't even have looked. Now I wish I hadn't. You see a few accidents almost every day out here, but not like this. According to people on the CB, a northbound car blew a tire and flew across the median, slamming into a southbound truck.
After getting past that area, I was in one of those reflective modes that I guess we should all experience every now and then. Who's to say its not me next time? I don't know if this blog was going at the time, but I actually had a pickup truck fly across the median and land in front of me on that same road once. I was able to stop, but what if I had been five seconds further down the road at the time? He would have slammed right into me. The truck in today's instance looked to come out a little banged up, but otherwise okay. What about the driver though? It appears that he couldn't have done anything to avoid the crash. Does that lessen the impact of getting out and finding dead people at the back of your trailer, while your truck is being kept from rolling down the embankment by only a guard rail? When was the last time any of the people involved in the crash had a chance to tell their loved ones how important they were? How about the first people to stop at the scene? How about me? How about anyone reading this posting? How about the sense of relief that I felt, not in knowing that I was okay, but in knowing that I wasn't on the side of the road that would be parked for several hours? What does that say about me? How significant is my driving timeline, given the perspective of the situation?
Anyway, I guess my mental issues are my own. No need to belabor the point. It was just a bad scene. I got to the rest area north of Columbus tonight before my hours ran out. I'm scheduled for a drop/hook in Wilkes-Barre tomorrow afternoon, so an early morning is in store for me. The deadhead and loaded miles kicked me over 1,800 for the week so far. I'll have a few hours available tomorrow after my drop/hook, so let's hope the good streak continues.
When I woke up this morning, I shot a message to Joplin, asking if anyone had spoken to the consignee about the fact that I had no bills. I got a reply indicating that the customer service people had contacted the consignee, and that a delivery receipt on its own would be fine. Of course, there was still one small catch. The information that goes on the delivery receipt comes from the bill of lading. I could get an order number and load number from my load assignment. I had the information of the consignee from my stop location. I didn't, however, know what I was hauling, who sent it, or from where it came. So I called in and my fleet manager told me that it was copper from the mine in El Paso. Okay, that'll do.
It was an easy drive over to Vincennes. Once I got there, I filled in whatever information I could on the delivery receipt and headed inside. The forklift guy grabbed the MSDS and the packing list from the back of the trailer and, of course, there was a spare copy of the bill of lading. So he made me a copy and the whole issue turned out to be a non-issue.
Once unloaded there, I headed down to Evansville for my next pickup. My appointment time was noon, but it was a drop/hook location so I decided to try getting it early. That didn't quite work. The empty that I dropped when I got there and the loaded trailer that I hooked a couple hours later were one and the same. I still got out before noon, so it wasn't so bad.
Then it was eastward across Indiana and then up I-71. Just outside Louisville, I stopped to top off the tanks and grab some cheap cigarettes for my father. Another five miles up the road, traffic started slowing to a crawl. I flipped on the CB to listen. Of course, nothing on my side other than gawkers looking across at the southbound side. As I approached, it was quite a scene so I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick photo. Once I rolled past and saw what I saw, I deleted the photo. That was, man, that was one of the worst things I've ever seen. I won't get into the details of the scene, because it left me a little shaken up to be honest with you. If the gawkers hadn't been holding up traffic, I wouldn't even have looked. Now I wish I hadn't. You see a few accidents almost every day out here, but not like this. According to people on the CB, a northbound car blew a tire and flew across the median, slamming into a southbound truck.
After getting past that area, I was in one of those reflective modes that I guess we should all experience every now and then. Who's to say its not me next time? I don't know if this blog was going at the time, but I actually had a pickup truck fly across the median and land in front of me on that same road once. I was able to stop, but what if I had been five seconds further down the road at the time? He would have slammed right into me. The truck in today's instance looked to come out a little banged up, but otherwise okay. What about the driver though? It appears that he couldn't have done anything to avoid the crash. Does that lessen the impact of getting out and finding dead people at the back of your trailer, while your truck is being kept from rolling down the embankment by only a guard rail? When was the last time any of the people involved in the crash had a chance to tell their loved ones how important they were? How about the first people to stop at the scene? How about me? How about anyone reading this posting? How about the sense of relief that I felt, not in knowing that I was okay, but in knowing that I wasn't on the side of the road that would be parked for several hours? What does that say about me? How significant is my driving timeline, given the perspective of the situation?
Anyway, I guess my mental issues are my own. No need to belabor the point. It was just a bad scene. I got to the rest area north of Columbus tonight before my hours ran out. I'm scheduled for a drop/hook in Wilkes-Barre tomorrow afternoon, so an early morning is in store for me. The deadhead and loaded miles kicked me over 1,800 for the week so far. I'll have a few hours available tomorrow after my drop/hook, so let's hope the good streak continues.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
6/17/08
Shortly after I got rolling this morning, I happened upon a slow-moving vehicle in the right lane on I-35. There was a nice long parade of traffic in the left lane. As I began to think, "Here we go...," he took the next exit and I kept cruising along. That's pretty much a metaphor for how my day of driving went. Merging, exiting left, exiting right, construction zones, hills, all of it. I was one with the motoring universe. Beauty. Once empty, I was assigned to my next load even before I finished inspecting my new trailer. I caught a nice steady 400 mile run to deliver tomorrow morning. Crossing Illinois on US-50, there was hardly a car in sight. Things just seemed to fall right into place all day. I like that.
Even better, I was actually on my game today. This happens a handful of times over the course of the year, if I'm lucky. My timing for passing and such was impeccable. I didn't miss any exits or make any wrong turns. The consignee, located down some skinny street after a ridiculous U-turn from the exit ramp, was a piece of cake. There was one very tight spot left in the drop yard. I nailed it on the first try, without even pulling up to straighten out. When my intended route to the next pickup proved not to exist, my instinctive re-route on the fly worked perfectly. As I approached St. Louis on I-70, I saw the traffic getting pretty heavy so I dropped down I-170 to I-64 and ran that through town. No traffic in sight. Everything I did was solid today. I even found the shitty little truck stop in Olney, Illinois to have plenty of parking this evening. Beauty.
There was one minor snag that may prove to be a major one in the morning. Once I made my drop/hook in North Kansas City this morning, I had to bounce over to our drop yard in Kansas City and swap my empty trailer for a loaded one. The trailer was there, but the bills were not. The security guard guessed that they had been sent to Joplin. You see, the security people at the drop yard use TripPak envelopes to hold the bills. Perhaps, he surmised, someone had inadvertently placed the TripPak envelope holding my bills in with the actual TripPaks being sent to Joplin. Here's a thought - Go to Office Depot and spend a few dollars on some fucking envelopes. Anyone think a standard white envelope might not be mistaken for a TripPak to be mailed? I swear you can't make this stuff up.
The security guard called some guy at CTL. That guy said that I should head east and that they would work on getting a copy of the bills to the consignee. Not satisfied with that, I called operations and spoke with a nice young lady to make sure that they were aware of the situation. If someone was getting the paperwork to the customer, I wanted to know names of the people involved in the communications. "Harry spoke with Sally at 11:30am yesterday" sounds a lot better than "Uh, they said it was okay." She checked on it and, while not really having any solid answers for me, at least confirmed that CTL was aware of the situation.
As I rolled across Missouri, I got a message saying that I should definitely not try to deliver this load early. Apparently this would cause major problems with the customer. I replied that I don't plan to deliver early, and asked if there was any news on the paperwork. I never got an answer. If the customers are going to be pissheads about an early delivery, why should I think they'll be any happier about my having no bills? What am I hauling? Dunno. Where did the load originate? Dunno. Who is the shipper? Dunno. How much does it weigh? Dunno. Pretty damn heavy. I can tell you that much. I've had the 'no bills' thing come up once before, in Seattle. The consignee up there kicked me out and wouldn't take the load. Tomorrow? Dunno.
Notwithstanding whatever I'll face when I get there, I have a little over thirty miles to cover by 8am, taking me to Vincennes, Indiana. I'm now sitting at a little over 1,000 miles for the week and it's only Tuesday, so we're definitely poised for a decent week. I know better than to expect too much, but it's nice not to be using half of this week to finish out last week's miles. If and when I get empty in the morning, I'll have about seven hours or so left on my 70. Then I start picking up the long hours from the days when I left home last week, so I should be set up to run pretty well.
Z
Even better, I was actually on my game today. This happens a handful of times over the course of the year, if I'm lucky. My timing for passing and such was impeccable. I didn't miss any exits or make any wrong turns. The consignee, located down some skinny street after a ridiculous U-turn from the exit ramp, was a piece of cake. There was one very tight spot left in the drop yard. I nailed it on the first try, without even pulling up to straighten out. When my intended route to the next pickup proved not to exist, my instinctive re-route on the fly worked perfectly. As I approached St. Louis on I-70, I saw the traffic getting pretty heavy so I dropped down I-170 to I-64 and ran that through town. No traffic in sight. Everything I did was solid today. I even found the shitty little truck stop in Olney, Illinois to have plenty of parking this evening. Beauty.
There was one minor snag that may prove to be a major one in the morning. Once I made my drop/hook in North Kansas City this morning, I had to bounce over to our drop yard in Kansas City and swap my empty trailer for a loaded one. The trailer was there, but the bills were not. The security guard guessed that they had been sent to Joplin. You see, the security people at the drop yard use TripPak envelopes to hold the bills. Perhaps, he surmised, someone had inadvertently placed the TripPak envelope holding my bills in with the actual TripPaks being sent to Joplin. Here's a thought - Go to Office Depot and spend a few dollars on some fucking envelopes. Anyone think a standard white envelope might not be mistaken for a TripPak to be mailed? I swear you can't make this stuff up.
The security guard called some guy at CTL. That guy said that I should head east and that they would work on getting a copy of the bills to the consignee. Not satisfied with that, I called operations and spoke with a nice young lady to make sure that they were aware of the situation. If someone was getting the paperwork to the customer, I wanted to know names of the people involved in the communications. "Harry spoke with Sally at 11:30am yesterday" sounds a lot better than "Uh, they said it was okay." She checked on it and, while not really having any solid answers for me, at least confirmed that CTL was aware of the situation.
As I rolled across Missouri, I got a message saying that I should definitely not try to deliver this load early. Apparently this would cause major problems with the customer. I replied that I don't plan to deliver early, and asked if there was any news on the paperwork. I never got an answer. If the customers are going to be pissheads about an early delivery, why should I think they'll be any happier about my having no bills? What am I hauling? Dunno. Where did the load originate? Dunno. Who is the shipper? Dunno. How much does it weigh? Dunno. Pretty damn heavy. I can tell you that much. I've had the 'no bills' thing come up once before, in Seattle. The consignee up there kicked me out and wouldn't take the load. Tomorrow? Dunno.
Notwithstanding whatever I'll face when I get there, I have a little over thirty miles to cover by 8am, taking me to Vincennes, Indiana. I'm now sitting at a little over 1,000 miles for the week and it's only Tuesday, so we're definitely poised for a decent week. I know better than to expect too much, but it's nice not to be using half of this week to finish out last week's miles. If and when I get empty in the morning, I'll have about seven hours or so left on my 70. Then I start picking up the long hours from the days when I left home last week, so I should be set up to run pretty well.
Z
Monday, June 16, 2008
6/16/08
Golf is not exactly the kind of sport that works very well on radio. That match today was an exception. With two guys trading haymakers for 19 holes, and the enthusiastic calls from the guys on XM Radio, it was very entertaining. If you were in front of a TV today, I am truly envious of you. That had to be awesome to watch.
I got unloaded in Garland and then had to go down to Arlington for my second drop. I was given a dispatch of 34 miles and I had an hour to get there. Doesn't sound too bad, right? After thirty miles of fighting my way around construction barrels and rush hour traffic, I had fifteen minutes remaining so it still looked okay. Then it was apparently tea time in Dallas or something, as everything came to a screeching halt. Long story short - It was 46 miles, not 34, and it took an hour and a half. By the time I realized that my appointment time just wasn't happening, I had to call in and let CTL know. It was pretty close to the appointment time by then, so I couldn't exactly give them a lot of notice, but until things completely stopped I had no reason to think that I would be late. Oh well. What can you do?
The second store had a nice easy dock setup and the people worked quickly, so that was cool. I was #8 on the board when I got empty, so I pulled over behind the building and got ready to watch some golf. Two minutes later, I got a message saying to deadhead 352 miles to Winfield, Kansas and then go back on the board. Huh? I don't care to ask a lot of questions, so I just headed north.
As I rolled up I-35, I took a look at my truck stop directory to see if there might be a place to park in Winfield. In the past, whenever I've gotten one of those weird undetermined deadheads, they've sent me to a place with a big truck stop. There was no such place in Winfield, so I had no idea what was going on. I sent a message asking where exactly they wanted me to go. In response, I got a "planned load summary." I would be picking up in Winfield and running to Kansas City. So, as I understand it, this was just a traditional load assignment (deadhead to the shipper and deliver to the consignee). Why I was given the deadhead and told to board, I have no idea. Why I got straight to the head of the class from #8 on the board, I have no idea. Like I said, I'm not the question-asking type. All told, it was a 600 mile day plus $35 for the second drop, so I ain't complaining. Last week was a little slow.
The pickup in Winfield turned out to be a drop/hook, so I was able to get in and out fairly quickly and then make it up to I-35 before my 14 hours ran out. It looks like I'll have just enough time for a ten hour break and then around two and a half hours of driving before my dispatched arrival time. This is one of those drop/hook deals where I can get more time if I need it, but I would prefer to get empty as early as possible anyway, so hopefully the traffic will cooperate. My luck hasn't been so good over the last few days.
I got unloaded in Garland and then had to go down to Arlington for my second drop. I was given a dispatch of 34 miles and I had an hour to get there. Doesn't sound too bad, right? After thirty miles of fighting my way around construction barrels and rush hour traffic, I had fifteen minutes remaining so it still looked okay. Then it was apparently tea time in Dallas or something, as everything came to a screeching halt. Long story short - It was 46 miles, not 34, and it took an hour and a half. By the time I realized that my appointment time just wasn't happening, I had to call in and let CTL know. It was pretty close to the appointment time by then, so I couldn't exactly give them a lot of notice, but until things completely stopped I had no reason to think that I would be late. Oh well. What can you do?
The second store had a nice easy dock setup and the people worked quickly, so that was cool. I was #8 on the board when I got empty, so I pulled over behind the building and got ready to watch some golf. Two minutes later, I got a message saying to deadhead 352 miles to Winfield, Kansas and then go back on the board. Huh? I don't care to ask a lot of questions, so I just headed north.
As I rolled up I-35, I took a look at my truck stop directory to see if there might be a place to park in Winfield. In the past, whenever I've gotten one of those weird undetermined deadheads, they've sent me to a place with a big truck stop. There was no such place in Winfield, so I had no idea what was going on. I sent a message asking where exactly they wanted me to go. In response, I got a "planned load summary." I would be picking up in Winfield and running to Kansas City. So, as I understand it, this was just a traditional load assignment (deadhead to the shipper and deliver to the consignee). Why I was given the deadhead and told to board, I have no idea. Why I got straight to the head of the class from #8 on the board, I have no idea. Like I said, I'm not the question-asking type. All told, it was a 600 mile day plus $35 for the second drop, so I ain't complaining. Last week was a little slow.
The pickup in Winfield turned out to be a drop/hook, so I was able to get in and out fairly quickly and then make it up to I-35 before my 14 hours ran out. It looks like I'll have just enough time for a ten hour break and then around two and a half hours of driving before my dispatched arrival time. This is one of those drop/hook deals where I can get more time if I need it, but I would prefer to get empty as early as possible anyway, so hopefully the traffic will cooperate. My luck hasn't been so good over the last few days.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
6/15/08
Dude, since I couldn't get back to sleep after waking this morning, I just started driving. I had lofty plans for today. I was going to get to the customer, park the truck, grab some dinner, watch some golf, maybe do a little shopping, maybe catch a movie, and just generally enjoy the afternoon and evening.
I got to TX-78 off of I-635 in decent shape. All I had to do was run north a few miles and the day was done. Oops. TX-78 takes a right turn somewhere along the way. Your blogger was not aware of this. After driving a lot further than I was supposed to drive, and without seeing a shopping center, I knew I had screwed up. So I meandered along on whatever road that was, looking for an easy way to get back on course. I managed to find a way to get back on I-635 southbound (or eastbound or whatever) and double back. No big deal. Yeah. No big deal.
Traffic on I-635 was cool, for about a mile. Then it came to a dead stop. People in passenger cars were going off the on ramps and driving up the grassy knolls along the highway to get off the road. In my 31.75 years on this fair planet, I've only seen that in Texas, but I digress. The situation looked pretty rough, so I flipped on my CB to see what I could hear. Piecing together first-hand and second-hand accounts, it goes a little something like this... A big truck and either one, two, three, or four other vehicles crashed at either 7:30am, 9am, or 10am. One, two, or all of the vehicles caught fire. The road was either closed or down to just traffic creeping by on the shoulder for the bulk of the day.
I guess they opened it back up after I sat there for about an hour, according to those intrepid CB reporters. It still was slow going for the four miles that I had to cover, but life goes on. I got back around to TX-78 and went north... again.
Now, nobody will suggest that I'm great at reading signs and following directions. I'm not the worst at it, but I'm certainly far from the best. That being said, I think the folks in Garland need some better signage for that route. I'll be damned if I didn't just about miss the turn again. I spotted it in time though, followed the right route, and got to the shopping center.
Holy shit! Well, it's a real nice place. I'll give them that much. Bringing in a tractor-trailer? Nah, not so much. So, my directions say turn here and turn there and the customer is on that side. Bullshit. Those directions left me on a crowded street that should never, from here to eternity, hold anything larger than an Escalade. Talk about an obstacle course. Luckily for me, the one thing that I actually do fairly well out here is maneuver my truck. I got out of that one.
There were no loading docks facing the street to which I was directed, but I managed to spot the customer's building, so I circled around to the other side. That left me in a spot that was almost as bad as the street from which I had just extricated myself. The loading dock was 100% impossible to access on account of parked cars, so I had to set my mind to getting out of a second tight spot without hitting anything. I made it out. Like I said, the actual controlling of the truck is my strong suit.
I guess, if I had checked my directions more closely, I would have seen the last sentence - "Don't go in early." I didn't check that closely, so I didn't see that, so I did go in early, but anyway... I had to find a place to park until the stores closed and things cleared out. Driving all the way down to Lancaster, just to drive all the way back to Garland, sounded like a really annoying option. It also sounded like my only option, unless I got lucky. Hey, what do you know? I spotted a Christian bookstore with an empty parking lot maybe half a mile to the south. I imagine they don't open on Sundays, but in any case there was room for me to pull in and park.
I got some delicious soft tacos with no lettuce from the fine folks at Taco Bell and started looking for a decent video stream of the U.S. Open. Some more fine folks (at channelsurfing.net) were happy to oblige, so I got to see the last six or seven holes. That putt that Woods hit on 18... holy shit. What else can you say? Easily the best 18th hole since Payne Stewart nine or ten years ago at Pinehurst. The 18-hole playoff on Monday might just be my favorite part about the U.S. Open. Screw TV, screw travel plans, screw it all. This game is played for 18 holes, and if you want to be the champ, you'll win over the course of 18 holes. I love it.
I hung out in that lot until 10pm or so, then headed back to try the loading dock area. That was just about the time the employees were filing out, so I got backed in within a few minutes. I decided to go for a walk and see if I could find anything to do. This shopping center has several restaurants, several stores, and a movie theater. Unfortunately, everything was closed at 9pm on Sundays. Story of life man. The theater was still open, so I got to check out Kung Fu Panda. Decent, I guess.
Now I have to wait for morning, get unloded here, then head to Arlington. Judging by where the employees' cars were parked when I got over here tonight, I'm not entirely sure how I am supposed to leave in the morning, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
PS: Tigers won and Sox lost. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...
I got to TX-78 off of I-635 in decent shape. All I had to do was run north a few miles and the day was done. Oops. TX-78 takes a right turn somewhere along the way. Your blogger was not aware of this. After driving a lot further than I was supposed to drive, and without seeing a shopping center, I knew I had screwed up. So I meandered along on whatever road that was, looking for an easy way to get back on course. I managed to find a way to get back on I-635 southbound (or eastbound or whatever) and double back. No big deal. Yeah. No big deal.
Traffic on I-635 was cool, for about a mile. Then it came to a dead stop. People in passenger cars were going off the on ramps and driving up the grassy knolls along the highway to get off the road. In my 31.75 years on this fair planet, I've only seen that in Texas, but I digress. The situation looked pretty rough, so I flipped on my CB to see what I could hear. Piecing together first-hand and second-hand accounts, it goes a little something like this... A big truck and either one, two, three, or four other vehicles crashed at either 7:30am, 9am, or 10am. One, two, or all of the vehicles caught fire. The road was either closed or down to just traffic creeping by on the shoulder for the bulk of the day.
I guess they opened it back up after I sat there for about an hour, according to those intrepid CB reporters. It still was slow going for the four miles that I had to cover, but life goes on. I got back around to TX-78 and went north... again.
Now, nobody will suggest that I'm great at reading signs and following directions. I'm not the worst at it, but I'm certainly far from the best. That being said, I think the folks in Garland need some better signage for that route. I'll be damned if I didn't just about miss the turn again. I spotted it in time though, followed the right route, and got to the shopping center.
Holy shit! Well, it's a real nice place. I'll give them that much. Bringing in a tractor-trailer? Nah, not so much. So, my directions say turn here and turn there and the customer is on that side. Bullshit. Those directions left me on a crowded street that should never, from here to eternity, hold anything larger than an Escalade. Talk about an obstacle course. Luckily for me, the one thing that I actually do fairly well out here is maneuver my truck. I got out of that one.
There were no loading docks facing the street to which I was directed, but I managed to spot the customer's building, so I circled around to the other side. That left me in a spot that was almost as bad as the street from which I had just extricated myself. The loading dock was 100% impossible to access on account of parked cars, so I had to set my mind to getting out of a second tight spot without hitting anything. I made it out. Like I said, the actual controlling of the truck is my strong suit.
I guess, if I had checked my directions more closely, I would have seen the last sentence - "Don't go in early." I didn't check that closely, so I didn't see that, so I did go in early, but anyway... I had to find a place to park until the stores closed and things cleared out. Driving all the way down to Lancaster, just to drive all the way back to Garland, sounded like a really annoying option. It also sounded like my only option, unless I got lucky. Hey, what do you know? I spotted a Christian bookstore with an empty parking lot maybe half a mile to the south. I imagine they don't open on Sundays, but in any case there was room for me to pull in and park.
I got some delicious soft tacos with no lettuce from the fine folks at Taco Bell and started looking for a decent video stream of the U.S. Open. Some more fine folks (at channelsurfing.net) were happy to oblige, so I got to see the last six or seven holes. That putt that Woods hit on 18... holy shit. What else can you say? Easily the best 18th hole since Payne Stewart nine or ten years ago at Pinehurst. The 18-hole playoff on Monday might just be my favorite part about the U.S. Open. Screw TV, screw travel plans, screw it all. This game is played for 18 holes, and if you want to be the champ, you'll win over the course of 18 holes. I love it.
I hung out in that lot until 10pm or so, then headed back to try the loading dock area. That was just about the time the employees were filing out, so I got backed in within a few minutes. I decided to go for a walk and see if I could find anything to do. This shopping center has several restaurants, several stores, and a movie theater. Unfortunately, everything was closed at 9pm on Sundays. Story of life man. The theater was still open, so I got to check out Kung Fu Panda. Decent, I guess.
Now I have to wait for morning, get unloded here, then head to Arlington. Judging by where the employees' cars were parked when I got over here tonight, I'm not entirely sure how I am supposed to leave in the morning, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
PS: Tigers won and Sox lost. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...
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