One of those days where I guess I'll just be disgruntled and sing the blues. I came into the last day of a pay period with 1901 miles... and ended the pay period with 1908 miles. Yeah.
The added seven miles covered my deadhead from Groveport, where I dropped last night, to Lockbourne. All of my unpaid westbound miles to find parking last night will be doubled when I go back east to pick up. That's not really a big deal. It just goes that way sometimes. The bad part is that I pick up at 3am and deliver at 10am. I did manage to sleep last night, of course. Normally that would be a good thing. Now it means that I've been completely unable to get to sleep today. The overnight run should be a real treat. My pickup and delivery are also listed as the same location, so I guess we'll just see what that's all about when the time comes.
With the northeast pay mixed in, I'll crack $800 for the week. I have my vacation pay coming on this paycheck, so I'm not terribly worried about the money. The timing of everything just made for a pretty shitty weekend. Hanging around a ghetto drop yard all day today, knowing that I have to drive all night tonight, is not exactly fun. And the Tigers lost again. Woe is me.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
7/11/08
I got beeped nice and early this morning. That was good. I had to go over to Bayonne and pick up a load heading back to the Columbus area. My five mile dispatch was rather humorous. I suppose that Bayonne may be five miles from Newark, but that's not how it worked out for me. First, you have the twelve miles that I drove last night in order to find a parking space. Then there's the six miles that it took this morning to get headed back north, since I was on the southbound side of the highway. Then there was the retracing of the miles from my parking spot to the I-78 interchange. Then there were the half-assed ambiguous directions and shitty signage that had me driving around the neighborhoods of Bayonne for a while. Par for the course, I guess.
After I found my way back to the truck route and eventually located my shipper, I was assigned to a door and loaded quickly. I knew that I had roughly a nine hour drive ahead of me. The question was whether it would be a long nine hours or an easy nine hours. The 13,000 pounds on the paperwork gave me hope. Going through those hills with a heavy one can be tedious. Today I had a fairly pleasant ride, retracing yesterday's route in reverse.
I had enough time on my dispatch to take a ten hour break tonight and then finish off the trip early in the morning. Knowing what I know about the consignee though, I decided to knock out the full trip and make my drop/hook tonight. They tend to take in a bunch of loaded trailers on the weekend and then run out of empties until they unload everything during the week. Better to get an empty and get on the board tonight, I suspect.
I was #1 when I got on the board, late at night, with nowhere to park. I decided to take the loop around to the west side of Columbus and park at our drop yard for the night. Since that was about a 25 mile drive, I'll probably get sent back to the east for my next load. That seems to be the way it goes. I'm up to 1,900 miles plus $65 in northeast pay for the week now, so one more decent trip over the weekend will do the trick.
After I found my way back to the truck route and eventually located my shipper, I was assigned to a door and loaded quickly. I knew that I had roughly a nine hour drive ahead of me. The question was whether it would be a long nine hours or an easy nine hours. The 13,000 pounds on the paperwork gave me hope. Going through those hills with a heavy one can be tedious. Today I had a fairly pleasant ride, retracing yesterday's route in reverse.
I had enough time on my dispatch to take a ten hour break tonight and then finish off the trip early in the morning. Knowing what I know about the consignee though, I decided to knock out the full trip and make my drop/hook tonight. They tend to take in a bunch of loaded trailers on the weekend and then run out of empties until they unload everything during the week. Better to get an empty and get on the board tonight, I suspect.
I was #1 when I got on the board, late at night, with nowhere to park. I decided to take the loop around to the west side of Columbus and park at our drop yard for the night. Since that was about a 25 mile drive, I'll probably get sent back to the east for my next load. That seems to be the way it goes. I'm up to 1,900 miles plus $65 in northeast pay for the week now, so one more decent trip over the weekend will do the trick.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
7/10/08
Ahhh yes, sleeping at a ConWay yard. This just seems to be something that I cannot do. After tossing and turning all night, I think I may have possibly fallen asleep for a couple of hours before the alarm kicked me out of bed. My trailer was loaded and ready to go at 4:30am, and thus began my day.
It was a nice 19,000 pounder, which is pretty light for a ConWay run. I-70/I-76/I-81/I-78... I really don't remember any significant traffic along the way, other than a few little construction zones. Newark is Newark, but that's a whole other deal when it comes to traffic.
I took my time at the ConWay yard making my drop/hook after sending in my forms. I was hoping to get another plan summary while I was there, so that I would have an idea about which direction to go when I left the yard. On every previous trip to that facility, I've been pre-assigned to pick up a load from a shipper in Meshoppen, Pennsylvania. This time around though, I had no pre-plan so I was a little bit out of luck vis-a-vis parking. After sudying my options about as thoroughly as someone like me can study his options, I headed south on the turnpike to the first service plaza. It was the usual scenario here - one spot left and I took it.
When I got on the board this afternoon, I was #1. After eating some dinner and taking a nice long nap, I'm still #1. I've had eight hours of down time, so I can extend my 14 hour clock to include the two hours that I have yet to drive. Then, by the time I sit through those two hours, I will have had a ten hour break and we'll be ready for whatever comes up next. This is the fedspeak way of saying that I shouldn't have to come off the board tonight and that I expect to get something quickly tomorrow morning. Sitting presently at 1,367 miles plus around $45 in northeast pay, I could use a couple of average runs by this weekend and all will be good.
It was a nice 19,000 pounder, which is pretty light for a ConWay run. I-70/I-76/I-81/I-78... I really don't remember any significant traffic along the way, other than a few little construction zones. Newark is Newark, but that's a whole other deal when it comes to traffic.
I took my time at the ConWay yard making my drop/hook after sending in my forms. I was hoping to get another plan summary while I was there, so that I would have an idea about which direction to go when I left the yard. On every previous trip to that facility, I've been pre-assigned to pick up a load from a shipper in Meshoppen, Pennsylvania. This time around though, I had no pre-plan so I was a little bit out of luck vis-a-vis parking. After sudying my options about as thoroughly as someone like me can study his options, I headed south on the turnpike to the first service plaza. It was the usual scenario here - one spot left and I took it.
When I got on the board this afternoon, I was #1. After eating some dinner and taking a nice long nap, I'm still #1. I've had eight hours of down time, so I can extend my 14 hour clock to include the two hours that I have yet to drive. Then, by the time I sit through those two hours, I will have had a ten hour break and we'll be ready for whatever comes up next. This is the fedspeak way of saying that I shouldn't have to come off the board tonight and that I expect to get something quickly tomorrow morning. Sitting presently at 1,367 miles plus around $45 in northeast pay, I could use a couple of average runs by this weekend and all will be good.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
7/9/08
Light day. Easy day. Yada, yada, yada. I had a 5:15pm appointment and I couldn't unload early, so I spent the early part of the day hanging around the truck stop. While I was waiting to leave, I got a pre-plan so I guess we'll see if we can start another winning streak.
The drive down was 80 miles and nothing special. Just a quick hop down I-71 and then across on US-35. I remembered my little run-in with the low bridge on US-62 a while back, so I didn't take that route today. Even though I passed under the last time with a ton of room to spare, I assume that there's a reason the sign says 13'5". So I stayed on the freeway.
At the WalMart DC I had to drop my trailer and park in front of it while I got unloaded. As I was waiting in line to give my paperwork to the ladies, I kept hearing them tell the others drivers that it costs $50 to have WalMart unload their trailers. Those unloading fees aren't a huge deal, but it's just one more thing. When I got to the window, she said that mine was unloaded for free. That's right, I'm special. (Or maybe our shipper pays the fees. Probably I'm just special.)
After a couple of hours waiting to get unloaded and then waiting in line for my paperwork, I was headed north to Columbus. My pre-planned load is a ConWay run leaving in the morning and heading to Newark, New Jersey. That ConWay in Newark is always a fun one. I dropped off my empty trailer and headed out to find some dinner. The Wendy's down the street has a truck lot out in the back, so that sounded good to me. I should get to sleep pretty soon here, but the Tigers are going to extra innings. Gotta see how this one turns out.
The drive down was 80 miles and nothing special. Just a quick hop down I-71 and then across on US-35. I remembered my little run-in with the low bridge on US-62 a while back, so I didn't take that route today. Even though I passed under the last time with a ton of room to spare, I assume that there's a reason the sign says 13'5". So I stayed on the freeway.
At the WalMart DC I had to drop my trailer and park in front of it while I got unloaded. As I was waiting in line to give my paperwork to the ladies, I kept hearing them tell the others drivers that it costs $50 to have WalMart unload their trailers. Those unloading fees aren't a huge deal, but it's just one more thing. When I got to the window, she said that mine was unloaded for free. That's right, I'm special. (Or maybe our shipper pays the fees. Probably I'm just special.)
After a couple of hours waiting to get unloaded and then waiting in line for my paperwork, I was headed north to Columbus. My pre-planned load is a ConWay run leaving in the morning and heading to Newark, New Jersey. That ConWay in Newark is always a fun one. I dropped off my empty trailer and headed out to find some dinner. The Wendy's down the street has a truck lot out in the back, so that sounded good to me. I should get to sleep pretty soon here, but the Tigers are going to extra innings. Gotta see how this one turns out.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
7/8/08
Another day, another road closure. Today it was I-90 in Pennsylvania. Apparently someone smacked into a dump truck in the construction zone. Nice. I didn't get any bright ideas this time around. I just sat tight for about a half hour until they got things moving again.
Since I finally have a load with a favorable timetable, I managed to stop at the Kenworth dealer south of Cleveland and get a couple of things fixed. I needed a new wiring harness for my right turn signal and my left fuel tank was rotated a little too far. That only took an hour or so and then I was back on the road.
The rest of the drive was a rainy and tedious affair. The storms did get pretty intense, but that wasn't the issue. As always, people were hanging out in all three lanes and going way too slowly. That sucks. I had the choice to go 25mph on the interstate or to weave my way between cars going 25mph on the interstate. The latter usually ends up being the best option, but I prefer not to have to do that. Oh well. I got down to the Flying J north of Columbus and stopped for the night. I'll roll down the rest of the way tomorrow afternoon.
Since I finally have a load with a favorable timetable, I managed to stop at the Kenworth dealer south of Cleveland and get a couple of things fixed. I needed a new wiring harness for my right turn signal and my left fuel tank was rotated a little too far. That only took an hour or so and then I was back on the road.
The rest of the drive was a rainy and tedious affair. The storms did get pretty intense, but that wasn't the issue. As always, people were hanging out in all three lanes and going way too slowly. That sucks. I had the choice to go 25mph on the interstate or to weave my way between cars going 25mph on the interstate. The latter usually ends up being the best option, but I prefer not to have to do that. Oh well. I got down to the Flying J north of Columbus and stopped for the night. I'll roll down the rest of the way tomorrow afternoon.
Monday, July 7, 2008
7/7/08
I got back on the board this morning whenever the sun greenhousified my truck. I was #1, so that was good news. I guess it was an hour or two until I received my assignment, but I really wasn't paying attention. I had to shoot over to Plattsburgh, New York and grab a load headed to Ohio. My dispatched miles for the deadhead came in at 52. I punched the route into a couple of routing programs, and the damned ferry issue came up again. I checked the route that CTL's software gave me. Yeah, ferry. I looked online and found that the ferry in question would be $47 and also that I may or may not even be allowed on the route to the ferry location. Pain in the ass.
So I looked over my atlas. It seemed to indicate that the crossings to my immediate south and to my north were both ferry crossings. The other crossing within a reasonable distance, down by the state park in New York, is the illegal bridge that I accidentally managed to use last summer. So then, what? I could go back down to US-4, the way I entered Vermont. That would make my trip 250 miles or something like that. I sent a message asking if the $47 was okay or if they wanted to pay the longer miles.
Just then, I got a message from a lady in CTL's permit department asking me to call her and discuss my route. She noted that I couldn't go down VT-17 (to my illegal bridge) since Vermont wouldn't give us a permit to use that road. After bouncing around a few ideas, she said that I could take VT-78 across the top of the lake and that I would be fine. This didn't jive with my atlas, but it looked okay according to my newfound Vermont PDF document, so that's how I went. It was 54 miles, with no ferries and no tolls, and all was fine.
At the shipper, I was expecting a drop/hook, as my plan summary had indicated. It turned out to be a live load and I was there for quite a while before they got me rolling. I had arrived early anyway, so that's just the way it goes sometimes. Then I got to head for Ohio with a nice and easy 15,000 pound load.
Here we go again with the routing. My paid miles are 750 for the loaded run. I could go down I-87 and cut across to I-90, making the trip around 790 or so. That would likely be the quickest option. I could come out of Plattsburgh and take NY-3 across the middle of the state to I-81, then drop down to I-90. That would get me close to the 750 miles that I'm getting paid, but it looked pretty twisty on the map. I could angle north to US-11 and follow that all the way around to I-81. That looked like it would probably be quicker than NY-3 and the miles were pretty similar, so that's how I went. The load is light and I had two full days to get it there. My appointment is for 5:15pm on Wednesday. I figured I might as well try to keep the miles down and enjoy the scenery a little.
On US-11, I was rolling along and minding my business when traffic came to a dead stop. A truck had rolled over, blocking the road, and things were completely shut down. After I sat for about a half hour, the driver of a car walked up and talked to the cops. As he passed back by me, he said that it might be a couple of hours before the road was open again. If I had a 'here comes a bad decision' logo, I wouldn't insert it now...
I checked my atlas and saw that I could double back on US-11 to NY-190. Then it looked like I could take NY-190 west past all the trouble and catch back up with US-11. There was a dirt construction lot to my immediate left, so I pulled a U-turn and headed back ten or fifteen miles. NY-190 was a fine road and I was thinking that I had made a good call. Then I saw a sign saying that NY-190 ends and that the rest of what I thought was NY-190 has a 5 ton weight limit. Shit. I could go right or left, but I couldn't continue straight. To my right was US-11, meaning I would sit in the same backup that I had just left. Nah, I turned left.
The road had too many twists and turns for me to check my map as I drove and it was too skinny for me to pull over and check the map. I was officially rudderless. About all I knew was that the sun was in the southwest sky in the late afternoon. Like a good little sailor, I started following the sun. By the grace of God, I managed to snake my way through the mountains without getting into any jams, then somehow caught up with NY-3. That turned out to be a pretty sweet ride, but I had added a ton of miles to the route in the process of wandering through the Adirondacks. Oh well.
Aside from a few towns where the routing was rather bizarre, NY-3 was just a winding hilly road all the way across. For the most part, I could set the cruise and enjoy the scenery. Traffic was virtually nonexistent and my load wasn't heavy enough to cause any trouble. By the time I dropped down on I-81 to the Thruway, I was ready to eat something and call it a night. The first service plaza was full, but I found a spot at the next one. That'll do for today. I can knock out either some or all of the trip tomorrow from here. I'm delivering to a Wal-Mart DC, so I'm not getting unloaded before Wednesday evening anyway. We'll see how it goes.
So I looked over my atlas. It seemed to indicate that the crossings to my immediate south and to my north were both ferry crossings. The other crossing within a reasonable distance, down by the state park in New York, is the illegal bridge that I accidentally managed to use last summer. So then, what? I could go back down to US-4, the way I entered Vermont. That would make my trip 250 miles or something like that. I sent a message asking if the $47 was okay or if they wanted to pay the longer miles.
Just then, I got a message from a lady in CTL's permit department asking me to call her and discuss my route. She noted that I couldn't go down VT-17 (to my illegal bridge) since Vermont wouldn't give us a permit to use that road. After bouncing around a few ideas, she said that I could take VT-78 across the top of the lake and that I would be fine. This didn't jive with my atlas, but it looked okay according to my newfound Vermont PDF document, so that's how I went. It was 54 miles, with no ferries and no tolls, and all was fine.
At the shipper, I was expecting a drop/hook, as my plan summary had indicated. It turned out to be a live load and I was there for quite a while before they got me rolling. I had arrived early anyway, so that's just the way it goes sometimes. Then I got to head for Ohio with a nice and easy 15,000 pound load.
Here we go again with the routing. My paid miles are 750 for the loaded run. I could go down I-87 and cut across to I-90, making the trip around 790 or so. That would likely be the quickest option. I could come out of Plattsburgh and take NY-3 across the middle of the state to I-81, then drop down to I-90. That would get me close to the 750 miles that I'm getting paid, but it looked pretty twisty on the map. I could angle north to US-11 and follow that all the way around to I-81. That looked like it would probably be quicker than NY-3 and the miles were pretty similar, so that's how I went. The load is light and I had two full days to get it there. My appointment is for 5:15pm on Wednesday. I figured I might as well try to keep the miles down and enjoy the scenery a little.
On US-11, I was rolling along and minding my business when traffic came to a dead stop. A truck had rolled over, blocking the road, and things were completely shut down. After I sat for about a half hour, the driver of a car walked up and talked to the cops. As he passed back by me, he said that it might be a couple of hours before the road was open again. If I had a 'here comes a bad decision' logo, I wouldn't insert it now...
I checked my atlas and saw that I could double back on US-11 to NY-190. Then it looked like I could take NY-190 west past all the trouble and catch back up with US-11. There was a dirt construction lot to my immediate left, so I pulled a U-turn and headed back ten or fifteen miles. NY-190 was a fine road and I was thinking that I had made a good call. Then I saw a sign saying that NY-190 ends and that the rest of what I thought was NY-190 has a 5 ton weight limit. Shit. I could go right or left, but I couldn't continue straight. To my right was US-11, meaning I would sit in the same backup that I had just left. Nah, I turned left.
The road had too many twists and turns for me to check my map as I drove and it was too skinny for me to pull over and check the map. I was officially rudderless. About all I knew was that the sun was in the southwest sky in the late afternoon. Like a good little sailor, I started following the sun. By the grace of God, I managed to snake my way through the mountains without getting into any jams, then somehow caught up with NY-3. That turned out to be a pretty sweet ride, but I had added a ton of miles to the route in the process of wandering through the Adirondacks. Oh well.
Aside from a few towns where the routing was rather bizarre, NY-3 was just a winding hilly road all the way across. For the most part, I could set the cruise and enjoy the scenery. Traffic was virtually nonexistent and my load wasn't heavy enough to cause any trouble. By the time I dropped down on I-81 to the Thruway, I was ready to eat something and call it a night. The first service plaza was full, but I found a spot at the next one. That'll do for today. I can knock out either some or all of the trip tomorrow from here. I'm delivering to a Wal-Mart DC, so I'm not getting unloaded before Wednesday evening anyway. We'll see how it goes.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
7/6/08
Well, all good things must come to an end. It was a good run for a week, but today I finally delivered a load without having another one lined up ahead of time. I just took myself off the board so I can try to sleep for a while, so we'll have to see what comes up when I go back on duty in the morning.
The drive today was a pretty cool one. The roads that I took weren't bad at all and my load was a reasonable 14,000 pounds, so the hills weren't too bad either. The little tourist towns along the way were very crowded, so I had to stay on my toes, but driving this truck is the one thing that I actually do pretty well out here. It also helped that most of the traffic was moving west and south, heading home, while I was moving and east and north. The biggest logjams had more to do with pedestrians than anything else.
I got to the truck stop in Saint Alban's this afternoon and cooled my heels for a while before heading to the consignee. I had an 11pm appointment so I drove over there at 9:30pm to see what they would say. By 10:00pm, I was empty and back in my spot at the truck stop. Not bad.
The guy who picked up the load and relayed it to me had strapped in the last pallet to hold it steady in transit. He mentioned this as we made the exchange in Columbus, since I needed to give him a strap to replace the one in the trailer. When I opened the doors tonight I saw that the dude must be Hercules or something. He had ratcheted the strap way too tightly across the trailer, denting the cardboard shipping boxes on both sides of the pallet. I couldn't tell if the products inside the boxes were affected, but I expected the customer to say something to me about it. They said nothing, so I guess it was okay.
I was #1 on the board when I got empty tonight, so hopefully I will be right back there in the morning. I have no idea whether or not we have freight that originates this far to the north. The furthest I've ever been into New England was Houlton, Maine (furthest you can possibly go in New England). That time, after I got on the board, I was eventually sent to Pennsylvania in order to pick up my next load. Given the holiday weekend and production schedules and such, I don't have any great expectations for tomorrow. I should be able to get my vacation pay tacked onto my check though (just passed the two year mark), so it's all good.
The drive today was a pretty cool one. The roads that I took weren't bad at all and my load was a reasonable 14,000 pounds, so the hills weren't too bad either. The little tourist towns along the way were very crowded, so I had to stay on my toes, but driving this truck is the one thing that I actually do pretty well out here. It also helped that most of the traffic was moving west and south, heading home, while I was moving and east and north. The biggest logjams had more to do with pedestrians than anything else.
I got to the truck stop in Saint Alban's this afternoon and cooled my heels for a while before heading to the consignee. I had an 11pm appointment so I drove over there at 9:30pm to see what they would say. By 10:00pm, I was empty and back in my spot at the truck stop. Not bad.
The guy who picked up the load and relayed it to me had strapped in the last pallet to hold it steady in transit. He mentioned this as we made the exchange in Columbus, since I needed to give him a strap to replace the one in the trailer. When I opened the doors tonight I saw that the dude must be Hercules or something. He had ratcheted the strap way too tightly across the trailer, denting the cardboard shipping boxes on both sides of the pallet. I couldn't tell if the products inside the boxes were affected, but I expected the customer to say something to me about it. They said nothing, so I guess it was okay.
I was #1 on the board when I got empty tonight, so hopefully I will be right back there in the morning. I have no idea whether or not we have freight that originates this far to the north. The furthest I've ever been into New England was Houlton, Maine (furthest you can possibly go in New England). That time, after I got on the board, I was eventually sent to Pennsylvania in order to pick up my next load. Given the holiday weekend and production schedules and such, I don't have any great expectations for tomorrow. I should be able to get my vacation pay tacked onto my check though (just passed the two year mark), so it's all good.
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