12/31/09

There is apparently an endless list of things that can piss me off. I heard on the radio a few days ago that tonight would bring the rare 'blue moon' for all of us to see. I had always heard the expression and looked forward to having a chance to check it out. Then, as I was angry to learn, I found that a 'blue moon' isn't blue at all. It's just a second full moon in a month. What a bunch of bullshit. That one pissed me right off.

I had time for a nice long nap in Deming, New Mexico during my overnight trip to El Paso. Then I got back out and scooted over to our drop yard before the morning traffic on I-10 started to pick up. I sent in my 'relay made' form and found myself on the board at #15. Beauty. Should be plenty of time to get some sleep.

I was out like a light as soon as I hit the bunk. Then, around three and a half hours later, my satellite unit chirped at me with a new assignment. When it comes to loads out of El Paso, there is one main criterion for which I look - I want the load to start from our drop yard. Otherwise I have to drive twenty miles back to the west for free, since I'm still considered to be in El Paso. Then I have to wait to get loaded and often drive the other twenty miles back to where I started before I actually begin to earn any money. When the loaded trailer is already at the yard (as this one turned out to be), I get to grab it and go.

Err, I would get to grab it and go, if not for the folks who will soon be running... oh, forget it. You know the rant by now. Our federal government and so forth. No, you see, by the time I got my assignment, 14 hours had passed since I left Avondale last night. Regardless of how I felt or how my day was going, the career bureaucrats dictated that I was staying put in El Paso all day. I walked over and made sure that the assigned trailer was actually present (not always a given) and then confirmed my assignment. After going back to bed for another few hours, I woke feeling very refreshed and ready to take on the world. Or, you know, to sit around in a drop yard with my thumb up my ass. It's pretty much the same thing.

After my ten hour break was complete, I hooked to my loaded trailer and scooted out of town. This trip is a nice solid 1,640 mile deal taking me to Western Michigan for Monday evening. I drove up to the Flying J in Pecos tonight before deciding to shut down and try to get back on a more normal schedule for a while. My Swedish buddy Sjoe is no longer thirsty this evening, shall we say, so a good night of sleep with no alarm clock will probably have us right on track.

This dispatch is obviously my last for the year, so the total miles will finish at 117,891. What is that, a little over 6,000 miles below last year? I think that's the case. Probably to be expected as I look back over some of those pay periods in February and March of this year. Some lean times in the trucking business overall and some wild fluctuations in my little slice of that business. I did spend 70 days at home though so, in a bit of a surprise, I was on the road a little less than I was last year. Still, there's no doubt that business was a bit slower.

On the 'dollars and cents' end, this is the first full year of this job during which my pay rate didn't change. I leveled off at 38 cents per mile in the summer of '08 and won't get my next (half cent) pay raise for a few more months. My safety bonus inched up a little at some point this year but it goes in quarter-cent increments, so the increases are not all that notable. Layover pay and such are irregular but their rates too were unchanged from '08 to '09. I finished the year right at $51,000, slightly more than $3,000 down from 2008's final number.

Overall, given the tales of woe from around the country (and especially from where I live), I have no complaints. I had hoped to keep this year's earnings fairly close to last year's and it looks like we were at least in the ballpark. Obviously I would have preferred another $54K, but $51K will do. Fortunately for me, I'm not living from paycheck to paycheck like some of my counterparts on the road are, so good enough. My impression as the months went by had been that I was home even less this year but, after reviewing things, I see that this was not the case. It does make sense though, in hindsight. I took at least a week off each time I went home (in addition to catching a day or two here and there as the freight took me to Michigan). So, while I may not have taken as many stretches of time off, those stretches lasted a little longer than in previous years. Our friend in Alaska will no doubt be relieved to know that I'm not in the poor house just yet, given his concern for us underpaid "coolie carrier" suckers and such.

The rest of this trip should set up pretty nicely in terms of scheduling. Between six and seven hours of driving per day should find me right where I need to be, assuming that no weather issues interfere. On a somewhat related note, my preferred amount of driving is between six and seven hours per day. Beauty.

You've seen and heard all of the year-in-review crap for a few days now, I'm sure. I still think that the folks at JibJab sum it up more effectively than anybody though. Happy New Year everyone...

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