I've never been terribly curious about what our new corporate brethren at the ConWay terminals think of their Truckload counterparts. Given that most people are prone to view their own economies, and the economy at large, as static entities rather than dynamic ones, it seemed to be a logical assumption that they should think that we're taking money away from the hardworking linehaul drivers whenever we pull one of these runs. Since we've picked up more ConWay business since the merger, I would assume that their opinion of us hasn't gotten any better.
As I checked in this morning, I was treated to a rather unprofessional confirmation of this assumption. It seems that we were scheduled to haul a given number of loads today but one of our drivers decided to park his truck at a truck stop and go home for good instead. To my mind, this seems to be a case of two companies getting screwed by one individual who doesn't have any class (if we accept that the story is even true). To the fella behind the counter - "Yeah, look what kind of drivers old Herb has working for him. Damn CFI can't handle the work so I have to break that trailer and put it on a Landspan..." There was quite a bit more to his lamentation but that sentence summarized the gist of it. Oh, the human drama.
For my part, my trailer was ready to go when I checked in a few hours early and the load is a nice and easy 18,000 pounds. After three straight trips with nearly 47,000 in the wagon, I'm sure my truck appreciates the break. I know I do. The traffic was nice and light in typical weekend fashion for the most part as I headed northward. I think that there's an unwritten law requiring an accident to occur near Atlanta whenever I'm passing through though. Today's was on I-85 just north of the loop. I got a break in that only the right lane was being allowed to pass. Most people had moved left when the backup started for some reason, leaving the right lane wide open for a couple of miles, so I scooted by with only a moderate delay. Otherwise it was smooth sailing on the open road.
I was toying with the idea of driving all the way to Virginia today and dropping this load off. It's due in Chester, Virginia by 5:30pm on Monday. Three days for 684 miles? That one's a little odd. I know that I won't be waiting that long to get there. The only question was whether or not I would make the whole trip in one shot or leave a few hours for tomorrow. About an hour into North Carolina this evening, I got my answer. The skies opened up and we caught a hell of a soaker for a little while. Driving in the rain doesn't bother me too much but it does seem to bother everyone else. I wasn't blessed with the patience to drive 35mph on the freeway so I ducked off in Salisbury to sit it out. By the time the storm passed I was sitting comfortably and not feeling too motivated to get back on the road. So a few hours tomorrow it will be.
My week wraps up looking pretty good on the pay ledger. It seemed like one hassle after another, but somehow I got 2,724 miles when all was said and done. I also got $105 in stop pay and $72 in northeast pay. I don't know how quickly my $35 in unloading pay will be processed, but that should be coming as well. The infamous UPS incident leaves me skeptical of this 'paperwork submitted' business that they do with certain types of extra pay. On the other hand, my local pay has come through on time whenever it has been processed that way. In any event, the weekly pay will be somewhere north of $1,200 so I'm content with that.
A nice cool, quiet, breezy evening... and a damned reefer just backed in next to me.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
5/8/09
The folks at the Fenian Godfather Institute are always on a quest to obtain as much knowledge as possible about the world around them. Today brought us an unmistakable lesson. Me on a powered pallet jack = comedy gold. We're talking 24 karat.
I was dispatched to deliver in Bessemer, Alabama at 2pm Central today. My instructions said quite specifically that early arrivals are absolutely unacceptable at this customer, so I slept through the morning's thunderstorms in Tennessee before heading southward. I pulled into the lot at 1pm and the security guard told me that they were closed. He assumed that I was arriving for an appointment tomorrow morning. No, I was told 2pm today, I informed him. He made a phone call and then directed me to a door where I could check in with the receiving department.
Thebitch lady in the receiving office yelled at me for missing my appointment this morning. As you may have deduced from the preceding paragraph, I knew nothing about a missed appointment. I thought I was an hour early. She then informed me that the load was either to be unloaded by the driver or a lumper was to be hired. I checked with the lumper boss to see if he had any ComChecks. If not, I would have to unload the trailer myself. I used my last ComCheck a few days ago. He told me that the lumpers had all gone home for the day anyway, so the ComCheck issue was irrelevant. I would have to pull the pallets off myself. Fine with me. We'll just grab a pallet jack and get to work...
They only had the powered jacks. Most places won't let drivers use the power equipment without OSHA certification and whatnot. They generally keep one or two manual jacks around for the drivers who don't wish to pay a lumper. This place gave me my choice of equipment and told me to have at it. One thing I learned pretty quickly is that you may think you're driving the pallet jack. If you don't know what you're doing though, the pallet jack drives you. It was pretty damn funny. I would get the pallet off the truck okay and then I was all over the place trying to drive it to the spot where I intended to set it down. Then, if I was off by a foot or two, I would end up being off by ten feet before I got the damn thing headed back in the right direction. It took me around an hour to get my trailer emptied out and the pallets lined up on the floor. Thirty-five bucks is thirty-five bucks though. I'll gladly take it as compensation for providing those guys with an hour's amusement.
I was empty for a half hour or so before receiving my next assignment. I had to drive about seven miles to the other side of town and set up for a ConWay load leaving tomorrow morning. I'm heading back up to Virginia with a load that has to drop by Monday morning. The directions say that I can drop 24/7 though, so I'll most likely get rid of it early on Sunday and set myself up for a good start to next week. This run will pay 684 miles, with the last handful getting the extra northeast pay tacked on. And, as an added bonus, there's none of that 4am nonsense on the weekends. I have to pick it up by 10am locally (or 11am civilized time). Good deal.
Now I have the rest of the night to marvel at the awesomeness of a photograph that costs $328,835 and one scapegoat's job... just beautiful.
I was dispatched to deliver in Bessemer, Alabama at 2pm Central today. My instructions said quite specifically that early arrivals are absolutely unacceptable at this customer, so I slept through the morning's thunderstorms in Tennessee before heading southward. I pulled into the lot at 1pm and the security guard told me that they were closed. He assumed that I was arriving for an appointment tomorrow morning. No, I was told 2pm today, I informed him. He made a phone call and then directed me to a door where I could check in with the receiving department.
The
They only had the powered jacks. Most places won't let drivers use the power equipment without OSHA certification and whatnot. They generally keep one or two manual jacks around for the drivers who don't wish to pay a lumper. This place gave me my choice of equipment and told me to have at it. One thing I learned pretty quickly is that you may think you're driving the pallet jack. If you don't know what you're doing though, the pallet jack drives you. It was pretty damn funny. I would get the pallet off the truck okay and then I was all over the place trying to drive it to the spot where I intended to set it down. Then, if I was off by a foot or two, I would end up being off by ten feet before I got the damn thing headed back in the right direction. It took me around an hour to get my trailer emptied out and the pallets lined up on the floor. Thirty-five bucks is thirty-five bucks though. I'll gladly take it as compensation for providing those guys with an hour's amusement.
I was empty for a half hour or so before receiving my next assignment. I had to drive about seven miles to the other side of town and set up for a ConWay load leaving tomorrow morning. I'm heading back up to Virginia with a load that has to drop by Monday morning. The directions say that I can drop 24/7 though, so I'll most likely get rid of it early on Sunday and set myself up for a good start to next week. This run will pay 684 miles, with the last handful getting the extra northeast pay tacked on. And, as an added bonus, there's none of that 4am nonsense on the weekends. I have to pick it up by 10am locally (or 11am civilized time). Good deal.
Now I have the rest of the night to marvel at the awesomeness of a photograph that costs $328,835 and one scapegoat's job... just beautiful.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
5/7/09
I saw the sun today. That's pretty sweet. Otherwise, I don't know, it just seemed like a long drag of a day. We know how much it sucks to pull a 47,000 pound payload through the hills and mountains. We know how much it sucks to drive for eleven hours. When you put them together, you get my Thursday on the job.
I made it past Knoxville to Niota, Tennessee today. That's some pretty solid mileage for a day's work and leaves me around four hours to my consignee in Bessemer, Alabama. The original plan summary said that the delivery was on Saturday morning at 9am. When my dispatch came through last night, it said that I am due to arrive by Friday at 2pm. Good deal. I just might be able to grab one more assignment this week after all.
Since the Wings got hosed in that last game, I kinda want to watch and see how they respond tonight. Alas, the last two days have me feeling pretty worn out. No guarantees that I'll be able to stay awake. Oh cool, the Tigers are losing 5-0 in the first inning. That one should be fun.
I made it past Knoxville to Niota, Tennessee today. That's some pretty solid mileage for a day's work and leaves me around four hours to my consignee in Bessemer, Alabama. The original plan summary said that the delivery was on Saturday morning at 9am. When my dispatch came through last night, it said that I am due to arrive by Friday at 2pm. Good deal. I just might be able to grab one more assignment this week after all.
Since the Wings got hosed in that last game, I kinda want to watch and see how they respond tonight. Alas, the last two days have me feeling pretty worn out. No guarantees that I'll be able to stay awake. Oh cool, the Tigers are losing 5-0 in the first inning. That one should be fun.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
5/6/09
Holy jeez, good golly Miss Molly, and all that nonsense. If uncertainty carried the day yesterday, then it kicked into another gear today.
I don't recall exactly what time the sun started to EZ Bake my truck this morning, but whenever it did I fired up the engine and kicked on the AC, then hopped back into bed. I awoke to a knock on my door an hour or two later. I was bugged by a few panhandlers last night, so my first inclination was to ignore the knocking. It struck me that most panhandlers don't knock on a door early in the morning when there's nobody in the driver's seat though. I got up and took a look out the window. It was the other CTL driver who is sharing in this little hard luck story with me. I shut down the engine and opened the door to see what was up. He asked if I had tried to deliver my load again. I hadn't, as I was waiting for the go-ahead from my fleet manager.
He said that he had gone over to the consignee early in the morning and they had rejected his load a second time. In the 27 miles from Fayetteville to Dunn, the pallets had tipped over again. So we headed to the back of my trailer and opened the doors. Yikes. It looked worse than it had when I arrived at the consignee the first time around. So the people in Joplin told him (and by extension told me) to stay put while they worked on the situation. I don't know that I'm at liberty to divulge how much they had paid the shop in Fayetteville for the restacking, but holy shit! Considering that we couldn't even make a straight 27 mile trip up I-95 without the load shifting, I think my employer got hosed on that deal. Maybe they'll negotiate a better price in the end. I don't know.
In any case, I was still in limbo and there was no point in trying to deliver the load at that point. After a couple of hours, I was apprised of the next step in the grand plan. Haul the water back to Pennsylvania and return it to the shipper. As far as my (insignificant peon) end of things, this didn't work out too terribly. I got another 477 miles to head back north plus another chunk of northeast pay. Plus it worked out such that Breinigsville was Stop #1, Dunn was Stop #2, Fayetteville was Stop #3, Dunn was Stop #4, and Breinigsville was Stop #5. Three extra stops meant $105 in accesorial pay for me. It doesn't quite completely mitigate a day of lost work but it does help. I also got a pre-planned load leaving the same shipper tonight, so that was good. As far as the company's end of the deal, what a mess. Paying two drivers and burning the fuel to go from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and back is not very good. Nor is paying some fly-by-night shop for a useless restack of two trailers very good. Oh well. The way the cookie crumbles and whatnot.
I got up to the shipper in Pennsylvania this evening and pulled up to the little phone that they use for the check-in process. Thebitch lady on the other end said that I wasn't dropping anything without a return authorization number. I knew nothing of this authorization number so I had to park and call Joplin again. (I think we've used up my quota of phone calls to Joplin for 2009 at this point.) None of the night dispatchers seemed to have any idea what was the story. My colleague was parked a few spaces down from me at the time, going through the same runaround. After a little while, he got a return authorization number. I did not.
The person to whom I was talking seemed to be fixated on insignificant details regarding things that had already been resolved. I was trying to get her to understand that it didn't matter why the load had been rejected, it didn't matter who had told me to come back to Pennsylvania, and it didn't matter whether or not I knew the name of the lady who wouldn't let me drop my trailer. I needed a damn return authorization number. That was all. The rest had already been handled. After several pointless minutes, I agreed to get the name of the lady and then call back. Yeah, I still don't know that lady's name and I didn't call back. The other driver told me that whoever was helping him had said that she was working on my situation too. Good enough for me. No need to have another asinine phone conversation.
By this time my comrade had dropped his trailer and checked in to pick up his next load. He had gotten the same pre-planned assignment as I had. The new loads were scheduled as drop/hooks but the shipper didn't have any of our trailers available. Ipso facto we weren't picking up any pre-loaded trailers. Nor were we getting live loaded (since you also need an empty trailer to do that). We were right back in limbo... again.
After 45 minutes of wrangling, I got my return authorization number and made it in to drop my full trailer. Then the focus shifted squarely to finding an empty. After being told 'yes we have empties'/'no we don't' a few times, I tracked down a yard dog. He was able to find an empty for me and one for my new friend there, so we were finally able to check in and get loaded.
I write to you this evening from the lovely loading docks in Breingisville. It looks like I'll be ready to roll pretty soon. I think I'll pull around the corner and take a nap since my log book is pretty well shot for today. Then it will be out to the big road and down to Alabama. The upshot of the festivities of the last couple of days is that I'll be empty on Saturday morning with 2,040 miles, $105 in stop pay, and quite a few extra nickels for the northeast miles. We'll have to see how the week wraps up from there. Getting a dispatch for a Saturday hasn't been anything close to a sure thing lately.
I don't recall exactly what time the sun started to EZ Bake my truck this morning, but whenever it did I fired up the engine and kicked on the AC, then hopped back into bed. I awoke to a knock on my door an hour or two later. I was bugged by a few panhandlers last night, so my first inclination was to ignore the knocking. It struck me that most panhandlers don't knock on a door early in the morning when there's nobody in the driver's seat though. I got up and took a look out the window. It was the other CTL driver who is sharing in this little hard luck story with me. I shut down the engine and opened the door to see what was up. He asked if I had tried to deliver my load again. I hadn't, as I was waiting for the go-ahead from my fleet manager.
He said that he had gone over to the consignee early in the morning and they had rejected his load a second time. In the 27 miles from Fayetteville to Dunn, the pallets had tipped over again. So we headed to the back of my trailer and opened the doors. Yikes. It looked worse than it had when I arrived at the consignee the first time around. So the people in Joplin told him (and by extension told me) to stay put while they worked on the situation. I don't know that I'm at liberty to divulge how much they had paid the shop in Fayetteville for the restacking, but holy shit! Considering that we couldn't even make a straight 27 mile trip up I-95 without the load shifting, I think my employer got hosed on that deal. Maybe they'll negotiate a better price in the end. I don't know.
In any case, I was still in limbo and there was no point in trying to deliver the load at that point. After a couple of hours, I was apprised of the next step in the grand plan. Haul the water back to Pennsylvania and return it to the shipper. As far as my (insignificant peon) end of things, this didn't work out too terribly. I got another 477 miles to head back north plus another chunk of northeast pay. Plus it worked out such that Breinigsville was Stop #1, Dunn was Stop #2, Fayetteville was Stop #3, Dunn was Stop #4, and Breinigsville was Stop #5. Three extra stops meant $105 in accesorial pay for me. It doesn't quite completely mitigate a day of lost work but it does help. I also got a pre-planned load leaving the same shipper tonight, so that was good. As far as the company's end of the deal, what a mess. Paying two drivers and burning the fuel to go from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and back is not very good. Nor is paying some fly-by-night shop for a useless restack of two trailers very good. Oh well. The way the cookie crumbles and whatnot.
I got up to the shipper in Pennsylvania this evening and pulled up to the little phone that they use for the check-in process. The
The person to whom I was talking seemed to be fixated on insignificant details regarding things that had already been resolved. I was trying to get her to understand that it didn't matter why the load had been rejected, it didn't matter who had told me to come back to Pennsylvania, and it didn't matter whether or not I knew the name of the lady who wouldn't let me drop my trailer. I needed a damn return authorization number. That was all. The rest had already been handled. After several pointless minutes, I agreed to get the name of the lady and then call back. Yeah, I still don't know that lady's name and I didn't call back. The other driver told me that whoever was helping him had said that she was working on my situation too. Good enough for me. No need to have another asinine phone conversation.
By this time my comrade had dropped his trailer and checked in to pick up his next load. He had gotten the same pre-planned assignment as I had. The new loads were scheduled as drop/hooks but the shipper didn't have any of our trailers available. Ipso facto we weren't picking up any pre-loaded trailers. Nor were we getting live loaded (since you also need an empty trailer to do that). We were right back in limbo... again.
After 45 minutes of wrangling, I got my return authorization number and made it in to drop my full trailer. Then the focus shifted squarely to finding an empty. After being told 'yes we have empties'/'no we don't' a few times, I tracked down a yard dog. He was able to find an empty for me and one for my new friend there, so we were finally able to check in and get loaded.
I write to you this evening from the lovely loading docks in Breingisville. It looks like I'll be ready to roll pretty soon. I think I'll pull around the corner and take a nap since my log book is pretty well shot for today. Then it will be out to the big road and down to Alabama. The upshot of the festivities of the last couple of days is that I'll be empty on Saturday morning with 2,040 miles, $105 in stop pay, and quite a few extra nickels for the northeast miles. We'll have to see how the week wraps up from there. Getting a dispatch for a Saturday hasn't been anything close to a sure thing lately.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
5/5/09
So I slept soundly last night. It was nice and cool. There were no trucks idling nearby. Everything was set up nicely for my little five mile trip to the consignee this morning. And... you know what that means. Time for something to go wrong.
I checked in with the security guard once I arrived and then began the procedural dance. Park in the gravel lot. Walk to the receiving office and check in. Wait in the truck until they call on Channel 16. Answer the CB. Proceed to my door. Back in. Unhook from the trailer and wait inside by my dock door. Go out to the truck and get a ComCheck for the lumper. Wait for them to call on Channel 16 and tell me that I can leave.
Yeah, I got that call after a couple of hours. "ConWay in Door 96, you can park in the gravel lot and walk to the receiving office for your paperwork." Well that sounds pretty basic. I sent in my empty call before hooking to my trailer and leaving. As I started to back under the trailer, it didn't feel like it was empty. I had to press the accelerator a little to get my truck to scoot under. That's unusual. Maybe the fifth wheel needs some grease or something. I pulled forward a few feet and went back to close the doors. Umm. My trailer was full of bottled water. Guess I shouldn't have sent that empty call after all. I walked inside and asked the lumpers to explain what was going on. No explanation from them. I closed it up and headed out to the gravel lot, then walked to the receiving office. The lady in there ignored my question but kindly stamped my paperwork. Load shifted. Refused.
There were no issues visible when I opened the door, so as nearly as I can tell they got halfway into the trailer before seeing a problem and deciding to stop unloading. Then they piled the pallets back in and tossed a bunch of loose cases on the tailgate, just for good measure. Well isn't that nice. After seeing the handiwork of the beer guy last week, I'm pretty sure these peckerheads could have unloaded this trailer today. I went to the lumper desk and asked for my $95 back. Yeah, as if. According to them, they have no say in whether or not the consignee accepts the load. They essentially re-loaded the water for free, to hear them tell the tale. Well how charitable of them. Isn't that nice. I don't anticipate any issues with getting my reimbursement from my employer but we'll have to see.
When you are waiting for your next load assignment, being attached to a trailer full of water is not the ideal position in which to be. Nothing I could do until we figured out how to handle mucha agua. I made my call to Joplin and got the ball rolling. Then the claims people had to deal with the customer before they could tell the dispatching people what to do with me. After a few hours I was sent to a little auto repair shop down in Fayetteville to get the load restacked. It was at least a little reassuring to see one of my coworkers there getting his trailer restacked when I arrived. Guess I wasn't the only one this week. And his was worse than mine.
The guy at the shop told me that it would take four or five hours, so I had time to drop my trailer and head out for some dinner. By the time I made my way back to the shop, maybe an hour later, they were finished. My original load consisted of 22 pallets of water. Now I have 21 pallets of water and one empty pallet. Either there were a bunch of damaged cases or the shop guys took a street tax. It's not my job to investigate these things, but we'll just say that I have my suspicions.
Now I'm back in Dunn, waiting for the word from headquarters on when I'll be able to try another delivery. They seem to think that I can get in tomorrow at some point. Then I get to jump through more hoops, take another $95 advance to pay a lumper... again, and deal with more hassles since there appears to be a missing pallet. Hopefully theextortionists lumpers have some ComChecks because they got my last one today. If not, I think I'll just unload the damn thing myself and take my $35 for the trouble. Screw those guys.
Looks like I should have a fast enough connection to watch baseball and hockey tonight. Life could be worse.
I checked in with the security guard once I arrived and then began the procedural dance. Park in the gravel lot. Walk to the receiving office and check in. Wait in the truck until they call on Channel 16. Answer the CB. Proceed to my door. Back in. Unhook from the trailer and wait inside by my dock door. Go out to the truck and get a ComCheck for the lumper. Wait for them to call on Channel 16 and tell me that I can leave.
Yeah, I got that call after a couple of hours. "ConWay in Door 96, you can park in the gravel lot and walk to the receiving office for your paperwork." Well that sounds pretty basic. I sent in my empty call before hooking to my trailer and leaving. As I started to back under the trailer, it didn't feel like it was empty. I had to press the accelerator a little to get my truck to scoot under. That's unusual. Maybe the fifth wheel needs some grease or something. I pulled forward a few feet and went back to close the doors. Umm. My trailer was full of bottled water. Guess I shouldn't have sent that empty call after all. I walked inside and asked the lumpers to explain what was going on. No explanation from them. I closed it up and headed out to the gravel lot, then walked to the receiving office. The lady in there ignored my question but kindly stamped my paperwork. Load shifted. Refused.
There were no issues visible when I opened the door, so as nearly as I can tell they got halfway into the trailer before seeing a problem and deciding to stop unloading. Then they piled the pallets back in and tossed a bunch of loose cases on the tailgate, just for good measure. Well isn't that nice. After seeing the handiwork of the beer guy last week, I'm pretty sure these peckerheads could have unloaded this trailer today. I went to the lumper desk and asked for my $95 back. Yeah, as if. According to them, they have no say in whether or not the consignee accepts the load. They essentially re-loaded the water for free, to hear them tell the tale. Well how charitable of them. Isn't that nice. I don't anticipate any issues with getting my reimbursement from my employer but we'll have to see.
When you are waiting for your next load assignment, being attached to a trailer full of water is not the ideal position in which to be. Nothing I could do until we figured out how to handle mucha agua. I made my call to Joplin and got the ball rolling. Then the claims people had to deal with the customer before they could tell the dispatching people what to do with me. After a few hours I was sent to a little auto repair shop down in Fayetteville to get the load restacked. It was at least a little reassuring to see one of my coworkers there getting his trailer restacked when I arrived. Guess I wasn't the only one this week. And his was worse than mine.
The guy at the shop told me that it would take four or five hours, so I had time to drop my trailer and head out for some dinner. By the time I made my way back to the shop, maybe an hour later, they were finished. My original load consisted of 22 pallets of water. Now I have 21 pallets of water and one empty pallet. Either there were a bunch of damaged cases or the shop guys took a street tax. It's not my job to investigate these things, but we'll just say that I have my suspicions.
Now I'm back in Dunn, waiting for the word from headquarters on when I'll be able to try another delivery. They seem to think that I can get in tomorrow at some point. Then I get to jump through more hoops, take another $95 advance to pay a lumper... again, and deal with more hassles since there appears to be a missing pallet. Hopefully the
Looks like I should have a fast enough connection to watch baseball and hockey tonight. Life could be worse.
Monday, May 4, 2009
5/4/09
46,659 pounds is pretty damn heavy. I-83 in Pennsylvania and Maryland is pretty damn hilly. I-95 is pretty damn congested. The weather today was pretty damn rainy. Weigh stations are pretty damn annoying. The last several chapters of Lord of the Rings have been pretty damn boring. Overall, I guess you could say that my drive was pretty damn shitty. When the construction area on the south side of D.C. has the lightest traffic of the day, something has gone terribly wrong with the world. Way too much stopping and starting for me today. I still didn't kill anyone though. So I have that going for me... which is nice.
My trailer was loaded and ready once I got out of bed and checked in with the shipper this morning. About the only snag there was a brief exchange between the yard dog and me. I started to back into a space and then hopped out to open my doors before proceeding the rest of the way. He pulled up next to me...
Yard Dog: "You dropping that empty?"
Me: "Yeah."
Yard Dog: "It goes in that row over there."
Me: "That row is full."
Yard Dog: "Well then you can drop it over here."
Me: "Yeah."
Yard Dog: "You need to open the doors."
Me: "Yeah."
Yard Dog: "Before you drop it."
Me: "That's what I'm doing."
Yard Dog (with a scowl): "Well, you're blocking the road now."
Me (under my breath): "If you would shut the fuck up, I would've been done by now."
Yard Dog: "What?"
Me: "I'm gonna hurry up and get done now."
From there I headed south and decided to trust my super-keen instincts (and my suspension gauge) with respect to my axle weights. With such a heavy load I probably should have stopped at a CAT Scale somewhere to weigh it. I didn't feel like it though, so I rolled the dice. First Maryland scale - in we go. Story of life. I must have been legal, as they stopped me on the scale and then sent me on my merry way.
Second Maryland scale - in we go. Those guys must like watching the trucks go in a circle or something. The scale was blocked but they were wheeling us in and out from every direction. The setup of that weigh station has to be one of the most bizarre that I've seen.
Back out to I-95 and into Virginia to their first scale - in we go. Not so fast, my friends. I blew that one off. The ramp was backing up and I wasn't about to stop in the traffic lane on a dark and rainy day. Sue me.
Virginia scale south of Richmond - green light on the Prepass.
Then, to round out the narrative, I got stopped on the first scale in North Carolina as well. Once again, I must assume that my weights were fine as they sent me on my way. I stopped in at the big truck stop in Dunn a while ago and headed inside for some dinner. The Quizno's Classic Italian with extra meat is a serviceable sandwich, but a SubWay Italian BMT with double meat it is not.
So what do we watch on the interwebs while we munch on freshly toasted bread and cold cuts? News from back home, of course...
My trailer was loaded and ready once I got out of bed and checked in with the shipper this morning. About the only snag there was a brief exchange between the yard dog and me. I started to back into a space and then hopped out to open my doors before proceeding the rest of the way. He pulled up next to me...
Yard Dog: "You dropping that empty?"
Me: "Yeah."
Yard Dog: "It goes in that row over there."
Me: "That row is full."
Yard Dog: "Well then you can drop it over here."
Me: "Yeah."
Yard Dog: "You need to open the doors."
Me: "Yeah."
Yard Dog: "Before you drop it."
Me: "That's what I'm doing."
Yard Dog (with a scowl): "Well, you're blocking the road now."
Me (under my breath): "If you would shut the fuck up, I would've been done by now."
Yard Dog: "What?"
Me: "I'm gonna hurry up and get done now."
From there I headed south and decided to trust my super-keen instincts (and my suspension gauge) with respect to my axle weights. With such a heavy load I probably should have stopped at a CAT Scale somewhere to weigh it. I didn't feel like it though, so I rolled the dice. First Maryland scale - in we go. Story of life. I must have been legal, as they stopped me on the scale and then sent me on my merry way.
Second Maryland scale - in we go. Those guys must like watching the trucks go in a circle or something. The scale was blocked but they were wheeling us in and out from every direction. The setup of that weigh station has to be one of the most bizarre that I've seen.
Back out to I-95 and into Virginia to their first scale - in we go. Not so fast, my friends. I blew that one off. The ramp was backing up and I wasn't about to stop in the traffic lane on a dark and rainy day. Sue me.
Virginia scale south of Richmond - green light on the Prepass.
Then, to round out the narrative, I got stopped on the first scale in North Carolina as well. Once again, I must assume that my weights were fine as they sent me on my way. I stopped in at the big truck stop in Dunn a while ago and headed inside for some dinner. The Quizno's Classic Italian with extra meat is a serviceable sandwich, but a SubWay Italian BMT with double meat it is not.
So what do we watch on the interwebs while we munch on freshly toasted bread and cold cuts? News from back home, of course...
Sunday, May 3, 2009
5/3/09
My video stream for the hockey game was lousy, so I didn't end up watching it. I did, however, watch the baseball game. The Tigers won and the Red Wings lost. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...
I wound up getting out of New York before the hockey game was over anyway. The way they kept going and going, it almost looked like I might get off the road in time to try and get a feed for the end of the game. As it turned out, the Ducks scored just before I got out of New Jersey. My assignment has me picking up a load of water tomorrow in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania and heading for North Carolina. I've been to this shipper before and I knew that they had truck parking, so I got through all of the congested areas today while the traffic was lighter. That was the easy part.
Tomorrow I get to lug 46,000 pounds of water down I-95. That will be the hard part. All told though, I'll be empty on Tuesday morning with a little over 600 miles and a good bit of northeast pay on the books for the week. As quickly as last week fizzled out, this one seems to be getting off to a nice start.
I wound up getting out of New York before the hockey game was over anyway. The way they kept going and going, it almost looked like I might get off the road in time to try and get a feed for the end of the game. As it turned out, the Ducks scored just before I got out of New Jersey. My assignment has me picking up a load of water tomorrow in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania and heading for North Carolina. I've been to this shipper before and I knew that they had truck parking, so I got through all of the congested areas today while the traffic was lighter. That was the easy part.
Tomorrow I get to lug 46,000 pounds of water down I-95. That will be the hard part. All told though, I'll be empty on Tuesday morning with a little over 600 miles and a good bit of northeast pay on the books for the week. As quickly as last week fizzled out, this one seems to be getting off to a nice start.
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