Man, I got hoodwinked on that football game last night. They didn't broadcast it live in Japan so none of my streaming sources proved useful. Apparently they're supposed to broadcast it on tape tonight instead. Now that I already know that the Irish won the game though, I can't really see any reason to stay up until 6am to watch it.
As a result of the football game not being televised, and as a result of not having to set an alarm for today, I got to sleep somewhere right around my preferred time range last night. I rolled out of bed late in the morning and set out for what turned out to be a rather easy day on the road. By the time I reached Pocahontas, the Tigers' game was just getting heated up and I saw no reason to stop, so I continued driving and listening. Another fantastic finish has the boys in position to sweep those thugs from Chicago tomorrow night. Excellent.
The ballgame lasted long enough to get me into Indiana. This means that I covered a little over 500 miles for the day and left myself a couple of reasonable shifts to reach Massachusetts by Monday night. Beauty. I'm at the Indiana welcome center, not too far outside Terre Haute, and my Sprint internet card has no signal. For a company that likes to market itself as some kind of leading-edge innovator, Sprint really does leave something to be desired with its network coverage. In most of the country I can get at least some signal and the number of areas with broadband speed has improved over the years, but come on. I'm right on the interstate and maybe six miles from a medium sized city. No signal at all? For shame.
I realized, after seeing that the Sprint option wasn't happening tonight, that I haven't had to tether my cell phone for internet service since the nuking of my hard drive. I had a rough idea of what the settings were, but it took me a few tries to get it right. All good now though. No access from Sprint and five signal bars from AT&T, go figure. Occasionally it does make at least a little sense that I have unlimited internet on two different devices. Not often, but occasionally.
I think I'll angle up through Ohio tomorrow and then run the turnpike across New York on this trip. Should be a little more relaxing that way than crossing Pennsylvania and Jersey, I think. I seem to recall something about the truck speed going up in Ohio at some point as well. If that's the case, then my weekend should keep rolling along quite nicely. The 55mph doesn't bother me, but going 55mph all damned day can be tiresome.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
7/24/09
Nothing like a decent Friday to soothe the soul. The Tigers take a pair from the bad guys and my work week gets a shot in the arm. Hell, even the worst investment that I ever made is starting to show signs of life. Yeah, I held onto that sucker all the way down. So what? I was like a battered spouse or something, always hoping things would get better. Things are looking up today though.
My load wasn't ready early at the Con-way yard in Salem, but this was one of those odd Con-way runs with a boatload of time on it so the timing didn't really matter. I had to chuckle as I drove across Illinois on US-50. Most of the route was a two-lane. One of my CTL colleagues and two of the Con-way Freight guys were riding my ass for a while. Then, in one of the stretches where the road had an extra lane, the three of them flew past me and sped along on their way. After that, every few miles or so there was a town and guess where I ended up. Give yourself a point if you said, "Right behind them." Morons.
I had to make the call regarding St. Louis once I got to the interstate. Drop down on the bypass or go right through? I've generally found the suburbs to be worse than St. Louis itself so I stayed on I-64 and crossed the Mississippi up there. There was a massive backup waiting to get onto I-55 and I-44. "Screw that," I muttered as I stayed to the left and started on another ill-advised expedition into uncharted territory. I knew that I-64 was closed and I wouldn't be able to get all the way through town, but I didn't think it would be too hard to find my way to I-44. No repeat of the Raleigh debacle this time around. For reasons of questionable legality we'll have to leave the exact route undisclosed, but it wasn't bad at all. A few strange looks from the local tenants, of course, but I'm used to that. I was probably on I-44 and headed westward before all those people who were waiting on the ramp.
Around halfway through Missouri my satellite unit gave me a chirp. A second chirp means a pre-plan so I waited with my fingers crossed. If I had to go into another weekend without an assignment, I would be tempted to grab my second week of vacation pay. Come on, pre-plan! No second chirp though, so I accepted that it must be some inane message to the whole fleet. As I reached over and hit the button to have the Qualcomm digital voice chick read the message to me, I got my belated second chirp. How about that? Nice big pre-plan for the weekend - beauty.
I wasn't due in Sapulpa until 7pm Central, but the scheduling of my next planned load would have been tricky if I took too long, so I kept the pedal to the metal and got there several hours early. This way I had time for a ten-hour break before the next load was scheduled to leave Tulsa. The plan summary said that I had to pick up at midnight, so either I could get it early and work with what was left of today's 14-hour clock or I could take my break first and then start with a fresh clock. I decided to shoot over to the shipper and try my luck this afternoon, just in case it was a pre-loaded trailer. It was. Beauty.
By this time the Tigers had won their first game of the day and any doubts about the quality of my next paycheck had been erased, so life was looking pretty good. I had a couple of hours still available so I headed back eastward. Massachusetts or bust, as the hitchhikers might say. Once I got back out onto the turnpike I received a message from the safety department. It said that I would be receiving a call from an insurance adjuster about checking out the damage to my truck from the Indianapolis episode. Umm, okay. I wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but whatever.
The insurance guy called a few minutes later and said that he was coming from Tulsa and he needed to know where he could meet me to look at the truck. Okay, I get it now. They're gonna bill the company of the dude who hit me so they need someone to put an official price tag on the damage. Big Cabin was my next option and probably where I was spending the night anyway, so I made an executive decision and told him to meet me in Big Cabin. He showed up a while later, wrote a bunch of stuff, and took a few pictures. Tough job, eh? Then he was on his way and my day was through.
The second win of the day for the good guys was a nice wrap-up to the evening. They gave us a little scare in the 7th but all's well that ends well. One day of sharing first place was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
A quick look at the company web portal shows that my week will end with 3,419 miles plus $40 in northeast pay. Last week gave us a little scare but all's well that ends well. One week of sub-par mileage was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
The standard approach on a lengthy run like this would be to knock out a long day of driving up front and then take things a little easier on Sunday and Monday. This time, however, I think we're going to have to switch it up a bit. Our Lady's glorious defenders of the past are about to go all MacArthur on the Japanese at 3am. Perfect ending to a pretty damn good Friday, I must say. I seem to have found a couple of sources for the Nippon TV stream. This means that I'm staying up pretty late tonight. This also means I'm sleeping pretty late tomorrow and probably not driving terribly far whenever I wake. I'll have a guaranteed parking space at our yard in Pocahontas no matter how late I get there, so that should work pretty well. Then two somewhat longer days will get me to Massachusetts well ahead of my Tuesday afternoon delivery. Go Irish!
My load wasn't ready early at the Con-way yard in Salem, but this was one of those odd Con-way runs with a boatload of time on it so the timing didn't really matter. I had to chuckle as I drove across Illinois on US-50. Most of the route was a two-lane. One of my CTL colleagues and two of the Con-way Freight guys were riding my ass for a while. Then, in one of the stretches where the road had an extra lane, the three of them flew past me and sped along on their way. After that, every few miles or so there was a town and guess where I ended up. Give yourself a point if you said, "Right behind them." Morons.
I had to make the call regarding St. Louis once I got to the interstate. Drop down on the bypass or go right through? I've generally found the suburbs to be worse than St. Louis itself so I stayed on I-64 and crossed the Mississippi up there. There was a massive backup waiting to get onto I-55 and I-44. "Screw that," I muttered as I stayed to the left and started on another ill-advised expedition into uncharted territory. I knew that I-64 was closed and I wouldn't be able to get all the way through town, but I didn't think it would be too hard to find my way to I-44. No repeat of the Raleigh debacle this time around. For reasons of questionable legality we'll have to leave the exact route undisclosed, but it wasn't bad at all. A few strange looks from the local tenants, of course, but I'm used to that. I was probably on I-44 and headed westward before all those people who were waiting on the ramp.
Around halfway through Missouri my satellite unit gave me a chirp. A second chirp means a pre-plan so I waited with my fingers crossed. If I had to go into another weekend without an assignment, I would be tempted to grab my second week of vacation pay. Come on, pre-plan! No second chirp though, so I accepted that it must be some inane message to the whole fleet. As I reached over and hit the button to have the Qualcomm digital voice chick read the message to me, I got my belated second chirp. How about that? Nice big pre-plan for the weekend - beauty.
I wasn't due in Sapulpa until 7pm Central, but the scheduling of my next planned load would have been tricky if I took too long, so I kept the pedal to the metal and got there several hours early. This way I had time for a ten-hour break before the next load was scheduled to leave Tulsa. The plan summary said that I had to pick up at midnight, so either I could get it early and work with what was left of today's 14-hour clock or I could take my break first and then start with a fresh clock. I decided to shoot over to the shipper and try my luck this afternoon, just in case it was a pre-loaded trailer. It was. Beauty.
By this time the Tigers had won their first game of the day and any doubts about the quality of my next paycheck had been erased, so life was looking pretty good. I had a couple of hours still available so I headed back eastward. Massachusetts or bust, as the hitchhikers might say. Once I got back out onto the turnpike I received a message from the safety department. It said that I would be receiving a call from an insurance adjuster about checking out the damage to my truck from the Indianapolis episode. Umm, okay. I wasn't sure what exactly that meant, but whatever.
The insurance guy called a few minutes later and said that he was coming from Tulsa and he needed to know where he could meet me to look at the truck. Okay, I get it now. They're gonna bill the company of the dude who hit me so they need someone to put an official price tag on the damage. Big Cabin was my next option and probably where I was spending the night anyway, so I made an executive decision and told him to meet me in Big Cabin. He showed up a while later, wrote a bunch of stuff, and took a few pictures. Tough job, eh? Then he was on his way and my day was through.
The second win of the day for the good guys was a nice wrap-up to the evening. They gave us a little scare in the 7th but all's well that ends well. One day of sharing first place was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
A quick look at the company web portal shows that my week will end with 3,419 miles plus $40 in northeast pay. Last week gave us a little scare but all's well that ends well. One week of sub-par mileage was plenty. The natural order of things has been restored (for now).
The standard approach on a lengthy run like this would be to knock out a long day of driving up front and then take things a little easier on Sunday and Monday. This time, however, I think we're going to have to switch it up a bit. Our Lady's glorious defenders of the past are about to go all MacArthur on the Japanese at 3am. Perfect ending to a pretty damn good Friday, I must say. I seem to have found a couple of sources for the Nippon TV stream. This means that I'm staying up pretty late tonight. This also means I'm sleeping pretty late tomorrow and probably not driving terribly far whenever I wake. I'll have a guaranteed parking space at our yard in Pocahontas no matter how late I get there, so that should work pretty well. Then two somewhat longer days will get me to Massachusetts well ahead of my Tuesday afternoon delivery. Go Irish!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
7/23/09
Dude. My team can't hit. Their team can't lose. It's gonna be a rough weekend against those thugs from Chicago, I suspect. That Buehrle fella sure didn't help my confidence with his perfect game today. Peckerhead.
After a much-needed night of quiet rest in cool weather, I had a pretty easy day of driving. Across to Paducah, quick fuel stop, then into Illinois. You know the deal in Illinois - Set the cruise control at 55mph and enjoy the ride. As soon as my consignee in Greenville checked the seal and told me where to drop my loaded trailer, I received my next assignment. I made my drop/hook and then took a look at the Qualcomm. Meh.
This afternoon's work consisted of a 45 mile drive down to Salem, Illinois to set up for a run leaving early tomorrow morning. From here I'm going to the Tulsa area. After that, nothing so far. Pretty slim pickings in the 'paid by the mile' world lately. I'll be at 1,843 miles once I'm empty tomorrow though, so a decent weekend could change that song in a hurry. Hopefully I won't have a lot of time to watch baseball.
After a much-needed night of quiet rest in cool weather, I had a pretty easy day of driving. Across to Paducah, quick fuel stop, then into Illinois. You know the deal in Illinois - Set the cruise control at 55mph and enjoy the ride. As soon as my consignee in Greenville checked the seal and told me where to drop my loaded trailer, I received my next assignment. I made my drop/hook and then took a look at the Qualcomm. Meh.
This afternoon's work consisted of a 45 mile drive down to Salem, Illinois to set up for a run leaving early tomorrow morning. From here I'm going to the Tulsa area. After that, nothing so far. Pretty slim pickings in the 'paid by the mile' world lately. I'll be at 1,843 miles once I'm empty tomorrow though, so a decent weekend could change that song in a hurry. Hopefully I won't have a lot of time to watch baseball.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
7/22/09
♫ Heaven help me for the way I am. Save me from these evil deeds before I get them done. I know tomorrow brings the consequence at hand, But I keep living this day like the next will never come... ♫
Oh well. Always good to make a new friend, I guess. After getting back to my truck this morning, the drive up to my shipper was quick and easy. I ignored the signs about 'thru trucks' and went straight through town this time. Rebel without a cause, man. Rebel without a cause.
I dropped my empty trailer and grabbed my loaded one and then headed westward. I don't know exactly how the overall miles stack up but I had no desire to go northward into West Virginia and then cut across to Illinois. West Virginia, in a manner of speaking, sucks balls. Dragging a heavy load through those mountains after a questionable amount of sleep last night sounded like a terrible idea. I went west on I-40 instead. Still plenty of mountains and slow traffic but at least it's a little straighter.
As I was rolling along, I got a phone call from Mom. She, my sister, my niece and nephew, and my youngest brother were on their way down to Pigeon Forge. The hillbilly side of my family does its little reunion deal every July and apparently this is the week. They got to Knoxville shortly before I did, so I stopped and we got together for a bite to eat. That was pretty cool.
After dinner I slugged out the rest of Tennessee before getting to the Kentucky welcome center and calling it a night. It looks like I only have around 235 miles left to knock out tomorrow, so I should be able to get some decent sleep tonight. That's good. I'm tired.
Oh well. Always good to make a new friend, I guess. After getting back to my truck this morning, the drive up to my shipper was quick and easy. I ignored the signs about 'thru trucks' and went straight through town this time. Rebel without a cause, man. Rebel without a cause.
I dropped my empty trailer and grabbed my loaded one and then headed westward. I don't know exactly how the overall miles stack up but I had no desire to go northward into West Virginia and then cut across to Illinois. West Virginia, in a manner of speaking, sucks balls. Dragging a heavy load through those mountains after a questionable amount of sleep last night sounded like a terrible idea. I went west on I-40 instead. Still plenty of mountains and slow traffic but at least it's a little straighter.
As I was rolling along, I got a phone call from Mom. She, my sister, my niece and nephew, and my youngest brother were on their way down to Pigeon Forge. The hillbilly side of my family does its little reunion deal every July and apparently this is the week. They got to Knoxville shortly before I did, so I stopped and we got together for a bite to eat. That was pretty cool.
After dinner I slugged out the rest of Tennessee before getting to the Kentucky welcome center and calling it a night. It looks like I only have around 235 miles left to knock out tomorrow, so I should be able to get some decent sleep tonight. That's good. I'm tired.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
7/21/09
Although I probably get a little cranky about getting stuck on the graveyard shift and not making any money in the process, there is one undeniable benefit to that schedule. If you're going to get lost in downtown Raleigh with a tractor-trailer, the middle of the night is probably the time to do so. It seemed so simple. I would just drop down on US-401 to I-40 and then head toward Greensboro. I saw a sign with an arrow indicating that a right turn would take me "To I-40." So yeah, I made a right turn. Once I got halfway through the turn I saw the addendum below the interstate shield - "Cars Only." Shit.
The road ahead wasn't looking too bad for a little while, so I figured I might as well continue forward rather than turn down some other unknown street and get into a jam. Then it got pretty ugly and I spotted a sign for a local truck route. Figuring that a local truck route was better than no truck route at all, I hung another right. The rest, as they say, is a blur. I recall some tight corners and some wide avenues. I recall some bars with people sitting outside and some ghetto neighborhoods with nobody around. I recall cops, who probably should have pulled me over and given me a ticket, watching in apparent amusement as I navigated areas where I obviously didn't belong. Somehow by the grace of God I found my way back to the freeway after a half hour of wandering. That pretty much sucked.
The rest of the drive was about as one would expect an 80 mile trip in the middle of the night to be. Light traffic, no major issues. The T/A in Whitsett had an open parking space so I was able to grab a quick shower. That's always nice. Then I made my drop/hook in Greensboro and headed right back to Raleigh. A fuel stop in Mebane, complete with the jackass ahead of me going to McDonald's while he was blocking the fuel island, served to break the short trip into two even shorter segments. I arrived at my first delivery stop and got one more reminder concerning the virtues of the overnight schedule. The layout of the streets in the shopping center was quite nuts. I would have had one hell of a time getting to that dock if there were any cars around. I hung out for a while and then decided to take a brief nap ahead of my 8am appointment.
My alarm went off at 7:45am and nobody had knocked on my door yet. That's always nice. I waited until a few minutes before 8am and then rang the store's doorbell. No answer, but I could hear people stirring inside the door. Wait a few minutes, try again... nothing. Few more minutes, try again... nothing. Okay then, either the doorbell is broken or they're ignoring me. Time to start kicking the door. That got a quick response. The manager came out and broke the seal so that I could open the trailer doors, then a few boxes fell on my head. Ahh, the glamor of being a truck driver. I carried the boxes to the building and then started backing in. Apparently one more box fell as I was moving backward and I proceeded to run it over with my trailer tires. A fella came jogging out and grabbed it, saying nothing further to me concerning the matter. Groovy.
Once I was empty there I received my zero-mile dispatch to the second delivery. It was zero miles on account of being Raleigh-to-Raleigh, but it took a half hour. In light of last night's escapades, I took the freeway around town this time. The second delivery was a drop/hook. Usually this is good news. Today though, I had to put my loaded trailer into the same dock that was occupied by the empty trailer that I was taking. So... drop loaded trailer/hook empty trailer/drive around the corner/drop empty trailer/drive around the corner/hook loaded trailer/back into the dock/drop loaded trailer/drive around the corner/hook empty trailer. Yeah, that's pretty dumb.
Now it looks like another night of hanging out behind a K Mart is in store for me. I have been dispatched to drive another zero miles from here on the south side of town to tomorrow's pickup on the north side of town. Whatever. At least it's a 10:30am drop/hook so I can get off the graveyard shift.
I just got a message from the safety department indicating that I do have a gold ring coming. Woo hoo! A quick internet search provided the information necessary to determine my ring size, so we've got that sucker ordered. The downside, of course, is that they might make me go to Joplin to retrieve my new bling. I'm thinking we should help out the Postal Service and ship that baby to Michigan instead, you know, in light of economic conditions. I'm all about helping out those poor civil servants... or something.
My alarm went off at 7:45am and nobody had knocked on my door yet. That's always nice. I waited until a few minutes before 8am and then rang the store's doorbell. No answer, but I could hear people stirring inside the door. Wait a few minutes, try again... nothing. Few more minutes, try again... nothing. Okay then, either the doorbell is broken or they're ignoring me. Time to start kicking the door. That got a quick response. The manager came out and broke the seal so that I could open the trailer doors, then a few boxes fell on my head. Ahh, the glamor of being a truck driver. I carried the boxes to the building and then started backing in. Apparently one more box fell as I was moving backward and I proceeded to run it over with my trailer tires. A fella came jogging out and grabbed it, saying nothing further to me concerning the matter. Groovy.
Once I was empty there I received my zero-mile dispatch to the second delivery. It was zero miles on account of being Raleigh-to-Raleigh, but it took a half hour. In light of last night's escapades, I took the freeway around town this time. The second delivery was a drop/hook. Usually this is good news. Today though, I had to put my loaded trailer into the same dock that was occupied by the empty trailer that I was taking. So... drop loaded trailer/hook empty trailer/drive around the corner/drop empty trailer/drive around the corner/hook loaded trailer/back into the dock/drop loaded trailer/drive around the corner/hook empty trailer. Yeah, that's pretty dumb.
Now it looks like another night of hanging out behind a K Mart is in store for me. I have been dispatched to drive another zero miles from here on the south side of town to tomorrow's pickup on the north side of town. Whatever. At least it's a 10:30am drop/hook so I can get off the graveyard shift.
I just got a message from the safety department indicating that I do have a gold ring coming. Woo hoo! A quick internet search provided the information necessary to determine my ring size, so we've got that sucker ordered. The downside, of course, is that they might make me go to Joplin to retrieve my new bling. I'm thinking we should help out the Postal Service and ship that baby to Michigan instead, you know, in light of economic conditions. I'm all about helping out those poor civil servants... or something.
Monday, July 20, 2009
7/20/09
I don't know how long exactly it takes until you stop seeing things that catch you by surprise in this line of work. Maybe you never really reach that point. I'm not referring to traffic and weather and such, since there will always be a random element involved with them. I mean the basic, day-to-day aspects of the job. For example, I've been at this gig a little over three years now. I would have to estimate that at least half the customers' locations are places that I'm seeing for the first time. Sooner or later, one would suspect, the majority of the stops would be return visits. Then there are situations like this morning...
I had arrived at the location for my first delivery some time around midnight last night. I hung around and killed some time and then decided to try catching a few winks. My CTL comrade said that he had a 4:30am appointment, so I set my alarm for 4:30am. My own dispatch said 5am but it probably made sense to be up and ready whenever the receivers got to work. Before my alarm went off I awoke to a knock on my door. The gentleman who did the knocking told me to go ahead and break my seal, back into the dock, and come inside. I pulled forward a few feet so that I would be able to open my doors and then walked to the back of the trailer. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. I broke the seal and opened the trailer doors. What the hell? Where's the freight?
I imagine that the early hour contributed to my mild sense of paranoia, as did the somewhat weird start to that trip back in Maryland. There's no way I took the wrong trailer, right? I ran back to my cab and grabbed the bills. The number on the seal most definitely matched the bills. I pulled my flashlight out of my side box and shone the beam into the trailer. There were a few boxes on two pallets all the way up in the nose. For two stops? What the hell? Given that the seal had at least been intact when the guy woke me, I had some bit of CYA insurance against being blamed for whatever had gone wrong, I thought to myself. I walked over and looked into the trailer of my coworker who had made the same trip. Packed full of boxes all the way to the tail. Curious indeed.
We went inside and signed the customer's log to indicate our arrival times and such. I mentioned to the receiver guy that I had no idea what was going on with my trailer. The bills said that I had 8,348 pounds of freight and it looked to me like I had about 80 pounds of freight. "It's like that every Monday," he assured me. I asked if he knew anything about a second stop. He said that the full trailer would be completely unloaded in Durham and the partial trailer would be going on to Raleigh once he took whatever was his. Obviously this eased my mind a great deal, since I had the partial trailer and I had been assigned to a second drop in Raleigh. Perhaps there was nothing wrong after all. He walked into my trailer and took a look at the few boxes inside. "I'll see you later," he said as he motioned toward the door with his hand. So they sent me to make a first drop even though I had no freight for that first drop? "They always screw it up on Mondays," he replied. Alrighty then. Three years and counting... first time I've ever seen that one.
I closed and re-sealed the trailer, then hit the road for Raleigh. My appointment there was for 6:30am but I figured I might as well knock out the short trip before the traffic started to pick up. There were a few tight turns and skinny lanes and such, so this turned out to be a good call. I pulled into the consignee's lot at 5am and got backed into an open dock. It was a pretty tight lot so the backing took me a little while. One more reason that I was good to arrive early, I suppose. I sat around waiting for some sign of life, but never saw any indication that anybody was around. At 6:30am I decided to go for a walk and see what I might find, since that's when my company seemed to think that I would be getting unloaded. If I could get rid of my two pallets quickly enough, there might still be a chance to catch an assignment before my 14 hours ran out.
Nobody answered the doorbell and the sign on the door said that they opened at 8am. Beauty. I walked back out to my truck and started to type a message on my satellite unit. Just then a car pulled into the lot next to me and a guy walked into the door with the '8am' sign. I gave him a few minutes to get settled in and then tried the door again. It was unlocked, I walked in, he grabbed a pallet jack, I opened the trailer doors, he pulled his two pallets, and that was that.
Parked in a dirt lot adjacent to the customer in Raleigh, I took a nap for a while and then woke to find that my 14 hours had expired without a new assignment. Bummer. I went for a walk and found a gas station with a convenience store so that I could stave off starvation. With a mere 30-40 pounds of body fat at my disposal, I can't afford to mess around, you know. By the time I got back to my truck I had an assignment waiting. Oh goody. Looks like I'm stuck in this pain in the ass pattern for another day. I have to pick up in Greensboro at 2am and then make two drops in Raleigh tomorrow morning. 80 miles to go pick up the load and then another 80 miles to come back to Raleigh... not exactly a huge day of work. I will get my extra $35 for the second drop though. Whatever.
After this next run, I'm pre-planned on one picking up in Raleigh on Wednesday morning. That one will be going 800+ miles up to Illinois for a Thursday delivery, so maybe this week won't be a lost cause. It will have outpaced last week, with two and a half days to go, for what little that's worth.
After seeing this pic on the web this morning, I'm thinking it might be about time to find a wife and churn out a couple of mini-Godfathers. They apparently come in handy on weekends...
I had arrived at the location for my first delivery some time around midnight last night. I hung around and killed some time and then decided to try catching a few winks. My CTL comrade said that he had a 4:30am appointment, so I set my alarm for 4:30am. My own dispatch said 5am but it probably made sense to be up and ready whenever the receivers got to work. Before my alarm went off I awoke to a knock on my door. The gentleman who did the knocking told me to go ahead and break my seal, back into the dock, and come inside. I pulled forward a few feet so that I would be able to open my doors and then walked to the back of the trailer. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. I broke the seal and opened the trailer doors. What the hell? Where's the freight?
I imagine that the early hour contributed to my mild sense of paranoia, as did the somewhat weird start to that trip back in Maryland. There's no way I took the wrong trailer, right? I ran back to my cab and grabbed the bills. The number on the seal most definitely matched the bills. I pulled my flashlight out of my side box and shone the beam into the trailer. There were a few boxes on two pallets all the way up in the nose. For two stops? What the hell? Given that the seal had at least been intact when the guy woke me, I had some bit of CYA insurance against being blamed for whatever had gone wrong, I thought to myself. I walked over and looked into the trailer of my coworker who had made the same trip. Packed full of boxes all the way to the tail. Curious indeed.
We went inside and signed the customer's log to indicate our arrival times and such. I mentioned to the receiver guy that I had no idea what was going on with my trailer. The bills said that I had 8,348 pounds of freight and it looked to me like I had about 80 pounds of freight. "It's like that every Monday," he assured me. I asked if he knew anything about a second stop. He said that the full trailer would be completely unloaded in Durham and the partial trailer would be going on to Raleigh once he took whatever was his. Obviously this eased my mind a great deal, since I had the partial trailer and I had been assigned to a second drop in Raleigh. Perhaps there was nothing wrong after all. He walked into my trailer and took a look at the few boxes inside. "I'll see you later," he said as he motioned toward the door with his hand. So they sent me to make a first drop even though I had no freight for that first drop? "They always screw it up on Mondays," he replied. Alrighty then. Three years and counting... first time I've ever seen that one.
I closed and re-sealed the trailer, then hit the road for Raleigh. My appointment there was for 6:30am but I figured I might as well knock out the short trip before the traffic started to pick up. There were a few tight turns and skinny lanes and such, so this turned out to be a good call. I pulled into the consignee's lot at 5am and got backed into an open dock. It was a pretty tight lot so the backing took me a little while. One more reason that I was good to arrive early, I suppose. I sat around waiting for some sign of life, but never saw any indication that anybody was around. At 6:30am I decided to go for a walk and see what I might find, since that's when my company seemed to think that I would be getting unloaded. If I could get rid of my two pallets quickly enough, there might still be a chance to catch an assignment before my 14 hours ran out.
Nobody answered the doorbell and the sign on the door said that they opened at 8am. Beauty. I walked back out to my truck and started to type a message on my satellite unit. Just then a car pulled into the lot next to me and a guy walked into the door with the '8am' sign. I gave him a few minutes to get settled in and then tried the door again. It was unlocked, I walked in, he grabbed a pallet jack, I opened the trailer doors, he pulled his two pallets, and that was that.
Parked in a dirt lot adjacent to the customer in Raleigh, I took a nap for a while and then woke to find that my 14 hours had expired without a new assignment. Bummer. I went for a walk and found a gas station with a convenience store so that I could stave off starvation. With a mere 30-40 pounds of body fat at my disposal, I can't afford to mess around, you know. By the time I got back to my truck I had an assignment waiting. Oh goody. Looks like I'm stuck in this pain in the ass pattern for another day. I have to pick up in Greensboro at 2am and then make two drops in Raleigh tomorrow morning. 80 miles to go pick up the load and then another 80 miles to come back to Raleigh... not exactly a huge day of work. I will get my extra $35 for the second drop though. Whatever.
After this next run, I'm pre-planned on one picking up in Raleigh on Wednesday morning. That one will be going 800+ miles up to Illinois for a Thursday delivery, so maybe this week won't be a lost cause. It will have outpaced last week, with two and a half days to go, for what little that's worth.
After seeing this pic on the web this morning, I'm thinking it might be about time to find a wife and churn out a couple of mini-Godfathers. They apparently come in handy on weekends...
Sunday, July 19, 2009
7/19/09
Has it ever occurred to anyone that medical costs wouldn't be able to outpace inflation if there was no insurance and we all had to pay out of pocket for common procedures? This is the exact opposite of what we're apparently trying to do, but just bear with me for a second or two. I would have to guess that 95% of our expenses fall in the category of routine procedures that cost less than a few thousand bucks over any six-month time frame. None of us really know what they cost because we only pay a percentage or a flat rate and insurance picks up the rest. Then we really don't know a whole lot about what the insurance costs because most of that is paid by our employers (for roughly 85% of the country). Since we have no idea what things cost, we have no way of knowing what kind of deal we're getting. So prices, quite predictably, rise faster than any other segment of our economy. It's essentially the same as college tuition skyrocketing faster and faster as it gets more and more subsidized. If every student had to pay cash with no subsidies, colleges would either get really cheap really quickly or they would go out of business.
So why not use tax-free savings accounts and do away with standard health insurance, then carry catastrophic coverage for the big stuff? If nobody can afford to pay $500 for an x-ray, then an x-ray can't cost $500. All of the money that we currently pay for premiums could be directed into our savings accounts instead, to pay for the little stuff. Then we could get a catastrophic loss policy with a $5,000 deductible for a couple hundred bucks a month (at most). Seems pretty simple to me. I know that this probably means that I hate poor people or something. I really do think we could afford a safety net for poor people a lot more easily though, if the costs were subject to the same pricing pressures as everything else for which we have to pay cash. I don't know. I'm just a truck driver. The powers that be are wicked smart and they went to Ivy League schools, so I'm probably way off base... or something.
Today was a perfect case study in the futility of following directions from my employer. I got to sleep a little earlier than expected last night and slept rather soundly (for reasons that we won't discuss here). So I was up bright and early this morning. When I got out of bed and looked at my clock, I saw that I could get to my shipper in time to take a ten hour break before I was scheduled to leave with my load. Might as well do that, right? Then I would have as much of my 14 hour clock as possible still available once I got unloaded tomorrow morning.
I made the quick trip over to the shipper and found a parking space among some dropped trailers. I cranked up the A/C on my truck and refrigerated myself into going back to sleep. When I woke, I checked on channelsurfing.net and found that I was just in time to see the playoff in the Open Championship. Groovy. Too bad for Old Tom but it was fun to watch nonetheless. Lost in the hoopla about Watson's meltdown was the fact that Cink played some pretty damn good golf down the stretch, but I digress. Then my Tigers managed to squander another great pitching performance and got swept by the Evil Empire. Bummer.
My instructions said that I was supposed to call some phone number at 5pm and then someone would show up to give me my load. Okay then. I hung around waiting for 5pm to arrive. One of my CTL colleagues showed up a little before 5pm and drove past me to the back of the shipper's building. Right at 5pm, I made my call. I got someone's voicemail. Beauty. I left a message saying that I was there and I was ready to pick up my load and all of that jazz. Nobody called back.
After a few minutes, my colleague came around the corner and told me that my loaded trailer was sitting back there waiting for me. Someone had answered the phone when he called and told him which trailer to take. He had only one delivery (to the same place in Durham as my first drop) and I had two. The trailer number that he had been given was the one with a single drop and the other (mine) had two drops. Okay, so that all worked out well enough, but had I ignored my instructions I might have figured out that my damned trailer was sitting there all day. I could have covered as much of the trip as I cared to cover this afternoon, taken a ten hour break, and then finished off the run. I would have thus left more of tomorrow's hours available to myself. Instead I was a good little employee and did as I was told. I heeded the bit about just-in-time overnight yada yada yada, called when I was told to call, and took my ten hour break before making the drop/hook this evening. There's no telling how it will all play out from here, but now my 14 hour clock will expire at 8:45am.
I decided to take the leisurely route down US-301 through Maryland and across the Potomac, catching up with I-95 in Ruther Glen. There are quite a few red lights along that first stretch in Maryland but it's a pretty mellow ride on the weekend. There was a healthy amount of traffic once I got on the interstate but everything was moving along fairly well, so the whole trip was a relatively easy one. I got to the consignee's location hoping to find that they were some kind of 24-hour outfit and I would be done early. No such luck. My 5am scheduled arrival is apparently an accurate one this time around.
Once someone shows up here and takes the first batch of freight off my trailer, I'll have another twenty or thirty miles or whatever to my final stop in Raleigh. I guess there's a chance that everything can be done quickly and I can get another assignment before my hours run out. Given recent events though, I won't hold my breath. More likely I'll run out of hours and have to take another ten hour break, burning up most of tomorrow in the process. Hey, I did what I was told though. That has to count for something.
So why not use tax-free savings accounts and do away with standard health insurance, then carry catastrophic coverage for the big stuff? If nobody can afford to pay $500 for an x-ray, then an x-ray can't cost $500. All of the money that we currently pay for premiums could be directed into our savings accounts instead, to pay for the little stuff. Then we could get a catastrophic loss policy with a $5,000 deductible for a couple hundred bucks a month (at most). Seems pretty simple to me. I know that this probably means that I hate poor people or something. I really do think we could afford a safety net for poor people a lot more easily though, if the costs were subject to the same pricing pressures as everything else for which we have to pay cash. I don't know. I'm just a truck driver. The powers that be are wicked smart and they went to Ivy League schools, so I'm probably way off base... or something.
Today was a perfect case study in the futility of following directions from my employer. I got to sleep a little earlier than expected last night and slept rather soundly (for reasons that we won't discuss here). So I was up bright and early this morning. When I got out of bed and looked at my clock, I saw that I could get to my shipper in time to take a ten hour break before I was scheduled to leave with my load. Might as well do that, right? Then I would have as much of my 14 hour clock as possible still available once I got unloaded tomorrow morning.
I made the quick trip over to the shipper and found a parking space among some dropped trailers. I cranked up the A/C on my truck and refrigerated myself into going back to sleep. When I woke, I checked on channelsurfing.net and found that I was just in time to see the playoff in the Open Championship. Groovy. Too bad for Old Tom but it was fun to watch nonetheless. Lost in the hoopla about Watson's meltdown was the fact that Cink played some pretty damn good golf down the stretch, but I digress. Then my Tigers managed to squander another great pitching performance and got swept by the Evil Empire. Bummer.
My instructions said that I was supposed to call some phone number at 5pm and then someone would show up to give me my load. Okay then. I hung around waiting for 5pm to arrive. One of my CTL colleagues showed up a little before 5pm and drove past me to the back of the shipper's building. Right at 5pm, I made my call. I got someone's voicemail. Beauty. I left a message saying that I was there and I was ready to pick up my load and all of that jazz. Nobody called back.
After a few minutes, my colleague came around the corner and told me that my loaded trailer was sitting back there waiting for me. Someone had answered the phone when he called and told him which trailer to take. He had only one delivery (to the same place in Durham as my first drop) and I had two. The trailer number that he had been given was the one with a single drop and the other (mine) had two drops. Okay, so that all worked out well enough, but had I ignored my instructions I might have figured out that my damned trailer was sitting there all day. I could have covered as much of the trip as I cared to cover this afternoon, taken a ten hour break, and then finished off the run. I would have thus left more of tomorrow's hours available to myself. Instead I was a good little employee and did as I was told. I heeded the bit about just-in-time overnight yada yada yada, called when I was told to call, and took my ten hour break before making the drop/hook this evening. There's no telling how it will all play out from here, but now my 14 hour clock will expire at 8:45am.
I decided to take the leisurely route down US-301 through Maryland and across the Potomac, catching up with I-95 in Ruther Glen. There are quite a few red lights along that first stretch in Maryland but it's a pretty mellow ride on the weekend. There was a healthy amount of traffic once I got on the interstate but everything was moving along fairly well, so the whole trip was a relatively easy one. I got to the consignee's location hoping to find that they were some kind of 24-hour outfit and I would be done early. No such luck. My 5am scheduled arrival is apparently an accurate one this time around.
Once someone shows up here and takes the first batch of freight off my trailer, I'll have another twenty or thirty miles or whatever to my final stop in Raleigh. I guess there's a chance that everything can be done quickly and I can get another assignment before my hours run out. Given recent events though, I won't hold my breath. More likely I'll run out of hours and have to take another ten hour break, burning up most of tomorrow in the process. Hey, I did what I was told though. That has to count for something.
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