"Work is the curse of the working class."
I saw that saying on the t-shirts at a bar in Michigan last week. I found it amusing more than anything, but tonight I think we'll have to say that it fits. I was lounging around in Pennsylvania lamenting the fact that I had been on the board for almost 24 hours with no work. At least I had a fast wi-fi signal and I could keep watching football, I thought to myself. Then I got some work. At 4:30pm. Story of life. Good thing my Irish are on the Catholic Channel on XM this year, I guess.
My deadhead took me down through Pennsylvania and Maryland and into Virginia. I've rarely seen such bullshit traffic outside of Texas. If there are a lot of cars on the road, that's one thing. When there are not a lot of cars on the road and some cocksucker wants to tie up the center lane at 40mph, that's quite another. When it's raining... oh yeah, plenty of those bastards on the road tonight. Are trucks allowed to use the wide open left lane then? Well, of course not. That would just be crazy.
So the trip was a brutal fight from the time I hit I-495 to the time I left I-95. All's well that ends well though, as I made it to the shipper in West Point without committing vehicular manslaughter. I checked in and the fella told me that I would have to sweep out my trailer (in the dark, of course). Fair enough. Then he told me that I would have to pay ten bucks for a hard hat and safety glasses. Fair enough. My instructions for the load had mentioned this part so I made sure to have some cash on hand when I arrived. Then slide the axles back and go to the dock. Easy enough. Head inside and sign the log sheet. Okay, got that done.
What was that saying about the working class again? The forklift guy came over and told me that the trailer had a leak and that he couldn't load it. Well ain't that a bitch. The trailer looked good when I picked it up, but I guess after six hours in the rain you learn a little more, don't you? I hadn't noticed it while I was sweeping in the dark, but there was a little pinhole up near the top of the side wall. The load was rolls of paper, so obviously any water coming in would be a no-no. I called the dispatcher people to apprise them of the situation and they told me that they would have to unassign the load. Apparently there wasn't anywhere nearby that would have an empty trailer ready for me late at night on a Saturday. Go figure. (There is actually a Con-way terminal in Richmond that probably has empties, but it's not my place to argue. You know, working class and so forth.)
The next call was to the road service folks to see what they wanted me to do with the trailer. The T/A in Ashland was our closest option, so I write to you this evening from the T/A in Ashland. I did manage to get back in my truck in time to hear my Irish cap off a pretty dramatic win against those degenerates in West Lafayette. Say what you will about the stretch limo and the rest of it, but Jimmy Clausen is proving that he's every bit the stud that we were told he would be. With anything even resembling a mediocre defense, the lads would be formidable this year. As it stands I think we'll just have to keep hoping for the best.
The pay week is over now, regardless of whatever happens from here. With 2,675 miles and another $52 in northeast pay I suppose I've done fairly well overall. It's unfortunate that they paid me to drive all the way down here and pick up a load that I couldn't pick up, but it's just one of those things I guess. If it had been raining when I got this empty trailer, I may have noticed the pinhole sooner. You win some, you lose some.
Once homeboy here gets my trailer all fixed up, I guess I'll get back on the board and see what's what. My 14 hour clock didn't start until late in the afternoon, so I still have some time left. Good enough.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
9/25/09
I take a little nap and wake to find that the thugs from Chicago are winning 2-0? Something's wrong with the world today. And the Twinkies are winning at the same time? Something's wrong indeed. I might need to write a strongly worded letter... or something.
I think today could be described as a day in the life of a northeast regional driver who neither lives in the northeast nor is going home for the weekend. I got checked in and unloaded nice and early, then pulled around the corner to await my next charge. I guess it took about an hour or so until I was sent to Baltimore. The timing worked out pretty well on the front end, allowing me to get through Philly and into Baltimore after the morning traffic had died down. Even made it through the Delaware toll booths without any backups.
The shippers in Baltimore worked quickly and had me on my way within 45 minutes of my arrival. From there, it was back to the north. The load is delivering to a place in Cortland, New York on Monday so my job was to get it to Hazleton, Pennsylvania and drop it off at one of our customers here. The timing worked out pretty well for a second time since I made it out of Baltimore before the afternoon traffic kicked in. Beauty.
The third time (or timing) turned out not to be a charm this time around, since I hit Harrisburg right in the middle of the Friday afternoon rush. I-83 was a parking lot from the point where it turns eastward all the way to the I-81 split. Gotta love it. I made it to the warehouse in Hazleton with five minutes to spare and dropped off my loaded trailer. After grabbing an empty and finding myself on the board at #2, I was fortunate enough to find a parking space at the rinky-dink truck stop down the street. Small victories, I suppose. I usually don't have much luck finding a spot here.
We were almost to 6pm by the time all was said and done, so the odds of getting another assignment on a Friday weren't looking too good. And they're still not looking too good. Haven't moved from #2 on the board and my 14 hour clock is running low. Looks like Hazleton will probably be home for the night.
Thus far, I have 2,276 miles on the books with a little over $30 in northeast pay coming on top of that. Good enough for me. If I manage to catch a decent assignment in the morning, I may be inclined to grab a room at one of the Corleone family's estates tomorrow night. Today's paycheck had my vacation pay and my safety bonus on it, so the bank account got a much-needed shot in the arm. A few bucks spent on a motel room certainly won't kill me. It will just depend on the timing of the run, I suppose.
Apparently Purdue games are supposed to involve the rare combination of pregnancy and Natty Ice, but you can rest assured that my plans involve neither.
She's a real peach, eh? Go Irish!
I think today could be described as a day in the life of a northeast regional driver who neither lives in the northeast nor is going home for the weekend. I got checked in and unloaded nice and early, then pulled around the corner to await my next charge. I guess it took about an hour or so until I was sent to Baltimore. The timing worked out pretty well on the front end, allowing me to get through Philly and into Baltimore after the morning traffic had died down. Even made it through the Delaware toll booths without any backups.
The shippers in Baltimore worked quickly and had me on my way within 45 minutes of my arrival. From there, it was back to the north. The load is delivering to a place in Cortland, New York on Monday so my job was to get it to Hazleton, Pennsylvania and drop it off at one of our customers here. The timing worked out pretty well for a second time since I made it out of Baltimore before the afternoon traffic kicked in. Beauty.
The third time (or timing) turned out not to be a charm this time around, since I hit Harrisburg right in the middle of the Friday afternoon rush. I-83 was a parking lot from the point where it turns eastward all the way to the I-81 split. Gotta love it. I made it to the warehouse in Hazleton with five minutes to spare and dropped off my loaded trailer. After grabbing an empty and finding myself on the board at #2, I was fortunate enough to find a parking space at the rinky-dink truck stop down the street. Small victories, I suppose. I usually don't have much luck finding a spot here.
We were almost to 6pm by the time all was said and done, so the odds of getting another assignment on a Friday weren't looking too good. And they're still not looking too good. Haven't moved from #2 on the board and my 14 hour clock is running low. Looks like Hazleton will probably be home for the night.
Thus far, I have 2,276 miles on the books with a little over $30 in northeast pay coming on top of that. Good enough for me. If I manage to catch a decent assignment in the morning, I may be inclined to grab a room at one of the Corleone family's estates tomorrow night. Today's paycheck had my vacation pay and my safety bonus on it, so the bank account got a much-needed shot in the arm. A few bucks spent on a motel room certainly won't kill me. It will just depend on the timing of the run, I suppose.
Apparently Purdue games are supposed to involve the rare combination of pregnancy and Natty Ice, but you can rest assured that my plans involve neither.
She's a real peach, eh? Go Irish!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
9/24/09
Another good night for sports fans. Erin Andrews was on the sidelines covering the Cocks and Detroit has a magic number of eight. No, those two stories are not related. Perverts.
For the first time in quite a while I was able to sleep pretty soundly last night. That's always nice. The drive was a long one, to be sure, but overall it wasn't too bad. Lots of construction zones on the turnpikes but the only major delays that I saw were on the westbound side. Since I got a late start to the day, I didn't get to the heavily traveled Philadelphia area until late at night. Thus, traffic was nice and light. Beauty.
So far, mine is the only truck parked at the consignee here in Levittown. That's pretty cool. Getting here and taking my break tonight will leave me with a full slate of hours available tomorrow, so it will be good to get unloaded and on the board nice and early. Weekend runs out of this neck of the woods are usually pretty decent as long as I can get an assignment by Friday afternoon.
Part of the deal when you park at a customer is that sometimes you have to take a leak in the dark area behind the dumpster. Just the way it is, you know. Good thing I'm a fella though, since it would be a little tougher for a gal in such a situation. Or would it? Hmm.
For the first time in quite a while I was able to sleep pretty soundly last night. That's always nice. The drive was a long one, to be sure, but overall it wasn't too bad. Lots of construction zones on the turnpikes but the only major delays that I saw were on the westbound side. Since I got a late start to the day, I didn't get to the heavily traveled Philadelphia area until late at night. Thus, traffic was nice and light. Beauty.
So far, mine is the only truck parked at the consignee here in Levittown. That's pretty cool. Getting here and taking my break tonight will leave me with a full slate of hours available tomorrow, so it will be good to get unloaded and on the board nice and early. Weekend runs out of this neck of the woods are usually pretty decent as long as I can get an assignment by Friday afternoon.
Part of the deal when you park at a customer is that sometimes you have to take a leak in the dark area behind the dumpster. Just the way it is, you know. Good thing I'm a fella though, since it would be a little tougher for a gal in such a situation. Or would it? Hmm.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
9/23/09
Ahh yes, it's that time of year. Scoreboard watching and 'magic numbers' are the order of business. The Twinkies are still being stubborn but the Tigers are hanging on. Another win tonight has the magic number down to 9. And Verlander is going tomorrow. Beauty.
Today's drive was plenty frustrating, but at least the shenanigans from the desk jockeys appear to have abated for the most part. The brilliant dispatcher from last night's episode gave me an ETA of 2:19pm in Taylor today. What this meant was that I had to get cracking as soon as my ten hours were up. I should have had around a half hour to spare, it seemed, but it's always best to leave some margin for error. Out to the road at 7:15am then...
Chicago was Chicago, so there's really not much to say about that. As I sat parked in a traffic jam, I started crunching some numbers and concluded that my ETA might be a little dicey after all. Since I had been lectured about the absolute need to communicate any delays by last night's brilliant dispatcher, I made a call to the Taylor terminal to keep them in the loop. Useless call. Moving along... Next I sent a 'detained' message to Joplin, advising them that I was stuck in traffic and I wasn't sure about my ETA. No response from anyone there, but maybe someone noticed or something. I don't know. Whatever.
Once I got through Chicago, things shook out and I made pretty good time for the rest of the trip. There was no time to stop, of course, since the lady in Taylor who took my earlier phone call wouldn't let me ask the dispatcher if I could have a little extra time. Whatever dude. Food is overrated anyway. Being fat has its advantages, I suppose. Fortunately, my fuel gauge didn't reach the empty mark until I was close to the terminal. I rolled in at 2:15pm and made my drop, then got on the board at #3.
By the time I got back out to my truck, I was up to #2 on the board. Not much sense in going home at that point. I had a new assignment within a couple of hours and it was time to head back out. My next pickup was a drop/hook in Kalamazoo, headed for the Philly suburbs. I still had four driving hours available for today, but the 14-hour rule would come into play if everything wasn't quick and easy. So obviously there would have to be a lot of red tape at the shipper, leaving me only an hour and a half to drive once I had my loaded trailer. Par for the course.
I didn't have a firm idea on how I wanted to use that last hour and a half tonight. I could go straight down on US-131 out of Kalamazoo and then catch the Indiana toll road. Or I could run I-94 over to I-69 and drop down from there. Or I could take I-94 back across Michigan and drop down on US-127 or US-23. I'm not sure which route is the shortest. I imagine that the routes are all within a reasonable range of each other. The biggest issue for me was trying to find a way to get my full hour and a half in and then have a place to park at the end. I settled on the route down I-69, since there would be a few places along the toll roads that I could try for parking.
Yeah, I said toll roads, plural. I'm inclined to think that I would have maintained my anti-toll crusade if not for the Mackinac Bridge deal on Monday. Making it through a whole calendar year might have been something worth doing, but in any case I'll be taking the Ohio turnpike this time around. The consignee in Pennsylvania has overnight parking and there would be no way to get there by tomorrow night if I screwed around crossing Ohio. I feel the need. The need, for speed.
As I approached the exit for I-69, traffic came to a dead stop. Nice. Nothing like watching your 14-hour clock tick away while you roll along in low gear. Then, just for shits and giggles, the ramp for I-69 was completely shut down. Okay then. Guess we'll be taking I-94 after all. After I got out of that mess, I peeked at the clock and saw that I could make it to the little rathole truck stop on the east side of Jackson before I ran out of hours. There were a few other truck stops and rest areas along the way but, as I mentioned, I needed to maximize today's drive so that I could reach the consignee in one shot tomorrow. Jackson would be as far as I could go tonight.
Five miles before my exit... dead stop. Freeway closed. Yeah, for realsies. They only have two seasons in Michigan, as the saying goes... The detour off the freeway turned out to be no more than a quick 'off and back on' kinda deal, but it took quite a while for everyone to migrate to the exit. Three miles later the day was finally over. 9:07pm equals 9pm in the driver's logging world, right? Good enough for me. It was a pain in the ass, but I'm pretty sure I covered enough ground tonight to do the trick.
I think I'll angle down toward Blissfield from here and catch US-23 tomorrow. Then it will be a long day on those good old turnpikes. Certainly racking up some miles though. I'll be at 1,992 on Friday morning once I get rid of this load. One good old nor'easter for the weekend will have me doing just fine. And better yet - no alarm clock tonight. Beauty.
Today's drive was plenty frustrating, but at least the shenanigans from the desk jockeys appear to have abated for the most part. The brilliant dispatcher from last night's episode gave me an ETA of 2:19pm in Taylor today. What this meant was that I had to get cracking as soon as my ten hours were up. I should have had around a half hour to spare, it seemed, but it's always best to leave some margin for error. Out to the road at 7:15am then...
Chicago was Chicago, so there's really not much to say about that. As I sat parked in a traffic jam, I started crunching some numbers and concluded that my ETA might be a little dicey after all. Since I had been lectured about the absolute need to communicate any delays by last night's brilliant dispatcher, I made a call to the Taylor terminal to keep them in the loop. Useless call. Moving along... Next I sent a 'detained' message to Joplin, advising them that I was stuck in traffic and I wasn't sure about my ETA. No response from anyone there, but maybe someone noticed or something. I don't know. Whatever.
Once I got through Chicago, things shook out and I made pretty good time for the rest of the trip. There was no time to stop, of course, since the lady in Taylor who took my earlier phone call wouldn't let me ask the dispatcher if I could have a little extra time. Whatever dude. Food is overrated anyway. Being fat has its advantages, I suppose. Fortunately, my fuel gauge didn't reach the empty mark until I was close to the terminal. I rolled in at 2:15pm and made my drop, then got on the board at #3.
By the time I got back out to my truck, I was up to #2 on the board. Not much sense in going home at that point. I had a new assignment within a couple of hours and it was time to head back out. My next pickup was a drop/hook in Kalamazoo, headed for the Philly suburbs. I still had four driving hours available for today, but the 14-hour rule would come into play if everything wasn't quick and easy. So obviously there would have to be a lot of red tape at the shipper, leaving me only an hour and a half to drive once I had my loaded trailer. Par for the course.
I didn't have a firm idea on how I wanted to use that last hour and a half tonight. I could go straight down on US-131 out of Kalamazoo and then catch the Indiana toll road. Or I could run I-94 over to I-69 and drop down from there. Or I could take I-94 back across Michigan and drop down on US-127 or US-23. I'm not sure which route is the shortest. I imagine that the routes are all within a reasonable range of each other. The biggest issue for me was trying to find a way to get my full hour and a half in and then have a place to park at the end. I settled on the route down I-69, since there would be a few places along the toll roads that I could try for parking.
Yeah, I said toll roads, plural. I'm inclined to think that I would have maintained my anti-toll crusade if not for the Mackinac Bridge deal on Monday. Making it through a whole calendar year might have been something worth doing, but in any case I'll be taking the Ohio turnpike this time around. The consignee in Pennsylvania has overnight parking and there would be no way to get there by tomorrow night if I screwed around crossing Ohio. I feel the need. The need, for speed.
As I approached the exit for I-69, traffic came to a dead stop. Nice. Nothing like watching your 14-hour clock tick away while you roll along in low gear. Then, just for shits and giggles, the ramp for I-69 was completely shut down. Okay then. Guess we'll be taking I-94 after all. After I got out of that mess, I peeked at the clock and saw that I could make it to the little rathole truck stop on the east side of Jackson before I ran out of hours. There were a few other truck stops and rest areas along the way but, as I mentioned, I needed to maximize today's drive so that I could reach the consignee in one shot tomorrow. Jackson would be as far as I could go tonight.
Five miles before my exit... dead stop. Freeway closed. Yeah, for realsies. They only have two seasons in Michigan, as the saying goes... The detour off the freeway turned out to be no more than a quick 'off and back on' kinda deal, but it took quite a while for everyone to migrate to the exit. Three miles later the day was finally over. 9:07pm equals 9pm in the driver's logging world, right? Good enough for me. It was a pain in the ass, but I'm pretty sure I covered enough ground tonight to do the trick.
I think I'll angle down toward Blissfield from here and catch US-23 tomorrow. Then it will be a long day on those good old turnpikes. Certainly racking up some miles though. I'll be at 1,992 on Friday morning once I get rid of this load. One good old nor'easter for the weekend will have me doing just fine. And better yet - no alarm clock tonight. Beauty.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
9/22/09
Today, I think we had better go ahead and get this part out of the way:
The views expressed in the following post are those of the author and only the author. They have not, in any way, been endorsed nor supported by his employer. While the author is thoroughly aggravated with several nameless individuals at the moment, the reader should be aware that this post is made with love... or something to that effect.
Okay, that part is out of the way. So... let's talk about it. Amateur hour, after hour, after hour... would probably be a good way to describe today's go-around in the life of this here driver. It all started out innocently enough. I got up in the morning and headed over to my shipper, where I was told that I had a drop/hook at 8am. I arrived at 7:30am and was told that my trailer wasn't loaded yet. No big deal though. They just did a live load and had me rolling not long after the original 8am scheduled time.
The fog was wicked thick up north this morning, but the sun had come out and burned most of it away by the time I reached Escanaba. With the sky clearing up, the drive down M-35 along the coast was rather pleasant. Around the time that I caught back up with US-41, my satellite unit gave the patented double chirp that signifies a pre-plan. Beauty. Things were looking good indeed.
The pre-planned assignment also came with an added benefit. It was picking up this afternoon in Wisconsin and delivering tomorrow in Taylor, Michigan. I was just home so I have no great desire to go back, but what the heck. Might as well be able to get out of the truck and chill at home for a bit if I have to wait on the board after I make my delivery.
I rolled into the consignee's lot in Neenah at 12:15pm Central. My dispatch said that I was due at 1pm Central. There was nobody inside, so I guessed that they must be out to lunch or something. After 12:30pm had passed, I tried again. Yeah, there was a guy in there this time. Dude gave me a pretty thorough ass-chewing, saying that I showed up without an appointment, blah blah blah. He made me park along the side of the lot and wait for him to assign me to a door. I sent a message to the folks in Joplin, apprising them of the situation.
I got a reply saying that my pre-planned assignment had to pick up by "1630EDT," and that I needed to let them know if I hadn't been unloaded by "1530EDT." I'm in Wisconsin, mind you. Fair enough though. We'll just play it by ear then.
There was one truck in a door at the time of this exchange. That truck left within ten minutes. So where are we now? Something like 1pm Central or so, right? A few minutes before 2pm Central, the same grumpy guy came out and told me to back into a door. (No trucks had arrived in the interim.) He went on to explain that his shift ended at 2pm and I would have to wait for the second shift guy to get started. I asked if he knew approximately how long it might be, so that I could keep the Joplin gang informed. Yeah, he didn't give me an estimate. Instead he chose to bitch some more about the fact that I didn't have an appointment.
I called Joplin at this point to try getting some clarification on the whole Eastern/Central thing. If 4:30pm Eastern was really the pickup time, it simply wasn't happening. If the appointment was for 4:30pm Central, it would be close but I could possibly make it. The young lady on the phone, bless her heart, had absolutely no clue what I was asking. I mentioned the earlier message from the gentleman - you know, the one that said "1630EDT." Then... I'm sure she was trying to help... or something. Good grief. After answering a couple of her irrelevant questions, I managed to pry out of her the fact that the load was indeed scheduled for 4:30pm Central. Fine. Good enough for now.
The second shift guy at the consignee showed up a short time later and, while he certainly was in no hurry, he had me unloaded by 3:15pm Central. I slid my trailer axles back forward and took off for the next pickup. (The non-endorsed and unofficial conclusion here might be that three hours of my time were wasted because nobody bothered to make an appointment for me.)
The deadhead was somewhere around 50 miles along rainy state highways and through a few towns, so it took me until damn near the 4:30pm Central appointment time to reach the shipper. I followed my directions (turn here, turn there, first building on the right) and proceeded to a door next to a set of loading docks. The sign out front had the name of the shipper and "Shipping/Receiving" on it, so the directions seemed to be right on. The door next to the docks said "Driver's Entrance" as well. Okay then. I caught the attention of a forklift guy who motioned me over to a desk and then drove around a corner. There was a big sign saying that drivers are to wait by the desk and not to walk in the work area. Fair enough then.
After a half hour that I spent trying to get the attention of various people in the factory, a local truck driver walked in and told me that I needed to check in at a different set of loading docks. We walked over and the super-friendlydickhead shipping clerk promptly marked my paperwork "LATE -16:55/16:30." Well that's nice. Then I had to walk back to where I was parked and drive around the block to reach the second set of docks. Since I was late, in their view, I would have to wait for an open appointment and get worked in. (The non-endorsed and unofficial conclusion here might be that my pickup was screwed up because I was given wrong directions.)
I parked in the staging area and sent a message advising the dispatcher people that they needed to correct the directions. Might as well see to it that the next driver goes to the right place, right? I also mentioned that I was marked down as being late, on account of the aforementioned wrong directions.
After hanging around for a while, I was directed to an available loading dock. The forklift guy and my buddy the shipping clerk walked into the trailer and checked it over. Then I was lucky enough to get yet another ass-chewing because the trailer has some kind of metal rails along the bottom edges and these rails are all banged up. In a few spots, the sharp edges of the metal rails protrude a couple of inches from the side walls of the trailer. What this meant, apparently, was that they couldn't "pinwheel" the pallets and load me with the full 25. Instead, they would have to load me with 22 pallets. Since the load was going to Canada, all of the paperwork had to be re-done and re-submitted before they could start loading the trailer. (The non-endorsed and unofficial conclusion here might be that more of my time was wasted because the shipper didn't bother to mention that we shouldn't bring an old Con-way trailer to pick up this load.)
Eventually I got my 22 pallets and sent in my loaded call. Oh goodie, time for my phone to ring. Nothing like a call from Joplin to brighten an otherwise shitty day. The gentleman on the phone asked if I would be able to make it to Taylor by 8am tomorrow. I'm going to have plenty to say about this in a minute, but the answer (obviously) was "no." Then I was asked what happened, why couldn't I keep my schedule, and something else along those lines. It's called the 14-hour rule, dude. I don't make the policies for this country, you know. I just live by them.
Then I got a nice lecture about how I shouldn't have confirmed the pre-plan if I couldn't keep to the schedule. I responded with a mini-lecture of my own about how those pre-plans are never fully accurate and I have no way of knowing what the actual delivery time will be. In the past, I have declined them based on the listed times. Each time, I've gotten a phone call telling me to confirm the load. The message has always been, "You just need to make the pickup time. The computer will dispatch you with your available hours once you're loaded." Since I sent in my hours (1) before starting my day at 7:15am this morning, (2) once I was loaded in Munising, (3) once I arrived in Neenah, (4) once I was empty in Neenah, (5) once I confirmed the next load, and (6) once I was loaded in Waupun, I'm pretty sure that 'the computer' knew how many hours I had available along the way.
The gentleman on the phone then said that he would have to call the Taylor terminal and see what they said. What did the Taylor terminal say then? Exactly what I could have told you they would say. Get it there as quick as you can. Duh. The freaking thing is scheduled to deliver on the 24th (at a time yet to be determined) in Lachine, Quebec. According to truckmiles.com, the trip from Taylor to Lachine is 576.8 miles. So what exactly is the problem? That's the way these Canada runs work, for Christ's sake. We get them to the border as soon as we can and then the Canada driver has a day to finish the trip.
So yeah, I had enough hours to get down past Milwaukee before I had to park it for the night. I faxed the paperwork to Taylor, as I always do on Canada loads, so that they can set an appointment with the consignee, as they always do on Canada loads. After a ten-hour break here, I'll get to slug my way through Chicago and then get to the terminal some time in the afternoon.
Now that I've done my bitching for the month, indulge me a moment to wonder about a couple of things. Munising to Neenah - 209 dispatched miles. Neenah to Waupun - 44 dispatched miles. Waupun to Taylor - 438 dispatched miles. So what do we have, 691 miles overall? Is there any way that I could have managed a 62.8mph pace along that route?
The U.P. segment was all state and U.S. highways, with a sprinkling of towns along the way. The Wisconsin segment was mostly U.S. highways, with a shit-ton of construction and several towns along the way. Now I'm on the interstate, but I'll soon be in Illinois where the speed limit is 55mph. Then I'll be in Michigan, where the speed limit is 60mph. So the answer is no. I could not have managed anything close to a 62.8mph pace along this route. Obviously whoever assigned the pre-plan would have known this, right? I had already been driving for a few hours this morning when it was assigned, after all. So obviously a ten-hour break tonight had to be a part of the equation from the word 'go,' right? If I picked up at 4:30pm Central (planned pickup time), took zero minutes to get loaded, took a ten-hour break, took zero minutes for fuel or inspections, and drove the ~7.5 hours to Taylor, we would be at 11am Eastern at the earliest. The 8am thing on the pre-plan was obviously just a placeholder, as nearly as I can tell. Yet I'm the asshole for accepting the pre-plan? Right. Okay.
Or how about this. Let's leave aside the fact that the miles involved would have dictated a break in any case. Let's pretend that the whole dang shebang could have been done in one shift. When I received the pre-plan, could I have known that nobody in Joplin made a delivery appointment for me? No. Could I have known that the guy at the consignee would use this as an excuse to sit around and do nothing until his shift ended? No. Could I have known that the wrong directions to the next pickup would have left me standing with my thumb up my ass for a half hour, then left me waiting even longer for them to 'work me in' and deal with the 25/22 pallet issue? No. Yet I'm the asshole for accepting the pre-plan? Right. Okay.
After reviewing my little War and Peace here, the only conclusion that I can draw is that either (a) it was amateur hour tonight and things will be back to normal tomorrow, or (b) I'll have to start turning down virtually every pre-plan from this point forward. I'm sincerely hoping for (a). My fleet manager will, rather quickly I suspect, get sick of calling and telling me to confirm my assignments if we have to go with (b). Whatever dude. The Tigers won.
The views expressed in the following post are those of the author and only the author. They have not, in any way, been endorsed nor supported by his employer. While the author is thoroughly aggravated with several nameless individuals at the moment, the reader should be aware that this post is made with love... or something to that effect.
Okay, that part is out of the way. So... let's talk about it. Amateur hour, after hour, after hour... would probably be a good way to describe today's go-around in the life of this here driver. It all started out innocently enough. I got up in the morning and headed over to my shipper, where I was told that I had a drop/hook at 8am. I arrived at 7:30am and was told that my trailer wasn't loaded yet. No big deal though. They just did a live load and had me rolling not long after the original 8am scheduled time.
The fog was wicked thick up north this morning, but the sun had come out and burned most of it away by the time I reached Escanaba. With the sky clearing up, the drive down M-35 along the coast was rather pleasant. Around the time that I caught back up with US-41, my satellite unit gave the patented double chirp that signifies a pre-plan. Beauty. Things were looking good indeed.
The pre-planned assignment also came with an added benefit. It was picking up this afternoon in Wisconsin and delivering tomorrow in Taylor, Michigan. I was just home so I have no great desire to go back, but what the heck. Might as well be able to get out of the truck and chill at home for a bit if I have to wait on the board after I make my delivery.
I rolled into the consignee's lot in Neenah at 12:15pm Central. My dispatch said that I was due at 1pm Central. There was nobody inside, so I guessed that they must be out to lunch or something. After 12:30pm had passed, I tried again. Yeah, there was a guy in there this time. Dude gave me a pretty thorough ass-chewing, saying that I showed up without an appointment, blah blah blah. He made me park along the side of the lot and wait for him to assign me to a door. I sent a message to the folks in Joplin, apprising them of the situation.
I got a reply saying that my pre-planned assignment had to pick up by "1630EDT," and that I needed to let them know if I hadn't been unloaded by "1530EDT." I'm in Wisconsin, mind you. Fair enough though. We'll just play it by ear then.
There was one truck in a door at the time of this exchange. That truck left within ten minutes. So where are we now? Something like 1pm Central or so, right? A few minutes before 2pm Central, the same grumpy guy came out and told me to back into a door. (No trucks had arrived in the interim.) He went on to explain that his shift ended at 2pm and I would have to wait for the second shift guy to get started. I asked if he knew approximately how long it might be, so that I could keep the Joplin gang informed. Yeah, he didn't give me an estimate. Instead he chose to bitch some more about the fact that I didn't have an appointment.
I called Joplin at this point to try getting some clarification on the whole Eastern/Central thing. If 4:30pm Eastern was really the pickup time, it simply wasn't happening. If the appointment was for 4:30pm Central, it would be close but I could possibly make it. The young lady on the phone, bless her heart, had absolutely no clue what I was asking. I mentioned the earlier message from the gentleman - you know, the one that said "1630EDT." Then... I'm sure she was trying to help... or something. Good grief. After answering a couple of her irrelevant questions, I managed to pry out of her the fact that the load was indeed scheduled for 4:30pm Central. Fine. Good enough for now.
The second shift guy at the consignee showed up a short time later and, while he certainly was in no hurry, he had me unloaded by 3:15pm Central. I slid my trailer axles back forward and took off for the next pickup. (The non-endorsed and unofficial conclusion here might be that three hours of my time were wasted because nobody bothered to make an appointment for me.)
The deadhead was somewhere around 50 miles along rainy state highways and through a few towns, so it took me until damn near the 4:30pm Central appointment time to reach the shipper. I followed my directions (turn here, turn there, first building on the right) and proceeded to a door next to a set of loading docks. The sign out front had the name of the shipper and "Shipping/Receiving" on it, so the directions seemed to be right on. The door next to the docks said "Driver's Entrance" as well. Okay then. I caught the attention of a forklift guy who motioned me over to a desk and then drove around a corner. There was a big sign saying that drivers are to wait by the desk and not to walk in the work area. Fair enough then.
After a half hour that I spent trying to get the attention of various people in the factory, a local truck driver walked in and told me that I needed to check in at a different set of loading docks. We walked over and the super-friendly
I parked in the staging area and sent a message advising the dispatcher people that they needed to correct the directions. Might as well see to it that the next driver goes to the right place, right? I also mentioned that I was marked down as being late, on account of the aforementioned wrong directions.
After hanging around for a while, I was directed to an available loading dock. The forklift guy and my buddy the shipping clerk walked into the trailer and checked it over. Then I was lucky enough to get yet another ass-chewing because the trailer has some kind of metal rails along the bottom edges and these rails are all banged up. In a few spots, the sharp edges of the metal rails protrude a couple of inches from the side walls of the trailer. What this meant, apparently, was that they couldn't "pinwheel" the pallets and load me with the full 25. Instead, they would have to load me with 22 pallets. Since the load was going to Canada, all of the paperwork had to be re-done and re-submitted before they could start loading the trailer. (The non-endorsed and unofficial conclusion here might be that more of my time was wasted because the shipper didn't bother to mention that we shouldn't bring an old Con-way trailer to pick up this load.)
Eventually I got my 22 pallets and sent in my loaded call. Oh goodie, time for my phone to ring. Nothing like a call from Joplin to brighten an otherwise shitty day. The gentleman on the phone asked if I would be able to make it to Taylor by 8am tomorrow. I'm going to have plenty to say about this in a minute, but the answer (obviously) was "no." Then I was asked what happened, why couldn't I keep my schedule, and something else along those lines. It's called the 14-hour rule, dude. I don't make the policies for this country, you know. I just live by them.
Then I got a nice lecture about how I shouldn't have confirmed the pre-plan if I couldn't keep to the schedule. I responded with a mini-lecture of my own about how those pre-plans are never fully accurate and I have no way of knowing what the actual delivery time will be. In the past, I have declined them based on the listed times. Each time, I've gotten a phone call telling me to confirm the load. The message has always been, "You just need to make the pickup time. The computer will dispatch you with your available hours once you're loaded." Since I sent in my hours (1) before starting my day at 7:15am this morning, (2) once I was loaded in Munising, (3) once I arrived in Neenah, (4) once I was empty in Neenah, (5) once I confirmed the next load, and (6) once I was loaded in Waupun, I'm pretty sure that 'the computer' knew how many hours I had available along the way.
The gentleman on the phone then said that he would have to call the Taylor terminal and see what they said. What did the Taylor terminal say then? Exactly what I could have told you they would say. Get it there as quick as you can. Duh. The freaking thing is scheduled to deliver on the 24th (at a time yet to be determined) in Lachine, Quebec. According to truckmiles.com, the trip from Taylor to Lachine is 576.8 miles. So what exactly is the problem? That's the way these Canada runs work, for Christ's sake. We get them to the border as soon as we can and then the Canada driver has a day to finish the trip.
So yeah, I had enough hours to get down past Milwaukee before I had to park it for the night. I faxed the paperwork to Taylor, as I always do on Canada loads, so that they can set an appointment with the consignee, as they always do on Canada loads. After a ten-hour break here, I'll get to slug my way through Chicago and then get to the terminal some time in the afternoon.
Now that I've done my bitching for the month, indulge me a moment to wonder about a couple of things. Munising to Neenah - 209 dispatched miles. Neenah to Waupun - 44 dispatched miles. Waupun to Taylor - 438 dispatched miles. So what do we have, 691 miles overall? Is there any way that I could have managed a 62.8mph pace along that route?
The U.P. segment was all state and U.S. highways, with a sprinkling of towns along the way. The Wisconsin segment was mostly U.S. highways, with a shit-ton of construction and several towns along the way. Now I'm on the interstate, but I'll soon be in Illinois where the speed limit is 55mph. Then I'll be in Michigan, where the speed limit is 60mph. So the answer is no. I could not have managed anything close to a 62.8mph pace along this route. Obviously whoever assigned the pre-plan would have known this, right? I had already been driving for a few hours this morning when it was assigned, after all. So obviously a ten-hour break tonight had to be a part of the equation from the word 'go,' right? If I picked up at 4:30pm Central (planned pickup time), took zero minutes to get loaded, took a ten-hour break, took zero minutes for fuel or inspections, and drove the ~7.5 hours to Taylor, we would be at 11am Eastern at the earliest. The 8am thing on the pre-plan was obviously just a placeholder, as nearly as I can tell. Yet I'm the asshole for accepting the pre-plan? Right. Okay.
Or how about this. Let's leave aside the fact that the miles involved would have dictated a break in any case. Let's pretend that the whole dang shebang could have been done in one shift. When I received the pre-plan, could I have known that nobody in Joplin made a delivery appointment for me? No. Could I have known that the guy at the consignee would use this as an excuse to sit around and do nothing until his shift ended? No. Could I have known that the wrong directions to the next pickup would have left me standing with my thumb up my ass for a half hour, then left me waiting even longer for them to 'work me in' and deal with the 25/22 pallet issue? No. Yet I'm the asshole for accepting the pre-plan? Right. Okay.
After reviewing my little War and Peace here, the only conclusion that I can draw is that either (a) it was amateur hour tonight and things will be back to normal tomorrow, or (b) I'll have to start turning down virtually every pre-plan from this point forward. I'm sincerely hoping for (a). My fleet manager will, rather quickly I suspect, get sick of calling and telling me to confirm my assignments if we have to go with (b). Whatever dude. The Tigers won.
Monday, September 21, 2009
9/21/09
I hang my head in the unmistakable shame of a defeated man as I write to you this afternoon. It was all going so well. I had no trouble routing my trips through Florida and Kansas. Ohio is set to join the EZPass network at the beginning of October. My final victory over cash tolls was all but assured. And then... there was the Mackinac Bridge. The nihilists finally beat me.
After the hop up to Traverse City this morning, I was unloaded quickly and found myself at #11 on the board. This was no huge surprise since I was still in the Taylor terminal's sphere of influence. Always at least a few trucks on the board in Michigan. Fortunately though, I was a long way from Taylor so I didn't have to sit around until I got to #1. It's pretty unusual to have more than one or two trucks as far north as I was. A new assignment came up within an hour or so. Unfortunately though, that new assignment was in the U.P. Boo! Cash tolls. Boo! $17.50 to cross that damned bridge and no EZPass in sight.
I got up to the little truck stop in the lovely hamlet of Wetmore and set up shop for the night. Tomorrow will bring a drop/hook in Munising, right around the corner, and then a quick 200-mile trip down into Wisconsin. I think I may try and pick up a yooper chick since I have some free time this evening. It looks like I've found a video that might help me improve my approach...
After the hop up to Traverse City this morning, I was unloaded quickly and found myself at #11 on the board. This was no huge surprise since I was still in the Taylor terminal's sphere of influence. Always at least a few trucks on the board in Michigan. Fortunately though, I was a long way from Taylor so I didn't have to sit around until I got to #1. It's pretty unusual to have more than one or two trucks as far north as I was. A new assignment came up within an hour or so. Unfortunately though, that new assignment was in the U.P. Boo! Cash tolls. Boo! $17.50 to cross that damned bridge and no EZPass in sight.
I got up to the little truck stop in the lovely hamlet of Wetmore and set up shop for the night. Tomorrow will bring a drop/hook in Munising, right around the corner, and then a quick 200-mile trip down into Wisconsin. I think I may try and pick up a yooper chick since I have some free time this evening. It looks like I've found a video that might help me improve my approach...
Sunday, September 20, 2009
9/20/09
You know, it really is kinda like riding a bike. Sure it's a big old 435hp, 18,000 pound bike with six wheels and a 53' wagon behind it, but you still don't forget how to drive it once you've learned. I would even hasten to add that I'm a little more comfortable in my truck than in my car these days. Scary.
I got over to the terminal around 4:45pm and checked in to grab my paperwork. Then after hooking my trailer and topping off the fuel tanks, it was time to head northward. A Tiger victory on the radio and light traffic to get back into the swing of things - not bad. Since I got such a late start, Saginaw seemed like a decent place to stop for the night. I knocked a couple of hours off the trip and got past Flint tonight, so tomorrow morning's ~150 miles should be pretty decent.
And, with that, we're officially back in business here at Fenian Godfather Transportation.
I got over to the terminal around 4:45pm and checked in to grab my paperwork. Then after hooking my trailer and topping off the fuel tanks, it was time to head northward. A Tiger victory on the radio and light traffic to get back into the swing of things - not bad. Since I got such a late start, Saginaw seemed like a decent place to stop for the night. I knocked a couple of hours off the trip and got past Flint tonight, so tomorrow morning's ~150 miles should be pretty decent.
And, with that, we're officially back in business here at Fenian Godfather Transportation.
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