Sunday, March 23, 2008
3/23/08
Well, through Oklahoma and into Missouri before the hours ran out. It looks like a little under 500 miles to go from here as I wait for midnight to arrive. Guess I'll try to sleep.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
3/22/08
This morning was a foggy little bugger. There were some stretches where it was hard to see one truck length in front of me. Luckily there wasn't a whole lot of traffic that early on a Saturday so I made pretty good time. I stopped in Freer for some breakfast (aka donuts) and then finished off the run into Laredo.
Since I was dispatched to arrive in Laredo at 10:30am local time, you could probably guess that the broker receiving the load is closed on weekends. So I had to get up at 5am, why exactly? Dunno. The bright side was that a closed broker meant that I could drop the trailer at the terminal instead of delivering it. I got on the board and I was number... zero? No board? At Laredo on a Saturday? Nice.
The dispatcher had a load that needed to be picked up from a broker down the street from us, but had nobody to pick it up until I got there. Sure thing dude. I'm your Huckleberry. He gave me an empty number and sent me on my way. Once through the yard - nothing. Second trip around, a little slower - nada. Then I found a bunch of empties on the repair aisle. Yep, there was mine. I checked the tag to see what was wrong with it and I found that it just needed the plastic skirts removed from the bottom. Dumb ConWay legacy trailers. So I walked over to the mechanics and told them I was taking it with the skirts on it. Screw it. Someone can pull them off the next time around.
Over to the broker... "They're closed buddy," said the security guard. I called the Laredo dispatcher, who then asked to speak with the guard. A non-English conversation ensued, after which I was sent to the loading dock. Beauty. One pallet and thirty seconds later, I was on my way north.
Every time I have to go up I-35, I remember how much I hate I-35. Sitting behind a senior citizen or a church group blocking the right lanes as I watch the traffic fly by in the left lane (where trucks are not allowed) just makes my blood boil. Traffic wasn't even heavy today, but of course it had to come to a dead stop in Austin. I think a bunch of those degenerates from Leander must have gone down there for breakfast or something. Eventually things loosened up and I made it up to the Dallas area before my hours ran out.
This run is going up to the Chicago area, which makes it interesting in a variety of ways. One is that it will require every hour I have coming to me for both tomorrow and Monday in order to deliver by Monday morning. That will leave me sitting Monday with no hours and picking up four and a half hours Tuesday. Sounds like a restart is in order. Second is that apparently I have to cross Noah's flood tomorrow. Hopefully the waters are down enough to get through by the time I get into Missouri. Third is that Illinois just got pounded with snow. I'm actually pretty confident in their ability to clean things up before Monday morning. Since I'm only hauling 700 pounds, I hope there's not much slippery stuff.
Those are interesting, but here's the most interesting part to me:
You can interpret the $0 in additional pay as meaning $0 in layover pay, which will likely lead to another unpleasant discussion in the near future. That's not the point though. Check out the miles. I'm sure I've had a 4,000 mile week at some point in time, but I've never had one since we went to weekly pay. That looks pretty cool. We're not talking 3,999 here either, by the way. I'll be hamstrung in terms of hours once I deliver, but until that time I am to be addressed as "Super Trucker."
Since I was dispatched to arrive in Laredo at 10:30am local time, you could probably guess that the broker receiving the load is closed on weekends. So I had to get up at 5am, why exactly? Dunno. The bright side was that a closed broker meant that I could drop the trailer at the terminal instead of delivering it. I got on the board and I was number... zero? No board? At Laredo on a Saturday? Nice.
The dispatcher had a load that needed to be picked up from a broker down the street from us, but had nobody to pick it up until I got there. Sure thing dude. I'm your Huckleberry. He gave me an empty number and sent me on my way. Once through the yard - nothing. Second trip around, a little slower - nada. Then I found a bunch of empties on the repair aisle. Yep, there was mine. I checked the tag to see what was wrong with it and I found that it just needed the plastic skirts removed from the bottom. Dumb ConWay legacy trailers. So I walked over to the mechanics and told them I was taking it with the skirts on it. Screw it. Someone can pull them off the next time around.
Over to the broker... "They're closed buddy," said the security guard. I called the Laredo dispatcher, who then asked to speak with the guard. A non-English conversation ensued, after which I was sent to the loading dock. Beauty. One pallet and thirty seconds later, I was on my way north.
Every time I have to go up I-35, I remember how much I hate I-35. Sitting behind a senior citizen or a church group blocking the right lanes as I watch the traffic fly by in the left lane (where trucks are not allowed) just makes my blood boil. Traffic wasn't even heavy today, but of course it had to come to a dead stop in Austin. I think a bunch of those degenerates from Leander must have gone down there for breakfast or something. Eventually things loosened up and I made it up to the Dallas area before my hours ran out.
This run is going up to the Chicago area, which makes it interesting in a variety of ways. One is that it will require every hour I have coming to me for both tomorrow and Monday in order to deliver by Monday morning. That will leave me sitting Monday with no hours and picking up four and a half hours Tuesday. Sounds like a restart is in order. Second is that apparently I have to cross Noah's flood tomorrow. Hopefully the waters are down enough to get through by the time I get into Missouri. Third is that Illinois just got pounded with snow. I'm actually pretty confident in their ability to clean things up before Monday morning. Since I'm only hauling 700 pounds, I hope there's not much slippery stuff.
Those are interesting, but here's the most interesting part to me:
You can interpret the $0 in additional pay as meaning $0 in layover pay, which will likely lead to another unpleasant discussion in the near future. That's not the point though. Check out the miles. I'm sure I've had a 4,000 mile week at some point in time, but I've never had one since we went to weekly pay. That looks pretty cool. We're not talking 3,999 here either, by the way. I'll be hamstrung in terms of hours once I deliver, but until that time I am to be addressed as "Super Trucker."
Friday, March 21, 2008
3/21/08
Holidays on the road are different, obviously, from holidays at home. It doesn't take a real Einstein to figure that one out. Once I got out here and realized what it's like though, I can't honestly say that I mind. At home, it's a shallow routine. Family, church, food, TV, whatever... Out here there's a lot more time for introspection and reflection on what the day really means. Is Good Friday an excuse for a fish fry or is it a chance to see how pathetic our own sacrifices really are in this lifetime? I don't know man.
So I crossed Louisiana and headed down into Texas this morning and afternoon. I took a few short breaks along the way, trying not to hit Houston right at rush hour. That actually worked out pretty well for me, in terms of avoiding delays. I think I had a broken truck the last time I made this drive, so obviously today was a lot better. I was planning to run out my full ten hours today, but after I stopped in Ganado for dinner I wasn't in the mood to drive anymore tonight.
I'll have around 225 miles from here tomorrow morning, then get on the board and hope to get out of Laredo before midnight in order to tack more miles onto this paycheck. I'm sitting a little over a thousand bucks for the week right now. Anything I get tomorrow will be gravy as far as I'm concerned.
Speaking of paychecks, the UPS money is now missing from check #8. I exchanged a couple of e-mails with my fleet manager, who is apparently handling it. I was reminded that the UPS pay is not subject to the two hour minimum (forgot about that), so I guess it will only be $17.50, but it's my $17.50 damnit. And my layover pay for the Kentucky to Texas run was a no-show. Apparently that's being entered today. I'm withholding judgment here, rather than make a bunch of generalizations, because I've honestly never had pay issues at this company before. Maybe it's just a case of a couple things being overlooked and the timing is merely a coincidence, but I'm not sure I like the trend that seems to be emerging. Do the work --> collect the pay. Isn't that the usual routine?
Anyway, time for bed now.
So I crossed Louisiana and headed down into Texas this morning and afternoon. I took a few short breaks along the way, trying not to hit Houston right at rush hour. That actually worked out pretty well for me, in terms of avoiding delays. I think I had a broken truck the last time I made this drive, so obviously today was a lot better. I was planning to run out my full ten hours today, but after I stopped in Ganado for dinner I wasn't in the mood to drive anymore tonight.
I'll have around 225 miles from here tomorrow morning, then get on the board and hope to get out of Laredo before midnight in order to tack more miles onto this paycheck. I'm sitting a little over a thousand bucks for the week right now. Anything I get tomorrow will be gravy as far as I'm concerned.
Speaking of paychecks, the UPS money is now missing from check #8. I exchanged a couple of e-mails with my fleet manager, who is apparently handling it. I was reminded that the UPS pay is not subject to the two hour minimum (forgot about that), so I guess it will only be $17.50, but it's my $17.50 damnit. And my layover pay for the Kentucky to Texas run was a no-show. Apparently that's being entered today. I'm withholding judgment here, rather than make a bunch of generalizations, because I've honestly never had pay issues at this company before. Maybe it's just a case of a couple things being overlooked and the timing is merely a coincidence, but I'm not sure I like the trend that seems to be emerging. Do the work --> collect the pay. Isn't that the usual routine?
Anyway, time for bed now.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
3/20/08
Ahhhh... that's what I'm talking about. Nice easy morning on the two-lanes with plenty of time to stop at WalMart and exploit some workers, nice friendly shippers who worked promptly, a scale at the shipper so I didn't have to stop and weigh, nice light afternoon traffic on the interstates, beautiful weather all day and more in the forecast for tomorrow. Welcome to Spring.
These are the kinds of days to which you look forward out here. Everything went exactly as planned and I was able to kick back with the cruise control and the radio on as I learned what a "typical white person" is like. That guy seriously needs to go back to saying "change" forty times an hour, and quickly, if he really wants to be President. I really do try not to get political on here, but for crying out loud...
I'm hauling 42,000 pounds of steel scraps this time around. It's actually pretty weird. There's no container, no pallets, nothing like that. Just a pile of little four-inch shards of steel dumped on the floor of the trailer. They ran some kind of conveyor belt in there and just let it rip.
I got down to the southwest corner of Mississippi before my 70 hours ran out. I pick up ten hours tomorrow, so I won't be able to get to Laredo from here in one shot. I'll have to finish off the run on Saturday morning and hope there aren't a lot of people ahead of me on the board. I'm at 2,643 miles for the week right now, with around forty bucks in northeast pay on top of that, so it has been a good week even if I don't get anything on Saturday. I'm feeling pretty greedy though, so you know how it is.
These are the kinds of days to which you look forward out here. Everything went exactly as planned and I was able to kick back with the cruise control and the radio on as I learned what a "typical white person" is like. That guy seriously needs to go back to saying "change" forty times an hour, and quickly, if he really wants to be President. I really do try not to get political on here, but for crying out loud...
I'm hauling 42,000 pounds of steel scraps this time around. It's actually pretty weird. There's no container, no pallets, nothing like that. Just a pile of little four-inch shards of steel dumped on the floor of the trailer. They ran some kind of conveyor belt in there and just let it rip.
I got down to the southwest corner of Mississippi before my 70 hours ran out. I pick up ten hours tomorrow, so I won't be able to get to Laredo from here in one shot. I'll have to finish off the run on Saturday morning and hope there aren't a lot of people ahead of me on the board. I'm at 2,643 miles for the week right now, with around forty bucks in northeast pay on top of that, so it has been a good week even if I don't get anything on Saturday. I'm feeling pretty greedy though, so you know how it is.
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