2/1/10

I simply don't get it sometimes. Today, as I sat in the drop yard at last night's consignee and waited for a new assignment, I was led to recall my one previous trip to that location. On that occasion, I had received a load plan that had me pissed off for various reasons. Exactly what sort of planning goes into these loads, I wondered at the time.

Once I received today's assignment (pre-loaded rolls of paper), I was forced to recall my most recent paper load. Today, in a similar fashion to that last time, I sat around with my thumb up my ass for several hours only to be sent for a trailer that had been loaded since Saturday. I simply don't get it.

I was back on the board around 8:30am and I received my new assignment at 2:13pm. What is that, almost six hours? I was to head north into Kansas and make a drop/hook in Hutchinson, northwest of Wichita. I found that the road conditions had largely improved since last night and I was able to get out of Stillwater without any trouble. There was some misty rain as I got into Kansas, but traffic was light and I had no issues in reaching the shipper.

I walked into the warehouse and a gentleman quickly gave me my paperwork and sent me on my way. I merely needed to drop my empty trailer "somewhere out there" and hook to my loaded one. After making the drop/hook and setting the trailer's wheelbase to California's specifications, I pulled onto the customer's automated scale and found that everything was kosher. So I grabbed my Qualcomm unit and sent in my loaded call. This is when I saw that the trailer was loaded on January 30th.

If it's mildly annoying to sit around all day and then get sent to pick up a trailer that has been waiting all weekend, then what follows would be sure to aggravate even the most even-tempered individual. My dispatch came through as I pulled off the scale. The trip is taking me from Hutchinson, Kansas to City of Industry, California. The paid mileage is 1,344 and I'm due to deliver by 3:30pm on Wednesday. And yet they had to wait and make me get a late start this evening? What a bunch of horseshit. Yet again I have to wonder exactly what sort of planning goes into these loads.

Apparently it snows every damned day in this country now, plus I'll have to cross the mountains with a 45,000 pound load, plus the speed limit in California is 55mph. So the long and short of it is that I couldn't afford to stop this evening and leave two days of driving to reach the consignee. There could be no guarantee that two long shifts would be enough. Given the contingencies that I mentioned above, I would have to cover at least a few hundred miles today. Thus I was forced to drive late into the night along a route (US-54) with shit for parking. By the time I had driven far enough to leave myself within striking distance of California, the few little truck stops along the way were all overflowing. The little roadside turnouts in Texas are all inaccessible due to the piles of snow along the side of the road. I may have had enough hours available to reach Tucumcari, but I've had the misfortune of trying to find late night parking there once before. Never again.

I saw that the New Mexico scales outside Nara Visa were closed, so I pulled in and called it a night. Hopefully I won't get kicked out tomorrow, since my ten hour break will force me to sit here until 11:15am Eastern, so I guess 9:15am for these people. If they're going to open in the morning, I suspect that they'll do so before 9:15am.

The fruity little bald guy on weather.com says that I should have a good shot at covering some decent miles tomorrow. Assuming that they have their information right, the next storm won't get off the coast until Wednesday. We'll see how it goes.

1/31/10

My old business partner is a fairly religious guy. We used to have some interesting discussions involving the nature of prayer and the proper approach to religious practice and so forth. As with any issue involving me personally, you could probably guess that we didn't always see eye to eye. I have no intention to go into any great detail here, but it's worth noting that I found myself much closer to his viewpoint tonight. That's a bit of a departure for me.

After a leisurely day during which I took a couple of extended breaks, I rolled into Stillwater, Oklahoma tonight and found that the road conditions were pretty lousy. US-177 wasn't too terrible though. I missed a turn somewhere along the way and wound up heading out of town to the south, so I had to double back and try again. On the second pass, as I approached what I thought would be the street leading to my destination, I saw a completely untouched sheet of ice covering a pretty skinny little road. I couldn't see a street sign but I was certain that there was no way this could be my road. After another half mile or so, I realized that the skinny icy street was probably the one. I saw a factory of some sort to my right so I turned onto the adjacent street. Anywhere that there's a factory, there tends to be a road designed for trucks, the theory went.

Next thing to cross my mind - Fuck me! Rolling along in second gear at 3mph, there was no guarantee that I would be able to stay on the road. It was a little farm road of some kind with a crowned shape, such that it sloped off noticeably to either side. There was no place to turn around and backing up was not an option, so I had no choice but to hang on and hope for the best. Just stay off the brakes and make the tiniest possible corrections with the steering wheel, I said to myself as I watched the ass end of my truck move from side to side. This is where a lot of self-reflection and prayer comes into play. When you're asking for some sort of miracle, you tend to become keenly aware that you're really not worthy of any miraculous intervention at all. Somehow though, I made it to a stop sign without crashing.

The intersecting road looked as if it had been plowed at least a little bit. Ever so gingerly, I eased around the corner to my right and continued onward. This road was indeed a huge improvement over the prior one. I wound up going through a residential area where I'm sure trucks don't belong, but I didn't exactly have a lot of options at this point in time. Once I found another road that was wide enough for me to turn back toward the main drag, I finally managed to exhale.

Circling back to the north once again, I rolled along very slowly and kept a keen eye out for the street signs. That ice sheet from earlier in the episode turned out to be the road that I needed after all. In first gear, moving at a speed slightly above zero, I started to slide off the road as I made the turn. My tires did finally grab though, pulling me onto the road and keeping me employed for the moment.

At the consignee, I was directed to drop my loaded trailer in a door and then return to the security booth to have my paperwork signed. Getting the trailer into the door was no problem. Getting out from under it was another story entirely. The loading docks were the sort that slope downward sharply from street level to the building. Given the weather that this area has seen lately and the fact that the business is closed on Saturdays, there was a sheet of ice preventing me from moving forward.

Following a bit of advice that I received from an old Canadian guy a few years ago, I put my truck in fifth gear, revved the engine, and let the clutch out. ("Quit being such a pussy and get the damned tires spinning," he had said to me.) My tires spun like a mofo and I managed to move forward a few inches. Then I promptly slid back under the trailer. Shit. After a few repetitions of this scene, I managed to get myself clear of the trailer. I was not, however, able to get all the way up the slope and back to level ground. The security guys had been watching me on their video screens as this process went on. After a little while, one of them came walking out with a bucket of salt and sprinkled the area around my tires. I used my shoes to grind the salt into the ice as well as I could and then waited a few minutes for it to do its work. When I got back in my truck and tried again, I was able to roll up the hill. Beauty.

After getting my paperwork signed, it was time to head to the drop lot and see what sort of adventures I would encounter in hooking to an empty trailer. Surprisingly, I was able to back under an empty and hook it without any issues. I did my walk around and knocked off as much ice as possible, then got back in the truck. Seeing that I almost fell down more than once while I was walking, I had reason to suspect that I wouldn't be going anywhere once I tried to pull the trailer from its parking space. I had nowhere to go tonight but I figured that I might as well not wait until tomorrow to find out that I was screwed. If I would have to deal with being stuck in ice, I might as well do so before I had a new assignment waiting for me. So I put the truck in gear and... I was correct. No movement at all.

I grabbed my crowbar and banged it against the trailer's brake drums a few times, then got in the truck and tried again. Nothing. As a practical matter, it occurred to me that frozen brake drums were probably a non-issue. Even if the tires wouldn't turn, they were on solid ice so they should have slid pretty easily. Thus I needed to focus on getting some kind of traction with my drive tires. I chipped away some of the ice and then started rocking back and forth. One inch, two inches, three inches, five inches... I steadily started to build some momentum. After a few minutes, I was able to drag the trailer forward out of its parking space. Rather than back into the same spot, I drove around to the other side of the drop lot and backed into a different one. This side of the lot appears to have seen a little more traffic and the spot that I took is less icy than some of the others. Maybe I'll have a sporting chance of leaving without too much difficulty. Plus I was able to see that my trailer tires were rolling and not sliding as I drove over here, so that's nice.

I'm #1 on the board at the moment but my 14 hour clock is about to run out and I need some sleep, so I guess I'll have to take myself off duty until tomorrow morning. I've been to this customer once before and, on that occasion, I wound up picking up my next load here after sitting for a full day following my initial delivery. I won't be too thrilled if that's how this trip plays out but I don't suppose I have much say in the matter. No point in trying to get too far ahead of myself.

1/30/10

When I have to start work at a ridiculous hour, things can certainly appear to be lined up against me. Then, when I endure the misfortune of eating a Moon Pie at the shipper, despair is the only logical reaction. What a horrible piece of garbage that thing was. It's not crispy. It's not soft. It doesn't taste good. Just a semi-stale sort of pseudo-wafer stuffed with some kind of disgusting marshmallow-like filling. Gross. The shipper had been left with a damaged case of them and offered one to me. My misfortune. Lesson learned.

It turned out that my loaded trailer wasn't ready at midnight, as scheduled, but this worked in my favor. By the time the guy from the office came out to tell me that it was ready, I had been at the shipper for ten hours and I was good to go. The unfortunate Moon Pie incident also turned out not to be a harbinger of things to come, as the day went rather smoothly overall.

Today's route was one of the more complicated that I've tried lately (US-20 -> IL-2 -> IL-26 -> I-88 -> IL-92 -> I-74 -> I-280 -> IA-22 -> US-61 -> IA-92 -> IA-1 -> US-34 -> IA-5 -> MO-5 -> MO-6 -> US-69). This was just asking for trouble for someone like me who tends to miss a turn every now and then. Think I could pull it off without any miscues? Well... almost. This one wasn't a matter of failing to pay attention though. At the intersection of IA-92 and IA-1, I needed to get on IA-1 southbound (or southwestbound, more accurately put). According to my atlas, this would mean exiting the town of Washington to the west. The road curved around a little bit and the signage before the intersection didn't give me a solid idea of which way to turn. I could hang a left on IA-1 or continue straight on IA-1 and IA-92 concurrently. In my review of the atlas, it hadn't occured to me to check both directions from which IA-1 approached the town. Since I was already traveling westward, as I thought I needed to be, I proceeded straight through the intersection. Then I saw a sign saying that I was on IA-1 northbound. Shit. I spotted a gas station with a wide driveway not too far down and got myself spun back in the right direction. No harm, no foul.

That was about the only thing wrong with today though (Moon Pies notwithstanding). My load is a nice and easy 11,000 pounds so the hilly and curvy stretches were no nuisance at all. I got a good mix between open roads and small towns to break up the monotony of the drive. I had a chance to stop at the Wal Mart in Dixon, Illinois at 3am for some razors and blank CD's and other things that I usually can't find at a truck stop. Traffic was nonexistent during the overnight part of the drive. Then it was very light once I resumed the trip following a long morning nap in Ainsworth, Iowa. I'm not sure exactly what kind of weather I avoided by taking this unconventional route, but I can tell you what kind of weather I encountered - beautiful. It's cold outside, to be sure, but clear skies and dry roads were all that I saw.

I got to the junction between US-69 and I-35 in Winston, Missouri and decided to call it a day. My 14 hour clock would have allowed another couple of hours of driving, but it looks like I've knocked out the bulk of the trip already. Good enough. The rest of the ride will be mostly along I-35 so it won't be quite as scenic as today's drive, but it should be a little quicker. Since I'm due in Stillwater at 4am on Monday (meaning that I'll arrive tomorrow night), I don't have to set an alarm for tomorrow. Beauty.

This dispatch puts the finishing touches on what turned out to be a rather lackluster week - 2,012 miles plus $35 for the extra stop on my run out of Nebraska. We'll scrounge up a few dimes from my seat cushions and call it $800 for the week. I suppose that spending a day at the shop in Illinois and half a day at the shop in Nebraska will do that to a paycheck.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have 100 blank CD's and nothing better to do with my time. The weekend radio listening frustration is soon to be vanquished.

1/29/10

Want some good news? Strong growth in the 4th quarter, despite the fact that the government was a draining factor. (Keynes who?) That's pretty good though, right? Gotta get that sucker growing sooner or later. The bulk of it appears to have been a matter of adjusting inventories rather than real activity, but you know, we'll see where it goes from here. I heard a couple of days ago that we're gonna double our exports in five years... or something. Better keep one eye on those intermodal jobs, I reckon.

Want some bad news? Bin Laden says our economy has to be broken in order to stop global warming... or something. Given his esteemed worldwide reputation as a scientist, I think we're screwed. So much for that intermodal gig.

I saw 10° on my truck's temperature readout when I woke this morning in Rochester, Minnesota. I took this as a sign that things were moving in the right direction. Then I took a closer look and saw that it actually said -10°. Damn. That's cold. Fortunately though, the gal who would be unloading the freight was already at the door when I walked over there. Sometimes those store people leave me standing outside and freezing my nuts off after I ring the doorbell and try to check in. Any time I can minimize my exposure to the elements, this is a good thing.

Once I was done at the first store, I had a quick and easy ride across I-90 and US-14 to Viroqua, Wisconsin for my second delivery. One of the pallets had tipped over by the time I got there, so it took the forklift guy a few extra miutes to get everything squared away. Nothing was damaged though, and I had a new assignment waiting for me by the time I had finished sweeping out my trailer, so I had no complaints.

My next load was picking up in Rockford, Illinois, meaning that I got to do some more non-interstate driving for a while. US-14 turned out to be a pretty relaxing ride, especially with dry roads and no weight in the wagon. There was some heavy traffic on US-12 around Madison but then the rest of the drive down I-39 to Rockford was nice and smooth. The shipper for this load is a small trucking company with whom we have some sort of cooperative arrangement. Their location was easy to spot as I arrived and their docks are easy to access. Beauty. Unfortunately though, my dispatch was correct. It said that I was to arrive at midnight for a drop/hook. I was hoping this would mean that my trailer was waiting for me to pick up any time before midnight. You know, weekend load and all. Nope. The guy in the office said that it would be ready at midnight. Bummer.

I dropped my empty trailer and pulled off to the side of the yard to await my appointment. Since I started work early this morning, the 14 hour rule is going to screw with my schedule. As long as the shippers will let me sit here for an extra couple of hours, I'll just wait until I've had a ten hour break before hooking to my loaded trailer and rolling out of town. If they won't let me wait, I'll have to use a split break. Given the disjointed nature of the early part of today (work-drive-break-work-drive-break-work), I would prefer to keep things simple and stay away from the split option. That way I can start with a clean 11 & 14 available to me. We'll see how it goes.

I have either a Sunday night or Monday morning drop scheduled in Stillwater, Oklahoma (plan says 4am Monday), so I'm thinking I'll angle over into Kansas and then drop down from there. Maybe this way I can stay above whatever nasty weather came through today. I'm not sure exactly how bad the roads are further to the south, but I've crossed Missouri in the snow a couple of times. Their highway maintenance left me, shall we say, unimpressed. With all weekend left to cover ~750 miles, I'll have plenty of time to take some state highways and cut across a little higher on the map.

Now I suppose it's time to try sleeping for a few hours. Assuming that they let me finish a full break here, I may end up driving well into the morning. Better get some rest just to be safe.