Against my better judgment, I got dragged into a political debate last night and wound up spending several hours setting people straight. Before I knew it, the clock said 4am. Well shit. I had to get up at 7am in order to get my load to Taylor on time, so a few hours of sleep would be the best I could do.
The drive across the rest of the Ohio Turnpike and up to Taylor was nice and easy. There's a little game called 'guess which exit ramp I should take' that I get to play every time I head home. This time, the ramp to Eureka was open for right turns but not for lefts. On a weekday that's more of a problem, but the Sunday traffic on Eureka was light. I just used the next U-turn lane and flipped back north toward the terminal.
After dropping my trailer and checking in with the dispatcher, I headed home to unwind for a while. The Tigers came on at 4pm, which is incidentally exactly when I started feeling tired. I put the game on the radio in my bedroom and climbed in bed. After waking up at some point and hearing that the Tigers won the game, I shut the radio off. A few minutes later, I woke up and it was Monday. Damn.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
6/21/08
"Virgo - Today, instead of getting all embarrassed when someone points out what a great thing you did, you'll get a great sense of pride! This is as it should be -- and it's a sure sign that you are growing in the right direction. As your ego grows sturdier, your ability to be open-minded grows stronger as well. You'll no longer take things as personally as you used to, because your skin is getting thicker and you are realizing that if you screw up every now and then, the world will not fall apart."
I've used excite.com as my start page pretty much since the WWW replaced telnet portals as the main access point to the internet. There's a little section with the horoscope every day. Obviously, I'm not the astrologically inclined type, so if I happen to see what it says I usually chuckle. Holy shit is this one ever wrong, though. Usually it's some 'great things could or could not be on the horizon, depending on your approach' or other generic nonsense. This time they tried to make assertions. Big swing and a miss by the horoscope writer. I screw up all the time, the world hasn't fallen apart, and I lost the ability to give a damn about twenty years ago. The thick skin part was particularly funny. Oh well, they'll probably get it right tomorrow when they say the exact opposite.
So what were we saying, anyway? Tales from the road? Okay.
Quick drive over to the shipper this afternoon. It was the place that I remembered, so that helped. Particularly poignant was the knowledge that the sign on the driveway is one for an adjoining soccer facility. The place is closed on weekends, so I just had to make a drop/hook and leave a signed copy of the bill of lading in a designated box. There was another CTL driver at the shipper, trying to figure out what to do since his bills were not there. Hopefully they got him sorted out. It would be a bummer to get stuck without a load for the weekend.
This load is a heavy SOB, that's for sure. 45,000 pounds of paper to drag through the mountains all evening is never a lot of fun. Per usual, the slower cars would pass me on the way up and I would ride the brakes until I could pass them on the way down. That makes for quite a frustrating drive. About an hour after I left the shipper, I realized that I had forgotten to slide my tandems back when I dropped my empty trailer. Oh well. My horoscope says that the world won't come to an end.
I got about fifty miles into Ohio and decided to stop for a bite to eat. I could smell the garlic from Sbarro when I walked in, so pasta sounded great to me. I walked in at 9pm. Sbarro closed at 9pm. Damn. McDonald's it is. I guess I'll go to sleep here in a little while and roll on to Taylor in the morning.
I've used excite.com as my start page pretty much since the WWW replaced telnet portals as the main access point to the internet. There's a little section with the horoscope every day. Obviously, I'm not the astrologically inclined type, so if I happen to see what it says I usually chuckle. Holy shit is this one ever wrong, though. Usually it's some 'great things could or could not be on the horizon, depending on your approach' or other generic nonsense. This time they tried to make assertions. Big swing and a miss by the horoscope writer. I screw up all the time, the world hasn't fallen apart, and I lost the ability to give a damn about twenty years ago. The thick skin part was particularly funny. Oh well, they'll probably get it right tomorrow when they say the exact opposite.
So what were we saying, anyway? Tales from the road? Okay.
Quick drive over to the shipper this afternoon. It was the place that I remembered, so that helped. Particularly poignant was the knowledge that the sign on the driveway is one for an adjoining soccer facility. The place is closed on weekends, so I just had to make a drop/hook and leave a signed copy of the bill of lading in a designated box. There was another CTL driver at the shipper, trying to figure out what to do since his bills were not there. Hopefully they got him sorted out. It would be a bummer to get stuck without a load for the weekend.
This load is a heavy SOB, that's for sure. 45,000 pounds of paper to drag through the mountains all evening is never a lot of fun. Per usual, the slower cars would pass me on the way up and I would ride the brakes until I could pass them on the way down. That makes for quite a frustrating drive. About an hour after I left the shipper, I realized that I had forgotten to slide my tandems back when I dropped my empty trailer. Oh well. My horoscope says that the world won't come to an end.
I got about fifty miles into Ohio and decided to stop for a bite to eat. I could smell the garlic from Sbarro when I walked in, so pasta sounded great to me. I walked in at 9pm. Sbarro closed at 9pm. Damn. McDonald's it is. I guess I'll go to sleep here in a little while and roll on to Taylor in the morning.
Friday, June 20, 2008
6/20/08
Mama said there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this my mama said...I got up nice and early so I could call in and get squared away with an empty trailer. I was promptly unassigned from the North Carolina run and sent to a trailer shop to get an empty. I guess, if you can read the post below this one, you probably know that I wasn't terribly shocked.
So I headed over into Pennsylvania and checked in with the guys at the trailer shop. "I don't have any good CFI trailers." Well sir, what exactly does that mean for me? "There's one here and it has a hole in the floor." Super.
I called Joplin again and explained the situation. Then they sent me across town to a KMart DC to grab an empty there. On my first pass through the lot, I didn't see the trailer that I was told to get. Second time around, I spotted it. It's one of the old 'ConWay Now' trailers with the ugly teal logos. I hooked up and got back in the truck. The trailer was jammed tightly between two others, so I was going to have to pull it out before I could check it over. Away we go... or not. The damn wheels didn't turn. I had no way to get under it and see what was going on, so I dragged it out into the lot. A pair of nice skidmarks formed an arc behind me. The first step in that situation, as I understand it, is to make sure everything is hooked up right. Yep, all good. The second step, as I understand it, is to see if the drums are frozen to the shoes and try to knock them loose. Tried that. No go.
I got under the trailer and I could hear air hissing out from somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. Even still, the truck was running and pumping in enough air that the spring brakes should have released. As all this was going on, I was assigned to a load picking up in Burlington, New Jersey and going to Taylor, Michigan. I called the road service guys and the fella on the phone tried to talk me through a couple of possible fixes. One thought was to back off the slack adjusters so that the wheels would turn, then pull it to a shop to find the issue. However, he said that if there was an air problem, that would be no good. The brakes would just tighten back down. I'm not anything close to a mechanic, but those guys know what they're talking about so I didn't want to get stuck on the road with my brakes locked up. So they called a repair shop. (Incidentally, it was the same shop that I had just left.)
I spoke with my fleet manager, who told me that the load had to pick up in Burlington by 4:30pm. It was 11am at the time and Burlington was around 200 miles away. If we're talking about crossing Jersey, then 200 miles equals at least four hours. 11am + 4 hours = 3pm. So I had an hour and a half to get moving. The CSRs were calling the customer to see if the pick up could be any later, and I was hoping that the repair guys would come quickly, so we stood pat with the load assignment and played it by ear.
A couple of hours later, I still hadn't seen the repair guys, so I was unassigned from my second load today. They showed up not long after that and crawled under to take a look. The main guy said that, at first, they thought I had a blown air chamber. I hadn't found a blown air chamber, but again I'm not a mechanic. After they checked it over though, they said the air should have been fine. The hissing that I had heard earlier was just excess bleeding out of the air bags. What happened next was slightly embarrasing but rather amusing. The little hispanic helper guy took a hammer and a crow bar and went hog wild on the brake drums. And my truck was freed from bondage. Apparently they had just frozen up and I hadn't hit them hard enough. I guess that's a lousy reason to call a shop. In my defense though, I don't think I would ever unload on my company's equipment like that. I mean, he was pounding the shit out of that crowbar.
So, ready to roll, I got back on the board one more time. I asked the security guard if he knew where I could park and get a bite to eat. I swear he said "Wal Mart," but I guess not. He said go down there and turn there and so forth, so I did. I saw a little convenience store with a truck parked out in the back, but I was looking for Wal Mart. Nope. To add to the fun, the road was closed just past the convenience store. I had seen the signs, but I had also been told (I thought) that there was a Wal Mart. I fully expected to turn into a nice big parking lot and then go back the way that I came. I had to back up about a quarter mile until I found a wide spot where I could pull a U-turn. Thankfully, everybody else knew that the road was closed so nobody drove up behind me.
I pulled off to the side of the road on a wide gravel area and waited for whatever came next. I was awfully hungry but I'm definitely not in any danger of starvation at this stage of my life. It was maybe ten or fifteen minutes until I got my assignment. I had to go 130 miles west and get a load headed to... Taylor, Michigan. These guys ain't screwing around with the old home time request this time, are they? My load doesn't pick up until tomorrow afternoon, but that's fine. I'll obviously be home before my medical card expires on the 26th, which was the most important part.
I was rolling westward on US-30 this afternoon when the combination of hunger and traffic got the best of me. I stopped off at a little truck stop east of Lancaster and parked it for the night. I can't imagine that it's much more than twenty or thirty miles from here to the shipper. Then it's about 500 miles to home. I think I've been to this shipper before, as the directions sound somewhat familiar. If so, I'm headed for a little skinny road driving with a wicked heavy load tomorrow afternoon, at least for a little while. Then it will be a long evening of lugging it up and down the hills on the turnpikes.
The people who live next to the truck stop apparently don't secure their wi-fi connection, so I have nice quick access for the night. Alas, nobody is streaming the ballgame. Bummer.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
6/19/08
4:30am - the line between grownup and juvenile, I guess. That's when I normally (juvenile) manage to fall asleep but today I (grownup) started work at 4:30am. Yuck.
The idea was to make it to the consignee a few hours early and try to catch another assignment today. By 9am it was time to give up the dream. I was tired as hell, so I ducked into a rest area and slept for a couple of hours. On the positive side, I've made it back above the Mason-Dixon line (where I belong) and the weather is much cooler. I haven't had to idle my truck to sleep for the past few days. Even this morning with the sun up, I was able to crack the windows and it was plenty cool enough for me to doze off.
After I woke up and continued eastward, I realized that I still hadn't been given a drop number for the shipment. The stop location information for the customer in Wilkes-Barre said that a drop number was required, so I sent a message asking if one had come through yet. When I got within ten miles of the consignee, I still hadn't received a reply to that message, so I called. The lady on the phone spoke with the customer service people and told me that I didn't need one. As I pulled into the consignee's driveway, I got a reply to my satellite message. Same thing. CSR says we don't need a drop number. Good enough.
The drop yard was nice and easy to navigate and I found a good empty trailer. By 'good' I mean that everything was working properly and, just as importantly, it was squeaky clean inside. Five minutes that I don't have to spend sweeping out a trailer are five good minutes in my book. I had spotted a gravel area near a building with a 'for lease' sign as I drove to the consignee, so I headed back over there with my empty to wait for my next assignment to come through. I was #1 on the board with a few hours still available today.
It didn't take long to get that next assignment, so that was cool. I was sent to drop off my empty at a new customer in New Jersey. The good news was that I had until midnight to cover 140 miles. The bad news was that I started today at 4:30am, so I was only legal until 6:30pm. Ahhhh, New Jersey at rush hour... nice.
As I headed south on the Pennsylvania Turnpike toward I-80, I had an inclination to turn on my CB. I really don't know why. I never have my CB on unless there's something about which I want to hear. Today though, for whatever reason, I reached up and turned the knob. I caught the tail end of a conversation in which some local guys were telling some long haul guys how to go further east on some back road and then catch back up with I-80 eastbound. Quick decision time as I passed through the toll booth. I decided that there must be a reason for five big trucks to be turning down a road that didn't look all that inviting, so I skipped I-80 and followed along. Good call. It turns out that I-80 was being closed off and on for construction and it was backed up for several miles. We came out past the east end of the work zone and cruised right along on a wide open freeway. Sweet.
After fighting my way through the parking lot known as I-287 this afternoon, I got to the new customer and looked for someone in charge. Habla Ingles? There was one white dude at the far end of the docks. I guess I would be considered a racist by today's standards, since I assumed that he was the boss. My assumption was correct and he told me that I could drop my empty in any open door. Groovy. It turns out that they have contracted us as what the guy called "our in-house carrier." So we'll be pulling freight for them on a regular basis, drop/hook style. You gotta start somewhere though, so I was giving them the first empty trailer to load.
After that I had to call Joplin again. The Qualcomm system won't let me put myself on the board without an empty trailer, so I had to ask a dispatcher to do it for me. He said that he did and that I was #1 again. Cool. Not having anywhere to park, I hopped on the Jersey Turnpike and went north a few miles to the first rest area. Even with a bobtail, parking was tight. I found another bobtail parked in a space, so I backed in behind him and headed in for some dinner.
When I came back out, I found that I was not on the board. Normally I would have just let it slide until morning, since I didn't have the hours to go very far anyway. I needed to get on the board and request home time though. I know I was just home recently, but my medical card expires next week and my father's 50th birthday party is next Saturday. The most efficient thing to do is just to head home and get my physical done up there. I've worked my ten days so I'm entitled to request home time. I sent a message asking why I wasn't on the board. I quickly received a reply saying that it was fixed. After verifying that I was on the board, I immediately put in my request. Thirty seconds later, I got a load assignment. I'm guessing that they were assigning me the load as I was sending my request, since it's going to North Carolina. It should be fine though. We have shippers all over down there and I should have an easy time heading north.
After I accepted the load, I got a message telling me to correct my response with the proper trailer number. Son of a bitch. Here we go. I answered with a message explaining that I have no trailer and then waited for the next reply. The reply never came through. Directions to the shipper came through. Directions to the consignee came through. The stop summary information came through. No answer on the trailer situation, no dispatch to the shipper, no message about northeast pay, and no fueling recommendations. Basically I'm in limbo. The CTL web portal says that I'm still assigned to the load (I'm number zero), it indicates that my home time request is active, and it does not indicate that I've been dispatched to go anywhere. The curse of the nonexistent trailer strikes again.
I called a little while ago and spoke with some chick to find out what they were going to do with me. I'm sure she means well. We'll just leave it at that.
I tried to help out by suggesting that the ConWay in Newark may have an extra trailer laying around. The response - "Sure, probably, call me if you find an empty," was not quite satisfying to me so I'll talk to my fleet manager in the morning. I'm not going anywhere without a dispatch. For starters, I expect to be paid for miles that I drive in service of my employer. Secondly, I'm not going anywhere near that Godforsaken location unless I know for sure that my employer wants me there. Thirdly, whoever set me up to drop my empty at the new shipper may have had something in mind as far as picking up a new wagon. In the past, I've gone to repair shops and such to retrieve trailers that have been serviced. For all I know, that's what they wanted me to do this time as well. Fourthly, since my home time request and this load assignment appear to have passed one another in satellite orbit, they may end up changing their minds about sending me to North Carolina. It wouldn't be the first time. Since I don't know for sure, I'm staying put until morning. My presently assigned load picks up at 12:30pm on the west side of New Jersey. I'll have plenty of time to get a trailer and get over there after the Joplin starting lineup gets to work tomorrow.
The idea was to make it to the consignee a few hours early and try to catch another assignment today. By 9am it was time to give up the dream. I was tired as hell, so I ducked into a rest area and slept for a couple of hours. On the positive side, I've made it back above the Mason-Dixon line (where I belong) and the weather is much cooler. I haven't had to idle my truck to sleep for the past few days. Even this morning with the sun up, I was able to crack the windows and it was plenty cool enough for me to doze off.
After I woke up and continued eastward, I realized that I still hadn't been given a drop number for the shipment. The stop location information for the customer in Wilkes-Barre said that a drop number was required, so I sent a message asking if one had come through yet. When I got within ten miles of the consignee, I still hadn't received a reply to that message, so I called. The lady on the phone spoke with the customer service people and told me that I didn't need one. As I pulled into the consignee's driveway, I got a reply to my satellite message. Same thing. CSR says we don't need a drop number. Good enough.
The drop yard was nice and easy to navigate and I found a good empty trailer. By 'good' I mean that everything was working properly and, just as importantly, it was squeaky clean inside. Five minutes that I don't have to spend sweeping out a trailer are five good minutes in my book. I had spotted a gravel area near a building with a 'for lease' sign as I drove to the consignee, so I headed back over there with my empty to wait for my next assignment to come through. I was #1 on the board with a few hours still available today.
It didn't take long to get that next assignment, so that was cool. I was sent to drop off my empty at a new customer in New Jersey. The good news was that I had until midnight to cover 140 miles. The bad news was that I started today at 4:30am, so I was only legal until 6:30pm. Ahhhh, New Jersey at rush hour... nice.
As I headed south on the Pennsylvania Turnpike toward I-80, I had an inclination to turn on my CB. I really don't know why. I never have my CB on unless there's something about which I want to hear. Today though, for whatever reason, I reached up and turned the knob. I caught the tail end of a conversation in which some local guys were telling some long haul guys how to go further east on some back road and then catch back up with I-80 eastbound. Quick decision time as I passed through the toll booth. I decided that there must be a reason for five big trucks to be turning down a road that didn't look all that inviting, so I skipped I-80 and followed along. Good call. It turns out that I-80 was being closed off and on for construction and it was backed up for several miles. We came out past the east end of the work zone and cruised right along on a wide open freeway. Sweet.
After fighting my way through the parking lot known as I-287 this afternoon, I got to the new customer and looked for someone in charge. Habla Ingles? There was one white dude at the far end of the docks. I guess I would be considered a racist by today's standards, since I assumed that he was the boss. My assumption was correct and he told me that I could drop my empty in any open door. Groovy. It turns out that they have contracted us as what the guy called "our in-house carrier." So we'll be pulling freight for them on a regular basis, drop/hook style. You gotta start somewhere though, so I was giving them the first empty trailer to load.
After that I had to call Joplin again. The Qualcomm system won't let me put myself on the board without an empty trailer, so I had to ask a dispatcher to do it for me. He said that he did and that I was #1 again. Cool. Not having anywhere to park, I hopped on the Jersey Turnpike and went north a few miles to the first rest area. Even with a bobtail, parking was tight. I found another bobtail parked in a space, so I backed in behind him and headed in for some dinner.
When I came back out, I found that I was not on the board. Normally I would have just let it slide until morning, since I didn't have the hours to go very far anyway. I needed to get on the board and request home time though. I know I was just home recently, but my medical card expires next week and my father's 50th birthday party is next Saturday. The most efficient thing to do is just to head home and get my physical done up there. I've worked my ten days so I'm entitled to request home time. I sent a message asking why I wasn't on the board. I quickly received a reply saying that it was fixed. After verifying that I was on the board, I immediately put in my request. Thirty seconds later, I got a load assignment. I'm guessing that they were assigning me the load as I was sending my request, since it's going to North Carolina. It should be fine though. We have shippers all over down there and I should have an easy time heading north.
After I accepted the load, I got a message telling me to correct my response with the proper trailer number. Son of a bitch. Here we go. I answered with a message explaining that I have no trailer and then waited for the next reply. The reply never came through. Directions to the shipper came through. Directions to the consignee came through. The stop summary information came through. No answer on the trailer situation, no dispatch to the shipper, no message about northeast pay, and no fueling recommendations. Basically I'm in limbo. The CTL web portal says that I'm still assigned to the load (I'm number zero), it indicates that my home time request is active, and it does not indicate that I've been dispatched to go anywhere. The curse of the nonexistent trailer strikes again.
I called a little while ago and spoke with some chick to find out what they were going to do with me. I'm sure she means well. We'll just leave it at that.
I tried to help out by suggesting that the ConWay in Newark may have an extra trailer laying around. The response - "Sure, probably, call me if you find an empty," was not quite satisfying to me so I'll talk to my fleet manager in the morning. I'm not going anywhere without a dispatch. For starters, I expect to be paid for miles that I drive in service of my employer. Secondly, I'm not going anywhere near that Godforsaken location unless I know for sure that my employer wants me there. Thirdly, whoever set me up to drop my empty at the new shipper may have had something in mind as far as picking up a new wagon. In the past, I've gone to repair shops and such to retrieve trailers that have been serviced. For all I know, that's what they wanted me to do this time as well. Fourthly, since my home time request and this load assignment appear to have passed one another in satellite orbit, they may end up changing their minds about sending me to North Carolina. It wouldn't be the first time. Since I don't know for sure, I'm staying put until morning. My presently assigned load picks up at 12:30pm on the west side of New Jersey. I'll have plenty of time to get a trailer and get over there after the Joplin starting lineup gets to work tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Visits to this here blog dohickie.