To quote the old guy from Cool Hand Luke - "What we've got here is... failure... to communicate." I was given instructions and such for this load, just like I am given with every assignment. Let's review the information, for educational purposes...
I was told that the pick up was a live load. It was in fact a drop/hook.
I was told to pick up at 3am Sunday morning. I arrived at 1am Sunday morning, to find that my trailer had been loaded since Friday.
I was told that the load was picking up and delivering in the same town. Obviously this meant that the destination was unknown. I picked up my trailer and found that the destination was Madison, Wisconsin.
I was told that the delivery was scheduled for 10am Sunday morning. The delivery is in fact scheduled for 10am Monday morning.
As I left the shipper, I was dispatched for a local delivery, meaning that I was paid zero miles. I called and spoke with a lady who changed my delivery location to Madison, Wisconsin. She did not, however, see fit to change it to a paid run. I'll have to call tomorrow morning and get it sorted out.
So instead of picking up and driving for a while yesterday, I sat around trying to sleep. Instead of getting 515 miles tacked onto last week's paycheck, I got no miles tacked onto any paycheck (yet). After preparing to drive through the night since I would have to deliver this morning, I wound up sitting here in Wisconsin all day today and waiting for tomorrow morning's appointment.
Oh well, such is life. At least I got a nice light load and had time for a good nap this morning. I also got through the clusterfuck known as northern Illinois on a weekend, which is infinitely better than having to go through during the week. Once I get the pay thing sorted out it should be a 515 mile run, so that's a decent start to this pay period. Now as long as I can find directions to my customer, I'll be all set. CTL sent me an address, but I already had the address on the paperwork.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
7/12/08
One of those days where I guess I'll just be disgruntled and sing the blues. I came into the last day of a pay period with 1901 miles... and ended the pay period with 1908 miles. Yeah.
The added seven miles covered my deadhead from Groveport, where I dropped last night, to Lockbourne. All of my unpaid westbound miles to find parking last night will be doubled when I go back east to pick up. That's not really a big deal. It just goes that way sometimes. The bad part is that I pick up at 3am and deliver at 10am. I did manage to sleep last night, of course. Normally that would be a good thing. Now it means that I've been completely unable to get to sleep today. The overnight run should be a real treat. My pickup and delivery are also listed as the same location, so I guess we'll just see what that's all about when the time comes.
With the northeast pay mixed in, I'll crack $800 for the week. I have my vacation pay coming on this paycheck, so I'm not terribly worried about the money. The timing of everything just made for a pretty shitty weekend. Hanging around a ghetto drop yard all day today, knowing that I have to drive all night tonight, is not exactly fun. And the Tigers lost again. Woe is me.
The added seven miles covered my deadhead from Groveport, where I dropped last night, to Lockbourne. All of my unpaid westbound miles to find parking last night will be doubled when I go back east to pick up. That's not really a big deal. It just goes that way sometimes. The bad part is that I pick up at 3am and deliver at 10am. I did manage to sleep last night, of course. Normally that would be a good thing. Now it means that I've been completely unable to get to sleep today. The overnight run should be a real treat. My pickup and delivery are also listed as the same location, so I guess we'll just see what that's all about when the time comes.
With the northeast pay mixed in, I'll crack $800 for the week. I have my vacation pay coming on this paycheck, so I'm not terribly worried about the money. The timing of everything just made for a pretty shitty weekend. Hanging around a ghetto drop yard all day today, knowing that I have to drive all night tonight, is not exactly fun. And the Tigers lost again. Woe is me.
Friday, July 11, 2008
7/11/08
I got beeped nice and early this morning. That was good. I had to go over to Bayonne and pick up a load heading back to the Columbus area. My five mile dispatch was rather humorous. I suppose that Bayonne may be five miles from Newark, but that's not how it worked out for me. First, you have the twelve miles that I drove last night in order to find a parking space. Then there's the six miles that it took this morning to get headed back north, since I was on the southbound side of the highway. Then there was the retracing of the miles from my parking spot to the I-78 interchange. Then there were the half-assed ambiguous directions and shitty signage that had me driving around the neighborhoods of Bayonne for a while. Par for the course, I guess.
After I found my way back to the truck route and eventually located my shipper, I was assigned to a door and loaded quickly. I knew that I had roughly a nine hour drive ahead of me. The question was whether it would be a long nine hours or an easy nine hours. The 13,000 pounds on the paperwork gave me hope. Going through those hills with a heavy one can be tedious. Today I had a fairly pleasant ride, retracing yesterday's route in reverse.
I had enough time on my dispatch to take a ten hour break tonight and then finish off the trip early in the morning. Knowing what I know about the consignee though, I decided to knock out the full trip and make my drop/hook tonight. They tend to take in a bunch of loaded trailers on the weekend and then run out of empties until they unload everything during the week. Better to get an empty and get on the board tonight, I suspect.
I was #1 when I got on the board, late at night, with nowhere to park. I decided to take the loop around to the west side of Columbus and park at our drop yard for the night. Since that was about a 25 mile drive, I'll probably get sent back to the east for my next load. That seems to be the way it goes. I'm up to 1,900 miles plus $65 in northeast pay for the week now, so one more decent trip over the weekend will do the trick.
After I found my way back to the truck route and eventually located my shipper, I was assigned to a door and loaded quickly. I knew that I had roughly a nine hour drive ahead of me. The question was whether it would be a long nine hours or an easy nine hours. The 13,000 pounds on the paperwork gave me hope. Going through those hills with a heavy one can be tedious. Today I had a fairly pleasant ride, retracing yesterday's route in reverse.
I had enough time on my dispatch to take a ten hour break tonight and then finish off the trip early in the morning. Knowing what I know about the consignee though, I decided to knock out the full trip and make my drop/hook tonight. They tend to take in a bunch of loaded trailers on the weekend and then run out of empties until they unload everything during the week. Better to get an empty and get on the board tonight, I suspect.
I was #1 when I got on the board, late at night, with nowhere to park. I decided to take the loop around to the west side of Columbus and park at our drop yard for the night. Since that was about a 25 mile drive, I'll probably get sent back to the east for my next load. That seems to be the way it goes. I'm up to 1,900 miles plus $65 in northeast pay for the week now, so one more decent trip over the weekend will do the trick.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
7/10/08
Ahhh yes, sleeping at a ConWay yard. This just seems to be something that I cannot do. After tossing and turning all night, I think I may have possibly fallen asleep for a couple of hours before the alarm kicked me out of bed. My trailer was loaded and ready to go at 4:30am, and thus began my day.
It was a nice 19,000 pounder, which is pretty light for a ConWay run. I-70/I-76/I-81/I-78... I really don't remember any significant traffic along the way, other than a few little construction zones. Newark is Newark, but that's a whole other deal when it comes to traffic.
I took my time at the ConWay yard making my drop/hook after sending in my forms. I was hoping to get another plan summary while I was there, so that I would have an idea about which direction to go when I left the yard. On every previous trip to that facility, I've been pre-assigned to pick up a load from a shipper in Meshoppen, Pennsylvania. This time around though, I had no pre-plan so I was a little bit out of luck vis-a-vis parking. After sudying my options about as thoroughly as someone like me can study his options, I headed south on the turnpike to the first service plaza. It was the usual scenario here - one spot left and I took it.
When I got on the board this afternoon, I was #1. After eating some dinner and taking a nice long nap, I'm still #1. I've had eight hours of down time, so I can extend my 14 hour clock to include the two hours that I have yet to drive. Then, by the time I sit through those two hours, I will have had a ten hour break and we'll be ready for whatever comes up next. This is the fedspeak way of saying that I shouldn't have to come off the board tonight and that I expect to get something quickly tomorrow morning. Sitting presently at 1,367 miles plus around $45 in northeast pay, I could use a couple of average runs by this weekend and all will be good.
It was a nice 19,000 pounder, which is pretty light for a ConWay run. I-70/I-76/I-81/I-78... I really don't remember any significant traffic along the way, other than a few little construction zones. Newark is Newark, but that's a whole other deal when it comes to traffic.
I took my time at the ConWay yard making my drop/hook after sending in my forms. I was hoping to get another plan summary while I was there, so that I would have an idea about which direction to go when I left the yard. On every previous trip to that facility, I've been pre-assigned to pick up a load from a shipper in Meshoppen, Pennsylvania. This time around though, I had no pre-plan so I was a little bit out of luck vis-a-vis parking. After sudying my options about as thoroughly as someone like me can study his options, I headed south on the turnpike to the first service plaza. It was the usual scenario here - one spot left and I took it.
When I got on the board this afternoon, I was #1. After eating some dinner and taking a nice long nap, I'm still #1. I've had eight hours of down time, so I can extend my 14 hour clock to include the two hours that I have yet to drive. Then, by the time I sit through those two hours, I will have had a ten hour break and we'll be ready for whatever comes up next. This is the fedspeak way of saying that I shouldn't have to come off the board tonight and that I expect to get something quickly tomorrow morning. Sitting presently at 1,367 miles plus around $45 in northeast pay, I could use a couple of average runs by this weekend and all will be good.
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