Who's #1 in the East tonight? I am. That's right. The top dog. I guess that doesn't really count for a whole lot in the grand scheme of things but I'll take it. Nothing came up today, so at the very least I got to the top of the board by getting rid of my load a day early.
The Tigers swept the Tribe. The Wings got within one win of moving on. That's all pretty nice. If only David Feherty hadn't been shamed into apologizing for a pretty funny joke, the day would have been complete. Probably inappropriate for public consumption and whatnot, but it did give me a little chuckle.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
5/9/09
I've never been terribly curious about what our new corporate brethren at the ConWay terminals think of their Truckload counterparts. Given that most people are prone to view their own economies, and the economy at large, as static entities rather than dynamic ones, it seemed to be a logical assumption that they should think that we're taking money away from the hardworking linehaul drivers whenever we pull one of these runs. Since we've picked up more ConWay business since the merger, I would assume that their opinion of us hasn't gotten any better.
As I checked in this morning, I was treated to a rather unprofessional confirmation of this assumption. It seems that we were scheduled to haul a given number of loads today but one of our drivers decided to park his truck at a truck stop and go home for good instead. To my mind, this seems to be a case of two companies getting screwed by one individual who doesn't have any class (if we accept that the story is even true). To the fella behind the counter - "Yeah, look what kind of drivers old Herb has working for him. Damn CFI can't handle the work so I have to break that trailer and put it on a Landspan..." There was quite a bit more to his lamentation but that sentence summarized the gist of it. Oh, the human drama.
For my part, my trailer was ready to go when I checked in a few hours early and the load is a nice and easy 18,000 pounds. After three straight trips with nearly 47,000 in the wagon, I'm sure my truck appreciates the break. I know I do. The traffic was nice and light in typical weekend fashion for the most part as I headed northward. I think that there's an unwritten law requiring an accident to occur near Atlanta whenever I'm passing through though. Today's was on I-85 just north of the loop. I got a break in that only the right lane was being allowed to pass. Most people had moved left when the backup started for some reason, leaving the right lane wide open for a couple of miles, so I scooted by with only a moderate delay. Otherwise it was smooth sailing on the open road.
I was toying with the idea of driving all the way to Virginia today and dropping this load off. It's due in Chester, Virginia by 5:30pm on Monday. Three days for 684 miles? That one's a little odd. I know that I won't be waiting that long to get there. The only question was whether or not I would make the whole trip in one shot or leave a few hours for tomorrow. About an hour into North Carolina this evening, I got my answer. The skies opened up and we caught a hell of a soaker for a little while. Driving in the rain doesn't bother me too much but it does seem to bother everyone else. I wasn't blessed with the patience to drive 35mph on the freeway so I ducked off in Salisbury to sit it out. By the time the storm passed I was sitting comfortably and not feeling too motivated to get back on the road. So a few hours tomorrow it will be.
My week wraps up looking pretty good on the pay ledger. It seemed like one hassle after another, but somehow I got 2,724 miles when all was said and done. I also got $105 in stop pay and $72 in northeast pay. I don't know how quickly my $35 in unloading pay will be processed, but that should be coming as well. The infamous UPS incident leaves me skeptical of this 'paperwork submitted' business that they do with certain types of extra pay. On the other hand, my local pay has come through on time whenever it has been processed that way. In any event, the weekly pay will be somewhere north of $1,200 so I'm content with that.
A nice cool, quiet, breezy evening... and a damned reefer just backed in next to me.
As I checked in this morning, I was treated to a rather unprofessional confirmation of this assumption. It seems that we were scheduled to haul a given number of loads today but one of our drivers decided to park his truck at a truck stop and go home for good instead. To my mind, this seems to be a case of two companies getting screwed by one individual who doesn't have any class (if we accept that the story is even true). To the fella behind the counter - "Yeah, look what kind of drivers old Herb has working for him. Damn CFI can't handle the work so I have to break that trailer and put it on a Landspan..." There was quite a bit more to his lamentation but that sentence summarized the gist of it. Oh, the human drama.
For my part, my trailer was ready to go when I checked in a few hours early and the load is a nice and easy 18,000 pounds. After three straight trips with nearly 47,000 in the wagon, I'm sure my truck appreciates the break. I know I do. The traffic was nice and light in typical weekend fashion for the most part as I headed northward. I think that there's an unwritten law requiring an accident to occur near Atlanta whenever I'm passing through though. Today's was on I-85 just north of the loop. I got a break in that only the right lane was being allowed to pass. Most people had moved left when the backup started for some reason, leaving the right lane wide open for a couple of miles, so I scooted by with only a moderate delay. Otherwise it was smooth sailing on the open road.
I was toying with the idea of driving all the way to Virginia today and dropping this load off. It's due in Chester, Virginia by 5:30pm on Monday. Three days for 684 miles? That one's a little odd. I know that I won't be waiting that long to get there. The only question was whether or not I would make the whole trip in one shot or leave a few hours for tomorrow. About an hour into North Carolina this evening, I got my answer. The skies opened up and we caught a hell of a soaker for a little while. Driving in the rain doesn't bother me too much but it does seem to bother everyone else. I wasn't blessed with the patience to drive 35mph on the freeway so I ducked off in Salisbury to sit it out. By the time the storm passed I was sitting comfortably and not feeling too motivated to get back on the road. So a few hours tomorrow it will be.
My week wraps up looking pretty good on the pay ledger. It seemed like one hassle after another, but somehow I got 2,724 miles when all was said and done. I also got $105 in stop pay and $72 in northeast pay. I don't know how quickly my $35 in unloading pay will be processed, but that should be coming as well. The infamous UPS incident leaves me skeptical of this 'paperwork submitted' business that they do with certain types of extra pay. On the other hand, my local pay has come through on time whenever it has been processed that way. In any event, the weekly pay will be somewhere north of $1,200 so I'm content with that.
A nice cool, quiet, breezy evening... and a damned reefer just backed in next to me.
Friday, May 8, 2009
5/8/09
The folks at the Fenian Godfather Institute are always on a quest to obtain as much knowledge as possible about the world around them. Today brought us an unmistakable lesson. Me on a powered pallet jack = comedy gold. We're talking 24 karat.
I was dispatched to deliver in Bessemer, Alabama at 2pm Central today. My instructions said quite specifically that early arrivals are absolutely unacceptable at this customer, so I slept through the morning's thunderstorms in Tennessee before heading southward. I pulled into the lot at 1pm and the security guard told me that they were closed. He assumed that I was arriving for an appointment tomorrow morning. No, I was told 2pm today, I informed him. He made a phone call and then directed me to a door where I could check in with the receiving department.
Thebitch lady in the receiving office yelled at me for missing my appointment this morning. As you may have deduced from the preceding paragraph, I knew nothing about a missed appointment. I thought I was an hour early. She then informed me that the load was either to be unloaded by the driver or a lumper was to be hired. I checked with the lumper boss to see if he had any ComChecks. If not, I would have to unload the trailer myself. I used my last ComCheck a few days ago. He told me that the lumpers had all gone home for the day anyway, so the ComCheck issue was irrelevant. I would have to pull the pallets off myself. Fine with me. We'll just grab a pallet jack and get to work...
They only had the powered jacks. Most places won't let drivers use the power equipment without OSHA certification and whatnot. They generally keep one or two manual jacks around for the drivers who don't wish to pay a lumper. This place gave me my choice of equipment and told me to have at it. One thing I learned pretty quickly is that you may think you're driving the pallet jack. If you don't know what you're doing though, the pallet jack drives you. It was pretty damn funny. I would get the pallet off the truck okay and then I was all over the place trying to drive it to the spot where I intended to set it down. Then, if I was off by a foot or two, I would end up being off by ten feet before I got the damn thing headed back in the right direction. It took me around an hour to get my trailer emptied out and the pallets lined up on the floor. Thirty-five bucks is thirty-five bucks though. I'll gladly take it as compensation for providing those guys with an hour's amusement.
I was empty for a half hour or so before receiving my next assignment. I had to drive about seven miles to the other side of town and set up for a ConWay load leaving tomorrow morning. I'm heading back up to Virginia with a load that has to drop by Monday morning. The directions say that I can drop 24/7 though, so I'll most likely get rid of it early on Sunday and set myself up for a good start to next week. This run will pay 684 miles, with the last handful getting the extra northeast pay tacked on. And, as an added bonus, there's none of that 4am nonsense on the weekends. I have to pick it up by 10am locally (or 11am civilized time). Good deal.
Now I have the rest of the night to marvel at the awesomeness of a photograph that costs $328,835 and one scapegoat's job... just beautiful.
I was dispatched to deliver in Bessemer, Alabama at 2pm Central today. My instructions said quite specifically that early arrivals are absolutely unacceptable at this customer, so I slept through the morning's thunderstorms in Tennessee before heading southward. I pulled into the lot at 1pm and the security guard told me that they were closed. He assumed that I was arriving for an appointment tomorrow morning. No, I was told 2pm today, I informed him. He made a phone call and then directed me to a door where I could check in with the receiving department.
The
They only had the powered jacks. Most places won't let drivers use the power equipment without OSHA certification and whatnot. They generally keep one or two manual jacks around for the drivers who don't wish to pay a lumper. This place gave me my choice of equipment and told me to have at it. One thing I learned pretty quickly is that you may think you're driving the pallet jack. If you don't know what you're doing though, the pallet jack drives you. It was pretty damn funny. I would get the pallet off the truck okay and then I was all over the place trying to drive it to the spot where I intended to set it down. Then, if I was off by a foot or two, I would end up being off by ten feet before I got the damn thing headed back in the right direction. It took me around an hour to get my trailer emptied out and the pallets lined up on the floor. Thirty-five bucks is thirty-five bucks though. I'll gladly take it as compensation for providing those guys with an hour's amusement.
I was empty for a half hour or so before receiving my next assignment. I had to drive about seven miles to the other side of town and set up for a ConWay load leaving tomorrow morning. I'm heading back up to Virginia with a load that has to drop by Monday morning. The directions say that I can drop 24/7 though, so I'll most likely get rid of it early on Sunday and set myself up for a good start to next week. This run will pay 684 miles, with the last handful getting the extra northeast pay tacked on. And, as an added bonus, there's none of that 4am nonsense on the weekends. I have to pick it up by 10am locally (or 11am civilized time). Good deal.
Now I have the rest of the night to marvel at the awesomeness of a photograph that costs $328,835 and one scapegoat's job... just beautiful.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
5/7/09
I saw the sun today. That's pretty sweet. Otherwise, I don't know, it just seemed like a long drag of a day. We know how much it sucks to pull a 47,000 pound payload through the hills and mountains. We know how much it sucks to drive for eleven hours. When you put them together, you get my Thursday on the job.
I made it past Knoxville to Niota, Tennessee today. That's some pretty solid mileage for a day's work and leaves me around four hours to my consignee in Bessemer, Alabama. The original plan summary said that the delivery was on Saturday morning at 9am. When my dispatch came through last night, it said that I am due to arrive by Friday at 2pm. Good deal. I just might be able to grab one more assignment this week after all.
Since the Wings got hosed in that last game, I kinda want to watch and see how they respond tonight. Alas, the last two days have me feeling pretty worn out. No guarantees that I'll be able to stay awake. Oh cool, the Tigers are losing 5-0 in the first inning. That one should be fun.
I made it past Knoxville to Niota, Tennessee today. That's some pretty solid mileage for a day's work and leaves me around four hours to my consignee in Bessemer, Alabama. The original plan summary said that the delivery was on Saturday morning at 9am. When my dispatch came through last night, it said that I am due to arrive by Friday at 2pm. Good deal. I just might be able to grab one more assignment this week after all.
Since the Wings got hosed in that last game, I kinda want to watch and see how they respond tonight. Alas, the last two days have me feeling pretty worn out. No guarantees that I'll be able to stay awake. Oh cool, the Tigers are losing 5-0 in the first inning. That one should be fun.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Visits to this here blog dohickie.