11/22/09

It occurred to me as I was driving this evening that I've been running my ass off for the last few days. The weekends are usually the times when we take it a little easier out here. Over the last three days, I've spent 12.75, 11.75, and 11 hours on duty, respectively. I'm paid by the mile so of course it's good to keep moving, but damn. I'm getting a little tired. I don't think I'm supposed to be parked where I am tonight either, so I'll have to set my alarm for 4:30am to make sure I'm sitting awake by the time anybody arrives. That way I can pretend that I just got here or something. Alarms suck. That's my policy.

I was up this morning, without an alarm clock, around a half hour before it was legal for me to start working again. So I bummed around and had some breakfast, then hit the road. It was pretty warm and rainy as I left Missouri. Thus, I suspected that I might see a bit of snow after I made it further north. Little did I know that it would get even warmer as I moved away from the equator. Weird. Score one more for the CO² I suppose. The rain was off and on all day but the overall drive was pretty easy. Light load and weekend traffic and so forth.

Upon arriving at my consignee in Waukesha, I saw what looked to be a pretty tight driveway so I stopped on the street and took a walk around the building. The driveway wasn't all that tight after all and there is plenty of room for me to park for the night. Given the nature of the place though, I suspect that I'm sitting where the employees will park in the morning. There is a sign out by the next driveway saying that all semi trucks must park on the street and check in, but I think that one is for an adjoining business. There are 'No Parking' signs on the street and it's not all that wide, so I'm definitely not spending the night out there. Then again, this place doesn't even seem to have a loading dock so I don't know where I'll end up getting unloaded. That adjoining business with the 'park on the street' sign has two docks. Whatever. My appointment is for 6am. If someone needs to park here before I'm up at 4:30am, then they'll just have to knock on the door and wake me.

I spotted a McDonald's with truck parking when I got off I-43, about ten miles back down the road. As nearly as I can tell, that's where I'll have to go once I'm empty unless I get a pre-plan before then. I would have to go further than ten miles to find a truck stop and I have no idea which way I'll be headed next. At the very least the McDonald's location should be a practical one, since I'll be able to move easily in any direction from there whenever my next assignment does come through.

11/21/09

If you've gotten a laugh from watching my Irish pathetically try to tackle mediocre running backs over the last several years, then you're really going to love watching the administration try to hire a new coach. The institutional indifference to football under the previous university president has yet to be fully eradicated. When they end up settling for Brian Kelly because they think he's the poor man's Urban Meyer, just remember who told you first that he's actually the poor man's Rich Rodriguez. How's that guy doing now that he's no longer the tallest midget? God help us.

Luckily (I guess), I got stuck working all day and didn't get to watch the game. When I woke and called the 800 number to see where I was on the board, the robo-voice chick said that I was assigned to a load. I guess "way more than ten hours" actually means "less than ten hours." The assignment itself was an odd one. I was to make a 504 mile deadhead to Kansas City, Kansas and pick up a load heading to Wisconsin. Once my ten hour break was up, I grabbed my empty trailer and headed northward.

I was scheduled to pick up by 9am Central tomorrow, so I tried like hell to get to the shipper's location by 11pm tonight. That way I could get a ten hour break in and then have a full day's hours available to me. I probably would have made it too, if it weren't for those nosy kids a weird exit ramp that threw me off. The ramp from I-35 to I-635 was one of those 'exit within an exit' deals, but there were no lines on the road and I didn't see the little temporary exit sign in the dark. So I had to loop around this way and that, ultimately getting to the shipper at 11:15pm. No big deal though. I would be able to use the split-logging option to make the pickup after an eight hour break and then complete the split later in the morning.

There was all kinds of room for me to park in the shipper's drop yard for the night, but I also saw that there were a handful of our trailers with seals on them at one end. I saw that the door to the shipping office was open, so I figured what the hell. Might as well check in tonight and see what they said. Beauty. It was a 24/7 outfit and one of those loaded trailers was mine. I got my bills, made my drop/hook, and got my 560 miles to Wisconsin dispatched before the pay period ended at midnight. 2,331 miles for the week and I started on Wednesday. I'll take it.

I still had a couple of hours available on tonight's 11 hour clock, so I scooted out of Kansas City and up I-35 for a while. Might as well get out of town late at night when the traffic was light. I assumed that parking would be plentiful on a Saturday night. I assumed incorrectly. I was getting down to very few remaining options by the time I pulled into the Shell station at Exit 61. It was pretty full, but there was room for me to duck off in the back corner of the lot and call it a night. So that's that.

Looks like I have around 500 miles left to cover tomorrow, ahead of a 6am Monday delivery appointment. I think I'll head straight to the consignee once my ten hour break here is over and then let the chips fall where they may.

11/20/09

First we'll tie up one last thing from last night's post. Those peckerheads in Walton had my trailer ready 45 minutes late. Their status as my favorite Con-way Freight terminal has been placed on an indefinite suspension. I had a pretty tight timeline from there to West Memphis in the first place. Somehow our benevolent dispatching system determined that a delay of 45 minutes in getting my trailer would translate to a delay of 5 minutes in reaching West Memphis. Go figure. That point was largely moot though. Any extra time on the dispatch would be mere window dressing, given that I had to be off the road before 5:30am Central in any event. I started yesterday at 4:30pm Eastern, so add 14 hours... and there you have it. I made it to West Memphis with 15 minutes to spare, so good enough.

After I handed the paperwork to the overnight dispatcher, he took a look at the clock and noted that a ten hour break would carry me until some time between 3pm and 3:30pm, at which point I could get back on the board. I agreed, bade him adieu, and hit the sack. 6:30am (Godfather Standard Time) is a touch later than 5am, of course, but it's still better to go to bed at that hour than it is to wake at that hour. Alarm clocks suck. That's my policy.

I remembered to shut off my phone before I went to bed this morning. I don't, however, have the ability to shut off my damned satellite unit. After sleeping for a few hours, I heard the signature chirp. I ignored it and stayed in bed. Screw 'em. I was on my mandatory break. A couple more messages followed (also ignored by me). Then I got some peace and quiet for a while. When I had to get up and use the restroom a short time later, I took a look at the satellite unit and saw that I was lined up for a run this evening. It was another Con-way relay heading to Dallas, set to arrive in West Memphis shortly after I would be available for work again. Beauty. I replied to the plan summary, indicating that I could meet the timeline, but I left the actual load assignment alone. I was still on a mandatory break period, with zero hours available, and didn't care to try figuring out what kind of data to send.

Then a few more hours of sleep carried me to a fantastic dream involving a former politician and a Jell-O wrestling arena. Lots of fun, from what I recall. Time to be awakened by the damned satellite unit then, eh? Yep. A string of messages concerning my next run started streaming through. I got up and took a look. Stop location info, special instructions, stop summary, and so on. For the love of... oh, fine, I'm awake. I turned on my phone and found that I had a voicemail message from the morning dispatcher, asking me to speak with her "as soon as possible." I headed inside and told her that I had turned off my phone so that I could sleep, and that I would have no problem with this evening's assignment. She apologized for waking me with the satellite messages and explained that she just needed to make sure that the last leg of the relay (the one assigned to me) was all set to go. Then we shared a nice little hug to celebrate our camaraderie. Okay, I made up that last part, but she did apologize for waking me. That was good enough as far as I was concerned.

The only thing to do from that point forward was to wait. I still had to stay off duty until at least 3:15pm Central and my inbound relay was scheduled to arrive at 3:45pm. Time to let my computer burn a DVD while I caught a quick shower and did some reading. My loaded trailer showed up an hour and a half early... of course, since I couldn't go anywhere. If I had been able to do anything with it, the damned thing would have been an hour late. Once my ten hours were finished, I hooked to my trailer and topped off my fuel tanks.

I was walking around and checking out my tires while the fuel pumps ran when I noticed a potential problem. There had been a nail in the tread of one of my drive tires for a while, but it seemed to be in a thick spot where it wasn't going to be a problem. As long as I wasn't losing any air, I considered it to be a non-issue. The tires were about due to be replaced anyway, so I was just keeping an eye on it instead of wasting money to repair a tire near the end of its lifespan. Today I saw that the tread had worn a little more and that the nail had shifted in a way that potentially could end up busting a hole in the tire. I also saw that another nail had joined in the action. Damn.

I called the road service guys to fill them in on the situation. Since I knew that the question would arise, I had made sure to check out the tread depth before I called. I had 2/32" in the middles and 3/32" on the edges of both rear-axle drive tires. That's borderline at best. We determined that, on account of the nail situation, I should see if the tire shop at the Pilot in West Memphis could get me in quickly. If so, I still should have enough time to reach Dallas before 1am Central. If they couldn't get me in right away, I would just make the trip to Dallas and then find somewhere to deal with the tires after making my drop. After checking in at the Pilot in West Memphis, I was immediately assigned to a service bay and the work started shortly thereafter. Beauty.

The instructions from Mount Joplin were for the mechanic to replace the two rear tires and then rotate them, such that my existing front tires would go to the rear axle and the two new tires would go up front. The guy doing the work resembled, for lack of a better metaphor, a Martian fucking a football. I've only pulled a tire off the rim and then replaced it once in my life - on my Schwinn when I was ten years old. I've never done so with a car or truck tire. That being said, I'm pretty sure that I could have replaced and rotated those damned things in less than an hour and a half today. That dude was an unholy combination of lazy and incompetent. So, by the time I got back to the freeway, I was up against the clock... big time. Any further delays would most likely render me late for my scheduled delivery. Once I got out of the construction in West Memphis though, I was able to keep my foot to the floor for most of the trip. There was more construction forcing people off the freeway in Texarkana for a couple of miles, but that was it. Smooth sailing for 99% of the drive. I managed to squeeze in a quick potty break and still arrived in Dallas twenty minutes early.

After dropping my loaded trailer and getting my paperwork signed, I headed out to retrieve an empty... or maybe not. At least fifteen of our trailers at that place and none of them empty. That's bullshit. One of the loaded trailers sitting on the yard was the one that I pulled out of Kentucky last night. Good to see that we haul ass getting those loads delivered for a reason... or something. I sat around for a couple of hours until the yard dog swung around and brought me an empty trailer. Then, after a quick phone call to the dispatcher in Lancaster, I had my next dispatch to head down to the terminal.

I dropped my empty and went inside to tell the dispatcher that my 14 hour clock was nearly shot. She suggested that I get on the board anyway (at #23), since it would be "way more than ten hours" before I was moved again. Fair enough. Depending on how we interpret "way more," my pay week may be finished or there may be one more load to squeeze in before midnight. In any event, I'll probably have plenty of time to watch the football game here where my internet connection tends to be nice and fast.

Since we're still on the 5am bedtime routine and there is no reason to expect an assignment to interrupt my rest this morning, who wants to bet that there will be some dumbass satellite message in a few hours, telling us to drive safely or something equally vapid?

11/19/09

Given the choice between falling asleep at 5am and waking at 5am, I'll take the first option every time. Early morning wakeup calls are the bane of my existence. That being said, my one minor concern about getting trapped into an overnight schedule this week was that it might wreck my weekend. A full week of graveyard shifts isn't so bad once you settle into the routine. On a short week though, the act of delivering in the morning and then blowing the whole day on a ten hour break can be costly. It looks like I may end up being correct, although I hope otherwise.

By the time I was empty at 4:30am today, I was a little tired. I had been up all day yesterday, prepared to work, so the late night was an inconvenience but not a terrible one. I'm often awake until 4:30am for no particular reason, after all. So I bounced over to the local truck stop and found a place to park for a nap. My 14 hour clock was set to expire at 9:30am, so either I would get something before then or I would be forced to stay parked until after 2:45pm today.

Around 8am I received my new assignment. I will be picking up a load at the Con-way terminal on the south side of Florence, Kentucky tonight and passing it off to someone at our West Memphis terminal tomorrow morning. Good enough, as far as that goes. The miles are pretty solid and clearing the cities along that route during the overnight hours should be nice and easy. The one issue, as one might have guessed, was the scheduling. Normally they like us to arrive at the shipper, drop an empty trailer, take a ten hour break, and then make the run with a fresh clock. In my estimation though, I didn't think that I would be able get through Cincinnati at 8:30am and cover the rest of the 67 miles to the shipper, then drop my empty trailer by 9:30am. I would have to stay at the truck stop and finish out a ten hour break instead.

The deadhead and the loaded run combine for around 550 miles, so it won't be a problem to make the whole trip within one day's 11 driving hours and 14 hour on-duty window. Just a bit of an inconvenience for me and probably some kind of violation of protocol according to the suits, since I wasn't set up and staged for the load ten hours early. Whatever dude. Nothing I can do about it. I don't write the laws. The load is set to relay in West Memphis by 6:30am (my time) tomorrow, so I'll sit here in Monroe until 4:30pm and then head down to the shipper. It's a fairly small facility according to my recollection, meaning that they may need my empty trailer. If I can show up before 6pm I'll be giving them a three hour head start. That should be plenty.

Then we get to the more legitimate potential negative about the whole overnight scheduling deal. However the drive goes, my hours will be pretty well spent by the time I get to West Memphis. So I'll have to take ten hours of down time there, carrying me well into Friday afternoon before I can get back on the board. Terminals on weekends, as we've discussed plenty of times here, can be hit and miss. Sometimes there are sixty trucks and no freight and sometimes they hand you a choice of loads right away. Time will tell. In the interest of getting at least a few hundred bucks in net pay out of this week, I'm hoping for the latter.

Update:5:50pm
It's worth observing that, so far, the Con-way terminal in Walton, Kentucky is my new favorite. I thought that I had been here before but I was mistaken. Here's what we've learned about the place thus far: My directions were accurate and easy to follow. The yard appears to have been designed to allow trucks to navigate (novel concept). The terminal is large enough to operate efficiently but small enough that it's not an absolute zoo like the big city locations are. The drop area is not located directly across from any bizarre obstacles. And lastly, in a pleasant twist, the employees have all been polite and helpful. Eye contact, complete sentences, the whole nine yards. Consider me impressed. I'm supposed to check back with them in a few hours, so let's hope it continues.