Monday, December 31, 2007

Houston, TX

After a couple of very long days, I'm over in the lone star state. Three days ago, I was in Miami, dealing with record-shattering 80°F degree heat. Then, in a single day, I drove from there to Marianna, FL (~560 miles). Yesterday, I then went all the way from there to Houston, pulling 630 miles in ten and a half hours. Thankfully, aside from an accident just down the highway from where I started, everything went well yesterday and has been going just fine for the last several days. Tomorrow, I have a roughly four-hour drive to where I'm delivering; as usual, I have no idea where I'll be going next, but I hope I keep getting good miles. At some point I'm just going to have to buckle down and run as hard as I can one week; I'd love to get a $1000 paycheck at some point.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Pensacola, FL

Amazingly, I made it home a full hour ahead of schedule. Even my most optimistic estimates put me home at 7AM, but I pulled into the truck stop here about ten minutes ago. As an added bonus, I even found a space I could pull straight into, saving me the trouble of trying to back into a space while tired. I'm going to catch a nap now; I have a lot of things I want to do today. :)

Friday, December 21, 2007

Atlanta, GA

Well, I found out just how they're going to route me home and I'm quite amazed. I'm under a load that is a live unload... in Pensacola on Christmas Eve. So, basically, I'm going to head home, then just have to wake up to drive the truck over to get it unloaded, drop the trailer off at another place in town, then still get another 48 hours off. This means that I'll be home for almost four days. If all goes well, I might be in Pensacola as early as 7AM, but it's more likely I'll get to town closer to 8 or even 9. I'll make another update when I get there; I'm quite happy at the moment though. :)

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Green Bay, WI

Yesterday was a rather frustrating day, but at least it ended well. I got to the shipper, got into the dock in relatively few attempts (probably within 15 minutes, maybe even 10), then waited. And waited. What should have taken two hours took nearly four. Then, due to the weight of the load (39,900), I had to find a scale. Well, there were none along my route until I crossed the state line, so I had to backtrack fifteen miles... only to find out that the place refused to accept anything but cash. I called support shift to find out what I should do - or at least to get authorization to go another 40 miles out of route - then had to go to another scale... only to find out the company credit card wouldn't work there, forcing me to pay for it myself, though at least that will be reimbursed. To add insult to injury, the only DOT scale I passed on the whole trip was closed, thus meaning I'd never have been in trouble even if I was overweight. So, essentially, I drove 75 miles and wasted nearly four hours for absolutely no reason.

At least, once I got to the delivery point, everything went well. I found it in one try, then had to drop the trailer at the very end of a row, such that I had the entire length of the parking lot to back into there. Straight line backing is something I have down just about pat; I can drive in reverse without too much trouble, it's just the fancy cornering required to get into a dock that I have a hard time with.

After dropping the trailer, I went to the Green Bay OC and put my truck in for maintenance. I spent nearly an hour just chatting with the mechanic, since neither of us really had anything better to do. I told him the few things that were wrong with the truck, such as the windshield wipers and a blown power outlet; apparently both things are fairly simple to fix. The mechanic even said he'd look into getting my truck outfitted with a heater so I don't freeze during the winter, which would resolve the only major complaint I have about the job. Though I could have gotten the work it needed done within an hour, I found out that the hotel would let me have an early check in for Saturday, so I went to the hotel anyway. So I'll be checking out tomorrow, despite checking in at 5:30AM. So once my 34-hour restart is done around 2PM tomorrow, I'll be hitting the road and heading south, hopefully to find that it's somewhat warmer.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Monee, IL

Well, with all the news about bad weather in the northeast, I was prepared for the worst. I figured that I'd be late making this delivery and piss off both dispatch and the customer in the process. I already had warned management that I might be late due to weather, which they understood, but I still wanted to try. For all my worrying and planning, though, there was one possibility that I failed to account for: that the weather would cooperate. Aside from about 20 or 30 miles of fairly heavy snow in Pennsylvania and one rather close call with the truck, I had nothing to deal with but rain and even that stopped shortly after I made it into Ohio. The only problem I had left was Chicago traffic, since I cross into the state right around 6PM, but even that proved to be a non-issue. Thus, I went from worrying about being half a day late to arriving half an hour early.

Just about everything else went well, too. I was able to stop for food pretty much as I wanted. Traffic was never a problem all day. I never drove through a construction zone that had a reduced speed limit. I even found a parking space on my first try at the truck stop; someone was just pulling out of a space when I arrived. Overall, a very good day indeed.

That's not to say there aren't a few things I still have to worry about. For one thing, I had to take toll roads to make up time and the roads I took are ones they don't normally reimburse drivers for. If they decide they're not going to pay me back, I'm out $49.50 for the Ohio and Indiana turnpikes. I also still had a hard time backing in at the customer, which led to some rather unnerving looks from other drivers.

I still don't know where I'm going next, but I really hope that it's somewhere warmer. It's currently 26 degrees here and only forecast to get to 32. Worse, there's a huge storm coming in over the weekend and I'd love to get out of the way before that hits. So if they could route me down to Charlotte (which is currently experiencing record highs), I'd be very, very happy. :)

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Sturbridge, MA

Well, today has definitely been one of those days. I'm currently stuck in the fuel island of the Pilot here because my truck just won't start. There's a service guy on the way already, but it still means I'm going to lose even more time on a day where I didn't have much time to lose. I hope I can make it to the place I originally planned on stopping, as there just aren't any other good stopping points along my route. Of course, this isn't the first delay I've had today; I lost almost an hour because some jerk decided to stop and take a nap in the driveway of a customer, then another half hour in traffic. I'll be stopping almost 100 miles short of where I wanted to get tonight and I'll need to have everything go perfectly tomorrow in order for me to get to the customer in time and without running out of hours.

In any case, my truck just got fixed, so now I just need to weigh my load and get driving.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Cherry Hill, NJ

Yes, New Jersey. There's really not much here, but I'm right in the middle of it, I suppose. I'm waiting at a customer to get loaded, so I really have nothing to do but kill time. The last few days have been fairly uneventful, really, though the weather has finally turned to snow. I haven't had to drive in active snow yet, but there is snow on the side of the road and I worry that ice is going to form on the highways. I will be coming back south with this load, though I'm not sure just how far I'll make it tonight. I hope to at least get to North Carolina.

Also, for anyone considering driving for Schneider, one driver made a very good point the other day. This is the time of year you want to start driving. Why? Well, you'll be learning how to drive in winter conditions, such that when spring rolls around and the weather improves, it'll just get easier. That's a lot better than I've done by going to the academy in the summer and learning under easy conditions, then having to adapt that to increasingly wintry conditions. Just some food for thought.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

La Vergne, TN

So after a relatively short day, I've dropped the trailer and called it a night. My next load is supposed to be a live load at 3:30 tomorrow, but the place I dropped at had no empty trailers, so I couldn't pick one up tonight. I'm not sure if dispatch will send me back there tomorrow to see if they've emptied one out or if I'll have to go trailer-hunting, but either way I need to be up and ready to go in the morning. Unfortunately, I'll be delivering this load to a place I've already been and had a heck of a time finding, so it's going to be a rather long and frustrating evening tomorrow as well. I may just take another relatively short day and just deliver it in the morning, such that I'll be driving during the daylight hours instead.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Canton, NC

After a long day, I've called it a night a little earlier than planned. I'm tired, I was hungry, and I have enough extra time on this run where I can afford to take an extra half-day off. I only have about 250 miles left to go and this load can be delivered any time tomorrow so I really have no reason to hurry. As such, I'll be going to bed now, taking a shower in the morning, and probably relaxing for a little while before I hit the road again. As always, I have no idea where I'll be going next, but I should have enough time to get reasonably far up the road after I drop this trailer.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Nitro, WV

It's been a long and unproductive day. I've been running late for a while and extra delays today didn't help matters. I'll be about 7 hours late on this delivery, largely because I was a full day behind with the last one. The trip planner even apologized for the mess; hopefully my next run will work out better. Hopefully.

Hebron, KY

I have to take my break at the customer since receiving doesn't open until 5AM. Once I get unloaded, I have to immediately pick up another load. No rest for the weary, but at least I'm getting a lot of miles.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

West Memphis, AR

Yesterday was an exceptionally long day; I used up my entire 14 hours and worked all of it except for an hour-long lunch break. I started in Pauls Valley, OK, fueled in Oklahoma City, picked up a load in Jenks, and ended up in West Memphis, AR. Picking up that load, as usual, had its share of problems: the trailer had no license plate and its tandems wouldn't stay in place, making it impossible to slide them. If not for those problems, I would have left Jenks around 4:30; instead, it was nearly 6:30 when I got back out on the road.

But, I made it (barely), so I'll be going inside and enjoying the company-offered Thanksgiving dinner, getting a shower, and getting on the road again. I was originally planning on spending tonight in Atlanta, at the OC there, but I think that I'll continue down the Interstate and stop closer to Macon, GA instead. That will free up two extra hours for tomorrow, when I'll probably be going home; I'll want the extra time so I'm not cutting it so close again.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Etiquette

Having been out here driving for a while and seeing all sorts of stupid moves by four wheelers, I figured I'd make a short post offering a few rules of the road.


  1. Give us room. However much space a car needs, a truck needs at least three times as much room. You can probably stop a car in about two or three seconds at interstate speed, but I need at least five seconds under ideal conditions to safely make the same maneuver. I've noticed that some drivers seem to like cutting in front of the rig as closely as possible, creating a dangerous situation for both the truck and car. Tailgating is even more dangerous. I don't have a rearview mirror or anything of the sort, so I have no idea what's directly behind me. If you're right on my back bumper, you can't see anything but the truck in front of you, and you'll have just enough time to see the brake lights come on before you hit the back of the trailer if I have to stop suddenly. While cars are always supposed to maintain a two second following distance, I'd suggest increasing that when you're behind a truck so everybody has enough time to react. As a truck, I try to keep it least seven seconds in front of me.
  2. Use your turn signals. I shouldn't have to say this, since it's the law no matter where you go, but anytime you're going to turn or change lanes you need to use your signal. I've lost count of the number of times I've had a car swerve in front of me without using its signal or that's made a turn without signaling after making a sudden stop in the highway. As an added bonus, if I see your signals are on, I'll try to make room for you do what you need to do by slowing down or changing lanes as appropriate. If I have no idea what you're going to do, I can't make it any easier for you to do it.
  3. If I have my signal on, get out of the way. I know that sounds rude, but there really isn't a polite way of putting it. If I turn my signal on, it's for a reason. It might be that the lane is ending ahead, that there is a car stopped on the side of the road, that I'm trying to pass another vehicle, that I need to make a turn somewhere, or any of various other reasons. In a truck, I can see much further down the road than you can in your car, so I may be reacting to something you can't even see yet. I don't want to hold up traffic, so I'll get back in the right lane as soon as I can after making my lane change. So please don't make it difficult for me to do so.
  4. Don't flash your highbeams at me. While I appreciate the intention, flashing your highbeams causes a painfully bright reflection in the mirrors. Also, there may be some reason I'm not moving back over to my lane, for any of the reasons I described above. Even so, if you still want to signal, try flashing your low beams instead. Or, at night, briefly flip your headlights off and back on.
  5. Turn off your highbeams. Practically every state requires, by law, that you turn off your highbeams if you're within 500 feet of another vehicle. Even if you're on the other side of the divided highway (like an interstate), an oncoming vehicle with its highbeams on makes it very difficult to see. Likewise, if you're coming up behind me, turn your highbeams off as you approach so I don't have that blinding reflection in my mirror.
  6. Don't get mad if I'm driving slowly. I get paid by the mile, so I have no incentive to drive any slower than absolutely necessary. But if I'm driving in a work zone, trying to find a customer, or I'm just not sure where I am, I need to slow down. Like wise, if I'm going uphill, I can't maintain my speed nearly as well as a car, especially if I have a heavy load. For example, I might be able to go up a hill at 60 miles an hour with an empty trailer and only 30 miles an hour with a full load. Swerving in front of me and slamming your brakes isn't going to make me go any faster; I'll have to slow down, which just might annoy the driver behind me, if not cause an accident.
  7. Read the road signs. If there is a sign that says the right lane ends or is closed, don't wait until the very end to slide over; move into an open lane as soon as you can. This will help traffic continue to move smoothly instead of forcing it to stop when you get to the end and have to force your way into traffic. Likewise, if you see a sign for your exit, get into the right lane as soon as you can so you don't have to swerve over at the last moment
  8. Don't be a jerk. Just because some truck drivers act unprofessional doesn't mean you should take out your frustration on all of us. The numbskulls are generally few and far between and they're the ones that are probably going to cause an accident and have their career come to an abrupt end. The rest of us try to drive responsibly as we can, so please return the favor. This job is hard enough without worrying about bad drivers.

Pauls Valley, OK

Monday, 1:15 p.m.: After a good night sleep, a hot shower, and a quick breakfast, I get the road around 11:45 a.m. I actually got a message asking me to call any confirm I can deliver this on time, since I have to drive about 580 miles deliver it and generally trips of over 550 miles a day are discouraged. I'll be able to deliver it without a problem, but I'll have no driving time left, forcing me to stop for the night at the nearest truckstop to where I'm delivering.

Monday, 2:45 p.m.: I made a short stop for lunch in Rolla, Missouri. I'm still about 4:45 away from Tulsa, where I plan on stopping for dinner. After that, it's three more hours to where I'm delivering. So far, everything has gone fine. I just hope that continues.

Monday, 3:55 p.m.: I'm 35 miles from Springfield, Missouri. Things are still pretty much on schedule and I should have no problem making this delivery by midnight. Traffic has been fairly light so far, but I hope I'm not in any city when rush-hour hits, and traffic always get snarled around five.

Monday, 9:40 p.m.: things are still going according to plan. I'll probably deliver this around 11:30 then drive to a truckstop for the night. I'm hoping to shut down by midnight so I can start at 10 o'clock in the morning but that will depend in large part on how hard it is to drop the trailer.

Tuesday, 12:10 a.m.: I dropped my load, but I have to pick up a trailer before I can leave. I'm cutting it kind of close on my 14 today, but I'll still be able to get out of here before my time is up. I have no idea where I'm going tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll find out first thing in the morning.

Tuesday, 1:15 a.m.: amazingly, despite there being three truckstops at this exit, none of them had parking. I invented a parking space at the end of the row and I'm hoping I don't get in trouble for it. At least I'm not blocking traffic or anything of that sort. I sent in a message telling them I'll be available at 11:15 a.m. so I have plenty of time to sleep and get breakfast before I have to hit the road again.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Evansville, IN

Friday, 2:50 p.m.: I'm now a Wal-Mart distribution center in London, Kentucky, waiting for them to unload my trailer. I still haven't gotten a new work assignment yet, so I'm hoping one comes in before they finish unloading. Since I am rather low on hours (I can only work 10 hours today), so they may just ask me to shut down early today. That is, they may give me a load that has an appointment for tomorrow morning, or at the very least can't be picked up until tomorrow morning even though it's not a live load. In any case, while I wait here, I'm going to catch a quick nap; I didn't sleep very well last night for some reason.

Friday, 4:45 p.m.: I got done at the Wal-Mart well ahead of schedule, so I just drove down about 10 miles to a truckstop. I got lucky with parking; there was a pull through space right near the fuel island available. At this point, I'm not sure if I even care whether or not I get another work assignment today. If I don't get one, I'll just have an extra four hours tomorrow, pretty much guaranteeing I can't run out. Obviously, getting work assignment means I make money, which is never a bad thing.

Friday, 4:50 p.m.: I have work. Worse, I have to drive up back to Ohio, which I always hate doing. However, this pickup has to be made by 5 p.m. the morrow, so I don't have to leave tonight. Therefore, I'm calling it a night right now and I'll drive up there in the morning. If the computer's correct, it shouldn't be more than 175 miles, which means it'll be just over a three-hour drive.

Saturday, 12:05 p.m.: I'm now on my way to Cincinnati to pick up this load. I got started a little later than I intended, but it really doesn't matter, given how much time I have spare on this run. As such, I'll be stopping tonight in Indianapolis and taking a very long break to meet with friends there, spend tomorrow night in Edwardsville, Illinois, and deliver this around 8 p.m. on Monday. That leaves me about 16 hours to run on Tuesday, so I'm not going to be at any imminent risk of running out of hours. If I decide to leave Indianapolis for Edwardsville earlier than I'm currently planning on (I'll be staying nearly a full day at each), I could make delivery significantly earlier. There's only one advantage to getting there early: I can get on a new run that much earlier. But, given how my hours are running right now, I might not even have the hours to take it anywhere. I have the budget my time effectively.

Saturday, 3:35 p.m.: once again, a load that was supposed be drop and hook has turned into a live load. When I went in to pick up the paperwork for this load, they said the trailer hasn't even got in the door yet, much less been loaded. So now I have no idea how long I'm going to be stuck sitting here, but it looks unlikely I'll that be out of here in less than an hour. This is particularly infuriating as I was told on my work assignment to get here anytime between one and five o'clock (Eastern time) today. Is it really that hard for people to do what they say they're going to do?

Saturday, 3:50 p.m.: I just double checked on it, it turns out they're running just about four hours behind today. They are only now starting on the one o'clock appointments, even though it's nearly 5 o'clock now. Mine should be ready in 30 to 45 minutes, so I'll double check with the gate guard in half an hour. If it's anything more than half an hour, I'll earn $15 in detention pay, as I'll have been here over two hours.

Saturday, 7:40 p.m.: so, after about five minutes less than eternity, I'm on my way with this load. Frustratingly, I had to backtrack almost 20 miles to find the nearest scale, since the customer wouldn't let me axle out my load on their scale. "We don't do axle weights," the guard said, completely un-sympathetically. I now have just barely enough time left on my 14 hours to make Indianapolis tonight; it's a good thing I wasn't planning on going any further.

Saturday, 11:30 p.m.: I'm finally parked in Indianapolis, after spending a full hour looping around a lot trying to find once parking space I could actually pull into. It turns out they have exactly 1 person on staff here so nobody could tell the people who parked inappropriately to move so people could actually use the parking spaces as they were intended. As such, I'm literally parked in the last space in the very back of the facility, probably a quarter mile walk from the front office. Again, I have to ask why people can't do what they're supposed to, since that would make my day so much easier.

Sunday, 7:15 p.m.: After a longer stay in Indianapolis than I intended, I'm back on the road again. Even though I'm four hours behind my original plan, I'm still on schedule, as I didn't intend to leave Evansville before 10 o'clock in the morning. I'm tempted to just tell them I'll be available first thing Tuesday morning, since I'll be practically out of hours by the time I deliver this load tomorrow night anyway.

Sunday, 8:20 p.m.: It's been raining off and on since I left Indianapolis. When I got to a weigh station, I could barely see the directional arrow indicating which lane I needed to take. Thankfully, I got it right. Why'd I get pulled in? Well, I have 33,700 pounds on my trailer tandems, so that's awfully close to the legal limit. And, of course, the DOT is never going to pass up an opportunity to write a ticket, so my weight is close enough to warrant an extra look.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Indy OC

Way too tired to even attempt cleaning this post up, so apologies if it's incoherent in places.

Wednesday, 9:30 a.m.: this morning has been kind of frustrating so far. I lost my cell phone between a set of shelves and the bed in a crack too narrow for me to reach in, so I can't use my phone for the foreseeable future. Everything else is fine, but not having my phone is quite irritating. Since I wasted about 15 minutes trying to get the thing back, I now have just enough time left to get to the customer; I really hope I haven't shot myself in the foot (again).

Wednesday, 1:18 p.m.: I'm driving to Rockport, Illinois. The load I have next takes me by both the Gary and Indianapolis operating centers; I have stop for fuel in Gary and I'll stop for the night in Indy. Course, I say I stop for fuel there based on the as I have enough fuel to get there right now. I have about 17 gallons left and it's 125 miles. I suppose that it's a good thing that I filled my tanks to almost overflowing last time I stopped; that may well be the difference between making it there and not.

Wednesday, 2:28 p.m.: arrived at my next pickup. To put it bluntly, I'm alarmingly low on fuel; I probably have as few as 10 gallons left. I'll be stopping to fill up in Gary, Indiana operating center if I can make it there, but I have ask for directions first. So hopefully they'll arrive before I have to leave here.

Wednesday, 3:05 p.m.: what should have been a simple drop an empty and pick up the load has now turned into a lie load. This means that, instead of being out on the road now, I have to drive just up the street to get the load, drive back here, get my paperwork, and only then can I leave. Further, the trip planners didn't give me to pick up number to begin with, so it took five minutes on hold just for them to give me what I needed to pick up their freight. On the bright side, I'll least be getting paid for the hold up, as it looks extremely unlikely I'll be out of here within two hours.

Wednesday, 4:40 p.m.: finally, after what seems like an eternity, I have my load. It's just under 90 miles from here to Gary, somewhere to be crossing my fingers and hoping that I have at least 15 gallons left.

Wednesday, 4:55 p.m.: I'm still waiting in line here and I just realized I'll be hitting Chicago right at rush hour. That's both going to delay my driving and kill my fuel economy. I can't really afford any further delays, since I'll already be getting to Indianapolis with just 30 minutes left out of my 14 hours for the day.

Wednesday, 11 p.m.: everything has gone kind of fast tonight, so I haven't even had a chance grab the mic to dictate something. I had to put over 155 gallons in the truck to fill it up, so I was lucky to even make it to the operating center. I also weighed the truck and found it was just barely legal, but barely legal is still legal, so I've nothing to worry about. I got into Indianapolis just as my 14 hours ran out, so I'm definitely due for the break. Unfortunately, I'm much further from where I'm delivering I thought, so I'll have to get up pretty early. Specifically, this place is on Eastern time and it's a 3:30 p.m. appointment. It's also a nearly five-hour drive from here, so I will have to leave almost immediately after my break expires. I am getting absolutely sick of these tight deliveries; I'd like to be able to catch on sleep for a change.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Iowa 80 truckstop

Tuesday, 4:30 p.m.: I was supposed to stop for fuel in Des Moines, Iowa, but I couldn't find a truckstop I was supposed to fuel at. I mean, I was supposed to take exit 126 to the pilot, but there were no signs indicating which direction to turn to find said pilot area rather than make a turn and risk being wrong, I stopped right back on the interstate. It's pretty much impossible to read fuel map all driving, I have enough fuel to get were ongoing tonight and can find somewhere tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, 4:55 p.m.: since traffic thinned out, I'd filled with the map for a little bit. It turns out there are no fuel stops whatsoever between where I am now where I'm delivering. While, technically, I do have enough fuel to get there, I'd be running on empty on my way out. Hopefully the place and stopping tonight is an emergency backup stop; if so, I'll put in 50 gallons to ensure I don't run out.

Wednesday, 8:50 a.m.: On my way out of the Iowa 80 now. I'm cutting it a little close on my delivery, but I will still make it. :)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Davis City, IA

Sunday, 3:45 p.m.: after taking a slightly longer break than usual, I'm back on the road. I'm slightly afraid to get on I77 though, since the Carolina Panthers game just ended. I'm quite sure that five minutes from now, I'll be remarking on either how good or bad the traffic is.

Sunday, 3:50 p.m.: amazingly, traffic is completely open right now. There seems to be more traffic on I77 southbound than North, and I need to go north to get where I'm going.

Sunday, 4:55 p.m.: traffic is still flowing smoothly as I continue north through the Carolinas. I'm also making great time so far, which will ensure I get plenty of sleep tonight.

Sunday, 5:50 p.m.: somehow: I'm now simultaneously on I77 North and I81 South. While I still haven't figured out how to be in two places at once, apparently I can figure out how to drive in two directions at once.

Sunday, 6:20 p.m.: taking a rest break, it feels like my legs are starting to fall asleep. I have 187 miles to go, so I'm still in great shape on time.

Sunday, 7:10 p.m.: I'm on I77 North in West Virginia now and going through these mountains is a pain in the tail. Even though this load is only 18,000 pounds, it's impossible to maintain my speed going uphill and the road is so winding that I can't afford to gain any extra speed going downhill. There have already been two occasions in which I was worried I was going to roll the truck; there was that sharp a turn on the interstate. I'll be quite happy to get out of here and back on the flat roads again.

Sunday, 7:50 p.m.: just when I thought West Virginia couldn't get any harder to drive through, it started to rain just as I got to a warning sign for sharp curves ahead. So now the roads are slick, I have limited visibility, and it's difficult driving even under good conditions. Despite a speed limit of 55, I'm not doing anything above 50 mph through here; under these conditions, it's not safe to go any faster. I suppose I should just be thankful that this isn't snow. It's 52° here, so there's little risk of anything freezing.

Sunday, 8:45 p.m.: it looks like I'm finally through the mountains. I have just over 60 miles left for tonight; it looks like I'll have to leave almost as soon as my break is up to get to the customer on time.

Sunday, 9:30 p.m.: I just crossed into Kentucky, and with a state change came in change in the weather: fog. Visibility is still pretty good, but I can tell that by the end of the night it would be very difficult to drive. It doesn't help matters that I'm not feeling very well either. I've been having a hard time breathing for the last several miles.

Sunday, 9:55 p.m.: I arrived at the truckstop, parked, and I'm now ready to sleep. I'll probably go to get something to eat first, just as a late-night snack, but I think I'll spend my full 10 hour break sleeping.

Monday, 1:55 p.m.: are after a whopping four half hours, I'm finally rightly. Yes, 4 1/2 hours. I arrived not an hour early, but it took over an hour for them to check me in; it was 11:15 a.m. by the time I got checked in for my 11 o'clock appointment. On the bright side, I was told that since this was a warehouse load, I was not responsible for unloading it. However, with as long as it so, I think I could've and unloaded myself faster. I have to hurry to make this next pick up appointment; I only have about half an hour to spare. I'll worry about completing a trip plan and the rest of the paperwork after I get there.

Monday, 3 p.m.: apparently nobody in the city of Lexington, Kentucky has ever heard of the concept of leading following distance. I've had it least 12 cars cut in front of me in the last 2 miles, none of which were leaving more than half a second between my nose in their tail. I am doing the 55 mph speed limit, so it's not like I'm holding up traffic in the time it took for me to dictate this paragraph, three more cut in front of me, one right after the other. No, excuse me, make that five. This is exactly why I support mandatory drivers education.

Monday, 3:45 p.m.: I arrived at the customer, only to find out I was at the wrong location of that customer. So now I have to drive 5 miles to get to where I was supposed to go. This, in turn, means I missed the appointment. It won't I guess me, since it wasn't my fault that I was told to go to the wrong place to begin with, but hopefully I can still pick this load up today.

Monday, 5 p.m.: despite being late, I was still able to get loaded. I'm actually waiting to be loaded right now, but they should be working on it soon. I'm just hoping I can get far enough up the road tonight to make this delivery on time; it's about 625 miles, so I have to make some ground tonight.

Monday, 5:15 p.m.: it appears I seriously underestimated how much time I have left. I can drive as late as 10 o'clock tonight. The place I'm supposed to fuel at is about three and a half hours away; if I get out of here within the next hour or so, I should be able to make it there tonight. If not, I'll have to figure something else out. I'm fairly hopeful it will all work out though; after all, something has to go right today.

Monday, 6 p.m.: just like that, I'm loaded and on the way. My current load is of empty plastic bottles, which makes for an amusingly light trailer. Despite the trailer being loaded with 24 pallets of the bottles, the trailer weighs just over 4000 pounds. So, for all practical purposes, I have an empty trailer. Also, since I'm getting on my way fairly early, I should have no problem making it to that truckstop tonight. That will leave me just an eight hour drive for tomorrow.

Monday, 6:45 p.m.: Apparently I overlooked something in my atlas, because I'd took the route suggested, only to find a very frightening sign: low clearance 13'6". Keep in mind, my trailer is exactly 13'6" high. As soon as I saw the sign, I activated my hazard flashers, slowed to a crawl, and crossed my fingers. Apparently somebody was looking out for me, as I made it under the bridge. Generally, as the trailer gets loaded, the weight pushes it lower to the ground; apparently 4,000 pounds was good enough to get me under a 13'6" bridge. I just hope that when I stop for the night later I don't find the roof of my trailer missing or chunks of bridge perched atop it.

Monday, 6:55 p.m.: is it just me, or does "fallen rock zone" sound more like a sonic the hedgehog level than a highway road warning sign? I've seen about 10 of those signs in the state so far, no, make that 11, and I'm really starting to wonder.

Monday, 7:55 p.m.: I just crossed into Indiana. Just as I crossed the state line, two things happened: it started to rain and my truck started bouncing all over the place due to the poorly maintained highway. At least, unlike other states, there isn't a forest of orange barrels. I'm now just under 100 miles from where I want to stop for the night, so I should be able to make it there before my 14 hours runs out (it would expire at 10 p.m.).

Monday, 8:25 p.m.: about the time I got to mile marker 93, it started pouring. Up until now, it's been intermittent drizzle, but the floodgates just opened. Though it has tapered off slightly, it's still a fairly steady rain. At least it wasn't raining whilewent through West Virginia's mountains yesterday.

Monday, 8:50 p.m.: I just found Santa Claus. Apparently he's off of Interstate 64, Indiana exit 63. No, seriously, the exit sign said Santa Claus. So much for the old notion that he lives at the North Pole, huh?

Monday, 9:30 p.m.: I found my exit, and in the process, found three pilot truckstops. One is bound to have parking.

Monday, 10 p.m.: just because they have parking doesn't mean I can get into any of it. Nearly half an hour of frustrating attempts later, I'm finally in a space, simply because somebody left one of the pull through spaces open.

Tuesday, 12:15 p.m.: After getting a full night's rest, a hot lunch, and fuel, I'm back on I64. Today should be a rather easy day, since I plan on driving about 390 miles and don't have to make a delivery until morning. Granted, waking up in time to drive an hour to make a 7:30 a.m. appointment is not my idea of fun, but since it should take them three hours to unload, I can get a nap if I need it. I just hope my next delivery isn't another set of appointments, since having to drive on somebody else's schedule greatly reduces the number of miles I get to run.

Tuesday, 4:20 p.m.: I've already gone through St. Louis and really don't have any other major cities to go through tonight. The next large city is Kansas City, which falls just before where I'm delivering; I'll be stopping about 20 miles outside of there tonight. I can't imagine I'll have to worry about traffic in the morning, since I'll be getting started around 6 a.m., well before morning rush hour.

Tuesday, 7:15 p.m.: I stopped for the night in Oak Grove, Missouri. I'm at a petro right now, simply because Petro has the easiest part in the world. I'm going get a good meal while I'm here and go to bed early, since they have to be up at 5:30 a.m. to make this delivery. I'm just hoping my next run doesn't require me to get up so early.

Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.: I'm a there is a reason I didn't want to get up this morning. I was so tired when I woke up that I missed the interstate on-ramp and had to go almost 30 miles out of the way to get to this place. Then, when I got here, both receiving docks were full. I had to pull off to the side, and it took some fancy maneuvering to get even close to the dock. While I was trying to back in, the entire staff at the facility came out to simply stare at me. I'm going to try and take a quick nap while I'm here, but knowing my luck, as soon as I fall asleep they'll be done and I'll to have to leave.

Wednesday, 8:55 a.m.: I guess sleep isn't an option; I just got beeped at by the satellite, with a message asking me why was late.

Wednesday, 9:20 a.m.: they were done well ahead of schedule, so now I get to wait for a new work assignment. And, speak of the devil, one just showed up.

Wednesday, 11:35 a.m.: once again, I'm stuck with appointments for my delivery. At least this delivery as it a reasonable hour; it has to be there at noon tomorrow. It 452 miles, this run isn't exactly a long haul, but at least it's a full day's work. Unfortunately, I finished getting into the dock just as this distributor took a lunch break, so I'll be here for at least another hour.

Tuesday, 1:15 p.m.: this will undoubtedly be the lightest load of my trucking career. I have 26 pallets of random crap weighing a grand total of 1,014 pounds. I'm still not entirely convinced they left a number off that way, but it certainly feels as if I'm driving an empty trailer. Also, since I got a customer a full hour ahead of schedule, I'll be able to get to the world's largest truckstop tonight. Also, I have about four hours to spare on this run, saw have a little after time to enjoy the facilities.

Tuesday, 2:30 p.m.: I just tried to stop at a rest area to check a message on my satellite, but apparently there were exactly I parking spaces. All five were full. Hopefully the I'll welcome center will have better parking.

Tuesday, 2:55 p.m.: I'm approaching the Iowa state line on I35, but driving is proving increasingly difficult due to highway and. Up here, there's nothing to keep the wind down, and with this exceptionally light load I have very little holding me down to the road. There is also a steadily increasing cloud cover ahead. I hope that doesn't mean snow.

Tuesday, 3:10 p.m.: Holy shit, Iowa rest areas have free wi-fi. I'll post what I have now, while I have the chance. :)

Monday, November 12, 2007

Indiana

Today was a waiting game; I spent 6 hours waiting at docks. I almost ran out of my 14. I'll sleep in tonight.

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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Still driving around

I had a nice, long post dictated but my computer crashed when I started it this morning, so I'll just type a quick summary here. I'm in Charlotte, heading up to Kentucky for a live unload at 11AM tomorrow. Unfortunately, this is a full hand unload, which means I get to unload the entire truck (18,000 pounds of toilet paper) myself. They figure that a driver can do it in three hours, so I'll probably take about four, since I tend to work rather slow and I'm in rather poor physical condition. Hopefully the warehouse won't be too cold.

Also, I've finally saved the e-mail address for this journal to my phone, so even on nights that I can't get online I'll send a text message post here just so everyone knows where I am and that I'm doing well. :)

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Green Bay, WI

3 p.m.: I'm just getting ready to head out of Indianapolis, but I need to stop for fuel on the way out. Thankfully, it's only seven hours to where I deliver, though I'm still worried about going through Chicago. I'm fairly sure I'll miss rush-hour, but I don't think I'll miss it by much.

4 p.m.: my current ETA for Chicago is about 6:30 p.m.. So far, traffic's been pretty heavy, even down here. I shudder to think of what'll be like in a big city. The weather isn't helping me very much either; high winds are making it very difficult to drive. Like yesterday, the sun is also just over my left mirror, making it hard to see. It looks like I have my next work assignment, too. Seeing as I just got two equipment disposition messages, I'll almost certainly be picking up an empty trailer from the drop yard and taking it to the Green Bay operating center. Of course, I still don't know what I'm doing after that; I'll probably just pick a relay up after I do that training tomorrow.

5:45 p.m.: I'm about 10 miles from Interstate 90. Earlier, I was debating whether or not to stop somewhere to get dinner, but ultimately I decided against it. The biggest advantage to stopping would have been to allow Chicago rush-hour to clear up, since I'm sure traffic will still be a nightmare when I get there. Judging from the traffic on I-65 South now, it looks like getting into this city won't be a problem; it's getting out of the city again that I need to worry about.

6:30 p.m.: I avoided some of the mess in Chicago by going around I-89/I-94, as opposed taking I-90 straight through. As a bit of comfort, this time I'm not the only truck on the interstate; last time I was in Chicago I couldn't the another semi truck anywhere. If it stays this smooth once I get out of the city, I'll actually be well ahead of schedule.

6:36 p.m.: As expected, on my way out of town, traffic is a bitch. However, this has given me the opportunity to look at Chicago's gorgeous skyline. It really is quite the amazing view. If my hands weren't full with trying to drive, I'd be trying to take pictures.

7:30 p.m.: I just realized on my GPS is taking such an unusual route. I had set it to avoid toll roads while I was back in Florida, since Schneider won't pay for the Florida Turnpike, but I forgot to reenable toll roads before I came up here. As a result, instead of ending up on I-94, I'm currently going up US 41. It's really nothing more than a minor inconvenience, but it still annoys that I forgot to do something so simple.

7:45 p.m.: I'm in Wisconsin now, and only a little over an hour from where I'm delivering. It seems I've done nothing but make time so far today, but I'm afraid that now that I've said something, my luck's going to run out. Just as I started to cross the state line, it started to rain. It's currently 44°, so there's no risk of freezing yet, but I have to strongly emphasize yet. Although the low temperature tonight in Green Bay is supposed to be 33°, they're still calling for snow flurries; I hope they're wrong.

9:13 p.m.: I made it and I didn't get lost for once. I have to go around to an auxiliary lot, though at least they gave me a map and good directions. As expected, my new work assignment is to just pick an empty up from the distribution center and take it to the operating center.

9:29 p.m.: I can't believe I just did what I did. After taking a good long look at what the trailer does when I back it up, I realized at the thing is really not just angles, it's more of an arc. Looking at it as an arc, I seem to have a much, much easier time visualizing where it's going to go, and where I need to be to get to go where it needs to go. Backing my trailer in that here, I put it right next to another trailer in one try, so close that I couldn't even fit between the trailers. The only thing that I had to fix was that spacing, and that was easy to do. Seems like I've finally gotten something figured out, and the training tomorrow should finish solving my problems.

11:05 p.m.: I'm now just about convinced that "support shift" doesn't actually support anybody, but instead exists solely to make driving miserable anytime first shift isn't on duty. I received a message telling me to pick up an empty trailer, so I picked up an empty. I sent in my message telling them which empty I had and got a message back telling me to pick up a different trailer. Please note that I didn't get a message telling me what a specific trailer to pick up at any point until after I already picked up the trailer I have now. Somehow, the trailer I have is unavailable, even though the customer confirmed to me that they weren't using it and I would be free to take it as an empty. I've sent another message telling them this, and I'm stuck sitting here until they figure out what they want me to do. So far, it's been 15 minutes and they haven't replied.

11:20 p.m.: finally, I received a reply, though certainly a less than polite one. The message basically said I should've waited to see if it was going to get assigned to me or not. If I had to get a specific trailer, they should've sent me a message telling which trailer I needed to pick up in the first place. In any event, they finally decided I can leave with the trailer I picked up an hour ago, so now I'm going to head to Green Bay. I would like to get there before 1:30 a.m., but because support shift doesn't have a clue, apparently that was too much to ask.

12:04 a.m.: I'm about an hour and a half from Green Bay, assuming the 65 mph speed limit holds up. Though I only drove 335 miles yesterday, I'm not too unhappy about it, considering I've driven over 600 the last two days. Once I get to Green Bay, I'll drop this trailer, then park my tractor in the bobtail parking. Hopefully there will be people idling there trucks since I'd like to get a full night of sleep.

1:30 a.m.: I made a Green Bay. Unfortunately, as before, I had no idea where I'm supposed to go here. There are no signs anywhere on property indicating where empty trailers are supposed to go.

2:30 a.m.: I've dropped the empty, parked the tractor, and am finally ready to get a full night's sleep. The truck next to mine is sitting idle, but I'm really too tired for that to bother me right now. Hopefully I don't have to be up early for the training; I haven't gotten any messages telling me when I need to get up.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Indianapolis, IN - Hour by Hour

11:52 a.m.: I'm on my way north on I-75, heading toward Chattanooga, Tennessee. Just over the state line, I'll pick up I24, one of several interstates I need to take today. I'm still nearly 9 hours from Indianapolis, but I should get there in pretty good time.

3:04 p.m.: stopping for lunch. Thankfully, since it's Sunday, all the truckstops will be relatively slow.

3:51 p.m.: back on the road again. Right now, the sun's at a very awkward angle; it's too low to block using the sun visor, but still high enough to shine over the trees and right in my eyes. The sun is almost directly to my left, making it very difficult to use my mirrors effectively.

40 3 p.m.: It's really rather uneventful drive so far. The only thing of interest is the police force. I don't think I've driven 20 miles all day without seeing at least one officer with somebody pulled over. I really wish I had more, interesting things to say, but I just don't right now.

7:24 p.m.: I'm 5 miles into Indiana now. Since the loop around Indianapolis is exit 106, I've just over 100 miles to go. Once on the loop, I only have about 10 more miles, since the exit I need isn't very far.

8:41 p.m.: I'm only 35 miles from Indianapolis, but now I'm stuck in construction. One of the lanes is closed, but none of these idiots in four wheelers seem to want to actually move into the lane that's open. Since there have been multiple signs over the last several miles, I really don't have any sympathy for them. Even more obnoxious is that people are still whipping around to try and pass, despite the traffic jam.

9:13 p.m.: Finally, I'm out of that mess. This leaves me about 27 miles from the operating center. I'm fairly sure I still have enough time to get there, but today was already close, and losing half an hour to construction zones never helps. Then again, I'm not sure if my logbook's correct anyway, simply 'cause I'm not 100% sure how to reflect the daylight savings change.

9:45 p.m.: I'm here. Now I just get to close out the logbook and sleep. :)

Atlanta again

After several days of running around in Florida, I'm back up here in Atlanta. After making a drop in Ft. Pierce, I assumed that I couldn't go anywhere but north... wrong! I had to go clear down to Miami to pick up the load I have now. This wouldn't be a problem, except that I've been to Miami before and I knew that it was near impossible to avoid getting lost in a car, much less a truck. Sure enough, after I picked up an empty trailer down there, I took a state highway that came to an abrupt end behind a shopping center, leaving me nowhere to get turned around. Eventually I had to back up into one of its driveways and turn around that way.

On the way out, I was running out of hours and felt incredibly tired, eventually forcing me to stop at a rest area. It's a small miracle that it had parking available at 5AM when I stopped, but at least I was able to get some sleep. Driving from there to here was uneventful, though I did get to log 681 miles yesterday, which I'm sure is going to make the DOT just a little curious (practically all Interstate driving, so it was legit).

Today, I'm going to get to Indianapolis and its operating center, then proceed to make my delivery and spend Monday night in Green Bay. Tuesday, I'll finally get a bit of extra training on backing, which I hope will solve the problems I've been having, or at least give me a good push in the right direction. I definitely still need the help.

I'm very, very worried about the weather though. I just checked the weather and there's a decent chance of snow in Wisconsin on Monday night. That's the last thing I need to deal with when I'm trying to (re-)learn how to back the truck up. Of course, that doesn't make it very easy to deliver freight, either.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Atlanta, GA

Since I got far too long-winded with my dictation while driving, I'll just summarize things here. I'm taking a restart in Atlanta right now before I drive to Florida tomorrow. I've come to hate the entire state of Ohio for various reasons, mostly because I get lost every time I have to go into the state and it's very hard to get un-lost. I'm hoping to get some extra training on backing while at the operating center here; I need all the help I can get since I just haven't been properly trained all along. I also need to eat better; having hamburgers day after day really is not good for me. That's really about the gist of it.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Note to self: Slide the tandems

I think I figured out why I set off the red light on the prepass system last night. I forgot to slide the tandems forward; in most states it's illegal to leave them all the way back. That also explains why I was having such a hard time maneuvering this trailer around last night. At least I didn't get a ticket when I went through the scale, probably because my weight was so far under the legal limit. I won't be nearly so lucky next time; my next load is going to be nearly 45,000 pounds.

Indianapolis, IN

Wednesday, 12:45 p.m.: Well, this is a fantastic start. I've gotten a work assignment and all, but this trailer looks like I can't use it. It has one brake that's nearly worn out and a rim that's leaking hub oil; either of those would be enough to put the trailer out of service. Even worse, they just finished loading the trailer and it's ready for me to take right now, but if I can't safely take it, then I'd be on the hook for anything that goes wrong. This now makes four working days in a row that I've had to call maintenance; at least this one isn't my fault.

Wednesday, 4 p.m.: It just keeps getting better and better here. I'm sitting at a T/A, waiting on the repairs that need to be done before I can safely take this trailer out on the road. They said they'd call my cell phone when they're ready for me, but that it would likely be "a couple of hours." I hope my 14 doesn't run out while I'm down here; I'm already really close to being late for this delivery as it is.

Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.: I'm still waiting at the T/A, though I'm next in line and about ready to get pulled in. However, there's practically no way I can make it to where I wanted to go tonight; even if I left right now, I'd be pushing my luck to try and make it there. I might have to adjust my trip plan back, or simply drive as far as time will allow and shut down as close to 12:30, when my fourteen hours expires. Alternatively, I could simply take my break here (since I've already been waiting almost four hours) and leave in the morning, though I'd likely have to drive through the night somewhere along the way to have any chance of making the delivery.

Wednesday, 7:45 p.m.: here's a trip "plan". I'll be staying here at the TA to finish my 10 hour break. From here, I'll drive about six hours tomorrow, since I'll probably be too tired to drive much further than that. That would leave me in Huntsville, which is nine and a half hours from where I need to go. Since the place I'm delivering to is a live unload and my work assignment says they should take eight hours, I'll take my 10 hour break at the customer.

Wednesday, 8:15 p.m.: now I feel a complete idiot. The staff at the TA said that nothing actually need to be repaired. While the brake is kind of close, it would still pass DOT inspection. Also, the grease that was on the brakes was merely excess from somebody that overfilled it; there isn't a leak. So, essentially, I've been here over five hours for absolutely no reason. Also finish out of 10 hour break here, though; it would actually be counterproductive for me to try get anywhere tonight. I'll now get to enjoy a five hour nap.

Thursday, 8 a.m.: with only six hours sleep on me, it's been rather hard driving today. I'm only two hours from more I plan on shutting down, but the four hours I've driven feel like about 10. I'm really hoping I can get 10 hours of sleep on my break. Somewhat worryingly, I have just one hour left to spare on this delivery. That is, if I lose one hour anywhere, I'll end up late. Since I plan on driving overnight, that shouldn't be a problem, but if our driving during the day and got caught in rush-hour I'd be in a lot of trouble.

Thursday, 8:15 a.m.: I can't tell if this is Birmingham rush-hour there is an accident, but there is bumper-to-bumper traffic as far ahead of me as I can see. It's not even moving, either. Whatever is causing a traffic jam, I hope the problem goes away quickly.

Thursday, 8:30 a.m.: there was one car parked on the side of the road. It looks like there isn't any sign of an accident.

Thursday, 10 a.m.: I'm definitely going to have to sit down and add up my hours when this is all done. Right now, trying to figure it out my head, it looks like there is just 45 minutes to spare on this delivery right now. At this travel center in Huntsville that I plan on stopping at the day it is a fuel stop, I'm going to say to heck with the routing solution and fuel up here, saving me a valuable 30 minutes tomorrow. As an added bonus, by driving at night I will likely avoid any heavy traffic.

Thursday, 10:30 a.m.: I arrived at the truckstop, and it's remarkably busy for 1030 in the morning. I am reasonably confident on parking space, it's still surprising to see this many people here. As for tomorrow, I have to be at this place at 7 a.m.. If everything goes perfectly, I could be there as early as five, but realistically I might be getting there around 645. I'm still planning on taking my break at the customer, so when I leave there at five o'clock in the afternoon, I'll have a full 14 hours to work. I just hope that my next run isn't nearly this tight on time.

Thursday, 11 a.m.: I found a parking I could pull straight into. No backing up for me. :-)

Thursday, 8:11 p.m.: over the next half hour, I'm going to do my pretrip inspection. After that, I need to drive straight through to get to this customer on time. If everything goes perfectly I don't have to stop for anything, not even use the bathroom, I could hypothetically be there as early as 4:30 a.m. I only need to be there by seven, so I'm in pretty good shape, barring any major delays or 55 mph speed limits.

Thursday, 9:10 p.m.: I just passed the Tennessee state line. Things are looking alright on time so far, but it's still very early in the night. If I can keep this up, I have nothing to worry about, but that is a very significant if.

Thursday, 10:45 p.m.: I just made it through Nashville, and I'm still going north on Interstate 65. So far, I'm still on track to get there early, but I'm still going to avoid stopping unless it as well souls absolutely necessary. I'm just glad I wasn't on my 65 South; construction there caused a back up stretching for about 6 miles.

Friday, 12:30 a.m.: I knew I was forgetting something. Ohio is on Eastern time, not central. As a result, I'm now going to get there around 615, and that still barring any problems. Again, this is assuming I don't have the slowdown for anything at all.

Friday, 2:45 a.m.: I'm about 15 miles from Cincinnati now, and things are still going according to plan. There have been various fog banks along way, but I haven't run into any significant rain. Strangely, it keeps getting warmer the further north I go; it was 53 in Huntsville, Alabama when I left there and it's 62 here.

Friday, 3:14 a.m.: I just finished going through Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm under 100 miles to go, and I still have over 2 1/2 hours to get there. I know one thing for sure: I'll be more than happy to go to sleep while they unload the trailer.

Friday, 4:18 a.m.: I just made a quick stop by the TA in Jefferson, Ohio. While I was stopped, I double checked my work assignment to ensure it didn't say I couldn't deliver early. There were no special instructions at all, so I am going to assume that it's not going to cause chaos by arriving about half an hour early.

Friday, 6:50 a.m.: it took a disturbingly long time to get back into the dock here. After about 15 minutes of trying, another driver came over and helped me get it figured out. They are already unloading my trailer, so I don't see how this could possibly take anywhere near eight hours. If I'm done within the next 30 minutes or so, I might drive back to one of the truckstops I passed on the way up here; if not, I'll stop at the Wendy's just up the road. Either way, I'm taking my 10 hour break.

Friday, 7 a.m.: I just asked about how long it's going to take and I get told it would be only 45 minutes or so. That's a far cry from the eight hours on my work assignment. I'll still probably just go to Wendy's up the road, since I don't feel like driving that far to get to somewhere to stop. I still feel like just taking a nap here; I'm exhausted after driving ten hours with just one five-minute break.

Friday, 6 p.m.: Holy cow, this next work assignment is several kinds of awesome. I get to go all the way down to Jacksonville, FL to deliver and I have until 9AM Tuesday to get there. Now, if I'm understanding the assignment, I have to get there right at 9AM on whatever day I deliver, but I may be able to make this as early as Sunday. How is that possible? Well, they don't expect me to pick this load up until almost 1 this morning; I can get there in 45 minutes once I finish my trip plan. Now I just have to see if there's anywhere along the way that I want to stop.

Friday, 7 p.m.: after taking little the time to look over the work assignment, it looks like it's going to be great. It looks like they'll spend a day at the Charlotte operating center, meaning I can spend some time with my friends in Charlotte. With as much time as I have available, it's tempting to just take a 34 hour restart there, allowing me a lot of extra time later in the week.switch to

Friday, 8:15 p.m.: just as I was pulling up to the shipper, I got a message over the satellite. This message that I'm not on the load anymore. I'm now on hold waiting to call support shift to ask what the problem is.

Friday, 8:20 p.m.: I don't think I can actually convey what I'm feeling right now without swearing excessively. Instead of going out of Charlotte and on to Jacksonville like I was originally supposed to, I'm going all the way over in Wisconsin. In addition, I now have to backtrack 50 miles to get to where the load is, and according to their computer I'm now not getting paid for going 50 miles down here or the 50 miles back. I am going to be making a very angry phone call to my manager Monday morning to find out why they can't get their act together. If they need me to take this load as badly as they supposedly do, it would've assigned to me in the first damn place.

This is just getting more and more frustrating. I got stuck in an exit only lane, and there is no way I could turn around and just get back on the interstate when it was going. As a result, I'm now going the wrong way, and the next exit 10 miles down the way. If they get on to me about how to route miles, I'm going to tell him exactly where they can stick their complaint.

Saturday, 12:45 a.m.: I'm supposed to make a fuel stop at Gar7, Indiana, but I feel like driving that far tonight. I just saw a sign that said Indianapolis is only 150 miles away, so I think I'll stop at the operating center there for the night. There's several advantages to this: I can stop for fuel they are and still be in compliance with my fuel solution, Indianapolis as nice as operating center in the company, and I can still make this delivery tomorrow afternoon. I'll have to doublecheck the mileage, but most likely I'll just stop for the day after I make my delivery tomorrow, most likely ending up near Milwaukee.

Saturday, 1:45 a.m.: I have about 90 miles till I get to the Indianapolis operating center. There's no way I could make Gary tonight; on already getting kind of tired. In 7 miles, I'll be at the state line, and the speed limit will go up to 65 miles an hour. That will certainly improve my time.

Saturday, 2 a.m.: that was slightly scary. When I got to the first weigh sale in Indiana, I saw the signs for pre-pass and figure I'd be good to go. After all, I only have about 21,000 pounds in the trailer, which is light enough that weight is never even a concern. So when I set off the alarm and had to go into the scales, yet just a little nervous. It didn't help that I was misreading the sign on the scale itself when I pulled off and thought something was over. After I stopped on the scale, it all made sense, and with a total weight of only 52,000 pounds (the legal limit is 80,000) I really don't have anything to worry about. Even so, it was certainly something to wake me up.

Saturday, 3:30 a.m.: I'm in Indianapolis and just about exhausted. I will now happily take a 10 hour break and probably sleep for 9:45 of that.

Saturday, 2 p.m.: Well, I overslept, but it doesn't matter. I just have to make this delivery anytime by 11:59 Sunday night, so if I get there early Sunday morning, I'm still on schedule. I'll figure out the exact details after I get a shower and some food. And I'll start a new entry with my pre-trip inspection for today. :)

Monday, October 22, 2007

Bad Days

The last couple of days haven't gone as well. I'm fine, so don't worry about that. In any case, I'm home until Wednesday morning; I leave here around 8AM.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Communication & Trip Planning

While I was supposed to be home this weekend, due to some communication problems, it looks like there's a bit of a kink in the works now. I called the trip planner to ask why I was getting sent somewhere 400 miles away from where I live, and she gave me a rather short answer, told me I shouldn't have called to complain, and took me off the load without giving any explanation or reasoning. I then got a message to call my manager, who basically said that it is a time at home request and, while they try to get you home close as they can, there are no guarantees. Annoyingly, she said that if I had taken that load I was initially assigned, I would have been able to pick up a relay that went right by the house, but the trip planner never explained that to me.

So what does this mean? I'm going to pick a relay up here and deliver it somewhere just outside of Atlanta. There apparently isn't anything coming out of Atlanta that's going my way, though, which makes it very difficult for them to get me home. The good news is that, no matter what, I still get my three days off; they just might be a different three days than I was initially told. The bad news is that I might be waiting for a while for freight going that way.

Charlotte, NC

Thursday, 2 p.m.: I completed my 34 hour restart, I picked up my relay, and I'm now on my way to Charlotte to deliver. Since I got a much later started nine to end it, I will be there until almost 930 tonight. Since they did promise to get me home by Friday night, they have to have the envelope going towards Pensacola; even then it's going to be a stretch, since Pensacola's nearly an 11 Hour Drive by car. As much as I like to stay in Charlotte tonight, I may have to continue down the road just so I can get home in time. I do have to say one thing though: taking that restart was extremely refreshing. Then again, after working 65 hours in seven days, I think anyone would appreciate a day off.

Thursday, 3 p.m.: well, that was annoying. I wanted to stop at the West Virginia welcome center to use the restroom and send in a message requesting a new work assignment. However, they had a truck inspection stations set up at the rest area, and were waiting all the trucks through without letting them stock. As a result, though I went into the rest area, I was way through and didn't get to stop to do any of those things. I guess a lot to wait for the Virginia state line now.

Thursday, 5 p.m.: I went to get something to eat, but I forgot to take care of my paperwork. I just tried to stop at a rest area, but it was completely full. The next rest areas half an hour up the road; if I find a truck stop before that, though, I'll stop there. I'm just really annoyed at myself for forgetting to do it when I stopped earlier.

Thursday, 5:30 p.m.: thankfully, I was able to stop at the bottom the next rest area and send in the information I needed to send in. I hope I can make to Charlotte without having to make any more stock; as it is, I'll be getting there at about 11 p.m.

Thursday, 7:45 p.m.: last hundred miles or so I've been relatively uneventful. Traffic was rather hairy for a while, but it's thinned out considerably now. I also just got my next work assignment, which appears to be a relay based on the type of messages I've received. I also just remembered that I didn't send all the messages I was supposed to stand when I picked this load up; I'll have to fix that when I stop later.

Thursday, 8:45 p.m.: the trucks air-conditioning is acting up again. Time permitting, I'm going to go buy the shot and have them take a look at it. It feels almost as if it's blowing hot air right off the engine block . At least I finally found a solution for it: turn off the fan and turn on air recirculation.

Friday, 12:05 a.m.: Wonderful. Just #@*(ing wonderful. I arrived at the customer around 11PM, backed in to the spot, shut the truck off, uncoupled from the trailer, got back in to start it up... and it wouldn't start. I tried twice, called maintenance, tried banging on the starter (at least I think that was the starter), but nothing worked. So now I'm waiting for emergency maintenance to come here; even though I'm just five miles up the road from the operating center, it's going to take them an hour to arrive; it's been half an hour already.

Friday, 11:30 a.m.: Maintenance finally arrived at around 2:30. Even though I was only a few miles from the OC, they still sent an outside road service company to the truck. He tried several things, but in the end, it was a matter of resetting the ECM. Or, in other words, rebooting the computer. I quickly made my way to the operating center, ate, and went to sleep. Now, eight hours later, I'm awake and ready to make those phone calls to find out why I'm getting sent on a work assignment that will still leave me 400 miles from home.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Going in Circles

Monday, 6 p.m.: I spent a lot more time Indianapolis than I intended, so instead of making this delivery shortly after midnight Tuesday morning, I'm more likely to deliver at around noon. I already received my next work assignment, though: This next assignment is to pick up a relay that's only 44 miles away, then deliver it to the place I'm already delivering this load to. So, in other words, I have to make an 88 mile round trip that'll put me exactly back where I started. On the bright side, I should get a short-haul bonus, though I'm not sure of the exact amount. I think that I'll get an extra $.10 a mile. I'm not sure what I'll be doing after that, though they have to start sending me south soon; I'm supposed to be home by Friday night.

Monday, 7 p.m.: Well, this is annoying. My GPS program and receiver have decided they don't want to talk to one another anymore. As a result, though I know where I'm going, I don't have a very firm idea of how much further it is. Most likely, I'll be stopping tonight in Carlisle Pennsylvania at the operating center. There's only one other truckstop I can find that's close to where I'm delivering, and it's a rather small one so it's unlikely there will be parking at two in the morning. Like Illinois, Ohio has annoyingly low truck speed limit as well. Unlike Illinois, however, there are state troopers all over the place actually enforcing the speed limit. As a result, I don't dare exceed 55 mph, even though all the other trucks are. It would be nice if I could finally get into a state that allows trucks to do 65 mph.

Monday, 7:45 p.m.: Well my GPS device decided to work for about two minutes, just long enough for me to figure out where I am. Looks like there's just under 300 miles to go to get to Carlisle, PA. Since that would put me there around 2 a.m., I better find a truckstop to before long.

Monday, 8:25 p.m.: Well, this sucks. I just saw a sign that said I-70 is closed and West Virginia. I'm going to have to detour on I-470 to get around that mess. I'm already cutting it dangerously close on my driving time today; said detour could make even closer. I really hope I don't run that I don't out of hours on the middle of the highway. Apparently, the interstate's down to one lane as well. I'm down to 45 mph and still getting slower.

Monday, 8:45 p.m.: Well that detour wasn't bad at all. It actually seems slightly faster going that way than staying on 70 the whole way. I still have a ways to go before I get to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but right now I'm still looking like have a pretty good chance of making it to Carlisle for the night.

Monday, at 9:30 p.m.: I found somewhere to get something to eat. While I was out, I sent for directions, as well as figured out how much longer I have to drive. The results? I can legally drive up to five more hours, but I should be in Carlisle within four. There's just one catch: that's what the directions my GPS gave me. The other directions didn't arrive until after I got back on the interstate, and I can't read messages on the satellite system while driving. I'm fairly confident I remember how to get there, since I stopped there twice with my training engineer, but I would like to have those directions available.

Monday, 10:45 p.m.: I don't know what it was about that pizza, but I've been extremely tired ever since I stopped for dinner. I'm sure part of the problem is that I didn't get a lot of sleep last night; I only slept for about six hours. Once I get to Carlisle, I'm going in to use the bathroom if I have to, then going directly to bed. I need every minute of sleep I can get tonight. In unrelated news, for having a 65 mph speed limit, the Pennsylvania Turnpike at a whole lot of 55 mph curves.

Monday, 11:30 p.m.: I now have exactly 100 miles left to get to the operating center in Carlisle. If the next hundred miles is anything like the turnpike so far, it's going to be a very long ride. So for our I've gone through three construction zones, very nearly run off the road twice due to high-speed corners that weren't marked clearly, and gotten stuck behind some several vehicles driving far below the 65 mile an hour posted speed limit. It also doesn't help that I'm extremely tired. At least the two deliveries I have to make tomorrow can be made at any time tomorrow and don't have to be made before a certain time; if I want to sleep in I'm free to do so.

Tuesday, 12:15 a.m.: I'm down to about 50 miles to go now. I drove total of 461 miles yesterday; not bad considering how late a start I got. After getting past the point where I-70 branches off, traffic is thinned out considerably, making it much easier to drive.

Tuesday, 1:10 a.m.: I made it to Carlisle. *thud*

Tuesday, 2 p.m.: I just passed the travel center I was thinking about stopping at last night. After seeing it, I noticed two problems: One, it's unlikely I would have found parking at all. Two, I don't think I could've made it there before running out of hours last night. I'm still just over an hour away from where I'm delivering to; I just hope they have somewhere to send me after I make all these deliveries today.

Tuesday, 3:15 p.m.: I'm completely lost and I've had to pull into a shopping mall to get directions. I don't know how I missed the turn, either; there wasn't a single sign that said "Exton Bypass" anywhere and the only road that went in the right directions had a big no trucks sign. I really hope that they can get me unlost in a hurry... while I'm stopped, I just used my GPS to figure out that if I get back on US 30, I can take that back to the Interstate and go from there... good thing, too, because they won't send me directions again even though I'm still lost.

Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.: I finally dropped that infernal thriller. This next one should be much easier, since I just have to go 40 miles north on the interstate and pick up the relay. As I said before, it's going to the same place I already deliver to. I still haven't received another work assignment yet, but I'm hoping they sent me one soon; I'm wondering if they just want to keep me from running out of hours. As it is, I can't work a full day tomorrow.

Tuesday, 5:35 p.m.: Well, this is unsurprising, but still a pain in the rear. I'm stuck in Philadelphia rush-hour traffic.

Tuesday, 6 p.m.: That was not nearly as bad as I feared. I'm already doing 60 mph and just 8 miles along the interstate from where I'm going. From there, it's just one turn, 3 miles, and I'm there. Seeing as I've never had a relay before, I hope I don't screw something up .

Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.: Once again, I managed to get lost. I lost about half an hour trying to find the place. Also, when I was picking up the relay load, none of the paperwork was there. It took me about 10 minutes to get support shift to fax the paperwork to where it needed to go. On the bright side, I have my load, I know are I'm going, and I should be able to get there without incident this time. I still don't see how they're going to get me home, since I only have five hours left I can run. If I were picking up any hours, I could see how it would be possible, but I'll only pick up 4 1/2 hours over the next two days. Hopefully, if I have to take a 34 hour restart somewhere, I can make it to an operating center to do so.

Tuesday, 10:45 p.m.: I got a new work assignment, and I have to go to the Carlisle operating center to pick up another relay. Since that's right where I came from this morning, it's not surprising that the directions they gave me over the satellite are a minor variation on the ones they gave me to get here. Since I got lost following those directions, I have just one thing to say about them: "fuck them." I can figure out how to get on the Pennsylvania Turnpike; they can afford the toll. Besides, it does say in the driver's handbook that most toll roads are at driver discretion. I'm far too tired and frustrated to care about a few dollars worth of tolls. On the relatively bright side, I'm getting a day off at the operating center. The delivery I have to make is in Charlotte on Friday. However, this means there's exactly zero chance of me being in Pensacola on Friday, as I was told I would be. That isn't entirely the fault of operations; even if they sent me directly home, I would not have enough hours to get there.

Tuesday, 1:15 a.m.: As if I needed something else to go wrong, the air conditioning in the truck has decided not to work anymore. Even though I've turn the system off, it's blowing hot air. I've tried every combination of settings the unit has, and it still keeps blowing hot. I guess this means I get to drive the rest of the way with a window down.

Wednesday, 12:30 a.m.: Only about 20 miles to go now, and traffic is extremely light. Barring any on for seen problems I should be there by 1 a.m.. In the morning, I need to find out what sort of money I'm getting for this. I know I'll get a short-haul bonus for that last load I had, but I'm not sure if I get paid since I have to sit around on this next delivery. If I do get layover pay, that's an extra $80, plus $40 towards a hotel room. If not, at least I can take a shower in the operating center.

Wednesday, 1:30 a.m.: I'm in Carlisle. Since I'm taking a full 34-hour restart, I can't do any work again until 11:30 Friday morning. Thankfully, the load I'm relaying leaves me enough time to get there even after my restart. It feels kinda silly having to take a restart this close to when I'm going home, but I have to do it.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Northward Bound

Saturday, 9 p.m.: Well, today is a long day. since I had some extra time during my break due to the works of my delivery schedule. I took some time and set up a voice recognition program; as a result, there might be some quirks in the latest entries written. That's my excuse anyway. I don't plan on stopping this truck before five o'clock this morning when I hit St. Louis, Missouri. I must have to stop for fuel just up the road in Joplin, MO. I'll probably catch dinner at that point, but it's still going to be a long night ahead.

In any case, even though I've still got quite a bit of time left to drive tonight. I saw already had enough trouble for one day. For one thing, in Oklahoma, I've had to go through two tollbooths. Both times I paid the toll and both times I set off the alarm is if I hadn't. I got receipts showing dates and times of ever get any gifts in the mail from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to show them that yes, I was being legitimate. Also when I had to make my delivery, I put the trailer back in within two or three tries, which was quite a task on its own. But when I pulled up to the next trailer that I needed, it was a pain in the rear to actually get going. For one thing it was jammed tightly between two other trailers. For another, the landing gear was stuck. Now, I don't mean stuck as in slightly stubborn and a stronger person to do it. I mean stuck as in you couldn't hit this thing back into the trailer with a hammer. Apparently this is such an old trailer that the gear is quite weak and anytime any weight rests on the trailer it just kind of wobbles over and ends up bent in such a way that you can't raise it. Well I got a bit of help from a yard jockey; he lifted up the trailer so I could adjust the landing gear and couple to it. But once I coupled I still couldn't get it up the rest of the way. Well with between me, the jockey, and another driver who offered his services, we finally got it up far enough for me to get out of there. This unfortunately cost me at least an hour, but I've got 14 hours a day I can work what's one hour out of that I wasn't planning on working all 14 anyway.

At least this pickup was easier than my first the first place I had to go. The trailer was so tightly packed that I couldn't get the trailer in there. Believe me, I tried. I spent an hour and a half working back and forth, but there just wasn't enough room for me to get the trailer I was dropping to go where it was supposed to . I then moved over to pick up the trailer I was taking ... only to find that out it wasn't sealed like I've been told it would be. In fact, the doors weren't even closed. Actually, they couldn't close the doors because it was so tightly packed full of freight that it was literally falling out the back. Needless to say, I pointed this out rather quickly and with a chuckle a couple people came over and tried to reorganize this. In the end it still took all three of us just to shut the doors; we still had one box - I believe it was a box of toasters - that we just couldn't get in there. Even so, it was delivery to Wal-Mart distribution center I seriously doubt the Wal-Mart's going to throw a temper tantrum over a single box worth the five dollar toasters.

Still, I really shouldn't be complaining about all this. Between the this delivery and the one I already had, I can chalk up 2600 miles, which works out to roughly $800 I'll be making this week. Not a bad payday, considering that I'm used to making that much money in a month. I'm not due to go home until Thursday, so I still have at least two or three more days with which I can rack up more miles and more pay. I'm hoping that after I get home, I can take care everything quickly such that I won't have to go back again. After all, I'm making so much money at here in the road. Why do I want to sit around and hold dealing with my parents and the assorted drama that Pensacola is becoming infamous for?

I will continue dictating this after I get Joplin and I fuel the truck. They said I only need about 50 gallons to get to the Indianapolis operating center, where I'll be filling up at. After nearly running out of fuel trying to get to an OC before, I'm not going to push my luck. Of all things, though I'm craving McDonald's french fries right now. I really hope there's an McDonald's near that Pilot I'm am supposed to be feeling out that.

Saturday, 11 p.m.: Well, I got McDonald's thankfully. And I have enough fuel to get to the Indianapolis operating center. So now it's just a matter of deciding where I want to shut down for the night. I still have over six hours I can drive. Since I don't have to shut down for about 6 a.m.. I should be able to get to St. Louis. I just don't know if there are any truckstops there. I suppose I will cross that bridge when I come to it. Right now, I'm not too worried since I have so much time I can shut down for a much anywhere I feel like. The best thing about driving this late at night is that there's nothing but open road. I've only got a few cars on the otherwise empty road in front of me, even though I'm just north of Joplin, MO. I don't have to worry about rush hour; I don't have to worry about congestion of people getting places in a hurry; I just have to drive.

Sunday, 2 a.m.: The later into the night it gets, the less likely it looks I'm going to hit St. Louis tonight. I just saw a billboard for love's 30 miles up the road at exit 189. I think I'm going to stop there. Besides, the way this is going right now, I might just stop for a day went in Indianapolis at the operating center there and make the rest of my trip straight out of Indianapolis. I'll have to check the map when I stop for the night. A distant flash of lightning just reminded me of one more reason not to St. Louis: When I was at McDonald's, they had a TV tuned to the Weather Channel and there's some pretty nasty weather up ahead.

Sunday, 11 a.m.: After getting some sleep and looking at the map, I think I'm going to stop at Indianapolis for the day. It's only about 300 miles to Indianapolis, so it's going to be a relatively short day today. However, I need to do laundry and I'd like to get a little extra sleep; I've been running off of six or seven hours sleep every night since I started driving. Hopefully, when I get to Indianapolis the traffic won't be too bad; I hate driving in cities during rush hour.

Sunday, 12:45 p.m.: Thankfully, I can leave now. I'm getting quite tired of sitting here and I can't get back to sleep. All I need to do is a pretrip inspection and get on the road. I'm still worried traffic in Indianapolis is going to be a nightmare, though.

Sunday, 4 p.m.: I made it through St. Louis without a problem. I forgot that it's Sunday today, so traffic wasn't an issue at all.. I just passed a sign that says Indianapolis is 203 miles away, so it looks like a getting there around 7:30 tonight. Since it's Sunday, about half the drivers will be home for the weekend, so parking shouldn't be an issue when I get to the operating center. I just wish Illinois didn't have a 55 mph speed limit for trucks.

Sunday, 6 p.m.: I'm finally in Indiana, and only 76 miles from Indianapolis. The truck speed limit here is 60, I'm doing 63, and I'm still getting passed by every other truck driver on the highway. Oh well. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get to the operating center by 8PM; hopefully there'll still be something to eat when I get there.

Sunday, 7:30 p.m.: I'm coming down the home stretch your Indianapolis. I just saw our other scary sign though: trash cleanup when I-65 all lanes closed. Thankfully, I'm not going that way. I just hope it doesn't back up on I-465.

Sunday, 9:41 p.m.: I'm here, doing laundry, and relaxing in the operating center. I don't have much to do tonight except to kill time until I'm tired enough to sleep. Unfortunately, I just missed being able to get dinner; the grill closed at 8 and I walked in at about 8:01. :(

Friday, October 12, 2007

I drove all night...

First, let me just say that having a delivery that requires you to drive at night sucks in a way that words can't fully convey. Yes, that's right, my very first delivery pretty much required me to drive through the night for the last two nights in a row, since there was just no other way that I could possibly have made it. I received my work assignment at 6PM on Wednesday, which told me to drive over 200 miles just to pick up a load and that I had to be there by midnight. Then, from there, it was nearly a 1,000 mile drive to the place I'm delivering. Great pay, certainly, but the only way that I could make it work was to drive down there, get the load, then drive as far as I could that night without falling asleep at the wheel, only to wake up and do it again the next night.

Thankfully, last night (or early this morning), I made it to the West Memphis, AR operating center, where I had to stop to visit the various management personnel that I'll be dealing with for the foreseeable future. I haven't gone in just yet, since I want to be ready to leave as soon as I come out of the OC, but I hope that the meeting goes well. I have a little over 350 miles left to drive, so I can't hang out too long; my delivery has to be made by midnight central time tonight, so I can't leave much later than 3PM without pushing my luck.

At least I'm picking up plenty of miles along the way. I did over 600 yesterday, counting the time before and after my break. I have no idea where I'm going next, but since I haven't been home in about three weeks and my hazmat license is waiting for me back at my parents' house, they're probably going to start routing me home. I don't know how they're going to do that, since there may or may not be a direct route, but I'm sure something will work out. Anyway, I've gotta get going; time is running short here.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Waiting Game

I'm in the truck. I've already done a pre-trip inspection and all of that good stuff. I just need a work assignment now and I'm ready to get going. What will probably happen is that I'll be routed toward Arkansas, where my manager and other important staff people are located, then I'll be routed back toward home to pick up my updated driver's license and take care of some business there. I have no idea how long I'll be sitting here, but I hope it's not too long; I can't idle the truck to keep it cool. :p

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Off we ... go?

This morning at 9AM, I was supposed to be down there to meet with the manager (I'm not going to try and keep up with the acronyms they keep using :p), but it turns out that I've been assigned to someone based out of Arkansas, so I merely was able to make a phone call and very briefly tell him what's going on.

So what is going on, you ask?

Turns out that the truck that I'd been assigned still hasn't been cleaned out by the person who had it last and the shop won't touch it until he/she comes back to collect his/her belongings. We did some asking around and ultimately talked them into getting the cleaning staff to box up those belongings, but it will still be at least tomorrow morning before the truck is ready to go. I'm supposed to check out of the hotel by 11AM and go down there tomorrow to see what's going on; if it's not ready, I'll have to turn around and check right back in again.

At least the trip wasn't a total waste, though. I found out a few things, after all. I also bought some new clothes and a truck stop guide, since the OC was having a clearance sale on a lot of items; I have an entire bag worth of stuff that I paid just $20 for. I also should be getting layover pay for this, since it's not my fault that I'm sitting in the hotel room right now, so that should be somewhere between $50 and $100. It's still rather annoying, though; I was ready to go this morning and I'm still not going anywhere.

Monday, October 8, 2007

SQT passed!

Shockingly enough, I passed the test my first try. I'm rather stunned that I did, considering how nervous I was and how badly I fouled up several things, but the instructor said that I did about as well as anyone else. As a result, at 9AM tomorrow, I'll be shaking hands with the manager and getting the keys to my truck. I'll, of course, have to take time to inspect the truck with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that there's nothing wrong with it, but if so, I'll be living in that truck for the indefinite future. I have no idea where I'll be going after tomorrow, but I will at least try to keep in touch, everyone.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Road Training #11: Over and Done

Turns out that my trainer was due for some time at home, so we're already back in Charlotte. As I type this, I'm waiting on the hotel shuttle; I'll be staying in a Comfort Inn until Monday. I, unfortunately, did not pass everything. So before my actual qualification test, I'll be taking a "skills assessment" on cornering and backing. Basically, this consists of another trainer coming out and trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong and help me fix it. I hope that will go well. Though when we got back to Charlotte around 2PM, we spent some time working on backing in the yard, and out of three or four moves, I only had to pull up one time. The only time that I had a problem was when we were trying to pull into a space on the right (the blind side) and there just wasn't the space to get around properly. The trainer even needed about six pull-ups to get it in there.

So, as it stands right now, I'm not responsible for anything over the weekend. I have my qualification test Monday. If I pass that, I'll be getting the keys to a truck on Tuesday. It's going to be a very, very nervous day, that's for sure.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Road Training #8: Keep On Truckin'

Well, today went much better than the weekend. In the morning, we called the manager, who decided to give me a second chance out on the road, so I drove almost 400 miles today. I combined various suggestions that I received from the trainer, the manager, and a friend to keep things under control. It wasn't perfect, by any means, but it was a vast improvement beyond what I was doing over the weekend. If I keep up everything I did today, then I will be ready for my qualification test on Monday. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Road Training #7: Danger, Danger Will Robinson!

Saturday, 1PM: This ... sucks. There's really no other way of putting it. We're at an operating center that doesn't have any kind of Internet access at all, and we won't have another load until 7AM tomorrow, giving me lots of extra time and almost nothing to do with it. Driving up here was rather uneventful, though I can understand the hatred some of the locals have for PennDOT, since we spent more time in construction than on open roads. Unless something special happens, though, I've sixteen hours and almost nothing to fill that time with.

Saturday, 8PM: Well, since I can now be absolutely certain that I can't post this until well after we deliver the load, I'm going to start typing in details. We're at the Mahoopeny, PA "operating center" for the night. I put OC in quotes because this place is nothing more than a trailer with truck parking. At 8AM, we're going to a yard just up the road to pick up a trailer, then driving down into Stuart Mills, VA to drop it. We'll be staying the night tomorrow at a Pilot truck stop just up the road from there, at I-81 exit 213. In the time that we've been waiting here, I've finished the written part of the SQT (Skills Qualification Test), done a trip plan for tomorrow, and rode with the trainer down to Wal-Mart in the truck to pick up a few items. A few people did a double-take when they saw the tractor pulling into the lot. :)

During dinner, we talked about things. The only problems I have are my lane control and backing. Backing is quite simply a problem because I haven't done it done, so that's obvious. But for some reason, I'm still having a hard time keeping the truck centered; it has a tendency to drift one way or the other. Now, I don't drift when there are cars next to me - I'm conscious enough of where other vehicles are to not get too close to them - but when I'm not right next to someone I somehow keep going over one line or the other. It's not consistent, either; sometimes I'll go 20 miles without a problem, while other times I'll be struggling just to hold the thing on the road. While I am fairly sure that the truck is pulling slightly to the right, my car does the same thing and I've never had this much of a problem with it. Though, on the other hand, the truck is eight feet wide and lanes are only 10 to 12 feet wide, giving me a much smaller margin of error than I have in the Nissan. I have to figure out what the problem is and stop doing it or I'm not going to pass the test. It's really that simple. x_x

Sunday, 7PM: I wish I had some good news here. Instead, though, I just keep getting worse and worse. Today, twice, I came rather close to hitting another vehicle. Now, one was not my fault, despite what the instructor says; because of the way he was sitting, I could not see another vehicle in my mirror as I was trying to change lanes. But the other one was, and it was not a lane change; I was in the left lane going around a curve and went too far to the right.

So, instead of continuing on and being within a few days of getting my own truck, I'll probably be kicked back to Charlotte tomorrow and have to take a basic skills test, focusing heavily on lane control. If I pass, I'll be given a couple hours of coaching specifically on that problem and get assigned another training engineer for my second week of training, such that I have one last chance. If not, then I'm fired. I'm already down to my last chance with this job. I can't afford to lose it...

Friday, September 28, 2007

Road Training #5: I would drive 500 miles...

To be exact, 507 miles. Yes, one day, nearly nine hours of driving, and over 500 miles. I actually did most of the work today; though the trainer drove from the Charlotte OC to the drop/pick up place, I backed the truck into the dock (though with a lot of help) and drove all the way from there to where we're staying tonight. The drive was rather scenic, though by the end of the night, I just wanted to get to our stopping point and sleep.

From here on out, I should be doing the job as if I were driving solo; the trainer will be acting purely as an advisor and will try to assist only where it's needed. Somehow, I get the feeling he's going to do more than he says he's going to do, but I'm still just about able to keep myself from going crazy after eight hours of driving without a break. I hope that I get everything under control, especially working on backing, since that remains the only thing that I do not feel confident doing. I've dealt with Atlanta rush hour traffic. I've dealt with construction zones. I've dealt with accidents. Heck, I took a detour into a Wal-Mart parking lot to get around a mess on the street. Now I just have to be able to put the thing in reverse and get it to go where I want and I'll be all set.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Road Training #4: On the road again

Wednesday: Today was one of those days where everything seemed to go by in a bit of a blur. As usual, we started the day by going to a truck stop so my trainer could get coffee. :p  Once we actually got to work, I reconnected to the trailer and drove five hours non-stop to get us close to where we delivered. The trainer took over from there, since he wanted to show me some of the more difficult maneuvers and sign reading that I'd have to do; even with both of us looking, we nearly missed one truck route sign. The route also had a few exceedingly tight turns, which I'm just not comfortable making yet.

While we were waiting on our unload, I worked on some of my homework, though reading the atlas gives me a splitting headache; I'm increasingly tempted to use the computer to work out the basic route and merely use the atlas to verify that the route is legal for a truck to drive on. I also received my first evaluation, and nothing on it came as a surprise at all; I lost points in every area that I expected to lose credit in and none of the areas in which I felt I was doing well. I'll probably get two more such evaluations before I'm done with training (one early next week, and one at the end of the two week training period). My goal is to receive a perfect score on my last evaluation to show that I'm ready to drive the truck on my own. Tomorrow's going to be an exceptionally long day, since we have roughly 600 miles to drive for our next assignment (120 to pick up the load, and 500 to the delivery); I just hope that I can get a full night of restful sleep so I'm ready to drive when my break ends at 5AM.

Thursday: Easily the longest day I've had so far. I drove over 400 miles today and worked a full eleven hours. We still have driving to do for our current load, but we should be able to drop it off relatively early tomorrow, likely well before noon. The trainer still wants to get an early stop tomorrow night, despite starting early, but that's reasonable considering that we're running fairly close to hitting the seventy-hour cap right now. In any case, the driving was a rather pleasant mix of things, from country driving to city driving, from back roads to Interstates, and over long hills both up and down. The instructor had me going rather uncomfortably fast around some of them, but I at least kept the vehicle (mostly) under control.

Apparently I'm doing much better than the average student, except in the few places that I'm having problems, such as backing the truck in. I still can just barely get it where I want it to be after several attempts, which is definitely unacceptable. The instructor has said he's going to spend some time working with me on that, but so far I'm still everything except confident in my ability to back the truck anywhere. Even given a wide area and plenty of room to maneuver, I'd struggle to get into a dock or parking space. I really hope that I can get that figured out, because once I do, everything else is just about golden.

After the drop off tomorrow morning, my trainer is going to let me handle just about everything else as if I were driving solo. Basically, it'll be a trial by fire at that point, and entirely on me to get everything done. That's not to say that I won't have help if I need it, but if I don't need the assistance I'll be left to handle it all myself. It's going to be quite the experience, but I'm rather confident that I can get it done... well, as long as I keep the tractor in a forward gear...