Tobyhanna, PA

Well, today was one of those days where it seemed like absolutely nothing got done. I slept terribly last night, so when I woke up around 9AM, I put in a message to push my availability back to 8PM, only to get a work assignment with a 4:30PM delivery. I believe I wrote about this already. In any case, I hurried to get up here, even foregoing lunch, and arrived nearly half an hour early. I tried to find a truck stop with some food along the way, but there weren't ANY along the last 80 miles of my trip, and before that point I wasn't sure just how much time I actually had to spare.

So, upon arriving, I was told it would take just two hours, not the four that my work assignment originally had down. This wasn't a surprise; the work assignments frequently overestimate the unloading time. So, knowing I had at least two hours, I decided to catch a two-hour nap to make up for the fact I couldn't get more sleep before I started driving. I went back in after that two hours, but found out that they were only halfway down and had just gone on break. At this point, I probably should have figured it would be another two hours, but I nearly believed the guy when he said it'd be only another hour. Of course, it took two more (nearly two-and-a-half) and I was finished at the originally planned time of 8:30PM.

There's only one problem left: I still haven't received I new work assignment! Since there's really not much I can do without a work assignment and Wal-Mart doesn't allow drivers to park for the night inside their facilities, I'm parked just out front in a designated parking area. At least, I certainly hope it is, since they told me that inside when I asked about parking! I'll be taking my ten-hour break here, then leaving immediately after that, at about 7AM local time. I just hope that the snow and weather clear up by then, since it's absolutely nasty out here right now.

Carlisle, PA

Well, dispatch seems to be having one of those days where they just don't give a damn what the drivers want. I had originally put down available at 9AM this morning, but when I slept like crap last night, I changed that to 8PM so I could sleep all day and actually drive safely instead of driving tired. But an hour and a half later, I got a work assignment for a relay from the OC here that is for a 4:30PM live unload at a facility 143 miles away. In other words, I have to start working by 1PM, at the latest, even after I sent in a message saying that I couldn't until 8 o'clock.

Needless to say (but, of course, I'm saying it anyway), I'm furious right now, since even a simple request for some sleep seems to be something too difficult for them to handle. As soon as I post this, I'll have to go fuel the truck, get the paperwork for this load, find the trailer, and hit the highway. I might be able to catch a nap while they're unloading the rig, but I don't know just how helpful that's going to be. Even more aggravating is that this unload won't be finished until 8:30PM, at which point every truck stop in the goddamned state will be full, ensuring that I don't have anywhere to park the truck.

If this happens again any time soon, I'll just be asking them why they even bother asking when we're available, since this is NOT the first time they've completely disregarded the information I've given to them to force me into taking a load that I couldn't possibly accept under the information I've given them.

Blog on Hold - Technical Difficulties

Due to my phone deciding it doesn't want to work properly any more, I'll be without Internet access for the foreseeable future. I plan on going by a Sprint store to replace my phone (or at least its battery) at the next operating center I come to that has such a store nearby, but there's no way of knowing when that will be; it could be tomorrow or it could be a rather long time. If I do somehow get the chance to update, I will, but it's very unlikely I'll be able to do so until my phone is fixed.

Pendleton, KY

Well, I'm apparently not at 100% yet as I'd hoped, but more like 70%. I'm already pretty tired just after being awake for nine hours, but hopefully one more good night of sleep, some food, and a hot shower will help clear up what's still bothering me. Hopefully. Tomorrow's going to be a long day, no matter how I look at it, since I need to drive about 550 miles to make this delivery, then drive back about 15 minutes to the Carlisle, PA operating center so my truck can go into the shop. I just hope that I remember everything that I need to tell them to look at!

Owensboro, KY

I'd apologize for the lack of updates, but the truth is, there really hasn't been much to update about. I took several days off shortly after my last post, got sick during my time off, and have been sitting here in Owensboro (per operations' order) while I recover. I'm getting steadily better - drinking a few hot cups of tea has helped immensely - so I should be hitting the road again either tomorrow or Tuesday. Probably tomorrow, since I'm getting rather tired of sitting here with nothing to do. :)

West Memphis, AR

Back at my home operating center now after another 600+ mile day. I can't say that I'm complaining about the mileage, though, since that's where I really make money. I started out in Gary, IN this morning and found about half an inch of snow on the truck. I was too tired to even find the trailer I needed last night, but I found it in about two minutes of looking this morning. I've no idea how I kept missing it last night, aside from the fact I was rather exceptionally tired. It was a relay and I had no idea what to expect, and thus was rather unpleasantly surprised to see 43,800 pounds on the bill of lading. So instead of being able to start heading south immediately, I had to make a brief detour to a Pilot one exit east on I-80. At least it was legal the first time; I didn't want to have to deal with the trailer tandems in the cold!

Once I hit the road, things went remarkably well. I still loathe Illinois' 55 mile-per-hour truck speed limit, but I was able to maintain 55 through the entire state, aside from a few clusters of traffic scattered every 20 miles or so. I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that I-57 is a very, very boring stretch of highway. Once I picked up I-24, things were at least slightly less boring on the road, though it was getting dark, so I couldn't see much of anything. Even once I got off the Interstate, traffic was flowing smoothly, though I did have one close call; I saw a corner coming up and started to brake early for it, which caused my truck to start skidding for a moment. I'm just glad I caught on before getting into the curve!

The unload was estimated at 3.5 hours on my work assignment. In reality, I got there at around 9:00 and left around 10:45, which was a rather nice and much-needed time savings. Basically, this left me two hours with which to work. Since I have an open pick up window (that is, I can pick it up anytime after it was ready at noon Tuesday), I figured that I'd just pick it up tomorrow and head out from the operating center here. So, using the entire remaining time I had, I just made it to the entrance here. In the process of making it over here, I realized just how much that extra-heavy load was helping keep me on the pavement; I started fishtailing just trying to pull onto the Interstate! It was definitely a rather hair-raising 100 miles, since I couldn't really afford to slow down. But, in the end, I made it here safely and that's what counts.

As for my plans coming up, my DOT break will allow me to start working again at 11:15 and start driving at 11:45. I plan on getting out of here soon as possible, since I want to pick this load up and go home! If all goes well, I will be able to make it to a truck stop near where I live tomorrow night, allowing me to actually go home and sleep there one night early. It's actually going to be a shorter day tomorrow than I had today; I only need to drive around 460 miles to make it home. I'm hoping to get there by 10PM, though I'm certainly not going to complain if I somehow manage to make it earlier. Then I'll be taking a nice, long weekend off, doing my taxes, and hitting the road again on the 20th. It'll be nice to go home since I haven't been there since Christmas.

Gary, IN

Well, as I'm too tired to keep going, I've had to call it a night here in Gary, IN. I was originally planning on continuing as far as I could before my 14 hours ran out, but as I couldn't find the trailer I'm supposed to be picking up, I figured that was a pretty good sign that I need to get off the road.

Speaking of things off the road, the conditions on the highway tonight were rather good, but you wouldn't know from the way people were driving. I could safely have done about 55 the whole way, but everyone else was doing more like 40. So I passed plenty of folks. :)

In any case, I'm on my 10, which will be up around 9:45AM. I'll have to figure out a trip plan before I go to bed, then enjoy the eight hours I have to sleep. Hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow; I really want to make Memphis before my hours run out!

Indianapolis, IN

Phew, what a long day! Getting this load was nothing but trouble, but once I hit the road, everything went well. After catching yet another nap, I went back inside to find out that the product they were short for my load wasn't even scheduled for another production run until first shift! So, figuring I had several hours to sleep, I just went to bed for the night, this time without even setting the alarm. Of course, two hours later (at very roughly 6AM; I couldn't even see the clock clearly), I get a bang on the door from the shipping clerk, since the load was finally ready, fourteen hours behind schedule. At least I'm going to collect $75 in detention pay for this, I figured.

But despite spending half an hour looking for the trailer, I couldn't find it in the lot that it was supposed to be in. On a hunch, I looked in another lot and found it rather quickly. I also found that it had a flat tire, which kept me from going anywhere! Yet another delay, though this time it was with a call to emergency maintenance, who in turn called a tire bank, who in turn called me to say it would be about an hour and a half. So I went back to sleep again, for lack of anything else to do and for a rather desperate need to sleep. I woke up to the sound of a new tire being put on, quite a bit more than an hour and a half later. Ultimately, I didn't even leave the shipper until 9AM, a full seventeen hours behind schedule. At least this run had enough extra time where I could afford the delay!

Once I hit the road, things went rather smoothly. Somehow I managed to squeeze in almost 650 miles today before my eleven hours ran out, which has me all the way up here in Indy again. The low tonight is going to be around zero with a wind chill of -20°F, so I'm just leaving the truck idle while I go to bed. I'll catch a shower and (possibly) do laundry in the morning; right now I'm too tired to even see clearly!

Beech Island, SC

Wow, I... truly am at a loss for words here. I went in to check on my load after about a two hour nap and find that it's still only 86% loaded. Why? Because they're short on one product for the order. So, to recap: I'm at the manufacturer and they're short on their own product. So I have to wait here for them to actually make 131 cases of whatever it is they're short of. I think that I'm going to just go back to sleep for another two hours since, at the rate this is going, it'll be about that long.

At least I'm going to rack up a rather hefty amount of detention pay for this; since this load was supposed to be ready at 4:30PM and I was already here at that time, I can claim any delay past that moment for detention pay. I've already chalked up $45 for it being more than six hours; if it reaches nine hours (1:30AM Eastern), I'll get $60 for doing absolutely nothing. And my 11 and 14 hour days don't start until I actually begin to work, so I'll still be able to put in the 600+ miles I plan on driving today, barring any major traffic problems. Here's hoping!

Beech Island, SC

This is turning into quite the annoying waiting game! I've been here since 3AM, woke up at 11AM, and my load was supposed to be ready at 4:30PM. However, it's now 8 o'clock local time and the trailer is only 70% loaded! I'm probably just going to take a nap while I wait for them to finish loading this thing, since I have to be able to stay awake all night; I won't be able to park until at least 6AM since all the truck stops will be full.

Beech Island, SC

Ugh,. Being out on the road for six weeks is really, really starting to wear on me; I'm looking forward to being home a week from now. I left Indianapolis much later than I wanted (almost 3AM instead of 12:30), in part because it took me an hour and a half to find my wallet. It's amazing how hard it can be to find things even in a space small as the sleeper berth of a truck. Then, since I'd had trouble getting to sleep, I ended up having to stop and take a break instead of driving all the way through. Thankfully, since I'd made up a bit of time on the road, I could take a DOT break and still make delivery on time

... or so I thought. As I was getting ready to leave, another driver told me that I-75 southbound was closed. Apparently there was a major accident and both lanes were blocked. For some incredibly stupid reason, even though I saw that US 25W was a viable alternate route (only 5 extra miles), when I saw a sign that said one lane was open on I-75, I stayed on. And, as such, lost a full hour in traffic. As it later turned out, I was just under an hour late, and I'd probably have saved that hour had I gone on the back road. At least, for once, I had a legitimate reason for being behind schedule, but I should have been able to make that delivery yesterday!

Aside from that traffic jam, there's really not much else out of the ordinary going on. I'm here at this distribution center for the third time (The first customer I've been to thrice), and my load won't be ready for at least another nine hours. As such, I'm going to post this, get a quick bowl of cereal, and sleep for as long as my body will allow me to.

Indianapolis, IN

Well, last night was rather a bust. Due to the rather nasty weather, I decided to take a short nap to wait it out. That was at 6:30PM and I thought I'd set my alarm for 7:30, but even though I checked the thing four times I apparently never flipped the 'alarm' switch to on. As such, I woke up shortly after 2AM with a load that was supposed to be delivered by midnight. Oops!

At least once I hit the road things went reasonably well. All the big storms have already passed through here and it was just above freezing, so there were no real problems along the way. I arrived about as quickly as I thought I would, dropped the load, but then found out the place has a policy of not letting us take out our empty trailers! It took the box planners almost half an hour to find another place with an empty box, and in turn I had to go nearly 75 miles out of the way to get it, since the only direct route between where I was and where I needed to go wasn't a truck route.

The detour aside, though, even picking the empty up, taking it to the next customer, dropping it for them, and picking up the load all went well. I then was down to about six hours left to drive, so I figured I'd just drive about four of that, safely shutting down before it was too late in the afternoon to find a good parking space. So, as such, I'm back here at the Indianapolis OC after driving about 400 miles, most of that up and down I-65. From here, it's about 550 miles to where I'm delivering, which is day of driving, but I should be able to get it there with an hour or two left on my logbook. It won't be late until the 8th, so I better not screw this one up.

Atlanta, GA

After a couple of extremely long days, I decided to just take a restart while I'm here in Atlanta. Part of it has to do with the fact I've been sleeping badly for the last three nights in a row and still fighting off what I can only assume is a particularly stubborn cold. Besides, I want to watch the Super Bowl, and the Atlanta OC has a nice big-screen TV, so why not? The last couple of days have been pretty stressful and busy; I had to use my entire 14 hours up two days in a row and came down to the last few minutes last night. I'm still pretty much out of it, so I really don't feel like trying to write a longer post now, but if anyone is in or near Atlanta and is willing to pick me up and go somewhere to watch the game, I'd love that.

Miami, FL

I'm getting unloaded right now, so I'll just type as much as I can while I'm sitting here. I was slightly late getting here due to construction and traffic, but it doesn't seem to have mattered. What does matter, however, are the implications on my next load. The place I'm picking up from closes for the weekend at 4:30PM Eastern today and there's just about no chance that I can make it there in time right now. Even if I were to be freed immediately to go, I'd have to contend with traffic in the city and lower speed limits, rendering it virtually impossible. Worse, there's nowhere for me to park my truck for the weekend if I do miss this pick up, nor is there another load for me to take, apparently. If I do make it or they just stay open later, I'll at least be able to get it delivered on time; I have until 9PM Eastern tomorrow night to make it up to Atlanta.

In any case, I just have to look at my directions for now and cross my fingers. This is going to be a really close one.