Panama City, FL - 150 miles and 2.5 hours left

Yes, that subject is right: I need to average sixty miles per hour to get home without getting cute on my logs. Considering that I'm not taking any Interstates, there's a roughly equal chance of flying pigs. I'm still planning on getting there regardless; with as screwy as this week has been I'm overdue for a few days off.

Marianna, FL - 240 miles to go

I have finally been released to go home, but I have to go 70 miles out of the way to drop this empty trailer. As such, I have serious dou ts about making it home before my hours run out; I'm going to round things well in my favor on my logbook if that is the only way I'll get home today.

Atlanta, GA - Going nowhere, slowly

I never did find out who took my time at home out of the computer, though supposedly operations is going to look into it. I also was told that the load I was assigned - with a live unload that would keep me 180 miles from home until 10 AM Friday - would be the best they could possibly do for me. I've told them that I could get it there at 4 PM or so today, assuming the place has any afternoon receiving hours, though it looks very unlikely that I'll be able to deliver it then. If they reschedule it for some ridiculously early hour of the morning, I'll go back to sleep and drive all night to get there. Operations once again promised that I'd get to go home, since apparently they'll let me bobtail anywhere under 200 miles to get home. In other words, Atlanta is 37 miles too far away for them to just send me directly home.

I don't know what's going to happen at this point but none of it is good.

Atlanta, GA - Who says you can't go home?

I have no idea how this is possible, but when I called in from the OC to complain that the run I'd been assigned wasn't going to get me any closer to home, I was told that I didn't have any time at home in the computer. Someone apparently deleted my request and, as such, apparently nobody knew that I was supposed to be home yesterday; the only request in the computer was to be routed through Atlanta to return the loaner truck. I have my alarm set for 7 AM and I'm not leaving the operating center here until this mess is sorted out. So far, I've gotten nothing but lies from the trip planners this week and I am completely exasperated by their inability to give me a single correct, honest piece of information. In short: I'm going to call and whine that I want to go home since, apparently, that's about the only way I'm going to get sent home at all.

In (somewhat) related news, the shop here in Atlanta sucks. Even given five days to work on my truck, the only thing they fixed were the windshield wipers. I'm going to walk over there in the morning to get a print out of what exactly was fixed and, hopefully, an explanation of why certain things weren't fixed. Most worryingly, three of my tires are still in questionable condition; I'm certain that one of them wouldn't pass a DOT inspection. If there's no note about the tires at all on the shop's report, I'm going to have someone from the shop take a good, long look at it and, if he still insists that it doesn't need repair or replacement, have him sign my logbook as verification that I had a mechanic inspect it.

Before any of this, though, I'm going to bed; hopefully six hours of sleep will at least get me through the day tomorrow.

Tuscaloosa, AL - Off we go

Looks like things are finally not insane. I was told to head in to the consignee at 8 PM, which is doable. Now I just have to hope they actually will route me directly to Atlanta as I've been promised; most of this week has just been changed assignments and being left hanging.

Tuscaloosa, AL - All together now

Over the course of the evening, it seems like every piece of information I've had about this load has changed at least twice. Though my work assignment originally said noon on Thursday, it turns out that the actual appointment was 5PM on Wednesday, something that I couldn't possibly make. Even my most optimistic estimate had me there around 6PM and that's assuming nothing went wrong, which it always does. So when I picked up the load, I updated my information once again... only to get back a snarky message telling me that the load had already been rescheduled twice and that I had better figure out what I'm doing before I send in another update. Never mind the fact that operations apparently couldn't communicate any useful information to me or that I kept having to adjust my entire sleep schedule around this load; they expected me to have everything sorted out for them.

So, when I shut down here, I called in and explained the situation to someone in support shift for at least the second time today. I was told to send in another update with my best estimate - which ended up being different than anything I'd communicated previously because I'm going to hit Chattanooga at rush hour - then call in the morning as well to confirm that everything was in order. I've done that, so now I just need to get to sleep and hope that, somehow, things miraculously sort themselves out in the next seven hours. Assuming that I am delivering this load and get routed immediately and directly back to Atlanta, it's 541 miles, which leaves me just about enough time to shut down for the night; I'll still have 237 miles to drive on Thursday to get home. If they have me relay it in Atlanta and just go home, it's 438 miles; needless to say, I'd much prefer this option since I'd actually get home on time.

Of course, every single thing that I'm posting here is speculation and requires operations to have things together. If they don't, I'll be lucky to see home this weekend at all.

Brookhaven, MS - I'm doing what now?

They moved the delivery appointment up to 5PM eastern time tomorrow. I'll have to drive all night to have any chance of making that; even then it's going to be close. I guess it's a good thing that I slept in unil noon today.

Brookhaven, MS - Going nowhere quickly

I finally have an assignment, but it's not at all helpful. It's a live unload at noon on Thursday at a place about 160 miles from Atlanta. While they (supposedly) have a lot of freight in that area going back toward Atlanta and, in turn, home, I wouldn't be getting to my park location until about 12:30 AM Friday morning.

I've been on hold for almost 40 minutes now, trying to get this load relayed in Atlanta or simply to get assigned something better, though the latter is extremely unlikely. First shift is gone for the day so here's hoping that support shift can be useful for a change. Of course, I'd be thrilled just to have someone answer the phone.

Jackson, MS - Still idling

I've been waiting all day for a work assignment to come in, but right now, 26 hours after I shut down yesterday, I still don't have an assignment to take me anywhere. I did get permission to move the truck up here so I could get a good meal and a shower, neither of which I could do at the little hole-in-the-wall I'd stopped at last night. I'm going to head inside to get a drink then go to bed, just leaving the Qualcomm next to me so its incoming message beeps wake me up for when I do finally get an assignment.

At this point, though, they need to route me back to Atlanta post-haste if I'm going to have any chance of making it home Wednesday, as planned. As I see it, they have to find a load that I'll either deliver near Atlanta or relay at the operating center tomorrow; if they don't, I might not even have the truck back in time for the other driver who needs it. Then, on Wednesday, the only thing I can think of would be getting a load to Mobile or, for that matter, pretty much anywhere in the southern half of Alabama. They could possibly have me relay something at the drop yard I normally park at, though that's somewhat less likely. It's not entirely impossible that they'll have me do something else with the goal of getting me home Thursday and, since freight is extremely soft, there's a risk that will happen. I seriously hope it doesn't, though, as I already have plans for Thursday evening and through the weekend.

Brookshaven, MS - Waiting Game

Apparently freight is extremely soft today. It's rare that I have to wait this long for a load, but even though I told operations I'd be ready to move six hours ago, I have yet to get a work assignment. I plan on calling in before they leave just to ensure they realize that I have to be back in Atlanta by tomorrow, or to get permission to drive the truck somewhere that has more services. I could really go for a steak dinner at Petro or, at the very least, a cool shower at Pilot. I just don't want to drive the 50 or so miles to get to those truck stops without having a reason for it, since that would definitely not help my chances of getting the low out-of-route bonus.

Atlanta, GA

I'm too tired to write in all the details, but here's the short version of what had me so worked up last night. Instead of being shut down while waiting for my truck to get through a PM, they ended up assigning me another load. I then find out from support shift that I'm supposed to pick up a loaner truck, something that nobody had bothered to tell me until after I had planned to get the work done on my tractor. So I went to the shop to have them write my truck up, only to be told that since it wouldn't be ready until Tuesday afternoon, it would no longer be assigned to me by the time they finished the work; Schneider only lets drivers stay assigned to their truck if they're not gone more than five days. So, in other words, the shop figured that whatever loaner I was assigned would be a permanent change. This is what had me so irate last night: changes like this are not something I should find out from the weekend shift in the tractor shop.

I ended up calling in this morning to get the mess straightened out. Turns out that the truck I'm temporarily assigned to is part of a special program we have and, as such, it would have to be back here by Wednesday morning anyway. They're going to do everything they can to route me back here Monday evening; if that happens, I'll be taking tomorrow to deliver a load, then coming right back here on Monday, though I'm still not holding my breath about that. I'm also not sure how this is going to change the situation for time at home, since I'm scheduled to be done on Wednesday and I've a weird feeling that it's not going to work very smoothly.

Failure to Communicate

I'm so pissed off at every level of management at the company that I am completely at a loss for words. In short, I have to permanently give up my truck for a "loaner" because nobody knows what they're doing. Details later once I have anything to say that isn't saturated in profanity.

Work Assignments

I've mentioned my work assignments before, but I've never really gone into detail about what an assignment consists of. I'm going to provide examples of one below and explain what the gibberish means. Each message requires at least one response.

Fuel and Directions (one for each load)

PLZ SEND FUEL LVL FOR LD XX12345 TO RECEIVE DIRECTIONS

For this message, a reply presents a form on which I have to input two things: my fuel level (in increments of 1/8 tank) and what kind of directions I want (fueling only, company directions from nearest major highway, or street-level directions akin to Google's). This is the only way to get fuel directions so I generally round down to the next-lower fuel increment to be safe.

---

Equipment Disposition (one for each movement of unloaded equipment, rarely more than two per load)

Unfortunately, I don't have an example of this handy right now. But all it does is provide a customer code, what I'm doing with equipment (picking up or dropping off a trailer, deadheading, or bobtailing), and the number of miles I'm getting paid for it. In a case where I'm picking up an empty trailer and taking it to another yard - which is common for places that only receive or only ship - I'll get one message to pick up the trailer and another message to drop it. Each one requires a reply so they know when I picked it up and that I did, in fact, get the trailer I was supposed to get. If for some reason the trailer I've been told to pick up is not available, there are fields that I can input that information on; I then have to wait and find out what they want me to do.

---

Pickup Information (one for each pick up point)

PU INFO  LOC ID ABC12_ LD# XX12345 CUST NAME GENERIC WAREHOUSING #42 ADDRESS 123 NOWHERE RD CITY CORINTH____________ STATE MS PU STOP# 01 OF 01 BOX # TA987654 PRELDED___ PU RELAY N EST ARRIVE DTTM 08/21 0800 PU WINDOW 08/21 08:00 16:00 ON AVG DUR 00:30  HV______ MILES LDED 320 MILES FROM PREV LOC 0

Yay, details! This message provides the information I'll need in order to get directions, when I'm expected to arrive there, and how much I'm getting paid for it. In this case, I'm going to pick up a load that I have to pick up on the 21st between 8AM and 4PM and will get paid 320 miles for delivering it. If "miles from previous location" weren't zero, I'd be getting paid just to drive there. This is often the case if I've dropped a load at the previous customer and am picking up a preloaded trailer. Any specific information for the load or customer will be in this message as well, listed below the information in my example. This message requires two replies: one when I arrive and one when I depart. When I leave, I need to include the trailer number I've taken with me so the company can track what equipment is where.

---

Pickup Billing & Service Verification (one for each pick up point unless load is picked up as a relay)

PU BILLING & SERVICE VERIFICATION LOC ID ABC12_              LD # XX12345 CUST NAME GENERIC WAREHOUSING #42 PCS 3495 WEIGHT 30360 CMDTY PAPER, BALED MB/L 123454321 PU # R2-D2 HAND LOAD? NO X PART _ FULL _ LMPR _ PALJACK _

And more details! The first three lines just repeat information I already know, but the rest is useful. In this case, the load is just over 30,000 pounds so I need to be somewhat concerned about weight. I also have a bill of lading and a pick up number; most loads will only have one or the other, but in this case I have both. It's also not a hand load, though that's pretty obvious for preloaded trailers. When I reply to this, I have to fill in the correct number of pieces, the weight, and the bill of lading number. "Lumper" services are loading or unloading services we have to pay for and, frankly, are a pain in the ass. But that's a post for another time.

---

Delivery Information (one for each drop/unload point)

DEL INFO LOC ID ZZ987_ LD# XX12345 CUST NAME BIG BOX MART #7269 ADDRESS 500 DUELING BANJO LN CITY MCDONOUGH________ STATE GA DEL STOP # 01 OF 01    DP RELAY N EST ARRIVE DTTM 08/21 1539  DP LDED DEL WINDOW 08/22 00:01 23:59 BY AVG DUR 00:30 MILES FROM PREV LOC 320 SND MAC29 IF DEL IS OUTSIDE SVC WINDOW

And now for information about the place I'm going to. This has similar information to the pickup info message, only detailing my delivery. In this case, it's a "by" delivery, which means I can drop it any time I want as long as it's by the time listed; if I get this load delivered by 11:59PM on the 22nd, it's considered on time. Of course, I can deliver it early; the computer figures I can get there before 4PM on the 21st. It's to my advantage to deliver as early as possible, since the sooner I deliver a load the sooner I can get on something else to rack up more mileage. Like the pick up info, this message requires a reply both at arrival and departure.

---

Delivery Billing & Service Verification (one for each pick up point unless load is dropped off as a relay)

DEL BILLING & SERVICE VERIFICATION LOC ID ZZ987_              LD # XX12345 CUST NAME BIG BOX MART #7269 PCS 3495 WEIGHT 30360 CMDTY PAPER, BALED HAND LOAD? NO X PART _ FULL _ LMPR _ PALJACK _

The delivery message contains completely redundant information. All I have to do is, once I get the bills signed or stamped, reply to this so they know to send out a freight bill.

There may be an additional message with pick up or delivery numbers, such as PO numbers that may or many not be necessary, or any other unusual information I might need. I still haven't figured out why they can't just include it in the load-specific information on the pick up or delivery info messages, but that's not my thing to figure out

Satsuma, AL

1:15PM - Ugh. I got to Kimberly Clark in Mobile and picked up my load without too much trouble, though it wasn't in the yard they normally keep our trailers at. This trailer is in pretty rough shape, though; there are two tires that only just met DOT specifications and the tandem slider barely worked the first time I tried it. So what's the problem? The tandems didn't move after I scaled the load and found I am 100 pounds overweight on the trailer. While I've dealt with worse things before, I sent in an overweight message, waited half an hour, then after not getting a response called operations. Rather than telling me to run with it (as I've been told to in the past), they warned me that if I got a ticket I'm responsible for it and suggested I call road repair. So now I'm on hold waiting for them to answer the phone. At least that Bluetooth-enabled CB radio is working out nicely; it's a fantastically loud speaker for when I'm waiting on hold, saving me the trouble of holding a phone up to my head.

1:45PM - That was a long time to accomplish next to nothing. I was told to go to a place 25 miles away to get this fixed, so I'm going well out of my way; hopefully I can at least get credit for driving down there. And I really hope that the place I'm delivering to will allow me to park since I'm waiting on a load to come out of there; I'm going to have one heck of a time finding parking tonight if they don't.

Crestview, FL

I stopped at the Florida welcome center to update operations about the load. Despite my best efforts, there's no way I could have made the delivery appointment I had. The unload of my previous load took nearly four hours; it was supposed to be done within two. And even if I'd gotten out of there on time, I'd have had only one hour to spare on this load. So when I got a message that said "Please call me" I prepared for the worst, since I didn't think it was anything good.

Turns out, though, that they want me to relay the load somewhere. It's going to be a relay not because I'm late but because of Tropical Storm Fay. I'm just waiting at a rest area right now for instructions on where I need to go. I'll be particularly happy if they route me to the place I've parked my car and I can just take the rest of the day off, but I doubt I'll get that lucky.

Into the Storm

I get to drive into a tropical cyclone and dispatch doesn't care. I hope it's just whatever support shift is smoking and first shift is more reasonable.

Browns Summit, NC

I'm starting to write this while I wait on road repair. Yay.

Anyway, my day started off with the unexpected beeping of the Qualcomm as I received a work assignment. I'd been hoping to sleep in, but no, I ended up waking up at 7:30 to that infernal thing. I looked at it and saw that I had an open pickup window and a delivery appointment on Saturday, leaving me some extra time, so I tried to get back to sleep. And failed miserably. I gave up on it entirely around 10 o'clock, got online for a little while, then decided to head inside for lunch and a shower. Even that didn't work out so well; I had a long wait for the lunch line and the shower line was so long that I decided to forego that entirely instead of waiting at least another 30 minutes.

So, I ended up hitting the road. I got to where I was picking up an empty trailer, only to find that the trailer I'd been assigned wasn't there. Instead, they had just one of our trailers, an "A" trailer that probably is as old as I am. It wasn't in the best of shape, either; it was road legal, but had one rear marker light out and another that looked ready to fall off. Also, it looked like someone had broken open an economy-sized bag of popcorn, as there were kernels strewn about the trailer. And I only have a hand broom, so I only swept out the worst of it and hoped that the next place didn't notice or care.

Thankfully, they didn't say anything, but that's because this is such a bureaucracy that it's a wonder they can actually ship anything out at all. I arrived at 6 o'clock (or so), slid the tandems and opened the door... then needed nearly twenty minutes to back the trailer into a spot since there's so little room to maneuver here. It took me three tries; the first two attempts were so far off that I couldn't salvage anything useful and I just had to go around again. Once I dropped it, I had to drive to another lot to get the load, or so I was told. Turns out that it wasn't there either, so I was directed to a third facility. They said it was there, but that I had to go to a fourth location to pick up my paperwork, then come back to get the trailer. So, after more than half an hour of running around aimlessly, I had my paperwork in hand and found the trailer.

But, as I wrote earlier, I was waiting on road repair. Why? Because as I walked around, I noticed a big rip in a tire's sidewall. We're talking an eight-inch gash along the inside. Needless to say, the tire was completely flat. So I called, spent ten minutes on hold, and tried to work the landing gear. Even that proved difficult; for some reason, the high gears were extremely tight and I nearly threw my back out trying to get the blasted thing to move at all. I had only just finished raising the legs when someone answered; I gave the information, provided directions for the facility... then got called back five minutes later by the local business that does tire repair to get asked for directions once again. They initially quoted an ETA of two hours, though after I complained they lowered that estimate to one hour. Sure enough, the guy arrived here in a little under 45 minutes, which is just about the only thing that has gone well today. He sounds like he's nearly done mounting the new tire right now.

Once I'm out of here, I'm going to head down to the Charlotte OC for the night. Unless I've seriously done my math wrong, I can afford to stop there tonight, drive only about 400 miles or so tomorrow to get to Birmingham, AL, then finish the run Monday morning in time to make the delivery in southern Mississippi. I'll probably take this trailer to the shop to get the landing gear fixed while I'm in Charlotte since I really don't want to hurt myself trying to drop this trailer later on.

They're finally done with the tire replacement, so now I can finally get on the road again. Joy.

Browns Summit, NC

This load is getting incredibly frustrating. Right now I'm waiting on tire repair. I'll post details later tonight.

Riviera Beach, FL

Getting unloaded now, but they said it's going to be two and a half hours. Given that the trailer was overloaded and several boxes were ready to fall out when I opened the door, it wouldn't surprise me if they take longer, but they certainly seem to be working quickly. In any case, the guy working receiving has a serious attitude problem; he started yelling at me about being late as I climbed out to look for the receiving office, then started cursing at me when I didn't immediately move the truck and open the other door after they restacked the freight that was going to fall over. I showed as much restraint as possibly could have by simply saying I don't appreciate his language and that I'd like to keep things civil; I didn't even listen to anything else he said after that.

In any case, I have another assignment already, this one good for a thousand miles. It's a live load early this afternoon; hopefully I'll be able to get there on time for that, but not so early that they chew me out for arriving too early. There's exactly nowhere to stop along the way - there isn't even a rest area - so I'll have to go straight down there and hope they let me wait there if they're not ready for me. If not, I have no idea what I can do; the nearest parking is about 30 miles north of here and the place I'm going is 70 miles south. At least my next run is easy to plan for: straight up I-95. I just hope that I can find a truck stop along the way; there aren't that many along that route.

Cartersville, GA

Today was one of those days that I thought would never end. It started off with me sleeping in about twenty minutes late; not a good thing considering the load I'm currently on had barely an hour to spare on it even if I woke up on time. So I took off, delivered my previous load, then found out that the place had no empty trailers. So instead of being out of there with an empty in thirty minutes, I instead wait that long just to get directions to another place that is supposed to have empties, 50 miles away. I go down there and the guard says they don't have any empties but I'm welcome to look. Amazingly, they just finished unloading a trailer and, as I was driving in, a yard jockey had just dropped it off. I promptly went over there and took it, then headed up to pick up my load, despite being at least two hours behind schedule. I arrived and picked the load up without further incident, though it's nearly five tons heavier than I was told it would be; my work assignment said 21,000 pounds and the bill of lading says 30,500.

After taking back roads for nearly seventy miles just to get back to the Interstate, I realized that there was no chance at all I was going to make Atlanta tonight, which I had originally planned on. I'd lost too much time just trying to find a trailer. So I peeked in the truck stop guide and found a couple of stops along the way, including the TA here. OF course, not even that could go entirely without a hitch; as I drove along, I noticed my truck struggling more and more when going up hills. I'm not sure if it's my fuel filter acting up, the turbocharger going out, or something else entirely, but I have nearly no power when the engine is revved above 1500 RPM. Even as low as fourth gear, I can feel the lack of power at that speed and feel the truck jerk around as soon as I hit that number. Even in neutral there's still a noticeable change in the engine's sound. I'm currently on hold waiting for maintenance to pick up so I can find out whether or not this is a major problem that requires road repair, one that I should drive to Atlanta to get fixed, or one that they'd rather wait to fix until the truck is due for PM. I guess I'll find out soon as someone answers the phone.

West Memphis, AR - Keeping Busy

I really should update this thing more often, but I've been running so hard lately that I don't want to do anything but sleep when I get parked. It's not going to let up over the next couple of days, either; I need to run as hard as I can to make this next delivery, which is going to require me to be up at 2 AM on Monday. I'm not at all looking forward to it, but at least I'm getting plenty of miles, which will equate to a nice paycheck. For now, I need sleep; I have to be up at 5:30.

Chamblee, GA

I only have a few minutes to type this while they're unloading my truck, but I did have two people that nearly caused accidents just within the first six miles out of the Charlotte operating center. The first incident happened while I was just pulling out of the gate; there's a fairly steep hill on the way out of there and, with a 44,000 pound load, I couldn't get above 10 mph on it. It's a two lane road, marked with double yellow lines, but some idiot in a van decided to pass me... and very nearly crashed head on into a vehicle that was just cresting the hill. They missed one another by inches; they're both lucky that there was a wide shoulder on that side of the road. I couldn't have done anything about it, either, since it was happening too quickly to react and if I stopped I don't think I could have gotten the truck rolling again. Even dumber, though, is that the van was for some professional services company; if he had stopped at the red light at the end of the road, I would have taken down his unit number and called it in, but he wasn't even phased by that.

The second incident was on the Interstate, about three miles down the highway. There was just one vehicle trying to merge onto the highway, which has a speed limit of 60 going through Charlotte. I was in the right lane and signaled left to try and give him room to get onto the road, but a vehicle in the next lane over wasn't about to yield or shift lanes, even though he had plenty of room to do so. As for the merging vehicle, rather than accelerating to get ahead of me or waiting and getting on the road behind me, he decided to move left and get in front of me while he was still doing about 35. I couldn't have stopped in time; while I had plenty of distance to the next vehicle in front of me, I couldn't have stopped for the moron that had merged onto the road while doing barely half the posted speed limit. So, I did the only thing I could do; hit the brakes so hard that I spilled my drink and tugged on the horn. He took the hint and accelerated just enough to avoid the collision, which left me doing 45 and losing speed while going up hill.

Seriously, is anyone else seeing problems with people being stupid on the road lately or is that just a phenomenon in Charlotte?

Greenland, NH

Wow. I never thought Connecticut's traffic would be as bad as it was, but I-95 was horrible going through the state. I-91 wasn't much better; only once I picked up I-84 did traffic start to clear up. Even then, I still had to fight off Boston's rush hour; since I was held up by traffic. When I found I had an assignment to New Hampshire, I figured I'd be going south out of here... instead, I'm picking up a load in Maine tomorrow morning, then going clear down to Atlanta, over 1200 miles away. Thankfully, it's an appointment on Monday so support shift has no reason to screw with this assignment. The only thing that I have to worry about is finding a place to park tomorrow evening; there's very few places to park in New England and I don't have any chance of making it back to the Carlisle OC. Still, it's nice to have some decent miles. And as a bonus, I can finally catch up on sleep.