Sunday, November 30, 2008

Dalton, GA - McSleepy

After working 41 hours in four days (and at least 11 three of the last four), I'm completely exhausted. I ended up hitting two traffic jams today: one north of Nashville and a second west of Chattanooga. I've never seen this much traffic on the road on a Sunday before and I really hope the increased travel was only a result of the holiday weekend and not the start of a long-term increase. I still have to be up as early as possible tomorrow, due to the early appointment time, the fact I'm still about 90 miles away, and that I have to go around Atlanta during morning rush hour. Not looking forward to any of those but I'll cope, I suppose.

I-65 Southbound in TN - Going nowhere

Traffic is bumper-to-bumper as far as I can see in front of me and traffic is at a standstill. I think I heard someone say that they're forcing all traffic to exit but I couldn't really understand what was being said clearly. This is definitely not the kind of thing I needed today; time was short without this thing.

Gary, IN - Faster! FASTER!

I can't complain about the miles I've been getting, that's for sure. It is, however, getting very tiring to have to work three 10+ hour days in a row, which is what I'll have done by the time I shut down tomorrow. If things go according to plan tomorrow (what plan?) I might be able to catch up on sleep a little. No telling what tomorrow will bring though.

Instead, let me recap today: I started from Green Bay, grabbed an empty trailer, sent in my message... and got told to take a different empty. Turns out the blasted thing is out of service for a leak, something that I couldn't spot on a pre-trip inspection. Much grumbling ensued, but I grabbed the other empty and drove north into Michigan to pick up my load. I went the wrong way around a customer's lot, only to end up exactly where I needed to be. I dropped and hooked, then hit the road once more.

The trip down to Gary was relatively uneventful except for a brief stint in Chicago: a Roadway truck plowed into the back of an SUV, blocking I-94 except for the left shoulder. As a result, traffic was at a crawl for several miles. Nobody would let me over, either, even though I'd signaled for an obnoxiously long time to try and get into the flow of traffic; I had cars backed up behind me as far as I could see.

Tomorrow is going to be an extremely long day. I have to get up at 5:30 and get on the road by six, ideally. Then I have to drive as far as I possibly can to ensure that I make this delivery Monday morning. I need to go at least 550 miles, ideally at least 600, and can't spare the time to make any extra stops. If I pull off 600 miles, I should be able to catch up on sleep, but I don't want to get overly optimistic about that until it happens. For now, though, sleep sounds like a very good thing.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Green Bay, WI - Run after run

I've had two thousand-mile runs come up since I've come back out, which hasn't really left me much time to update this. I started out from home on Wednesday, delivered up here in Green Bay this afternoon, and will be down in Atlanta by Monday morning. I'll try to make a longer post later, but right now I need as much sleep as I can get.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Home - Days off

I'm just making a quick post to let everyone know that I've made it home safely. I'll be returning to work no earlier than Tuesday morning; if there's no freight than I'll be at home longer. I'll post again when I'm back out on the road.

Monday, November 17, 2008

West Memphis, AR - Still working

Somehow, despite getting an extremely pessimistic assessment from the manager I work with, I still have a job. I'll be delivering my current load this afternoon, dropping the empty trailer back here, and taking a defensive driving course at 7 AM tomorrow. Presumably, I'll be routed home immediately after that; this means I might get home a few hours earlier than I'd originally thought. I was, however, given a very simple message to take away: if I have another accident within the next 12 months, I'm fired and there won't be another company willing to even let me look at their trucks, much less offer me a job.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

West Memphis, AR - Countdown

I have no idea what's going to happen Monday. I'm going to spend a few hours today cleaning out the truck. If I end up fired, at least I'll be able to leave quickly. If I still have a job, I'd have to clean and pack for my upcoming time at home anyway. I'm not sure how they're going to get me home if I deliver this load, though, but it would be at least 8 PM Tuesday even if they sent me straight to the parking lot. Hopefully this appointment can be moved forward to sometime tomorrow afternoon; I wouldn't complain about having an extra few hundred miles or getting home a day early. Of course, this all hinges on the assumption that I'm still a truck driver tomorrow.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Atlanta, GA - Nowhere to go

Unsurprisingly, I ended up screwed out of several hundred miles again. Rather than delivering this load all the way into Florida, I lost 450 miles by relaying it in Atlanta due to operations insistence upon it. Even more screwed up is that, even though I was told that the driver was waiting, I found out that he had been taken off the load and assigned something else since he's on break until at least 10 PM tonight.

So, what do I get out of sacrificing yet another 400 miles? At least two days of layover pay. Rather than assigning me something decent, I end up with a 375 mile run to Memphis, delivering Tuesday afternoon. I could easily make it there tomorrow if they could get the appointment moved up and I'll be calling in tomorrow morning to try and arrange that. If it can't be done for any reason, I'll be stuck sitting and waiting.

Of course, there's that "meeting" that I have to have with the safety people. Whether it's actually going to consist of anything more than me handing in the truck keys is still anyone's guess. Once it's established that I still have a job, I'm going to have a long conversation of my own with the guy I'm working with now; I've been shafted out of more than two thousand miles in the last three weeks due to his poor planning and I'm really getting tired of it. We'll see how any of that goes, though.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Knoxville, TN - On we go!

I guess that I have one thing that suggests I'm keeping my job: miles. My current run is a thousand-mile trip all the way down to Florida. I'm hoping to make it into the state tomorrow, ensuring that it's just a short run early on Saturday to deliver. Then I just have to hope that the weekend shift can continue to find freight and that I don't end up running out of hours on my 70 before I'm able to get home.

Knoxville, TN - On we go!

I guess that I have one thing that suggests I'm keeping my job: miles. My current run is a thousand-mile trip all the way down to Florida. I'm hoping to make it into the state tomorrow, ensuring that it's just a short run early on Saturday to deliver. Then I just have to hope that the weekend shift can continue to find freight and that I don't end up running out of hours on my 70 before I'm able to get home.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Carlisle, PA - Bureaucrats

Due to the two incidents yesterday, I had to call in and explain the situation again to operations, then again to someone in the safety department. The safety guy had to go for an emergency halfway through my explanation, though, which means I'll get to explain it yet again at some point. They're going to route me down there to "discuss my options" in person. I asked if those options were along the lines of going home via a bus or a rental car, figuring they were using that as a euphemism for firing me, though operations insisted that wasn't the case. The guy I spoke to said that he's comfortable with my driving and he doesn't feel that these incidents really are properly reflective of the way I actually am on the road, especially given that the first incident was something that he admitted he would have handled the exact same way. We'll see, though; the fact they continue to insist that I discuss it with them in person is more than a little unsettling.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Milford, NJ - Oops?

Well, this was not a good afternoon. Not one, but two accidents in the span of an hour. The first wasn't my fault, though: a narrow overpass and an oncoming driver who decided not to even slow down when he saw me coming. As such, I either had to hit him or the overpass; I ended up nearly taking off my passenger side mirror. Because the mirror was so far out of adjustment, I couldn't see clearly when backing up at a customer and ended up hitting their building, causing a new hole in the brick. If I could see what I was doing I'd never have hit it, I'm sure. As it is, though, I'm not sure who they're going to blame for the mess. I just have to go by an operating center on my next run to have that mirror looked at.

Carlisle, PA - Moneyhaul

I need to get rolling fairly soon, so I don't have time to write all the details (but I may edit this post later to include them). But I am getting three back days of layover pay and 157 miles for a total of $326.57 before taxes. Trying to get anyone to actually commit to the policies was as useful as nailing Jello to a wall. For one thing, they're now claiming that the 39¢ per mile they offer to drivers includes the 2¢ bonus and a 1¢ geographic premium. Meaning that, assuming I earn the bonus, I'll be where I should be. One other piece of good news: out of route is not a factor in my bonus, though it's in everyone's best interest that I keep it as low as possible. The less money I waste on fuel, the more they'll (supposedly) have to pay drivers. That money will come in on next Friday's paycheck, since payroll has already been run for this week.

There are plenty of other bits of weirdness going on but that's another post to make later.

Carlisle, PA - End of the line

Today was one of those days that makes me wonder if I'm going to be in an orange truck for much longer. I ended up having to drive nearly 700 miles and go nearly three hours over my 14 today just to have a chance of making on time delivery tomorrow. As it is, I'm going to barely make it and even that's only if traffic is cooperative tomorrow afternoon. The one that absolutely floored me, though, is when operations started trying to tell me that I don't get layover pay if I get a motel room, even though the employee handbook clearly states that the two are both given assuming I get authorization for it. And there is no way that I'm going to spend 48 hours (or more) in the truck without work to be done, considering that I don't have a heater and the batteries only will last about 12 hours.

Here's the relevant sections directly out of the book. I've just copied and pasted them here for everyone to interpret. Please tell me if you see any way that could possibly suggest that I am not able to collect both layover pay and motel reimbursement; I cannot find any possible way of interpreting it that way. I've underlined a few key words.

Layover: Company directs a driver to layover in excess of 24 consecutive hours at a location other than the driver‟s home, park location, assigned operating center or designated maintenance facility, and the driver does, in fact, layover. The driver must receive prior authorization from the DBL to be compensated.  Under normal circumstances this authorization will occur in a discussion between the DBL and the driver prior to incurring the layover. (Voluntary layover is not compensable including voluntary 34 hour Hours of Service re-set)

Motel: If the company requires a driver to layover for more than 24 consecutive hours or in case of a breakdown exceeding 8 hours, motels will be reimbursed.

On top of that, it looks like they're also not putting my routing points. That is also threatening to take away my bonus and cost me more than $100 just in the last week. I'll be calling operations in the morning to point that out to them and inform them that, if they aren't willing to pay me fairly, then I'm not willing to work for them. The most basic thing any employer offers an employee is a paycheck; if they can't even get that right then I'm jumping ship before it goes down. Now that I have a year of experience I can find somebody else to drive for.

Edit (2:45 AM): I've spent the last hour or so just downloading my last month's worth of pay stubs and doing the math. In the process, I discovered a whopping $730.62 in pay that I should have received that's omitted. Five days of layover ($80 each, $400 total), 450 miles worth of routing points ($162), and the fact that I'm getting underpaid two cents per mile across the board, ($0.02 times 8,431 miles is $168.62). Even if they are going to come up with some excuse to not give me layover pay - and I'm going to insist that they put the policy in writing and fax me a copy - that's $330 and change that I'm owed in back pay. I'm going to insist that it be added to my next paycheck or that they just consider the call my two weeks notice.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Carlisle, PA - Disarming honesty

Given that I am two days ahead of schedule on my current run, I called this morning to see if there's any chance I could relay the load and take something else to ensure that I get some half decent miles. Allow me to quote my conversation this morning.

Me: "Hi, this is <driver>, number 12345."
Ops: "What can I do for you?"
Me: "Well, I'm trying to relay this thing, if there's a better run available."
Ops: "Let me be straight up with you. You're screwed."

Yeah, when operations is throwing that kind of language around, you know that it's bad. Right now, we have 1,200 drivers who don't even have load, which doesn't even account for the folks that have loads that are severely under-utilizing their trucks, like me. Basically, the entire country is very soft right now; there isn't a single market east of I-35 in which we're oversold. On the bright side, I'm up to three days of layover pay this week: one for being in New Hampshire and two for being here in Pennsylvania. I'll deliver this thing Monday and hope that things are slightly better then. If not, I'll be stuck in rural Virginia.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Epping, NH - Big miles, no whammies! ... double whammy?

Hooray for 80s game show references.

My situation here in Hew Hampshire really hasn't improved much. I ended up going back to sleep last night after I hadn't gotten an assignment, but put the Qualcomm right next to me so I'd wake up when it started beeping. I was ecstatic to see my assignment, too: 1,200 miles, going through Indianapolis and ending up in Saint Louis, two areas I enjoy spending time in. I also would have had about a day to spare, since I'd be able to make Saint Louis on Sunday and the consignee wasn't open until 8 AM on Monday. Notice, though, that I'm writing about this assignment in the past tense. This time, though, it's not operations fault that I'm off the load. The shipper changed our pick up appoint from today to Tuesday, meaning I didn't have anything there to pick up. And without anything to pick up, obviously I've nothing to deliver and no reason to drive a thousand miles west. It sucks, but I really can't blame them for someone else's inability to even get freight ready.

So, I wait. And I wait. Even though I found out I wasn't going to be able to pick up the load two hours ago, I only now received confirmation that I'm officially off that run. They're going to try find something for me, but freight is always pretty weak in this area, just since it's so far removed from most of the country. On the bright side, I've already earned one day of layover and they already put that in the computer, so all I have to do is enjoy having the extra money on my paycheck. My only gripe is that New Hampshire has pretty strict anti-idle laws, meaning I probably shouldn't turn the truck on for electricity or heat. That said, I'm doing it anyway. :p

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Epping, NH - Workin' day and night

Having spent the day in Carlisle doing various errands, I ended up leaving there overnight and drove non-stop to get where I needed to be this morning. It's the only time I've ever driven through Connecticut where traffic wasn't bumper to bumper the entire way through the state, which was a pleasant change. I was able to get the trailer unloaded and, amazingly, backed into the dock on one try, without having to pull forward or get out and double-check where I was. Still is awesome when I get that to work. Once the trailer was unloaded, I ended up having to drive to a parking lot a couple miles up the road, since that customer only had room for one truck to park overnight and another driver had already taken that space. I'm now just waiting on a work assignment and was told that being available this time of night is a huge advantage, since we're a 24-hour company but 95% of drivers aren't available for full nights of driving. Of course, if there's no freight up here, it doesn't matter what time I'm available. They asked me to call back around midnight to double-check.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Carlisle, PA - Why do days only have 24 hours?

I've been running all over the place lately. In the last three days, I've worked 29 hours; this is probably the highest three-day total I've had since August. I've already logged more than an hour today, since I shut down at 1:15 AM, right as my 14 hours ran out. Why so late tonight? Because I'm now only about 450 miles from where I'm going: New Hampshire. Given how bad traffic in the New England states can be, I wanted to ensure that I could make it to the consignee for this load tomorrow evening, take my break there, get unloaded in the morning, and then have enough time to get out of the area. Things have been zany with work assignments lately; I'll try to write something more detailed about that tomorrow, if time and sleep requirements permit.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Sylacauga, AL - Long days, longer nights

I'm far too tired to write a full post right now, but suffice to say that weekend shift never listens and I'm exhausted after going 530 miles with a single ten-minute food stop. At least I can park and sleep here.