Charlotte, NC - Ops, we have a problem

Things with the truck have been kinda sketchy for a while, but today they went over the edge. I was finding it very difficult to get the truck into gear and - as the evening went on - it became increasingly difficult just to keep it in gear. This would have been bad enough on its own, but I also lost the high side of the engine brake, which made descending the various long grades in Virginia far more nerve-wracking than they needed to be. Attempting to go down a seven-mile long 6% downgrade is particularly frightening when you smell brakes burning, even if it later turns out to be someone else's.

By the time I arrived at the operating center, it was nearly impossible to drive. The truck fell out of gear twice just on the half-mile or so stretch of street between the Interstate and the OC's gate, then once more as I tried idling it to the shop. They wrote it up for maintenance, gave me a rough time estimate, and told me where to park it. Good thing, too; I barely could get it into gear at all because the clutch was nearly seizing up and it was practically impossible to shift out of gear without turning the truck off. There's no way at all this thing could have made it to my delivery tomorrow.

A bit of phone tag with operations later, and I was originally told that this was going to be a relay... then ops called back ten minutes later to tell me that there's so little capacity around here that I'll have to take a loaner and deliver it. I was assured that I'd be routed directly back to the operating center, but I'll believe that one only after I have a work assignment that tells me to stop here. Regardless, I'll have to call first shift in the morning to finalize the details on this run, attempt to get the delivery moved up a few hours, and pester them until they give me a run that brings me back to Charlotte tomorrow evening.

Rogers, MN - Back and forth

After getting stuck on a rather lousy run in Pennsylvania, I was given a nice trip out to Minnesota, worth over a thousand miles. Getting out here was pretty easy, despite a few routing mistakes, since there are only so many ways one can go on the Interstate. I arrived here slightly earlier than planned despite the detour, largely due to Chicago traffic being far better than anticipated. I get to deliver this thing around 6 in the morning tomorrow, then take a relay back toward Chicago for a Monday delivery. I need a weekend free. :)

Kennebunk, ME - More early mornings

The last few mornings have been incredibly early starts; I had to be up around 1 AM to try pick a load up Friday morning and had a 5 AM delivery today. Things were going pretty decently yesterday, so I decided to push my luck and try hit a truck stop much closer to the delivery location than I'd originally planned. My hours were running out, so I decided to go to a rest area instead of the truck stop I wanted to reach. That might have worked out well, except that the New York State Police were doing level three inspections. In other words, logbook checks. By the time I arrived there, due to traffic and hills, I was already fifteen minutes over my time for the day.

The officer had his share of issues with the paperwork, though most of them were the sort of mistakes a rookie would make. For one, he asked me to open the trailer to get the VIN and other information off it; that stuff is on a plate right near the gladhands. For another, he thought that "AR" on my logbook was the abbreviation for Arizona, not Arkansas. He also noted that yes, I am pushing it, but "I'm not going to bust your balls for fifteen minutes" he said as he returned everything to me with a clean inspection report. I was forced to park there, of course, but given the shortage of hours I'd planned on that anyway, so I only lost the half hour due to the inspection.

This morning I started as early as I could: 1:30 AM. I had to drive straight through and skip my originally planned fuel stop just to make it on time; I arrived just ten minutes before my appointment time. I checked in, found out we needed a lumper, grumbled about that for a couple minutes, called operations and got "approval" to have them do it, and took a nap while they worked. They finished just after 8 AM, came back with a price, and I called in to get a comcheck for payment. First shift decided to chew me out for not calling in sooner as the genius in support shift apparently decided not to update that information in the computer after I called. I was given a check, but still haven't received an authorization number; without one the fee comes out of my paycheck so I'll need to call first thing Monday morning to get that resolved.

Once the unloading stuff was taken care of, I went to the truck stop I originally was to fuel at and actually filled the truck up with the 51 gallons it needed. Operations wouldn't tell me anything about a work assignment except that I was being held for a customer. Only on the third call was I told that it's unlikely that I'd be assigned anything that would get me moving before a break and I should have considered the time immediately after I parked as the start of my break. I called them out on that, though, and said rather bluntly that if I'm having to get up at 1 in the morning they better find a way of utilizing me since I'm quite tired of busting my tail only to get screwed over again and again. The lady in ops then said she'd see if they'll at least get an assignment pushed out to me before they leave; I had one show up just after 11 for a customer other than the one they claimed I was on hold for.

This assignment is notable for one thing: it's the first time I've been told to deadhead more than 300 miles to get a load. Usually, they try to keep that under 100, or maybe 200 if they're truly desperate to get a load covered, but above that is unheard of for us. I'm not sure what's so special about the load, though; it's a pickup that I can make any time tomorrow (I plan on arriving around 5 AM) and a delivery 500 miles away for Monday at 4 PM. Looking at my hours and the details of this load, I should just be able to make it to the consignee tomorrow afternoon if I try; I sent in a macro asking if we can deliver it then so I'm free much earlier on Monday. If so, I can park on-site there and have a full slate of hours after my break. If not, I can easily claim layover pay for it. So, in this case, I pretty much can't lose. :)

Findlay, OH - Incredibly early mornings

I hate going to New England. There's almost no parking, almost no freight to get out of the area, and it's far too easy to get lost. So, of course, I end up with a load going to Connecticut that delivers at 5 AM Saturday. This means I have to get up around midnight tonight and tomorrow night and hope that I'm coherent enough to keep the truck on the road and on the only legal truck route anywhere near the consignee. It's going to be more than a little unpleasant, but I couldn't find any excuse to get them to take me off the load, leaving me stuck with it. I just hope they promptly get me out of the region since the only nearby parking is a pay lot.

Evergreen, AL - Three hundred miles to go nowhere

I finally ended up back to work today, though I got a bit of a later start than operations would have liked. I even got put back on the load that I'd told them yesterday that I probably wouldn't be able to pick up, since I had to go so far just to get an empty trailer, but they insisted that I run with it anyway since they found an empty that was more than 50 miles closer (83 v. 140). It worked out, but only just; I made it onto their property less than five minutes before they stopped taking new trucks for shipping. I got away with being in the wrong part of the facility, too, since I had to go from one gate to another, then to a scale, then past there to a fourth location to get the truck loaded. Once that was completed I was given a ticket off the facility's scale and sent on my way.

Since it was already getting kinda late and construction on US 84 cost me quite a bit of time, I just stopped back here in Evergreen for the night. The only other places I could have stopped were in Montgomery (if I were lucky) and potentially the consignee (if they were open past 7 PM), but I was feeling unusually tired so I just called it a day early. I'll have about 150 miles to go tomorrow to deliver this thing; hopefully my next run will be long enough to be worthwhile.