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. :)