Center Square, NY - Canada round-trip

In the span of just a few hours, I went into Canada, picked up a load, and came back down to the US. Not bad for 11 hours work, huh? :)

Started off a bit later than I intended this morning, but I did get to enjoy a rather nice sunrise on my way into Quebec. I got stopped at the border for an inspection, mostly so they could train a few new guys; they didn't bother looking at anything other than my driver's license and passport since I was empty. Amusingly, another Schneider driver was at the border, going to the same place I was; he said he was going to follow me so we could get lost together.

After a stop for fuel along the way (550 L of diesel), we arrived at the shipper, dropped empties, and picked up loads. Mine is a particularly amusing one: 33 pallets, weighing nearly seven tons, of nothing but Maxi Pads™. It took a little while to get everything sorted out, with all the extra paperwork that border crossing requires, as well as a few minor mechanical mishaps. Specifically, the power plug on my trailer is coming loose, such that it required duct tape to get it in place. Having sorted all that out, we went west from Montreal on 20, taking that to Ontario's 401. The most confusing part? When 20 suddenly changed from a freeway, to a construction zone, to a surface street. Then, with the same lack of warning, back into a freeway. I was worried I'd somehow taken an exit without realizing it, but all was well once I crossed the provincial line.

About 20 km into Ontario, I got a message telling me that I was clear to cross the border. Aside from a quick stop for a bite to eat, I kept straight on to get stateside. I didn't want to have to try find parking up in Canada; parking in the northeastern US is sparse enough. Crossing back into the US went smoothly enough; I had all my paperwork at hand, passed it to the officer, paid the toll with a debit card, and got told to "go through that X-ray thingy." I chuckled, then the customs official just told me to go around and have a good day. Not like it makes much difference, really, but at least it saved me another minute or two.

The only real problem all day proved to be the roads in New York. Specifically, for about ten miles along I-81, the road hadn't even been plowed. It was nothing but packed snow and ice, ensuring one heck of a wild ride. I lost enough time there that I didn't want to chance trying to park at the truck stop down in Syracuse, so I stopped at this rest area, roughly 15 miles north of the city. I'll probably stop at the truck stop in the morning to scan various paperwork and get some real food, Hopefully they'll get me somewhere that isn't completely covered in snow soon, since the extreme cold is really starting to bother me. I'd settle for a temperature anywhere above 30 right now.

Amsterdam, NY - Oh, Canada? Oh snap!

Finally have my next assignment, and it's going to be a bit... interesting, to say the least. Next stop? Montreal, Quebec. Yes, the French-speaking part of Canada. I've talked with a friend who visits there regularly and, though the signs are all in French, he says it's not really that hard to get around as long as you have some clue where you're trying to go. At least my destination is just off one of the major routes, though I might have to take city roads for several kilometers just to get back onto the highway, as there's no direct, efficient route to get where I want to go. I have plenty of time to spare in case something happens, though, so I should be okay. I just hope that I can make it back into the USA before my hours run out; I don't want to have to try and find truck parking up there.

Amsterdam, NY - Cold, but not Jack-Frost-just-violated-me cold.

It's... cold, as one might expect this time of year. Specifically, the overnight low was -12, the high is just 8, and the low tonight is going to be well below zero once again. The weather getting up here was fine, except for a small stint between the NY State Line and Buffalo; for a while, visibility was less than 100 feet. And yet, due to the light traffic, I barreled on at 35 mph. I could barely see the road, but at least I knew I was between the metal posts on the sides of the highway and, on at least one occasion, resorted to just riding the rumble strip to ensure I knew where I was on the road.

Since I had anticipated that conditions were going to be worse than they proved to be, I arrived at the shipper more than three hours early. I was assigned a dock immediately, got unloaded shortly thereafter, and sent on my way in less than half the time I was told to expect. Since the parking they normally had for trucks was completely covered in several inches of snow, I went 10 miles back to the previous exit, and spent 45 minutes trying to park at a TA. There were two spots that would have been easy to straight-line back into... and two trucks in front of me who took those spaces. I ended up nearly taking out an above-ground fuel storage tank, got caught in a snowdrift, and experienced total frustration at trying to simply get the truck parked.

But here I am, waiting for my next load, and hoping that I get assigned something before the weekend shift comes in. If they're the ones assigning loads, I'll very likely be stuck in the northeast for the weekend, getting lots of short runs with obnoxious delivery appointments. If I can somehow luck out and get a load while first shift is in, I may be able to head somewhere with temperatures in the double digits. I'd particularly like to head to Indianapolis - I haven't been through there in a while - but I'll settle for anything that's south or west of New York.

Seville, OH - How low can we go?

It's currently -2 here. They're forecasting -8 tonight. And where I'm going in New York? It'll be 12 below with winds of five to ten, making it feel like -20 to -30. Tomorrow's high up there is supposed to get into the double digits, but the wind will pick up as well, leaving the wind chill well into the negative numbers.

To add to my weather concerns, there's going to be plenty of snow along I-90, near the Great Lakes. One graphic on the Weather Channel said 6-12 inches between Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY, which is sure to make driving a pleasure. Once I get away from the lake, conditions should improve, but I still have to get at least that far first. On the bright side, once I post this, I'm going to get going and have 13 hours to arrive at my destination. Thus, even if it takes my full 11 hours of driving and I make two hours worth of stops (for food, etc.) I'm still going to be on time. If I arrive early, I can just park there and wait. I just hope that they send me somewhere warmer after this load; it's so cold up here that the truck heat can't keep up!

How to break a text editor with your dick

Shamelessly borrowed and paraphrased from reddit, here's how you do it.

1. Type the classic ASCII penis in: 8===D
2. Replace = with === (or any series of multiple = signs).
5. (Three, sir!)
3. Repeat and watch the program crap all over itself.

Gary, IN - Can we please just close the road?

So, in the process of trying to get back to the operating center, the snow picked up a bit. It seems like every mile, someone would get into my lane and slow down considerably, forcing me to slow down, which led to another vehicle getting in front... and all that because nobody would let me over to pass the car in front of me that was doing 40 in a 70, even though the posted minimum speed is 55. If nobody can actually drive in winter without acting like a complete moron, why don't they just put everyone out of their misery and close the Interstate entirely? It would at least save me from screaming myself hoarse at all the other drivers that make it nearly impossible to get where I want to go.

One thing that didn't help matters, though, was my defroster. The driver's side defrost has been getting steadily worse for a while now and, in the light snow, half my windshield iced up. I'm in line for express repairs right now to see if the ducts simply need to be blown clean or there is some other simple fix for the problem. If not, it'll be at least tomorrow afternoon before the main shop can work on it. I just hope that the 'express' repairs really are as quick as they're intended to be; I don't want to spend the next several hours simply waiting in line here.

Battle Creek, MI - All hurried up and nowhere to go

After sleeping in far later than intended, I left Gary around 1 PM. I shouldn't have bothered, though: the empty trailer I came here for has since been loaded. I'm parked off to the side in the driveway waiting for support shift to figure something out.

And as I type this, they've responded by having me backtrack 25 miles to try a Target DC. Just waiting on directions now.

Gary, IN - Round trip, number two

I didn't get an assignment until about 5 PM ... and the assignment is to simply go 134 miles into Michigan to pick up an empty trailer, then take it back to the operating center here. I'm going to wait until morning (obviously), especially given that the snow here seems to be lingering a bit longer than forecast. It's finally stopped, so hopefully they'll get the roads cleared overnight. Not sure where I'm going next, as usual, but I'm also hoping they at least send me somewhere.

Gary, IN - Free

And, sure enough, that was the yard guy. Out of the snow, into the bobtail parking, and now into the OC for dinner!

Gary, IN - Round trip

Today was an exercise in frustration for much of the trip. I woke up this morning to a message from operations, telling me that the load to Utah wasn't going to be ready until the 13th, so they were going to find something else for me. Given that I no longer had much of an incentive to move in a hurry; I went inside and got breakfast from the cafeteria.

I left a bit later this morning than I intended (nearly 9 AM), though I'd hoped that was late enough that rush hour traffic would have let up. While that might have been true, traffic was still horrible due to the snow and ice on the road. Things improved slightly once I made it into Wisconsin, but didn't significantly improve until I made it around Milwaukee; once I started up US 41, traffic had thinned out enough that the few cars that insisted on doing less than half the speed limit were no longer an issue. I received another work assignment while driving, though I didn't have a chance to check it out until I dropped the load. Once I saw what I had, I was rather underwhelmed.

Instead of getting to drive 1,400 miles out to Utah, I got a 600 mile load to Erie, PA that was scheduled for a delivery at 9 AM on Monday. In other words, I'd probably have been parked for two days. I went to the shipper to pick the load up, but called and set up a relay here at Gary, since neither I nor operations thought that sitting for two days was a good idea. The load was satisfyingly quick - 19 pallets of canned veggies - and I was on my way in less than an hour. Once again, traffic was decent going down 41, but got steadily worse as I approached Milwaukee and it started snowing again. Even so, I was able to make it down to the OC with about half an hour to spare; I was able to breeze through Chicagoland without issue.

However, when I arrived at the operating center, another issue became apparent: the customer hadn't paid for freeze protection on this load. And, because they hadn't done so, operations wasn't even going to take the trouble to research the issue; they told me to simply drop the trailer and forget about it. Meaning that, unless it's an incredibly warm night tonight, there will be more than 20 tons of frozen (and thus rotten) canned food. I asked them to send a message out to the truck explicitly saying that I'm not responsible for what happens to the trailer or its contents; I had such a message within five minutes. The situation still makes me extremely uncomfortable, since I know that much food could do a lot of good, but because everyone involved is too cheap to ensure that it's edible, it's likely to simply be wasted.

Having sorted out all that crap, I went out into the lot to drop the trailer. The problem? There's so much ice and packed snow - made worse by a brief shower of freezing rain - that I'm stuck. I can't get enough traction to get out from under the trailer. I was told someone would be coming to pull me out in "five to ten minutes" but that was almost half an hour ago now. I see lights coming this way; if it's not the yard guy coming to pull me out, I'm going to walk back to the shop and find out what the hold up is. Soon as I can get the tractor parked, I'm going to get a nice, hot meal, then going to head straight to bed. I'll worry about pretty much everything else in the morning. After all the frustration of today, though, I'm nearly tempted to just take a day off...

Gary, IN - Whoa, partner

Turns out I'm not going west after all. The load won't be ready for another four days. There goes 1,400 miles.

Gary, IN - Westward exposure

Here's a familiar destination: Ogden, UT. Yay, miles!

Gary, IN - Through the Ice Storm and the Snow

Somehow, I managed to drive nearly 600 miles in ten and a half hours, despite having to go through a white-out snowstorm in Virginia and driving on icy roads much of the night. Either I misread the clock by an hour or just made incredibly good time once the conditions improved.

To recap what happened yesterday but that I was too tired to write about, I arrived at the shipper for my current load at about 4:30 AM. The only person who was there was a yard guy moving trailers around. I asked him when the office opened; he said 6 AM. I go in the office a little after 6 (I was taking a nap) and they tell me to come back after eight since nobody is in that can load a trailer. I go in a third time at about 9 (dodging rain) and get told that I'm quite early but that I can back into a dock after the driver currently in it leaves. So I go out to the truck and wait, take the dock soon as it comes open, and lie back to relax. They didn't even start loading me for another hour, then took about another hour to finish the job. All told, I was at the shipper for just over six hours, good for $45 in detention pay. I left quickly as I could, drove until my hours ran out, and parked in Wytheville yesterday afternoon, as my last post said.

Overnight and into this morning, conditions were fine, except for a brief stint going through Virginia. Conditions were overcast but otherwise fine at Wytheville, but only fifteen miles north, there was a heavy snowstorm. Visibility briefly dropped to near-zero; the only way I could tell that I was still on the road was the rumble strip, which I deliberately was riding down at 25 mph. At least those conditions didn't persist long, though the snow didn't stop for about an hour and I ran into a few more patches of flurries throughout the night. At least the West Virginia Turnpike was relatively clear; I shudder to think what driving through such mountainous, winding roads would be like in poor conditions.

Aside from one short stop in Ohio to use the restroom, I just drove straight through to get up here. I'm not sure when I'm going to leave just yet - I'm tempted to sleep in a little, perhaps to about midnight instead of 10 PM - but it's a relatively short trip from here to my delivery location. I could, hypothetically, get there in less than four hours. Of course, I don't have another assignment yet, but I've been repeatedly reassured that there's plenty of loads in that part of Wisconsin, so I suppose I'll just have to wait and see. At worst, I might just have to kill time at the Green Bay OC. Given that I'm one of the few drivers willing to work at odd hours of the morning and night, though, I suspect they'll be rather eager to keep me going.

Wytheville, VA - Long night ahead

After a lengthy live load - which I'll write about in detail later - I had just enough time to get here. It's a little under 600 miles from here to Gary, IN, which I hope to do overnight; I'll be hitting the road around midnight. Weather is going to be a concern though, as rain will turn to ice and snow. Here's hoping, at least.

Greensboro, NC - Up to the frozen north

I'm currently waiting to get unloaded by yet another lumper service. My work assignment said five and a half hours; I'm hoping that's a gross overestimation and that it comes out to a lot less than that. However, my next assignment has a rather curious pickup: the load says "by" 1300 but gives a window of "1300 - 1300". The notes for the facility say that all loads are live loads. I'll see if operations can tell me anything on the phone, but I doubt it. At worst, the place allows driver parking so I can get a break there if I have to.

After picking it up, I get to go through Indianapolis. Yay! I doubt I'll get there today - and if I end up taking a break at the customer, I might have to stop there tomorrow - but it'll be good to see the city again. The rest of my directions are rather odd, though: a mix of secondary routes to get from I-64 (the WV turnpike) to I-70, and taking US 41 instead of I-94 just to avoid the Chicago tollway. I know that the New York and Pennsylvania toll roads had a toll hike go into effect a couple days ago, but did everyone else raise their rates too? Is operations just trying to make up for the load a couple days ago where I incurred an extra toll after getting lost? Am I trying in vain to build suspense by asking a long series of rhetorical questions?

In any event, I'm just glad I'm finally going somewhere other than New England with a load.

Breiningsville, PA - A short night and a long drive

Rather than getting things done in a timely manner, I wasn't even assigned a dock until nearly 15 minutes after my scheduled appointment, then they didn't start loading the trailer until almost an hour after I backed in. As such, I can't even fake something that will let me drive away from here. The "bright" side is that my DOT break is up in about four hours and I have a couple options for places to stop, though none of them are really that good. I either can stop at the Carlisle OC and have a very long, overnight drive and probably run out of hours while I'm being unloaded, pick a place about 150 miles from the consignee and still have to wake up before midnight, or a place in the middle of nowhere about 60 miles out and probably have nothing to do but sleep due to a lack of cell phone and TV reception.

The only bright side is that I'm finally heading out of the northeast; this load goes into North Carolina. I just wish that it would let me stop somewhere I want to go.

Breinigsville, PA - Seven means seven

Today has just been one of those days where things started off horrible, got much better, then proceeded to go downhill just as fast again. I started off by getting a shower, then losing track of time and leaving the truck stop right around the time my live load appointment was for. Oops. On top of that, I took I-78 the wrong way. Then I got lost trying to get to the facility and took the toll bridge into Pennsylvania. Then aliens abducted the truck it took me about four miles to find a place to exit, surface streets to get back toward the state line, and a detour around a bridge with a three ton weight limit. As such, I was just over an hour late.

It really didn't make much difference, though: they weren't even ready for me when I arrived. I had time to sweep out the trailer, double-check my hazmat information (corrosive, if you want to know), and get directions for everywhere even before they started loading the trailer. It was only nine totes, each holding over 300 gallons and weighing over 3,000 pounds. Total weight? 31,500 pounds, and all of it in the front 25 feet of the trailer. I slid the tandems all the way forward, knowing that was the only way I had a chance of getting the weight legal, but since there are no DOT scales along I-476, I didn't bother checking it on a CAT scale.

The good news came when I called the consignee and asked to get the delivery appointment moved up. Turns out that my 4 PM "appointment" didn't exist and I was just to get there soon as I could. I delivered it just after 1:30 and was out of there by 2, well ahead of schedule. I also got my next assignment during the unload: come up here to pick up another load, then deliver near Greensboro at 3 AM Wednesday.

I was originally hoping to pick this load up early, make it to the Carlisle OC and have the shop check out a few things on the truck, get a good meal, and all that happy stuff. This facility always lets drivers in early and works quickly. Or, at least, they used to. I pulled up to the gate around 3:30 and got told to pull into the facility's parking lot and come back to the guard shack at 7, since they were too busy to take anyone early today. As such, there's a rather slim chance that I'll have enough time to make it to the OC; I might just have to take my break right here, since I may not have the hours to go anywhere at all!

In any case, I'll probably head to the gate about half an hour early, just to see if I get lucky. I really would like to save time somewhere if possible.

Bridgewater, MA - A service plaza? Where?

For reasons that nobody can quite figure out, there's a service plaza on Massachusetts route 24, just north of I-495, even though neither route is a toll road. It works out very well for me, though, since I needed to find somewhere to park for the night and there happened to be parking here. It does mean that I'm quite a bit further from the shipper for my next load than I'd like, but at least I am safely and legally parked here and should still be able to go where I want to tomorrow, even if it takes a bit longer to get there.

The only big problem with this load is that, once again, I have to take I-95 through New York City. I'll be keeping a close watch on the traffic report and making alternate plans if necessary. If I can go through, though, I'll probably just park at the service plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike, since the lot there is huge and it's easily the closest place to the consignee. Failing that, I might have to park all the way up in Connecticut, perhaps as far north as Milford, since there are so few options along the way. Hopefully I'll luck out with that once more.

Assonet, MA - Lumper Scams and Me

Assonet. Ass-o-net. I'll wait if you want to giggle at that name for a while.

No, really, I'll wait.

All done? Let's move on, then.

Getting over here was a pain in the tail, mostly due to a confusing sign warning of a truck detour. Turns out, though, that the detour was only between exits 25 and 27; I needed exit 20. So I ended up going nearly 25 miles out of the way on I-295 around Providence, cutting through the city on a state route, then sneaking around to I-195 that way. At least it worked and, thankfully, I'd given myself enough extra time that it didn't make me late.

What is irritating, however, is the lumper service here. Things are normally shady enough when dealing with such clowns, but these guys refused to even give me a firm price. They repeatedly insisted that they only give estimates, not firm prices, until the trailer is unloaded and the work is complete. In any other line of work, they'd get sued out of existence for that; just picture a mechanic refusing to provide a firm estimate for auto work then charging above the top end of his provided range without justification for it. Somehow, after operations checked with the guy in customer service who set up this load, they okayed them to unload the trailer, though they told me to pass along word that, if the price comes back as something unreasonable, they're going to refuse to pay for it. I can't say that I blame them for taking that attitude, but I'd rather not get caught in the cross-fire if something like that happens.

My next load is going to be a bit of an adventure as well: I get to go about 175 miles north, into Maine, to pick it up. The problem is that there's almost no truck parking on the way. So far as I know, there's the welcome center for New Hampshire and Maine (and it's likely than neither allows overnight parking), a TA truck stop in New Hampshire, and any service plazas along the Maine Turnpike. I know there's one such plaza near Kennebunk (which I remember just because the name is so unusual) at mile marker 25; a quick look at the Internet reveals that there's also a plaza at 58. There's also a very small truck stop at the same exit I'm getting off at, but that's definitely a last resort, not least of which because of its proximity to my final destination tomorrow morning and the simple fact that, if it's full, I have nowhere else to go without backtracking.

Of course, it would help if the lumpers would start working on my trailer at all. My appointment was for 3 PM; it's nearly 4:30 and the light for my dock hasn't even turned red yet, though I'd swear I feel something back there. The longer I have to wait here, the more problematic finding parking will become. At 6 PM, my chances are okay; at 9 PM, my chances are pretty much nil. It's at least an hour drive to any of these aforementioned stops, too, so I have to figure transit time into account. Though it really just boils down to this: I have to get lucky or I'm screwed in an entirely unpleasant fashion. :p

Milford, CT - Bedtime

As a quick follow up to my last post, apparently whoever I was getting messages from hasgone home for the night and third shift has no record of the conversation. I got a message saying, "I have no idea what you're talking about. ... Sorrry." Close enough to an apology for me. Good night and good riddance.

Milford, CT - Where else is it going to go?

When I had to drop a relay in New Jersey, the drop yard they sent me to was full. By full, I mean that the only places I could have dropped the trailer would have either blocked in a bobtail, at least five trailers, or a driveway to another facility in the same complex. In short, there was absolutely nowhere I could possibly have put my trailer. So, upon advice from the guard and another driver who was waiting for road repair, I went to an intermodal drop yard - also owned by us - that was just around the corner and dropped my trailer there. Turns out that the load I was picking up was also in that drop yard; in other words, even if I had dropped my trailer in the space I picked up the relay, it still would have been in the "wrong" yard.

So, trying to be helpful, I sent in a freeform message telling operations that I had to drop the trailer somewhere else. They respond demanding to know why I did so. I tell them that the place I was sent to was full and that the guard had advised me to take it down the street. Rather than responding in a rational fashion and simply updating the trailer information, operations (presumably support shift) sends back a message trying to guilt trip me, claiming that they had to pull a driver off his time at home just to put the trailer where it was supposed to be and that I shouldn't have done that.

At this point, I'm pretty much fed up. I did the only thing I reasonably could have done with the damn thing. So I responded by telling them, flatly, that it doesn't matter who they have go down to that place; there's no space for a trailer. None. If they sent someone else there to move trailers, he's wasting his time and won't find any space either. They then insist that I should have called in for instructions, as if blocking the driveway and wasting time on hold would have miraculously caused an opening to appear in the lot. What the hell are they expecting? A crane to lift my trailer up and drop it atop another? So I replied yet again, this time pointing out that my relay trailer was also in that other yard and asking a question of my own: did they waste this much effort harassing the other driver for where he put the trailer?

I just find it infuriating that I do the only thing that I could reasonably expect to do, try to be helpful by updating operations so they can make a note of it in the computer, and then instead have to spend most of the day playing Qualcomm tag as they berate me over something simple. If they send me anything else on the subject, I'm going to just call in, tell them that I'm dropping the trailer I have right now in the truck stop, and that I'll drive over there to move the damn thing myself so they'll shut up. I'll also tell them, however, that in doing so I'll be both violating my 14 and ensuring that there is no chance at all my next load will be delivered on time. Since, clearly, they feel that it's more important to have a trailer dropped somewhere it can't go, I'll be down there doing circles around the yard until someone else comes in to take a trailer out. So if I don't make a blog post for a few days, it's probably because our night shift really is that dense and I really am down there attempting to shove a trailer where it can't physically go.

Milford, CT - Another night to kill

When I got my current assignment, I shuddered at the route: I-95, directly through New York City. That would normally be scary enough, but to have to do that on New Year's? I thought it would be tantamount to suicide. At least I wasn't on that tight a time schedule, since my delivery is only 200 miles away and I have to be up there mid-afternoon tomorrow. I wish they could move the appointment up a little, but if I'm willing to stay up late and luck out with parking, I might be okay.

The traffic, however, turned out to be a complete non-issue. I could have been driving through any other major city on any other day and seen about the same. It was flowing at (or, rather 10 above) the speed limit all the way from Connecticut to New Jersey. There was a brief delay coming back, due to congestion around one exit, but otherwise there was nothing at all problematic about the trip. The only reason I didn't go further today is that there is only one more truck stop between here and where I'm going in Massachusetts that doesn't charge for parking. As such, I've about 125 miles to go; I'll leave myself four hours to get there, in case there's a jam along the way, as Connecticut is so infamous for.

Now, though, I just have to stay up late enough that I don't feel like crap when I'm up 'til 2 AM tomorrow. :)

Darien, CT - U-turn on the highway

I was supposed to originally make delivery up in Milford, CT at 8 AM this morning. I knew I was going to be late for that, but had hoped to get up there by noon, which I had been told would be okay. Turns out that the place I'm delivering to closes at 11 AM, though. Which is just as well, as I forgot how bad traffic on I-95 in Connecticut is. I figured I'd lose some time, yes, but I didn't expect to find that traffic was moving at 15 to 20 mph along the entire highway, from New York to Massachusetts.

I pulled into a service plaza for both a quick rest break and to find out what I should do about this load: I don't have enough hours on my 11 to even make it to where I'm supposed to be going now. About 20 minutes later, I'd found out that the next available appointment was for the same time next Wednesday and that the nearest drop yard was, unfortunately, the one back in New Jersey. I'll either have to go straight through NYC on I-95 (and, given that it's New Year's, that's not likely) or go around 287 and have to drive twice as far. Neither option is very good, but hopefully they'll get me out of the northeast soon enough.

Seville, OH - Overnight express

I was supposed to leave from Green Bay around 6 PM yesterday, but I just didn't have the energy to do anything. As such, I didn't leave from there until nearly 1 AM this morning. I picked up the trailer, started driving, but found myself so tired that I could only just keep the rig on the road by 8 AM. I've already told operations that this is not going to get delivered on time and that the weather forecast for overnight snow (2 to 8 inches along nearly my entire route) could further delay delivery. I dropped the trailer in case they want to have another driver pick up the relay, but regardless, I'm going to get about nine hours of sleep now. *thud*

Jackson, MS - (Not Quite) Home for the Holidays

The last time I was here in this part of the state, it took me almost three days to get a load going where I needed to go. This time, I'm up to seven hours already and there's no sign at all of freight. At least ops had the decency to send me a message telling me they were going to wait until morning to see if anything develops. So I'm getting food now and going to cal it a "night" rather early and catch up on sleep. If something comes in overnight that would allow me to get home, awesome. Otherwise, if I'm still here at 9:15 tomorrow morning, I'll collect a day of layover.

Winona, MS - Rest

For the first time in well over a week, I'm not compelled to get moving the moment I legally can! It's still in my best interest to not sleep too late (I have the alarm set for 5 AM), but at least I can afford to get a full nine hours of sleep to make up for the rest I didn't get while I was on my restart.

Since I have a bit of time, allow me to type in my recap. I thought that the zero was a restart, which still put me at 55.25 hours for the five days since then, but it wasn't. I only parked in Denver for about 31 hours, which wasn't enough to reset the clock. I haven't heard from regulatory yet, but I just sent my logs in tonight and I'll be surprised if I don't get a message later in the week about it.

Date	Hours	Last8
12	9.75	9.75
13	9.5	19.25
14	0	19.25
15	9.25	28.5
16	12	40.5
17	10.5	51
18	11.75	62.75
19	11.75	73.5

Salina, KS - Logbook screwup

I've pulled a big oops on my logs and just have to hoppe regulatory doesn't notice until I shut down tomorrow. I'll post the details then. Hee...

Salina, KS - Halfway point

I'm a little less than halfway between Denver and Indianapolis, but this was as far as I could get today. And, in reality, I went slightly over my 14 (and well over my 11) just getting this far. This leaves me 666 miles to drive tomorrow. It's a tall order, for sure, but I think I can make something work.

So why did i end up shutting down here, some 30 miles earlier than I intended? The weather. This morning, I had to drive through the Rockies. This would have been bad enough on a clear day, but I was going through at night, in intermittent snow showers, on an ice-covered road, with a 45,000 pound load. I was smoking the brakes on at least two occasions (plus probably one more, in which I smelled burning but it was too dark to see smoke), including as I came into Denver in the morning. I was seriously worried about throwing myself off the mountain; in both cases where the brakes faded to nearly nothing, I was lucky enough to be at the bottom of a downgrade. When I stopped for fuel, I parked for about an extra hour just to let the brakes cool off. Even now, eight hours later, I still smell something funny back there, so I'll have to get the shop at Indy to check it out.

When I resumed, the weather in eastern Colorado was just fine. As I got into Kansas, though, clouds started rolling in. At first I wasn't very worried - it was 45 degrees and driving in the rain is nothing to me - but as it started to precipitate the temperature plunged back to 30 degrees. And, on top of that, it started getting foggy. Freezing fog. It sounds innocuous enough, but as everything started icing up, the road became incredibly slick. So, to recap, it's raining on and off, visibility is a quarter mile (or less), and there's ice everywhere, including on my mirrors. Fantastic, hm? It got even worse after dark, since high beams just reflect all that back; visibility was just enough that I could see the road and, if I squinted, the tail lights of cars a thousand feet ahead. Thankfully, that all started to clear up before I shut down here. Apparently this kind of crap is going to continue most of the night, though, and I'll be catching up to the storm when I get moving first thing in the morning.

At least, once I get to Indianapolis, I'll have enough reasons to put the truck and trailer in the shop that, hopefully, I'll get a day (or at least a few extra hours) off. I still need to do all the math on my logbook but I believe I'll be running out of hours anyway.

Blown Fuses

This is what's left of the 20 amp turn-signal fuse that I mentioned in my last post. I'm pretty sure they're supposed to fail long before they reach this level of damage...

Ogden, UT - 575 miles to get to nowhere!

Today was one of those days that I'd really, really like to get to do over, if anyone happens to have a remote that can actually rewind time by 24 hours. I got started on time this morning and, despite a little bit of snow, made great time getting over to the consignee and dropped my trailer. My work assignment told me to pick up a trailer from that place; they only had one of our trailers and it was unsealed. I couldn't find my flashlight to take a more careful look inside, but the trailer sounded hollow and, if anything were in it, the thing would be sealed, right?

So, after finishing the rest of my pre-trip inspection, I drove down to the shipper for my next load. For the record, US 40 in Utah would be scary enough on a clear night with a full moon; I had to drive down it in heavy snow, with the road so heavily covered that I couldn't tell where the lanes were, with my driver's side windshield completely covered in ice since the defroster on that side went out again. As such, I had visibility of roughly a hundred feet, even after it stopped snowing, resulting in an average speed of roughly 25 mph for about four hours.

Once the sun rose, conditions improved significantly and I finished the roughly 250 mile trip to the shipper. The first warning I had that something was wrong was when my truck scaled out as "empty" at 40,000 pounds even; even figuring in the tire chains, full load of fuel, and winter supplies I've picked up, it shouldn't have been much over 33,000. I went into the shipping office anyway, checked in, got assigned a dock, drove over there, opened the doors... and saw the trailer was roughly 1/4 full of auto parts. Added bonus problem: air bag systems are class 9 hazmat and I didn't have placards. Needless to say, I didn't tell operations that when I called in.

After nearly 45 minutes on the phone (30 of that on hold), even ops acknowledged this was going to be a Chinese fire drill. I had to go back and return the trailer, meaning my trip through the blizzard was meaningless. Then I have to go and pick up an empty from the Salt Lake OC and pick up the load. Obviously, both pickup and delivery are getting bumped back now, especially since I'll have to put my truck in the shop somewhere to get a few things fixed.

Even though I ended up blowing my 11 and 14 by roughly two hours, I ended up taking the trailer back and parking at a truck stop right up the road. I didn't get a message from regulatory telling me that I was over on time, one of the few good things that's happened today, but I imagine that message will be waiting for me when I finish eating. While I was pulling into the truck stop, I had all my turn signal lights go out again, which meant that traffic didn't even have blinkers to ignore; getting around on the highway when you can't signal is a pain in the butt. It's just a fuse that keeps blowing, but I'll need to get some more spares when I go through the OC in the morning, just to make sure I have enough in case the problem comes up again.

So, in a nutshell, I have roughly nine hours left to get some rest, hope I can make it to Denver tomorrow, and somehow try to make Cincinnati by Friday. The last isn't going to happen, so unless the place has weekend hours, I might be relaying this off near St. Louis or (preferably) Indianapolis. But, of course, I won't know any of that for sure until I call operations tomorrow and verify what's going on. And I don't even know what's going on yet since I have to figure out where I can stop for the next two days.

Ogden, UT - Eastbound

I'm not getting out o the west coast. That's the bad news. The good news is that I have another 1500 mile run, this time to Ohio. I'll be passing through a few nice places, too: Denver, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. Not sure if I'll be stopping at any of those (though Denver will likely be where I shut down tonight if I get lucky), but at least I know that I'll be following I-70 for roughly a thousand miles.

I should probably get moving to pick this load up, though I'm on track to be more than an hour early. At least that gives me spare time if road conditions get dicey. If I get to the shipper too early, I'll take a nap.

Evanston, WY - Racing the weather

It seems like I can't get a break with the weather up here. Early this morning, part of I-80 was completely covered in ice and snow; I could just barely make out the yellow stripe on the left edge of the road and ended up finding the rumble strip a few times. Of course, this was on a five-mile long 5% downgrade. I took it in sixth gear, bouncing between 15 and 20 mph. A few drivers passed me, but I was pulling away from someone behind me, so at least I wasn't the only one worried about conditions.

That drained me a lot, though, so I used the weather as an excuse to pull into a parking area and get a couple hours of sleep. They knew that my delivery was contingent on the weather being decent, and while the weather is okay right now, the road conditions near Laramie were really dicey. I only averaged 41 mph this morning; to make my delivery on time, I'd have to average at least 49. So I sent in messages telling operations that I was going to be late; they've updated the customer and, far as we know, there's no issue with the fact I'm going to be 16 hours late.

Of course, even that assumes that conditions tonight are good. I-80 is fine right now, but it's just started snowing here and there's a winter storm warning in effect for the area I'm going into. If the highway is impassible, there's obviously nothing I can do, but I need to at try make progress on this load, even if it means I'm doing 15 miles per hour through a blizzard. I still have no idea where I'm going after this load, but I wouldn't be surprised if they wait until I deliver this one before assigning me something else, just because the weather out here is so unstable right now.

Laredo, TX - Go west, young man, go west!

Of all the places I thought I'd get routed, Utah wasn't somewhere I'd expected at all. But, as the 1,418 mile work assignment in front of me indicates, I'm heading out that way. I need to get tire chains somewhere - I'm on hold trying to figure that out now - but otherwise this looks awesome. Whee!

Laredo, TX - Zero mile run!

Today was a day in which absolutely nothing was accomplished. I arrived here in Laredo around 4:30 PM yesterday, parked the truck, and went to bed exceptionally early. It's nice catching up on sleep! I woke up... still nothing. I waited until about 12:30 this afternoon to call in and see what freight's like. Unsurprisingly, it's not that good down here; I found out, though, that they have drivers doing load saves down here to keep us from just sitting around. Meaning, in other words, they're trying to give us loads that would break up a layover.

Not ten minutes after I get off the phone, I have a work assignment come in. It was supposed to pick up here at the OC and deliver to somewhere else in Laredo. Because we're paid on book miles, which are calculated city to city, a run that stays within a single town is zero miles. Unhappy about this, for several reasons, I call in and find out that runs like that are paid at a flat $25, plus any applicable detention pay. Since this was expected to be a two hour unload, I would likely have received an additional $15 for that, bringing the total to $40. Layover pay is $90. Meaning, in other words, I would have received $50 less by working than I would have earned for sitting still another three hours.

However, note that I'm referring to this load in the past tense, not as one that I actually took. I can't refuse a load (not without risking my job, anyway), but when I got over to the trailer, there was no paperwork on it; it just had a slip saying to see the fuel desk. I went inside, talked to the people there, and found out that they didn't have the paperwork either; they sent me into the office to see who had it in there. So I went in there and not even they knew where the paperwork was at first. When I told them, rather tersely, that I needed the paperwork to move the load since it was due for delivery in the next 90 minutes (I'd lost nearly an hour trying just to find the trailer and doing my pre-trip), they looked in one last place. Sure enough, the paperwork was there... along with a note saying that customs had rejected the load and that nobody could legally touch that trailer or its contents until we had the okay.

So, all that done, I had to go out, call operations to get taken off the load (and spend 25 minutes on hold), unhook from the trailer, and find another parking space. The lot here is in such bad shape that I got stuck in gravel. I eventually got out, by playing with the power divider, dumping the clutch, spinning the tires, and generally doing all sorts of things that the mechanics would probably really prefer I not have done to the truck. However, since I did ask for help and the shop basically told me to figure it out on my own, I really don't feel guilty about anything I did there. I parked in a space that I wasn't going to get stuck in (another 75 feet from the building) and have been sitting here since.

Though operations said they'd give me another load as soon as they could, it's been about six hours and I still haven't had anything come in. I'll probably set the Qualcomm right next to my pillow, so any incoming message beeps will wake me up, but I'll be very surprised if I get something before about 8 o'clock in the morning. In any case, if I'm still here at 4:30 tomorrow, I'll get credit for another day of layover, but I'm going to call in tomorrow just to make sure that everything is in the computer. I don't want to get short-changed on pay again.

Laredo, TX - There's how many of us here?

Three long days of driving have led me to Laredo, TX. However, when I called to ask about freight, I was told there are "about seventy" drivers here waiting on a load. Operations encouraged me to update to show that I was available sooner than 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, if I wanted; I told them that I'm not going to bother because, if there are this many of us waiting here, I'll be surprised to get an assignment by 9 AM Friday. *grumble*

LaGrange, GA - (Un)professional drivers

Things were going great today right up until I got to the truck stop here. There's a McDonald's with truck parking just in front of the Pilot here; getting into both requires a left turn. I was waiting to turn and, in the driveway, a cop had pulled another trucker over. I had room to turn until a damn four-wheeler pulled right into the center of the open space, ensuring that I couldn't get around him. When he started forward, he continued to block me by pulling so close to the front of my truck that I couldn't move without hitting him. Just as the idiot finally got out of my way, the cop left and the trucker pulled into the one open space at the McDonald's.

Given that I had to wait nearly ten minutes to turn due to traffic, that put me in a bad enough mood. Going into the truck stop and finding that there's no parking at all this early at night didn't help my mood either; a truck stop should not be completely full at 5:30 in the afternoon. As I came back out, I looped around the McDonald's parking to see if a space had opened; as I drove by the space the ticketed driver had taken, he left. I didn't have enough room to get into it from the other direction, so I tried to go out and back around. Of course, another "professional" driver was blocking the driveway, blocking me in. And, of course, just as the other driver got out of my way, another trucker speeding out of the truck stop took the open space. I have a sore throat now from the string of obscenities I was screaming at my windshield.

While I was still waiting to get into the McDonald's, since I still had to use that lot to turn around now, yet another driver left. This time, I made a few decidedly unprofessional moves myself, but I'm parked in that spot right now. I'm getting out of here as soon as my ten hour break is up. I never want to see this truck stop again.

Wando, SC - Dude, where's my load?

I'm just fifteen minutes early for my appointment here, but the container worth of stuff that's supposed to get loaded on my trailer hasn't arrived yet and they don't have any idea when it'll get here. I'm just waiting in the drop yard right now until they come and get me, at which point I'll go to the truck dock, back in, get loaded, and hopefully get plenty of miles in today. My work assignment lists an average duration of two hours; I'm hoping that I can get out of here in less than three, since that ensures I'll be able to use my full eleven hours of driving time.

Still, I think that this is the first time I've ever gotten to a customer and my load hadn't actually arrived yet...

Lugoff, SC - Running on full

Looks like I'm going to have a lot of miles for the next couple of days at least. From here I'll be heading over toward Charleston to pick something up, then all the way down to Laredo to drop it off. Just under 1,500 miles. I'm going to be tired as heck the next three days but my paycheck is most definitely going to thank me. To get this done, though, I have to get up at 4:30 AM, pick up an empty from a facility just a mile up the road, then go nearly 130 miles by 8 o'clock to get the trailer loaded. It's going to be a much tighter schedule than I think they realize, but I'm optimistic about it. I just have to make sure I fill up here before I take off, since I definitely need the fuel and I can't afford to stop on my way over to pick this up.

But, rather than ramble on for a couple more paragraphs, I'm posting this and getting to bed. I might even get seven and a half hours of rest for once!

Indianapolis, IN - Snow, snow, more snow.

For various reasons - some work related, some not - I ended up sleeping rather late today. And by the time I woke up, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground and reports were coming in from all over the place warning that the road conditions were treacherous, at best.

The result? I'm 641 miles from the place I'm delivering and I have until 9 PM EST tomorrow to get there. I'll probably leave from here rather early tomorrow - hopefully by 6 AM, but maybe as early as 4 - and driving with as few stops as possible to ensure that I get there in time. The good news is that there's a truck stop at the same exit as my delivery point in South Carolina, so at least there's a pretty good chance that I'll have somewhere to park when I'm done. As for freight, there's no telling what will happen, but it'll definitely be Monday morning since I won't have any hours to go anywhere.

Monee, IL - It's a new record!

I pulled a whopping 644 miles today. I may have had to round a couple things on my logbook in my favor, but I actually didn't have to resort to outright cheating to make things happen the way they needed to. The trip up to Illinois was remarkably boring; absolutely nothing happened along the way that was even remotely memorable. I did, however, get my "appointment" moved up to 4PM today, from 4PM tomorrow. Notice, though, that I have appointment in quotes.

It turns out that the place I was going to doesn't even allow the kind of load I have to be live unloaded. Why? Because they had hundreds of boxes from thirty different vendors, all loaded haphazardly in the trailer. As a result, they'd have to unload the entire trailer, scan in every single box, sort them out since each box was likely going to a different store, then put the freight they didn't need back on the truck. The listed seven-hour unload time on my work assignment is actually unrealistically optimistic for that kind of thing. So, rather than have me put up with all that, they simply had me drop the trailer. That freed me to go to the Petro up here, where I had a nice dinner.

Tomorrow, I'm going to head to Gary to get my truck in for a PM. It turns out that I really am due for both an A (check up only) and a B (oil change) right now. Why they scheduled them so closely is beyond my comprehension - not even the mechanics were able to explain why - but it does mean that there's a pretty good chance that I'll be tied up for a while. At the absolute best, I'll lose half a day tomorrow, but given that Green Bay had a five-day wait for maintenance, I wouldn't be surprised to lose a day or two. But, in any case, I'll have to actually get over there before I can confirm exactly what is - or isn't - going to happen. Hopefully I can do so before Chicago's rush hour kicks in to high gear.

East Point, GA - Appointments? What are those?

I received several messages over the weekend telling me that this is a critically important, cannot be even one minute late delivery. So I end up busting my tail over the weekend and get moving as early as possible this morning to try and ensure that I'm not late. I've never seen traffic on 285 moving this smoothly during rush hour, but perhaps I just got through before the backups reached that part of the loop; traffic on 75 south was more trouble than I'm used to.

When I arrived here about 8 AM (eastern), I walked in and handed over my paperwork... only to be told that they don't even do appointments at 9 AM, which is what I'd been told my time was for. They say they'll get to me after the truck that is currently being unloaded. He leaves, I back into the dock, then go in to hand over my paperwork. While I'm waiting, two other Schneider drivers come up, one of whom also was told to get here at nine. They don't even have enough floor space to unload one trailer full of rolls now, much less to accommodate three of us, so I'm currently waiting for them to make room just so they can start unloading me.

Freight in the area is a bit of a question mark right now. I was told that it probably will be a longer wait today, but that I should call and ask about things when they do finish unloading the trailer. If I get some work, that'd be nice, since I could at least earn some good mileage. If not, then I might be stuck going to the Atlanta OC (eww) and probably be forced to get maintenance done on the truck since something is due to be done today. Whatever ends up happening, I just hope that I get to know about it at least slightly in advance.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Carlisle, PA - Going around in circles

Yes, I'm still in Pennsylvania. After a rather lengthy discussion with operations, I found out that my options were to either take the overweight load back to the shipper and have them rework it or be stuck here even longer. So I took it back, they took one pallet off, and I'm now about 1,000 pounds below the legal limit. I'm now heading west and have about 525 miles to go tomorrow. They set up an appointment for Saturday, so I'm hoping I can get to the area soon enough that I'll get credit for 24 hours of layover. Too tired to write more tonight but, as a result of the laundry taking forever, I have only time to get six hours of sleep.

Carlisle, PA - My trailer needs a diet

The legal limit on the US highway system is a gross weight of 80,000 pounds. The tandems (drives and trailer) have to be 34,000 or less. So when I picked up a relay at an operating center, weighed it, and had the results above, I was ... well, several things, none of which I can write about and maintain this blog's PG rating. Operations is insisting that I take it back to the shipper in the morning, meaning I waste an entire night here won't be able to make the delivery on time, on top of having to try and get used to being awake during the day again. Instead, I'm going to finish eating, call them, and tell them that I refuse to move an overweight trailer, that I'm not going to lose an entire night of driving because another driver didn't do his job, and that I want another load assigned immediately so I am not out even more miles. I'll post with the results of that later.

Ortanna, PA - Argumentative

I was explicitly told by the shipping and receiving people that I could park in this facility's driveway as long as I got as far out of the way as possible. There was another driver parked in the very same space that I am right now and, far as I know, nobody gave him any trouble for it. Of course, I did; there was a driver who works for this place who banged on the side of the truck and demanding to know when my appointment was and why I was parked here. I should have taken down his truck number and called the office to complain about his attitude. Why the heck did he think he knew something that his employers didn't?

Ortanna, PA - Nightshift

I swear, these guys are trying to run me into the ground. I woke up at 7 PM and found I had a total of fifteen messages on the Qualcomm, which is never a good sign. It turns out that I'd received two work assignments, one of which had been canceled. Of course, the one they took me off of was 400 miles longer; I ended up on a "critical" load that was only 370 miles and that - even if things went perfectly - I wouldn't have made by more than a few minutes. So I got dinner and hit the road, driving 180 miles to the shipper and arriving just before midnight. That's when things started to go wrong.

First, I followed my directions exactly, but they led me to the wrong entrance. There were no signs at all indicating that it was not the main entrance. I tried calling the customer and nobody answered the phone. I called operations, who in turn found another number to call somebody on, set up a three-way call, and only then did I find out that I just needed to go another half block up the road, over a hill. Then I received the paperwork, went with one of the yard guys over to the trailer yard (which is where I was in the first place), nearly lost control of the truck trying to go down a 15% grade on a gravel road... and found that the trailer number on the paperwork was wrong. It matched five out of six digits and had the right product on it, but that meant I had to eventually go back to the shipping office and get it corrected. More pressing was the fact that the trailer had an air leak and it took both me and the other guy to figure out where it was leaking from and a few good smacks from a hammer to fix it. By the time all that was done, I'd spent more than an hour and a half just trying to pick up the load when I could only afford to take half an hour.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful, which made it rather tricky to stay awake. At least I made it here without causing an accident; that's as much as I can say for my drive up here. The problems only resumed when I arrived at the consignee. Nobody here knew where I was supposed to go. I checked with the main office and the receptionist sent me back to shipping. I checked in there and was told to come around to the front again. I was parked and looking for a loading dock when someone on a forklift came over and led me to the docks, though there was another driver who was blocking things off. Only after a fifteen-minute wait did someone else come over to take my paperwork and tell me to back in. I'm getting unloaded now and it sounds like they're nearly finished. When they're done, I don't have any time left that I can continue working, so I get to park in the facility's driveway and take my break. Seriously, that's where they said I could park the truck. So I'll get nine or so hours of much-needed sleep and hope that I don't find another dozen or so messages in the morning.

On a better note, I was assigned to a new board. More accurately, because of how they're re-organizing things now, they seem to be splitting boards up and I ended up on a different number. I don't know how well (or badly) that will work out since the person I'll be calling is still in training for his new position and won't be ready to take calls until Friday or Monday; I'll be routed to my existing board in the meantime. There is, however, something rather odd about having seniority over my boss despite having only 13 months of experience...

Black Mountain, NC - Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I started off the night by leaving Carlisle a little later than I planned, but I made up plenty of time on the road just driving toward Virginia; by the time I stopped for fuel (when I amde my previous post) I had made up nearly an hour and, as such, was well ahead of schedule. Good thing, too, because that fuel stop cost me 45 minutes for what should have taken only fifteen. I've never seen the place that busy; there were even drivers blocking the exit driveway when I was trying to leave.

It's a good thing that I made up so much time, too, given how the weather conditions deteriorated. As I continued south, then east, the wind picked up significantly, until even with a 42,000 pound load I was getting blown out of my lane. And, in the last 30 or so miles, it started to snow. I couldn't believe it, considering there was no snow in the forecast, no forecast temperatures below 35°F, and my dash said 40°F. But, sure enough, the distinctive swirl of snow was on the road, making conditions even more treacherous. For some reason, my truck was handling badly enough in the (freezing?) rain up near Carlisle, but the snow made me reluctant to exceed 45 mph despite the posted speed limit of 70. I got here about an hour and a half ago and, in that time, the snow has just gotten heavier and heavier. It's blowing sideways, too, which makes me very nervous, since I'll be leaving here with a completely empty trailer. The nearest truck stop that I know of is roughly 18 miles away, so it'll be a bit of an adventure to try and get there.

They're done, so I need to post this and scoot. If anything happens worth writing about, I'll make another post before I go to bed.

Troutville, VA - Midnight Motion

For reasons that defy logical explanation, all six lanes of the Pilot are in use. I've been waiting on one to open for ten minutes now. Why on earth is this little place so crowded at this ungodly hour?

Carlisle, PA - All bundled up and nowhere to go

It seems like things just haven't been working out with work. I got a work assignment that, had it come in a few hours earlier, I could have made the pick up Friday evening and parked at a shipper. Instead, because I was told to just find "any truck stop" I ended up going 250 miles in the wrong direction. Specifically, I went to the nearest place that I knew would have parking because dispatch hadn't given me any information on a load, then I got an assignment to go up to Philadelphia after I'd already gone down to Norfolk, VA. Had they bothered assigning me that two hours earlier, I could have earned two full days of layover; instead, I get about 42 hours. I'll still be catching up on sleep, at least.

After I get out of here tomorrow morning, I'll be going down to North Carolina. The delivery appointment isn't until Tuesday morning, so I still have some time to spare, but I do want to get down there so I don't have to get up exceptionally early for the appointment. I just hope they can find me something better than this soon, since 550 miles in three days is not very productive.

Temperanceville, VA - Nowhere to go

Turns out that they're not going to be able to get me a decent load after all. In fact, this is a first-come-first-served market and there's a long list already. The only concession they made is that I can drive to any truck stop that I have enough logbook time to get to and will get paid for it. Good thing, too; Ruther Glen, VA is the nearest truck stop with more than 20 spaces and it's 197 miles away from here. So I need to close the laptop now and hope I can make it there within three hours, forty-five minutes, or else I'm going to be over my 14. I don't even want to think about my 11; if I've used more than seven hours of driving time so far I'm screwed no matter what.

Suffolk, VA - Quirks

Been a weird day so far. Woke up an hour late due to neglecting time zones. The place I needed an empty from insisted that I be in and out within 15 minutes. Found rolls of wrapping paper in the trailer along with a lot of trash. Misread a road sign and "accidentally" took the right exit. Going to chance a 13'6" tunnel since the detour adds 240 miles. All this and it's not even noon yet...

Ruther Glen, VA - Where's the mileage?

As I was driving down the road, I saw a message come in about me needing to relay something, then a "work assignment change" message. The last one almost always means that a load got canceled or something otherwise went very wrong. Instead, in this case, I was supposed to take it to a truck stop to relay it off to another driver, as I posted earlier. When I got there, I found out that he'd only just arrived a few minutes before I had, not that he had been waiting several hours as I was told on the phone by operations. So that's one strike against them.

Then, once I unhooked from the trailer and waited for a fuel lane to open up so I could fill the tanks, I looked at my work assignment and growled at the Qualcomm. Rather than getting something good to make up for the fact that I'd lost 200 miles, I got something that requires me to pick up an empty trailer 120 miles away, take it 20 miles to get it live loaded, then just 109 miles to drop the delivery. Strike two.

I then attempted to trip plan it out, though one thing was almost immediately obvious: even though I said I would be available at 6 AM, which has proved to be exactly accurate, I would have to leave no later than 5:30 to have any chance of picking the trailer up on time. Strike three.

So I called support shift to complain, ask why I was given such a horrible load instead of being rewarded by getting something good, and ask to either be pre-assigned a load immediately following this one or, even better, get taken off of it and assigned something else entirely. They insisted that this was a critical load and that, if I didn't pick up and deliver on time, it would cause factories to shut down. Given that I'm only bringing in a load of pallets, I find that hard to believe that the absence of my trailer would be more than a minor inconvenience. He also said there's freight in the area, but that he didn't know what I'd be assigned and that he wasn't able (or, more likely, wasn't willing) to pre-assign me something to at least ensure I don't continue to get screwed over like this. The only good news that came out of the conversation was that the pick up time isn't critical, though I still need to get there as early as I legally can. Making the delivery never was a problem, since I have twelve hours to spare on that end.

For lack of any other solution to this situation, I'll be calling operations tomorrow while the trailer is getting loaded and probably taking someone's head off. Can you do that over the phone? I'd rather like to see video of that sometime. But if they don't find me a good load - preferably at least a thousand miles - I'm going to have a few choice words for people.

Mount Jackson, VA - U-turn

Another driver his an "emergency" and I have to relay my load off to help him get home. If it's an emergency, why are they making him wait on my relay? I also lose about 200 miles as a result of this, if they corrected everything in the computer; I'll be out 400 miles and be showing a lot of out-of-route otherwise. They owe me for this.

Carlisle, PA - At least it's not New Jersey

So I delivered the load this morning and, as expected, traffic in New Jersey was terrible. The closer I got to Newark, the worse things got. It's quite hilarious now, but at the time it was all I could do to avoid screaming obscenities in tongues at people. Seriously, I think I would have started swearing in Swahili if I had to stay in that state much longer. The best moment of it all? Seeing cars go five wide in a section of highway with two lanes without even using the shoulder. That move doesn't even work in NASCAR so I was stunned to see five non-professional drivers manage to pull that off without anyone colliding with anyone else.

It also took quite a few tries to get my load picked up. The guy couldn't find the paperwork for my trailer, nor could he find anything matching my load number. So I went out to the truck, called operations, complained about the traffic, and scared them because I never get worked up as I was this morning. That five-wide traffic comment made both of us burst out laughing; what else can you do about such insane drivers? I was sent about fifteen different numbers and basically got to go play bingo with that. The shipping office's response? "You know what you can do with those numbers? ... Nothing." Given that he left that sentence hanging in the air for about three seconds before finishing the statement, I was bracing for a typically New York area response, the sort of thing that would likely cause a sailor to blush. It turns out, though, that the information I had the first time was right; the other guy working behind the counter had grabbed the paperwork and nearly handed it to another driver for a different company. Oops. So after all that, I went to their other yard a mile up the road, picked up the trailer, and came here to Carlisle.

As I'm still trying to get back on any sort of rational sleep pattern, I'm not going to deliver this load tomorrow. Instead, I'm planning on stopping in Charlotte, taking my break there, and hoping to somehow coerce myself to get out of bed at around 4 AM. Even writing "out of bed" and "4 AM" in the same sentence makes me cringe, though it could be worse; I had to run today at 3 AM and that on less than two hours of sleep. I just wish it weren't so cold, since I still don't have a heater in the truck. It's ten degrees below average so I'm not just complaining for sake of complaining; this really is unseasonably cold. At least it'll be warmer once I get south, if I don't freeze something off tonight.

Naples, NC - Circles

Tonight was an exercise in frustration, if nothing else. My next work assignment came in during the afternoon... a 2 PM live load at a location about 80 miles from where I was unloaded previously. The problem is that, at this time of morning, parking is all but impossible to find. I tried three truck stops along the way before just calling support shift, exasperated with the situation. Rather than acknowledging that, if I couldn't find a stop that was directly along the way I'd not be able to pick the load up on time, the moron on the line insisted that I could go 45 miles out of the way to take my break and still be on time for the load. I hung up after I asked him to explain his math and got this answer: I'd be ready to drive at 1 PM, be 67 miles away, and still somehow be able to make the pick up on time.

So I started driving and hoped for the best; I figured that if I didn't somehow find something along the way, there was a truck stop about 15 miles past the shipper that I could use. I really, really hate having to go 30 miles out of the way, but even my last-ditch solution was better than anything support shift had come up with. Instead, I lucked out and found a place directly on the way with a large gravel lot that had some room to park. I am on break now and, even better, am only a few miles from where I need to pick this thing up tomorrow. So, when I come off break at 1:30, I'll have half an hour to go nine miles. I'll then have most of the afternoon to drive and probably will shut down at the Carlisle OC tomorrow night. Getting to Carlisle would be over 550 miles, so it would certainly be a productive day if I can get that far. Of course, the way things are going lately, "if" is the key phrase here.

Valdosta, GA - Northbound

Just about ready to get out of here. I'm a little behind schedule, at least relative to what I'd intended to do this evening, but it really doesn't matter. I'm less than 400 miles from where I deliver this load and my delivery appointment isn't for another 24 hours. I'll pick it up tonight and possibly stop in Atlanta, just since I can get a free shower there, but I might continue on toward where I'm delivering. Either way, I just hope they can find me something after I deliver this, since I really don't want to have to try find a place to park the truck at 1:30 AM on Monday; parking at that time of the morning is nearly impossible.

Valdosta, GA - Ahead of the game

I had a 2 PM appointment here and they were ready for me. Instead of this taking 3.5 hours like Izd been told, it looks very probable that I will be out of here within 20 minutes. I think they're done unloading and just need to take care of the paperwork now. Of course, this only helps if there's any freight out here.

??? - Excessive safety

This place is so anal retentive about safety that I had to watch a seven-minute video on the subject before they'd let me in the gate. The guard also wouldn't let me walk 100 feet back to my truck without wearing a hard hat and wrap-around safety glasses. I just "love" it when policy triumphs over common sense...

Laredo, TX - Finally, something

Because of the kind of load I'm on, I don't want to go into specifics, but I have something to pick up tomorrow and deliver on Friday. It's a nice, long run too, though I do have a reasonable amount of time to deliver it. If I've planned it out just right, I should have roughly eight hours to spare in case something happens or (more likely) I just want to sleep in on Thursday or Friday morning. For now, though, I'm off to bed and have a 7 AM wake up call coming from the front desk.

Laredo, TX - Nowhere, slowly

As expected, freight is terrible. All the bobtail parking is taken; presumably, all those drivers are waiting on loads. There are about 15 people inside here alone. So I drove the seven miles to drop the load and get back to th OC. Now I get to wait a day (or more) to see if they can find some loads.

Laredo, TX - Next to the border

I can't say "south of the border" for obvious reasons, but there are plenty of places in Mexico that are further north than this. Of course, the place I was supposed to deliver to is closed on the weekend and we don't have any freight, so I just had to take a layover. I honestly am to the point where I want to work; I've had so much time off lately that I don't even know what to do with myself. However, freight is always bad down here and things are exceptionally soft nationwide, so I've a bad feeling I might be waiting quite a bit longer to get something. At least the hotel they use here is decent; they have a security guard on site so I don't have to worry about anyone in the neighborhood causing trouble. But for now, I'm off to bed; if they did find me a load I want to be able to run all day tomorrow.

Baytown, TX - Same place, different day

I was originally given an assignment telling me to drop this load as a relay in Houston, then pick up a load from there and take it to Laredo. However, I could barely sleep last night so I was nearly eight hours behind schedule; I finally got to sleep around the time I'd originally intended to wake up. When I did wake up, I found several messages asking me why I hadn't moved and telling me that the other driver was waiting. So I called in and made a very simple suggestion: have the other driver pick up the relay I was supposed to have and let me continue down to Laredo with my current load. Nobody gains or loses any miles and the other guy isn't stuck waiting for me. They seemed rather dumbstruck that I had such a simple solution to the problem.

I would have continued into Houston to take my break at the operating center, but traffic on I-10 was terrible once I got close so I stopped about ten miles early at a truck stop here. On the bright side, I was able to get dinner (and won a free burger from McDonald's in their Monopoly game) and watch a bit of TV, both things I would not have been able to do at the OC. I'm taking it somewhat easier than I should, but given that we never have enough freight coming out of Laredo and things have been particularly soft the last six weeks, I'd be shocked to find a load ready for me when I get down there. At least, on the bright side, I should have some decent miles coming out of there simply because there are few places that aren't at least a day's drive from the border.

Hammond, LA - Here we go again

Operations actually seemed worried that I disappeared for a few days. They took me off the load I was previously assigned but gave me another load with comparable mileage. Hopefully they'll keep me busy now.

Evergreen, AL - Failure to communicate

When I came back to the truck Tuesday, I had a load to be delivered by noon on the 10th. I took that opportunity to go home and take care of a few personal matters (including casting an absentee ballot). When I returned to the truck this morning, however, I saw that my delivery had been moved up to the 8th by 6 PM. That message came in on the 7th at about 5 PM, several hours after I had left.

So the took me off the load and asked me to call in. I dd so, explained the situation, and they seemed to understand. At least I won't have to try and get home again before my vacation in November; I took care of everything I needed to do at home over the next six weeks. Now I just need a new work assignment - hopefully one without several days to kill - and I'll be on my merry way.

Atlanta, GA - You just hit MY truck?

Yeah, that subject line is right: I had a driver from the Sure Wish I Finished Training transportation company hit my truck. I was waiting to make a right turn; he came along and made a right turn coming toward me and the front corner of his trailer hit my driver's side mirror. It cracked the plastic housing for the mirror enough that I can't get it back into place and will likely need to resort to duct tape to hold everything together. This after a rather frustrating time at a customer; I absolutely hate it when the guard doesn't speak enough English to even tell me where I'm supposed to drop my loaded trailer or to find the empties. Took me an hour to do something that should have taken twenty minutes.

In any case, despite all the irritations, I'm still about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. I was making killer time on the highway today (I was averaging 59 mph until I hit Atlanta) so that cancels out the problems I had here in town. I plan on getting a shower and getting to sleep as quickly as I can, though, since the sooner I get moving the sooner I'll make it home tomorrow. And it is very nice to get home at least once in a while.

Middletown, TN - Something Special

The route to get to this place was... an adventure, to say the least. A narrow road with plenty of potholes. I hit one and worried I broke my steer axle; a quick inspection in that area showed no immediately obvious damage. So now I'm just waiting to get loaded. Since it's loose boxes, I really have no idea if they're even working on my truck, but it sounds like there's something going on back there.

While I was waiting, I also called operations to find out what happened about the first customer I picked up from, since they had several concerns. Ops is going to contact customer service and pass the information along; they should take it more positively coming from my board instead of directly from a driver. I also found out that I'm doing incredibly well in every category that they measure: insanely low idle (I was actually encouraged to "live it up a little" since 2.5% was so low), excellent service, better than 7 mpg, and extremely low out-out-route mileage. He said he needs to get back to me to find out just what I'm doing right, whether it's simply a matter of paying attention to detail or some special technique I have. I can't say that I've any particular technique, though it is very, very good to hear that I'm doing so well.

Russel, IL - Ahead of the game

I'm so, so thankful that September is finally over. I don't know why, but somehow, now that the blasted month is over with, things seem much better. That might have something to do with a few things going on outside of work, like getting those extra days off, but things seem genuinely good right now. Of course, assignments are as frustrating and misleading as ever: the first pick up for my current load was scheduled to be picked up tomorrow, any time between 7 AM and 5 PM, at a customer that allowed parking. In reality, they weren't planning on being ready for me until 9 AM and do not allow drivers to park. However, this is October! A wonderful new month! Instead of just telling me off and leaving me to complain to operations, they actually worked me in and loaded the trailer immediately. I was there less than 30 minutes.

So I'm at a TA just south of the WI/IL state line and am two hours into my break. I plan on getting moving as soon as my 10 hour break is up and making the second pick up stop for this load. I may then take my break in Indianapolis and just make it a half day (to catch up on sleep) or press on and try to have three 10+ hour days in a row. Both options certainly have their appeal, especially since the harder I run the better my assigned runs seem to become. However, before any of that can happen, I need to get the seven or so hours of sleep I can manage before it's time to resume working. :)