Warm weather and a long weekend...

I got my load at the shipper in Huntsville, AL on Friday evening at around 2000 and got about 3 hours of driving done and found a place to park just north of Chattanooga, TN. At first I thought I would try to park at the Loves, but that wasn't going to happen. At 12 midnight there is pretty much no chance of finding a parking place at major truck stop. So, I looked across the street and saw a total dump of a truck stop and went there. Their parking lot was a gravel mess with pot holes big enough to swallow pretty much the entire truck. I got to the back of their lot and just drove up behind another truck that was parked on the front line of trucks. I figures they would be long gone when I started driving in 10 hours and I would be able to drive straight out. I was lucky, that's what happened.

I started driving around 1000 in the morning, which is really late for me, but I usually don't drive until midnight. I got fuel in Dandridge, TN and ate the KFC buffet. I can't imagine buying KFC at regular prices when you can get the buffet for $6.95 and eat all you want. Anyway.

I drove for another 6 1/2 hours and got to the Home Depot Dist. center in Winchester, VA. That was a pretty simple drop and hook. The only thing of note was the lot where they had the empty trailers had no lights. It was darker than dark there. I mean, zero light. That's pretty strange because most places keep their lots lit so vandals and thieves don't mess with stuff. They had all their tractors used to deliver to the stores parked in this lot also, so it's not like they had no interest in keeping it secure, but I guess lights cost too much money and insurance covers their losses if there are any.

I drove about 6 miles up the road and parked at the welcome center just inside the WV border. My next load doesn't pick up until monday morning at 0900. It's going to be a long day tomorrow. If it's nice maybe I'll sit outside and read one of my books. That's all for now!

Preloaded Dream!

When the Qualcomm says you have a preloaded trailer that's a good thing. For the third time this week I have that message only to find that there is no preloaded trailer for me. Oh well.

I did a drop+hook this morning at the Target Dist. Center in Madison, MO. That's a few miles east of Huntsville. That went smoothly. Only about 20 minutes from the time I hit the gate to the time I was leaving. That's the way it's supposed to work.

I went to the closest truck stop, a Pilot, about 6 miles south on I65 and got a shower and something to eat while waiting for my next load. My next load came in around 10am saying to pickup a preloaded trailer in Huntsville at 4pm. I did what I always do and called the shipper to see if it would be ready early and was told that I was dreaming if I thought that my trailer was going to be loaded at 4pm. I asked when they thought it would be loaded and they said that maybe by 8pm. Grrrrr. That throws off the entire trip timing.

I have to have the load in Westchester, VA by tomorrow evening at 6pm. That's not going to happen unless I get several hours of driving done tonight. It's about a 12 hour drive. Maybe longer in my truck governed at 60 mph. I am getting my 11 hours of drive time back at 630pm this evening so I can do some driving tonight, but I will have to do another 10 hour break. That means my delivery time will be around 9pm in Westchester.

Oh well. Like I said, a "Preloaded Dream!"

Traffic and Electronic Logs

I started my day in Harrisonville, MO. I picked up the trailer I had left at the shipper the night before and after scaling it to get the 45,500 lb load right on my axles, I headed north to shoot across I-70. I'm scheduled to deliver Friday morning near  Huntsville, AL.

Everything was going fine until I hit Nashville right at evening rush hour. It seems that everytime I go through Nashville, no matter what time of day it is, the traffic is crazy.

Normally this wouldn't matter but I was down to 1 hour of drive time on the electronic logs in my truck and I needed to find a place to park for the night. I was at an absolute stop and I switched the computer to show me as "on duty" not "driving". I was able to save some minutes that way. I think I idled about 2 miles in 20 minutes and the computer didn't show me as driving. By doing that I was able to get to a TA just south of Nashville with 1 minute left of drive time. Then I got to squeeze into a spot in the back of the lot. It's really crowded here. Normally I would have gone 20 miles down the road to a rest area, but with the electronic logs, I can't do that.

I have about 2 hours left to drive tomorrow and them I'll hopefully do a drop+hook and have another load lined up. 

It's been a few years,,,

It's been nearly 5 1/2 years since I attended CDL school. If you are interested in that, you can click on the link to 2006 and see those posts.

I have spent time driving OTR and several local jobs so I have seen a lot of different views of the truck driving industry.

I personally like OTR because of the freedom it offers. As the driver you are responsible for getting the load to where it is going. You decide how you are going to drive the trip and as long as you do it legally, safely, and the load gets there on time, you have done your job.

Local driving is a different beast entirely. If you are lucky, you work "normal" hours and show up to work early in the morning and spend the day picking up and delivering around whatever city you are working in. You will probably have up to 14 different stops a day and you will spend alot of time driving in traffic. Then you go home and get up and do it again the next day. Did I mention you will have a manager or boss telling you what to do all day long.

You might end up working food service. Food service delivery is physically hard work. Two wheeled dolly through the snow, rain, and if you are lucky, sun. Up to 500 lbs on that dolly and you hand stack each and every piece. You make a lot of money, but your body pays the price. You will also probably be working mostly at night. That makes family time really hard. Your family and friends will want to do things on your days off, but your body will still be wanting to sleep during the day and you will be really grumpy. Then when you get on the same schedule as the rest of the world, it's time to start your work week all over again. Not Fun!

Just some thoughts.

That was a Disaster! Back at Roehl!

Well, here is a quick summary of Shepherd Enterprises. How many log books can you carry? Seriously in the 3 months I was there I never once had a load that I could run legally.

Here is a sample.

I get a dispatch to leave Denver on Thursday evening around 7 pm. I have my first delivery Sunday morning in southern NJ.  Never mind that if the weather is perfect and you shave your logs a bit, it's a very tight run. It's Winter and frozen precipitation seems to like dropping from the sky. That makes this run nearly impossible. Unless you just don't sleep and don't care about the safety of anyone else on the road, then it's easy.

So I deliver in Vineland, NJ, Hawthorne, NJ and Long Island, NY on Sunday, then at 0400 in the morning on Monday I start my day delivering on the Lower Westside of Manhattan. Then I have a delivery in Brooklyn and another in the Bronx. Ok, then I get the tyrailer washed out and run up towards Albany and pickup a load to be back in Denver on Wednesday evening. Anyone see anything wrong with this situation. Insane! Unsafe!

So in the 2nd week of February I called Roehl back and said PLEASE rehire me! Thankfully they did and now I'm happily back at Roehl running in their Van National fleet.

I'll probably be much more diligent about updating this blog as I will be on the road with internet access through my Blackberry connected to my computer. The last time I was on the road I didn't have that.