The Adventures of MatCat

[matcat]

I have my blog, which I really need to post too, but I think I want to have a CAD one as well, considering it is nice to read replies and such, plus on here it is all drivers, so the audience is different.

Anyway, sitting, sitting, and more sitting!!! I HATE SITTING!

The way things are going with this new guy, I am not liking it very much. He wants to have way too much control over things. Every friggin load I got to stop by in NJ and sit. I hate it!!! Not to mention he only likes running up and down 95! Case in point, my first load by myself I picked up in Bethlehem, PA, had to come back and sit in NJ for a few hours, I would of much rather just ran straight up to Maine for my delivery. Ran up to Maine, delivered, and he friggin met me up there! Another friend of his ran out of hours and he teamed with his friend to help get his friend to Maine on time, and jumped into the truck with me after getting up there. Sat for a day and a half in maine, got loaded, with a non-reefer LTL going to Miami, but it doesn't deliver until Tuesday, trying to find another LTL (20 foot or less if anyone wants to look for me :P), so we came down to NJ and again... sitting.

Now he knows I don't give a rats arse about home time or sitting in NJ, and will let me run to wherever I want, but only if there is a friggin backhaul to NJ!!!

I really want to be completely OTR, not this type of crap . But I must do what I must do.

[matcat]

Sofar things are not going very well . I ended up taking an LTL load from Maine to Miami, delivered without a hitch. Was supposed to load near lakeland, but the storms in Florida kept all the farms too soggy so I sat for a few days for nothing. Ended up loading near Vidalia, GA, with you guessed it, onions, going to Boston. All was well until I hit Virginia! I had my weight as close to legal as possible, was 700lb over on drives, scale house gives me an overweight ticket. So I continue on up. I went up 81 to 84 because I didn't want to deal with 95, so while in Waterbury, CT about 2 1/2 hrs from delivery, and 3 hours left to get there for the appt, I get pulled over (12:30am). I was coming down a hill, and granted I was going a little faster then 65, partially because I wanted some steam to help get over the next hill. MY speedo and GPS said I was at about 75, his laser said 81?!?! So I got a frickin ticket for doing 81 in a 65! I will be calling a trucking lawyer today on that, I cannot afford to get that speeding ticket on my record. THEN 10 minutes later, I went to go to exit 28 to go to the TA there and get some fuel, I was running REAL LOW, I missed the exit, so I figured no big deal, I can take exit 30 and take a back road there. Well right after getting on said back road, I ran OUT of fuel, literally a few blocks from the truck stop! I tried taking some fuel from the reefer, but the wing nut was broken on the drain valve, so I couldn't get the drain valve to drain any out . TA charged me frickin $293 to come out a few blocks and put 30 gal in! Load finally got delivered at 10am yesterday morning.

Needless to say, right now I am pretty bummed out. That speeding ticket is the last thing I needed, and now I gotta fight that, I can't just pay it. Because of the following too close ticket from the accident in 08, that would be 2 major moving violations in a 3 year period, which is a 60 day vacation . Plus the cop only gave me 19 days to handle it!

[matcat]

Ohh on the plus side, the cop did a very thorough check of my log book, and only thing he could bitch about was that I hadn't updated it in the last 23 hours :P Said 6 minutes later and he would of had to give me a 10 hour OOS.

[Ridge Runner]

Matcat,


I hate to sound the way I do but you are your own worst enemy. The speeding and the over-weight were your own doing. I know you were in a tight spot and needing work, but you brought that on yourself.

In short: you might need to look at another line of work. You seem to lack the judgment skills that one needs to survive in this industry and in life ( and death ), as this could kill you or others.

I have read your "story" and I commend you with trying to make it work. But this is no industry to do your "testing".

I do wish you the best but I will also say to please get out of trucking, as you do yourself, and US no good by staying in it. It reflects poorly on all of us.


Ridge

[matcat]

Matcat,


I hate to sound the way I do but you are your own worst enemy. The speeding and the over-weight were your own doing. I know you were in a tight spot and needing work, but you brought that on yourself.

In short: you might need to look at another line of work. You seem to lack the judgment skills that one needs to survive in this industry and in life ( and death ), as this could kill you or others.

I have read your "story" and I commend you with trying to make it work. But this is no industry to do your "testing".

I do wish you the best but I will also say to please get out of trucking, as you do yourself, and US no good by staying in it. It reflects poorly on all of us.


Ridge

I respect your reply, but I disagree.

First point, the overweight load, Loaded at a place that had a scale, that was completely off! Scale said I was legal, barely, and there was no certified scale anywhere close, so I just trucked on until I got to one, and I did scale out before getting the ticket. I got it as legal as possible, ended up being 11,780, 34,720, 33,995. Overweight ticket has no bearing on me or the company, it is just a $74 fine in the companies name.


Now as far as the speeding goes, yes it is my fault. But I certainly wasn't putting anyone in danger as I was just staying with the flow of traffic, which happened to be 2 cars. I let myself pick some speed on that hill (my speedo was 75 on both gps and speedo, I was watching it because I didn't want to go any faster then that), and only reason I was going that fast was to get up the big hill in front of me.

We all make mistakes, do something stupid, etc etc etc. My biggest one was my accident over a year ago, I learned from it, and keep myself out of situations that could make it happen again. This speeding ticket is going to be a major pain in my side, but I refuse to let it take me down, and I will be using drivers legal plan to help me with it, although I am not a member at current, which means it is going to cost me, but I must do what I must do, and again, a lesson learned, I will stay within 5mph of the posted speed, even if it means I end up doing 30mph up the hill, Oh well.

Please don't take my reply as arrogant, I know it sounds like that after reading it myself, but I worked too hard, and put too much into this career to let it slide away from me.

Life has a funny way of bopping me in the head when I get too comfortable, so I just need to adjust myself, and take responsibility to take care of it.

[1lowpete]

Do you have a sliding fifth wheel? If so, you are allowed 12,500 on your steer tires..you could have been legal that way..

[matcat]

Do you have a sliding fifth wheel? If so, you are allowed 12,500 on your steer tires..you could have been legal that way..

No this truck has a fixed 5th wheel

[matcat]

Talked to two different lawyers today, one from Drivers Legal Plan (Which I am not a member), and one from TixFix, which is an agency that handles traffic tickets mainly for 4 wheelers, but also truck drivers.

Drivers Legal plan says they have had 79 cases in that court, and all of them got dismissed, including one driver who had an 80 in a 65, a reckless driving, and a following too close ticket. They want $500 to handle it, the lawyer from TixFix wants $300, who is a CT local, and says it should be easy to get it dropped, if not changed to a non-moving violation. I am waiting back from him to hear some statistics on his past experiences with speeding tickets and truck drivers.

Sure wish I would of become a member of drivers legal plan, would of only been $100 instead of $500! Not that I am going to let another time happen, but just in case I will be becoming a member.

For the moment though if this $300 lawyer can take care of it, I will use him, he is a local and probably has a good repor with the judge considering all he does is traffic violations.

[Mackman]

Matcat just keep on trucking. Like you said **** happens to the best of us. I would just try to slow it down.

I never do 1MPH over the limit. Just not worth it. As you just found out.

Anyway please keep posting and sharing your story's i like reading it. I do have alot to add but since i suck at typing i will keep it to my self. Plus i never drove OTR so i cant say anything about that.

[freebirdrfd]

matt, i was gonna come on and ask about you tonite. don't give up, but like you said, you have to slow down. that's why sometimes i'm glad i have a 65mph truck. you may not like your job but it pays the bills for now. the next time you get up to chelsea give me a shout. i'm either in the market or directly behind dunkin donuts ( just outside the gate to the market ) a few times a week usualy around 7 or 8 a.m. keep on trucking brother

[mike3fan]

I never do 1MPH over the limit. Just not worth it. As you just found out.

Interesting advice coming from someone that gets paid by the hour, no?

[Mackman]

Interesting advice coming from someone that gets paid by the hour, no?

Yes i do get paid by the hour. So that does help give me motivation to do the speed limit.

But even if i got paid % or CPM i still think i would not do more the 3-5 over. They way i look at it all the time lost if you get pulled over and the ticket just wouldn't make up for the speeding.

[matcat]

I would like to clarify I was not speeding for the purpose of getting there faster, just to pick up momentum to get me over the next hill! If I get to the bottom of the hill at 75, I can get back up the next one and still be doing 60 to 65 by the time I get to the top, if I hit the bottom going 70, I crest the top at about 50 (which means I would of had to downshift)

[dobry4u]

I would like to clarify I was not speeding for the purpose of getting there faster, just to pick up momentum to get me over the next hill! If I get to the bottom of the hill at 75, I can get back up the next one and still be doing 60 to 65 by the time I get to the top, if I hit the bottom going 70, I crest the top at about 50 (which means I would of had to downshift)

Guess you can't use gravity any more .... it gets you into trouble

[jd112488]

if you were not speeding to get there faster then why would you need extra speed to get up the hill? you are in no hurry, so what does it matter how fast you are going up the hill?

[Ridge Runner]

if you were not speeding to get there faster then why would you need extra speed to get up the hill? you are in no hurry, so what does it matter how fast you are going up the hill?

Oh God!! I agree with JD!!! Sure many of us "push" it sometimes but we are NOT in your shoes. You have NO room to "play". Get some solid driving experience behind you and build on it.

If ever 'forced" to pull a load that you know is illegal make them put it in writing. ( QC ). You have the law on your side. Use it!!!! To the full extent.


This weekend I will extend on this topic in a new thread. I have to sleep now.



Ridge

[matcat]

if you were not speeding to get there faster then why would you need extra speed to get up the hill? you are in no hurry, so what does it matter how fast you are going up the hill?

Let us be realistic here, just because I wasn't trying to speed for the purpose of getting there faster, doesn't mean I am going to casually lug up hills either. Maintaining speed was my only goal, to keep from having to shift if I could do something that would keep me from having to.

[dobry4u]

Let us be realistic here, just because I wasn't trying to speed for the purpose of getting there faster, doesn't mean I am going to casually lug up hills either. Maintaining speed was my only goal, to keep from having to shift if I could do something that would keep me from having to.

Matcat, the posted speeds are for a reason. Giving tickets for not obeying is "one" of the risks. You took the risk and lost. I would think your goal right now would be to keep your nose clean and be employable... and SAFE!

[matcat]

Matcat, the posted speeds are for a reason. Giving tickets for not obeying is "one" of the risks. You took the risk and lost. I would think your goal right now would be to keep your nose clean and be employable... and SAFE!

Hey, I'm safer then a box full of explosives in a fire!

[dobry4u]

Hey, I'm safer then a box full of explosives in a fire!

I wuv you