WEEK TWENTY SEVEN
Monday, June 30th through Sunday, July 6th
I could have started this Monday morning as early as 3am, but this load had a lousy 1pm delivery tomorrow and I only had a little over 700 miles to go. I could get it there earlier, but there wasn’t enough down time to justify a TCall and there was no point in pushing, so I just decided to take it easy for the next day or two. If nothing else, it would be a nice change of pace. I slept in and took a nice leisurely drive across MO and called it a day in our Indy yard. I could have made it another 100 miles or so, but I had a White Castle craving and oddly enough, there happens to be one just down the road from the yard. I’ll admit that a 9hr day is nice, but I can’t help feeling like I’m wasting my time sitting around.
Once again, Tuesday was a day that I could have gotten an early start, but in order to time my delivery (I had specific instructions not to arrive more than an hour early) without starting my clock too soon I sat in the yard until 8:30 and headed out. With a short stop at a rest area I managed to pull into the receiver at exactly 12 noon. One hour early. I said hello to the guard and then proceeded to wait 35mins to finally get a door assignment. In the mean time I passed my time by reading the many “notice to drivers” signs stuck on the wall. The one that really scared me was the one that stated “Live loads can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, please be patient. We will let you know when you are empty” or something to that horrid effect. I had hoped to get away with a drop and hook, but it was not to be. I headed on over to my dock and hoped for the best with somewhat of pessimistic outlook. Tire loads are just about the worse load you can have when it come to unloading. They are loaded on the floor and must be unloaded by hand, one at a time.
The only thing I had going for me was that this was a Goodyear plant and I had to assume they were properly staffed and proficient at unloading.
The end result turned out to be quit acceptable for a tire load. They finished up in just over two hours and I was ready for my next load offer.
I was expecting a load of pet food out of Obetz just up the road and that’s what I got. I was only given a one load offer, but it was a good one. A preloaded trailer that picked up anytime today and delivered anytime Thursday (or earlier) to Opelika, AL (687mi). If I had the hours I would have had it there Wednesday afternoon and been ready for my next load. Unfortunately I was on the verge of running out the last of my 70 hours for this week and would have to find a place somewhere between here and there to put in for a reset.
With that in mind I headed on over to the shipper and got my trailer and made my way out of town. As soon as I got onto the loop on the south side of Columbus I started hearing something about the interstate being closed. The problem is I didn’t know what interstate or what direction. After a few tries I found out that I-70 east bound was closed down just east of town and was causing one hell of a mess. I was grateful to be heading south out of town on I-71. Dodged quit a mess there, sometimes luck is with me.
As I was going down the road I was checking my available hours and trying to find an acceptable place to waste a day for my reset. I really wanted to make it to Knoxville where I knew I could drop the trailer in our yard and allow me to make my way around town via bobtail (thereby, greatly increase my hotel options). Along with the fact that there are plenty of restaurants to choose from and it would also give me a chance do a little shopping and catch a movie or two. But wanting is not the same thing as doing. I simply didn’t have the hours to make it there today. My early stop over in Indy last night has just bit me in the ass. If I had run out the rest of my hours yesterday, I would have been able to make it to Knoxville tonight. This just reinforces my “run as far as possible” mentality.
While I was contemplating an alternate layover spot I once again heard a faint CB report from the distance that the interstate was closed. This really was nothing new at this point; I had been hearing numerous reports ever since I had left Columbus. Something about this report, however, struck a different cord. I could swear I heard something about southbound this time. I-70 runs east and west, someone must have been confused. A few minutes later I once again heard southbound and this time it was load and clear. Sure enough, not only was I-70 shut down, I-71 was having its own share of problems and I was headed directly into it. So much for my “Good Luck”. Apparently there was a horrific scene down the road and a helicopter had been called. My driving hours were getting tight for the day and I couldn’t afford to lose any driving time to sitting in traffic. I grabbed the atlas and started looking for alternate routes. There were a few viable options, but from what I was hearing on the CB, most of them were getting stopped up with overflow traffic from the interstate. I also learned that it had been shut down for a while and the helicopter had just left with its passenger from crash site. I had plenty of time left on my 14hr clock so I pulled into a Flying J and waited for the mess to clear up.
This gave me some time to finalize my destination for the day and make sure I could get a hotel room in the area. An hour later the news came down the pike that the road was once again open, but still backed up. These reports were coming from drivers that had passed the scene of the accident 30 minutes ago. Combine that with the 30 minutes it will take me to get there I figured there would be a very good chance that the traffic would be moving by the time I got there. Off I went and the traffic was indeed flowing unabated by the time I arrived at the reported crash site. All was well once again and with the exception of a slight delay getting through Cincinnati (nothing new about that) I ran out the rest of my hours and settled in for my reset in very exciting community of Corbin, KY. Not my first choice, but it’s where I found myself when my logbook said stop.
Wednesday was a boring yet restful day in the comforts of a nearby hotel and before I knew it my reset was over and I started my Thursday as soon as I could in order to drop my trailer as early as possible and get a start on my next load. I still had 400 miles to go and after a 7min fuel stop in our Marietta yard I managed to make it to the Wal-Mart DC by 2pm. My drop/hook went quickly and I put in my MT call and waited for my fate.
My concern was that this was July 3rd and that makes tomorrow the 4th. No one is open on the forth and I could only assume that I would be getting a load that delivered on the 5th or later. That would be fine if I got a high mileage run, not so good if I got stuck with a short haul. I wasn’t exactly being optimistic about my chances.
A few minutes later I was actually given a choice of two loads. The 1st was preloaded and ready to go just up the road with a final destination of IN (420mi) with an anytime drop. Yes, this is a short run, but the kind I love. Not a second of wasted time and I would be empty early tomorrow and ready for my next load in a solid freight area. Under any other conditions I would have jumped on this load, but as it where, I would be dropping this load on the 4th with a very strong possibility of no freight availability once I got there. There might be freight, there might not. I didn’t want to take that chance and that left me with load option 2. It was a live load (yuck) 100 miles away in Birmingham and going to Ardmore, OK (858mi) with an anytime drop on the 5th. The big problem with this load was that it wasn’t scheduled to load until 9:30pm. Not good because it was currently 2:30pm. I had started my day at 7am, which means my 14hrs will be up at 9:00pm. My live load is 30mins after that. Well, I can drive after 14hrs, but that doesn’t mean I can work after 14hrs. I’ll make it work.
One other contributing factor to my choice; I was looking forward to finding a 4th of July celebration somewhere along the way and enjoying a fireworks show. I figured I’d have better luck driving around in TX and OK as opposed to central IN.
I headed toward the shipper with my always hopeful optimism at getting loaded early. If they would do this I would have plenty of time to put some miles behind me and find a place to park for the night. If not, I would have to find a place to park nearby.
As I approached the shipper I realized I had picked up a load here over a year ago and that one was a drop and hook (I also remember that trailer had a blown air pod on it that another driver stuck me with). Even though I had an appointment loading time, it isn’t unheard of to find a loaded trailer waiting. My hopes where high but the result, not so much; this was indeed a live load, but not all was lost. Even though I was over 3hrs early I was actually given a door to dock too. At least I will be loaded before my 14hr clock expires.
Or NOT!
Even though I was allowed to dock early, it did nothing to expedite the loading process. As the minutes turned to hours I decided to crawl into the sleeper and watch a movie. As scheduled, the loading began at precisely 9:30 and a mere 2hrs later the process had come to an end. My 14hrs also came to an end long ago, but as luck would have it there was plenty of room for overnight parking and at least I didn’t have to deal with that problem. I didn’t bother setting the alarm and took off when I awoke in the morning. No real hurry with this load.
Well, what do you know? It’s Friday, July 4th and the country is celebrating a national holiday and I’m ready to spend the day driving, ugh!
This was one of those loads in which I was given a fuel routing that was along a “practical mile” route, interstates the whole way but after checking the route on Streets and Trips the paid mileage was based on a less than practical and more direct route of mostly two lanes. In short, my fuel routing would have resulted in 70+ out of route miles, so I went ahead and took the two lanes. This made for slower progress, but what the heck; I was in the mood for some sight seeing today. My only problem was that I would need to get some fuel at an unauthorized fuel stop along the way and this being a holiday meant that I would have to deal with weekend dispatch. I opted to not bother them and pulled into a Pilot and put in 50gals. Just enough to get me where I was going, a shower and a small enough amount to avoid getting a phone call for unauthorized fuel purchase.
The rest of my Friday was spent meandering across some of our finer southern states and came to a close in the fine community of Paris, TX. I had hoped I would be able to find a good fireworks display but I could find no info on such an evening. I actually had a little time left on my clock and knew that the Choctaw’s had a couple of casinos across the state line and I was sure they would have something going so I jumped back in the truck in the search of show. I was rewarded with a fairly good steak dinner and a first rate fireworks show (OK, second rate, but not bad for the middle of no where)!
Saturday started with me being a little more than an hour away from my drop and I was empty and awaiting my next load offer by 6am. This particular time had concerned me since I took this load. I figured I had little chance of getting a load on the 4th, which is why I took the load that delivered on the 5th. But loads weren’t exactly plentiful today either. A half hour went by without an offer and I finally broke down and sent a message asking for a load. That went unanswered for another 40 minutes before I sent another message that was eventually answered with a “low on freight, will let you know when we have something”. This wasn’t an entirely unexpected turn of events and I didn’t get too wound up about it, I just kicked back and awaited a load.
After 5 short hours (I wish I would have known that earlier so I could have slept in, and not started my 14hr clock so early) I got a single load offer. At first glance I was none to happy with it. It was a load that was scheduled to PU anytime tomorrow. What a waste of a day this turned out to be. But I quickly realized it was a preloaded trailer (I assumed this) at the Goodyear plant in Lawton, OK. It had to be a preloaded trailer. I was at this very shipper just last week (yuk, another tire load). This being a holiday weekend, it also meant that this very trailer has probably been sitting here since Thursday and that 5 hours I just spent lounging around in my truck could have, in all likelihood, been spent in a more productive manner. Oh well, that’s truck driving. I could only assume that since this load wasn’t scheduled for PU until tomorrow that it had just come up in the system for dispatch. I’ll give them the benefit of doubt on this one.
Not only is this load picking up at the same shipper, but it’s going to the same receiver just outside of Columbus and once again it has a mid-day appointment delivery. I know how this is going to work; no early arrivals and a 3hr unload. Crap! One more stroke of good luck to top it off. It wasn’t scheduled to deliver until Tuesday and this is Saturday. That’s a nice run of 1113 miles, but over 3 ½ days. Holy Crap! I’m going to be hell bent on Tcalling this load. There is no way they can expect me to sit under this one. In all honesty, I’m not too worried about it. I have little doubt that I will be able to drop this in Indy or Columbus.
So off I go to get my trailer. I’m greeted by the same pleasant lady that I dealt with last week and she even remembered me “Hey, I know you, weren’t you here last week?” Sure is nice to work with people that don’t hate life. I went through the normal routine and was headed down the road within a half hour.
Thanks to my extended wait for a load offer this morning I was somewhat limited on available hours for the day but was just able to make it to Tulsa for the night and parked at yet another casino, sure are a lot of them in OK. This was a bit frustrating because if not for the wait, I would have been able to drive far enough down the road tonight to make it possible to reach Columbus the following day. But as it worked out, I would have to settle for Indy as a final destination Sunday night and work on a Tcall from there.
Sunday was just a good old fashioned day of solid driving and I made it to Indy with time to spare. All I had to do now was dump this load. I was still in the position of dealing with weekend dispatch and decided to wait until the morning to tackle that little obstacle.
Another week is history and I find myself in the exact same place that I spent Monday night. Just one big loop. Do it again!
WEEK TWENTY SEVEN RESULTS
Monday, June 30th through Sunday, July 6th
Miles include deadhead
Joplin, MO to Lockbourne, OH (final leg)..................................... 710mi
Obetz, OH to Opelika, AL................................................ .......... 687mi
Birmingham, AL to Ardmore, OK................................................ 858mi
Lawton, OK to Indianapolis, IN................................................ ...926mi
Total Paid Miles............................................. ..........................3181 Miles
Actual Miles.............................3231Miles
3181 miles x .42 = $1336.02
Charged for OOR fuel?
