Yeah, but I'm self conscious and am afraid no one would read it. Would hate to put all my time into something that would just languish in cyberspace. Besides, I'm an old timer, I remember the days when you had to write your own programs if you wanted to do anything on a computer. Believe it or not, there was a time when you couldn't buy programs.

By the way, whats a blog anyway? :lol:

yepp evertrucker its time you wrote a book...great reading your posts. and i dont even drive a 18 wheeler

Dont believe a word of it....he is the Minister of Propaganda for Crete.

I checked the Management Chain of Command Ladder and sure enough there he was..... :shock:

AW Tom, that hurts. I never pegged you for someone to start spreading lies.

I wish I was a management Minister dude, at least I wouldn't have to sleep in the back of that stupid truck every night. But then again, I suppose they would make me live in Nebraska if I was one of their office peoples.

And there is no self respectin' Iowa raised boy like myself that could ever do that with a clear conscience . It's bad enough having to drive a "Big Red" truck.

Go Hawkeyes :!:


OH yeah, did you find that perfect job yet. I thought you were sittin' happy with the last one. Back and forth and home all the time.

Oh yeah..nothing like a nice winter morning in Lincoln.....when I was there for orientation they were bragging about the fact that it was going to be 12 degrees that day...twice what it was the day before....oh yeah.

Wow
 

Minister of Propaganda=Truck driver

2008
WEEK SEVEN
Monday February 11th through Sunday February 17th
---------------------------------------------------------------

I’d like to start out this weeks update with a quick look at my final thought from last weeks update. To save you the trouble of going back, here it is;

“With that in mind, I'm not feeling too good about next week, don't know why. Guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.”

Maybe it wasn’t as prophetic as it seems on the surface, after all, I was making the final stop of my load in the middle of Washington state and it’s no secret that freight can be a little hard to come by. What, with so many prominent trucking companies in the state that seem to have a strong hold on outbound freight. Companies like Interstate, Market Transport, Gordon and May. So I must say I wasn’t too surprised at what turned out to be a very ominous start to the week.

Here is what happened.

Monday was basically a non-event day as far as truck driving goes. I had the good fortune of being allowed to bump the dock the night before and wait to be unloaded in the morning. This was done very quickly once the morning crew arrived at which time I was allowed to park the truck behind the store for the remainder of the day. This turned out to be immensely accommodating since I had zero time left of my 70hrs. I would have been looking at a log violation otherwise, although I probably could have found a place to hide close by.

Once empty, I found myself with nothing to do and since I was only about 3 miles from the airport I headed over and got myself a rental car, hunted down a low cost hotel through Priceline and spent the rest of the day doing a bit of sight seeing and enjoying a real bed for a change.

Tuesday started with a quick 150 mile hop over Snoqualmie pass to deliver the last of my load to a Home Depot in Yakima, WA. I sure wish I could have made that trip during daylight hours. I’ve driven through that pass hundreds of times in the past, but never have I seen as much snow in those mountains as I did this day. Even though the sun wasn’t up yet, there was enough moonlight to get some idea of the shear magnitude of snowfall from this winter’s storms. Apparently the pass had just been reopened Sunday, prior to that it was closed because of avalanche hazards. After my delay getting across Wyoming, I was thankful that I didn’t get held up here also.

The depth of the snow along the highway was truly amazing. The lack of light was very disappointing; it would have made a great picture with my truck parked next to a wall of snow higher than the trailer. There were actually many places where the snow was significantly higher than the semi trucks and it wasn’t because the snow was pushed up into piles by the road crews. The snow up there is cleared with snow blowers instead of plows, so you end up with what is basically a snow wall along the road. Looks like that part of the country has its’ drought problem under control for a while. They should have snow melt feeding the lakes in the area all summer long. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to go that way again before the winter is over.

Back to work. The Home Depot delivery was a live unload and was finished within an hour or so and I sent in my MT call and hoped for the best. I had heard a story or two about our drivers being stuck up here without loads and knew that there was a chance it would take awhile to get a load out. I actually had a funny feeling that I wouldn’t be getting a load out until the next morning. As a matter of fact, I just put the truck in gear and headed over to the Gear Jammer truck stop and found a place to park instead of waiting at the customer for my next load offer.

By the time I made it to the truckstop the Qualcom had a message waiting for me. Sure enough, I’m told, “low on freight, check back in 3 hours”. Oh noooo….. it’s started.

I dutifully wait the prescribed 3 hours and send in a hopeful message asking if anything had popped up yet and wait. It takes about 20 minutes (definitely not a good sign) to get a response. I am informed that they are working on it and to give them another hour. At this point I know that the day is shot and I am now just hoping to get a reasonable load out of here sometime in the morning. After my hour is up I sent in another message and it is answered within a couple of minutes with a load offer. It’s a single load offer that is an early morning PU the next day in Portland and delivered to San Bernardino, CA (1375mi) on Friday evening. I’m thrilled because I can make it to PDX tonight and get loaded in the morning and be on my way. Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, I was worried for no reason at all.

As I was entering the information into the Qualcom to accept the load it beeped. “I wonder what that could be, a bit of extra info on the load I imagine.” I sent off the load acceptance and then read the next message. OK, now I’m confused and concerned. I don’t like the new message, “no loads worth while left today, check back first thing in the morning”. There goes my happy-go-lucky feeling.

A quick message or two between myself and dispatch confirms my fear. Apparently they sent the load offer to me by accident; it was suppose to go to another truck that was supposedly sitting since yesterday. Looks like I’m about to experience my first ever day of layover with Crete. It’s been 1 ½ years, so I’ll take it with a grain of salt and head on over to Outback for a steak dinner. Tomorrow will be a better day, I hope.

As 6am rolled around on Wednesday I sent a message off to morning dispatch inquiring about a load to get me moving. All this garnered me was yet another “low on freight, check back in 3hrs”. OK, this is not going to be a good day. A second request at the appointed time resulted in an identical disappointment and a third appeal was shot down with a “check back at 5pm”.

I’m not liking this one bit; I was expecting a delay in getting a load but this was starting to spin out of control. Finally, at 5pm I was sent a 2 load offer. The first one was a early morning PU the next day somewhere around Spokane and delivered to Idaho (600mi) the following morning. Load two was an afternoon appointment PU just north of Portland the next afternoon (Thursday) and had an appointment delivery Monday morning in Kansas City, MO (2006mi). Now, a 2000+ mile run is always nice but I’ve already been sitting here long enough and if I take that load I will basically be looking at 2 full days of layover. Not to mention, if I take load 2 I will have it there by Saturday night if I push it and will again be sitting around waiting to make my delivery. The last thing I want at this point is another 34reset after just 2000 miles. However, if I do take that load there is always the chance that I can TCall it in our KC yard and get something going out Sunday morning. There are too many ‘ifs’ attached to that load.

The first load, although shorter is the better bet for me since I can start driving now and get close to the shipper by tonight. That way I will have plenty of time to make it to the consignee and deliver first thing Friday morning in hopes of getting another load out and make some attempt as salvaging this week. One nagging thought is that I will be empty in Idaho on a Friday and be risking another layover during the weekend. I haven’t run up here enough to know what the freight availability is. Even if I do get a load on Friday there is a good chance it won’t deliver until Monday and if it’s a short run I would once again be looking at additional unwanted downtime.

I weigh my options and decide to take the first load and hope for the best when it came time to get another load. Shortly after sending in my load acceptance I started having “buyers’ remorse”. I’m really worried about getting stuck in Idaho for the weekend. Although not likely, I wouldn’t have been at all concerned if not for the seed of doubt that had been planted in me due to my last two days in wonderful Yakima. Oh well, it’s done and I await my load information so I can get going.

Moments after this the qualcom starts beeping and I assume that it is my load assignment, but I am once again thrown a curve ball by dispatch. What I am greeted with is another load offer. This time it was just the KC load that I was wishing I had accepted and the Idaho load was no longer an option. This is very odd and not something that I have seen before. I’m beginning to wonder about our North West dispatchers, they seem to be a little schizophrenic. It actually worked out to my advantage, but I’m not exactly overjoyed by their rapid mood changes up here.

With that there is no hurry to go anywhere; the load doesn’t PU until tomorrow at 15:00 and its only 3hrs away. Couple that with the fact that parking isn’t exactly plentiful in the Portland area I decided to wait until late morning the next day to start driving. That confirms it, just over 2days, a 50hr layover. As bad as it was, it was compounded by the fact that I had just spent the last 35 hours sitting in Seattle just prior to this delivery leaving me with a grand total of 150 miles for the last 3 ½ day. To be fair, I had just come off a 4000mi week and didn’t have any hours available for Monday anyway, but the downtime just exasperated the entire ordeal. I’m ready to pull my hair out; I’m just not used to sitting around this much.

Thursday is finally here and I am anxious to get started after my unwanted downtime. I have a 3+hr drive ahead of me and decide to take off an hour early so that I can stop at a Pilot on the way to take a shower. I’ll be taking Hwy 97 over the mountain pass and it’s just a short hop across the Columbia River to the Pilot at Biggs. This sounded like a great idea at the time but halfway across the pass I see a sign that informs me the bridge will be closed from January through June or something to that effect. Not happy, I really wanted that shower and now I’m going to end up at the shipper 2 hours early instead of 1. Generally speaking, this is early enough to get you sent away. As a counter measure I stopped at a pullout that overlooked the Columbia (always an awesome sight) and took a ½hr break (just what I need, more time off). By the time I finished driving along the winding Hwy 14 that hugs the banks of the Columbia River Gorge I arrived at the shipper a little more than an hour early and was ever so slightly reprimanded for showing up too early and then directed to the loading docks. Two hour later I was loaded and ready to go.

During the loading process I had run the number and determined that if I drove out the rest of my hours for the day I would be able to get within a 1400mi range of Kansas City. If I could accomplish this I would be able to make it to our terminal in two additional driving shifts which also means that I can have this load in our yard by late Saturday night. This is important to me because if I want a serious chance at Tcalling this load it needs to be there Saturday. That way I can contact dispatch with a message telling of my whoas in Washington and throw a gilt trip of having my load here on Saturday and it doesn’t deliver until Monday (only1½ days, but Sat to Mon makes is sound worse than it is), another 30+ hours of down time, I have no miles, can you help me, etc.

If I don’t run out the rest of my hours tonight, I won’t get close enough and will not make it to KC until Sunday around noon and it just isn’t as easy to Tcall a load that delivers early the next day. If I’m going to show up that late I could just as well shut down for the night a few hours down the road and get back onto my regular day schedule, but I’ve done enough sitting around lately. The problem with running my hours out for the day is that I will be running late nights, not my favorite shift, but if that’s what needs to be done, so be it. Nights it is; I make it just past Boise, ID and shut down around 2am in a prime position to make it to KC Saturday night.

Due to my late shut down time I am not able to get started until Noon on Friday (I hate these hours) and get going. I never did get around to my shower yesterday and stop at a Pilot just down the road. This had been my original destination for last night so that I could take a shower then, but I ran out of hours before making it. I generally make it a point not to stop for things like this during my 14hr clock, but I wasn’t about to go another mile without cleaning up, even though I planned on spending the night at a Pilot in Laramie, WY.

Once I was feeling like a human being again and driving down that road I started taking a look at the miles ahead to determine when I would be in KC (I should have, and normally do, thought about this earlier). I’m not thrilled with what I come up with. From where I am, I will have no problem getting to the yard by Saturday night. The scenario I had failed to consider prior to my shower brake was this; If I get to KC and am not able to finagle a Tcall I have just enough time to shutdown at a truckstop just north of town and maybe fit in a 34hr reset by the skin of my teeth. That means I have to drive out the rest of my hours for today and all of tomorrow without any stop of more than a minute or two (other than a fuel stop, and even that will have to be a quick one). I won’t even have the option of going to the yard to take my break. Not that the terminal it a grand place, it beats a rundown truckstop. If I had just waited until tonight to take my shower I would have had that valuable hour to play with. That doesn’t mean I can just head over to the terminal and forego my reset, but there is no way I’ll pass up a reset if I can fit one in.

The remainder of Friday and Saturday are tedious at best with nothing but driving nonstop and zero spare time available. Wyoming is strangely wind free, barely even a gust with the exception of a short strip west of Laramie and Nebraska was just as awe inspiring as always. My self imposed tight schedules seem to be non stop lately, much more so that usual anyway. I can ordinarily fit in a short reprieve, but once again, not on this trip. Sometimes my ambition for resets tends to get the best of me.

I was able to make it to a truckstop one hour north of KC after driving the last two hours in near freezing rain (31 to 32 degrees) and shut down. I was now in a position where I could spend 34 hours here and make my delivery 15 minutes late. I hate the thought of my first late load, but I’m not going to miss out on a reset over 15minuntes and it will be close enough to avoid an actual “late” delivery (I hope).

So here I sit at the truckstop with 1 hour of drive time left. “Time to see if I can dump this load.” If I don’t this will be my worst week ever with Crete and leave me with just under 2100mi. Eeww, I sure don’t like the sound of that. I send off a message to dispatch that goes something like this. “I’ve had a very bad week, sat for 24hrs between stops on last load, drove 3hrs and sat for 2 1/2days after delivery to get this load, am now just north of town and delivery is over 30hrs away. Is there any chance of a Tcall in the KC yard so I can PU a load in the morning to keep me moving, let me know if you can help me out, THX”

To be honest with you, I didn’t expect a positive response and had already resigned myself to the fact that this week wasn’t meant to be. Seven minutes later I got a message “when can you be in the yard”. Holy cow, they are actually thinking about it. I’m amazed and send in a message that I can be there within the hour or by 8am the next morning. Fifteen minutes after that I get a green light to bring the trailer to the yard along with a load offer that is a D/H PU first thing in the morning on the other side of town and a message “Can you deliver this on time”. Hot damn, and it’s a 1500 mile trip on top of it. There are a couple of big drawbacks however, it’s going to Montana and is an appointment delivery early Tuesday morning (very tight schedule). Looks like another trip across Wyoming (I’m starting to dislike that state). A quick run through and I see that I can make the appointment time, but just barely. I’m looking at maybe a 2 hour window for the unexpected. What could possibly happen between KC and Montana this time of year? I accept the load and head off to the terminal (the weather isn’t getting any better). Once there, I drop the trailer and head into the terminal to do a little laundry and make dinner (I’m not sure Mac n Cheese counts as a ‘dinner’, but it fills me up). The weather is not good; very cold and raining with ice starting to form. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Well, I’ll tell you what it brings. Another absolutely terrible day of driving on poorly maintained, slush, ice and snow packed Missouri roads. I was afraid to peak out of the windshield when I woke up Sunday morning. I had been jostled from my sleep a few times last night by a good stiff wind and the sound of frozen rain bouncing off the truck, so I wasn’t too surprised to see 2-3 inches of so called snow, sleet or whatever on the ground.

I still had an hour or so before my 10hr break was up and decided to go into the lounge for a little coffee. There was 3 other driver in the room chit chatin’ about the weather. The weather channel was on and it looked like the whole area was getting a good dose of Old Man Winter with snow on top of freezing rain from the night before along with occasional wind gusts in the neighbor hood of 30 MPH to keep things interesting. One of the drivers had just come down from the north and said once I made it past St Joseph it all changed to wet roads. The TV was showing that I might have to deal with snow in Omaha by the time I got there, but it wasn’t a sure thing. The other two drivers had already contacted dispatch to tell them the weather was too bad and they were going to sit it out for a day. Neither one was questioned about their judgment and where granted a new delivery appointment. Crete is very good about that from what I can gather, I just headed out the door to go get my load. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow or wind, (something like that). I was actually offered employment as a mail carrier by the USPS a few months after a placement test back in 2002 or so. Can you believe I had just gotten a dedicated route in the PHX area and decided to pass up the postal job? That proves I’m dumb enough to be a truck driver.

How easily I get sidetracked, anyway, what made it all the more interesting is that there were no empty trailers (except for the 5 that the shop had redtaged, although all they needed was a simple PM service) in the yard. Thanks to budget cuts the shop is no longer open on Sundays to do a service on one of them I had to bobtail across the middle of KC on roads better traveled while attached to a trailer (preferably loaded). I am suppose to drop an MT trailer at this customer prior to picking up a loaded trailer, but that wasn’t really an option today and I know from a previous PU at this customer that I can get in and out without dealing with a guard to catch me bobtailing in. I don’t like doing this but my load is on an incredibly tight schedule and this little storm is doing nothing to help out the situation.

After crawling over to the shipper and doing a quick PU, I was on my way and anticipating another thrill packed drive across Missouri’s ice covered demolition derby track, otherwise known as I-29. True to its’ nature there were cars in the ditch everywhere, just like last week. I can’t believe I drove across Nebraska just yesterday and it was almost 60°. The difference in the roads this week over last is that although the roads were awful, it wasn’t as bad for trucks as cars. The main reason being that the snow was very wet today and was actually forming very deep slush groves that were building up between the tire tracks (or whatever you call them). And when cars tried to cross the build ups they would loose control and take a little trip into the cable barriers. There were also very deep and rough ridges from the frozen slush and partially cleared ice chunks. All in all, a very rough ride for truck, but navigatable to a patient driver. Not that there wasn’t a truck or two having a bad day. The amount of cars having problems was far more numerous though.


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...cker/slush.jpg


One sight I found to be very amusing and perhaps indicative of why Missouri road crews have a tough time cleaning the roads. Can you tell me what’s wrong with this scene?

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ucker/plow.jpg

There were numerous stretches of roadway that could have been cleared of very deep slush by one simple pass of a blade. The roads would still be hazardous, but at least cars wouldn’t be hitting these walls of slush that were just sling shoting ( I don’t know if that’s really a word, but I’m going to go with it) them into the ditch. Oh well, just another day on the big road. I’ll just twiddle my thumbs and whistle a happy tune.


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../carditch1.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../carditch3.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../carditch5.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../carditch4.jpg



That debacle lasted for about 70 miles or so and then suddenly, all was clear, not even wet roads for most of the day and life was good with the exception of an extremely stiff head wind and some very shinny roads in the west side of South Dakota, “Look, I can see my reflection in the road!". I had all of 13,000# in the trailer and it felt like I was pulling 45,000# and I had to deal with it all day long. I’ve can’t seem to grasp the phenomenon that dictates no matter what direction I’m going when a strong wind is blowing, it will never be a tail wind. Kind of like standing around a glowing campfire and being choked out by the damn thing no matter where you try to sit down. I wonder if it’s like that on Earth 2. Some of you might get that insider. It’s a linger longer kind of thing.

Well, the last day of the week has once again come around and found me sitting in a rest area on the west end of South Dakota. I’m in position to make my 8:00 appointment delivery on time next Tuesday morning; however it is going to be far tighter than I like (Missouri’s little snow fit didn’t do my any favors). As a matter of fact, once again I’m looking some solid blocks of non stop driving with good ol’ Wyoming just ahead.

As bad as this week started out I managed to squeeze out an extra run and turn it into a respectable effort. Not the greatest by any means, but I did run just short of 4000mi last week. So who am I to complain? Again, this is why I don’t let the bad days upset me anymore. No, I defiantly didn’t care for all of the sitting around earlier this week, but I don’t get upset. I just kick back and see what happens.

Drive safe everyone!



WEEK SEVEN RESULTS
Monday February, 11th through Sunday February, 17th
Miles include deadhead

Tukwila, WA to Yakima, WA..............................149mi
Camas, WA to Kansas City, KS.........................1998mi
Kansas City, KS to Wasta, SD...........................674mi


Total Paid Miles............................................. ....2821 miles
Actual Miles.......................2789 miles

I was paid more miles than actual miles this week because I took a short cut to my Camas, WA pickup.

2821mi x .42 = $1184.82

Evertruckerr:

I just wanted to say thanks for your contribution. Posts like this can help give new (and all) drivers a sense of what takes place during the course of a week and in much more detail than just responding to a few questions.

Thanks evertruckerr! I always enjoy reading ur posts. I like hearing about ur personal encounters and everyday happenings on the road. You definately have Crete's sytem figured out! How many years is it that you have been with them? I thought at one time you were gonna go tank yanking? Thanks for keeping us informed out there!

Holeshot wrote:

My pleasure, besides, it's a great way to pass time during my resets :P


Hamboner wrote:



I don't know if I could say that I've "figured out" Crete's system, but I've tried to narrow it down as best I can.

I've been with them for about 1 1/2yrs.

I did considerer tankin', but came across a bit of a stumbling block, nothing I couldn't have dealt with, but I decided to pass on it. Plus it would have meant taking a paycut of around 10K/yr as a trade off for some extra hometime. Considering how well things are going at the moment with Crete I felt I would be better off sticking around. I may go to regional in the future with Crete so I can get that hometime. I'll start thinking about it when I hit my 2yrs with Crete. That way the regional pay will be more acceptable to me.

My trainer just started touching on some odds and ends regarding working the system at Crete (or in general). Doesn't seem too hard, but going around the qualcomm seems to help at times.

Why is it the regional southeast runs avg. a higher salary than running system? I am taking that info from the crete site. I figured that system would offer longer runs enabling one to earn more miles. I believe the southeast regional says the avg. is about 65,000.

Which shortcut was that? 97 south to the river, then west along the northshore of the columbia to Camas???

Or were you adventurous and took highway 12 west over White Pass to I-5, then south to I-205 to WA500, then east to Camas?

LOL..Only 2 realistic ways to Camas from Yakima..south to the river or west over White Pass.....I know, I know..yes..you could have taken I-82 south to I-84 then west along the south shore and crossed the river at I-205...but really!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Huh?
 

I went west along the northside and saw a sign that said that it was like 13' and went back across to the southside west. Fun fun.

Re: Huh?
 

Vans and Reefers run the north shore all the time. That 13' is actually 13"9" if I remember right. I never worried about it because I was either in a tanker that was 10'9" in height or pulling a flat/stepdeck through there.

Hardest part of the road, is the fact that it is all 2-lane, winding and narrow. But still a nice drive during the daytime...if your not in a hurry and moody.

Re: Huh?
 

||

Oh ok, then I should have just ducked as I went into the tunnels. :shock:

2008
WEEK EIGHT
Monday February 18th through Sunday February 24th



Monday starts out with me sitting in a rest area along I-90 on the west side of South Dakota. A quick glance through the windshield lets me know there is a fresh inch or two of snow on the ground. Considering the fact that the roads weren’t in the best of shape (covered with a very shinny coat of ice) when I stopped for the night, I wasn’t at all surprised by the worsened condition that I found the roads to be in this morning.

This not only means that I once again will have to contended with crappy road conditions, but now am looking at a time schedule that will be tested to the limit because things are going to be slow going on these road.

So I am looking at an 11hr drive day with one stop for fuel and maybe a stop or two of no more than 2-3 minutes. This must be done in order to fit in a 10hr break and drive the final 200 miles to the customer and make it there by 8:00am.

My Monday morning drive is anything but enjoyable. The roads are slippery and the going is slow. Once I make it to the fine state of Wyoming things just got worse. The roads were terrible and I felt more like an “Ice Road Trucker” than an OTR driver. I don’t know about the other drivers out here, but I sure am ready for this winter to be over with. I’ve already had more winter driving this year than normal and don’t see an end in sight. As a matter of fact, I’m very much annoyed when I start wandering if I’m going to have to deal with these roads all day long.


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...badwyroad2.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...badwyroad3.jpg


Three hours into it and I still don’t see an end to the snow and icy roads. There is an occasional car in the ditch, but not as many as you might think. The drivers up here seem to have more respect for the conditions and drive accordingly. Another 2 hrs down the road and some rather tense muscles bring me to the Wyoming POE. Nothing stops the DOT up here. This is a time when you don’t want to have a load that has you anywhere close to an #80,000 gross. Here’s what happens, you scale out somewhere down the road and you find yourself at #79,500 or so. Everything is good and your axel weights are legal. Well, then let’s say you drive on snow and ice packed road for a good 4 hours and them come across an open scale. Suddenly you find that your truck now weighs #82,000+ pounds and the scale master calls you in for a little chat. The result of that friendly conversation was evident by the two drivers that were crawling around under their trucks with hammers and knocking snow pack off of any surface possible.

Calk it up to another joy of winter driving.

Down the road I go again into more fun times. Over the next hour I come across two trucks sitting in the road. One was a three way Drive-Away rigging that just came to a dead stop in the middle of the right lane. He didn’t even make the slightest attempt to pull off onto the shoulder. It must have shut down without any notice to the driver. Sure is a bad day for something like that to happen. I got on the CB and let the trucks behind me know what lay ahead. Sure would have been nice if that Werner driver up ahead would have done the same for me.

The other lane blockage I came across was a CRST truck that had his tractor in the middle of the right lane and his tandems hanging off of the right shoulder. Not quit sure how he managed that one. The tractor usually hits the ditch first, but he managed to accomplish the opposite. At least he kept the thing upright.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ucker/crst.jpg

Just as the frustration of the endless bad road was really starting to set in (I really wasn’t looking forward to these conditions in the Montana mountains), the weather began to break. Within another ½ hr I was looking at blue skies and dry roads. What a relief that was, it had been an exhausting morning and the carefree driving on dry pavement was a sourly need reprieve.

Due to the weather my time table was severely affected and I was only able to make one more stop for the day, and that was to get fuel. I was lucky and able to pull into the last unoccupied fuel island at a Pilot, fuel and be on my way in 6-7 minutes. This running 100% legal can really be a pain in the butt at times.

The rest of my day was spent driving across beautiful Montana and enjoying the view. Winter defiantly takes a toll on the scenery, but the snow capped mountains are enjoyable. Even if there isn’t all that much snow on them this year, especially on the east side of the state. The scenery improves greatly as you approach the west side. The end of my day finds me at a small truckstop featuring a McDonalds across the street for my dining experience (I think I’ll stick with ravioli tonight) and within 200 miles of my delivery in the morning. Looks like I will make my appointment time.

Wednesday has me rolling at 5am (my time) and headed north on Hwy93 toward Kalispell. For those of you that are not familiar with the area, Kalispell is just southwest of Glacier National Park and fairly close to the Canadian border. The scenery up there is phenomenal, and once again I find myself driving around in the dark with nothing but moonlight to show me the sights. I was really disappointed as I drove along Flathead Lake. The views were stunning, but the sun was just rising and there was not enough light to take a picture. What an absolutely gorgeous part of the country. Too bad its winter most of the year around here.

I was making descent time until I hit downtown Kalispell. My directions took me smack dap through the center of town (I don’t think there was an alternate) and endless lights and traffic (their version of rush hour). By the time I made it to the customer I was running about 15mins late, but after getting there I realized this was the least of my problems. As I started getting closer to my destination I began to develop doubts as to the validity of my directions. But these had to be right, the Qualcom directions were clear and my GPS lead me to the same place. The problem was that I found myself on a very narrow, thinly paved asphalt road and parked in front of an old, run down double wide trailer in a very rural area. “Oh Lord, how am I going to get out of this mess.”

A quick precursory assessment of the property led me to believe I was definitely not in the right place. There was a medium sized garage on the property, but no where close to being large enough to hold the entire load of insulation that I had, not to mention a quick peek through the window proved this was nothing more than a cluttered garage.

A previous call to the customer had resulted in an answering machine and subsequent calls were no more successful. I had left a message and my phone number, but nothing was getting results. I knew there was no point in contacting Crete, they would just be calling the same numbers. Well, it’s time to start pounding on the door of what I can only assume will be some unsuspecting and grumpy, recently awoken individual who happens to own a very large dog (prints in the snow around the property).

My repeated (and uncomfortable) knocking is finally answered by a portly gray bearded gentleman with a rather confused look on his face (and a very large dog at his side ,grrrrr). He opens the door and Mr. Big Dog comes out to investigate, “nice puppy”, and a pat on the top of the head. He turns out to be a sweetheart, the dog, not the tired, half asleep resident who wants to know why a stranger, in the middle of the Montana country side, is pounding on his door at this early hour. A short conversation ensues and I learn that this is the customer's father-in-law and although deliveries used to be made here long ago when it was a smaller business, deliveries are now being made at a different location. Good and bad here, at least I don’t have to make an impossible back into a residential driveway, but know I have to figure out how to get out of this neighborhood.

A few minutes later I am greeted by a young gentleman who instructs me to follow him to the new shop. After a tight turn or two and some concern about an overhead wire I find myself backing into their shop and the garage door being closed. There is no dock to back to, just 6 guys ready to go. I must say, they are a motivated bunch and have the entire trailer hand unloaded in less than 40 minutes.


Now it’s time to send in the MT call and I have a good idea of what to expect. On my way through town I was checking out the surroundings for a place to park (to my knowledge there were no truck stops in the area) and had spotted a vacant lot about 5 miles back. Since I was in a building when I sent in my MT call the single couldn’t get through, so I pulled out and headed for my preplanned hiding place. This should give dispatch time to respond. Yeah, right.

Once I pulled into the lot and after almost getting stuck in the 4 inches of snow that covered it (not much traction with and MT trailer), I shut down and grabbed by broom to sweep out the trailer. What I found did not sit well with me. Apparently in the resent past this trailer was loaded with what appeared to be medium sized barrels and one of them had leaked. This resulted in about 5% of the wood floor area being saturated with some kind of a vegetable oil. No concern if I was picking up a palletized load, but if I had a floor load down the road, there is little hope that a shipper will put their product in this trailer. There is nothing I can do about it here, it’s not something that can be washed out so I hope for the best and go back to the cab of the truck and wait for a load offer.

I am looking at a bad situation as far as my hours went. Ever since I had been stuck in Yakima I have been running long, nonstop days and now found myself with 9.75hrs available for the rest of today, tomorrow and the following day before I would be gaining any hours back. What this basically means is that whatever load I get, there must be enough time to fit in a 34hr reset because I’m not making a delivery from anywhere in that part of the world in less than 10 hrs.

Knowing that I am very tight on available hours and the fact that the computer will not take into account the 3+hrs I had already worked today I decided to send in a message instead of waiting for an offer that I wouldn’t be able to run that I would just have to refuse anyway. The message I sent was something to this effect, “Very short on hours, do you have something that picks up early on the 21st (it was now the 19th) so I can fit in a reset, or a load that picks up in the area with sufficient down time to reset”.

I realized that this message wouldn’t be read, or a least taken into consideration (because dispatch initially just sends out loads that the computer generates for them), but at least it is now in the Qualcom system in the event that I have problems in the future with dispatch when I have to start refusing loads. I was of course sent what seems to becoming the standard message of “Low on freight, check back in 3 hours”. I was not at all surprised by this and set about amusing myself. Even in the north country of Montana my Sprint card was working for me. Yeah!

The time went by quickly for me and when I sent in a load request I was almost immediately greeted with a load offer. Oh my God! They want me to go back to Seattle. “But I don’t want to go back to no load land!” All in all, it’s actually a good load as far as miles go but a quick look at the PU and Del times sooths my soul. There is no way I can do this load with my available hours. I once again inform dispatch of my hours restrictions and politely refuse the load. This is when you tend to get a more personalized response for dispatch. They actually have to put some thought into the next load offer. It didn’t take anymore than 10mins and I was offered another load along with a message, “How about this one”.

What I got was a load offer that was a live load 300 miles away anytime the next day and had an appointment delivery in Houston TX (1838mi) Saturday at 8am. The only way I can make that delivery appointment is if I do a 34reset. This wouldn’t be a problem if I could PU the load tonight and do a reset, or if I drove to a truckstop next to the shipper, did a reset and did my PU after. The problem is that if I PU the load on the scheduled day it would cut into the middle of my reset, therefore voiding the reset which would result in a late delivery. I spent a bit of time trying to make the hours work out but realize it can’t happen as scheduled. I was almost ready to refuse the load, realizing that I would basically have to tell dispatch to forget me while I do a reset where I’m at. That didn’t sound like a good idea because after my reset I would again be waiting for a load and I don’t have much confidence in finding loads in these part lately. With that in mind I accepted the load with the intentions of making some phone calls once I got the load information. If after that, I wasn’t able to make this load work I could always Tcall the load somewhere along the way and hopefully not get anyone riled up in the process.

Once the load info showed up I was ready to head over to the shipper. But because of the wonderful hours of service regulations and the fact that I had sat too long before getting this load offer I was in a position where I could not start driving at this time and have enough hours to make it to the shipper. I could however sit for an extra 4hrs, log it as sleeper berth time (I was in the sleeper berth the whole 8hrs, just not sleeping), take advantage of the extended sleeper birth provision, dive the 300 miles to the shipper by midnight (wouldn’t want to drive after my 14hrs and be there by 7:30pm, but it’s legal to sit around all day and then drive to midnight, or later if I wanted too), idiotic regulations.

Since I had 4hrs to burn sitting around I started making calls. The first call was to the consignee because the load information instructed me to call for directions and an ETA. This was extremely encouraging to me because according to the Qcomm I had an 8:00am Saturday del, but this had my thinking things could be changed. After talking to the customer and getting directions the subject of delivery time came up. He said they would be around all day Saturday and didn’t actually need the product until Monday (way too much sitting around, but it sure gives me some wiggle room, I’m going to be able to make this load work). I told him I would call tomorrow after finding out when the shipper could load me. So far so good.

My next call was to the shipper to find out what the loading schedule was for the plant. I was scheduled to PU anytime the next day. This led me to believe I could load anytime today or the day after. It turned out that they loaded 24hrs a day and said they could load me anytime, “just check in on the gate phone when you arrive”. I can’t believe my good luck on this one, everything is working out great.

Once my 8hrs are up I head on down the road, my intention is to get loaded tonight and do a 34hr reset at the truckstop that is about 2 miles away. It will be around midnight by the time I make it to the shipper and I would prefer to PU the load after my reset, but Crete would start asking questions because it would be a late PU as far as they were concerned, so tonight it is.

As I drive along Flathead Lake the sun is just setting behind the mountains and I find that I am unable to get a decent picture once again, just like this morning. I took a couple anyway.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../fuzzylake.jpg

Everything went as planed and I found myself to be the only truck on the property. The forklift operator looked like he was thankful to have something to do and within 15 of bumping the dock I was loaded and off to find a parking spot. One of the benefits of driving around in Montana this time of year is that the truckstops have plenty of parking, even in the middle of the night. I had contemplated getting a hotel room for the next two nights, but since it was so late I spent the night in the truck and drove across the road the next day and got a room for Wednesday night at the finest establishment in Three Forks, MT. Uuuuff!

Thursday found me in what has become a familiar situation of driving as far as I can, as fast as I can with as few stops as possible. Because of the way things have worked out (having to take an 8hr sleeper berth before driving to the shipper) I will not be able to have this load delivered by the original appointment time, but fortunately there was some unexpected flexibility on the receivers’ side. Even though they were open to a delivery time I wanted to have it there as early as possible to avoid any conflict with Crete and more importantly, the sooner I could get empty, the sooner I would be getting a load out. The big problem with that thought is that the hope of getting a load out of Houston in today’s freight climate on a Saturday afternoon may have been a tad bit optimistic.

I called the receiver and we settled on a delivery between noon and 1pm. I then sent a message to Crete dispatch, “I called customer as instructed for directions and ETA, delivery time has been rescheduled to 12:30”. OK, life is good. I’m ready to roll and my butt is covered. No late delivery, I didn’t have to sit any longer in Montana than my log book required and I got a nice 2100+mile run out of the deal. All I have to worry about is getting a load out of Houston when I’m empty.

My drive back across Wyoming went much better than the trip in. All of the horrible roads were now dry and most of the snow from just the other day was practically gone. I did come across on interesting sight on Thursday. This must have been a wild ride. From the look of things, this Arrow driver was west bound and must have fallen asleep. I could see his tire tracks where he drove through the median, then crossed the east bound lanes and then continued down one hell of a hill into a field before finally coming to a stop. Sure did an amazing job of keeping the thing upright.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...owtrukreck.jpg

Thursday night found me in a truckstop between Cheyenne and Denver and Friday was an uneventful day of driving that found me in nowhere Texas for the night.

Saturday had me looking at 400 more miles to my destination and I arrived at the customer at 12:30. The live unload was quick and my MT call was sent in.

I was not at all surprised by the response. As I had expected, no loads were available today or tomorrow. Looks like my second layover with Crete. This slow freight stuff is for the birds. What I received was a massage that read, “can you run this shag load, it pays $35 and I will get you a preplan for Monday morning.” Well, I didn’t have anything else to do and a preplan sure beats waiting until the next day or longer to have a load offered so I said yes, but after getting the load info I found that it didn’t deliver until 7PM and my 14hrs were up at 7:45. Way too tight of a schedule, so I sent a message to dispatch to let them know I couldn’t take this load as planned. After a number of messages back and fourth and a very honest effort on my part to get this load done it was decided by dispatch that they would get someone else to do it. He thanked me for the effort and sent me a 3 load offer. All loads were live loads that had early Monday morning appointments. I settled on one that picked up in Port Arthur, TX about 100mi away (I could drive over there today) and be set to get an early start on Monday morning. Once loaded I could run it up by Tulsa, OK(500mi) and drop it early in hopes of getting a load going west so I can take some hometime in Phoenix to visit the family.

I put the truck in gear and head over to the Petro just outside of Beaumont, find myself a parking spot and put in. I’m not at all crazy about another layover, but at least I ended up with decent miles for the week, I’m in a spot where there are a number of restaurants to choose from and there is a movie theater across the street. Looks like I’ll have time to catch up on some movies.

It turns out I’m not the only one who doesn’t have a load. I arrived at the Petro midday Saturday and find very few parking spaces available. Sunday was even more surprising to me. I took a walk around the lot around noon when most truckstops are closer to empty than not and there were almost no spaces available. Just a lot of trucks waiting for loads. I don’t think I like this slow economy thing.


WEEK EIGHT RESULTS
Monday February, 18th through Sunday February, 24th
Miles include deadhead

Wasta, SD to Kalispell, MT.................................822mi
Three Forks, MT to Houston, TX..........................2131mi
Houston, TX to Beaumont, TX.............................75mi


Total Paid Miles............................................. ....3028 miles
Actual Miles………………………3045

3028mi x .42 = $1271.76

The shortcut I sighted was based Hwy 97 & 14 as opposed to whatever the company routing I was given. The actual mileage savings on that particular leg was around 40 miles. There were other instances through the week were I was able to save miles, but in the interest of utter boredom (these posts are long enough as it is), I felt a quick generalization would be sufficient and the average reader would be understanding in this regard. I hadn't really expected a nit picky response such as yours. In the future you might want to take this into account.

Re: Huh?
 

There are a number of tunnels (6 or 7) on that road with low clearances, but it only applies to the hight on the shoulder of the road. The tunnel openings are large circles and if you get too close to the shoulder you will take off the corner of your trailer (there is evidence that it has happened many times). The west bound lane clearances are much lower than the east bound lane for some reason.

These are short, but very narrow tunnels. I came incredibly close to losing a mirror a couple of years back when a guy driving an RV was panicking and got way too close for comfort.

Wow
 

Strange that you had a problem getting a load that Saturday as ther are usually loads out of Freeport or Evadale but it is a strange time of the year.

Well.....sorry if I came across as nit picky...that wasn't my intent. For first year drivers, knowing that US97 to WA14, is not only the shortest route to the Camas/Vancouver/Portland area, but one that is spectacular in it's scenic views, but can also be hazardous due to those few short narrow tunnels(there have been, over the years, several accidents in them), is somethikng worth knowing about..or not. On the drive across 14, there are several pullout area's, where a driver can stop, take a short break, and just sit on the guardrail of one of those pull outs, to watch windsurfers on the river, barges on the river, or salmon grouping in the pools along some of the cliffs, under those pull outs, resting for the continuation of their trip upstream...nothing boring about any of that. Seeing one of those pools black with salmon is an awesome sight..and makes a person wonder about all the cries of decreased salmon populations.
Yet another incredible drive, is the trip across White Pass on US12. It is an awesome drive 12 month's out of the year...with winter being a trip for the hardiest driver. There is nothing quite like looking across towards Mnt. St. Helens on a clear day, especially when she is smoking. Mnt. Adams and Mnt. Rainer are also spectacular to view, on those days when you can see them. That route also allows you the chance of breaking at one of the better truckstops in the northwest...CC's at exit 50 on I-5. Very good food, decent showers and friendly people. :wink:

2008
WEEK NINE
Monday February 25th through Sunday March 2nd


Well, it’s Monday again and time to get back to truck driving. I’ve sat at the Petro outside of Beaumont, TX and have had time to do a 34hr reset, although that was the last thing I needed at this point. But there was no freight in the area after my Saturday afternoon delivery and I had to wait until today to get loaded. I had an open PU time anytime after 8am and usually like to arrive at least one hour early but this shipper is just opening at 8am and if I show up too early I run the risk being turned away so I decided to arrive at 7:30am. I’m only 15 minutes away but run into heavy fogs almost as soon as I get started and a wrong turn finds me at the shipper at 8:15.

When I get there I find that there are two other drivers just coming out of the shipping office and am annoyed with myself for arriving too late. It turns out that there are only 2 loading docks and I will have to wait for an hour or so before I get my turn.

As things work out, I’m better off (for now) than the 7 other trucks that pull in behind me over the next 1/2hr.

Once the loading began I notice what was being put into the trucks at the dock and I was not at all please to see that not only was it a paper product (looked to be paper pulp in sheets), but it was being loaded on the floor of the trailer with NO pallets and even worse, NO slip sheets. Each bundle was simply wrapped with a heavy paper. This revelation sent shivers up my spin. Why, you may ask? I don’t know if you recall from last weeks recap but I had a very clear flashback relating to the somewhat formidable oil stain that I had discovered after delivering my load of insulation (that was a floor load and wrapped in plastic bundles) up in Montana.

This oil stain was of concern to me then, but there was nothing I could do at the time. My next load was bags of some kind of white powder (non toxic diatomaceous earth, or something along those lines) that was used to make plastic sheeting. When this was being unloaded the forklift operator had torn open one of the bags and a bit had spilled onto the floor. This worked out well at that moment because as I pushed it around with a broom it did what at the time seemed like a very good job of absorbing the oil on the floor of the trailer.

Now I get the feeling I’m about to pay for my lack of attention, or desire to deal with this problem effectively when I discovered it.

With this in mind I head back and open the door and jump up in the trailer to get a look at the problem area. Sure enough, the oil spot was still very obvious and right then and there I knew things were going to take a bad turn. I went into the warehouse and hunted down the supervisor to get my trailer inspected by him, there was no point in waiting another hour or so for the other trucks to get loaded only to back into my door and be refused then. The result was as expected and the trailer was rejected. Isn’t this great, sit all weekend and now here I sit with a trailer that can’t be loaded and a Monday morning dispatch that is probably being bombarded by a thousand unresolved weekend problems.

My messages to dispatch are answered with silence, just as I had expected. I don’t hold dispatch responsible; my daily hassles on the road can be a real pain in the back side. I can’t imagine what it would be like sitting in an office and trying to solve the problems of hundreds of drivers every day with Monday mornings throwing an entire weekend worth of problems in your lap all at once. With this in mind I do my best to remain patient (very trying) and after about an hour I start to get some correspondence. I basically told dispatch that the trailer can’t be floor loaded and a wash out wasn’t going to be effective on an oil saturated wood floor. I could PU a palleted load, but dispatch would not do that because the next driver would then be put in the same situation I was in. I suggested that I could take the trailer to the Wilmer, TX (300+mi) yard outside of Dallas but dispatch couldn’t approve that and they told me to contact Breakdown.

A message off to dispatch was meet with the same speedy response and after all the info was repeated I was giving clearance to pull the empty trailer to Wilmer. I headed that way and arrived in the yard at 4pm and was informed shortly thereafter that no loads were available and to check back after 9am in the morning. The worst thing about the whole ordeal is that if I would have addressed it after unloading in Houston on Saturday it wouldn’t be a problem today. There is no one to blame but myself (and the driver who dropped this trailer before I came across it).

Tuesday started with the hope of better things to come and I sent a message off to dispatch at 5am. This was earlier than dispatch had told me, but I wanted to get a head start on the other drivers if possible. I also let them know that I had been empty since Saturday and my trailer had been refused at the shipper and I was sitting here without a load, boo hoo, feel sorry for me kind of message and topped it off with a “I’m trying to get to Phoenix for hometime if you have anything going in that direction.”

I was surprised to get a response, “No freight going to Phoenix, but here is a load to Salt Lake City (1414mi), you can take this load and try getting a load to Phoenix form there.” Well, I couldn’t ask for much more than that in this freight climate, so I thanked them and accepted the load. The one big problem with this load is that it was an appointment delivery Friday morning and I had to be in Phoenix by Saturday for my Grandmothers 90th B-Day celebration.

This load was a drop/hook PU scheduled for anytime after 3pm in Paris, TX. I knew from previous loads at this shipper that the trailer was in all likelihood ready to go. With this in mind I headed out and made it there by 10am and sure enough it was ready.

The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday was spent driving with the intent of getting to SLC ASAP so that I could talk dispatch into Tcalling this load in our yard. I was also able to shave off about 100mi by taking two lane roads through the interior of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah instead of the interstate routing that the company had suggested. This saved me a good amount of time (not to mention completely avoiding a wind swept I-80 across Wyoming in the process) and made for some great scenery along the way.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ttowerrock.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...er/utrock2.jpg

Travel went well and I found myself in SLC by 8am Thursday morning. I sent a message off to dispatch and was allowed to Tcall my load in the yard but was also informed that there was no freight available to get me to Phoenix (they might be able to get me something going that way Friday morning). I was disappointed by this but not surprised. I had somewhat assumed this would be the case. I told dispatch I would find a way home on my own and set my return PTA for the following Tuesday.

I was initially going to rent a car and drive down to Phoenix (I found a compact for $20 day). It was a 650 mile trip and figured it wouldn’t be all that bad of a trip. At least I knew it would be much faster in a car that the truck. Just for kicks I was checking out airline tickets, but with no notice flights were running around $400. As an after thought I checked out hotwire for flights one last time and was delighted to come across a supper saver fair that wasn’t there an hour ago of only $205, including all taxes. WOW, what a deal for a last minute booking. The big concern here was that I could only pick the departure and arrival dates, not the times. But for that price I wasn’t going to fret over it. I put in my info and bought the flight. The flight times turn out to be very agreeable and I was set for some time off.

I found myself with nothing to do for the rest of Thursday (my flight didn’t leave until late) and had already put my truck in the shop for a B service. The shop found all kinds of things that needed to be replaced on my 600,000 mile truck and said it would have to be in the shop for a couple of days. Perfect timing on that one, I just told them I’d pick up the keys next week.

Once I got things settled with the shop I called dispatch and let them know I had access to a yard truck if they had any shag loads that needed to be done. They had a load that needed to be delivered and I shuttled a couple of empty trailers around town to occupy the rest of my day.

As evening rolled around I called a cab and headed over to the airport.

I would have rather pulled a load down to Phoenix, but things don’t always work out perfectly. I was just thrilled to be able to pickup my wife at the airport the next day and spend some very pleasant time with our families. The 80° days were nice too.



WEEK NINE RESULTS
Monday, February 25th through Sunday, March 2nd
Miles include deadhead

Beaumont, TX to Salt Lake City, UT..................1849


Total Paid Miles...........................1949 miles(Monday through Thursday)
Actual Miles………………………1849 (took two lane roads to cut miles)

1949mi x .42 = $818.58 (plus shag pay $35)

Orangetxguy wrote:

I apologize for taking your comment in the wrong way. Posts are not always read in the way they are intended, and for this reason I usually try not to respond to what I perceive as insulting posts. But every once in awhile I let my guard down.

Texas sucks for freight right now. I dropped in Paris Last Fri about 8am and was told to go find a truck stop and check back at 3pm. Well the TS I was at had 8 Crete drivers waiting for loads, some of whom had been there since midday Wed!!! As the day wore on loads were starting to come out but they were all crap. Two drivers who had been there the longest ended up taking Columbus Oh loads out of Sapulpa Ok. that couldn't deliver till Tues! 900 some odd miles for 4 days not includiing the two they had already sat. Finally the guy who was in line just ahead of me got a load out of Paris going to Sterling Il to deliver as soon as he could get it there. Not too bad except for the fact it wouldn't be ready till the next morning. Now comes my turn. Qualcomm beeps and I don't even look for a couple of minutes. Trying to get myself set for major disappointment. Finally I look and I couldn't believe it. They wanted me to DH to Bartlesville Ok, 237 miles, for an 8am appt to pick up a load going to Walmart in Menomonie Wi for as soon as I could get it there. Ended up with 947 miles for two days. Kept thinking about those two drivers who took those Columbus loads just to get moving. By the time they delivered on Tue I had run to Menomonie, picked up a Menards load in Eau Claire going to Omaha then picked up a load at Kelloggs for Columbus Wed morn. Ended up with 2239 miles for the same amount of time they got 900 and some. If they would have refused to take those loads and waited for something better they might have done alright. You never know.

Great pics. It's been a long time since I've seen the "nipple" rock. Makes me want to move back to Farmington. :wink:

Yepper
 

Somehoe I seem to keep missing the snow and fun times everyone is having with the storms running through the east. I either get there in Ohio or Indiana before the storm and get out or levae before the next one. I just got a load from near Augusta and going to near Cleveland. Not really sure what the roads are gonna be like but am assuming (Which is bad thing to do) will be cleared up by the time I get up there tomorrow.

Good luck everyone and be acreful out there.

That's right, If they had been "cool" on the stool and waited and gambled on setting there overnite(again?) then YOU would have gotten the rotten load offer-
The dispatchers alway have to try and "marry off" the ugly sister before the pretty one gets to go to the dance.

2008
WEEK TEN
Monday, March 3rd through Sunday, March 9th




It looks like it is time to start another week on the road. Monday was my last day of home time that was spent in Phoenix, AZ. I’m not exactly looking forward to more winter driving after spending the last few days in 80° weather. I can’t wait for this winter to pass.

An early Tuesday morning flight found me in Salt Lake City and in my truck well before noon and I sent in my “ready for load” message, but wasn’t expecting miracles because SLC hasn’t been one of the stronger freight bases of late. Therefore, the “check back in 2hrs" message wasn’t a shocker. I wasn’t overly disappointed by this because it gave me time to get settled in. I spent an hour or so in the drivers lounge and heard the usual. Some getting good miles, some not with a couple of drivers in the room who had been hung up in Washington state for a couple of days. This defiantly seems to be one of the worst places in the country for Crete freight at the moment. Over all, the general consensus seems to be that the wait for freight is defiantly more prominent than it has been in the past, but for the most part everyone seems to be getting descent miles so far. At this particular time there were 8 drivers waiting on loads when one of them came in and said he had recently checked his massages and found that a good load had been offered, but he wasn’t in the truck at the time and it was pulled from him 15mins later because he didn’t reply in a timely manner. With that I decided I best spend my time in the truck until I hear something.

Once in the truck I sent another message asking for a load and ran some paperwork into the office. When I returned, I had a load offer to PU in WY (damn, I hate that state, at least for the remainder of this winter) and it was a D/H PU. What jumped out at me (in an annoying kind of way) was that the PU time for this load was anytime today. That means it’s a preloaded trailer and has been sitting there all morning while I’m patiently waiting on a load for the last few hours. I guess they were looking for a load the was closer so I wouldn’t have to deadhead 190mi (can’t really blame them for that).

Good news is that I’m rolling and my short week will start off with a decent 1678mi run to Northwest Ohio. Bad news is it isn’t scheduled to deliver until Saturday, but it’s an open delivery time so I assume it’s a drop and hook and I make plans to deliver early. A couple of good running days and I can have the load there by Thursday night and might even have some time left to PU a load afterwards. All I know is that I don’t want to be putting in an MT call on a Saturday in Ohio.

I made it to my PU and did a quick D/H and headed on down the road in anticipation of what I-80 and Wyoming had in store for me today. Before leaving SLC I had checked the weather radar and wasn’t exactly thrilled to learn that I was going to be seeing the usual windy conditions with a good possibility of snow by the time I made it to Rawlings. That turn out to be very optimistic because I hit my first snowfall 200 miles before that around Fort Bridger. Nothing horrible, but unwanted none the less and it only lasted for 20 miles or so. From there it was smooth sailing for the next 200 miles but CB reports were not at all encouraging. As I got closer to the snow line the stories of the severity and the duration of the storm was increased by every driver I talked too. From the sound of things, the storm was growing and moving east and it looked like I would be running with it for most of the night.

The storm turned out to be less sever than some of the others that I had dealt with so far this winter across Wyoming, but it still qualified as a nasty pain in the a**! Once again I was dealing with crap. One particularly nasty section of about 20 miles was a horrible sheet of ice with a handful of obligatory cars hitting the ditch. I even got to watch one up close and personal today.

A Suburban that was pulling a small trailer (with no brakes on it) was going too fast (big surprise). We came up on a lane closure due to road crew trying to clear off an amazingly large snow drift from the granny lane. This forced all traffic into the left lane and a drastic slowdown in traffic. Well, once the Suburban tried to slow down, he found out his little trailer had no plans to do the same. The trailer started to squirrel around and each swing back and forth got a little more sever. I just slowed down, pulled into the center of both lanes with my flasher on to warn oncoming traffic and watched the show. I’ll give him props though; he almost saved it but eventually lost complete control and found himself going sideways. The look on his face was priceless, I think he thought I was going to hit him broadside in the drivers door. Lucky for him I was paying more attention to what lay ahead than he was. The finale was a graceful plunge with a relatively soft landing into a foot or two of snow. Another one bites the dust. It was such a slow build to the final ditching that I actually had time to snap a couple of pics.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...anspinout1.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...anspinout2.jpg

This weather continued for another 200 miles with varying degrees of severity. Every thing from serious ice build up with high winds to sections of near white out. I considered stopping a couple of times, but the weather report was one of continued snow and poor conditions. So, no matter how bad it was at the moment, it would just be worse when I woke up in the morning and I had no intentions of hanging around and waiting for WY to close the road on me. Nothing new for this blasted state. I finally broke out of it around the Nebraska line and pulled into Bosselman’s outside of Big Springs, NE before running out of hours. Well, that was a great way to be welcomed back from my time off.


Wednesday was an oh hum, nothing special day of driving across NE and IA with a final stop in Western IL. This got me close enough to the customer so that I could plan on making it to the consignee in the area of 6pm on Thursday (this was scheduled for a Saturday delivery) and leave me with a good 4-5 hrs of drive time available in the event that there is a load available somewhere in the area. Not likely this time of night, but I can always hope.

Upon arriving at the customer (I assumed I would be able to drop/hook) I was assigned a door for a live unload. I was a bit confused by this because I could see a few of our empty trailer on the property, but since I was so early and they were accepting the load I wasn’t going to complain. While I was waiting at the shippers window I was reading all the little signs they had posted for our reading pleasure. Two in particular stood out to me. The First one “If you are going to spend your 10hrs break here, you must sign in with the guard”. This is a good, depending on how long it takes to get unloaded and my next load offer, I have that option available to me. The second sign said “Loading hours 7:30am to 10pm, if you arrive after 10pm, you will have to wait until the following morning to load”.

I was sitting in the truck and counting the pallets (by each bounce of the truck from the forklift) being pulled off. I had 18 pallets and when they had pulled off 9 I put in an empty call (and hoped the load count didn’t come up short, not really a possibility with this particular load). By doing this, I would be able to save some time and get my next load offer and assignment while I was waiting for the rest of the trailer to be unloaded.

Putting in an MT call before being completely unloaded is not usually a good idea (nor approved of by the company) because if there is a discrepancy in the final count or if for some reason the unload takes much longer than anticipated it can cause a big problem with dispatch if you are sent a hot load and all of a sudden you're telling them you have a problem and can’t leave or your not completely unloaded yet. But with this particular load I felt confident there would be no problems and the sooner I can get an MT call in, the higher I’ll be on the load list. Minutes can make a difference between getting a load now or waiting till the next day, especially later in the day.

After about 15mins I was sent a one load offer. I didn’t like what I saw. This was a 9am appoint PU at the same place I was currently delivering to. I didn’t mind the next day PU as much as the delivery time. It was a nice 590mi run to Des Moines, but the killer part was that it didn’t delivery until Monday (it is now Thursday night). That means 590 miles over the next 3 days. That, in my assessment is total BS. I try not to let things bother me too much, but I want to know what bonehead schedules a PU and DEL like that.

I have never refused a load and I’m not going to start now, but I’m going to do anything I can to perhaps talk dispatch into a change. I started off by not accepting the load (ignoring it for now) and sent off a message to night dispatch (low expectations from this bunch). “This load will have me sitting for over 60hrs, I would rather not spend the entire weekend in the back of my truck, is there any chance of getting a different load or Tcalling this in the Romeoville (Chicago) yard, THX”

At this point I’m wound up and as close to pissed off as I generally get (because I already know night dispatch probably isn’t going to be very helpful), but make it a point to never let that attitude show in my Qcomm messages.

After 30mins of no response (that in itself is an answer) I realize I will have to make this work on my own. The delivery time on this load is an open window between 9am and 2pm next Monday. What I take from this is that they are only open M-F. If they were open Saturday the appointment would have in all likelihood be set for then. The PU for this load is here at this shipper and scheduled for the following morning at 9am. I have about a 9 ½ hr drive once loaded. That means that if I do a live PU as scheduled, I’ll be ready to roll by around 11am and the earliest that I could make it to the consignee would be around 8-9pm Friday night, therefore forcing me to sit till Monday to make my delivery. Total crap!

During this dilemma my mind went back to the sign I had read in the shipper's office “No loading after 10pm”. Well, that leaves plenty of time to load me tonight if I can catch them in a good mood. So off to the shippers office I go to tell them I have been sent a load that is scheduled to PU the following morning and inquire as to the possibility of loading tonight instead. That is answered with a sharp “What’ your pickup number”. Well I don’t have that yet because I haven’t actually accepted the load (and may actually have a different load offer by the time I get back to the truck, yeah right), and am told that they can’t help me without the number. At least this lets me know they are open to the idea if the product is available at this time.

Back out to the truck I go in the hopes of finding a new load offer, but of course I am met with silence. At this point I decide to accept the load and assume I’ll be able to load tonight. If it works out that way, I’ll be able to take my 10hr break on property, take off at 3am, drive my 9½, fuel and be able to make it to the customer Friday between 1-1:30 and hope that they will unload me.

Once I received the load information I headed into the shipping office with my newly acquired PU#. The first question the surly lady at the shipping window asked me was if I had an MT trailer? This catches me a bit off guard since she just handed me my signed BOL for the trailer they had just unloaded. So with a rather inquisitive look on my face I assure her that I do in fact have an MT trailer and am delighted to be assigned a door. The loading goes much quicker than the unload and I sign in with the guard and park in the back for the remainder of the night. Oh yeah, after accepting the load I did eventually get an answerer to my plea for another load stating that I can check with the day crew about Tcalling the load in our Chicago or Indy yard the following day. I didn’t bother telling them I was already loaded.

Friday went exactly as planned and I made it to the customer in Des Moines at 1:15pm. There was one guy there and he was more than happy to unload me and by 1:45 I had sent in my MT call (2½ days early)and was awaiting my next load offer. Within a couple of minutes I was sent a “working on it message” and was quite pleased with myself for saving what would have been a dismal 2268mi week. Although I didn’t get started until Tuesday afternoon and that wouldn’t have been all that bad for a short week.

Within 15mins I was sent a message that there were no loads left for today (no problem for me, I only had 1½ of drivetime left today anyway) and received a one load offer that was a 5am PU the following morning just up the road. The pain in the backside about this load is that it delivered to Wichita (426mi) the next day at 11pm. Another bone head planning job. PU a load at 5am, drive 7hrs or so, sit for 10 hrs and then deliver in the middle of the night. Oh well, after my last run, these are bonus miles for me anyway. I accept the load and drive up to the shipper so I can get an early start the next day and maybe they will unload me early.

Saturday starts early and I arrive at the shipper at 4am for a 5am appointment. They assign me a door, I back up, feel the truck get locked into the door, get one quick bounce and I’m loaded. Just like that. I was picking up a load of plastic soda bottles. I’ve done this a couple of times before and it’s a slick operation. What they do is have the entire load staged in front of a door. Once you are positioned they simply get behind the very light load of bottles with a forklift and push the whole thing in. It takes all of 15 seconds. I wish it was always that fast.

Off I go and arrive at the Pepsi Bottling Co in Wichita, KS by noon. My hopes of an early unload are spoiled by the guard who informs me that these bottles are JIT (just in time) loads and they don’t warehouse them. They simply take them off the truck and put them into the production line, basically making me a moving warehouse. The guard takes my phone number and tells me he’ll call when there ready. OH well.

The wait isn’t as long as expected, instead of 11pm I get the call at 8pm and bump the dock. The unload process is painfully slow and I am able to watch the new movie “Bank Robbers” (descent movie by the way) while I wait.


My MT call is met with yet another one load offer (don’t seem to be getting too many choices these days). It is now Saturday night and this load is a D/H PU in Kansas City between the hours of 9pm and Midnight on Sunday and is a two stop Delivery with my final stop in Wausau, WI (831mi) Tuesday at 11:00am. Definitely not the greatest load due to yet another bone head job by the load planers. The load assignment gives me the preloaded trailer number, so I know it’s ready to go now and I could easily deliver this load by Monday. I’ve been sitting around long enough to log a 10hr break and could head over to KC to get my trailer, but it’s late and I’m in no hurry so I decided to put in for the night.

I got a relatively late start Sunday and decide to treat myself to a hot breakfast and head over to KC to PU my trailer. My first stop is scheduled for Tuesday at 7am outside of La Crosse, WI which is less than 500mi away. I decide to get to the customer tonight and maybe they will unload me first thing Monday morning.



WEEK TEN RESULTS
Monday, March 3rd through Sunday, March 9th
Miles include deadhead

Green River, WY to Old Fort, OH.........................1678mi
Old Fort, OH to Des Moines, IA.............................590mi
Ames, IA to Wichita, KS.......................................459mi
Kansas City, KS to Onalaska, WI..........................685mi


Total Paid Miles............................................. .......3412 miles (6days, Monday = Home)
Actual Miles………………………3442

3412mi x .42 = $1433.04

Good and interesting info you've posted . You must have delivered and picked up at Arm and Hammer Baking Soda in Old Fort , been there , done that many times back in the day . Hopefully freight picks up , good luck .

I have really been enjoying reading your week by week posts. Makes me wish I was back out there. Keep up the good work :D

2008
WEEK ELEVEN
Monday, March 10th through Sunday, March 16th


Monday starts out at 7am with me sitting in a rest area outside of La Crosse, WI and just a few miles away from the first of my two scheduled stops. The problem is that I’m not scheduled to deliver until the tomorrow. I picked up the phone and put in a call to the customer to get directions, verify the delivery time (per the instructions on the BOL) and to take a shot at unloading early.

After getting directions I let the customer know that I was less than a ½ hr away and was available to unload if that was agreeable to him. He was surprised that I was already in town and said he could be at the shop within the hour. This is very good news to me, I really wasn’t looking forward to spending an entire day in a rest area.

I arrived at my first stop and didn’t have to wait too long for the owner of this small insulation company to arrive. He brought his wife with him and backed up a small moving type van to the back of my truck. Looks like this could take a while. I did consider helping them out, but it was all of 15° and I wasn’t quite that motivated. They were only getting about 20% of the load, so it didn’t take all that long anyway.

Once that drop was taken care of I had one more stop to make. This was also scheduled to deliver the next day and was only 3hrs away. Time to put in a call to them to confirm tomorrow’s appointment and cross my fingers. If I can get the rest of my load off today it would save me a day of sitting around.

Unfortunately I didn’t have as much luck with my second stop. I was informed that no one was in the shop to unload me today, but I was able to move up my delivery time from noon to 9am, better than nothing I guess. A quick trip up the road and I found a place to park at a small truckstop in Wausau, WI. It’s a good thing I was able to get there early, there was only parking for about 20 trucks and it filled up early. There was also a Texas Roadhouse next door so I knew I would be having a decent meal tonight.

Tuesday morning rolled around and I headed over to the customer just a few miles down the road. They where waiting for me when I arrived and didn’t waist anytime unloading me. My MT call was sent in and I was sent a two load offer.

Load 1 was a D/H PU and DEL going to Michigan (550mi). Generally I would jump on a load like this because I can roll off the miles as fast as I wanted to and deliver anytime I wanted. But there were two things that I didn’t care for on this run. First of all, I would be hitting Chicago too close to rush hour for my liking and Second, I would find myself empty and looking for a load in Michigan. I have always been able to get a load out of there, but the last couple of times I have had to wait a few hours to get a load offer and both times I had to PU a load out of packaging company that was a live load. The worst part about this company is that they seem to always be running behind schedule. Last time it took me almost 5hrs to get loaded and wiped out my 14hr clock for the day. I was also anxious to get out of the frigid weather that had descended on the area.

Load 2 was a D/H PU with a live delivery in St. Louis (552mi) at 9am the following morning. I’m not crazy about the live unload, but since I wasn’t able to fit in a 34hr reset this week due to the poor timing of P/Us and deliveries I find myself with limited hours and I’m not really in a position to work long days anyway. So an unloading delay won’t really affect me too much. This, combined with the fact that freight is usually much easier to come by in the St Louis area made load two a better choice.

The rest of the day went by with nothing spectacular to report. My D/H PU was a quick in and out and the rest of the day was spent driving toward St. Louis. The most annoying thing was that I had to stop about 140 miles short of my destination because I only had 8hrs available today. I really hate it when I can’t fit in a 34hr reset. It is very aggravating when I have to shut down so early when I’m wide awake and ready to roll.

Wednesday finds me driving my last couple of hour to make my delivery. The warehouse guy was standing outside when I pulled up and told me what dock to bump. I had hopes of a quick unload, but this was not to be. Almost 3hrs later I put in my MT call and was sent a single load offer within a couple of minutes. It was a D/H PU at the Budweiser plant just down the road that was to deliver to Pine Bluff, AR (387mi) anytime after 6am the following morning. Not the longest run in the world, but since I had already gone 140 miles today, it made for a respectable 500+mile day. The rest of the day was relatively painless and I decided to stop short of my destination in West Memphis so I could fit in a shower. I had the hours to make it to the customer (or at least close by) but not knowing what the parking situation would be like in that part of the country I decided it would be better to shut down for the night and get an early start the following morning.

I would never think about shutting down early if I had managed a 34hr reset, but now that my days are limited there is no point in pushing. It makes for more relaxed days, but it does affect my ability to get the miles I want.

I’m able to get going by 4am Thursday morning and make it to the customer by 7am. There are two trucks ahead of me but am able to get unloaded by 8am. Not bad at all for a local beer distributor.

My MT call is greeted by a nice 3 load offer. It’s been awhile since I’ve had so many choices. A sign of better days ahead perhaps. One load was going to the Atlanta area and the other two were destine for Texas. I ended up taking the shortest of the loads offered because it was a D/H PU and Delivery so I could run it out as fast as I wanted without any wasted time on a live unload (as a matter of fact I had time to deliver the load tonight). The only thing that concerned me was the Texas part. Freight has been scary slow down there lately, but I hoped that by dropping my trailer tonight I would be on the top of the list for a load the following morning.

I am able to make it to the consignee with no drive time left for the day. I do a quick drop and grab an empty trailer and headed over to the local truckstop for the night. Time to put in my MT call and see what pops up. I had already put in a 10hr day and had no time left so I was just hoping for a load offer that I could PU in the morning. I was surprised to get another 3 load offer, looks like things are picking up as far as our Texas freight goes, at least for now.

The first load was a sweet run, 2400+miles with deadhead thrown in. It was scheduled to be delivered 5 days down the road, but was a D/H delivery and could be delivered early. My kind of dream run. The big scary part of this one is that it was going to Washington state and I don’t know if I’m ready to take a chance of waiting around for a load up there again. It turns out to be a moot point however. It is a live load scheduled for 11pm tonight and I can’t go anywhere until tomorrow morning. The other two loads where in the 1000 mile range and I selected one going to La Grange, GA (1017mi) because it was a D/H delivery for anytime Sunday. That means I can have it there by Saturday and would be in a strong freight area with some time left in my day to get another load. Or I could shut down along the way a work in a 34hr reset, but that is pointless and this time because I have come around on my logbook and am gaining solid hours for the next few days.

Friday is a simple day consisting of a live load and driving. However, I am very annoyed by the fact that I had only gained 10hr for today. Because of this I am unable to make it to New Orleans for the night (would have been a fine spot to force in a 34reset). Again, if I had been able to get my reset in earlier this week I wouldn’t be forced into these silly short driving days. Oh well, I shut down at a crappy little truckstop in the middle of nowhere.

Saturday is an early start at 4am and I finish off the end of my trip to LaGrange, GA. As I’m pulling into the Wal-Mart DC I tried to use the CB to get the attention of the other Crete driver leaving to find out if he got the last empty trailer, but got no answere. This was meant more of as a little joke, but a definite concern. I can’t help thinking about that last 15min break I took and wonder if it just cost me that last MT trailer. It’s not unheard of to wait until the next morning to get a trailer out of a Wal-Mart, especially when I’m a day early with my delivery to begin with.

I do my drop and head out to the back lot to get an MT. Sure enough; I had watched the last one go out the gate. Grrrr! After a couple a trips around the lot I did find what appeared to be an MT trailer at one of the docks. It had a green light and sounded hollow when pounding on the side. I hunted down a yard dog, had him check on the status of it and was rewarded with an MT trailer. I just had to wait for 30mins for them to get around to pulling it out for me. Nothing happens with urgency in those places; at least I have my MT and am ready for my load offer.

It’s around noon and I still have 3hrs of drive time left for the day. Once again I am offered 3 loads (just like the old days, I could get used to this). Load one was a Deptford, NJ (1000mi) load with a 3am live unload. I think I’ll pass (didn’t have the hours to do it anyway). This actually wasn’t a bad load and I have been to this customer before. They are in a relatively unpopulated area, the live unloads go well and they are done early enough to get out of town with the next load before traffic gets out of hand. But it’s still the northeast and I have seen very little of it as of late, once or twice in the last 6 months or so and I’d like to keep it that way.

The other two load offers went to Texas. I ended up taking one that went to Houston because it was a drop and hook on both ends. I wasn’t fond of the idea that I was going to find myself in Houston looking for a load, but at least I’ll be there early Monday morning instead of during a weekend. Should be able to get a load without too much trouble. I hope for the best and head off toward Atlanta to PU a loaded trailer from Anheuser-Busch north of town.

Things did get a little interesting when I hit Atlanta. The weather was not good and according to the national weather service there was a tornado warning in effect as I drove into town. Apparently one had done some minor damage downtown the day before and now they were reporting that radar had spotted on forming above the 285 loop in the southwest part of town. Oh, that’s just wonderful, guess where I’m at. This is a little too close for comfort. As I got up to the north end of town the skies really started to get dark and the hail started coming down. For anyone that has grown up in tornado country, you know what that can mean. I just concentrated on not running over 4wheelers in the down pour and tried to get out of there as fast as possible. Not the easiest thing to do when you have 6 lanes of traffic come to a complete stop because the cars under the overpass decide that it’s a great place to stop so their cars don’t get hit by hail.

It was slow going for the next 40 minutes or so but traffic did finally start moving again and with the exception of a 3mi back up due to a recent accident involving a big truck and two cars. We were much more fortunate in the north bound lanes than the south side. They were backed up for 10-15 miles. I guess I’ll be shutting down early after picking up my loaded trailer. There is no point in trying to get back to the Marietta terminal with that backup to deal with.

Saturday comes to a close at 4pm. The weather has made driving anywhere in the Atlanta area pointless at this time.

Sunday is another painfully short day due to logbook constrains. I run out of hours by 1pm. I now have to shut down until Midnight and then drive the final 5hrs to make my delivery. That makes so much more sense than driving during the day when I’m wide awake. After all, it would be insane to drive more than 5hrs during the day, right. We wouldn’t want to go over that 70hrs would we? How I despise idiotic government regulations.

I have been fighting my logbook for the last week and hate it. At this pace I can only manage to get about 3300 miles/week. Not horrible by any means but I hate the restraint.

The worst thing is that my hours are starting to level out to the 7-10hr per day range. This works great for many drivers, but it drives me crazy. It also tends to limit the runs I can accept and I find that I end up with more and more short runs. I keep looking for that run that has enough time to work in a reset. I can usually count on something like that around a weekend, but as of now I haven’t gotten one.

I need my reset!


WEEK ELEVEN RESULTS
Monday, March 10th through Sunday, March 16th
Miles include deadhead

Onalaska, WI to Wausau, WI............................................146m i
Neenah, WI to St Louis, MO..............................................55 2mi
St Louis, MO to Pine Bluff, AR............................................387m i
Crossett, AR to Temple, TX...............................................4 80mi
New Braunfels, TX to La Grange, GA..................................1017mi
Cartersville, TX to Slidell, LA.............................................616 mi


Total Paid Miles............................................. ...................3198 miles
Actual Miles………………………3355

3198mi x .42 = $1343.16 plus $30 drop

2008
WEEK TWELVE
Monday, March 17th through Sunday, March 23rd


This week starts our extremely early. How early? Well 12:01am to be exact. Thanks to ridiculous government regulations I ran my 70hr clock out of hours around noon on Sunday. Even though I could driven during the day and would have been to my consignee by 5pm. But instead I was forced to stop and sit in a truck stop for the rest of the day. It’s early and there is no way of getting any sleep because I’m wide awake, so I spend the rest of the day trying to amuse myself. By 10pm I feel tired enough to lay down for a quick 2hr nap. As soon as the clock hits midnight I get back 11hrs and I’m off to make my delivery which has to be there no later than 6am. I get there a little after 5am.

The live unload goes by fairly quickly and I am now in what has become the dreaded land of no freight known as Houston Texas. Although I am optimistic about getting a load offer because I delivered in the area just last week and was offered 3 different loads. I didn’t even get the expected “No freight, check back in 3 hrs”. As it turns out good luck was still with me and I received a two load offer within minutes.

The first load was a short hop into LA(under 300mi) and I would have taken it because I had already run 350mi today and it was a drop/hook on both ends and would have had me sittin good for a morning load, but my 14hrs were going to be up (since I had to start at midnight) before the load was scheduled to be ready.

I ended up taking the second load offer to Kansas City (800mi). Good miles but it was a live load and unload with scheduled appointments and I had to wait almost 3hrs for my loading appointment just down the road. That meant that I wasn’t going to get many more miles for the day, but since the delivery was scheduled for early Wednesday morning I had the time to spare.

Tuesday was another annoying short day due to hour restrictions and I once again I had to shut down shortly after noon. This was again followed by a lot of sitting around and a short nap before starting my day just after midnight so that I can make my 7am delivery Wednesday morning. A 34reset would sure make my life easier, and more productive. Too much sitting around with this game of waiting until midnight to get my hours back.

The live unload takes forever, but then I’m in no hurry once again. I only have 7½ hrs available for the day and most of them have been driven off anyway.

My empty call is greeted with a two load offer (the multiple offers seem to becoming more common again). Offer one was going to KY (600mi) and the other was going to MI (757mi).The KY load had enough time associated with it that I could have put in a reset, but I was gaining some good hours over the next three days, so I took the MI load even though I had some concerns about the freight availability in that part of the country once I was empty.

This load turns out to be very interesting. Not because of what it is, but because of where the warehouse is located. My first clue was when I read the directions and came across the final line “turn into cave entrance 8300 and go to pier 209”. This made no sense to me at the time, but that is often the case with directions until you arrive at or near a destination. The directions became very clear as I came to final turn:

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../tunnelent.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...er/tunnel5.jpg

I had no idea that this place existed. Apparently it’s called Subtropolis and it is located on the east end of Kansas City. It is a spent underground limestone quarry and had been converted into an underground warehouse and storage facility. From the expressions on some of the other drivers faces they were also first time visitors to this facility. Very interesting to say the least.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...er/tunnel1.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...er/tunnel3.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...er/tunnel2.jpg

I’m loaded by noon, but once again out of hours for the day so I ran over to our terminal which is about a mile away and shut down for the rest of the day. I would rather keep driving, but at least I can get some laundry done without having to pay the ridiculous prices the truckstops charge for their laundry facilities. I end the day with a good meal at the local casino.

Thursday is an uneventful day, for me at least. The driver of this tanker pulling doubles probably had a different opinion of the days event. I sure hope he faired better than his truck did.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ankerroll1.jpg; http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...ankerroll2.jpg

Friday is a 3am start so that I can make my 8am delivery on-time just outside of Detroit. It’s another live unload and take just under an hour to complete and I put in my MT call and hope that I don’t have to wait around for a load. My last two times up here I was forced to wait 6+hrs for a load.

That will not be the case today, I am sent a single load offer within 15mins that was a D/H PU 150 miles away in OH that delivered to VA (646mi total) anytime the following day and was a D/H delivery. Can’t ask for anything better than that. I’m surprised that they are going to deadhead me that far, but I’m not going to complain and head off to get my load.

When I arrived at the customer at 9am Saturday morning I am somewhat confused. I pulled up to a gate that opened automatically. I assumed someone watching a moniter had let me in, but when I pulled into their property I found all doors locked and no one in the shipping office. After about ½ an hour of wondering around the place I decided I was the only one there and I went ahead and dropped the trailer in what seemed to be the appropriate spot and made the appropriate notations on the BOL. I have occasionally done drops like this before, but never without some kind of heads up in the load assignment. I was a little leery about getting myself in hot water with dispatch, but the trailer was scheduled to deliver today and that’s when I got it there. I sent off a detailed message to the weekend dispatch (no, I didn’t expect an answer and they didn’t disappoint) to CMA.

The next trick was to find and MT. There were two next to my dropped trailer, but they looked like abandoned crack houses. I’ve never seen so much garbage in the back of an unloaded trailer in my life. That combined with the fact that they appeared to be two of the oldest trailers in our fleet with the old torn up wood paneling sides. A number of our customers won’t even load these kind of trailers so I set my sight on a few trailers that were still docked in the warehouse doors. After pounding on a few and pulling a couple away from the doors (they all had green lights) I found and acceptable empty and put in my MT call and waited to see what I would be offered. Why do I go into such detail about this particular Drop and Hook? Well, to set the stage for a future crisis that I will have to deal with before this week is over. Anyway, it’s a weekend and I’m hoping for a load that I can shut down with so I can finally get my reset and stop fighting these damn hours.

It takes a little longer than normal, but within 30mins or so I receive a three load offer. It’s getting more like the old days all the time. Looks like freight is picking up a little bit, I haven’t seen the “No freight, check back in X hours” for a couple of weeks now. I zero in on a load that is a D/H PU in Suffolk and has live unload Monday evening in Owensboro, KY (806mi) at the ridiculous hour of 5:30pm. This late delivery means I won’t be getting a load till Tuesday morning, but we have a couple of customers in that town and I know I could get a good load. This load also means that I can run out my last few hours for the day on Saturday and find a comfortable place to shut down for my reset. I could then drive all day Monday to make my PM delivery and be ready to roll and finally start getting some decent miles. I’ve had to turn down too many good runs over the last couple of weeks due to the lack of available hours.

My PU 70 miles away goes without incident and I pull out the map and try to decide where I’m going to stop for my reset. I decide on a truck stop about 3hrs away on I-81 in Virginia because I know they have a Days Inn next to them and I am ready to treat myself to a hotel room for the weekend. OK, I’ll admit a Days Inn isn’t exactly a treat, but it gets me out of the truck.

Everything goes swimmingly well and on the way I stop to scale out at a truck stop that is less than a mile away from where I dropped my trailer at the apparently deserted warehouse earlier this morning (so close, this will make sense shortly). Three hours later I arrive at my pre-determined destination and spy the Days Inn just up the hill. I pull out the computer and do a quick check on Priceline to see if I can catch a good deal and I do find an acceptable quote but decide to hold off on securing a room until after I’ve had a chance to stretch the legs a bit.

It is at this time that I decide I will grab my lock to secure the trailer door. The Enforcer locks we use are rather heavy duty and are more than a simple paddle lock that can be snipped off.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...forcerlock.jpg


I routinely do this at the first place I stop after I PU a trailer. Why I wait until I stop instead of when I PU a trailer I can’t really say, it’s just a bad habit I’ve gotten into. Many times I PU a trailer and deliver it on the same day without stopping and don’t want to waste time with the lock in those circumstances and it’s a habit that has carried over to most of my loads. My thought is, “no one can steal anything if I’m driving down the road”. Well this bad habit is about to bite me in the a**! As usual, I popped open the side door and reached in to pull out the lock and a horrible sinking feeling hits the pit of my stomach when I realize it’s not there.

It only takes a few seconds of recollection to realize that I left my lock on the trailer that I dropped this morning. At all times, the very first thing I do when I get to a receiver is to pull the lock off the door. After all, these things cost us $120 and it’s not like someone at a warehouse can just pull out a set of bolt cutters. I can’t imagine this is the first time a driver has left a lock on a trailer, but out side of a torch or a good quality grinder, I don’t know how someone would go about getting one of these locks off. I could only image a locksmith being called and a hefty payroll deduction.

I can’t believe I did this, but with the confusion of no one being around when I made the drop, my search for an empty and my attempt to get a resolution from the absent weekend dispatch, well, I just screwed up big time.

The worst part of the whole thing was the number of times I had the opportunity to catch the mistake. If I would have attempted to lock my next trailer when I picked it up or if I would have thought about it when I scaled out. That really got me going because I was less than a mile away at that time.

Well, here I am 200 miles away and ½ an hour of drive time left on my clock, there is nothing I can do at this time. If I only had a hour I could have made it to Roanoke. They have an airport; therefore they have weekend rental cars. I know there is no chance of getting a rental out here in the middle of nowhere and I can’t drive the truck back until tomorrow. Not that that’s any kind of option. I’m not about to put 400 miles on the truck at Crete’s expense because of my bonehead move. Although I have the funny feeling that it would have been my expense anyway.

My only feasible option is to wake up when my 10 break is up, drive into Roanoke (this will result in the neighborhood of 45 out of route miles, could be worse) pray for a parking spot at the Pilot or TA Easter Sunday morning (anyone who has ever been there knows what a crap shoot that can be), call a cab and PU a rental car at the airport and take a little day trip back to Richmond. And that’s just what I did. So much for my reset. Son of ^%#@!

When all was said and done I found myself back in Roanoke by 4pm. Since my reset was shot I decided to take off and put some miles behind me. I drove until I was tired and shut down a few hours from my destination.

Another week down.

What the last few weeks has shown me is something that I really already knew. Not being able to get in my reset is costing me miles. Not that an average of 3200 paid miles a week is anything to complain about, but I can do more and want to do more. It has resulted in a definite increase in the number of shorter haul, therefore more loads which inturn causes me to burn more of my 70hr clock on line 4 doing P/Us and deliveries and it also increases the number of unpaid miles due to all the extra running around between loads (and chasing down misplaced locks).

I have had to consistently turn down loads with good miles because I don’t have the hours to complete them in a timely manner. I am also getting myself into situations where I have to shut down in the middle of the day after running for periods of 4-7 hours. Running like this has definitely given me a lot of unwanted downtime and makes me put more effort into load planning than I care to deal with. Not that I’m incapable of it, I just get very frustrated when I am so limited in what I can do on any given day.




WEEK TWELVE RESULTS
Monday, March 17th through Sunday, March 23rd
Miles include deadhead

Slidell, LA to Houston, TX (final leg)................................323mi
La Port, TX to N. Kansas City, MO...................................800mi
Kansas City, MO to Brownstown, MI................................757mi
Cuyahoga Heights, OH to Prince George, VA....................646mi
Suffolk, VA to Mt Sterling,KY (first leg)............................674mi

Total Paid Miles............................................. ................3200 miles
Actual Miles………………………3325

3200mi x .42 = $1344.00

I did a drop at the Prairie Du Chein cabelas a couple of years ago and got to watch a yard jockey cut off an enforcer lock a Crete driver had left on the trailer. He had a grinder and it took him all of 30 seconds to finish the job. I think I have used my enforcer lock a total of five times in nearly three years.

After my little experience I'm considering going back to the good old fashioned paddle lock myself.

I figured a grinder would slice through one of our Enforcer locks in short order, but was afraid of what it would cost me if they went with the locksmith route.

Amusing side note, I picked up a preloaded trailer out of Mobile today and there was a loaded Crete trailer next to mine with an Enforcer lock left on it.

yeah, 50ft of air line, a cut-off tool and a 3in disc- and any lock is history in 10minutes flat.

2008
WEEK THIRTEEN
Monday, March 24th through Sunday, March 30th


They tell me the number 13 is an unlucky number and with this being the 13th week of the year, well it seems to be an unlucky week for me.

The stage was actually being set for me in the middle of last week. Ever since the wife and I left Phoenix for our new home in NC her ex employer has wanted her to return to her old job. After our last visit to Phoenix she was informed that a longtime employee was about to retire and she was offered the position with a substantial pay raise that we just couldn’t turn down. As much as we love NC it looks like we are headed back to Phoenix. The details were finalized over the weekend and I now find myself in a position of being far from home and in need of returning ASAP to take care of arrangement. Part of the deal with the wife’s new/old job is that she needs to be there in two weeks.

I had already put in for hometime, but wasn’t due to be back until next week. After making my Monday morning delivery I called my terminal manager and dispatch to explain the situation. It was Monday and I was hoping to be home by Wednesday if possible. I didn’t expect to be able to make that time schedule, but hoped for the best.

There were no loads available going to NC from KY (as expected), but they did get me a load going to AL that delivered the next day. At least it’s in the right direction. Once I had that load delivered I sent in my MT call and a note that I needed to get home. Again, there were no loads going home and I was offered a load to Dallas, Chicago or the option of waiting until the morning to see if they could find me a load going east then. I can’t believe it, they actually told me they only have loads going west. There must be a thick coat of Ice in hell this morning.

The Chicago load was actually promising because I was practically guaranteed a load to NC (or at least something I could TCall) from there but because of my hours I would not be able to get back to NC without shutting down along the way and costing me a day or two. With that in mind I took the TX load knowing there was a limited chance of getting a load home, but at least I would be close enough to the house to rent a car if it came down to that.

Sure enough, after making my TX delivery early Thursday morning I was informed there were no loads going to NC, but they had one going to Memphis. This didn’t get me home, but we have a drop yard there and I could leave the truck there and rent a car if need be. I was still in a position were I could be home by this weekend.

I made my delivery in Memphis on Friday and after my MT call was offered two loads, one to Florida and one to Columbus, OH. Still not home, but I could work with these. The FL load would get me within 400 miles of home but didn’t deliver until Monday morning. I could probably Tcall this in out Deland, FL terminal, but a car rental in that area was questionable, so I took the OH load. We also have a lot of loads going from OH to NC.

It was to deliver 05:00 Sunday morning. As it worked out, I had the load in our Columbus yard by Saturday morning and was allowed to Tcall the load there. They also preplanned me on a load going to Lumberton, NC just up the road from my home. The problem with that load was that it didn’t PU until 11pm Sunday night and delivered the following Tuesday. Crete did get me to the house on short notice, but this load was going to get me home too late.

I sent a message off to dispatch thanking them for their effort, but informed them that the load didn’t work for my time schedule and asked them to pull me off the preplan. I let them know that I was going to park the truck at the Columbus terminal and rent a car to get home. That is all the explanation they required, I was simply asked when I thought I would be back. I set my PTA, rented a car and started by 600mi drive back to the house.

I was happy with the effort that Crete made to get me home on such short notice, especially with the limited freight base these days. If I had not been on such a tight schedule I would have been very pleased, but as it worked out I was content with getting close enough to drive a rental back. My terminal manager did say if it was an emergency they would have made whatever arrangements were necessary to get me home immediately, but I told him this wasn’t exactly an emergency, but more of an urgency issue. All in all, I was pleased with the way it turned out.

I was home by Saturday night and spent the next week packing, painting, fixing, finalizing and saying goodbye to very good friends.


WEEK THIRTEEN RESULTS
Monday, March 24th through Sunday, March 30th
Miles include deadhead


Mt Sterling, KY to Owensboro, KY(last leg)…....................132mi
Owensboro, KY to Theodore, AL.....................................592mi
Theodore, AL to Coppell, TX..........................................612mi
Hawkins, TX to Memphis, TN..........................................502mi
Memphis, TN to Columbus, OH.......................................600mi

Total Paid Miles............................................. ................2441 Miles (Short week, Mon-Sat Morning)
Actual Miles………………………2695 Miles

2441mi x .42 = $1025.22


I did a fair amount of Bobtailing for personal use this week. Also three of the loads that I picked up were in the same city as the previous delivery. When this happens we are not paid for the in town miles when the driving is done within city limits. Example, the Owensboro load, after delivery I drove 8 miles to the nearest truckstop. My PU was the next morning on the other side of town, now 16 miles away. Trucks had to use the truck route which made it 28 miles to the PU and another 28 miles return. The result was over 60 unpaid miles. This doesn’t happen when a load is picked up in another town, but when staying local it can result in excessive unpaid mileage as was the case with this week.

With that said I am beginning to question Crete “practical miles” of late. I will know for sure if I get a load in the future that has an identical PU and Del as a load in the past. Until then I will just remain suspicious.

One of the great positives about Crete is that you are paid for almost all miles you run, unlike many companies that pay based on the HHG “short” miles. This is because Crete pays “practical miles”. I do believe (no solid proof, just an opinion), that there are options to practical mileage programs. One being a true practical mileage chart that routes over predominantly interstates and another option that routes over less desirable, yet drivable 2 lanes roads. This results in slightly shorter mileage pay, but still superior to the HHG miles.

It “appears” to me that someone may have changed the settings in an effort to save on payroll. Why do I think this?

Because I am still being routed over interstates and major route when I receive my Suggested routing, but if I follow them precisely I am finding large discrepancies (compared to the past that is) between Paid and Actual miles. If, on the other hand I take any and all available two lane roads to cut corners I am finding that the miles are almost dead on. This used to result in being paid more miles than I actually ran as I have shown in the past on my weekly final results.

I would like to know if other Crete drivers are having similar experiences, or maybe it has just been an off week or two.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid.

1st Quarter 2008
 

2008
1st QUARTER RESULTS
January 1st through March 31st




Here is a summary of my first three months of 2008 with Crete.

This is a chart of miles run. Each trip is posted on the date that the load was delivered. There were a couple of instances where I delivered two loads in one day. On these trip I listed the miles for the second trip on the next day to avoid distorting the length of haul numbers.


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And here is a quick breakdown of the above numbers.


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...downfirstQ.jpg

I had 37306 paid miles for the same time frame with 3 more days at home than you. I'd say pretty comparable. I'm sitting right at 6000 for April so far.

What he said . .
 

"It “appears” to me that someone may have changed the settings . . "

Absolutely true at Swift. Interstate routing and 2 lane miles and I don't mean the usual HHG shortage . . that is rarely as bad as people make it out to be.

What I have found is that, for many trips which involve a substantial interstate dogleg, Swift is paying on the 2 lane diagonal and in some cases that involves restricted routes. I just do my homework, point out the flaw in the routing and get paid for the miles I drive.

For you newer guys that are follwing this thread, I'd like to point out how valuable a laptop and routing software can be in a situation like this. It takes about 15 seconds to lay out a route and compare it and the mileage to the Qualcomm. I usually get discrepencies resolved before I begin to roll.

By the way, this is an excellent thread!

Re: What he said . .
 

I agree thanks for taking the time to give us this info