Back to Mar

I was told that it was done.  I transferred my stuff to my tractor, I took a shower, and I left.  I drove a bit out of route because I wanted to get to a truck stop where I could get on the Internet.  There I told care of some bills that were due in the next couple of days.  I hadn't had the ability with the other truck because I didn't have the WiFi card and antenna.  I didn't know I was going to be out of my truck that long.

My next load involved taking the empty to one shipper and dropping it, then bobtailing to a company drop lot, and picking up a load.  The load was going to NH.  I was in MD, near Wilmington DE.  I had about four hours left on my fourteen.  I took off.  The route used the NJ turnpike, and flows into I95.  There were service plazas on the turnpike, but I wanted to get north of NYC.  I drove to a service plaza in CT.  I was able to park there, so I didn't go on, even though I had some time left, but it would have reduced the small amount of time I had available tomorrow.

My next load was going north into ME.  Seeing as how I was supposed to get home on the 5th,  this load was going to take to much time to do that.  I called my TL, and was told that that was the only load that was going to get me home, even if a day late.  I had to get the load.

I took off for the shipper.  I wasn't sure if I could get there before my driving hours ran out.  There were resort towns that slow me up, but then I had good roads.  I arrived at the shipper just as my time ran out.  Luckily, I was able to park there that night.

When I checked the routes I could take, the company suggested route was a hundred and fifty miles, or more, longer than others.  The shortest route when out of ME, across NH, into VT, south, across VT, and into NY.  The only problem was that there several way to cross VT, and I was sure about the mountains.

I got into VT, and stopped at a truck stop to scale the load.  I was two hours from the shipper, and if the load were heavy, I would have had to go back, and probably wouldn't get home until the 7th.  I was okay.

I drove south on I91 most of the length of VT, new Interstate for me.  This route was a little longer, but it had a shorted route across VT to Albany NY.  This part of the route across VT is a truck route, and one I had drive while on a vacation.  I didn't remember it being that hilly.  I ran into some more snow.  That, the weight of the load, and the steepness of this one hill, made for a fearsome climb.  I made it, and it was okay to NY thereafter.

I got into NY, and took the I90 toll road right up to the end of available driving time.

I drove to PA, where I fueled up.  I was worried about getting to this fuel stop.  That was interesting, in that if I had taken the company suggested route, I was told to fuel at a stop that would have been farther into the route.

At the stop, I called my TL to see if they wanted to deliver the load on time.  It was supposed to be delivered by 2300 tonight.  I told them that I could be at the Gary OC by 1800, if I took the toll roads.  I would be out of time, but someone would have enough time to drive the last eighteen miles.  They didn't want to pay the toll.

I drove the route the parallels the toll road, but because of towns, and a lower speed limit, I ran out of time forty-five minutes from Gary.

It took a while, but I got a loaner.  It had to have the steer tires replaced before I could take it.  I was an hour late for the rescheduled delivery time.  I was unloaded quickly.

I drove the empty trailer to the home lot, and went home, thirteen hours after I was supposed to get here.

End of tour 50.

I still had a loaner tractor, and I expected to be sent to Gary to take my tractor back.  But, I had to drive over two hours the other way to get a load.  Before starting, I programmed my new GPS navigator.  The company had shut off the Qualcomm system while the truck is moving, so driver can view the route directions, and have to write them down.  This can be cumbersome.   The route to the shipper on Mar 31st was about two hundred miles, and had over thirty instructions, mostly named roads for which I could not see the street signs.

So, I bought a GPS system to guide me through the route.  I drove to the shipper, and the GPS took me right to the door.

I picked up the load, and drove to Gary to get my tractor.  Along the way, I had to get some fuel using my own credit card.  The company will reimburse me.

The route the GPS wanted to take to get to Gary kept going through the center of Chicago, the shortest route.  When I passed a turn the GPS wanted me to take, it would recalculate the route.   It want to take I94, than I90, than I290, before it continued on the Tri-state.

At Gary, I swapped tractors, fueled up, washed the rig, and lift.  I drove a little over two hours, and stopped at a rest area for the night.  I was about fifteen minutes from the delivery.

At the delivery, while I was being unloaded, I programmed the next destination.  It wanted to use non-truck streets.  I played with the options, and by telling the GPS to not use one street, it calculated the correct route.

After I was unloaded, I drove to the next load.  There I dropped the empty, and went to see about the load.  The load was company equipment being sent to the home office because this one was being closed.  The person in charge of the shipping said that the load was gone.  That someone had taken it, and there was no load.  I called my TL, and they straightened it out.

I had to wait two and a half hours before I got my next orders.  But, when I got them, there were two loads, going in opposite directions with about the same pickup times.  Something was really screwed up.  I call my TL, and he agreed that things were really screwed up.  I was told which of the two loads to take.  It was the longer one.

I used the GPS to get to the shipper.  This is where it really worked well.  The route was mostly a U.S. highway, but it took a lot of turns.  As I got close to the shipper, the GPS wanted to take the shortest route, using narrow back roads.  I passed them.  The GPS recalculated the route.  When it told me to turn on a state highway, I did, and the shipper was about a mile down the road.

I was loaded, and took off.  The load was supposed to be delivered early the next day, but I couldn't get there until the afternoon.  I drove four hours until my fourteen was about to run out.

When I started my day, I had sent note indicating that I would arrive at 1600.  I still got to the delivery by 1600.  The place was closed.  It had closed at 1500.  Even without the shower, I couldn't have gotten there in time.  I drove to the next town to park for the night.

As for the GPS.  Based on the company route, I followed the company route at one point.  The GPS recalculated  it's route to more closely match the company route.  It took me to the destination, but said I had arrived a quarter mile before I actually did.

Also, today I was told that I had a new Team Leader, TL, Team Operations Manager, TOM, and new operating center, Gary IN.  I had been looking forward to this change, hoping that I would start getting better loads and support.

There were other company drivers there, and we talked about the company.  One guy was a new drive, and he said that he was going to leave as soon as his year was over.  The other was happy because he said he drove 3,000 miles or more a week.

I don't know why, but I was the last to get loaded.  Driver came in after me, and were loaded and gone before me.  I was there over four hours.  When I did leave, I only had eight and a half hours to drive.  Had I been able to leave an hour sooner, I could have made the Flying J north of Cincinnati.  I stopped fifty miles south of Cincinnati.

I sent a note that I was available.  I was given a load, but had time, so I took a shower.

I drove to get an empty trailer.  I picked up the trailer, checked it out, and found that it had a flat tire.  I called service, and was told to go to the tire bank in the Columbus area.  Normally I would have just driven to the tire bank, but it was Saturday, and I wanted service to make sure someone would be there.  I drove to the tire bank, and the tire was changed in record time, fifteen minutes.

I drove to the shipper, where I was loaded in under two hours.  I took off, following the company directions, but the route was going through an area of PA with no known places to stop.  I used the GPS, and Streets and Trips to calculate various routes.  I found out I could make it to a Flying J.  The route went out of route, but was faster than the company route.

I drove to the Flying J, and stopped for the night.

I drove to the delivery, and was unloaded in less than two hours.  I sent a note that indicated that I would be available sooner than planned.  I had to send another note to get some action.  I had waited over an hour.

The load was about seventy miles away.  The company directions used a whole bunch of back roads to get there.  I used the GPS, which took the MA turnpike for twenty miles, then went north.  It was less than seventy miles.  The route went through the Berkshires in MA.  The town was in the NW corner of the state, probably less than fifteen miles from NY and VT.  The town is also close to the highest mountain in MA, Mt Graylock, 3491 ft.  I should have been able to see it if it hadn't been so rainy and overcast.

At the shipper I waited a while to get loaded, only to find out that they wouldn't load the trailer because it leaked.  I called my TL.  They  said that the shipper had trailers there, and that they would call to see if it was okay to used one of then.  It was okayed.  I drove about a mile to the shippers drop lot, found the assigned trailer, checked it out, and found that I leaked worse than the one I had brought.  I checked the other two trailers that were there.  One was leaking, and other looked drier.  I should say now that it had been raining very hard for at least the last two days.

I called my TL to inform them of the leaky trailers there, and get permission to take the driest trailer.  I was given the okay on the trailer.  I took it back to the shipper, where I waited a while for someone to come and load it.  But, when the loader got there, the trailer was rejected for leaking.  It was so small I didn't even see it.  The wet spot was against the wall making a half circle of about fifteen inches in diameter, at the wall.

I called my TL.  I was on hold for over fifteen minutes when I tried again.  Another fifteen minutes, and I tried again.  After another fifteen minutes, I call the number for my old TL, and got right through, to someone.  They took care of the problem.

The solution was to drive seventy-four miles to a Target distribution center to get a good trailer.  The route went north and east of Mt Graylock, which I could see in the dark.  I sent into NY, and missed VT by a mile or two.  The highway that went from MA into NY went up and down a mountain.  This is a map of the area.  The mountain road is in the circle.  The GPS got me there okay.

At the Target center, I couldn't find the trailer I was told to pick up, so I checked other trailers, looking for one that didn't leak.  The third one I checked looked good.  I walked the length with a flashlight, check the floor and ceiling.  Another one that I checked had a dry floor, but condensation was hanging on the ceiling.  I checked to see if I could take the trailer, and told okay.

I drove back to the shipper, but arrived to late to be load that night.  I was about out of time anyhow.  I was able to park there that night, and back into the dock I had been in before.

The GPS followed the company directions.  I drove out of MA, into NY, then PA, and OH.  In OH, I stopped at an operating center for fuel and a shower.  I was out of there in about a half hour.  I drove another hour and a half, and stopped at a small truck stop I didn't originally know was there.

It was in the right place, as I had used up my eleven hours.  The reason for the push was that the delivery time for the load was 1500 tomorrow.  Now, I had had some problems with the trailers, and it probably would have been okay if I delivered late, but I was trying to make up for lost time, and an analysis of the trip showed that I could make it, if I didn't make any long stops.  I would have to stop as early as possible, so I could leave early tomorrow.  Beside the shower stop, I stopped once to scale the load, one other time for fuel, and a bathroom break.  Total stops equaled an hour and a half.

I stopped in Gary for fuel, only because directions included the stop.  While there I went to say hi to the new team.  I was out of there in less than a half an hour.  As I drove, I snacked, rather than stop to eat.

I was about thirty minutes from the delivery went I came upon an accident scene.  A tractor trailer had stuffed it in the ditch between the lanes.  This cost me about ten minutes.  I still arrived by about 1520.  But, even though my delivery instructions said the delivery window was 0700 to 1700, the actual window was 0700 to 1500.  I had just busted my butt over two days for nothing because the company gave me incorrect information.

If is a big word.  I didn't have to stop in Gary for fuel.  I had enough to make the delivery, and get back to Gary.  That stop prevented me from delivering today.  But, I was working with the information at hand.

I was unloaded quickly, and was ready to go.  I had to wait awhile for the order of the next load.  I had over ten hours available to drive, and the same amount tomorrow.  I could easily drive a thousand miles.  So, what did I get, a load taking me home for the weekend.  Today is Thursday.  Tomorrow is the day I was supposed to get home.  Plus, I was to deliver the load on the 23rd.

The same tour ended a day late, and this one ends a day early.  The result is that I only drove ten days, instead of the usual twelve.  And, some of these, like today, were pretty poor for miles.

I did manage to at least benefit from this bad day.  This is the time of year when driver go through spring training.  This way I wasn't attending while I could be driving.  I picked up the load, went to spring training, and drove home.

End of tour 51.

I woke up in the truck.  Usual I drive from home, and start the tour at about 0800.  But, the load was to be delivered at 0800, so I drove to the truck last night.

I checked the truck, and left at 0630, not knowing how long it would take to get through rush hour traffic in Milwaukee.  I was three block from the delivery at 0715.  I parked for awhile, and drove in at 0730.  I got in a dock right away, and was unloaded quickly.  After I left, I parked for awhile, waiting for my next load.  It took longer than the unloading.

I drove to my next load.  It was close.  When I got there, I had to wait for another truck to get loaded before me.  While I was being loaded, I ate an early lunch.  I wanted to use all my remaining time driving.  It was 1145 when I left.  I had until 2015 to drive, eight and a half hours.  I made it to within fifteen minutes of my destination, in SD.

Yes, just a few weeks ago I drove through VT, and now SD.  If anyone out there has been keeping count, these were the only two states of the lower 48 that I had not to since driving truck.  Note that I had been to the all lower 48 before I started driving truck, but that I taken years, and special side trips to some of the states.  Now I had done it in less than two and a half years.

I tried calling the consignee, but only got voice mail.  I called my TL.  After several calls by the TL, we found out that the address was wrong.  It was 39th St, not 29th St.  Well, that took an hour, more than it took to get unloaded once I got there.

After being unloaded, I parked near by while I waited for orders for my next load.  I sent notes that I was available.  After three hours, I drove a Pilot station to shower.  After that, I ate lunch.  Then I worked on a spreadsheet that shows miles I have been driving, and compared it with the previous four quarters.  It is not looking good.  I watched some TiVo.

Finally, I got an order for a load.  Problem, it said to pick it up tomorrow, at 0900.  I left to drive to the shipper.  It was 220 miles away, and I thought I would drive it today, while it was light out.  As I was driving, it occurred to me that the 0900 was an estimated time of arrival.  The company's stupid computer probably calculated that I couldn't get there until tomorrow.  The pick up windows was open until 1900, and I could get there by 1700.

I drove to the shipper, and was able to get loaded.  I was loaded forty-five minutes.  Even with a fuel stop, I was able to drive two hours before my fourteen ended.  I had gone from SD to MN, and was able to get to WI.

The truck stop I stopped at was in a state of total chaos.  There were trucks moving all directions trying to get in, get fuel, get parked, or get out.  It's a small lot, and difficult to get around in.  I had to wait a while, trying not to be in anyone's way.  A spot opened up, and I backed in.

I drove to the shipper, and was loaded in about an hour.  This was good.  Despite the unload, wait, and load, I still had nine hours I could drive.  I left the shipper, and drove to Columbia SC, where I planned to stop for the night.  I arrived just a half hour before my fourteen hours were up.

Along the way I got a message to call my TL.  I didn't see this until I stopped at a rest area.  Because some driver that couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time turned over his/her rig looking at the QualComm, it is now disabled when the truck is moving.  Had I not stopped at the rest area, I wouldn't have seen the message until I stopped for fuel.

I called.  My TL wanted to know if I had enough time to pick up special load after my current load, and if I would be able to delivery it on time.  I could.  At the same time, I asked if I could deliver my current load tomorrow.  It was really due on the 29th, and I could get it there about 15oo tomorrow.  The TL said that he would check on it.  I thought, what is the difference.  The delivery window opened at 0001 on the 29th.  It is a drop delivery, so what if its seven hours early..

I stopped for fuel, and continued on.  After awhile, I started getting messages for the next load.  When I stopped for the night, I saw that the first message was an instruction to deliver my current load in Atlanta.  Going to Columbia was sixty miles out of route.  Timing and the ability to read messages is important to determining what to do.

At the shipper, I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.  When I left, I let the GPS choose the route.  I thought it would take me on a southwest track to FL.  It took me more south and west.  This took me to Tallahassee.  I was able to stop at a Flying J.  I had driven just over eight hours, and wondered if I should go farther.  The load had an appointment time on the first of May, and I wondered if I could get far enough today, to get there tomorrow, early enough to do a recap.  The GPS determined the miles and travel time, and I couldn't make it.  So, it didn't matter if I drove farther, so I stopped.

The route went out of FL across AL, MS, LA, and into TX.  In FL, I went over the bridge that had been damaged in a hurricane in 2005.  Here is the story.   Here is a picture.  They are building new bridges.  Here is want is going on.

Ahead to May

Across from the Flying J is a small mall.  In the mall was a cinema.  The last time I was here, it was out of business.  I had nothing better to do, so I walked over to see if it had reopened.  It had, but it was more than a cinema, it was also a restaurant.  I got to watch a movie.  I would have watched another, but the movies are run based on dinner schedules, and the next seating wasn't for two hours.