Back to Nov

I arrived just before 1200.  I said I was early, but was told that it was okay.  I was unload in less than an hour.  

I drove to get my next load, for which I was going be over two hours early for.  I was close to the shipper when I came upon a traffic circle.  Driving around the circle, I couldn't see any street signs.  I drove around again, and saw the sign for the street I was looking for, but I thought that it was the street that I had driven into the circle from.  I tried two different streets, only to have to turn around.  I went up the named street think I was going to go back the way I had come, but it was the right street.

I got to the shipper.  I had to wait a while to get into a dock.  Once I did, it was an hour before I was loaded, for a total of a little more than two hours.  I still left the shipper before I was due to pick up the load.

I drove an hour to get fuel, then another hour and a quarter.  I stopped for the night.  I could have gone farther, but the delivery time for the load was 0830 on the 3rd, and I could get there tomorrow.  It was a good thing I stopped, as a bad thunder storm moved through the area about an hour later.

And how I wish that were so because the next load had an appointment time of 1800, and it was only 0900.  The load was about 80 miles away.  I called to see if it could be moved up.  The answer was no.  When the appointment time arrived, the load wasn't ready, and I had to wait two hours.  It was 2000 by the time I was loaded.  Even though I was told that I couldn't sleep there, I had to.

I had a little more than five hours driving in when I made the delivery.  The orders said that the delivery was a dropped trailer, but they unloaded it.  This was actually good.  It took only about a half hour to unload.  The drop, plus picking up another trailer, at a different location, would have taken longer.

I then drove to the shipper of the next order.  Despite bad directions, actually a lack of which direction to go once I got to the road I was to take, I got to the shipper.  There, I thought I was picking up beauty supplies, but the load was manufacturing machinery, as the company had moved.

I drove another three and a half hours.

Today was a short drive day.  I couldn't delivery the load until tomorrow, so I drove as close to the delivery as possible.  Even at that I was about fifty miles away.

Once I got going, I drove hard in order to get as close as I could to the delivery.  I miscalculated, and wound up going fifteen minutes past my fourteen hours in order to find a place to park.

I drove to the shipper.  There I called them to see if I could get in early.  The reason for the call was that I was at the salt mines in Independence MO.  You aren't suppose to go into the mines/caves until you are assigned a dock.  I was told I could go in.  It took three hours to get loaded, but I was out of there by 1300.

I took the load to a company drop lot, and dropped it.  Now, if you read back, you'll see that I have dropped a trailer, or picked one up since I picked up this trailer on 11/28.  Next, I picked up an empty, and took it to the shipper of the next load.

I arrived at the shipper at 1415.  The load was supposed to be ready at 1600.  I was hopping that it would be ready early.  It wasn't.  I dropped the empty, and waited for two hours.  It was 1630.  I was told that the load was ready, and they were waiting for the paperwork.  It took two hours to get the paper work.

Once I got going, I only had two hours to drive, and used fifteen of that to scale the load.  When I stopped, I wondered if I had gone far enough to allow me to delivery the load, and get home tomorrow.

At the delivery, I dropped the load, and picked up an empty.  I drove the empty to the home lot, three hours away.  The total drive for the day was 585 miles in nine and a quarter hours.

End of tour 43

To start, I drove to eighty miles to get an empty trailer.  Then I another thirty, or so miles to the shipper.  I drove the load to the Gary OC, where I dropped it for relay.  The load went to Quebec, but all I got was to drag it out of the boonies for someone else.

I picked up another empty in Gary, and took it to another shipper.  There, I dropped it, and got a load with some distance.  I drove another hour before stopping for the night.

I then drove to the delivery of the rest of the load.  There, I dropped the trailer.

I was given another load, but had to go get a container, and take it to a rail yard first.  I found the company that had the trailer, but was told that the trailer was in a drop lot at another location.  The directions I was given sent me running around in circles.  I had to go back, and get them again.  Even with an address, it still took awhile to find the container.

Once found, I took it to the rail yard, and dropped it there.  Then I drove to the Charlotte OC, picked up the load, took a shower, and ate lunch.

When I left, I drove for five and three quarter hours, stopping fifteen minutes before the fourteen hours were up.

Well, I thought I would get it there before 1200, but the directions to the store were off by a mile, and when I got to the store, it was the wrong store.  What a bunch of idiots.

After I delivered the load, I had to drive to another store, and make the second half of the load.  After the second load, I ate lunch while I waited for order on my next load.

The pick up of the next load was tomorrow, so I drove to a truck stop as close to the shipper as I could get, and stopped for the night.

Once on the way, it was an eight hour drive to the delivery.  I stopped once for lunch, and another time for fuel, and a shower along the way.

The route went  from central FL, north on I75 to I10, then west.  At Pensacola, I when over the bridge that had been damaged in a 2004 hurricane.  I had gone over the bridge once before, going the other direction, on the sections that had received the most damage.  It was dark that time, and I couldn't see anything.  I had been rushing to get here before total darkness.  I was able to see this.

I arrive at the delivery, in Mobile, and dropped the load.  My next load was at the same location.  However, it wasn't ready yet, so I was allowed to stay on the shipper's lot for the night.  There were two other trucks there too.

Now, today is Saturday, the delivery is on Monday, and I can be there Sunday afternoon.  Why the rush.  Because my truck is still running poorly, and I thought that I could get it in the shop in Gary

After the shower, I found out that I was getting a loaner tractor while mine was being worked on.  I transferred some stuff to the loaner, picked up the load, and drove to my home lot, which is eight miles from the delivery.  I took my stuff, and went home for the night.

I then took the empty I had to a shipper in central WI.  There, I dropped it, and picked up my next load.  But, I had a problem with this load.  It was to be delivered on the 26th.  And, it was far enough away to cause me to drive on both the 24th and 25th.

Well, I had a fit, and told the company that I had told them that I was going to be at a my families Christmas dinner on the 25th, and if they couldn't fix it, then I would quit.  Well, they fix it, sort of.  The delivery was changed to the 27th.

I got back to the home lot, went home, and checked when I would have to leave to make the delivery on the 27th.  Well, one thing I noticed was that I had already moved the load 107 miles.  Also, if I drive to Gary, I'll be another 100 miles closer, and 675 miles to the delivery.

End of tour 44

Today was a drive day.  I got up early, and was on the road at 0600.  To get maximum distance out of my time, I took the IN and OH toll roads.  Plus, that is the shortest distance.  Ten hours later, I was in Hagerstown MD.  I was about 75 miles from my delivery.

I was reading a magazine while the truck was being loaded, when some guy told me that I seemed to be leaking something from the truck.  I checked, and found a valve on the radiator was dripping.  I was able to reach it, and tighten it.  I check the fluid level, and it was low.  I called maintenance, and they had me go to a truck stop about a mile away.  There, I got two gallons of fluid, and poured one and half gallons into the reservoir.

I drove to my next load, but had time to stop, eat, and take a nap.  Then I drove to the shipper, picked up the load, and took off.  I drove three hour before running out of time.  I had hoped to get farther than I did, but some terrible traffic held me up.

The second half of the load went to another store.  That one was easy to get into.  However, I had to wait for some guy to come back from lunch.  When he came back, I was told that he had almost gone home because they were not expecting me.  Plus, they barely had room for the stuff.  All tolled, I was there two hours, when it was suppose to take thirty minutes.

All that extra time being unloaded made me late for picking up the next load.  It didn't hurt too much.  It had taken forty-five minutes to get there, and an hour and a half to get loaded.  I drove a little more than an hour, and stopped in a rest area just north of Orlando FL.  I had hoped to get over by Daytona Beach, but the traffic south of Orlando, by Disney World, was real bad.

As my driving day was coming to end, I had a problem finding a place to stop.  I was in the Raleigh/Durham area of NC.  There was supposed to be a small truck stop in Raleigh, but I couldn't find it.  I drove farther down the route, continuing to look for a place to stop.  I was off the Interstate, and on a U.S. highway.  There were a lot of stores, malls, and shopping centers along the route.  I was hopping there was a Wal-Mart.

I didn't see the Wal-Mart, but I saw one of their trailers up on a hill.  There was another shopping center there.  I turned at the next intersection, saw the Wal-Mart, and worked my way around to the back.  As it turns out I could have another hour.

Being at the Wal-Mart worked out okay.  I want to stop at any grocery store, so that I could get something special for tomorrow night.

Ahead to Jan 2007

I had arrived at the delivery, and still no load.  I sent the note that I had arrived, and received the note asking for my fuel level, so I could get directions for my next load.  So, I had a load.

By the time I dropped the load, I had all the information on the next load.  First, I had to drive 60 miles to get an empty trailer, then I drove the empty 90 miles to get the load.  All the driving to point in the day was on U.S. highways and back roads.

At the shipper, I dropped the trailer, and then drove six miles the wrong way to get the loaded trailer.  Once I got going, it was on Interstate.  I drove three hours, and stopped at the truck stop where I got some fuel.  It was a short day.  I was about four hours from the delivery, but couldn't deliver until the 2nd.