Back to Nov

I left at 0715, and drove to the delivery in under seven hours, with two stops.  At the delivery I dropped the load, and bobtailed out.  I then drove an hour and a quarter to get an empty.  There were empties at the delivery, but I have noticed that if possible, or needed, I pick up empties along the way to the next shipper.  This may be to save fuel over some of the drive.

I picked up an empty, and drove an hour to the shipper.  The pick up time was 0600 local time, or 0500 CST, tomorrow morning, and I wanted to be as close as possible to maximize my sleep.  I couldn't park at the shipper, but was told that I could park behind the McDonalds less than a mile away.  I drove to the lot, parked, and bought a happy meal.

There wasn't enough product available to ship, so I got a lighter load than was supposed to be shipped.  This also meant I was loaded quickly, even though they hadn't started until 0800.  I checked the truck, and left at 0830.

I rest of the day was driving.  I drove three hours, and stopped for fuel, lunch, and a nap.  After the nap, I called the broker handle the load to see if I was clear to cross the border.  Yes, I was going to Canada.  The shipper had faxed the paperwork, and I was clear to cross.  I drove an hour and a half to the border, and cleared customs so fast I didn't even log it.

I drove another hour and three quarters, and stopped at a service center.  It was only 1645.  I had four hours available on my fourteen, and the delivery point was still three hours away.  But, I had used up my seventy hours for the eight days.  Today was the eighth day.   Now with a delivery time of 0700 local time, I had to get up leave at 0300 CST, two hours earlier than the usual time.

I tried to go to sleep early, and did manage to do it, but high winds kept shaking the trailer and me awake.  Also, I parked in the wrong place.  Several times, trucks leaving the service center would blast part me.  I should have parked on the inbound side of the service center.

I got to the delivery on time, despite the hazards, and Toronto's rush hour traffic.  I got into a dock, and was unloaded quickly.  It was a small load.  I left the dock, and parked in the lot.  I took a two hour nap.  When I woke up, I called my trip planner to see about a load.  I also wanted to make sure I wasn't given anything that would have required me to take a ten hour break up until midnight, then have to drive all night to make a late morning delivery.  Some people may be able to switch sleep pattern from night to day and back, but not me.

I was told to drive to the OC on the other side of Toronto.  I drove there, fuel up, showered, ate lunch, worked on this page, posted to the Internet, and rested.

I took care of the border crossing paperwork, hooked up the trailer, and left at 0915.  I was about thirty-some minutes from the border when I received the note saying I was clear to cross.  I cleared the border about 1300.  I drove to the operating center south of Detroit, and stopped for lunch.  I spent over an hour there, talking about geopolitical subjects.  

I then drove to a Pilot station to scale the load.   The trailer tandems were exactly 34,000 lbs.  I move the tandems forward three holes.

I drove to Franklin OH, were I parked for the night at a Pilot station.  I intended to take a shower in the morning.

I left an hour and a half later, and drove an hour and a half to the delivery.  I was three hours early.  I had asked to get an earlier appointment, and was told that I could arrive two hours early.  So, I was an hour early.  The guy said, No problem, and I backed into a dock.  I was unloaded in an hour and a half.  I sent a note that I was going to be available as I was being unloaded.

The load assignment I got was forty miles away, with a pick up time at 1300 tomorrow.  More sitting around.  I called the trip planner.  I was given a load the picked up at 0800 tomorrow, 220 miles away.  I left.  I drove a half hour, and stopped at a Wal-Mart for provisions.  I then drove almost three hours to a Pilot station. At one point, a dear walked out onto the left lane of the highway.  I didn't see it until I it was right next to me as I drove by.  Gave me quite a start.   I fueled up at the Pilot station, and parked there to see if I could pick up the Flying J WiFi signal across the road.  Nope.  I drove over there, and parked for the night.

The rest of the day was a driving day.  The drive was easy, with changes of Interstate every two hours or so.  I drove about three hours, and stopped for lunch.  Then I drove over three hours, and stopped for a rest break.  From there on, for the next almost three hours, I drove in freezing rain.  This caused me to stop a couple of time, for about a minute, to knock the ice off the wipers.  The washer wasn't working to well either, so it was a slow go.

I stopped at a rest area north of Madison WI.  This was a stopping place I was thinking about from the beginning, but I thought that it would be full by the time I got there.  There was a spot open, so I parked for the night.

I got to the delivery, fifteen minutes later than I could have had I been able to go straight in that town.  I backed up to the building, and unloading started.  There was no dock, so the pallets had to be dragged to the back of the trailer, then taken off with a forklift.  This took awhile.

About ten minutes after I arrived, the other truck, the one that was loading ahead of me, showed up.  Now he had to wait on me.  I was finished after an hour and three quarters.

I left, and drove to the shipper of the next load.  The directions from the company wanted me to back to the Interstate, which meant out-of-route because of the no trucks road.  I was supposed to get some fuel before going to the shipper.  I used the GPS to get me to the shipper using back roads.  I saved miles, and got there four miles fewer than the pay miles.   Time wasn't a factor, I am supposed to go home today.

At the shipper, I got into a dock right away, and was loaded in less than an hour.  I left, and drove to a Petro station to get some fuel.  I knew this station was here, and on the approved list.  That is why I didn't go to the station the directions told me to.  I did not fill up, but got enough fuel to get a shower coupon.  Another thing, Petro shower coupons are good for over a week, Pilot's are only good for five days.  This way I'll have a shower coupon for the middle of next week.

Now, I am suppose to go home, but I hadn't received a message telling me to do so.  I called the trip planner, and told him so.  He set it up for me to take the load to my home lot, and drop it for relay.  But, then he noticed that the load was a high value load.  He said there was a driver coming into that area later, and I was asked if I would baby sit the load until the other drive got there.

I drove to the lot.  I took my stuff out of the truck, and put it in my vehicle.  I dropped the trailer, and parked the truck.  I only had to wait about a fifteen minutes after that.

End of tour 65.

I didn't start until 1000 because of a dental appointment.  When I left, I drove fifteen minute to get an empty trailer.  I then drove to the shipper to get the load.  I was in my home town.

The load assignment said that the load would be 40,000 lbs.  The load was only four pallets totaling 10,000.  This was a light load.  I was also loaded quickly.

The rest of the day was a driving day.  I drove to Gary for fuel.  While there, I talked to the TLs about some pay I hadn't received.  When I left, I drove four hours, and stopped for the day.  The load wasn't to be delivered until the 12th.  I was only eight hours away.  Also, I was tired.

I drove to the delivery, even though the appointment was tomorrow.  I had called, and was told to come in.  When I got there, I found out there were two receiving areas, and the one I was delivering to had closed at 1500.  If I had driven longer yesterday, and taken shorter breaks today, I might have been able to delivery today.

I was allowed to stay on the lot that night, even though the load assignment said, 'No parking'.

My day started at 0945.  I drove a half hour to the next shipper.  There it took a little more than an hour to get loaded.  There was a scale there, and a check of the axle weights showed that I was 120 lbs over on the trailer tandems.  Another driver said that GA will let you be up to 600 lbs over, but I didn't want to take the chance.  I had to wait awhile for the loaders to come off lunch.  The load was bales of scrap paper.  The last three bales were on the floor.  Also the last bale was small.  I asked the loader to take the small one off, double stack the next two, and place the small one back on.  That moved the weight forward.  I didn't even weigh it again.

I drove to an OC that was close.  I fueled up at a nearby Pilot station because the OC fuel area was being rebuilt.  I then went to the OC, and took a shower.  I was in GA since noon yesterday, and the day time temperature was in the low eighties.  I had gotten a little sweaty.

It was 1400 when I left to make the delivery.  I drove five and a half hours to the the delivery.  Along the way, the only DOT scale I passed was closed.

At the delivery, I dropped the load, and picked up an empty.  It was 2000.  I still had time to drive, having started so late.  Normally, I would stop about now, but I didn't want to drive another short day.  I wanted to use up most of my seventy hours by the end of the day Sunday, so I could put the truck in for an oil change PM.

I drove to the next shipper, two and a half hours away.  The route was all back roads, in AL.  I got to the shipper, dropped the empty, and parked for the night.  It was 2300.  The load wasn't supposed to be ready until tomorrow afternoon.

The rest of the day was a driving day.  I drove nine and three quarter hours with only one lunch break/fuel stop.  I would have driven another hour, but I was south of Cincinnati, and the next stop was too far away.  I had found a spot in a rest area that was full, and I was concerned that any other stop might be full.  It was 2000.

I hadn't received my next load assignment, so I called the trip planner to see what was up.  I was sent a load shortly after that.  I picked up an empty trailer, and drove to the shipper.

I drove a short route using back roads.  The route was thirty miles shorter than taking the Interstate, but it went through a few towns that really slowed me up.  I got to the shipper after two and a half hours, and 115 miles away.

The load was supposed to be a drop and hook, but the product that I was hauling wasn't there yet.  It was 1330 when I arrived.  The load became a live load, and that didn't start until around 2100.  That was an hour past when the fourteen hour day ended.  I had been sitting there for eight and a half hours when the loading was finished, and I could have left an hour and a half later, at 2330.  I hadn't slept during the day, so that wasn't a wise option.  I was told that I could sleep there, so I went to sleep.

I drove about five more hours to the delivery.  The GPS did not get me there because the delivery was not actually in the city that the load assignment said.  I followed the company directions, and got there. 

At the delivery I dropped the load, and picked up an empty.  I then drove about thirty miles to the next shipper.  I got there later than the load assignment said I was supposed to get there.  This was because of the problem with the previous load, at the shipper, yesterday.  Yes, I could have gotten up earlier, but I would have been driving on little sleep.  I was afraid that the place would be closed when I got there, but it was open.

The paperwork was on a bulletin board, with instructions.  I signed the paperwork, left a copy, dropped the empty trailer, went hunting for the loaded trailer,  hooked up, and left.  I still had about three plus hours to drive, and I wanted to use as many as possible.

I actually drove until my fourteen was up.  I had been racing against the weather.  All day long I knew that there was a snow storm coming.  It started doing something during the last hour of the drive.  I couldn't see snow, or rain, but the road was getting wet.  It must have been sleet.  Things were looking a little icy went I stopped at a Pilot station.

As I drove out of PA, I saw a few vehicles off the road.  The worst was a truck turned upside down.  The trailer was disconnected, with the landing gear collapsed, and the nose on the ground.  The cab on the truck was crushed.  Someone was hurt bad, or dead.

I ran into big fat snow flakes farther down the road.  I thought that this was what I was going to have to drive through the rest of the day.  But, it ended after awhile, and the drive into OH was okay.  I drove to the OC I was at yesterday, and fueled up.

I left, and continued west.  When I got to US30, I ran into blowing snow.  This continued until I got to I75 and US30.  After that it was clear for a while.  I was able to get into IN before I ran into more snow.  I drove to Gary, and stopped for the night.

There I put the truck in for a PM.  I was asked how many days I could stay.  I said none, and that I would try again in Green Bay.  They said they could get it done by 1200 tomorrow.

Today may have been a driving day, but it was miserable.

I went, and took a shower.  After the shower, I ate a real breakfast.  I then took my shower stuff back to the truck, and got out my computer.  I worked on this page though yesterday, and posted it to the Internet.

It was 1330 when I got the truck back.  I left, and drove four hours to the delivery.  There, I dropped the load, and picked up the next load.  It was going south, so I drove four hours back to Gary.  I arrived there at 2230.  A little later than I prefer to drive, but a decent day.

I had just enough time to get to Charlotte.  I wanted to get there so I could take a shower, but it wasn't imperative, as I had a Pilot shower coupon, and there were stations along the route.  I made it to Charlotte just as my seventy hours ran out.

At Charlotte, I fueled up, and had a tire replaced.

I arrived at the delivery an hour and a half later.  I dropped the load, then parked for the night.

I checked the truck and trailer, then drove an hour and a quarter to the shipper.  There, I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.  The loaded trailer had a tire low on air, but the company has a repair center a mile away, so I went there, and had it changed.

I drove the OC outside Columbus, where I parked for the night.  I only had three quarter of an hour left to drive.

I drove to the next shipper, which was very close.  I was saving driving time with these short hops.  At the shipper, I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.

I drove the load to Gary, where I dropped it for relay.  I was out of time to drive for the rest of the day.  I pick up an empty, and sat out the rest of the day.  Bummer,  I was only two hours from home, and couldn't get there, today.

I worked on this page up to this point.

End of tour 66

I knew what the load was before going to the lot, and knew that I didn't have to get to the lot right away.  I took care of some business that I couldn't do over the Christmas holidays because the places were closed.

I got to the lot at 1030, and left at 1100.  I drove to Milwaukee to get a live load.  It took a while to get loaded.  It was 1430 before I got going with the load.

I got a nap in while waiting to get loaded, so I felt good.  I drove to Gary, where I fueled up, and had dinner.  I then drove six hours, stopping at 2315.  This is pretty late for me, but I wanted to get at least this far, the Seville OC.  I went right to sleep.

I left the OC at 0945.  I was thinking of various routes to drive, and chose the back roads over the PA Turnpike.  The route is shorter, but a little slower.  I only drove seven hours, and was about an hour from the delivery.

It was 1800 when I stopped.  I wanted to get back on my regular schedule.

Now, I had a problem with the empty.  Before I arrived at the delivery, I had received my next load assignment.  The first part of this was to pick up at empty at the delivery location.  I was not told which trailer to pick up, so I could pick up any trailer.  I sent in the number of an empty I was going to pick up.

Now, when I arrive at a delivery, I receive a note asking my fuel level to get directions.  After indicating the trailer I was going to pick up, I received messages with the fuel stops and directions.  At the end of these came an equipment message telling me to pick up a different empty.  It was right there, so I picked it up, and sent a response that I did.  Then I got a message to pick up the original one I had wanted to pick up.  The next message was an error message to picking up the one I was told to pick up.  I had to call the TLs to fix the problem.  The TL made me think that I caused the problem.  The problem was that I was reacting to messages faster than the responses.

I took the empty to the shipper of the next load, which was about three blocks away.  I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.

My GPS was not working well, and I was unsure of my route, so I asked for street level directions from the company.  This gave me a route that I thought was right.  Embedded in the directions was a fuel stop that was about half way to the delivery.  I was 511 miles away, and I only had enough fuel for about four hundred miles.  That was an error of the street level instructions.  A reason I don't like them.

I stopped at an approved fuel stop, where I took over a hundred gallons.  While there, I showered.  I drove a long day, going another six hours before stopping.  The route was hilly, spending most of the time in WV.  I stopped just after entering KY.

I drove four and a half hours, and stopped for fuel, and lunch.  I check a map, while there, and saw a short cut to drive.  I used the GPS to calculate the distance and the time, and found that it was worth the way to go.  I also saw that I was going to arrive sooner than I thought, so I sent a note with a new arrival time, and when I would be available.

I drove the short cut, and arrived a the delivery after seven and three quarters hours.  The load was supposed to be a live unload, and I expected to be there for as much as three and a half hours.  But, it turned into a drop, so I was available now, with three hours to drive.  My load assignment was for tomorrow, the time I had said I would be available, thinking that the load was suppose to be a live unload.

I load wasn't going to be ready until tomorrow, so I drove to an out of business truck stop, three blocks away, and parked for the night.

The load was going back the way I had come yesterday.  I took a variation of the short cut I took yesterday.  I stopped at the same truck stop for fuel that I stopped at yesterday.  The travel time was the same.

At the truck stop, I got fuel, took a shower, and ate lunch.

I drove another three and a half hours to a truck stop only about a mile from the delivery.  It was only 1600.  The drive time had been under seven hours.  I couldn't deliver until tomorrow, so I parked there for the night.

The consignee has a poor system for checking loads in.  There were over fifteen other truckers there, all with the same delivery time.  It took an hour and a half to get into a dock.  It took about an hour after I got into the dock before they started to unload the trailer.  And, about two hours to unload the trailer.  I was there a total of four hours.

I didn't have a load assignment, so I drove back to the truck stop.  Now, the truck stop was closed, and seemed to be going out of business.  This meant that I couldn't stay there forever because I was going to need some facilities.  I called and said I was going to have to move at some time.  After about two and a half hours, I moved to a truck stop twenty miles away.  Along the way, I got a load assignment.  At the stop, I found out that I had at least gone the right way.

I took care of some business at the truck stop, and left for the load.

I took the empty trailer to a customer, and dropped it there.  I then bobtailed two hundred miles to the shipper.  The route use one of the KY parkways.  I think I had been of part of one, but the other was new.

At the shipper, I was told that they were closed for the holiday, and wouldn't open until Jan 2.  I drove two miles to a truck stop, and parked for the night.