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by
William Schwulst

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Date Activities in June 2007
1

Back to May

Today is the date I was guaranteed to be home.  The shipper was about fifteen minutes away, and the load was going to Gary, less than four hours away.  I had eleven hours available to drive.  It looked good.

I drove the shipper, and was told that they had moved the pick up date out a week.  I called the TL with the news.  I was given another load near by, but was told to take the trailer to another location farther away, and bob-tail to the shipper.  I drove over an hour to the location.  There I was told that they did not want the trailer.  I was told to take the trailer to the shipper, an hour and a half away.  What a waste of time.

At the shipper, they rejected the trailer because it didn't have an inspection sticker on it.  It may have, but it looked like someone had pealed it off.  The company said it had been inspected since the beginning of the year.  Anyway, the options were drive around trip of a hundred miles, dropping the trailer in Battle Creek, or have it inspected five miles down the road at a truck stop.

At the truck stop, they said they could do the inspection in less than an hour.  This would have worked okay if it hadn't been for the three back tire.  I had to go to another location two miles away to get tires.  Anyway, all this took five hours.

I went back to the shipper, got the load, and got going.  I drove three hours to Gary, arriving just as my fourteen hours ran out.  So much for guaranteed arrival at home today.  I was livid.  This company has no honor.

2 I got up after my ten hour break, and drove to the home lot.  I was in my house by 0930.  This is early enough to not have a wasted day, but I missed out on a night at home, and what I could have done last night.

End of tour 53.

5 Beginning of tour 54.

I went to the lot later than usual.  It was 1045 before I stated my day.  I drove an empty trailer to the shipper, dropped it, and picked up a load.  I drove two hours to Gary, and stayed there over two hours.  I talked to my Team Leaders about the screw up the day I was suppose to get home.  While there, I had a meal on the company.  The company was showing its appreciation by feeding us and giving us little trinkets.  I say, show your appreciation by paying us for miles driven, grief incurred, and get us home on time.

When I left, I drove another four hours, and stopped for the night in a rest area.  It was a short day, but driving any farther was not going to get me there any earlier tomorrow.  Besides, I was an hour from the Canadian border, and I didn't know where I could park over there.

6 I got up at 0600, and left a half hours later.  I drove three hours, with two short stops, before arriving at the delivery.  The border crossing was uneventful.  At the delivery, I dropped the trailer, and bob-tailed to another location to get an empty.  The drive to get the empty was through farm country on back roads.  The company directions were goofy, starting fifteen miles from where I was.  The GPS wanted to go another way.  I followed the GPS until I got to a road that didn't look good.  I knew that the company route was off to the west, so I turned west.  Between the two, I got to the location.

I picked up the empty, and followed the GPS to the shipper.  I had trouble getting onto the main highway because of construction, but the GPS got me to the shipper, even if it wasn't the shortest route.

At the shipper, I was loaded in about an hour.  I drove out to the main road, and stopped at a truck stop to scale the load, I set it right at the shipper, and to fax the paperwork to a company the handles border crossings.  I then drove an hour and a half to a fuel stop.  I could have been there sooner, but the directions were poor, and I had trouble find the truck stop as it was not next to the highway.

I put in some fuel.  Then I called the company I had faxed the paperwork to to see if they had received it.  I was also informed that it take about five hours to process the paperwork, whereas my instructions said three.  I was an hour from the border, but my time for the day would be up by the time the paperwork was processed.  I stayed at the truck stop for the night.  I got a note about a half hour before my fourteen was up, saying that I was okay to cross the border.

7 I woke up at 0430.  I was going to get up at 0500 anyway, so I got up.  I was on my way by 0500.  I was at the border in less than an hour, and through customs in less an five minutes.  The company I faxed the paperwork to  handles all processing between the shipper, the broker, the driver, and customs.  It worked real good.

A half hour later I took a short stop break, then drove another two hours, where I stopped for an hour to fueled up and shower.  Two hours after I left there, I stopped for lunch and a nap.  Some time during the drive my odometer turned over sixes.  It was last July when I turned over fives.  That meant I put 111,111 miles on the truck, but drove more than that in eleven months because I had used loaners a couple of times.

Another four hours of driving, with two stops, and I arrived at the delivery.  I was a drop and hook.  I left with an empty, drove to the next town, where I was able to park at the back of a 'park and ride' lot.  I drove less than ten hours, but the stops used up most of my fourteen.

8 I didn't seem to sleep well over the night.  I had be tired yesterday, and was concerned that I would be even more tired today.  When I checked the time, the alarm was going to go off in thirty minutes, so I got up.  Getting up early meant I didn't have to worry about get to the shipper late.  It was a long 250 mile drive to the shipper.  The last fifty miles was on narrow back roads, with a couple of towns.  I was in ME, and I drove up to the capitol, Bangor, before heading east.

The town was so small that it wasn't listed in the road atlas.  The town, but not the address, was found in Streets and Trips.  Both were found in the GPS system.  The town was right on the Atlantic OceanThis bay was next to the shipper.  This was also the farthest east I have ever driven in the United States.  Looking at the map, it is probably the farthest east I will ever get.

I was load and on my way in less than an hour.  I drove two hours, one on the back roads, one on the Interstate, then stopped for fuel, to scale the load, eat lunch, and take a nap.  The drive up to this point was okay, and I was not tired.  The nap insured that I was okay for the rest of the day.  I drove four more hours before stopping for the night.  I had driven more than yesterday, and with only one stop, besides at the shipper.

At the stop, I updated this page to this point.

9 Today was a drive day.  The route took me through the Bronx, across a little of Manhattan, and over the George Washington Bridge into NJ.  In NJ, on I78, some of the bridges have bushes and tress on them.

I stopped in Carlisle for some fuel, a shower, and lunch.  I drove eleven hours in order to get to a Flying J.  There I entered this day's info, and posted the blog to the Internet.

10 I got up a little late.  It was only two and a quarter hours to the delivery.  I said that I would be there at 1000, and be ready at 1200.  I drove to the Charlotte OC, where I dropped the load for relay.  There I picked up a relay load.  I rested a while, and left.  I drove back the way I had come, passing the Flying J, and continued north.

The delivery was tomorrow, and I had to be there by 1200.  This forced me to drive more today than I wanted to.  I only had twenty-five hours to available for today and the next two days.  I drove to the little OC outside Columbus.  There, I fueled up, and stopped for the night.  I used over ten hours today.  I still had five hours to drive to the delivery.

11 I got up 0500, and drove to the delivery.  It took two hours to get unloaded.  I checked the hours available to drive.  At this point I had about eleven hours available for the rest of today and tomorrow combined.  Then I get six for the 13th, and seven for the 14th.  I called my TL, and suggested that given the few hours that I had to drive each day through the 14th, that I get a load going to an OC so I could put my truck in the shop.  I was told to drive to Gary.  I did.  Put the truck in shop, showered, did paper work, and worked on the blog.  I am now updated with the maps and days to this point.  I stayed in a motel for the night.
12 I returned to the OC from the motel about 0900.  My truck was being worked on.  About an hour later, I was told that it was done.  My best guess was that it had only been worked on three or four hours.  I felt, that given the problems I was having with the truck, it could not have been fixed.  I figured that something like this would happen, and I was right.

I went up the food chain, and talked to my TL boss, the Team Operations Manager, TOM.  I explained the problems with the truck.  In case I haven't mentioned the problems before, they are: 1) The air pump the provides air for the brakes takes a long time to pump up.  This has been going on for a year, and I have written this problem up six or seven times..  2) The clutch slips.  This had occurred since it failed a couple on months ago, and this is the second time I put the truck in for this.  3)  Check engine light come on.  This problem has occurred on and off for a year.

The TOM said he wasn't mechanical, so we went to talk to a mechanic with some authority.  I explained the problem, and that there was no way that the problems could have been fixed in only four hours.  He wrote up the problems, and had a master mechanic work on the truck.  Right off, the master mechanic agreed that the air pump was bad.

Anyway, it was going to take until tomorrow morning before it was finished, so I went to the motel for another night.

13 I arrived back at the OC around 0700.  They said that they were finishing up the work, and that it should be ready in an hour.  It was 1000 when I got it back.  The check engine light problem was traced to a ground short.  The clutch problem was interesting.  The pressure plate that clamps the clutch disk between it and the flywheel is shipped with bolts to take the pressure off the springs.  One of the bolts had not been removed.  Great job!

I had done a restart over the two nights in the motel.  I am going home tomorrow.  I now had twenty-two hours to drive over two days instead of the twenty-one hours I had for three days.  No gain, no loss.

I picked up an empty at the OC, and drove to the shipper.  There I dropped the empty, and picked up a loaded trailer.  I drove to north WI, and delivered the load at a Wal-Mart center.  There I picked up an empty, and drove to a truck stop and stopped for the night.  I worked eight and a quarter hours.

14 I got up at 0600.  I drove to the shipper of my next load.  The pick up time of the load was 0730, and I was thirty minutes away.  I was loaded in an hour.  It took six hours to drive to the home lot.  I was done at 1530.  Of the twenty-two hours I could drive, I used fourteen and a quarter hours.

End of tour

18 Beginning of tour

I was at the lot and ready to go at 0800.  I was given a load going to Canada.  First, I was to bobtail into IL to get an empty trailer.  The trailer was near where the load was.  Once I started toward IL, I noticed the the air conditioning wasn't working.  Of course it was very humid.  When I stopped to get the empty, I sent a note saying that the air wasn't working, and I was unsure about the delivery.

I drove to the shipper, and backed into a dock.  They had a lunch room there where I could sit and cool off.  The drank a couple of bottles of water.  I had a headache.  It was a one hour drive to the Gary OC, but the over one hundred degree temp in the cab, the high humidity, and the slow moving traffic, was burning me up.

At the OC, I put the truck in for repair.  I was told that it would be done at 1900.  I then went to talk to my TL.  When she found out that I put the truck in the shop, she got angry.  She had expected me to deliver the load first, then have the A/C fixed.  I told her no, that I was burned up now.  She then said that this was going to be a service failure.  That meant that I wouldn't get a bonus for the quarter.  I told her then I was quitting.  That got other people involved.

I talked to them about how I haven't been happy about a lot of things lately, and that I have been angry about a lot of things, and that was the reason for my attitude.  I was probably in a depression.  I had been thinking for awhile that I needed to get back on my medication.  I talked to someone from health department.  I was allowed to drive back home, but I wouldn't be able to drive again until I was cleared by my doctor.  I set up an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.

The truck was finished at 1800.  I could have showered, eaten a dinner, and cooled off.  It was 480 miles from the delivery, and could have delivered the load two hours early.  but, because of  the overreaction of both me and the TL, I was driving home for a doctor's appointment.

19/20 I saw the doctor, and got my prescription filled.  This is something that happens every few years or more depending on how my life is going.  After a couple of months, I am better.  The meds also help me sleep.  I got nine hour sleep the first night.
21 I was cleared by my doctor to drive, so I was back in the truck.  I took an empty trailer from the lot, drove to the shipper, and traded it for a loaded trailer.  I drove to Gary to scale the load, and continued another three hours.  I stopped for the night east of Fort Wayne IN.  I had driven eight hours, and it was 2000.  The delivery window tomorrow was until 1500, and I could be there before 1200.  I was taking it easy because of the medication.
22 I got up at 0700, and drove three hours to Seville.  There I took fueled up and took care of some things.  I drove to the delivery, arriving at 1200 CDT.  I was unload in an hour, and drove to the shipper of my next load.  There I dropped the empty in a dock, and picked up the loaded trailer.  I drove to Seville and scaled the load.  It needed some adjustment.  I then drove five hour to Indianapolis, arriving just as my fourteen ended.
23 Although it was quite in the OC, I didn't seem to sleep well.  I got up, took a shower, ate a cooked breakfast, and left at 0815.  It was a little over four hours to the delivery.  I was tired most of the time.  I dropped the load.  Then I had trouble getting an empty trailer.  The one the company want me to pick  up was loaded.  The next one wasn't available either.  The one that consignee said I could take was still loaded.  The next one was okay.  I drove it a short distance to an OC.  There, I dropped the empty, and picked up a relay load.

I ate lunch, and took a short nap before leaving.  I had to drive at least 250 miles to put me close enough to the delivery to be able to drive the rest tomorrow, and be close enough to make the delivery at 0600 the next day.  I stopped in a service plaza on the KS toll road.

24 A driving day.  Felt good.  Drove five hours with one stop before stopping for fuel, food, and a nap.  Drove another four hours with a short stop.  I got to a Flying J in under nine hours.  I was about five miles from the delivery.  But, I had a problem finding a place to park at the Flying J.  I drove around the lot for forty-five minutes looking for a spot.  I got tired of this, so I left for another truck stop.  I saw a Wal-Mart with other trucks in it, so I stopped there.

There I updated this page to here.

25 Got up at 0400 MDT, so in my mind it was 0500.  The delivery was at 0500.  I arrived at 0445.  I got in a dock right away, and was unloaded in forty-five minutes.

i drove to the shipper of my next load.  It was fifteen minutes away.  I dropped the empty, and picked up a preloaded trailer.  I was able to see how the trailer was loaded before putting on the seal, so I adjusted the tandems based on what I saw.  When I left, it was about five minutes to a truck stop, where I scaled the load.  There was only a forty pound difference between the drives and the trailer tandems.  I do pretty weel when I can see how the trailer is loaded.

While at the truck stop, I showered.

The rest of the day was a driving day.  I stopped once for fuel, and once for a rest break.  I stopped early because I only had about thirty-three hours available for the next four days.

26 I got up early, 0500, only because I had a good night rest, and I didn't want to over sleep.  That just seems to make me groggier.  I drove three and a half hours to the delivery.  It took two hours to get unloaded.  I must have been low on the priority list because two trucks that came in after me got unloaded before me, and both had left before me.

After I was unloaded, I drove the empty to the next shipper, where I dropped it.  The load I was to pick up wasn't finished yet, so I had to wait over two and a half hours.  It was suppose to be ready at 1100, and I got there at 1130.

When I left, I drove two hours, and stopped for 50 gallons of fuel.  I then drove five minutes to a Flying J, where I updated this page to here, and posted it to the Internet.

27 Drive day.  Drove from the Joplin to Indianapolis in eight and a half hours.  I only have eighteen available for today and tomorrow.  The fifty gallons of fuel I got yesterday, along with the sixty I had, was enough to get me their.  The company wanted me to stop at an OC outside of St. Louis, but that OC is out of route about twenty miles, and wastes time.  The company says I can stop at any OC for fuel without  retribution.
28 Another drive day.  I got up at 0430.  I am shifting my time for tomorrow.  After yesterday, I only had nine and a quarter hours to drive.  The distance today was about fifteen miles less than yesterday, so I had a half left on my seventy hours for eight days.

I note on this tour.  On the 23rd, I started my taking I70 out of Indianapolis to St. Louis.  From there I took I70 to Denver.  I came back a ways on I70, then picked it up again in St Louis after having gone to OK.  Today I took I70 from Indianapolis into the middle of PA.  Along along this I70, U.S. 40 runs closes to, and coincides with I70.  The funny thing is that U.S. 70 runs near and along side of I40.  Go figure.

29 I had to get up real early, 0300.  I am in the eastern time zone, and the appointment is for 0500, so I got up at 0400 EDT.  I left at 0430, and arrived at the delivery at 0450.  The load was paper towels, and it was a straight unload.  That meant the a pallet didn't have to broken down for separate products, or lesser quantities per pallet.  It also meant I had to do it.  But, it isn't that had, and I do get paid to do it.  But, you have to log the time.  I worked fast, and did it in an hour.  That left me just enough time to drive to the next shipper, and get to Charlotte.

I went to the shipper, got the load, and headed south.  Not quite two hours later, I had to stop and take a nap.  Even though I went to sleep at 2000, I didn't sleep well, and it seemed like I was awake most of the night.  I should have slept better, as it was kind of cool, and it was quite.

Anyways, I took about a forty-five minute nap, and continued out my way.  I arrived at the Charlotte OC just as my seventy hours ran out.  I fueled the truck, dropped the trailer for its annual inspection, same thing happen in Indianapolis two days ago, washed my truck, and showered.  I talked with some guys, and had a dinner while I waited for the sun to go down.  Once the sun was low in the sky, and behind overcast, I went to the truck, worked on the page to this point, and posted it to the Internet.  I lot of the OCs now have WiFi connections to the Internet.  Finally.

30

Ahead to July

I got up at 0500 CDT.  The delivery time was 0900 EDT.  I was going to walk to the drive service building to go to the men's room, but decided to check the truck then drive over.  Good thing I did.  One of the tires was flat.  I drove to the service area, and while the tire was being changed, went to the men's room.  The mechanics changed out all drive tires on that axle.  One of the tires was foreign because of the time I had a blowout.

I left the OC on time to get to the delivery.  I arrived at the first of two stops fifteen minutes early.  The GPS took me right to it.  It took a while for then to start unloading their part of the trailer, but once they started, they were done in fifteen minutes.

I then drove to the second stop.  The GPS wanted to go one way, and the company directions want to go a different way.  One reason for this may have been that the GPS was going a shorter route that may have used roads that I couldn't go on.  But, I think that the company route was based on coming from the other direction.  Anyway,  both got me lost.  The company directions said to look for the place after seven or eight stop lights.  I think they put up more stop lights since that direction was written.  The GPS took me to the road, but it was a residential area.  Part of the problem there was that the address I was given stated Pine Log Rd, and the delivery was on E Pine log Rd.  Even the shipper had it wrong on the Bill of Lading.  Anyway, I called them, and they got me there.  I was unloaded quickly.

I then drove to the shipper of my next load.  It was 118 miles away, and require of a one hundred miles of back country U.S. highways.  The GPS took me right to it with no out of route.  I dropped the empty, and picked up the loaded trailer.  I drove another four hours, and used up most of my available driving hours before stopping for the night.