I drove to the shipper.  It was less than three miles away.  I got the paperwork for the load, and went looking for the trailer.  I couldn't find it.  They had put the wrong trailer number on the paperwork.  I now found the trailer and hooked up.  But, a brake was frozen.  I dragged the trailer out of the spot so that I could see by the tire mark, which brake was locked.  I went under the trailer, and hammered on the brake drum with my three pound hammer.  It broke loose.

By the time I left, I had lost forty-five minutes of time.  I drove fourty-five minutes, and stopped to check a message, as well as send messages about being late, and when I would be available.  I then drove over four hours straight to the delivery.

At the delivery, I was an hour and a half late for the appointment.  Even with out the problems, and given when the shipper opened, I would have been forty-five minutes late.  Anyway, I was told that I couldn't be fit in for unloading anymore that day.  I think that it was a poor excuse.  There were at least ten truck there being unloaded in three docks.  They would have all been moved up to fill my appointment time, and I would have fit in the time slot vacated by them.

Anyway,  I drove the load to an OC that was about two miles away.  There I dropped the load, and picked up another load.  I fuel up, ate lunch, took a nap, and left after hour and a half.

I drove five hours, and stopped at a rest area less than an hour from the delivery.  It was cold out, so I check the local temperature on a local TV channel.  It was forecast to be four degree that night.  So, went I woke up after about three hours of sleep, I started the engine, and idled the truck the rest of the night.  The company policy is to idle the truck went the temp is below ten degrees.

I was unloaded in an hour.  I left and drove almost two hours to the next shipper.  There I was loaded after two hours.  I only took an hour to load the trailer, but they didn't start until the appointmnet time, and I had been an hour early.

I drove over three hour to the OC in Gary.  There I showered, and talked to the TL about my vacation.  I wanted a specific week, and it hadn't been approved yet.

I left the OC, and drove over two hours to the delivery.  There, I dropped the load, and picked up an empty.  I drove a half hour to a flying J.  It was full, and I thought that I would have to leave and drive to the home lot, which was fifteen minutes away.  But, a truck pulled out just as I was about to go by, so I was able to park there.

Once in the dock, it took about thirty-some minutes to load the trailer.  I left at 1100, and drove thirty minutes to the home lot, where I dropped the load for relay.

I hadn't received a work assignment for another load, so I called the trip planner (dispatcher) to see if I was done with the tour.  I was.

End of tour 67

I got to the lot early, so I was ready to go at 0800.  There was no load assignment waiting for me.  I sent a note that I was ready to go.  After an hour, I called.  I was schedule for a random drug test.  The company doesn't want to forewarn me, least I try to cheat, so they leave you hanging until you call.  From now on, I won't wait an hour before I call about no load assignment.

I drove over to the clinic, and filled up a cup.

With a load assignment, I picked up an empty at the home lot, and drove it to my home town, fifteen minutes away.  There I was loaded in forty-five minutes.  I then drove to the Gary OC.  There I had a tire replaced, and ate lunch.

The route I took to get there went through downtown Chicago, and out using the Chicago Skyway.  This route is about twelve miles shorter than going around Chicago on the Tri-State Freeway.  And, although there are tolls for the Skyway and part of the IN toll road, the cost is less than the three toll charges missed on the Tri-State.

After leaving the OC, I drove to within an hour of the delivery.  I stopped at a truck stop that was the only one in the area.  I would have liked to have driven closer.

The next load was over three hours away, but the pick up window was about four hours way.  I took an easy drive to the shipper, stopping once for half hour.

At the shipper, they wouldn't except the trailer in the condition it was in.  The floor was a little damp over four to five square feet.  It had rained over night, but I didn't remember there being a wet spot in the trailer when I opened the door at the delivery.  I did notice that there was a wet spot on the floor after the trailer had been unloaded.  It looked like it had been tracked in with a forklift truck.  I didn't think that the trailer had a leak.  I was told that I had to dry up the damp spot.

I drove to a trailer repair shop.  I opened the doors to let air in.  I was parked such that the sun was shining in.  I had been told by the shipper that my employer had an account with this repair shop.  That wasn't true.  I called my TL to see if they would pay for the service, but it was too costly, and they wanted to think about want to do.  While all this was going on, the sun dried up the spot pretty well.  I went back to the shipper, and the trailer was accepted.

I picked up the load.  I drove an hour, and stopped for lunch.  I then drove a half hour, and stopped for fuel.  I then drove four and a half hours, and stopped for the night.  I stopped fifteen minutes before my fourteen hour ran out.  I had used a trucker guide to find a truck stop, and the GPS to tell me if I could get there within the time left.

I wrapped tape around the hose, to close up the split.  This gave me enough power to drive to a TA truck stop twenty miles away.  I called emergency repair, and was approved to have the repair done at the TA.  It took about an hour to replace the hose.

I then drove non-stop to the Memphis  OC, for fuel, food, and a shower.  I was in a hurry because wanted to get to a Flying J before my fourteen ran out, so I was there for only an hour.  When I left, I drove another four hours to the truck stop.  I got there with forty-five minutes to spare.

When I pulled into the truck stop, it was pretty busy, and I was concerned that the lot was filling up.  There was a truck parked on the outside of row, with the spot behind it open.  I pulled into the spot.  This wasn't exactly a legitimate spot, but truckers park in goofy places when the lots fill up.  After awhile, trucks parked next to me and the truck I was behind.  I was concerned that I would have trouble backing out of the spot in the morning, but the truck ahead pulled out, so I pulled up.

I drove fifteen minutes to the shipper of the next load.  It took awhile to get through the gate due to poor service at the gate.  I had bobtailed in, so it didn't take me as long.  Because it was a WalMart center, I took it upon myself to fill in the access paperwork, and drive in without approval from the gate guard.  I got the load, and left after forty-five minutes.  A truck that had been behind me was still in line at the gate.

When I arrived, there was two trucks in front of me, now there were over ten trucks in line now.  They were going to be there a long time.

I drove five and a half hours with only one stop for lunch.  I parked at a Pilot station outside of Little Rock.  I had planned to do this long before I got there.  As it turned out, the road farther east was blocked, and I wouldn't have gotten much farther, even with the two hours I had available to drive.

For three days now, I had been driving on I40 and I30.  These days, and the last time I drove these highways, I saw many of these wind generator blades.

It was a little over four hours to the delivery.  I had no rush to get to there, so I stopped at a WalMart to do a little shopping.

After the stop at WalMart, I drove fifteen minutes to the delivery.  There I dropped the load, and picked up a load.  Before picking up the load, I called to see if there was a better load.  The load I was to pick up wasn't to be delivery until noon, two days out.  And, the delivery was only three hours away.  There was nothing in the area.

I picked up the trailer, and discovered that the doors couldn't be latched correctly.  I called repair services, and told them the problem.  Because I could get one latch to hook, and that the load was only pallets, I could take it.  I was also told that it was okay because I could strap the doors together.

I then drove three miles to a Flying J.  This worked up well because the Green Bay Packers were playing a playoff game, and I was able to watch it.

When I got up, I watched TiVo, and worked on this page.  I also cruised the Internet, and watched more football.

I was guessing that there was freight.  The company just didn't want to have to screw another driver.  So, because some moron can't type or read, I get screwed.  I will get ninety dollars layover pay, but I could have made twice that driving.

I drove to a truck stop, eight miles away, and parked for twenty-three hours.

While I was being unloaded, I called the trip planner to inform him of what had been going on.  He wasn't in yesterday.  I wonder if he had been in on the morning of the 12th.  He has kept me moving well in the past, and I feel that some weekend weenie screwed me with this crappy load.  I told him about the bad doors, and that I would have to get rid of this trailer.

I was unloaded after an hour and a half.  I had gotten an order to take the trailer to a drop lot, and pick up a different trailer.  I drove to the lot, dropped the bad trailer, and picked up a good one.  I then sat for an hour waiting for a load assignment.  It gave me time to eat lunch.

I got a load assignment.  It said to deadhead to a shipper.  Deadhead is the term for moving an empty trailer.  Usually I am told to just drop the empty at a shipper where I am going to pick up a load.  This was a little confusing.  Just as I approached the shipper, I received the whole load assignment.  It started the same, deadhead to shipper, then drop the trailer, and pick up the load.

Once I had the load, I took off.  It was still daylight out.  It was 1615.  I drove three hours, and stopped for fuel.  I then drove over three more hours, and stopped for the night.  I had thought about stopping two hours earlier, but continued on because I was trying to use up most of the available hours.

It was 2300 when I stopped.  I could have driven another hour and a half, but I was getting tired.  I had driven four hours past when I like to stop, and one hour past the latest I like to drive.  Also, I was at a Pilot, and I needed a shower.  I had gotten a shower coupon at the fuel stop earlier.

At the truck stop, trucks were parked all sorts of goofy ways.  The is the problem of stopping this late.  I had driven around the lot, and it was looking like I would have to find some goofy place to stop.  I was just about to pull off the lot, and go around, again, when I saw a spot.  A truck must have just pulled out.  There were two trucks parked in front of the spot, but they were angled the way I angled into the spot.

It was a five hour drive to the delivery, and with one stop alone the way, I arrived at 1430.  At the delivery, I dropped the load, and went to pick up an empty.  The trailer I was told to pick up was full of pallets.  Several other trailers were also full of pallets.  I did find one trailer that was empty.  I sent in the number, and was told to pick it up.

Now, I was on a mission to drive as many miles as possible before I get home.  The restart on 13/14, and the layover on the 15th meant that I could drive eleven hours a day, and not use up the seventy before I got home.  I had used about five hours up until now, and I had been assigned a load that would allow me to drive eleven hours today, and close to eleven hours tomorrow.  But, that load was cancelled.  The load that I was then assigned had a drive to distance of 102 miles, and a loaded distance of 198.  That is only about five hours.  However, it was going to be a live load that could take as much as three hours.

I drove to the shipper, only to discover that they were closed.  I only drove seven hours today, wasting four hours.  Those hours are gone, and can never be used to earn me money.  I want compensation.

At least I could park at the shipper.

I drove two hours, and got fuel in Biloxi, MS.  The temperature was about sixty degrees.  Another hours later, I was at the delivery, in Mobile.  Again, sunny and sixty.  At the delivery, I dropped the load, and picked up an empty.

I drove the empty almost three hours to a shipper.  The route was back roads.  I had driven most of this awhile back, but it was dark.  Now, it was light out.  I used the GPS to guide me to the shipper, and it took me to the wrong place.  There was an old area with the same street name, and the new area wasn't in the GPS database.  I probably went twelve miles out of route, and used up thirty minutes of driving.

At the shipper, I was loaded quickly.  The load wasn't a full trailer load.  The product was also light.  I left after an hour, and drove four hours.  I stopped at 2345.  I could have driven another hour, but I would have been in Nashville, with no sure place to park.

When I got to the OC, I dropped the load, and went looking for the next load.  I asked if the load was there, and was told that it wasn't expected to arrive until tomorrow, at about 1200.  That was nineteen.  I called the support people to see if they could keep me moving.  I was given a different load, but that was a mistake.  The load was going to the home lot.  It did use two of the three hours I had available to drive.

I drove to the home lot, dropped the trailer, and parked for the night.  I was told to go home, so I figured that I was going to drive tomorrow.

I called the trip planners to see if I was going to get a load.  I was conflicted because I felt sick from the poor sleeping.  I was told to go home.  By trying to keep moving yesterday, I lost at least six hundred miles of loads.  But, I wouldn't have gotten home until tomorrow.

End of tour 68

I got to the lot a little late, but was ready to leave at 0900.  I had picked up an empty trailer at the home lot, and drove north for over two hours.

At the shipper, I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.  The load was going east, with a delivery appointment on the 24th.

I drove to the Gary OC to get fuel.  I then drove another four hours to a Flying J in OH.  I had driven ten hours, more than I usually drive on the first day out.

I drove almost four more hours, and stopped at a rest area in NJ.  I would have liked to go farther, but there aren't many places to park between here and the delivery.  Actually, only one.  Besides, I could made the appointment time from here.

I got to the delivery an hour early.  I was able to get into a dock shortly after arriving in the area.  I was on Long Island.  It took two hours to get unloaded.

I had been assigned another load after about an hour.  It was in Brooklyn.  The drive there was okay.  the GPS took me right to the place.  The shipper was down a dead end street that wasn't much better than an alley.  Cars were parked all over the place.  I couldn't even park in front of the place.  I drove to the end of the street, and backed into a drive to get turned around.

Back at the shipper, I was told where to back into a dock.  The thing was, that I was facing the wrong way to back into the dock.  So, I did a blind side backup.  There were cars parked in goofy way, making it hard to maneuver.  I would go back a few feet, then forward a few feet.  I was blocking traffic.  I am sure I irritated a lot of people.  Well, I got into the dock, and nobody said I hit any cars.

I had to drop the trailer, and pull out a ways, so that the door could be closed.  I then had to count the boxes on the pallets, and verify the count.  This meant I couldn't eat my lunch.  Then, when it was time to leave, I couldn't make a right turn out of the dock because some was parked in the wrong place.  I had to turn the other way, then back into another spot, so I could make the right turn.

I drove about two hours, and stopped for fuel.  Then I drove a little more than an hour, and stopped for the night at a Flying J.  There I filled out the paperwork for the load going to Canada.  I faxed the paperwork to the broker, and called then to verify that they had received them.

I called the broker again, and was told the they were having problems because the shipper hadn't included their full address on the invoices.  The shipper was not whom I had picked the load up from.  I picked up the load from a freight forwarder.  The shipper was in China.  The load came by air, then was moved to the forwarder.

After awhile, the holdup was going to have an affect on the delivery time.  I called the TL to say that I was having a problem at the border, and that I was going to be late.  The odd thing about this was that load was to be dropped at a specific time.  Anyway, the TL checked, and told me that the delivery time had been changed to Monday.  Today was Friday.  I asked about a relay, and was told to called the trip planner.  I did, and was told that they would work on it.

After and hour and fifteen, I was clear to cross the border.  I cleared the border, and drove and hour, and stopped at a junkie truck stop.  I hadn't been told what to do.  Was I to delivery the load on Monday, or was I going to relay it.  I called the trip planner, but they were gone for the day.  I called support shift because the TLs were gone.  I asked them what was going on.  Was I going to get a relay, or was I going to have to stay where I was.  I was told that I could go the OC about twenty miles away.  It was a little out of route.

I drove to the OC.  When I arrived, I still had almost six hours available to drive.

At this point, I realized a contradiction in the support shift.  When you call support shift, a message says that if the call can be handled over the Qualcomm, then send a message.  I did, and got the call from the TL to call the support shift.  Idiots.

I called support shift, its Saturday, and waited for a least fifteen minutes before someone answered.  I told them about the delivery time being moved to Monday, and that I never received an order of what to do.  The person checked the situation and said that my status was set to not be available until Monday.  They reset my availability.

After awhile, I got a message to drop the load for relay.  Sometime later, I received a load assignment.  I could pick it up anytime today or tomorrow.  The pickup window was tomorrow.  The earliest I could delivery the load was 0700 on the 28th, but at anytime during the day.  I wanted to delivery the load early, so I could get full use of the day.

The shipper could be driven to, and the load then driven close to the delivery, in one day.  But, it was snowing, and I was concerned about how fast I would be able to drive.  If I waited until tomorrow, I would have done a restart, and there would be no argument about layover pay.  But, a twenty-four hour layover is also suppose to pay.  I waited a few hours to insure that I had been at the OC twenty-four hours.  Even if I had left earlier, I would have sat somewhere else the extra four hours.

I drove to the shipper.  In the snow, it took an extra hour.  I arrived before 2300, local time.  I was concerned that they might not be open at this late hour, but they were, and I was loaded in forty-five minutes.

I left the shipper, and drove five miles to a Flying J.  There I put together the paperwork, and faxed them to the broker.

I eventually got into the dock, and was unloaded quickly.  Once unloaded, I drove seven miles to the next shipper.  Well, actually more.  I was following the GPS when it wanted me to take a road not suitable for trucks.  I had to backtrack to the company route.

At the shipper, I was loaded quickly because there were only six skids.  The rest of the load was about 180 miles away.  I drove there, got into a dock, and waited to get loaded.  With the wait to get loaded, and the wait to get the bills, I was there over two hours.

When I left, I was on a mission to make distance.  I was near Philadelphia, and drove through downtown on my way south.  No problem, it wasn't rush hour yet,  Next was Baltimore, during rush hour, but it went well.  Then Washington DC toward the end of rush hour.  South of Washington DC has always been slow in the past, but tonight it went well.  I drove over four hours before stopping at yet another Flying J.

It was a nine hour and forty-five minute drive to the delivery.  There, I dropped the load, and picked up an empty.  I then drove nine miles to a truck stop.  During the pick up of the empty, I discovered that I had an exhaust leak.  A flexible pipe had broken away from a regular exhaust pipe.  I called breakdown support, and was told to drive with it until I could get to a place to repair it.

I was suppose to get fuel at a Pilot about twenty-eight miles down the road.  However, it was also eight miles beyond the Interstate spur that went to the shipper.  I could have gone to the Pilot, and taken another road down the the Interstate.  That would have resulted in nine extra mile.  I had enough fuel to get there and back.  The route came back the same way, and I could fill up on the way back.  The extra miles would be the same.

I drove to the shipper, where I dropped the empty, and picked up the load.  It took an hour because of  other trucks and procedures.  I was also able to scale the load.

Heading back out, on my way to the delivery, I still had to think about fuel, and fixing the exhaust system.  The route was going by Atlanta on the west side, from the southwest corner, and there was an OC on the southeast side.  It was about an extra thirty miles.  But, I could get fuel there too, and I wouldn't have to use the nine miles to go to the Pilot station.  I drove to the OC.

At the OC it took longer to fix the exhaust problem than I had anticipated.  And, because the exhaust problem was referred to as a DOT shutdown, they wouldn't let me leave.  I was there four hours for what took an hour to fix.

While I was waiting, I called the TL to inform them as to what was happening.  The TL was not happy.  The TL said I should have called in advance to going to the OC to see if it was necessary.  Seeing as how the problem was considered a DOT shutdown, I made the right decision.  If I had not stopped at the OC, I would have stopped at a TA, (Travel America).  There, if I couldn't get fixed right away, I probably could have left, and gone to another TA.  However, if the DOT had stopped me, and saw the exhaust problem, they would have held me until someone came to me to repair the problem.  That would have cost a lot.

Once I got going, I was running about two hours late.  The GPS was telling be that I was about eight and a quarter hours away.  I only had four and a half available on my fourteen.  I drove nonstop to a Pilot station.

Ahead to Feb

At the delivery, they took off only two of the twelve rolls of paper I was hauling.  The rest went to a place outside Chicago.  The delivery time on that was up until 0700 tomorrow.

I left after forty-five minutes, and drove to the Gary OC in under five hour, stopping once for lunch.  At the OC, I fueled up.  The delivery was about an hour away.  But, even though I had four hours on my fourteen, and two hours available to drive, the stated average unload time was four hours, and they didn't allow overnight parking.  I could get there, and not be able to leave, and have no place to park.  I stayed in Gary.

While in Gary, I talked with the TOM, team operations manager, the boss of the TLs in my group.  I had had problems with the TL that resulted in an argument.  Actually there were two problems.  First, I was being denied layover pay for the time in Canada on the 25-26.  The second was the exhaust repair, the out of route for the repair, and being late to the delivery.  The TOM felt I was right about the exhaust repair.  The layover is still being discussed at this point.