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website news
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March
7, 2009 - The live dash cam will be returning, but not
in the previous capacity. More information to follow.
.
March
7 , 2009 -
Blogger will be shutting down their ability to update our site using
their blog software and sending it via their FTP tools. This basically
means we can use blogger but we have to use their hosting... which
defeats the purpose of having our own domain.. So, over the next
few weeks I will be working on migrating the site back to Greymatter,
which will be used as our primary blogging software again. I have
considered wordpress but after looking at the files I don't have
time to learn PHP, so this is the easiest. Blogger will continue
to be used until May 1, 2010, when blogger intends to shut down
FTP access. Further info to follow.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
subject: Tulsa, OK
This trip was fairly easy other than the burned out clearance light on the trailer.. but there was nothing we could do at the terminal. We headed out from Henderson, CO to the Pilot in Denver to refuel and so Mary could perform her nightly ritual of preparing herself for bed, then we were off.
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This was actually a boring run through the eastern plains of Colorado and most of Kansas. We did stop at a Petro to get the trailer repaired in Colby though. The repair guy and the cashier had like 30 minutes left of their shift and didn't feel like dealing with the company in verifying the Purchase Order so they didn't charge me for the 5 minutes of labor. Grand total? $1.37... for a wire pigtail that was bad. 20 minutes total and we were out of there.
Mary woke up around 900ish and we headed for the Bosselmans in Salina, KS for a meal and shower. This Bosselmans is nothing like the one in Grand Island, but it had a decent shower other than the intermittant cold water spells.. but hey.. for free you can't beat it other than taking one at home. It was around this time we received a pre-plan for our next load... which was to pick up in Oklahoma City and head to our favorite spot New Columbia, PA (add groans and grumbles here). Last time we spent 3 days there doing nothing but deadheading to every corner of the state.. so with any luck we'll have a pre-plan out of there during the trip.
Anyways, Mary got us in there maybe an hour early and hung out for rush hour to end, or what rush hour there may be in Tulsa, before heading out to Oklahoma City on our load.
I love loads that are quick and easy, unlike the last one!
posted by Daryl
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009
subject: Henderson, CO
We received our load information at about 0900am. We were to head over to the Con-way Freight yard in La Salle, IL on Wednesday at 0500am to take a haz-mat load from there to Henderson, CO, a suburb of Denver. Since we were at a Pilot already we decided to shower there.. but low and behold it didn't have one. After some route planning to get over to La Salle we found there was a Flying J just past the exit leading to the terminal so we went there to shower and wait until just before it was time to pick up our load.
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I took us over to the yard about 45 minutes early and opted to wait to drop the trailer. I went into the office to check in where I found about 30 drivers waiting for loads. Now, when I say waiting I don't mean in an organized line moving forward every few minutes. I mean, there was one person at the counter with another behind bringing in paperwork every few minutes, and when she did this guy would call out locations and companies. All I was waiting for was someone to yell "BINGO" every once in a while like there was a winner because 1 in every 6 called out had a driver waiting.
Anyways, I get called and I told the woman my load number. She did her thing with the computer then reviewed the information on the paperwork with me starting with the gross weight.. which was 49,400lbs. Um.. I don't think so. So, I raised the red flag since I know we can't normally carry over 46,500. She consulted with another guy who said it was probably paperweight and asked me to scale it anyways. Not a problem.
So, I went and hooked up to the trailer and drug it over to the scales. Based on the weight I put the tandems where I thought they might work and ran over the scale... 11,900 on the front axle, 37,400 on the drive axles, and 22,000 on the trailer. That didn't work. So I moved it back close to the rear and managed to get 33,800 on the trailer and 34,200 on the drive axles... the limit for the highway in each state is 34,000 so that obviously wouldn't work. So I slid it about 1 hole and ran over the scale again.. only to find I had 33,800 on the drive axles and 34,200 on the trailer. After about 45 minutes of this him-hawing back and forth I went back in.
I talked to the same guy and explained the issue. He had me back it into a dock so they could, what I assume, take some freight off to make it lighter. About 15 or 20 minutes later the yard driver comes over and told me they want him to drag it over the scale. I think they felt they could do it better than I. I explain my issue to him and disconnect so he could do it. He came back over about 10 minutes later and told me he got 33,900 on the trailer and 29,000 on his single axle. So he dropped it back in the door and went in to talk to the main cheese. He comes back shortly after and told me I needed to go into the office and explain it to the manager because he didn't think he was explaining it correctly.
I went into the office and told the guy 1 hole slide changed the entire overweight from the trailer to the tractor and back no matter what I did. After some hesitation and me convincing him that if he took 500lbs off I could scale it legally. He ordered 1100lbs to be taken off.
So, 2.5 hours AFTER the load was scheduled to leave we FINALLY left legal... at the limit but legal. Mary made the comment that during her shift she was pulled into every scale in Nebraska that was open.. which I thought was odd because we were always given the "go ahead and pass" light on our pre-pass. Anyways, our original dispatch had us delivering at 1100pm but with the weight issue they gave us until 1230am.. 53mph dispatch but felt we could make it.
So I headed out about 0745am or so. I got about 60 miles before I got a feeling I should have CAT scaled it at the Loves truck stop right around the corner because I remember reading on a drivers board about state certified scales and not everyone is necessarily accurate.. nor do you ever know how often they are calibrated. So, after almost crapping my drawers after seeing signs for a weigh station before I realized it was closed we got to weigh it at the Iowa 80. And what do we get? 76,000lbs gross with 31k on the tractor axles and 33k on the trailer. Apparently the La Salle terminal scale is out of whack and showing heavier than we are because even with that 1100lbs on there I think we could have hauled it legally. I guess next time i'll just go to Loves after getting a heavy load out of there to verify. Lesson learned.
The rest of the trip was cake, and we even received a pre-plan for a Con-way load headed to Tulsa, OK right after we dropped in Henderson. Mary actually got the load into Henderson, CO 6 minutes past the original drop time of 1100pm... 1.5 hours earlier than the required dispatch. I think she deserves a pat on the back! She's getting good at cutting the delivery as close as I have been recently... I just cut it close with minutes to spare. I think I need work on that.
I woke up as we rolled into the yard and went to check in with Mary. Since we had another haz-mat load out of Henderson we asked if they had one going to Tulsa, which they did and prepared the paperwork for us. After we received our dispatch headed to Tulsa we were out of there. Grand total in Henderson? Less than 40 minutes. I think thats a personal record for us!
posted by Daryl
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Monday, April 27, 2009
subject: Channahon, IL
The next plan took us from Blythe, CA to Santa Fe Springs, CA again to pick up another load headed to Channahon. So, after dropping the trailer Mary woke me up and I took us in. It took us about 4 or 5 hours to get there and we had a few more hours before we were to pick up our load so we dropped the trailer, and went over to Wal-mart to get more staples. We finally picked up our load right at noon and we were off with Mary at the helm.
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We had plenty of time to get this load to Illinois due to, what I speculate, having low hours on both our parts. However, Mary was having some medical issues so we decided to press out and drop into her hometown on Saturday around 1000am so she could visit the Dr. and get it taken care of. Due to the nature of the load she went with her mom while I stayed with the truck. Insensitive yes, but I'm a sissy when it comes to the human pain factor so it was best left to her mom.
Sometime later that night we packed up and I drove us out with the remaining 9 hours I had left. We decided it was best to keep her from driving since 1) she was still in pain from the treatment and 2) she could squeeze a 34 hour restart out. So, I got us to Grand Island, NE at our favorite Pilot/Bosselmans to freshen up before she took over on a new 70 hours. She pressed it out and got us into Channahon, IL 3 hours earlier than our drop time.... and was greeted by a large padlocked barb wire fence. After waking me up to get some advice on where she should park since the Pilot down the road was a cluster we decided to just sit it out at the fence until 0300am when they opened. So, we nestled in and watched the final episodes of CSI:Las Vegas the first season before we saw movement.
At about 0310am (or so) I pulled us in and checked in. 1 lonely guy in there taking deliveries until the dock guys came in at 0500am. Damn it. And the worst part? No empty trailers! But, he told me what dock to back into and he let me stay connected to the trailer. The bad part was that it could be until 0800am before we were unloaded. Oh well.. can't win 'em all.
Well, I surfed the net until about 0600am when I felt movement at the back of the trailer. They must have got word we were there and needed a live unload and started right in on us. At 0630am the older gentleman told me we were good to go and that he even swept out our trailer.. something you NEVER hear. That was quite nice of him. So, afterwards we headed over to the Pilot to await our next load... which is amuzing to say the least. You get 20 trucks with 19 parking spaces available and it becomes a game of musical parking spaces. You throw 4 fuel pumps in there on a busy interstate and it gets much worse. Needless to say I was entertained for about 3 hours before Mary woke up.
posted by Daryl
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Friday, April 24, 2009
subject: Blythe, CA
I swear that every time we stop for fuel (about every 12 to 15 hours) it feels like we have collected another 200 to 300 southern U.S. bugs on the grill... and another 100 to 200 mashed along the drivers side windshield being pushed around by the wind like those plastic football players that bounce around on the vibrating aluminum 80's style tabletop football game. Why does it feel like this? Because it takes nearly a half hour to scrape them off so we can see for another hour before it's bad again. GRR! If we were lizards we'd be in heaven down here.
Anyways, as I said during our last load we we had a pre-plan going from Houston, TX to Blythe, CA. After we got to the Houston Con-way terminal we took the opportunity to go to Wal-mart and get a few things. Not much was around this Con-way so we were stuck with... a.. well.. half assed Super Wal-mart as Mary described to me. After, we went to the local Pilot to wait out the last 6 hours before picking up our preplanned load. We, of course, indulged in some greasy McDonalds while watching Employee of the Month.. our favorite move.. until our pick-up at 1100pm.
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Mary got us all hooked and rolled out. She drove about 2 hours before I took over. I swear Texas is the only state in the union where you can start your shift halfway through the state and at the end, 12 hours later, you still have a quarter of the state to go. I hate Texas.
Somewhere along the line we got another pre-plan sending us from Blythe, CA to Santa Fe Springs, CA to carry a Con-way load out to Illinois. It was later changed from one city to another in Illinois with a later date. I suspect it was changed to early monday from saturday because we are short on hours.
We swapped again in El Paso, TX, where we fueled and scrapped off the previous evenings pickin's from the windshield. Mary drove us the rest of the way into Blythe, CA without incident.
On a separate note, if you have a Garmin GPS and have not yet downloaded the 2010 North American maps I highly recommend you don't as of yet. I have been on the phone countless hours trying to get the unlocking issue repaired. Apparently the software does not contain the proper security key, which allows the unit to unlock the software. So the end result is the website and Mapsource stating the software is unlocked but the Garmin Unit not seeing it. I received a fix today in my email so if anyone is stumped and tired of hanging on hold with Garmin for at least 60 minutes, shoot me an email and i'll walk you through how to fix it.
posted by Daryl
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
subject: Houston, TX
There really isn't anything to explain in this one honestly... this was a great run. We had 31 hours and pushed it out pretty quickly.
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We got a message about an hour out from San Antonio, TX our truck was due for some lubrication and fuel filter changes. We got the message about a week or 2 ago but totally forgot about it. Thank god for reminders. So, I made a quick stop at the T/A in San Antonio off of I-10 and we were off.
We arrived about an hour early to find out we were dispatched to the wrong Houston terminal. DOH! A quick review of the bills showed us that. Yet another lesson learned. So, we programmed the new address into the GPS and off we were... and arrived still 10 minutes early. Not too shabby. We did have a pre-plan waiting for us that Mary received during her shift.. heading from Houston to Blythe, CA.. and right down the exact same path we just took. So much for an adventure, but if this keeps up were in for a 6,000 mile week!
We can honestly say we're ready for some home time.. an adult beverage and alone time between husband and wife sounds WONDERFUL. We agreed at the beginning of the month we wanted to run all of April to see what we would get miles wise.. and wow has this been a long month. BUT, 1.5 more weeks and were going to take some time off in sunny Phoenix, AZ with my brother. They can keep that cold stuff in Denver, CO for sure!
posted by Daryl
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Tuesday, April 21, 2009
subject: Fontana, CA
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This load started off really rocky. As soon as I got the dispatch to head to Toledo, OR we were late. They like to back the dispatch up.. so your basically supposed to leave once you start getting messages. I can't quite figure out how that would work when you have to still receive the address and trip plan effectively, yet your not allowed to use the Qualcomm while your moving. hmmm. So, after taking a half hour to get the messages I received the dispatch... i was to leave 30 minutes ago. CRAP! Then looking at restrictions there is only one way in and one way out of Toledo... there are truck restrictions EVERYWHERE. so, after travelling along the seaboard before heading east we arrived. I got there 30 minutes late of course but nobody was at the dock so we were in and out no problem. Mary was awake due to the loading so we stopped at a little overlook near Newport, OR to get some GORGOUS pictures of the Pacific Ocean. I would post them but i'm having issues with the photo gallery software.. but soon enough. I can't say enough how beautiful Oregon is.. I just couldn't live there. We left after about a half hour or so.
We then received the dispatch to head on to Pomona, CA. And what kind of news did this bring you ask? 1035 miles and 3 days to do it... two of us. we would have to drive 10mph to take 3 days to get there. We were a little pissed but moved on. Once our fleet manager came in we requested an earlier appointment date but, alas, that is a scheduled time and cannot be changed. So, we shot a message back stating we copied and would be heading to the nearest Pilot fuel point to "sit for a few days." Less than 5 minutes later we received a relay message.. we were to drop the load at our terminal in Fontana by 0400am. Gravy!
Other than that I think I speak for both of us when I say i'm sick of mountains. I think for over 200 miles we were stuck between 4th and 6th gear at a top speed of 25mph. I can't wait to get a Kenworth! But, with all that I managed to get us in 14 minutes early. I'm gettin' good at this last minute stuff!
We were lucky tonight too.. we got a preplan going from Fontana, CA to Houston, TX.. a total of 1300 or so miles.. and yes it included a reasonable delivery time of 31 hours. That gives us plenty of time this week to rack up some more miles.
posted by Daryl
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Monday, April 20, 2009
subject: Portland, OR
So I was duly informed (by my wife of course) it appeared as though in some of my posts I'm angry and hate my job.. but that is far from the truth. There are aspects I hate, as with most drivers, which includes sitting for extended periods of time (more than 5 to 6 hours and up to 2 to 3 days.. which affects our paychecks), a lack of proper communication so we can do the job at peak performance, and people at headquarters who are incompetent in their jobs... because it ultimately affects us. I don't think thats anything more than others. I do in fact love this job more than having been a cop in my previous life... so if anyone else thought the same I apologize. I take the opportunity to use this blog to inform others looking to hire onto our company to find out what it is like from our perspective and... the primary reason... keep family members up on whats happening with us.
Anyways, we were sent a load about 3 hours after our last load was cancelled in North Huntingdon, PA... ironically it was after our Fleet Manager came on duty. I still question why the company hires load planners that work at night if their not going to find us loads. BUT, they hired me to drive so I do what i'm told. Our orders were to take the empty trailer we just unhooked from and deadhead down to Rocky Mount, NC to grab a load headed to Portland, OR. The catch? The pick-up was scheduled for 1100am the next day and delivered on the 20th... 5 days after the pick-up. Odd for a team but O.K. Another message sent said they did not have overnight parking, and there is not a plethra of truck stops in the area after a quick check on our computer... so we had to come up with a good plan for the night.
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With so much time we opted to head 100 miles east, at the junction of I-70 and I-76, to hang out for the day and part of the night at a Petro that was recently convereted to a Pilot. We grabbed some Quiznos (I recommend the Tuscon Turkey Sandwich), decided we were too lazy for a shower, and watched Coccoon before I headed to bed.
Mary did god knows what before waking me up at 0100am. We ended up leaving the Pilot at about 0300am and got to Rocky Mount at 1045am. Not too bad of timing. We grabbed our loaded trailer, finished planning the trip, and we were off.
I took us an hour west where we traded shifts and took a quick shower. We decided then that if we rush the first half of the trip we could swing through Mary's parents house for a day or so for some much needed R&R and a nice hot home cooked meal. So we recalculated and off we went.
We got into Kersey, CO at about 1100pm on Thursday night... all in good time too! Mary woke me up, we parked the truck and went to the 'rents house for a good night sleep. Waking on Friday morning found I-25 and every route heading to Wyoming closed due to the impending spring snow blizzard heading our way... thank god we planned accordingly and hit the parents house... better to stay in a comfy house with running hot water, real electricity, home cooked meals, and a shower every day! We called out fleet manager who was understanding and gave us the max on this load... only 12 hours but at that point anything helped.
We wake up Saturday with the hopes of heading out since the weather reports said the snow would last into Saturday, but unfortunately that wasn't happening. Colorado was hit with several inches but it wasn't there we were worried about but Wyoming. I checked the Wyoming DOT site to find in both the cameras and traffic reports that I-80 was closed between Cheyenne and Laramie. Not what I wanted to hear but ok. We spent the day just hanging out before I hit the sack in the event we could leave and I had to drive; Mary stayed awake monitoring the road reports in the event we could leave.
The roads on I-80 opened right before I went to bed... and right in the middle of Mary's "domestic duties" as she calls them, which was basically cooking some of our meals. She really misses cooking. Anyways, so I went to bed and she finished up. I think we rolled out about 1230am MST or so. We hit some bad areas on 80 but nothing too bad.. and it cleared up dramatically after Laramie, WY.
I drove until about 1130am or so before Mary took over in Northern Utah, just before the Idaho border. Mary called to see if there was any chance for a pre-plan since there would most likely be NOWHERE to park at o'dark thirty in the morning so we wouldn't have to drive around aimlessly until our Fleet Manager came in... and to update our ETA not from 0900am but back to midnight. We knew it was going to be tight but didn't know how tight. Low and behold we received a pre-plan few hours later heading to California... notch one up for weekend midnight dispatch!
Anyways, she kicked us on up to about 110 miles to go before I woke up and drove us the rest of the way in. and made our drop about 2 minutes early from our original 1201am drop time... hows that for on time service? And talk about tight. We thought we would be about a half hour late!
Next up? A load headed south from here where we project we will have another load coming out of Santa Fe Springs, CA headed east again.
Oh yeah, thanks again for the meals and warm showers mom! Your awsome!
posted by Daryl
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
subject: N. Huntingdon, PA
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Well, as I said, I hate incompetence. Mary and I sat at the Petro near New Columbia, PA all of Monday before setting out for North Huntingdon, PA 6 hours before our pick-up time. This was mainly decided because we were both near out of hours and sitting gave us both 34 hour restarts... me right at the time we left and Mary at 0400am.
So, after rushing to get here I walk into local dispatch to find out our load was canceled and to "call your dispatch and find out what they want you to do." So, I called and was told to "sit tight. You'll receive a message shortly," and to which I did stating "load canceled. We just found out."
I can't identify where the disconnect came from.. them or us.. but I know we had a great parking spot at the Petro, and to be moved 186 miles just to sit some more with no bathroom facilities is frustrating in the least.
posted by Daryl
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Monday, April 13, 2009
subject: New Columbia, PA
We arrived in Sacramento, CA with about a half hour to spare. We connected, grabbed and installed our hazmat placards, and off we went. Mary took the first leg out and I helped navigate us out of California. That actually proved difficult as the roads in Sacramento SUCK! We had a hard time following the signs and GPS wasn't any help. After going out of route about 10 miles we found our way back to I-80 and off east we were.
View Larger MapAs we approached Donner Pass we were notified via CB they were doing chain checks. Not having actually counted the amount of chains we have on the truck we sweat a little bit, but after doing some math we figured out we did have enough.. or so we hoped. We got up to the chain ramp and all they did was ask if we had them, then handed off a card to us on how to chain, California style... then proceeded to tell us to "hurry!" Not the most pleasant of things to hear going through a pass. But, we made it through without a problem. We've heard of rumors about Donner pass.. but Mary quelled them pretty quick by making it look easy. I headed to bed after I realized we were in fact not going to die that day... which was just outside Reno, NV. I woke up just on the other side of the Nevada-Utah border for my shift. I didn't really encounter much having driven through all of Utah and Wyoming before the sun rose. I got us to Big Springs, NE before Mary took over again. We traded once again about 30 miles into Illinois. However, she had an Epiphany towards the end of her shift, that being we were rushing to meet our dispatch for a delivery on Easter, for which we probably would not be leaving out until Monday at the bare minimum. So, after having called dispatch she was told "someone dropped the ball on you guys... your delivery time was changed to midnight." I hate incompetence. So we discussed and figured we would kick the speed down a notch, I would call my parents who reside in Detroit, MI, and see if they wanted to meet us for brunch in Toledo, OH. We got to Toledo before I got a call saying "thanks but no thanks." So much for holiday cheer. So, we showered up, grabbed some unhealthy McD's for breakfast since we don't indulge much and made it to our drop after stopping to do some grocery shopping 5 or 6 hours early. I was in bed of course, but Mary got us over to the local Petro before I was up for the night.. kinda. We ended up sitting at the Petro until after Noon when we could find a trailer before we got our next load to Kansas City, KS. This load picks up on Tuesday morning and delivers at 0900pm that night. A short hop of 186 to get to our pick-up before driving 877 to KC, KS. Hopefully the week gets better than this.
posted by Daryl
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Friday, April 10, 2009
subject: Kettleman City, CA
Well, unfortunately they did not have us a load right off the bat so we sat at the Pilot in Gary, IN overnight. Not my dream job.. but sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. The good new was, however, once our fleet manager got in we had a load within 45 minutes. She's wonderful. The plan? Take our empty up to Franklin, WI for a load headed to Kettleman City, CA, for a haul of 2145 miles due by 0600pm on Thursday. Not too shabby for the start of this weeks miles.
View Larger MapWell, it was still my shift so I drove up. This drive took us right through downtown Chicago, IL. Mary has never seen it so it was definatly something new for her. I went through there on a run with my trainer so I've seen it, which allowed me to focus on the traffic situation at hand. I do have to say we planned poorly on this 110 mile hop as we managed to hit downtown during the middle of morning rush hour, and since we didn't have to be there until 1000pm that night i'm sure we could have done a little better job. Oh well. We got up to Franklin, WI around noonish, just as my shift ended, and dropped the trailer. Mary took over and took us to this small time grocery store so we could stock up on some rations for this run, hit a small chinese place for lunch across the street, then headed to the Pilot just down the street where I headed to bed. Apparently we got lucky and the load was ready early so Mary picked it up, went to fuel, then had to head to the Petro 10 miles south to get the trailer lights fixed. Yet again another trailer that was not working properly. So, the small fix was a fuse that was blown in the dash. A small fix but the second trailer that had issues.. appears to be a trend here. Mary woke me up for my shift and we were off. The 1200am to 1200pm shift can tend to be boring so not much happened really. I managed to get us to Grand Island, NE before we swapped at noon on Wednesday for a total of around 650 miles for the day. Not too shabby. We fueled and were off again. We swapped again in Grand Junction, CO before taking off across the desert. I got about 200 miles before I met up with a Butler Transportation driver in the hills halfway across Utah. I ended up passing him but we chatted on the C.B. a few hours before he had to pull off. It was definatly nice to hear another voice at 0300am to keep you awake.. especially with nothing to look at in the pitch dark except the moon.. which I should note was exceptionally bright. We got our next pre-plan just after our Fleet Manager came in for the day.. Sacramento, CA to New Columbia, PA.. 2600 miles. Beautiful. That ends out or week with 5,123 miles. This is the first time in about 5 to 6 weeks we've seen a 5k week.. which is good 'cuz apparently we didn't pay Uncle Sam enough.. so the extra miles were welcome. Anyways, I digress. I got us all the way to Las Vegas, NV before I had the bright idea that since we were running so hard and were scheduled to deliver 7 hours early that we should stop for breakfast. Mary had never seen Vegas before other than driving through and I read somewhere, and saw on our last passthrough, a few casinos that had truck parking. So, we headed down the strip 2 or 3 miles before stopping at the Palace Station Casino. Not the most glamarous of places but for $15.00 all you can eat breakfast it works. I think we made out better there than we normally do at my favorite dive.. IHOP. 45 minutes later we were off. I got us out of Vegas before Mary took over and kicked us on into our delivery, about 45 minutes early. There does seem to be a problem with many of the trailers tho. Its discouraging to see every time we grab a trailer there is something wrong with the lights. After Mary backed the trailer into the dock we hooked to a new trailer that had the drivers lights out.. which would have been trailer #3 with a problem so I suggested we hook the electrical line to another and see if it IS our truck. After doing a test we find out it may not be.. however there does appear to be something minor wrong with THIS trailer too. Who knows. If we hook to our final trailer in Sacramento and find there is something wrong with the lights we'll be going to the shop.. yet again.. but for our truck this time. Anyways, we grabbed a trailer and headed to the Pilot halfway between our drop and pick up points along the I-5 to grab some showers and hang out. Since our pick-up time isn't until 1000am local time we had plenty of time to take care of some little things before putting our noses to the grindstone again.
posted by Daryl
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009
subject: March miles update
Well, the stats are in for both March and the 1st quarter. For March we had way less than I think most teams average but not bad for having taken 7 days off total... 3 near my birthday in Jopmo and 4 in Colorado for Mary to have her surgery.
1st Quarter Stats (Last week of Jan to the end of March)
Dispatched: 29,968
Actual: 30,526
Out of Route: 558
OOR percentage: 2%
Miles per gallon: 5.9
March Stats:
Dispatched: 13,518
Actual:13,858
Out of Route: 339
OOR percentage: 2.5%
posted by Daryl
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Monday, April 6, 2009
subject: Gary, IN
Well, I ended last post while we were still sitting in Arizona and didn't get to spread the joy of the shippers. This was a fun one.
The fun actually started about 150 miles out, near Barstow, CA. The winds started kicking up BAD about 30 miles east of Barstow and all of us drivers were lined up in the right hand lane going about 30mph due to the.. i'd estimate 20mph gusting to 40mph winds. That was a new experience. Well, fast forward about 20 minutes of that and we hit a MASSIVE dust storm.. a first for me. I managed to make it through that and get back to normal operating speed (or normal for California.. 55mph) as the winds appeared to die down a bit. Boy was I wrong. I came out from this large hill and was blasted with a HUGE gust of wind of which I can't even estimate the speed. It hit the tractor and trailor so hard I had to quickly steer to avoid being blown over.. or so it felt. That could be an exageration but really I felt the pit of my stomach turn upside down if that gives you an idea of what it felt like. Just about then we got a preplan to take a hazmat load to Romulus, MI near my hometown... over 2600 miles. Not bad for a first hazmat and an end to the week.
Well I made it all the way to Walnut, CA without much incident. I programmed the trusty GPS with the receivers instructions but.. alas.. when I got to where I was supposed to exit there was none. Apparently either I missed the exit that WENT to that road.. or I just wasn't paying attention because when I came to the road it was a bridge OVER that road. It took all my willpower to avoid throwing the GPS out the window, who was cheerfully shouting "EXIT RIGHT." I found an alternate route and got there without incident thankfully.
Well, fast forward to the right turn I was supposed to make and, of all the places, right in the middle of the street is a huge dirt pit they just dug up to start laying new pipes and concrete for what would become the street once again. Uh huh. Well, the flagman was nice and moved cones for me and stopped traffic, then directed me as to where to go. Because of the mud pits everywhere a flick of the quad lock got me right through it. So, I get to the dock and, because of all the dirt, pilons, and construction traffic everywhere I just could not for the life of me get lined up. 20 pullups later I got out of the truck and asked Mary to take over due to my severe frustration.. ahh the joy of teaming. Instead I checked us in. Good enough.
30 minutes later we were unloaded. I would like to say we left promptly but that didn't happen either. Instead the construction crew operating the heavy machinery instead blocked us in and refused to move. Coffee break I guess. So, 1.5 hours later we were FINALLY off after I basically made my own way out. Exiting was even WORSE since all the dirt and gravel piles were right in my way out. Lovely. But, we exited without incident and headed to Santa Fe Springs, CA for our next load pickup. Unfortunately it didn't leave as quickly as we wanted but instead 24 hours later. Why, I have no idea as we had the hours, but whatever. We made the best of it and went grocery and clothes shopping.
Well, Mary and I both tried to stay on our schedules since we were basically late right from the dispatch. 35 hours to go near 2700 miles. Good thing we don't pee, eat, fuel, and only operate 22 hours a day. Uh huh. Well, sometime while we were both overlapping our sleep we got a location change.. were not going to lovely Romulus, MI but instead Gary, IN. Okie.
So, after seeing that our pickup time didn't change, which was 1000am. No worries. So I sat in the front of the truck surfing the net and whatnot for 10 hours. At 0930am I go to check on the load and find the entire place is locked up. What the...!?! Well, last time we were there they guard shack had it.. so I stroll over to find out she did indeed have the paperwork. So, now my blood started boiling because instead of surfing the net trying to stay awake we could have been off. I hate the Santa Fe Springs Con-way terminal. They do EVERYTHING bassackwards from the rest of the Con-way world.
So, we hook up to our trailer, do the normal weigh, and get our dispatch. 56mph average. RIIIIIGHT.. not through California and Illinois, which are both 55mph states and hitting the Rockies. In a Volvo I think the speed of smell travels faster when we hit mountains so of course right off the bat we're late. Mary called dispatch and asked for more time since right on our paperwork it was due near 24 hours later.. which we were approved for. New drop time... noon on Monday. We left shortly after.
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I drove to our fuel stop in Hysperia, CA, then mary took over from there. I stayed up until we got through Las Vegas, NV, then hit the sack. I woke up at a Flying J in Richfield, UT to take on my shift. About a half hour later we hit sub-freezing temperatures and glare ice so I kicked it down to 6th gear and maintained maybe about 45 to 50mph or so. I glanced in my mirrors as we are supposed to just to make sure my trailer isn't swerving out of the lane due to the ice... and nothing. I didn't see the marker lights which indicate the rear of the trailer and the moon was behind mountains so all I saw was pitch black. At this point I decided one of three things happened... 1) the trailer fell off the tractor, 2) we were jack-knifing as I looked, or 3) there was a short somewhere in the electrical of the trailer. Since I didn't feel any pulling on the 5th wheel I immediately eliminated the first 2 and suspected an electrical short. I closely watched the mirror and would see the lights fade on and off of each side a few times before realizing even the top clearance lights were out. hmmm. I was passed about 30 miles later by a tractor/trailer who flashed his trailer lights to, what I assume, let me know mine were out but he didn't say anything on the CB. Wierd.
I kept driving about another 20 miles to what could loosely be called a rest area in the middle of Utah to check the situation. As I walked to the back the lights flickered 3 or 4 times and the top clearance lights were flickering like they were turning on and off to a high bass song playing. That was a problem because if I were pulled over by the Department of Transportation or I happened to be called into a weigh station most likely I would be cited for faulty equipment... not something either of us need in this time of firings for little crap. So I cleaned the contacts and plug of the 7-pin plug that provides power from the tractor to the trailer and messed with what wires I could reach on each light but nothing.
So, I drafted a message on the qualcomm to roadservice explaining there was a short in the trailer and cleaning the contacts did nothing on the plug and I needed a purchase order to go to the shop. Now, I don't consider myself the sharpest tack in the bunch, brightest bulb in the pack, tastiest taco in the super-pack (enter metaphor here) but any good driver would know how to do basic stuff, which I already explained I did. So, what does this brilliant message say? PO DENIED-MOST LIKELY A SHORT. JIGGLE THE WIRES NEAR THE LIGHT AND UNPLUG AND REPLUG THE CONNECTOR. uh... hmmm. No shit. So I drafted another message back stating the obvious and I was risking a ticket driving in this condition. The result? NOTHING. I didn't get a damn thing back. Good thing they look out for the drivers! So, I just kept driving with a faulty trailer. In hindsight I probably should have called and explained but the sun started coming up so I didn't bother since I couldn't see the lights much at this point anyways.
So I got us about 30 miles from the Nebraska border, or Sterling, CO, when Mary took over. We stopped so I could take a quick shower since 4 days is apparently her thresh hold of tolerance on my rankness while she made dinner and we were off again. I woke up a short while later at the Bosselmans Pilot in Grand Island, NE, in line at the shop. Apparently when Mary went to leave she noticed the lights flickering yet again. Jiggle the wires.. I love it. She called and explained and they immediately got her into the shop. hmm...
So, once that was fixed, which took well over 2.5 hours, we were off yet again. After this little adventure we didn't run into any other problems, thank god. We kicked it on into the termianal about 5pm or so, which sucked since it was 5 hours beyond when we were supposed to.. but some things just can't be avoided.
Where next? Who knows. We sit here in the Pilot south of Gary, IN awaiting instructions. But, at least we can shower again! That makes Mary happy for sure!
posted by Daryl
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Friday, April 3, 2009
subject: Walnut, CA
Well, the good news is that we passed our Hazardous Materials and tanker endorsement exams. The bad news came after we got back to the terminal... our truck needed new brakes. Apparently the guys heard what sounded to be metal on metal... which we didn't hear while we were driving. Come to find out the loud squeal we heard when stopping was caused due to a cracked drum... something we both missed in our inspections. It took 7 hours to get fixed before we got her back.... and by that time it was 1000pm. Go on the board? Not in our condition.
We did, however, manage on our day off to find a screamin' deal on a memory foam thingie. We went to JCPenny's to see what they had to make our bed more comfortable as when the other is driving we bounce up and down like those little mice popping their heads out of the holes at that game ever so popular at Chuckie Cheese. This cute old little.. sounded like german.. lady helped us locate what we were looking for. She then led me to this other area of the department and showed me a $350.00 memory foam mattress with a cool topper (similar to a mattress pad) thing that fit over it all. The price? $49.95. SOLD! Everything else was at LEAST $100.00. The problem was that it was a queen and were dealing with a postage stamp size mattress. hmmm. After some brain storming we remembered we had our down comforter in Joplin just in case so we grabbed that and headed back to the truck.
So, once we got the truck back we opened the mattress up. Based on what the sales lady said I was expecting it to whack us in the face like a rubber raft having its open cord pulled because it was apparently supposed to puff up like a tampon exposed to water... that didn't happen in this case. Instead we had to fight the last position this crap remembered.. which was a huge ball similar to that cable crap you see on some of those flatbed trucks. After fighting with it and watching it SLOWLY puff up we were able to stretch it out enough to cut it down to our little sized bed. We took the comforter and doubled it over before placing it on the bed. We took that cool thingie and did the same, then fought for about a half hour to squeeze the sheets on. The result? Just was Mary was expecting... a "bed of fluffiness." uh huh... I just wanted to go to sleep. But, after two days of having it on after going through some bumps I can say I honestly feel a difference. I guess mama knows best.
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Anyways, I got up for my shift 2 hours late since I didn't get to bed until midnight and put us on the board. 10 minutes later we had a load... we were to take an empty to Iola, KS and haul it to Walnut, CA. Never heard of either place. So, I found our empty, finished some paperwork, got our dispatch, and we were off. Mary woke up a short while later and enjoyed the trip to tropical KS with me.
We arrived 20 minutes early for our pick up time to find a drop & hook load waiting for us. Beauty. 30 minutes later we were off. We took a route directly south instead of heading the westerly route on the US highways only because there AIN'T CRAP on these roads. We opted for the option of coffee and rest area breaks whenever we need them. And, since we had time on this load.. why not. I drove another hour or so until just shy of I-44 before Mary took over. She got us to Amarillo, TX before waking me up. However, groggy from the sleep aid I took and the weather report from Mary of "it was a pain in the ass. The rain was coming down so hard! It's still raining right now" I opted to let the weather pass. When I awoke refreshed there wasn't a drop falling. I love it. We got to Flagstaff, AZ where we fueled, grabbed a bite to eat, fought a mob of giddy hungry softball chicks wearing inappropriate for their age clothing, showered, and were off again.
We sit at a Pilot at the border of Arizona and California as we speak waiting for time to pass before leaving for the receivers at 800am. There isn't crap for parking in the greater Los Angeles area so we opted to sit further out and just kick it on in the driveway for our appointment a tad early. Hopefully we can miss the traffic!
posted by Daryl
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