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March 7, 2009 - The live dash cam will be returning, but not in the previous capacity. More information to follow.
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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.


Wednesday, December 30, 2009
subject: Dunnigan, CA

After leaving from the last consignee I took the time to head back to the T/A I stayed at on Monday night and grabbed a shower before heading over to the yard to sit the day out. Nothing really happened otherwise and I think I finally got to bed around 800pm. Much later than I wanted but I slept soundly until my alarm went off at midnight.



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After grabbing the trailer I headed north along I-10 to CA57 north. Then I jumped onto I-210 and took it to I-5. The traffic was light, as expected at 130am, and made it through the mountains rather quickly. It was about this time that I received a preplan to head south after I meet the relay to the Sacramento yard and haul a load to Denver over 3 days. Not too shabby.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and I pulled into the relay point, or the Pilot, about 45 minutes early. I met the relay, who was a really nice older guy, and exchanged stories of chaining. He was rather amusing to say the least. After about 10 minutes we traded trailers and he was off to Oregon while I was on my way to Sacramento.

posted by Daryl at 13:05
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Monday, December 28, 2009
subject: Ontario, CA

After some thought I decided to go back to the format I was using before with maps and per trip stories. Should be much easier now that i'm driving solo to accomplish. As a team member it was always from the bloggers view and hard to follow, as I found when I read some of them. Anyways...

I returned to work this morning, reluctantly. With family in town I didn't have much of chance to get anything done and wanted to come back on Tuesday. I talked to a weekender and was told the company was short in every area of the country and if the load planners had freight in the area I would have to take it. I wasn't going to complain but rather hoped something would be nearby with a late monday night or early tuesday morning delivery so as not to lose a day off. I lucked out and got a relay load 339 miles away delivering in Ontario, CA on Tuesday morning at 0700am.

The plan was simple for my first run as a solo... head over to get the loaded trailer this morning around 0800am, head back home and park nearby so I could get some shopping and chores done, leave Phoenix, AZ around 400pm, hit the T/A on the way out to get my overdue PM done on the truck, and get into the Fontana/Ontario, CA area between 930pm and 1000pm and shut down, and get up early enough to head over to the consignee in the morning. However, Karma had other plans.

I loaded up the truck with what I had ready this morning and headed over to the Con-way freight yard to pick up my trailer. I received a message from my FM reminding me I had to get a preventative maintenance inspection/check on the truck and informed her it was on my agenda, as was highly suggested by road service after the holiday. I sent all the appropriate messages and found myself receiving a "Drop your trailer" message as if I were not permitted to pick it up. I shot back a message stating such, then headed home where I could finish up my chores and loading up the truck.

Come to find out after I got home, my FM could not dispatch me on the load because I had to get the PM done first. So much for finishing chores with Mary in a timely manner. So, I headed BACK to the yard where I was scheduled by road service to get the PM. I can only presume it was scheduled at the yard instead of a T/A or Petro truck stop to reduce cost but, personally, I was more fond of the plan to hit the T/A because they are normally pretty quick once in the shop. The freight yard took FOREVER due to not having our type of fuel filters in stock. They ended up having to have the filters ordered and brought over to the shop, so I had to sit 4 hours while they came in. I think I finally left the shop at 200pm... 3 hours later than I had intended.

I headed back home where Mary had a burrito bowl from Chipotle waiting for me. Life can't get any better than Chipotle! I think I finally left Phoenix when I planned, around 430pm and had an uneventful drive to Ontario, CA.



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I ended up rolling into the T/A around 1000pm where I expected to find little parking but, to my amazement, found plenty of spaces on the back 9. I took the opportunity to refuel so it would not cost me $10.00 for the night (50 gallons of fuel equates to free parking) and finally parked.

I headed over to the consignee around 0630am, about 1/2 a mile away. I was unloaded in about 30 minutes, then was given a load, which was to head over to the Fontana, CA yard by 0100am on Tuesday to pick up a load and relay it outside of Sacramento, CA. Not the most ideal of runs by any stretch but at least i'll be moving.

posted by Daryl at 19:03
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Friday, December 25, 2009
subject: 12/25/09

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Nothing special to post today, so I figured I would at least extend a happy holidays even though I don't celebrate much anymore.

posted by Daryl at 21:16
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
subject: 12/24/09

Today marks my 1 year anniversary with the company so far and thought I would commemorate with a recap of the year.

According to the company portal I have logged 107,342. Mary has logged 102,554 miles thus far. Her 1 year would be in another few weeks but since she is home permenantly I figured I would make mention of it. We have been to every state except Maine, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut in the U.S. and have yet to visit the Northwest Territory, Yukon, Saskatchewan, and Quebec in Canada. I'm hoping over the coming months I have the opportunity to visit these places.

My opinion of the industry is as expected, honestly. Many have said they hate being away from home so long but I have found that being a loner I've become accustomed to it. I did have a period where I felt homesick but in reflection it was when we were on the dedicated lane and couldn't just go home like other times. Once we got home I was ready to go after 2 days. The one irritating factor I still detest thus far is the nights and weekends crew. Our FM made note when we first started that their primary mission was to keep freight moving when the day crew is not around and that has proven true. When I ran solo the first few weeks away from my trainer they had no qualms with running me all night even though I had been up all day... effectively keeping me awake for about 29 hours. Truly this was an unsafe practice on my part and have found a way to prevent from doing that again. The other thing I hate with this crew is the need to dispatch out on fast times to get to consignee when there has been no appointment made in the first place. Why... seriously? We have been encouraged to run as fast as possible but then were required to sit for 2 days before we delivered. Clearly they have no idea what its like to sleep on a moving vehicle on horrible roads. You don't ever truly sleep but rather rest instead as part of a team operation. We took the time to slow down and actually sleep for 4 to 6 hours without the truck moving, which is one of the few things that actually kept us sane.

Overall though I have enjoyed the field thus far and plan to stay in it for quite a while. It is one of the few fields where I don't have someone always hovering over me telling me how to do my job... and its not a mainstream career field by any means. The pay could be better but I make a decent living and I have intentions of eating much healthier with help from Mary and working out more regularly to avoid the high blood pressure and obesity that traditionally plagues truck drivers.

At this point I don't know if I will remain with this company but they have been good to me. I've heard they were better as Contract Freighters, Inc. but are still better than other companies out there. I'm still in a mode of formulating a life plan, and with having Mary at home I obviously want to have a marriage too and be home as much as possible. Local driving and working 14 to 16 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week does not sound fun but neither does being out 3 weeks at a time. Does a meeting point exist? I believe I may have found one but really don't have much experience to get into that area at this point, but only time will tell.

-------

My parents got in without incident today and my brother brought them over instead of us picking them up. That allowed plenty of time to finish cleaning the house and get some minor shopping done. I got in late last night so Mary let me sleep while she got much of it done. I think I got up around 1030am or so and cleaned the bathroom and kitchen before they came over.

My brother brought over Guitar Hero: World Tour and we spent most of the day playing that while sipping on frothy adult beverages. I had to make a trip to the local Safeway to pick up some bread and other small items and found that place was a madhouse! Every lane was packed with at LEAST 10 to 12 people. Thank god we didn't have much else to do as I hate crowds as it is.

The plan for tomorrow is to enjoy breakfast, make an awsome turkey dinner with Mary, and drive around and check out Christmas lights in the area... a time honored tradition from when we were kids.

posted by Daryl at 21:48
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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
subject: 12/23/09

I picked up our load right on time, or as close to it as possible that the terminal would allow me to. 15,000lbs of Hazmat materials on a 33,000lb load and a weather system to drive through. Grand. Mary went to bed shortly after and I took us out.

I fueled us in Beto Junction, KS and managed to get us to Liberal, KS along U.S. 52 before Mary woke up. I had to fix the placards because the jack-hole who put them on didn't bother to wipe the dirt off the trailer or pull the entire backing off the placard so it stuck effectively. Add rain and severe cross winds in the mix and you have pieces of torn stickers all over the trailer. During this time our fleet manager sent us a "your going home" message, directing us to deadhead home after our drop. Needless to say we were pretty stoked by this time. Ton of crap to do and a day behind.

Mary took over and stopped in Santa Rosa, NM to refuel and buy new placards as the ones on are really not working. Unfortunately, T/A apparently stopped selling placards a few years ago. Good job on that one. Thats one thing I like about Pilots are that they have the essential needs to repair anything on the truck or trailer. Now, it will cost a pretty penny, but must of the time its charged to the company anyways so it works out in the end.

I ended up waking up about 100 miles outside of Albuquerque, NM and stayed up with her as we moved into a weak weather system hovering over ABQ. It wasn't bad but we were driving through 2 systems, 1 to the north and one to the south of ABQ, but all of which were listed as Winter Storm Warnings on the government run NWS website. The rest of New Mexico was cake and we didn't run into any other problems. Mary continued to drive through part of Arizona before we switched out at the Loves truckstop in some little town I don't even know the name of, about 140 miles into the state. We opted to put on the placards we picked up at the Pilot in Jamestown, NM since the skies were clear. Damn cold to be out there but at least we wouldn't get cited. I took us out.

I got us to about the I-17 and I-40 interchange when we got a "load cancelled" message. I noted earlier that we were deadheading home, but that we do not have a place to park the trailer and would have to drive out of route to the Con-way yard in Phoenix to drop the trailer. Mary commented that maybe they were changing it so we would drop the trailer in Phoenix. I noted the time being 1800MST, 2 hours past when our FM goes home and remember saying to myself, "we're going to get screwed." About 5 minutes later we got our next load... deadhead to Irvine, CA to pick up a preloaded trailer and take it to Phoenix, AZ. The times on the pickup and delivery were all set to early 12/23 but our projections of getting into Blythe, CA were around 930pm, then a 5 hour drive to Irvine, CA on the outskirts of LA, CA, then a 7 hour drive BACK to Phoenix, AZ put us getting home around 0900am. This would not do. So, Mary attempted to call headquarters but did not receive an answer. At the same time, dispatch decided to call us to make sure we "got the load info." Apparently they were beggin' for an ass chewin'.

Mary got on the phone and had a brisk conversation with someone who, basically, didn't care. After getting nowhere with this woman she asked for a supervisor. After about 10 minutes of waiting she got into it with this guy. Mary essentially told him that she understood that loads could not be turned down but didn't care because we have things to do and our FM put us on this for a reason. In the end, this gal and guy she spoke to had all of their Christmas shopping finished, had everything ready to cook for relatives coming in, and were prepared for the holidays, but us? What was that he said.... oh... "I sympathize with you, I really do, but frankly thats not my problem." Wanna know why the trucking industry has a 120% turnover every year? All the more evidence that the drivers are not people... just a number and there to provide money for the company. We haven't had time to get ANYTHING ready for the family members coming in, not to mention our refrigerator is empty and ALL of the stores will be closing early on Christmas Eve.

Anyways, that set Mary off. Her fundamental question was, "What are you going to do if I don't take this load, fire me? I already put in my 2 weeks notice and i'm coming off the truck after this load anyways!" All this guy could say is, "That's not advisable" and "I'm authorized to keep you moving until Christmas." Mary made the statement afterwards that there is a difference between following policy and being ethical. This guy obviously didn't care, but made sure to poke, "I have to work Christmas Eve." Seriously? He was obviously trying to compare a 12 hour shift, after which he got to go home, open presents, have a holiday, take a shower in his own home, and all that jazz with being at work for 2.5 weeks doing nothing but dedicating our lives to the company. I don't know what we were thinking... clearly this guy is as dedicated as us.

Well, after enough of this, he offered... wait.. thats the wrong word.. he THREATENED to call our fleet manager who could "deal" with us. Mary's response? Go ahead! Get her on the phone right now! This guy did too.. and the response? Just as we expected... which will be explained here in a sec. The qualcomm beeped unassigning the load and reassigning us to our deadhead home. He got back on the phone with a rather brisk but pissed off tone saying, "Your going home," then quickly hung up.

I suggested to Mary to facebook message our FM since we know she checks that quite frequently. She basically told FM that she was sorry to have to deal with this on her time off but...  and then gave a brief explanation of what happened and that, everytime she goes home, they ALWAYS change our plans thus screwing us yet again. The response was more than expected:

"Yes he called me at home but no biggie. I told him I would not support the decision to send u to Irvine and that those loads are preloaded and he said its been ready since the 10th and I said well apparently 'name removed' (the planner) hasn't been too worried about it because he's pushed it off this far so what 's another day. He was short with me and I told him that I already made the arrangements with 'name removed' to send u home and that's what we were doing. It would be diff if someone had brokedown."

We hated that it went that route but when we first started we explained our problems with some of these people and she made mention to have them call her at home. We've never had to execute that authority but it stuck in the back of my head and, thank god, it worked out in our favor!

2.5 hours later we rolled into Phoenix, AZ where I dropped Mary off at home so she could get our food shopping finished. I continued with the 2.5 hours left to Blythe, CA to deliver the load. Delivery was easy but I managed to get a broke ass old trailer. For some reason the pins didn't want to pull so I could set the tandems to the legal California standard. After 30 minutes of screwing with it I put it back. I didn't have the proper tools to fix it as most of them were just transported from my mother in laws a few weeks back and I have not had the chance to sort through them. Hopefully someone with better tools can fix it! Anyways, I grabbed a new trailer and headed out. 2.5 hours later, or 0200am, I arrived at the Phoenix, AZ yard where I dropped the empty, bobtailed home, and sent messages stating I was out of the truck.

I've never been fond of the holidays and, had I been solo, I would have taken the load no problem but we had plans based on what our FM told us and it just jiggles the SHIT out of me that others think that their position of authority can be abused because they don't have ethics! That was my fundamental issue with law enforcement, seeing others do this, and one of the reasons I left... and to come here and see someone do this in the holiday season just jerks my chain! As I said, another reason the retention rate blows in this industry.

posted by Daryl at 23:13
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
subject: 12/22/09

We ended up sitting all night number 3 on the board and didn't actually get a load until around 900am this morning. I found it amazing midnights couldn't find us something to get us moving much sooner. The load? I don't know how we got it but we pulled the same load as assigned yesterday. If this cancels we're going to be PISSED. I'll be damned if we're going to sit here until they find a load sometime on or after the holidays with family coming in and all.

We will end up picking up the load tonight at 800pm and with any luck will be in Blythe, CA sometime around 800pm tomorrow night, then off to enjoy home for 4 days off. This is Mary's final load and will be off the truck as soon as we get home along with Max, our pup. The plan is to be back on the board Monday, but I suspect that if there is any downtime this weekend i'll be taking the truck to get a preventative maintenance tune up. Not the way I want to spend my weekend but it's something that must be complete before I come back on the board.

posted by Daryl at 14:24
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Monday, December 21, 2009
subject: 12/21/09

I woke up yesterday morning and found we were at a picnic area in the middle of nowhere on the left side of the road. When I first woke up I thought we were on an onramp near a freeway but Mary left me a note to exit to the right and be sure to stay on the right side as its a 2 lane road. Thank god for that!

I took us the rest of the way across U.S. 52 most of the way across Kansas. Trying to avoid the Kansas Turnpike and their rediculous fees I took U.S. 6 north until it met with I-135, then took that back north to U.S. 52. It shaved a few miles off even though it took a few minutes longer. About that time we got our preplan going home... a load from the Con-way yard in Kansas City, KS to Blythe, CA, then a deadhead home. Not too shabby. We ended up stopping at the Flying J near the U.S. 52/I-35 junction to take a shower, then headed off across I-35 the rest of the way in. After getting lost on the wrong side of the railroad tracks we reorganized and managed to get into our Kansas City, MO yard about 3 hours early. We only got lost because we've only been there once and its a confusing layout of streets. A quick zoom-in of Streets & Trips and we found where we needed to go.

 We were then ordered to bobtail over to the KCKS yard to pick up our load at 830pm. We got here and Mary checked us in and found it won't be ready until exactally 830pm. So much for making some headway. So, Mary made us some killer grilled cheese sandwiches and we scarfed them down with some pickle flavored and mustard flavored Pringles (Those things are killer!) while we watched the movie 'Mask' on HBO (the one with Cher and Eric Stoltz). She's never seen it and its sitting on our DVR at home to watch so I figured, why not. After, she ran in to check our load and they told her there was some confusion on orders due to cancellations and to come back in a half hour. At that point we expected it and about 5 minutes later we were not disappointed.... across the qualcomm came "LOAD CANCELLED." So much for getting home with enough time to finish our Christmas shopping. Pissed yes but as I said it was expected. So far there is no word that we will have a load tonight so we'll both end up going to bed and waiting out until the morning when our fleet manager comes in to see what the deal is. It never fails that you put in to go home and things can never go right!

posted by Daryl at 20:17
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Sunday, December 20, 2009
subject: 12/20/09

First things first. My buddy Jason, an aspiring trucker and former coworker, wanted me to throw a shoutout his way... so Jason, this buds for you!

Mary got us to the Arizona/California border before shutting down. She made great time and decided to let me sleep another 40 minutes before I took us out. I managed to get us to Lordsburg, NM where we refueled before stopping in Deming, NM to shop. We didn't know how long we are going to be out so we started with 2 days worth of food.. hopefully that lasts.

We arrived in El Paso, TX about an hour early, dropped out trailer, and headed over to the Loves truckstop to wait it out for another load. We were sitting at number 5 at the time of our arrival. Thats better than last night; Mary called dispatch and found out there were 11 sitting here waiting for loads.

After dropping the trailer we headed down to the Loves truck stop about a mile away and sat until the CO2 fumes became too much for us, then shot back over to the terminal. No more did we get in the entrance did we get a load. We were to pick up a preloaded trailer and take it to the drop lot in Kansas City, MO. This pissed Mary off something fierce as we were supposed to be being worked home and initially wanted to turn down the load.. but being forced dispatched and us having the hours we had to take it. A little convincing and she agreed. She took us out over U.S. 52 through New Mexico to I-40 and continued on U.S. 52 through to the Texas/Oklahoma border where she shut down around midnight. She was suffering a severe migraine and a little chat with dispatch permitted us a few extra hours tacked onto the load.

With any luck our load will come through soon with our load going home for the holiday... we have a ton of stuff to get done around the house before my parents come in at noon on Thursday.

posted by Daryl at 19:18
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Saturday, December 19, 2009
subject: 12/19/09

It was nice to sleep in. I think I stayed up a little to late surfing the net and watching a good 'ol chick flick, "The Holiday" on network cable. Mary? She passed out sometime before the sun went down. The shower was well worth the $80.00 we spent though. Nice and hot with every stream in the showerhead working!

We left out from Ripon, CA around 1000am California time and got into the shipper without delay. However, once there we were lost. Our directions were rather.. scarce.. to say the least. We went all the way down to the end and found the gate locked and no security around. I walked around and found a few workers that directed us back to the south to enter that way. While we were turning around a guy in a forklift was waving us in but after a quick glance around I couldn't find any numbers on the building so we forged on. We got into the locked gates area but everything I found was a receiving area. 20 minutes later the guy that was waving us over to his docks entered and told us he was what we were looking for. Good grief!

After having gotten to the building we found it was a blindside back on a blindside 45 degree angle with another trailer at a dock. Then to top it off, a curb was in front of us near a fence, preventing a straight line back once it was near set in place. Mary tried several times to get it in there but as she tried to swing the trailer around to the dock bumpers it moved the opposite direction. Frustrated 20 minutes later she gave it to me. I opted to pull forward towards the blindside, roll over the curb as I could see several other drivers have done, and got us right in there with only a few pullups to get straight so we could slide the tandems.

20 minutes later we were loaded.. .all 4500lbs. What we are carrying is a mystery, but from what I can tell its shipping containers inside large shipping crates. We straight line backed out of there and made way for the freeway. Pretty straight forward, taking us south on US101 to CA152 east. We jumped on I-5 south at Los Banos and will take that down to I-10 in LA. After, we'll take I-10 straight out through Phoenix, AZ to Las Cruces, NM and on into El Paso, TX. Simple 1100 miles and we hope to be home if not late Tuesday night, sometime Wednesday.

posted by Daryl at 16:13
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Friday, December 18, 2009
subject: 12/18/09

After calling over to the guard shack I was told to report back over there so I could get loaded. The loading took about 20 minutes total including strapping the load down and grabbing the paperwork. However, sliding the tandems was more of a pain in the butt. After 3 attempts I opted to leave it until I got to the scale as the weight of the paper rolls would most likely provide enough weight on the rails as we hit bumps to loosen up. Fortunately, I was right. I was able to slide the tandems once at the scale to California tandems with ease. We scaled out pretty light, 42,000lbs, for having 7 rolls of 8ft tall rolls of paper. After scaling we were off.

Unfortunately, as described yesterday, it wasn't a straight shot out. It was back across US20 to US101 up to US22, and 22 out to I-5. This is easily 60 miles out of the way if I were to take US20 straight out. Thanks ODOT! It was a smooth ride out though.. even with the weight.

I managed to make it down to the Pilot at the 144 before I gave up. I opted to fuel instead of wait and, to my surprise, Mary was awake and ready to go when I was finished. I made her coffee and she was off... while I was off to bed.

I can't speak for what happened the rest of the day but I woke up while we were in the Sacramento Con-way yard, where we were instructed to drop the load for a relay later next week. After, we headed down to a hole in the wall truck stop on CA99, known as Hawks. This place is a hellhole. Mary swore after using the bathroom she caught all kinds of diseases. We sat there for about 2 hours before we were assigned a load leaving tomorrow. We were supposed to head to the San Jose, CA area and take a load out to Laredo, TX, but shortly after we received a message from our FM stating she was going to set up a relay in El Paso, TX so we didn't stray far from home. I suspect this week the FM's and load planners are setting up relays since Christmas is the only day guaranteed home. I'd hate to be a load planner!

So, we took CA99 south to Ripon, CA, just north of Modesto and parked at a Loves to hang for the night. But, after some discussion, cramping up in our cozy twin bed in the truck didn't sound pleasing so we opted to get a hotel across the street, where we're holed up right now. Pricy, yes, but we needed time out of the truck. We can put $20.00 of it in as a shower reimbursement so I won't complain.

Tomorrow we will head out to San Jose to get our load and we'll be off to El Paso, TX. This run should take us down I-5 to I-10, and I-10 all the way to Texas.

posted by Daryl at 17:00
2 Comments | leave a comment


Thursday, December 17, 2009
subject: 12/17/09

This morning Mary made it to about 40 miles inside Washington State before shutting down at a rest area. I think I rolled out of bed around 330am and finished the trip, getting us into Fife, WA about 45 minutes early. I was directed to put the trailer into a door and did so. It was a tight back but I got it in there pretty easily, with 2 walk arounds and a close call in front of me. Why they put things in front of doors is beyond me... just makes it into a rediculous obstacle course when its not really necessary.

After searching a few times I ended up finding an easy back at the Flying J a few miles away. That place is so tight that once in a spot its near impossible to get out. The drivers around need to back up to let you out. Whoever the engineer of that fiasco was needs to be shot. We ended up sitting for about 3 or so hours before our preplan came. We were to shoot down to Toledo, OR to pick up paper and take it to Sacramento, CA where we will relay it for another driver. Gravy.

We headed south but since we had a 5 hour window to go 200 miles we opted to stop at the Pilot south of Salem, OR and take a shower & eat. From here, because the Oregon Department of Transportation has so many length laws in place we couldn't just go straight there. Instead, we had to take U.S. 22 west to the coastal U.S. 101 south about 25 miles. Then, we could take the appropriate road over to the plant, which escapes me at the moment.

I ended up checking in at the wrong gate about 3 hours early, but the security lady was really nice and got the dock guys to squeeze us in at 0830pm instead of 0930pm. I had a 25 minute wait for that so I took us over to the overnight parking area where we now sit to wait for our designated time.

On a side note, Mary got a call from her Dr. and was told all is well and they were able to remove all of the abnormal cells!

posted by Daryl at 20:09
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
subject: 12/16/09

Today proved to be a rather uneventful one. I managed to squeeze out about 4 hours of sleep last night before being woken up around 0215am. Mary dropped the trailer and took us towards Santa Fe Springs, CA for our next drop & hook load. She took a different route than I usually plan, this one along I-8 towards San Diego, CA, then north on I-5 to the consignee. She did tell me a story of a rather invasive border patrol agent that insisted on her opening the door and basically allowing the K-9 unit to be almost in here to sniff it out. Then, she said he requested her to open the curtain so he could see me, and only after shining the flashlight directly on my face did he let her go. I could have sworn that was in direct violation of the 10 hour sleeper birth/off duty provision.. but thats just me.

I wrangled us into Santa Fe Springs, CA about 10 minutes early, or around 0350am to sit in line while the gal there took her sweet time. I personally hate the SFS terminal.. I have yet to actually meet anyone that isn't rude and the customer service is the worst i've ever seen of any profession. Anyways, 40 minutes late, I took us out.

Mary woke up just outside of LA a few hours later and I believe we swapped out north of Sacramento, CA at the Pilot in Dunnigan, CA where we refueled. I opted to go right to bed as for the past few nights i've only caught a few hours of sleep thanks to our wonderful interstate system! Hoorah! I'm now up thanks to elevation changes in Oregon and the interstate system. It was enough to grab a bite to eat, and now i'm back off to bed. With any luck i'll only have an hour to drive tonight but that'll all depend on how far Mary gets us.

posted by Daryl at 19:50
0 Comments | leave a comment


Tuesday, December 15, 2009
subject: 12/15/09

I honestly don't remember falling asleep last night, nor do I remember the washboard portions of I-40 while travelling west of Oklahoma City. But, I know that Mary came to bed sometime around midnight, and that it took 40 minutes for me to physically grasp the energy to pull myself out of bed. It's been a rough couple of days.

I think I finally woke up around 0300am or so, and got dressed. Our little Max had apparently been waiting patiently for one of us to wake up because based on his demeanor (bouncing around like a Jack Russel) he had to go outside something fierce. At that point I realized we made it to about 50 miles inside of Texas as I saw the telltale neon lights at the welcome center there. After taking him out we got rolling.

The rest of my portion of the trip was unadventerous. I stopped to fuel at the T/A in Santa Rosa, NM and Mary woke up sometime just outside of Albuquerque, NM. We decided to stop for a bite in Jamestown, NM as cereal just didn't sound good this morning. We opted to trade out there and Mary drove us through home so we could shower and do laundry before taking us the rest of the way. We suspect we should hit Calexico, CA sometime around 1100pm tonight and will be on our way to Santa Fe Springs, CA (Not taking a load out of Calexico, CA as first speculated by my ever so observant co-driver). Mary will run out of her 14 hours at 0200am so i'll be up rearing to go to get us the rest of the way for our 0400am pickup.

posted by Daryl at 18:39
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Monday, December 14, 2009
subject: 12/14/09

I ended up going to bed early last night, around 830pm, after trying to stay awake to help her navigate around the KCMO airport. That 0445am crap and not being a morning person caught up to me after all. She apparently got us there early but had to sit and wait to be loaded... all for 4k lbs and 19 packages. During that time, however, we got a preplan.... Lebanon, MO to Calexico, CA - 1579 miles. GREAT start to the week! I speculate we could be in like for over 5000 miles this week... but i'm sure I just jinxed myself.

She took us the 3.5 hour drive to Springfield, MO following the directions given to her, found the dock door, and backed in all about 2 hours early. She found, however, that apparently Springfield UPS wasn't open like KCMO UPS. I woke up about the time she got there and just couldn't fall asleep. So, while she crawled into bed I got ready for the day. Good thing too, because 30 minutes later a gentleman came out and told me he cut the seal. So, I opened the doors and we were unloaded in about 20 minutes.

I took us over to the T/A on the eastern edge of Springfield where we sat until Mary woke up. Boring, none the less with 8 hours before our pickup, but I find the internet can keep me occupied like a cat with a ball of yarn. We grabbed a shower before leaving, and arrived in Lebanon, MO around 130pm. As it turns out we probably could have been there much sooner, but we both needed a shower and suspected this run would be a fast one.

We were in and out in about 30 minutes or so and started back down I-44 west with a dispatch time of 732pm tomorrow night. Mary has been having problems since her procedure and suspects an infection. A call to her dr made them suspect the same thing, so a quick call to our FM and we were permitted to take until midnight so we could stop through home and she take care of it with a 300pm appointment. Sometimes things work out.. and thank god this one did because shes seriously starting to get sick. Anyways, company regulations requires us to pull in to the inspection bay for a quick over on the unit. Turns out there was a bent valve causing a small leak on the underside of the truck (something I would never have caught), and the trailer had a quick fix with duct tape to repair a hole in a line in between the trailer tandems (something else I would never have caught). We explained the time sensitivity to the shop foreman and he was quick in getting us in and out.. about 1.5 hours, which leaves us about 1.5 hours of leeway to get Mary to her dr. appointment. We've had worse so this shouldn't be anything too bad.

We decided that 12 hour shifts just won't do on this run and decided to do 10 hours each until we get home so we minimize our stops. With any luck tomorrow on my shift I will only have to fuel in Amarillo, TX but i'm going to try and stretch it out to the T/A in Santa Rosa, NM. I suspect Mary may have us sitting in Santa Rosa by the time I wake up at midnight:30, just in time for a refuel. We'll see how it plays out. After home we can go back on our normal schedule as we have a preplan for 0400am Thursday morning taking a load out of Calexico, CA and taking it to Fife, WA. I-5.. our favorite run.

[rant]In other news... it's friggin' cold in Joplin, MO.[/rant]

posted by Daryl at 18:17
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Sunday, December 13, 2009
subject: 12/13/09

I woke up around 445am to a dreary rainy morning. Mary was able to get us to about 50 miles inside Kentucky along I-65 before Mary crapped out and pulled off into a rest area. That left about 900 miles left of the day. I immediately took us out, bypassing the Pilot where I would have gotten hot water for our french pressed coffee. My thought was that if I stop I won't want to roll again, having only been up 4 minutes. The plan sounded solid, but after an hour of that I was in caffeine withdrawls. I guess you can't win them all. About that time we received a pre-planned load... Kansas City, MO to Springfield, MO with a pickup time of 1230am and delivery of 0630am. Only 198 miles but a good start to the week. Our concern was parking but considering we have a yard in KCMO I don't think it will be much of a problem.

Anyways, I ended up stopping about 150 miles from where I started to get the java and pressed on. Mary woke up about 4 hours later, or around 1100am and made us breakfast. Thank god... I had forgotten to eat! Shortly after, we hit up Wal-mart in Mt. Vernon, IL for our weekly rations and pressed on. I think we finally changed out about 150 miles east of Kansas City at the Pilot there where I fueled us. Mary finished the trip, getting us into Lenexa, KS around 645pm or so, dropped the trailer, and took us to get the empty. Our next pre-plan has us picking up at midnight at the KCMO airport so this should be an adventure. The directions to get to the place look like a short novel by Edgar Allan Poe. Just the way I like it, as complex and rediculous as can be! We should be rolling into Springfield, MO around 5am or so and Mary plans to call and see if we can delivery early before shutting down, but at this point who knows what will happen.

posted by Daryl at 20:14
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Saturday, December 12, 2009
subject: 12/12/09

I think I woke up around 800am or so, made coffee, and generally hung out until Mary woke up. We ended up rolling out and getting to QVC about 15 minutes early, dropped the empty trailer and picked up the next. We were in and out in about 20 minutes or so. However, thanks to our com padres who previously had this trailer and didn't get the 2 torn off mudflaps fixed, hats off to ya. In other news, after picking up the trailer we set out to find a shop so we could get the 2 torn off mudflaps on the trailer fixed, which would take some time. Our hope was that weekends would actually keep us on our delivery time of midnight on Sunday as was preplanned on us.

I suspect we set our expectations rather high when we thought we might be set to roll in at our preplanned time. We were dispatched to be in Lenexa, KS at 1000am tomorrow... giving us a 3 hour window. Now, if you know anything about freight, we most likely we not move on a Sunday. Lets not forget to mention the hordes of mountains in West Virginia that would slow us down, 2 fuel stops and any traffic and/or construction and that 3 hour window would be eaten up rather quickly..Mary called the consignee to see if they were even open and found they were but did not move freight until early Monday morning. Gravy. So, Mary called our dispatch and explained our situation, to which she got a concurrence. That was honestly a shock as most of the time we receive attitude from the weekend folks. She actually said she didn't understand why we were dispatched so fast in the first place, and even went as far to say we most likely wouldn't move until Monday anyways. Sometimes I don't understand people. I know its weekend's job to keep freight moving, but lets not run us out of hours so we have to sit and restart our hours before the holiday hometime. I guess the old saying is still prevalent... common sense isn't so common.

We got to the T/A in Ashland, VA around 1230pm, parked, and checked in with the shop. I was told it would take about 45 minutes or so to get us into the shop. No problem. We had intentions of grabbing lunch/dinner anyways so it worked out.

We strolled into the the Country Pride where I had a steak salad and Mary a turkey sandwich. The waitress was nice, but sometime during the course of our meal it became slammed... and of course she was the only one working at the time. We finished but failed to see her anywhere so we could get boxes and our check. 20 minutes later she came by, where we asked for both. 15 minutes after that we finally got our check and boxes.. and 10 minutes after that she took it. I think 5 minutes after THAT, we were finally exiting. Not that it mattered....

We strolled out to the truck and sat another 20 minutes or so, and 2 hours after I checked in, before Mary called and asked for the status. They found us a bay immediately. How convenient... or so we thought. We sat another 30 minutes before they had me back up and enter another bay. I think we sat IN the bay another 20 minutes before work started. Mary sat in the drivers seat and noticed it took about an hour to work on the passenger's side, and about 5 minutes to work on the driver's side, after which he disappeared. I think Mary threw out a conundrum of expletives after we sat for another 30 minutes thinking he would return, before I suggested we go in and check. Turns out the tech working on the truck never checked out of the job in their computer system, never told the rest of the staff he was finished, nor banged on our door to let us know he was done. I'm not going to revisit my  "I hate incompetence" rant again so you'll have to imagine what I would say here. We were rolling once they saw we were kinda pissed from the 4 hour wait.

I suspect we'll actually roll into Lenexa, KS around 800pm to make our delivery. We have been dispatched an arrival time of 900pm so that should be easy to meet now that we're actually rolling.

posted by Daryl at 17:10
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Friday, December 11, 2009
subject: 12/11/09

I woke up around midnight or so when Mary rolled into bed. I remember vaguely asking where we were and the response being "2 miles from the drop at the mall. Don't worry, there are other trucks parked here, but everywhere else is full." Our original plan was to hit every rest area and truck stop from about 40 miles out looking for a place but being the crossroads of 2 major interstates, I-81 and I-70 I didn't expect to find any open spaces.

I woke up this morning at 0400am and found she wasn't lying. In front of us was a mall, to the left a Sears auto center, and to the right Toys-R-Us. For a minute I couldn't figure out where the hell I was but with a zoom in of the GPS it didn't take long to figure out where I had to go. That combined with a "We're facing south. Go left to get out." yell from the bunk and a sticky note that said we're facing south, my keen detective skills quickly put 2 and 2 together.

I rolled over to the Pilot travel center I found yesterday on Streets & trips to grab some hot water for coffee and went over to the delivery location, which was surprisingly easy to find. Most buildings are not labeled or have a cryptic set of driveways to navigate before figuring out where we should REALLY be. This place had the address right up on top of the building. Beauty. I checked in about 45 minutes early and was told to just drop it along side the building and pick up the empty, which I found just outside of the shipping/receiving door. This came as a surprise because we were prepared for a live unload. After, I took us back over to the Pilot to await new marching orders. All in all it took a total of 20 minutes from the time I left the mall to the time I got back to the Pilot. Quickest delivery i've ever made.

I think we sat for about 2 hours before we got new orders. At first it came as just a load plan and took a bit to get the rest of the info.. but as I sat and waited the name sounded familiar. I went to the location on Streets & Trips and found a push pin in the area. Turns out we were there in August (click for post) after delivering in Sutherland, VA. We picked up a load out of the QVC there and, as I suspect once the load info came, we were picking up QVC out of there. Anyways, we were to head down to Suffolk, VA to pick up QVC products and take them to UPS in Lexena, KS, yet another place we have visted in the past. A short 1179 miles, and not picking up until tomorrow this brings our total to 3,693 miles for the week. Not by any means what I expected, but not bad considering we didn't come back until Wednesday.

Seeing we didn't have to be in Suffolk until tomorrow, 12/12 @ 1200. I opted to let Mary get her beauty sleep as there was no point in forcing her to have piss poor sleep when she does not have to drive tonight. Im due for a 34 hour restart at midnight while Mary at 0900am tomorrow so after a quick discussion we decided to roll up there and sit instead. Mary would have a 34 by the time it was her time to driver, and I would get one most likely sunday during the day provided we don't have a load... which I don't suspect will happen.

We drove I-70 to I-81 into Maryland, then I-295 through Washington D.C. to I-95 through Richmond, VA. I think the final road the last 80 miles or so was U.S. 481 to the truckstop about 5 miles away. We opted not to sit in the stop all night so grabbed a cab and took it to a, apparently, local favorite called Kelly's Tavern in downtown Suffolk, VA. A quaint little place along the lines of Bennegins but with more class. The food was phenomenal, and Mary was introduced to Guiness for the first time. A chewy beer it is but she found it quickly beat out the Blue Moon she ordered. After, we headed to the truck where  we watched some tv and she surfed the internet before we crashed for the night.

posted by Daryl at 21:30
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
subject: 12/10/09

Being from Michigan you would think I would have this cold thing down pat, but it is FRIGGIN' COLD here in the northeast! I don't know if i've become accustomed to the dry frigid winters of Colorado or if i've already become Arizonized but I can't wait to get back to the south!

I was woken up this morning in the Joplin, MO yard to a hot cup of Cream of Wheat and fresh, French-pressed, coffee. I love my wife! I was also given the news we had a pre-plan ready, taking us from St. Louis to Pocahontis, IL to grab a relay trailer and drag it out to Maryland. 719 miles is a solo load, but at this point i'll take anything so long as we don't have to sit.

I ended up taking us out while Mary went to bed. The ride up I-44 through Missery... Miser... Missouri... was rather boring to say the least. Traffic picked up about 80 miles outside of St. Louis where I encountered the usual rash of drivers who can't make up their mind to merge into my lane, the in-and-outers, and those who like to speed up and slow down. After a rash of explitives and a few minutes of Jazz I calmed right down. I hate major cities during rush hour.

We rolled into St. Louis with our destined to be destroyed trailer and was told to park it near the empties. No problemo. So, I dropped it, grabbed an empty, and headed towards our yard in Pocahontis, IL to grab the next trailer. It was an uneventful ride down I-270 to I-70 and onward to the yard. We got there in about 25 minutes, swapped, pretripped, and we were off.

Back down the 70 we went for what seemed like an eternity, until we finally stopped to shower and trade out near Dayton, OH. Remember my hate for the cold? Yeah, it was verified here. The wind damn near knocked me over walking back to the truck, pores still wide open and the wind cutting across my freshly shaven face. It was so damn cold it hurt. I beat Mary to the truck but, shortly after, found I didn't have it as bad as her; the 30 second walk literally froze her hair! It was amusing, but talk of going back to our warm, desert climate, home ensued shortly after. To quote another driver, "in related news...," we can't wait to go to our warm, desert climate, home, I hate the cold.

As of this posting, we're still cruising across I-70 towards Hagerstown, MD, where we will arrive around 0100am local time to sit out the night, and where tomorrow morning I will wake up and take us the rest of the way for our live unload. No sign of a pre-plan yet, and with our fleet manager out for the rest of the weekend I don't know if we'll actually have one before we get to the consignee tomorrow. I hate when your off missy!

posted by Daryl at 20:04
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009
subject: 12/9/09

After about 4 hours of tossing and turning and another 3 of actual sleep, Mary woke me up just shy of 0200am. We threw the rest of the crap in the truck and she headed off to bed while I took us over to the Pilot to refuel. After, I went to the yard to grab our load.

When checking in, the guy laughed at the paperwork, the stated, and I quote, "You got the pride of the fleet my friend." A nearby driver looked at the paperwork, looked at the door, then laughed and said, "I wouldn't pull that if I were paid!" Apparently, this trailer was being taken out of service and it was the oldest trailer in the company. After having driven it though it was a nice little trailer. It wasn't the traditional 53' van we normally drive but we sure turned likt it was. Instead, it was either a 40' or 48' which changed the turning radius obviously. Anyways, I hooked, pretripped, and we were off.

Our route took us up I-17 where I encountered the last of the snow and ice on the roadway, causing slippery conditions, just outside Flagstaff. I didn't fly down it like all the 4-wheelers or super truckers but took it at about 45mph. Nice and easy. I made the eastwardly turn on I-40 and found about 20 miles outside of Flagstaff, AZ it cleared up nicely and turned out to be a nice run.

I got us to the eastern side of New Mexico, at about Santa Rosa, where we refueled and Mary took over. I went to bed shortly after leaving due to severe exhaustion on the 4 hours of sleep at best, but found myself wide awake 2 hours later. Apparently I just needed a catnap. A few hours of "The Hunt for Red October" and "Law Man" on A&E and i'm ready for bed. The plan for the rest of the night is for Mary to get us to our headquarters in Joplin, MO to get a replacement lock I managed to lose on Thursday when we got home, then I'll take us the rest of the way to St. Louis. It's sure getting colder the further north we go!

posted by Daryl at 20:34
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
subject: 12/8/09

This morning was nice to sleep in since we didn't go on the board today, but it was short lived. Our fleet manager called around 0745am and asked if we minded taking a load out at 0400am. Not the preferred load by far, but we took it and avoided being docked a day off. So, it work out for the best. The plan was to grab a load out of the Con-way yard Phoenix, AZ and hoof it to the St. Louis, MO yard.

We took today to mostly go drive around and spend time together, which was nice. Then we cleaned the truck of all the crap not needed between now and the final clean out when Mary is finished driving. It wasn't much, but it did clear up a ton of room.

Then, we sat around, had a killer salad Mary made for dinner and watched the new Star Trek. Not as good as I had hoped, and the plot really didn't make sense, but the graphics were KILLER.

Now? The plan is to head to bed while Mary gets us drinking water and chill before waking me up so I can take us over and get our load. I hate getting up early!

posted by Daryl at 20:36
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Monday, December 7, 2009
subject: 12/7/09

Our original plan was to go back to work tomorrow but after a quick glance at the NOAA website we decided to sit at home instead of on the road in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunatly, we found the upper portion of Arizona, most of Utah, upper New Mexico, and most of Colorado in a winter storm warning with Flagstaff on north in a Blizzard. So, after contacting our fleet manager we decided that if we were going to sit, it might as well be at home to which she agreed. Instead, we'll be coming back Wednesday morning.

The other reason for the call was for a bit of sad news. Due to other medical appointments that must be made for Mary, and the hit or miss on being home on time, Mary decided to put in her 2 week notice with the last day being when we get home for Christmas. She plans to work part time while attending school to get her Nursing degree. I plan to stay on the road for a while longer as a solo driver. It is indeed going to suck without Mary there as solos do not move quite as much as teams, but we discussed it and the separation after our first year of marriage being squashed into a 9x6 box will be good. I still plan to get home regularly for a few days off for our time but with her being busy with school I don't think it will be as bad as I project. We finally discovered Skype, so hopefully that helps bridge the gap in lonelyness.

posted by Daryl at 19:51
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Friday, December 4, 2009
subject: 12/4/09

Someone explain something to me. How is it the President goes to a college to toute the decrease in unemployment rate when it still is not less than 10% as if that .005% is a phenomenal thing. Then he continues talking about creating jobs for Americans, which, with his current trend, tends to be helmet or hard hat wearing jobs, which traditionally are what... $9.00 to $12.00 jobs? Really? So, hes talking to people that are graduating from a college with a Bachelors degree or higher and expecting them to work for that little? Better give longer than 6 months to repay those student loans.

That aside, today was a pretty good day. We got up early and enjoyed a hot breakfast at Einstein Bros., then headed off to her appointment. I have to say I thoroughly enjoy this Dr. Even not having seen him for over a month he not only remembered us but what we did for a living, asking if we got in ok. Then, during her procedure he knew when it was going to hurt her and showed compassion for the pain and was very apologetic. If anyone lives in the Phoenix area and needs an OB/GYN recommendation let us know, we have a phenomenal one.

After, we went and finished shopping and completed the first 6 episodes of Star Trek and started the last 4 of the series in the Next Generation box set while enjoying a Colorado brew. I love hometime.

She ended up feeling crampy most of the day and ended up going to bed rather early, as expected, and we can only hope shes doing alright tomorrow.

posted by Daryl at 23:17
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
subject: 12/3/09

Nothing much to report here really. We picked up our load as Mary took us in, and I took us out. That was the LONGEST 6 hour drive home i've EVER had. The drop was quick at the yard though. I got my door assignment at the gate, and while I slid my tandems a manager came out for my paperwork... which meant one less step for me to take care of and several minutes sooner to getting home. I think I rolled into our driveway around 0945 or so when we decided to get some shopping done so we could sit the rest of the day.

Tomorrow's Mary's appointment and we're hoping all goes well. Simple procedure so it shouldn't be too bad. We plan on hitting the road on Tuesday if all is well, and we're really hoping to be off that dedicated route as we have missed out on some great miles thus far due to the holiday season!

posted by Daryl at 23:49
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
subject: 12/2/09

I'm really not a morning person, and when I wake up to the unexpected i'm REALLY not a morning person. This morning as I was getting dressed I happened to peek outside the front curtain to find ice and fog on the windshield... both not a good sign. Well, I throw open the curtain to find layers of ice on the road in Eastern Colorado. Mary gave me the weather report that chains were required over one of the passes but U.S. 6 was still open.. the route for hazmat loads so they are not taken through the Eisenhower Tunnel just before Vail pass. Yay for me!

We ended up trading out shortly after and it wound up being a long slow trek to the Pilot in Denver for a refuel. At that point I had to evaluate whether I planned on chaining or not or just parking it. A few weeks previously Mary and I chained in the sunny weather to make sure we got it right the next time it occured, and this time was slowely approaching. During practice we decided that if the chain law was only for a few miles then we would go ahead and chain, but if it was for most of the state that meant conditions were rather serious and would stop. Since the law was in effect essentially for the hills climbing out of Denver to Idaho Springs, or 19 miles, I decided to go ahead and do it. Little did I know what an adventure it was going to turn out to be.

I took us out around 0430 from the Pilot in Denver and got us to around Golden, or Colfax Rd. for our Colorado viewers. I pulled over at the designated chain station on the side of the road, gloved up, and yanked the chains out. But, instead of them coming out the way I had laid them in there so it would be easy they came out in massive balls of metal. Not a good sign. So, after taking 15 minutes to fix that mess I had the metal slung on all 4 drive tires. I roll forward 8 to 10 inches, set the brake, and find out the passenger side went under fine but the drivers side fell off. WTF!?! I opted to screw with the passenger side first obviously before I screwed it up, but that came with one of its own challenges.

Apparently, while un-balling the chains, a connector arm fell off due to a break in the links. So instead of connecting them I had to spend 5 minutes retracing my steps to find the arm, then figure out how the hell it went back on since it felt too long. Turns out the un-balling process hadn't gone as well as anticipated and I had to reconfigure some links for it to work. After a half hour I finally had 1 side down. I swear, it went more smoothly in the Arizona desert! The drivers side was finished about 20 minutes later, when I figured that I was sliding because the trailer air release valve was pulled... something I couldn't feel because of the thick gloves I was wearing. That explained why the chains kept coming off... DOH! Did I mention i'm not a morning person?

By 0530am we were off. It was slow going... taking near 1.5 hours to go the 19 miles and a slight skid on a hairpin turn, but we made it up ok. I stopped in Idaho Springs, CO, to remove the chains (which surprisingly only took 15 minutes) and kept pressing on.

Then came U.S. 6. Its not that it was bad... it was just slow moving. I think it took us near an hour to go the 20 miles. I've grown used to driving it now, but with snow and ice and knowing that brakes wouldn't do much good... and the lack of a guardrail... I was scared needless to say.

We were on the western slope of Vail Pass by about 0900 or so. Checking the Colorado weather site I found that U.S. 6 required chains by that point as did east bound Vail Pass, followed by west bound Vail Pass 20 minutes later. Thank god I pressed through that mess!

All the while I was sending detained messages which ultimately lead to them taking the pre-planned (from a week ago) Phoenix load off of us and sending us home empty and unpaid. Now, normally I would be ok with it but because we were stuck on that damn dedicated, lost 1936 miles due to the holiday while other GAINED 3000 miles for holiday freight, and only had 1 run for this week, I politely fought it asking if it was paid and explained our situation. What did I get back?

"Deadhead not on you now."

WTF does that mean? Obviously it wasn't our fleet manager as shes normally direct and to the point. So I asked,

"So, are we back on the Phoenix load? That does not tell me anything."

I got a message back from our fleet manager telling us to hold on and she would see what she could do. Not a problem. The main reason they took thsi load from us was because I suspect they thought we could be in Santa Fe Springs, CA by 0930pm to pick up the load... which is bull because we've NEVER been there before 1100pm due to the mountains in Colorado and Las Vegas Traffic, but when we started sending messages to them they then knew we wouldn't make it and took us off the load.

Well, come 3 hours later, Mary called dispatch and just told them to deadhead us because she needs to be home Thursday night to prepare for the surgery on Friday, and didn't want to risk missing the appointment all together, as they are famous for having done to us already a few times.

Another hour passes and we were put BACK on the Phoenix load. I suspect in their haste to get the load covered they removed it from us thinking they could find someone else to take it without having actually planned for it, but in the end we were the only ones that could take it. I would presume so.. we were pre-planned on it a week and a half previous. This is what I don't understand. Our load planners could have just told the company we would take it at midnight instead of 0930pm and saved a ton of headaches with rescheduling... but.. you know my saying.

We ultimately rolled into Santa Fe Springs, CA around 0015, or 15 minutes late. Mary burned rubber to get us in there! Had I spent 15 minutes less on chaining or picked up my speed a bit through there we would have made it on time. Dag nab it!

posted by Daryl at 23:47
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009
subject: 12/1/09

I have to say I thoroughly enjoy the nights I get more than 9 hours of sleep. However, 9 hours of sleep in the same position because your crammed into a twin sized bed with your spouse like sardines in a can isn't as enjoyable. I think I woke up with the worst neck ache EVER!

Anyways, I think we rolled out of bed around 700 or so and promptly strolled the 21 out of route miles over to the tire shop to get our bald steer replaced.

We were guided to the middle bay by one of the shop guys.. who promptly disappeared after. I waited about 10 minutes before I found the large painted sign pointing to a door that stated "SERVICE." Good enough for me. I walk in there and find our tech was bullshitting with another driver about something not related to tires. After seeing me he promptly apologized and asked what size. I gave off what I wrote on my hand from the tire when the desk jockey asked if I was from Con-way, to which I obviously replied yes, then gave the tech instructions and who went right to work.

I think it took about 20 minutes to change out, all the while we munched on leftover greasy Denny's. After, I went into the office as the desk jockey called roadservice. Remember that incompetence I hate? I presume the conversation went something like this...

Desk Jockey: "This is so-and-so from such-and-such place. We just replaced a steer on unit #such and such with a Michelin XXXXXX and need a PO number."

Road service (presumed): "... when did you do this?"

Desk Jockey: "About 10 minutes ago."

Road service (presumed): "And who authorized it?"

Desk Jockey: "I got a call about it yesterday and they told me the driver was going to come over today."

After this brief exchange he got the PO number and we were off. Anyways, this brief spat could have been avoided if said tech had just punched in the 5-digit truck number, took a minute from his and coffee to read the notes, and just said something like, "ah yes, here it is. Your PO is #####." But, what do I know.... I'm just a driver. Sigh.

Anyways, after we picked up our load and I drove us to Des Moines, IA where we refueled, indulged in some subway since nothing sounded good from inside our empty fridge, and Mary took us out as her shift started.

posted by Daryl at 17:47
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