Terminal Time

I don't know where to begin. It's been a long and boring weekend. I awoke Friday morning to the familiar beep of the QualComm summoning my attention. It's kinda like Christmas. You hope it's something you wanted; something thoughtful, something you didn't even know you needed until you open that package. And not a tie or underwear. So what was waiting for me inside that little message box? a nice long hazmat run? Something to one of the four states I've yet to visit? Nope! Underwear...

The message said to take my empty reefer to one of our drop yards on the other side of Dallas and then head to the terminal. No explanation, just head to the terminal. Now they say curiosity killed the cat, but I had to hear this one. I fire off the (they had to be expecting this one) return message consisting of only one word, three little letters. WHY?

I could almost hear the gears grinding from 200 miles away, as if I through a wrench in the machine, it stutters, sputters and grinds to a halt.

Over an hour later they finally manage to get it going again and send a response. Your truck needs to have a pm (preventative maintenance) done. What!?!
I just had a pm done in May. What, did they forget something?

I never really enjoy going to the terminal for maintenance, especially on weekends. They only have two mechanics on duty and the wait can get pretty long. And this weekend was exceptionally long.

SRT acquired a new service manager and apparently he found quite a large maintenance backlog the former service manager was not attending to. Just like a jet aircraft, commercial trucks have to undergo routine inspections every so many thousand miles. Lucky me. My truck had just passed that magic mileage marker.

So to make this backlog go away, the new service manager put out an executive order. Any truck within 500 miles of the terminal, without a load, is to be brought in to have have all necessary work done. Only we (the drivers) are not aware of this, so like the hapless sailor we enter the Bermuda Triangle only to be sucked in and never seen again.

Three days in line before my truck even sees the inside of the shop. When I arrived Friday afternoon, I thought they were kidding when they said It would be Sunday before they would get to my truck. They weren't! It was actually Monday before it got in. Normally it wouldn't take this long, but with nearly a quarter of the fleet in the terminal, the line got to be quite long.

I don't mind spending a day or two in the terminal. They went all out building a place with the drivers in mind. We have free laundry, showers, a TV room with a huge big screen tv and a quiet room with recliners and a table or two if you want to read or surf the web. There is even a kitchen where you can wash dishes from the truck and some vending machines.

I can manage a day or two, but when that day or two rolls into three or four. I start getting restless. I don't know what it is. You can only wash your clothes, dishes, yourself and your truck so many times.

My truck was finally parolled around 9:oo Monday night and by 10:00 I was outta there! I was so excited to have wheels under my butt, I didn't even care where I was going. Now normally I don't like driving at night for so many reasons, but today, I was willing to make an exception. Besides I only had to go about 30 miles to one of our regular shippers and I could spend the night on their dirty, dusty, muddy dirt lot before heading out in the morning. As long as I'm out and about. I'm happy

Waiting On A Load

It wasn't hazmat but, it was miles. The kind I like too. Not too long and just enough time to make it from point a to point b. None of that three days to go 500 miles stuff I had been getting lately.

I arrived in Dallas late last night and spent the night outside my receiver. The Unloading process went off without a hitch this morning and again, off to the nearest T/A to have yet another tire replaced. I seem to been having a run of bad luck with trailer tires lately.

When I received this trailer from a swap earlier in the week it had a nail in one of the tires and I just didn't have enough time to get the needed repairs done due to the limited time on this run. So each morning and at least two more times throughout the day I had to air the tire back up to keep it going until I could get to a shop to have the work done.

As usual, the line was over four hours long. By the time I got in and work was completed, there were no loads to be found. All of our load planners go home at five except for one. Just in case that desperate shipper calls in the middle of the night. So it looks like I'll be spending the night in Denton.

Oh well. Guess I'll have a nice quiet evening. Maybe that hazmat load will come tomorrow...

Ok I'm Ready For Some Work Now

It's been kinda nice taking it slow and easy the past few days. But slow and easy doesn't pay the bills. I'm ready for some work now! A good and long hazmat run would be nice. Hazmat is a pain but, it pays more to compensate for all the hassle you have to go through. And that extra pay adds up quick.

I made it to my delivery two hours early and fully expected to have to wait until my appointment time to even be let in. Much to my surprise they took me right in, assigned me to a dock and started unloading me within 15 minutes of my arrival. I could get used to this.

I sat around all day so I would have enough hours left on my log book to get unloaded and still have enough hours available to go to a truck stop or rest area near by before I turn back into a pumpkin.

We have 14 hours once we start and have to complete all our driving / work within that time. Leave too early, and the clock runs out while you're still being unloaded. Then you're stranded there. Leave too late and miss your appointment. Usually having to wait a whole day or more to get a new one. Been there, done that. (see "The Load That Would Not Die")

Well I'm off to find a place to park for the night. Chances are slim I'll find anything this late but, who knows, I might get lucky.

Deja Vu And Fireflies

I spent today traveling down the exact same freeway I traveled down yesterday, only in the opposite direction. So, I experienced a lot of deja vu today. Kept having that eerie feeling I've been here before.

I couldn't ask for an easier day today. The load I received in yesterday's swap doesn't deliver until Tuesday morning and I only had 675 miles on this run to begin with. That could be done in one day, let alone two and a half. So I'm driving slow and limiting how many hours I use in case I get one of those "pick up tomorrow and has to be there yesterday" runs. Alway a good idea to have a couple of extra hours on the ole log book just in case.

One of the things I like about my job is all the things I get to see, but a little variety wouldn't hurt. I did see a rather nice sun set and moon tonight though. Something I missed being locked up in the windowless radiology department of a hospital.



I'm stopped in a rest area and while walking back from the restrooms, I noticed all these little flourescent green glowing balls of light hovering around the tree line at the edge of the parking area.


Fireflies! I don't know why these little guys facinate me, but they do. So I'm always excited when they come out and let me watch them play. I had a hard time getting them to pose for the photo, so I had to use a timed exposure to actually catch one of them in the act. Click on the pic for a better / bigger view.

Plans Change

I started my day in Marshall, Illinois and fully intended to make it to my destination of Carrollton, Texas by the day's end but, before I could even get started this morning my dispatch contacted me with new plans. Instead of taking the load to Texas, I was instructed to go to Kansas City, Missouri and swap out with a team that had been trying to get home to Dallas. Usually I dread swaps because, I always seem to get there first and slowly watch all of my available hours tick away while I sit and wait for the other half of the swap to arrive. Today it actually worked in my favor for once. The team I was swapping with arrived about three hours before me so, when I arrived the transition went quickly and I turned around and started heading right back where I just came from. Plenty of time on this one too. I wonder what happened. For several weeks now it always seems there is too little time on the run and you really have to hustle to make your appointment. But the past three loads I've been on have had an extra day or two more than what is really needed. Kinda nice to be able to stop and smell the roses for a change.



I saw this cool little bridge in the rest area where I spent the night. When I arrived it was dark and I wondered what the purpose of this bridge was. The ground was sloped enough that water would never build up here and even if it did, I just couldn't see why anyone would put a bridge there. The next morning I climbed out of my truck for a closer inspection and discovered that the Illinois Department of Transportation had relocated it from it's previous location where no one would see it and moved it to the rest area for travelers to enjoy.


Click on photo for larger view

Under A Load

In the previous post I mentioned how my company does not like to have us drive around without a trailer firmly attatched to the tractor. So I was a bit surprised yesterday morning when they told me to drive over 160 miles to pick up an empty trailer. Either that or sit around for a day or more until something closer comes along. Oh no, I'll take it. Besides bobtailing is fun.

You get so used to driving with a trailer, you feel like you're in a race car when you don't have one. You can actually Get up to freeway speed before you get on the freeway!

I'm also not allowed to drive when I go home. My son makes fun of how wide I take turns and how slow I crawl up to red lights and stop signs. My wife makes fun of how I alwas put my hand on the gear selector and step on the imaginary clutch. (our car is an automatic) What can I say? You spend all day every day driving one vehicle, you get accustomed to it. It's hard to turn that off when you drive something different for one day every five or six weeks.

I'm currently working my way from Ohio to Texas where this load delivers. Today I had to have another tire repaired or I should say replaced. There was no repairing this one. Someone had locked up the brakes long enough to grind away the tread until the threads were showing through. Weird though, the other tires on that same axle were just fine. I'll probably spend the rest of my life wondering how they did that...

Aberdeen Will Have To Wait

The load I was under had a tentative appointment for Thursday morning. Tentative because the shipper promised delivery by Thursday but, a firm appointment had not been set at the receiver yet. I was taking my sweet time getting from point a to point b because of all the extra time on this run when my company was finally able to book an appointment with the receiver. Next Tuesday! That's the best you can come up with? Well rather than sit around for an entire week baby sitting a load they directed me to one of our drop yards about 120 miles away. Unfortunately there was nothing available at the drop yard either, so off to the nearest truck stop I go.

I thought I was going to be stranded at the drop yard and wasn't really thrilled with that thought. There were no loads availabe and therfore no trailers. No trailers means you don't go anywhere. Nothing to eat or drink but vending machine food and me with only 20's.

Trucks handle differently without a trailer and are much harder to stop in an emergency. It also costs the company more money to insure because of this. So usually when you drop a trailer and don't have another to pick up, there you sit until you do.

I was quite happy when I put in a request to go over to a truck stop about 20 miles away they actually said yes. I had to send another message just to be sure they didn't read my last message the wrong way and again they said yes. Not wanting to tempt fate, off I went before they realized they made a mistake and changed their minds.

And The Judge Rules In Mom's Favor

One of the more interesting phone calls I receive from the wife or the son is where they're having a disagreement on something and they'll call me to settle it.

Just as in a real courtroom, each one presents their case, and then I make my ruling. And the judge's ruling is always final.

Today's case: Whether or not the front of the car is considered a "side"

Synopses: Wife and son go to the grocery store. While standing at the rear of the vehicle placing the purchases in the back, wife asks son where the cart rack is. Son replies it's on the other side. Wife checks both sides and doesn't see said cart rack and asks for clarification. Son says if we're on the back side of the car the "other" side would be the front.

Son goes first. His argument is the vehicle is basically a rectangle and if you were standing on the narrow side of said rectangle the "other side" would be the other narrow side.

Hmmm... Good opening argument. Lets here from the other side.

Wife's turn. True a car is basically a rectangle but, two of those four sides have commonly accepted names of front and back or rear. Leaving the remaining sides of this rectangle to be called the sides. Also a good argument.

I'll be in my chambers while I make my decision.

Judges ruling: If you were talking with some one about a car accident and they said the whole "side" of the car was crushed in you would not picture the side with the headlights, grille and bumper, you would picture the door.

Ruling in favor of Mom
Case dismissed....

Oversize Load

Gigantic Load

Late last night I pulled into this tiny little truck stop. Well it wasn't really a truck stop. Rather a motel with a large lot out back for truck parking. Which apparently every heavy hauler knows about because, the truck pictured above was one of seven rather large loads parked there. They all stop here so their pilot car drivers have somewhere to sleep. While the truck driver can always just sleep in his truck, not so comfy for the pilot car driver to do the same in their vehicle, so they have all the motels / hotels with a large enough parking area mapped out along their entire route.

When I pulled in last night I was hoping they would still be there in the morning so I could get a picture. Darkness and all the other trucks that were there made taking the picture impossible when I arrived. I couldn't have gotten far enough away to get the whole rig in frame and you wouldn't be able to see much anyway. I had to stand about a football field length away to actually get the whole thing in frame and I don't think the flash would go that far anyway.

To give you an idea how big this thing is, my truck (tractor and trailer) is 65 feet from end to end, and I could have parked next to it twice and still have ten feet left over.

I wish I could of stayed to see them pull out. I would have loved to see that thing turn the corner out of the lot on to the road.

My day went pretty well today. I made decent miles toward my destination and didn't encounter any problems along the way. Wow! I made it through a whole day without having to have anything repaired...

Another Day Another Post, Another Service Call

After reading how happy the wife was to see I'm actually using the mobile broadband she got me for my birthday in the previous post, I figured I'd better write something today.

The team I swapped with apparently doesn't check out their equipment very well. The trailer I received in yesterday's swap, of course, needed repairs. So off to the nearest T/A to have the work done. Now normally I don't let it bother me. These trailers get a lot of miles on them each year and inevitably something is going to break or just plain wear out. However, today it did bother me, because the items in question were obviously that way for a long time and a lot of people have towed that trailer around and not one of them did anything about it. Me being the stickler that I am just cannot pass the buck the way it seems all too easy for other people to do. I always wonder what the next person would think of me if I dumped a problem I should of taken care of on them.


Getting the service done took three hours out of my day which ultimately resulted in me not getting as far as I would have liked. Fortunately this run has one more day on it than I need so I should still get it there in plenty of time.

Ok. Enough negativity for one day. On the other hand I spent the day driving through Wyoming enjoying the beautiful views.

A little more windy than I would prefer, but then again, it's always windy in Wyoming, because there aren't any trees to slow the wind down. Which begs the question. Where do they get all that wood for the animal stop fences and and snow barricades?

They have these eight foot high fences on either side of the freeway with a wood post every six feet, and you know there's gotta be at least another two feet of it in the ground, so figure one ten foot post every six feet equals a lot of trees! Then there's the snow barricades (also made entirely of wood) that must be fifteen feet high and hundreds of feet long, and they're everywhere. Half the cost of that two by four you buy at your local home center is the shipping and it must of cost a pretty penny to have all that wood shipped in. Glad I don't pay taxes in Wyoming!

Woo Hoo!!! I Love Broadband!

Two new entries and I already love that broadband card. It is so fun to see pictures of where hubby is and what he's up to. He kept asking me to write down the stories he told me, but I'm not a very good "ghost writer." Now that I've seen a couple of his entries, I know there's no way I could've told the stories as well.

For example, had I told the story about the two of them playing Halo.... I would've said they spent the whole time in the living room yelling at the tv. I had no idea what they were up to. I didn't know there was a strategy. Maybe because the only time I grabbed a controller and played my son ran over me with the tank. Doesn't sound like much of a team effort to me! Oh and I did spend some time sitting on the side of the tank trying to shoot people, but I never knew which way we were going and I died every time I had to reload my gun. I think I just provide comical relief.

Well I gotta run. It's a big day around our house. It's scrapbook day. hahaha... it's my once a month scrapbook crop and since hubby isn't around to play "slave boy" I have to go load the car myself...unless I can bribe the child to help me....

A Nice Easy Day

A nice easy day today. I got up this morning and calculated the remaining miles on the run to NY and figured it was not even close to possible for a solo driver to complete it on time. I sent a message to my dispatcher letting her know the only way this run could stand a chance would be to swap it off of me and give it to a team. When I didn't receive a reply I figured she was agitated and irritated with me. Hey, I'm only capable of so much. What do you want from me? Little did I know but, at about the exact time I sent my message, a storm had knocked out the power to our terminal and they couldn't receive any messages for over two hours. When they finally got power back, there was such a back log in the system it took them another two hours to process through all the messages. I finally got my reply about five hours into my day, just before I was about to transition onto another freeway and start heading east. They agreed and directed me to continue north into Salt Lake City, Utah to Rendezvous with the team that would take this thing the rest of the way. Bonus for me too. I received a run with roughly the same amount of miles as the one I gave up and this one actually has enough time on it for me to deliver in plenty of time.

On The Road Again

Back on the road after some hometime. The past few days I spent at home with The family where we celebrated a couple of birthdays and had some fun. We went out to dinner, saw Pirates and played a lot of Halo. My son has this fixation on getting through Halo 2 on the ultra uber hard "legendary" level but, discovered it is impossible to do it alone so I was drafted to be his co-combatant. HARD AS HECK, but we had a lot of fun dying constantly. We conjured up this strategy of one of us going in to a battle and killing as many of the baddies as we could while the other would hang back in a safe area so when the first one died he would regenerate back at the safe point next to the other and not all the way back at the last check point. We switched off being the lead and actually made it pretty far into the game. Unfortunately hometime ran out and we weren't able to finish the whole game this time, but have something to look forward to next time I come home.

The coolest thing about this hometime, even though we had to celebrate a little late, was the gift my wife got me for my birthday. I got a USB antenna/broadband card so I can go on the internet from virtually anywhere, anytime. Before I was limited to buying WiFi access and the availability was hit and miss. One of those situations where it's never around when you need it. We added up how much I was spending buying WiFi at $3.99 to $4.99 for 24 hours, and then only using two or three hours. I almost never got to use the remaining time because I would end up running out of hours before I could get to another truck stop that used the same service. We turned off the internet on my phone and a couple of other things and it turned out to be about the same amount to buy the antenna and pay the monthly fee. The bonus is, I have internet when and where I need it, not just at truck stops. Isn't technology grand?

Getting back to life on the road is always a little tough after hometime and today was particularly rough. It all started a couple of days ago when my dispatcher called me at home and asked me if I was ready to go. Ready to go? I just got home! The load I was on last week didn't even deliver until the day after I was scheduled to be home, so by the time I actually got home I was two days into my hometime. So my return date should move back two days also. Well, my dispatcher is new and I guess she didn't notice this and she put me on a load going to New York. I told her I still had three days of hometime coming and I planned on taking every minute of it. So imagine my surprise this morning when I get in my truck and there is that same load, still there, glaring back at me. Now almost impossible to deliver on time. To make matters worse, this load has been sitting in our Long Beach drop yard for four days but, because no one ever took me off of it, the computer system that matches available trucks with loads didn't know it was still there. But wait. It gets better. The trailer this load is in had a bad tire that had to be repaired! Five hours in a truck stop waiting for my turn in the service bay and now we're into the ain't gonna happen end of the spectrum. I can only hope they can find a team that can take this thing off me or there is no hope of it getting there on time. Only time will tell.....