A Week In Review

This Past week started out well but, went a little south after that. And I don't mean south as in direction. I've had only two loads this week and not for lack of freight, but rather, a slight tear in the inside wall of the trailer caused what should have been a two day run turn into a four day run.

The first load went off without a hitch. Pick up at shipper. Deliver to receiver. No problem. The second load however. I arrive at shipper, back into assigned dock and sit for three hours. The whole time wondering what is taking so long. I felt the dock plate go into the trailer only a few minutes after I got in the dock but, no forklift.

I was going over all the possible scenarios in my head: Did I arrive at break time, are they just drastically understaffed... Unbeknownst to me, The shipper had rejected my trailer and was on the phone with my company trying to figure out what to do next. Would have been nice if somebody had let me in on this little secret.

The trailer was rejected because an earlier forklift impact had bowed the side wall of the trailer out so far it caused the kick plate to separate and bend inward toward where the freight would be.

With my trailer being just wide enough to accommodate two pallets side by side, this particular shipper was not willing to risk their product being damaged during loading or shipment.

It's Friday. 4:30 in the afternoon. The chance of finding an open trailer repair shop... Nil. But I call my company shop anyway. Their advise. Take it to a Truckstop over 90 miles away and see if they can get it patched up enough to get by for now and they'll fix it proper next time it comes by the terminal. I told them this would probably just be a huge waste of time. This was bigger than truckstop shop damage but, they tell me to go anyway.

I drive up to the truckstop, find a mechanic and tell him what my problem is. Sight unseen, they're not sure if they can fix it or not, so two of them follow me out to my trailer. I open the back and they peered in. Instantly they both start laughing. I don't know if it was at me or that the damage was just so funny looking. They said it wasn't anything they could fix and I would have to go to a specialty trailer shop to get that kind of damage repaired.

This is the part I love. The part where I get to call my shop and say told ya so. Well past 6:30 at night nothing in the way of trailer shops is still open so they tell me to find a spot for the night and we'll try this again tomorrow.

I awoke the next morning to my cellphone ringing. It was my shop saying they had found a place that could fix the trailer. This could have waited til after 7:00 couldn't it?

A short drive and I was at the shop. The mechanic immediately climbed in and went to work. But after more than two hours, he came to the conclusion that this was bigger than he thought and he wasn't able to fix this kind of damage. He just didn't have the proper tools and such.



He presented me with two options. there was a shop a short distance away that could probably do the job, or... there is this guy he knows (there's always a guy) that does really good work and he could come there and do the work in their yard. Well I'm not the decision maker here so I passed this information along to my shop, sat back and waited for them to tell me what they wanted to do.

About an hour later I hear all this banging coming from my trailer. I go back to see what all the ruckus is. Apparently my shop decided to go with the mobile mechanic. Thanks for never calling me back. What is this keep the driver in the dark week?

Mobile Mechanic (background) and helper

Well apparently "this guy" had all the right tools. In no time they had the wall straightened, the gap closed, all the rough edges ground down and they even sealed the joint with a nice layer of caulk.

In fact they did such a nice job that if you didn't know where to look, you wouldn't be able to tell there ever was any damage.

The next day I drove the 90 miles back to the same shipper and this this time, thankfuly, passed inspection.

Mobile mechanic's truck backed up to mine for easy access to their tools

Planes, Trains and Automobiles... err Trucks

Mechanical woes almost caused me to be late today. I received this load the other day but, because i used up all my available hours on the two previous runs I had to sit on it for a day and a half before I could move. No problem. My company contacted the shipper and receiver and a new appointment was set. One that I could easily make.

That is until I went to start my truck yesterday and nothing happened. Don't know why but, this is the third time in the past two months that this has happened. The mechanics can't figure it out either. Must be one of those intermittent problems that comes and goes and just never seems to happen when they're poking around with all their electrical testers and such.

It took five hours to get the problem resolved. And now what was an easy run just turned into a pain in the backside run.

I made it but, just barely. I had use the split sleeper berth option to make it on time but, I made it. My 96% on time rate is safe.

I headed off to the nearest mom and pop truck stop about two miles away to complete the rest of the required sleeper berth time and 15 minutes after I served out the remaining time, I received another run. No rest for the weary...

Out Of Hours & Daisy May Gets A Bruise

Wow! It's been a while since I had a Chance to write. I was home for a few days and ever since I came back out I've been running 13 - 14 hours a day. It's all I can do to get out of the hot seat and fall into the bunk at the end of the day. Not that I'm complaining. I rather like when they keep me moving like that. Makes for a good payday. But too many of those days in a row gets to be a bit much at times. I'm not the spring chicken I used to be.

I ran from California to Georgia in only three and a half days, then up to Indiana, over to Illinois and finally back to Indiana. Which is where I'll be for a couple of days. I've already used up all my available hours and have to sit until they reset on Friday morning.

Kinda boring to have to sit around all day but, I'll finally get that much needed rest that has been eluding me for the past few days.






The other day Daisy May got backed into and she is not at all happy about it. Just some minor damage but, she's still upset. We were sitting in a rest area just a few miles into Arizona when pickup truck towing a U-haul trailer tried and failed at backing up.

I was just getting out of the driver's seat to head into the back for the night when the force of the impact knocked me off ballance, and back into the seat I went. I heard a loud crunching noise and thought to myself, well that can't be good.

The other driver pulled up so I could climb out and inspect the damage. We did the obliglatory exchange of insurance info and all that fun stuff, then, all the fun being over, I finally got to go to bed.

I've been running so hard this past week I haven't had time to get the step replaced. So I'll just have to be careful climbing in and out until I can.

New York, New York?

Hubby should be on his way to the receiver this morning. I just popped in to say New York? Hubby is preplanned on a trip to New York. There's no way that San Diego is on his way to the big apple and the big apple is DEFINATELY not on his way to San Diego.

Any other day and I'd say "cha ching," that's a great run....

Today, I'd like to hear that he has a little hop, skip and a jump down to say...Long Beach or Otay Mesa. I'm not picky. It just needs to head south.

Stay tuned... I'm sure there's an explanation....

Edited to add:
He's on his way to Long Beach!

Down In Flames

Up two hours before the sun this morning. Not a bad drive into the receiver. I was practically the only thing on the road for a while. I got more and more company as I got closer to Sacramento, but never really hit any traffic which was my main concern when I went to bed last night.

Unloading was a little brutal. Had to unload myself and it was hot! Usually we never touch the product. My company is of the belief that paying lumpers is less costly than paying worker's comp claims. Plus the loss of a driver for an undetermined amount of time. Unfortunately lumpers were unavailable at this stop.

In 13 months of driving, this is only the second time I've had to unload my trailer and the first time was by choice. Rather than wait nine hours til the lumpers started for the day, I unloaded my own trailer and got out of there in two.

After a real good work out I headed over to stop two. It doesn't deliver til tomorrow, but you never know Sometimes they'll take you a day early.

I could of stayed up in Sacramento and easily covered the distance to San Jose in the morning, but I want to go home, and if there's a twinkle of a chance they'll unload me today, I had to at least try.

I checked in at receiving only to be told what I already knew. It doesn't deliver until tomorrow. But... the person who has the appointment for today isn't here yet.
OK. I'm listening. They said they would wait two hours and if he wasn't here by then, they would take me instead.

Wouldn't you know it... 15 minutes before I get to back into the dock and start the unloading process, guess who shows up. Grrr.

I was already putting my seatbelt on when the guy from receiving came out to give me the bad news. Sorry, but you'll have to come back tomorrow. Shot down in flames...

Well at least it won't be too hard to find tomorrow. But it does now rule out the possibility of gettin home tomorrow. Maybe Saturday.

Homeward Bound

I rolled into California this morning. I could smell home. Not really smell home, but the sage brush and ocotillo plants. That familiar smell of southern California. Different parts of the country have their own smells. For instance, the northwest has a piney, ceder smell, the east smells like industry and Texas has a sulphur smell from all the oil wells and refineries.

It's funny. Arizona has the same basic plant and shrub make up as California. Especially western Arizona, but I didn't smell the sage brush until I crossed that state line. I guess the temperature reached that magic degree where the plants start to sweat out their oils at just the same time I crossed over the Colorado river.

I drop the first half of this two drop load tomorrow in Sacramento. Then San Jose on Friday. Maybe then the wife can stop singing to me everytime I call. Or at least change the words to "Do you know the way to San Diego?"

Hopefully my dispatcher has found something heading south from there so I can go home after stop two. Nothing more frustrating than being so close, but out of range to just deadhead home.

Well it's off to bed for me. I have to get up at o-dark-thirty to complete the remaining miles and deliver on time tomorrow. Goodnight.

Do you know the way to San Jose?

All hubby had to do was tell me that one of his drops is near San Jose and I can't keep that song out of my head. Do you know the way to San Jose?....(I'm sure there are more words, but since the song is probably almost as old as I am, those are the only words I know.) Of course since it's stuck in my head, I feel compelled to sing it to him everytime he calls home. I'm surprised he's still calls me.

I rarely log on to the SRT website to see where he is. I usually just ask him when he calls. But when he's on his way home, I check it quite frequently. Usually it goes something like this...

Texas
Texas
Texas (dang is he ever going to leave Texas?)
New Mexico, Arizona, California - boom, boom, boom.
Of course once he hits California then it's
California
California
California...

He might be in the Golden State, but he's still far from home.

Speaking of home... Hubby doesn't really complain TOO much about little delays on the road. For the most part he knows that it's just the way the industry works. There's a lot of hurry up and wait. But he has little to no patience when he's on his way home! I think it just drives him crazy to be so close to home and then have to deal with California traffic, delays at receivers and the waiting for the magic beep that means he can head home.

Knowing that, I'm kind of feeling guilty. I goofed. I forgot Josh was leaving for camp on Monday when hubby and I were going over the calendar and scheduling home time. Best case scenario, hubby will be home on Saturday. That doesn't give them much time together. And I don't even want to think about worst case scenario! I'm not thinking they would particularly enjoy waving at each other as one heads south on I-5 and the other one heads north.

Weather Woes

I didn't get very far today before the weather shut me down. A large thunderstorm was brewing over New Mexico and I was getting blown all over the road. Rather than tempt fate I decided to throw in the towel.

I pulled into a truckstop in Albuquerque only to find every other truck on the road had exactly the same idea. As I drove up and down the rows slowly working my way back and forth I was beginning to lose hope of finding a space. When there on the very back row, the very last last space, I found my spot. It was a bugger to get into, but I made look like I knew what I was doing.

Part of the reason for the severe lack of parking at this particular truckstop is they're installing IdleAire and several spaces are blocked off to accommodate the construction crews and all their equipment.

IdleAire is a unit that mounts in the passenger window of the truck much like an air conditioner mounts in a window of a house, and eliminates the need for drivers to idle their trucks to keep cool or warm. It also has Internet access, satellite t.v. and radio among other features.

I like to use it when I can find it, but with only slightly over 100 truckstops having it installed and running, it's pretty few and far between locations. And right now it exists mostly in the southern and eastern states. So if you're up north or out west you're pretty much out of luck.

More and more locations are popping up all the time, but it's a slow process. Most truckstop owners are reluctant to install it because of the loss of business during construction, the loss of about 10% of their parking spaces and the general overall lack of trust that this isn't just a passing technology that will be outdated before it ever gets off the ground. With more and more trucking companies installing APU's (Auxiliary Power Unit) on their fleets, the need for Idleaire just wont be there in a few years.

Well No sooner than I pull over and start typing the weather breaks. I'm staying put though. It will be dark soon and if I thought I had a hard time finding a parking space the first time, it's even worse when that sun goes down. Besides parking in the dark is a pain. Trucks or rather the trailers dont have back up lights on them and truckstop lighting isn't always the greatest.

Here's some links if you want to know more about APU's or IdleAire

Everything Is Bigger In Texas & #19

I pulled out of the terminal on Monday night thinking I wouldn't have to go through Texas any time soon. I was heading east to South Carolina anticipating where I would go from there. Up to the northeast? Down to Florida? I dropped off my load of roofing rubber, the kind they use for flat top commercial buildings, on Wednesday and already had a load going back to Little Rock, Arkansas on my Qual Comm before I finished unloading. This made me worried. I was going back into the Bermuda Triangle again.

I wasn't too worried though. They fixed everything didn't they? Still I had that nagging doubt. Would I get sucked in again and be stuck for three or four more days?

I drove up to Greer, SC to pick up my load and started making my way toward Little Rock.

I have an awesome dispatcher who is always looking two or three moves ahead, and while I was still two days out from my destination, she sent me a load going from Arkansas to Tennessee. The opposite direction of the Bermuda triangle.

I've been playing catch up all week. Since my truck was in the shop so long, it put me about 10 hours behind on all my pick ups and deliveries this week. Try as I may, I just wasn't able to gain any ground. There are so many variables you have no control over; weather, traffic, accidents, shippers and receivers not being ready when you arrive. I had them all and them some.

Unfortunately I wasn't going to be able to take this one. The pick up time was scheduled for two hours before the delivery time of the run I was currently on. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. Having a two day advance warning I would just speed things up a little and see if the receiver would take their load early. Usually they do. Most places I deliver don't care of you're too early, as long as your not late.

I sent my dispatcher a note to inform her that I was still playing catch up and wouldn't be able to make the pick up until the morning after the scheduled appointment time. If the shipper was ok with that, I would gladly accept the run.

She contacted the shipper and they were not at all ok with that. Moving the pick up time back inadvertently moves the delivery time back as well, and the promises they made to the receiver to have the product there by a certain time are broken.
So another driver was put on the run and there I am again sailing straight into the Triangle of Uncertainty with nothing waiting for me when I get there.

Driving like some crazed maniac, I arrived at my receiver for my 9:00 am appointment at 4:30 in the afternoon (I told you I was running behind) and just about out of hours. I really didn't want to run out of hours before getting there, so I skipped the usual breaks and drove straight through. Darn good thing I did too. They close at 4:30! Since I was there, they decided to unload me even though it was quittin' time. You could tell they wanted to go home though. They attacked my trailer with three forklifts and unloaded me in under five minutes. This has to be some kind of new record.

By the time we counted the load and had all the paperwork taken care of, it was past five and, you guessed it - the load planners have left the building. No load planners, no load and almost no hope until Monday. Unless you have something preplanned, which I did, then I didn't, getting booked on a load over the weekend is rare.

I limped over to the nearest truck stop and was pleasantly surprised to find a boat load of parking still available. I sent a message to night dispatch to let them know when I would be getting back some hours just to see if they knew I was out here. Sometimes when you complete a run right at the shift change between day and night dispatch, you fall through the cracks and can sit there until Monday, so I always like to make sure they know I'm out here, without a load, wishing I had one.

Their reply; Sorry. Nothing on the board for now. Check back after 8:00 in the morning. In other words... after they get off. So it was starting to look like a long weekend sitting in a truckstop.

The next morning came and went, and no load. As before I sent a little reminder that I'm out here. The squeaky wheel gets the grease you know. Beep! Oh look a load! That was supposed to pick up yesterday. Hmmm. I wonder why night dispatch couldn't find this last night. Oh well at least I'm not going to sit here all weekend long.

So I'm off. Off to California that is. Just in time for my scheduled home time too. Well almost. I deliver the same day I'm scheduled to be home but, I'll be over 600 miles away so, doesn't look like I'll actually make it home that day.

Well it's time to put Texas and some miles behind me today. As they say, everything is bigger in Texas, including the roads.

Oh and bird number 19 committed suicide today. Guess he couldn't read!