Dateline: Amarillo, TX
I just got this blog re-started, and already I've skipped a couple of days. I can see it's going to be some work on my part to make this a habit, a regular part of my day. Oh well, that's part of lifestyle change, isn't it? But let's move on from this self-flagellation, shall we?
So far I've had mixed results in my efforts to get myself to get some more exercise and eat better. I have been doing some walking every day--at least an hour each day so far--and my legs are feeling tired today in response. (The bad part about having the time to get in long walks every day is, as a truck driver, it means I'm not moving as many miles each day as I could. And since I get paid by the mile...well, you get the idea.) And I have been eating less for the most part, though I'm still not always making the healthiest of choices. But let's recap.
Friday was an all-burrito day. (And mostly a wasted day as far as the job goes. It took all day to get our pickup straightened out, so we wound up staying another night in Denver, but this time at a truck stop across the highway from the one where we started the day.) I had breakfast burrito (with eggs, cheese, sausage, green chiles, potatoes, onions, & peppers) from the truck stop where we spent the night. Boy, that was pretty tasty for a pre-made (but not frozen) burrito. I just wonder what the caloric damage was. Lunch was a chicken burrito from the Green Burrito section of a Carl's Jr. menu at another truck stop outside of Denver. For dinner I wound up back at the same Qdoba as the night before, once again ordering a chicken fajita burrito. That, of course, necessitated another good walk from the truck stop to get to it, so I'm calling that day pretty good as far as my new fitness regime goes.
Yesterday (Saturday) we finally got to hit the road again, heading south to Amarillo, TX. We stopped for breakfast en route at a small truck stop with a Wendy's, and I had a Fire Roasted Burrito and small side of seasoned breakfast potatoes. For lunch--and a late lunch at that, around 3:00--I finally broke the burrito binge and got me some wings and a salad at Amarillo's Buffalo Wild Wings location. Although that was a bit more food than I should be eating on my new plan, well, I am still weak of will at times. Besides, most of it was a SALAD! And that meal held up through the rest of the day, 'til after 10:00 when I just got too hungry to go to bed hungry. So I snagged a hot dog from the truck stop we're staying at (a Flying J). After lunch I did go for a good walk of about 3-1/2 miles, down to the famous Big Texan Steak Ranch and back, with a break there to re-hydrate a bit. Again, all-in-all not too bad of a day, though there is room for improvement.
This morning my student and I hiked back to the Big Texan for their breakfast buffet. This time I did overeat for sure: an omelet with ham, bacon, onions, green peppers, and cheese; some skillet potatoes; and a cheese enchilada. Even with the walk there and back, I hope to find some energy in my legs today to get a little bit of a run in to burn off that breakfast.
So that's where things stand at the moment. A so-so start to my new habits, but I'm pleased that I have started. I hope to keep building on my resolve and my discipline to keep it up and get back into my skinny jeans one day. I look forward to feeling light on my feet again.
Thanks for reading today. Feel free to share your stories of weight-loss successes and temporary setbacks. I hope those of us who need to shed a pound or two (or two dozen) can support each other along the way. See you on down the road.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Back on the Air
Well, I see it's been quite a while since I added a new post to this blog. Many apologies to my loyal fans, but I've found Facebook to be an easier medium for posting my daily exploits. Being a trainer with students on board with me most of the time, it's difficult to find enough quiet time to haul out my laptop and compose essays that are of the standard that you are all used to seeing from me. But now I'm thinking I'm going to resume posting here, but with a bit of a different focus.
I'm finally (I think) going to take the bull by the horns and start working on increasing my fitness and decreasing my tonnage--er, weight. As you may know by following me on FB or my previous posts here, it's very difficult to find time or space to exercise. So in the three years since I was home (and in the hospital) with pneumonia (which turned out to be an effective weight-loss method), my weight has crept up by nearly 20 pounds. So it's time to get serious about getting fit. And to help me keep focused on that, I'm going to use this space to document my efforts toward that end.
If I'm public about my intent and what I'm doing along the way, I'm more likely to "stick to the plan" than if I was going solo. You all can be my coach or training partner, whichever you prefer. I urge you to encourage me when I need a lift, and shame me when I fall off the wagon, so to speak. I'll try to be honest about what I do--or don't do--each day to get fit, both good and bad. I'll recap my physical activity and what I ate, so we can all see what I'm doing right and wrong. So let me start out here by telling you what difficulties I face out here on the road in terms of getting fit, and then I'll recount yesterday's and today's highlights and lowlights.
As I mentioned earlier, it's difficult to find time and space to work out while roaming from truck stop to truck stop. Especially when my student reaches "Phase 2" of the training program, in which we run as a team. That often means driving almost around the clock, leaving little time for exercise. But even during "Phase 1", when we do stop each night, we usually need dinner by the time we do stop. Since we often need to get going again in the morning ten hours after we stopped, that does not leave enough time to eat and digest dinner and get in a workout before getting a good night's sleep. Not to mention time for a shower and breakfast in the morning. (And don't suggest I get up and work out in the morning--my body just can't handle that. It needs to be fueled up and warmed up before powering through an effective workout.) So I'm going to have to develop--and implement--strategies for being ready to work out when we stop. Carrying healthy snacks on board will be step one.
Difficulty number two is the shower situation. Not every place we spend the night has showers available, OR I may not have "shower credits" to take one there. Drivers can earn shower credits at certain truck stop chains when they fuel up their trucks with 50 gallons or more. One credit for each fill-up of 50-plus gallons. My company authorizes us to fuel up only at certain locations of a couple of chains (Pilot Flying J and Love's), so if we spend the night at any other chain--or a "mom-and-pop" truck stop or a rest area--I can't get a free shower to freshen up after working out. And no, I ain't paying $7 to $12 for a shower at the other places. So that is a problem I have to overcome.
As for the space to work out, manymanymany truck stops are in areas that are not "pedestrian friendly". That means walking and running are just not available as a means to burn calories. I do try just circling the parking lots every now and then, but that does get old in a hurry. And don't forget that the weather is quite often a deterrent to outdoor perambulation. Many T/A and Petro travel center locations have added exercise rooms, and I applaud them for that. But as I mentioned above, they're not on our fuel network, so I can't earn any shower credits there to clean up after using their facilities. Here's a plug for the other chains to start adding exercise rooms to their facilities. So those are the major obstacles I face in getting physical activity. What about diet & nutrition?
Since I can't just park a big rig anywhere I want, I'm limited to eating what there is wherever I can park. And that usually means truck stops. They all have at least a convenience store, but their offerings are overpriced, to be sure. Most of the national chain truck stops also have fast food outlets in them, and many have full-service restaurants as well. So it's not a problem finding something to eat. The challenges for me will be to: A. Limit the amount I eat (stay away from the buffets!), and B. Select the healthier choices. I'm also going to have to develop the discipline to limit myself to only one splurge meal per week, to save myself calories AND food cost$. It's been way too easy lately to fall to the enticement of the local Mexican or Wings restaurant whenever I park at a truck stop with such establishments nearby. Most of the time I'm fine just getting a sandwich and don't really want (or need) a full meal, but I succumb anyway. It's time to put a stop to that. Now let's move on to what I've done the last two days.
Yesterday was just terrible in terms of gluttony. We stopped in Amarillo, Texas and had lunch at the famous Big Texan Steak Ranch. I had an 8-ounce sirloin (yum!) with a baked potato (butter & sour cream, of course), side salad, and roll. I was pleasantly full after that. That meal wasn't the problem in itself, though. When we stopped for the night in Walsenburg, Colorado, we ate dinner at the A&W the truck stop had inside. (Those are rare!) Don't ask me why, but I had a bacon cheddar hot dog and an order of chili cheese fries. I wasn't particularly hungry, what with having had that big lunch, but my eyes apparently did the ordering instead of my stomach. So that's what drove me over the edge to start this journey to reclaim my fitness.
After dinner, since it was a GORGEOUS night out, in Colorado, in a small town in the middle of nowhere, I decided to go for a walk up the 2-lane state highway next to the truck stop. It was a nice, straight road and had a mile marker sign ("1") that made it easy to estimate the distance. The road curved about a quarter-mile past that sign, so that was a good place to turn around and head back. So I had about a 2-1/2-mile walk in a little under an hour. (I didn't say I was going to walk fast!) It was still relatively early when I was completing the walk, so I decided to follow that up with a brief run. I changed into what defaults as my workout clothes (the shorts I sleep in and a T-shirt) and headed back up the road.
Now, since I haven't run at all in a few months, and haven't had ANY regular exercise in years, the run probably would have gone better if it hadn't been at 6000-plus feet of elevation. AND if the first half mile hadn't been uphill. AND if I hadn't had those chili cheese fries. But at least I went out there and did it. I covered probably another 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 miles in about 30 minutes, but more than half of that was walking. But at least I went out there and did it. Yay me!
Today I did a little better with the food choices--at least I ate less, anyway. Wild Grape Pop Tarts (2) and apple juice for breakfast, a Wendy's Spicy Chicken sandwich for lunch, and a Qdoba Chicken Fajita Burrito with queso and guacamole for dinner. Since we were stuck in Denver (Commerce City, actually, I think) waiting for a pickup tomorrow, I had time to go for a nice walk. It was on that walk that I found the Qdoba at a shopping center down the road. All told I walked about 1-1/4 hours. My legs aren't really sore at all after yesterday's run, so that's a positive.
OK, I've been at this for a while now, and it's about time to wrap it up. I hope to find--no, make--time each day at least to record my eating and exercise results for that day. Please chime in with your encouragement, suggestions, and admonitions as necessary. I look forward to your input as I go along. Thanks in advance for that, and thank you very much for taking some of your valuable time to read my little essay. I hope I can encourage some of you to join in the search for fitness by my efforts. Let me know about that if you do, too.
See you on down the road!
I'm finally (I think) going to take the bull by the horns and start working on increasing my fitness and decreasing my tonnage--er, weight. As you may know by following me on FB or my previous posts here, it's very difficult to find time or space to exercise. So in the three years since I was home (and in the hospital) with pneumonia (which turned out to be an effective weight-loss method), my weight has crept up by nearly 20 pounds. So it's time to get serious about getting fit. And to help me keep focused on that, I'm going to use this space to document my efforts toward that end.
If I'm public about my intent and what I'm doing along the way, I'm more likely to "stick to the plan" than if I was going solo. You all can be my coach or training partner, whichever you prefer. I urge you to encourage me when I need a lift, and shame me when I fall off the wagon, so to speak. I'll try to be honest about what I do--or don't do--each day to get fit, both good and bad. I'll recap my physical activity and what I ate, so we can all see what I'm doing right and wrong. So let me start out here by telling you what difficulties I face out here on the road in terms of getting fit, and then I'll recount yesterday's and today's highlights and lowlights.
As I mentioned earlier, it's difficult to find time and space to work out while roaming from truck stop to truck stop. Especially when my student reaches "Phase 2" of the training program, in which we run as a team. That often means driving almost around the clock, leaving little time for exercise. But even during "Phase 1", when we do stop each night, we usually need dinner by the time we do stop. Since we often need to get going again in the morning ten hours after we stopped, that does not leave enough time to eat and digest dinner and get in a workout before getting a good night's sleep. Not to mention time for a shower and breakfast in the morning. (And don't suggest I get up and work out in the morning--my body just can't handle that. It needs to be fueled up and warmed up before powering through an effective workout.) So I'm going to have to develop--and implement--strategies for being ready to work out when we stop. Carrying healthy snacks on board will be step one.
Difficulty number two is the shower situation. Not every place we spend the night has showers available, OR I may not have "shower credits" to take one there. Drivers can earn shower credits at certain truck stop chains when they fuel up their trucks with 50 gallons or more. One credit for each fill-up of 50-plus gallons. My company authorizes us to fuel up only at certain locations of a couple of chains (Pilot Flying J and Love's), so if we spend the night at any other chain--or a "mom-and-pop" truck stop or a rest area--I can't get a free shower to freshen up after working out. And no, I ain't paying $7 to $12 for a shower at the other places. So that is a problem I have to overcome.
As for the space to work out, manymanymany truck stops are in areas that are not "pedestrian friendly". That means walking and running are just not available as a means to burn calories. I do try just circling the parking lots every now and then, but that does get old in a hurry. And don't forget that the weather is quite often a deterrent to outdoor perambulation. Many T/A and Petro travel center locations have added exercise rooms, and I applaud them for that. But as I mentioned above, they're not on our fuel network, so I can't earn any shower credits there to clean up after using their facilities. Here's a plug for the other chains to start adding exercise rooms to their facilities. So those are the major obstacles I face in getting physical activity. What about diet & nutrition?
Since I can't just park a big rig anywhere I want, I'm limited to eating what there is wherever I can park. And that usually means truck stops. They all have at least a convenience store, but their offerings are overpriced, to be sure. Most of the national chain truck stops also have fast food outlets in them, and many have full-service restaurants as well. So it's not a problem finding something to eat. The challenges for me will be to: A. Limit the amount I eat (stay away from the buffets!), and B. Select the healthier choices. I'm also going to have to develop the discipline to limit myself to only one splurge meal per week, to save myself calories AND food cost$. It's been way too easy lately to fall to the enticement of the local Mexican or Wings restaurant whenever I park at a truck stop with such establishments nearby. Most of the time I'm fine just getting a sandwich and don't really want (or need) a full meal, but I succumb anyway. It's time to put a stop to that. Now let's move on to what I've done the last two days.
Yesterday was just terrible in terms of gluttony. We stopped in Amarillo, Texas and had lunch at the famous Big Texan Steak Ranch. I had an 8-ounce sirloin (yum!) with a baked potato (butter & sour cream, of course), side salad, and roll. I was pleasantly full after that. That meal wasn't the problem in itself, though. When we stopped for the night in Walsenburg, Colorado, we ate dinner at the A&W the truck stop had inside. (Those are rare!) Don't ask me why, but I had a bacon cheddar hot dog and an order of chili cheese fries. I wasn't particularly hungry, what with having had that big lunch, but my eyes apparently did the ordering instead of my stomach. So that's what drove me over the edge to start this journey to reclaim my fitness.
After dinner, since it was a GORGEOUS night out, in Colorado, in a small town in the middle of nowhere, I decided to go for a walk up the 2-lane state highway next to the truck stop. It was a nice, straight road and had a mile marker sign ("1") that made it easy to estimate the distance. The road curved about a quarter-mile past that sign, so that was a good place to turn around and head back. So I had about a 2-1/2-mile walk in a little under an hour. (I didn't say I was going to walk fast!) It was still relatively early when I was completing the walk, so I decided to follow that up with a brief run. I changed into what defaults as my workout clothes (the shorts I sleep in and a T-shirt) and headed back up the road.
Now, since I haven't run at all in a few months, and haven't had ANY regular exercise in years, the run probably would have gone better if it hadn't been at 6000-plus feet of elevation. AND if the first half mile hadn't been uphill. AND if I hadn't had those chili cheese fries. But at least I went out there and did it. I covered probably another 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 miles in about 30 minutes, but more than half of that was walking. But at least I went out there and did it. Yay me!
Today I did a little better with the food choices--at least I ate less, anyway. Wild Grape Pop Tarts (2) and apple juice for breakfast, a Wendy's Spicy Chicken sandwich for lunch, and a Qdoba Chicken Fajita Burrito with queso and guacamole for dinner. Since we were stuck in Denver (Commerce City, actually, I think) waiting for a pickup tomorrow, I had time to go for a nice walk. It was on that walk that I found the Qdoba at a shopping center down the road. All told I walked about 1-1/4 hours. My legs aren't really sore at all after yesterday's run, so that's a positive.
OK, I've been at this for a while now, and it's about time to wrap it up. I hope to find--no, make--time each day at least to record my eating and exercise results for that day. Please chime in with your encouragement, suggestions, and admonitions as necessary. I look forward to your input as I go along. Thanks in advance for that, and thank you very much for taking some of your valuable time to read my little essay. I hope I can encourage some of you to join in the search for fitness by my efforts. Let me know about that if you do, too.
See you on down the road!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Steam Release
DATELINE: GORDONSVILLE, VA
It's been well over a year now since I last posted an entry to this blog. That's mainly due to a lack of time to compose intelligent essays, and the emergence of Facebook as an outlet to keep my "fans" updated on my whereabouts and goings-on. Well, today I have some unexpected (and unwelcome) free time, and I have a rant that's too long for a Facebook post, so here I go.
Why is it that no good deed goes unpunished? And whatever happened to good karma? I'm taking steps to "help out" my current student, but they're all blowing up in my face, costing me money and keeping me away from home. Here's the scoop.
My truck's air conditioner had been inoperable for a couple of weeks when I picked up this student 3 weeks ago. Of course, the weather started getting quite warm then. Actually, it was warm for the few days I was running solo before picking him up, but I tolerated it by running with the windows down. (Full disclosure: the AC unit that runs to keep the sleeper berth cool when the truck's not running still worked, so we were still comfortable when sleeping at night. But that unit is not strong enough to cool the entire cab.) Anyway, my student found he could not tolerate the heat and road noise with the windows open. So I gave in and consented to stop at our Vandalia, OH terminal to get the thing fixed. (Get the AC fixed, NOT my student...although that wouldn't be a bad thing either.)
Now, we were on a 1200-mile load from somewhere out east (I forget where) to western Iowa and that route took us through Vandalia at about the mid-point of the run. I OK'd the stop with my Fleet Manager, and we dropped that load there while we got the truck tended to. Of course, we arrived there on a Saturday without a service appointment, so we had to wait 'til the shop there could work us into their schedule. That, of course, didn't happen 'til Monday.
To make a long story short, the shop figured out what the problem was relatively quickly, but had trouble getting the necessary parts. So we wound up with 5 days of idle time (no paying miles) and USA Truck assigned me another unit (truck). I had to catch a ride with another driver to our Chicago terminal to pick it up and haul a load back to Vandalia to pick my student back up, but at least we were rolling again.
NOW my student has determined that A) he can't sleep in a moving truck, and B) ha can't drive through the night without becoming dangerously fatigued. Well, now that we're in Phase 2 of his training--team operation--he pretty much HAS to be able to drive overnight. Or else I do. I have to be awake and on duty for our customer contacts (pick-ups and deliveries), and most of those are during the daytime. So if I have to be awake and on-duty then, I won't get any rest for the overnight drives. (Not to mention fitting all that within DOT hours-of-service regulations.)
So yesterday (my birthday, by the way), he told me that he was ready to quit because he just could not handle what was required of him. (And every other driver that goes through training, I might add.) That led to conversations with the Training Coordinator, who really didn't want him to quit, which resulted in us coming to a compromise. (Actually, it was more her forcing the compromise on us.) We'll get Dispatch to "slow us down" (read: be assigned fewer miles) so we can stop for a few hours each night so the "villain" can get some peaceful sleep. AND we'll let him drive some daytime hours (read: he drives in the day, I drive at night).
OK, so we started this new setup with yesterday's load. That was a run from Napoleon, OH to Gordonsville, VA. We picked it up yesterday morning, with my student driving as I was finishing up my required 10-hour break from my last shift. Around 10:30 a.m. I took over and headed toward VA. The load was originally scheduled for delivery at 10:00 p.m. that night, and we had a pre-planned next load out of West Point, VA at 2:00 a.m. this morning. We got the OK to hold off on that delivery 'til this morning because of the stop-for-rest thing, and I halted for the night in Mount Jackson, VA.
My student dutifully got up and rolling by 5:00 this morning and made it to the customer in Gordonsville at 7:00. This delivery was a drop-and-hook, for which we unhook the loaded trailer and leave it in their lot. We then (normally) find an empty trailer from some previous load, hook up to it, and proceed on our merry way. Today, however, the customer did not have any empty USA Truck trailers available, so we wound up having to wait for them to unload one of the several loaded ones they had in the lot. Naturally, that took over 6 hours, eating away at my student's 14-hour window in which he can drive today. (Once a driver goes on duty following a 10-hour-or-longer break, he has 14 hours in which he can drive up to 11 hours. Once he gets to that 14-hour mark, he can't drive 'til he takes another 10-hour break.)
Since the point of training is to get the student 175 hours of time behind the wheel, sitting still while the student's 14-hour clock is ticking means it'll take that much longer 'til the student completes his training requirements...AND the trainer can go back home. Aye, there's the rub.
So because of this student's inability to "suck it up", I'm stuck out here A) longer, and B) earning less. Hence my need to rant here a bit. Because of the extended period with this student, I may have to stay out on the road for about 7 weeks total since I last left home. I plan to take a week of vacation next month, coinciding with the Ann Arbor Art Fair. USA Truck's policy is for drivers to be on the road a minimum of 2 weeks each time out, so because of this student's extended training period, brought on by "his" delays, I won't be able to fit in a 2-week tour of duty if I go home immediately when he finishes up. I'll have to just stay out 'til that week I want off. (Of course, by then I'll have earned 7 days of hometime--1 day per week on the road--so I may just take that week as hometime and save the vacation week for later.)
OK, so there's my story. I hope I've explained everything clearly enough for you to understand my plight and get an insight into the wonderful world of a truck driver trainer. But at least I get paid to travel! (Right!) Thanks for looking in, and remember, as always, keep on truckin'.
It's been well over a year now since I last posted an entry to this blog. That's mainly due to a lack of time to compose intelligent essays, and the emergence of Facebook as an outlet to keep my "fans" updated on my whereabouts and goings-on. Well, today I have some unexpected (and unwelcome) free time, and I have a rant that's too long for a Facebook post, so here I go.
Why is it that no good deed goes unpunished? And whatever happened to good karma? I'm taking steps to "help out" my current student, but they're all blowing up in my face, costing me money and keeping me away from home. Here's the scoop.
My truck's air conditioner had been inoperable for a couple of weeks when I picked up this student 3 weeks ago. Of course, the weather started getting quite warm then. Actually, it was warm for the few days I was running solo before picking him up, but I tolerated it by running with the windows down. (Full disclosure: the AC unit that runs to keep the sleeper berth cool when the truck's not running still worked, so we were still comfortable when sleeping at night. But that unit is not strong enough to cool the entire cab.) Anyway, my student found he could not tolerate the heat and road noise with the windows open. So I gave in and consented to stop at our Vandalia, OH terminal to get the thing fixed. (Get the AC fixed, NOT my student...although that wouldn't be a bad thing either.)
Now, we were on a 1200-mile load from somewhere out east (I forget where) to western Iowa and that route took us through Vandalia at about the mid-point of the run. I OK'd the stop with my Fleet Manager, and we dropped that load there while we got the truck tended to. Of course, we arrived there on a Saturday without a service appointment, so we had to wait 'til the shop there could work us into their schedule. That, of course, didn't happen 'til Monday.
To make a long story short, the shop figured out what the problem was relatively quickly, but had trouble getting the necessary parts. So we wound up with 5 days of idle time (no paying miles) and USA Truck assigned me another unit (truck). I had to catch a ride with another driver to our Chicago terminal to pick it up and haul a load back to Vandalia to pick my student back up, but at least we were rolling again.
NOW my student has determined that A) he can't sleep in a moving truck, and B) ha can't drive through the night without becoming dangerously fatigued. Well, now that we're in Phase 2 of his training--team operation--he pretty much HAS to be able to drive overnight. Or else I do. I have to be awake and on duty for our customer contacts (pick-ups and deliveries), and most of those are during the daytime. So if I have to be awake and on-duty then, I won't get any rest for the overnight drives. (Not to mention fitting all that within DOT hours-of-service regulations.)
So yesterday (my birthday, by the way), he told me that he was ready to quit because he just could not handle what was required of him. (And every other driver that goes through training, I might add.) That led to conversations with the Training Coordinator, who really didn't want him to quit, which resulted in us coming to a compromise. (Actually, it was more her forcing the compromise on us.) We'll get Dispatch to "slow us down" (read: be assigned fewer miles) so we can stop for a few hours each night so the "villain" can get some peaceful sleep. AND we'll let him drive some daytime hours (read: he drives in the day, I drive at night).
OK, so we started this new setup with yesterday's load. That was a run from Napoleon, OH to Gordonsville, VA. We picked it up yesterday morning, with my student driving as I was finishing up my required 10-hour break from my last shift. Around 10:30 a.m. I took over and headed toward VA. The load was originally scheduled for delivery at 10:00 p.m. that night, and we had a pre-planned next load out of West Point, VA at 2:00 a.m. this morning. We got the OK to hold off on that delivery 'til this morning because of the stop-for-rest thing, and I halted for the night in Mount Jackson, VA.
My student dutifully got up and rolling by 5:00 this morning and made it to the customer in Gordonsville at 7:00. This delivery was a drop-and-hook, for which we unhook the loaded trailer and leave it in their lot. We then (normally) find an empty trailer from some previous load, hook up to it, and proceed on our merry way. Today, however, the customer did not have any empty USA Truck trailers available, so we wound up having to wait for them to unload one of the several loaded ones they had in the lot. Naturally, that took over 6 hours, eating away at my student's 14-hour window in which he can drive today. (Once a driver goes on duty following a 10-hour-or-longer break, he has 14 hours in which he can drive up to 11 hours. Once he gets to that 14-hour mark, he can't drive 'til he takes another 10-hour break.)
Since the point of training is to get the student 175 hours of time behind the wheel, sitting still while the student's 14-hour clock is ticking means it'll take that much longer 'til the student completes his training requirements...AND the trainer can go back home. Aye, there's the rub.
So because of this student's inability to "suck it up", I'm stuck out here A) longer, and B) earning less. Hence my need to rant here a bit. Because of the extended period with this student, I may have to stay out on the road for about 7 weeks total since I last left home. I plan to take a week of vacation next month, coinciding with the Ann Arbor Art Fair. USA Truck's policy is for drivers to be on the road a minimum of 2 weeks each time out, so because of this student's extended training period, brought on by "his" delays, I won't be able to fit in a 2-week tour of duty if I go home immediately when he finishes up. I'll have to just stay out 'til that week I want off. (Of course, by then I'll have earned 7 days of hometime--1 day per week on the road--so I may just take that week as hometime and save the vacation week for later.)
OK, so there's my story. I hope I've explained everything clearly enough for you to understand my plight and get an insight into the wonderful world of a truck driver trainer. But at least I get paid to travel! (Right!) Thanks for looking in, and remember, as always, keep on truckin'.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Completing a BIG Circle
DATELINE: BOLINGBROOK, IL, 5:45 p.m. CST
Wow! 2 more days without unwelcome developments. Well, except for not getting home on time AGAIN. But at least this time I'm not missing any specific event. Anyway, here's the skinny on my past 2 days.
Yesterday morning I got up and drove 4 hours to make my delivery in Vonore, TN, south of Knoxville. That went fine, except for a wild goose chase my Fleet Manager sent me on. He wanted me to scout the customer's yard looking for a specific trailer that he was led to believe was there. It, naturally, wasn't. After I informed him of that and he asked me to check again, and I did that and replied with the same news, he found out that it was actually at a different location. 'Twould be nice if he could get proper info to begin with before involving me.
Anyway, after that delivery (an easy drop-and-hook), I had about a 2-hour wait for my next assignment. That was to head west to LaVergne, TN, just south of Nashville, to pick up a load and haul it up here to the Chicagoland area. So the drive to LaVergne and the pickup--another D&H--also were easy. That left me just a couple hours of my daily 14-hour window to get started north and find refuge for the night. That wound up being a Pilot in Franklin, KY. I was hoping to make it a bit farther, but rush-hour traffic tie-ups in Nashville slowed me down.
This morning started early again (up at 4:00 to hit the shower) for the long drive up here. (Actually, the delivery was in Woodridge.) I'd delivered to this customer a couple of times before, so I knew it'd be another D&H and I wasn't worried about arriving early. My load assignment said the delivery appointment was 4:00 this afternoon; I arrived by 2:30. After dropping the loaded trailer where instructed and finding the lone empty USA Truck trailer in their yard, I bopped over to a non-name-brand truck stop 4 miles down the highway (I-55). By the time I got here, my 14-hour work window for the day was down to about 2-1/2 hours, so if I was going to get a new assignment for a pickup today, it'd have to come soon for me to be able to make it. Well, we're now down to under an hour left---well, whaddaya know, my assignment just now came in.
My pickup is at 7:00 tomorrow morning in Mishawaka, IN, then delivers at noon in Archbold, OH, coincidentally enough at the same company where I picked up the load down to Vonore. HOPEFULLY that'll be close enough to home that Dispatch'll just let me head home from there instead of making me (wait for and) get another load. (I was supposed to get home today.) Check back tomorrow to find out.
Well, now that I know what I'm doing next, I can leave the truck and get me some dinner. Good thing, 'cuz I'm-a getting hungry. That pretty much wraps up today's tale. Thanks for dropping by. Don't be shy; send in some comments and questions about my exciting, luxurious life out here on the road. And keep on truckin'.
Wow! 2 more days without unwelcome developments. Well, except for not getting home on time AGAIN. But at least this time I'm not missing any specific event. Anyway, here's the skinny on my past 2 days.
Yesterday morning I got up and drove 4 hours to make my delivery in Vonore, TN, south of Knoxville. That went fine, except for a wild goose chase my Fleet Manager sent me on. He wanted me to scout the customer's yard looking for a specific trailer that he was led to believe was there. It, naturally, wasn't. After I informed him of that and he asked me to check again, and I did that and replied with the same news, he found out that it was actually at a different location. 'Twould be nice if he could get proper info to begin with before involving me.
Anyway, after that delivery (an easy drop-and-hook), I had about a 2-hour wait for my next assignment. That was to head west to LaVergne, TN, just south of Nashville, to pick up a load and haul it up here to the Chicagoland area. So the drive to LaVergne and the pickup--another D&H--also were easy. That left me just a couple hours of my daily 14-hour window to get started north and find refuge for the night. That wound up being a Pilot in Franklin, KY. I was hoping to make it a bit farther, but rush-hour traffic tie-ups in Nashville slowed me down.
This morning started early again (up at 4:00 to hit the shower) for the long drive up here. (Actually, the delivery was in Woodridge.) I'd delivered to this customer a couple of times before, so I knew it'd be another D&H and I wasn't worried about arriving early. My load assignment said the delivery appointment was 4:00 this afternoon; I arrived by 2:30. After dropping the loaded trailer where instructed and finding the lone empty USA Truck trailer in their yard, I bopped over to a non-name-brand truck stop 4 miles down the highway (I-55). By the time I got here, my 14-hour work window for the day was down to about 2-1/2 hours, so if I was going to get a new assignment for a pickup today, it'd have to come soon for me to be able to make it. Well, we're now down to under an hour left---well, whaddaya know, my assignment just now came in.
My pickup is at 7:00 tomorrow morning in Mishawaka, IN, then delivers at noon in Archbold, OH, coincidentally enough at the same company where I picked up the load down to Vonore. HOPEFULLY that'll be close enough to home that Dispatch'll just let me head home from there instead of making me (wait for and) get another load. (I was supposed to get home today.) Check back tomorrow to find out.
Well, now that I know what I'm doing next, I can leave the truck and get me some dinner. Good thing, 'cuz I'm-a getting hungry. That pretty much wraps up today's tale. Thanks for dropping by. Don't be shy; send in some comments and questions about my exciting, luxurious life out here on the road. And keep on truckin'.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Beyond Belief
DATELINE: GEORGETOWN, KY, 8:20 p.m. EST
WOW! An entire day with no "surprises"! Am I dreaming? No, I'm fully awake. (Though not for much longer. Gotta get up at 4:00 come morning so I can shower up before hitting the road at 4:45.) It's quite a shock nowadays when absolutely nothing goes wrong over the course of an entire day that includes both a delivery and a pickup. So this'll be a short and boring report.
I started out at 6:45 with the quick (15-minute) drive from Beaverdam to Lima, OH. No lineup of trucks ahead of me at the delivery customer, so I got into a dock right away. And with only 7 pallets in the trailer, the unloading process was also right quick.
Back to Beaverdam to wait for my next assignment, and that came in fairly soon, too. The pickup was in Archbold, OH, up towards the northwest corner of the state, set for noon. I made the trek over there in a couple hours, arriving at 10:45. Again, I got assigned to a dock right away, despite being 75 minutes early. By noon my trailer was loaded and I was back on my way.
This load is bound for Vonore, TN, just a little ways south of Knoxville, to a company to which I've delivered 2 or 3 times before. I'd been to the pickup site once before, too, so the familiarity factor makes this whole trip that much easier. No problems en route, too, except for a little rush-hour slowdown in and around Cincinnati. But compared to other rush hours I've experienced in that town, this one was a breeze. Maybe I ought to see about buying a lottery ticket today, or rush right over for some online Poker. Nah, I'm too tired for that now.
I've stopped for the night at a Pilot down here around Georgetown. My delivery in the morning is set for 9:00, so I gotta get rolling early to get there on time. That shouldn't be a problem as long as no unforeseen circumstances rear their ugly heads.
Thanks for looking me up today. Return the favor and supply something for me to read, too (via "Comments"), please. And, as always, keep on truckin'.
WOW! An entire day with no "surprises"! Am I dreaming? No, I'm fully awake. (Though not for much longer. Gotta get up at 4:00 come morning so I can shower up before hitting the road at 4:45.) It's quite a shock nowadays when absolutely nothing goes wrong over the course of an entire day that includes both a delivery and a pickup. So this'll be a short and boring report.
I started out at 6:45 with the quick (15-minute) drive from Beaverdam to Lima, OH. No lineup of trucks ahead of me at the delivery customer, so I got into a dock right away. And with only 7 pallets in the trailer, the unloading process was also right quick.
Back to Beaverdam to wait for my next assignment, and that came in fairly soon, too. The pickup was in Archbold, OH, up towards the northwest corner of the state, set for noon. I made the trek over there in a couple hours, arriving at 10:45. Again, I got assigned to a dock right away, despite being 75 minutes early. By noon my trailer was loaded and I was back on my way.
This load is bound for Vonore, TN, just a little ways south of Knoxville, to a company to which I've delivered 2 or 3 times before. I'd been to the pickup site once before, too, so the familiarity factor makes this whole trip that much easier. No problems en route, too, except for a little rush-hour slowdown in and around Cincinnati. But compared to other rush hours I've experienced in that town, this one was a breeze. Maybe I ought to see about buying a lottery ticket today, or rush right over for some online Poker. Nah, I'm too tired for that now.
I've stopped for the night at a Pilot down here around Georgetown. My delivery in the morning is set for 9:00, so I gotta get rolling early to get there on time. That shouldn't be a problem as long as no unforeseen circumstances rear their ugly heads.
Thanks for looking me up today. Return the favor and supply something for me to read, too (via "Comments"), please. And, as always, keep on truckin'.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
And So It Goes...And Goes...And Goes...
DATELINE: BEAVERDAM, OH (Again!), 2:00 p.m. EST
Wow, has it really been 10 days since last I blogged? My, how time flies. Sorry to have left y'all with no news, but this job lately has just had a way of sapping my literary inclinations. But today I have LOTS of unexpected free time to overcome that and bang out a report. So I'd better get right to it before "the mood" settles back in.
First, though, a quick note in response to reader Heidi who wrote:
"Congratulations on the promotion! Happy to hear you're moving up in the world. - And I bet it isn't quite so lonesome having someone to talk to, is it?"
Thanks for the congrats, but it really wasn't a promotion, per se. I volunteered to become a trainer in response to posters up at the terminals promising extra pay for days with a student in my truck. Since more pay is a good (and necessary) thing, volunteering was an easy choice. And, no, it isn't quite so lonesome, but that really wasn't a problem for me before. But this truck I'm in now is quite a tight fit for 2. And what's worse than the potential loneliness is sitting in the passenger seat while the student drives. Not that I'm afraid he'll hit something, but it's just plain BO-O-O-O-O-O-O-RING! I'm not in the team driving portion of the training program, just the "Phase 1" part where I'm on duty while he's driving and vice-versa. (In teams, one sleeps while the other drives.) Anyway, back to our regularly(?) scheduled program.
Let's see, when last I wrote I was here at the Pilot in Beaverdam. Let's see, since then I (and my student) have been to Temperance (delivery) and Wyandotte (pickup), MI, Ansonia, OH (d), Moraine, OH (p), Buffalo, NY (d and a 34-hour break), Watkins Glen, NY (p), Wixom, MI (d), Woodburn, IN (p), West Memphis, AR (drop off the load and my student; pick up my next load), Louisville, KY (d), Dry Ridge, KY (aborted p), back to Louisville (p), and Lima, OH (aborted d). And my oh my has it (almost) all been frustrating.
Let's start back with the pickup in Wyandotte. There's a well-known company (not well-known for being in Wyandotte, but a nationwide company) up there that I've made pickups from 3 or 4 times in the past, but this time the pickup assignment directed us to another of the company's facilities a few miles from where I'd been before. Well to make a medium-length story short, they had sent us to the wrong facility. We actually needed to pick up our load at the one I had been to before, which is the company's central warehouse. So we ran over there and had no troubles (other than my student's unfamiliarity with setting up for and backing a big rig into a dock) picking up the load there.
The drive down and delivery in Ansonia and succeeding pickup in Moraine were unremarkable, which in retrospect given the last few days is pretty remarkable in itself. On to Buffalo where, when we arrived at the delivery, we were just about out of available driving hours. We had just enough (15 minutes, actually) to get to a nearby truck stop once the delivery was complete. Of course, the gang at HQ tried to muck things up a bit. My Fleet Manager wanted us to go pick up our next load, but I argued the point that we just couldn't legally do that. So that brought a couple other HQ personnel into the fray. Result, we just drove over to the truck stop and took our 34-hour restart break. Oh, and I didn't even mention that it took 3 hours for that delivery.
At least in Buffalo (this was on the weekend; delivery on Friday, free day on Sat.) I got my brother to come on over from his house near Rochester and take me over to the Anchor Bar for some authentic Buffalo Wings. (You DO know that the Anchor bar is where they originated, don't you?) YUMMMM! But back to our story.
Our break reached the 34-hour mark at about 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, so my student--John--and I anticipated having to start an overnight shift. We hit the sack early, then I got up at 10:00 to send in our "Back to Work" message to stimulate Dispatch to find us a load. They did after a little while (quite quickly, actually), but the pickup wasn't 'til Monday morning in Watkins Glen. So more sitting around time was in store for us. But we did get to go back to sleep for the night. On Sunday we drove over to a Pilot in Kanona, NY, a bit closer to Watkins Glen.
The W. Glen pickup was also trouble-free and relatively quick. After the day's drive we wound up in Canton, MI. The next morning we zipped up the road to the delivery in Wixom and started waiting. The company's docks (3 or 4 of 'em) were all already filled with trucks, but we were first in line, so we didn't actually have a very long wait 'til a dock opened up and we took it. However, after that we did have a long wait. Try a total of 4 or 5 hours (I forget which, and I'm too lazy to pull out my log book and look it up) from arrival time before we were unloaded. THEN we had another multi-hour wait before our next assignment came in. And THAT didn't happen 'til we gave in and drove over to Dexter, MI, which is about the closest truck stops (a TA and 2 Pilots) to Wixom. The load assignment didn't arrive 'til after we'd parked at the TA and had dinner at the Popeye's Chicken franchise inside. Next up was the pickup in Woodburn, IN, set for 6:00 the next morning. Actually, it was set for 10:30 that night, but we couldn't make it then due to the Hours of Service regulations. So we told Dispatch that and went to our bunks, to get up at 2:00 for the next work day. Little did we know what Wednesday held in store...
We did get up at 2:00 intending to get showers at the Pilot across the street before hitting the road at 2:45. Alas, we discovered that the shower credits I had on my account had expired (they do so after 5 days), so we had to do without. And so it began.
When we arrived at the pickup at about 5:35, we checked in at the guardhouse at the gate. The guard told us we'd have to wait 'til 6:20 to enter because of a shift change. And so it continued.
Once the guard opened up the gate and let us in, we proceeded to the drop yard the guard indicated so we could drop our empty trailer (we'd be picking up a loaded one). While doing that, the "yard jockey" (the guy who works there and shuttles trailers around between the docks and the yards) stopped by and asked us in the future to drop empties in the first yard (not the second, where the guard had told me to go) unless it had no available spaces. OK, not a big deal, just a minor annoyance. But it was just another thing as "it" continued.
After dropping the empty, we headed into the Shipping Office to get our paperwork. First of all, nobody was in there, so we had to wait a few minutes before someone showed. However, when we gave her the number of the trailer we were supposed to pick up and the load's pickup number, she told us that someone else had picked up the load the day before. AAAAAAAAARGH! (And so it continued). So we sent in a message to Dispatch to let them know and began to wait some more.
After a while we gave up on that wait, grabbed the empty trailer we had brought in, and headed to the small truck stop a mile or so down the road so we could have access to a rest room, food, and caffeinated beverages. Shortly thereafter we got a message back telling us to try another pickup number at the shipper. Now, the Shipping Office there had signs stating that we needed at least 2 of the following 3 bits of info: trailer number, Bill of Lading (BOL) number, and pickup number. So I sent back a message to that effect and we headed back to the shipper. By the time we got there, we had our reply: the same BOL and trailer numbers we were originally sent to get. And so it continued.
There was a line of trucks waiting to get into the facility when we re-arrived, so at least we had a few minutes to get things straightened out with Dispatch before we were at the front of the line. My Fleet manager called to get the story straight (he hadn't yet gotten to work yet when the whole thing started), and we eventually got proper data. We dropped our empty again--this time we started out in the correct drop yard, but the yard jockey (OK, "spotter" is the term most places use for that job) asked us to put it in a dock for him. Which we did with no trouble. This time everything went smoothly in the Shipping Office and we went over and hooked up our assigned trailer.
Now, this facility is one of many that require drivers to slide the trailer's tandem axles all the way back before dropping the trailer there. So the one we picked up had the tandems back and we needed to move them forward. (That's so the load's weight will be evenly distributed among the trailer's and tractor's axles and not exceeding weight limits on any axle pair.) I still don't know how or why it happened, because the trailer was absolutely locked in place in the tractor's coupling, but in trying to slide the tandems in the lot, the "Kingpin" somehow jumped out of the 5th wheel (coupling device) and the trailer fell off the back of the tractor. I've never seen that before. Just more "excitement" in that ever more wonderful day.
Anyway, it was "easy" enough to crank the trailer back up to a sufficient height (using its "landing gear" legs) to slide the yard jockey's rig under it, and then we cranked the legs the rest of the way so we could get our truck back under it.
After all that it was smooth sailing, albeit a LONG day. Well, we did have lots of rain, and especially heavy when we stopped to weigh the truck in Fort Wayne and had to get out and walk into the building. I did the driving from our 2:45 a.m. start 'til we made the scale stop. Since our goal was to get to the Van Buren, AR terminal so I could drop John off (since he'd met his requirements for Phase 1 training with me and was ready to move on to his Phase 2 trainer), we could get that far by "team driving".
I started my 10-hour required break after weighing the truck and John took over at the wheel. (By the way, the load was headed to Houston, TX, so Van Buren was on the way via one possible route from Indiana.) Early en route, before we even got to Indianapolis, I got a message to give the training coordinator a call. She let me know that I could drop John off at our West Memphis, AR terminal instead of VB, so we headed that way instead. But it still made for a long day. John actually made it all the way to West Memphis within his allotted 11 driving hours (it took him 10-1/2), so I was theoretically well-rested and ready to get a load assignment to get me back home.
When I started this tour of duty on January 21, I put in February 19 as the date I wanted to get home next. My younger daughter's 18th birthday is the 21st (today as I write this), so by asking to get home on the 19th, Dispatch would have an extra day in case they missed the target. So getting a load out of West Memphis late Wednesday night would give me a chance to get home by the weekend. However, I didn't get an assignment until around 9:00 Thursday morning. That was to grab a loaded trailer from the West Memphis yard and take it to its destination in Louisville, KY (about 1/2-way between West Memphis and home) for a 7:00 Friday morning delivery. Well, OK, that's still going according to my plan. I drove up to a Pilot just south of Louisville on Thursday. No problems to speak of.
Friday (yesterday) morning all went OK with the delivery (a drop-and-hook), except that I had to wiggle my new empty trailer out of a very tight (front-to-back, not side-to-side) spot. (That's one good thing about my new truck; it has a much tighter turning radius than my previous one...I never would have been able to squeeze out of that spot with the old one. But I digress.) Next came a little bit of a wait for my next assignment. But it was for a pickup at a company in Dry Ridge, KY (35-ish miles south of Cincinnati along I-75) that I'd been to a few times before. The load was headed for Detroit. However, the pickup time was 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. If the load wouldn't be ready early, such as when I could get there before noon, I wouldn't be able to get home or deliver the load within HOS reg's. (I don't know why the rocket scientist load coordinators can't figure these things out.) Anyway, I made the 2-hour drive up from L'ville, only to find out that the load indeed would not be ready 'til 4:00. ARRRRRRRGH!
After protesting, I got taken off that load and assigned another--back to Louisville for the pickup. Well, home for the weekend was now completely out of the picture. I'm the victim of the company's policy of "maximizing equipment utilization", i.e, making sure that some customer is paying for the miles that the trucks run. Heaven forbid that driver needs enter the picture and they allow us to drive a couple hundred miles home if no loads that way can be found. Since the yard where I park my truck while at home closes over the weekend, I gave in and re-set my requested home date 'til next Wednesday so I'll get an extra day at home. (I get 1 day--24 hours, not necessarily calendar days--for every week I'm on the road.)
But back to this load. Pickup time in Louisville was 6:00 p.m., but I arrived there at about 3:30. Yada yada, long story short, they didn't finish up loading 'til about 7:30. (And it was only 8 pallets! Far from a full load!) That left me 45 minutes of my 14 hours for the day to get to a place to park for the night. But that worked out perfectly as I got to a Pilot in Pendleton, KY.
This load is (was) set for delivery at 11:00 this morning in Lima, OH. So I dutifully got up and was on the road before 7:00 for the drive north. En route I ran into some heavy snowfall, so I had the added stress of driving through that. I reached the delivery site at 10:30, then went in to check in with Security. There the guard told me that they weren't accepting trucks today--nobody was there to unload 'em. Despite the delivery appointment on my load assignment. And so it continues.
So now I'm stuck here in Beaverdam. (At the Pilot for now; I may move over to the Flying J across the street tomorrow to do a little laundry. The washing machines and dryers at the Pilot cost $2.00 per load each! So I'll at least check out the FJ to see if they're any cheaper. And at least they have a TV lounge by the laundry machines.) Word has come down from above that I just sit here and deliver the load on Monday. So I'm getting an unplanned restart. For THIS I volunteered to stay out on the road for an extra few days? Sheesh!
So that's my latest batch of stories. Anybody wanna join the ranks of America's Truck Driving Professionals? Sorry to have been so long to add a new entry to this blog. But thanks for sticking with me and checking today. Please do send me some comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
Wow, has it really been 10 days since last I blogged? My, how time flies. Sorry to have left y'all with no news, but this job lately has just had a way of sapping my literary inclinations. But today I have LOTS of unexpected free time to overcome that and bang out a report. So I'd better get right to it before "the mood" settles back in.
First, though, a quick note in response to reader Heidi who wrote:
"Congratulations on the promotion! Happy to hear you're moving up in the world. - And I bet it isn't quite so lonesome having someone to talk to, is it?"
Thanks for the congrats, but it really wasn't a promotion, per se. I volunteered to become a trainer in response to posters up at the terminals promising extra pay for days with a student in my truck. Since more pay is a good (and necessary) thing, volunteering was an easy choice. And, no, it isn't quite so lonesome, but that really wasn't a problem for me before. But this truck I'm in now is quite a tight fit for 2. And what's worse than the potential loneliness is sitting in the passenger seat while the student drives. Not that I'm afraid he'll hit something, but it's just plain BO-O-O-O-O-O-O-RING! I'm not in the team driving portion of the training program, just the "Phase 1" part where I'm on duty while he's driving and vice-versa. (In teams, one sleeps while the other drives.) Anyway, back to our regularly(?) scheduled program.
Let's see, when last I wrote I was here at the Pilot in Beaverdam. Let's see, since then I (and my student) have been to Temperance (delivery) and Wyandotte (pickup), MI, Ansonia, OH (d), Moraine, OH (p), Buffalo, NY (d and a 34-hour break), Watkins Glen, NY (p), Wixom, MI (d), Woodburn, IN (p), West Memphis, AR (drop off the load and my student; pick up my next load), Louisville, KY (d), Dry Ridge, KY (aborted p), back to Louisville (p), and Lima, OH (aborted d). And my oh my has it (almost) all been frustrating.
Let's start back with the pickup in Wyandotte. There's a well-known company (not well-known for being in Wyandotte, but a nationwide company) up there that I've made pickups from 3 or 4 times in the past, but this time the pickup assignment directed us to another of the company's facilities a few miles from where I'd been before. Well to make a medium-length story short, they had sent us to the wrong facility. We actually needed to pick up our load at the one I had been to before, which is the company's central warehouse. So we ran over there and had no troubles (other than my student's unfamiliarity with setting up for and backing a big rig into a dock) picking up the load there.
The drive down and delivery in Ansonia and succeeding pickup in Moraine were unremarkable, which in retrospect given the last few days is pretty remarkable in itself. On to Buffalo where, when we arrived at the delivery, we were just about out of available driving hours. We had just enough (15 minutes, actually) to get to a nearby truck stop once the delivery was complete. Of course, the gang at HQ tried to muck things up a bit. My Fleet Manager wanted us to go pick up our next load, but I argued the point that we just couldn't legally do that. So that brought a couple other HQ personnel into the fray. Result, we just drove over to the truck stop and took our 34-hour restart break. Oh, and I didn't even mention that it took 3 hours for that delivery.
At least in Buffalo (this was on the weekend; delivery on Friday, free day on Sat.) I got my brother to come on over from his house near Rochester and take me over to the Anchor Bar for some authentic Buffalo Wings. (You DO know that the Anchor bar is where they originated, don't you?) YUMMMM! But back to our story.
Our break reached the 34-hour mark at about 10:00 p.m. Saturday night, so my student--John--and I anticipated having to start an overnight shift. We hit the sack early, then I got up at 10:00 to send in our "Back to Work" message to stimulate Dispatch to find us a load. They did after a little while (quite quickly, actually), but the pickup wasn't 'til Monday morning in Watkins Glen. So more sitting around time was in store for us. But we did get to go back to sleep for the night. On Sunday we drove over to a Pilot in Kanona, NY, a bit closer to Watkins Glen.
The W. Glen pickup was also trouble-free and relatively quick. After the day's drive we wound up in Canton, MI. The next morning we zipped up the road to the delivery in Wixom and started waiting. The company's docks (3 or 4 of 'em) were all already filled with trucks, but we were first in line, so we didn't actually have a very long wait 'til a dock opened up and we took it. However, after that we did have a long wait. Try a total of 4 or 5 hours (I forget which, and I'm too lazy to pull out my log book and look it up) from arrival time before we were unloaded. THEN we had another multi-hour wait before our next assignment came in. And THAT didn't happen 'til we gave in and drove over to Dexter, MI, which is about the closest truck stops (a TA and 2 Pilots) to Wixom. The load assignment didn't arrive 'til after we'd parked at the TA and had dinner at the Popeye's Chicken franchise inside. Next up was the pickup in Woodburn, IN, set for 6:00 the next morning. Actually, it was set for 10:30 that night, but we couldn't make it then due to the Hours of Service regulations. So we told Dispatch that and went to our bunks, to get up at 2:00 for the next work day. Little did we know what Wednesday held in store...
We did get up at 2:00 intending to get showers at the Pilot across the street before hitting the road at 2:45. Alas, we discovered that the shower credits I had on my account had expired (they do so after 5 days), so we had to do without. And so it began.
When we arrived at the pickup at about 5:35, we checked in at the guardhouse at the gate. The guard told us we'd have to wait 'til 6:20 to enter because of a shift change. And so it continued.
Once the guard opened up the gate and let us in, we proceeded to the drop yard the guard indicated so we could drop our empty trailer (we'd be picking up a loaded one). While doing that, the "yard jockey" (the guy who works there and shuttles trailers around between the docks and the yards) stopped by and asked us in the future to drop empties in the first yard (not the second, where the guard had told me to go) unless it had no available spaces. OK, not a big deal, just a minor annoyance. But it was just another thing as "it" continued.
After dropping the empty, we headed into the Shipping Office to get our paperwork. First of all, nobody was in there, so we had to wait a few minutes before someone showed. However, when we gave her the number of the trailer we were supposed to pick up and the load's pickup number, she told us that someone else had picked up the load the day before. AAAAAAAAARGH! (And so it continued). So we sent in a message to Dispatch to let them know and began to wait some more.
After a while we gave up on that wait, grabbed the empty trailer we had brought in, and headed to the small truck stop a mile or so down the road so we could have access to a rest room, food, and caffeinated beverages. Shortly thereafter we got a message back telling us to try another pickup number at the shipper. Now, the Shipping Office there had signs stating that we needed at least 2 of the following 3 bits of info: trailer number, Bill of Lading (BOL) number, and pickup number. So I sent back a message to that effect and we headed back to the shipper. By the time we got there, we had our reply: the same BOL and trailer numbers we were originally sent to get. And so it continued.
There was a line of trucks waiting to get into the facility when we re-arrived, so at least we had a few minutes to get things straightened out with Dispatch before we were at the front of the line. My Fleet manager called to get the story straight (he hadn't yet gotten to work yet when the whole thing started), and we eventually got proper data. We dropped our empty again--this time we started out in the correct drop yard, but the yard jockey (OK, "spotter" is the term most places use for that job) asked us to put it in a dock for him. Which we did with no trouble. This time everything went smoothly in the Shipping Office and we went over and hooked up our assigned trailer.
Now, this facility is one of many that require drivers to slide the trailer's tandem axles all the way back before dropping the trailer there. So the one we picked up had the tandems back and we needed to move them forward. (That's so the load's weight will be evenly distributed among the trailer's and tractor's axles and not exceeding weight limits on any axle pair.) I still don't know how or why it happened, because the trailer was absolutely locked in place in the tractor's coupling, but in trying to slide the tandems in the lot, the "Kingpin" somehow jumped out of the 5th wheel (coupling device) and the trailer fell off the back of the tractor. I've never seen that before. Just more "excitement" in that ever more wonderful day.
Anyway, it was "easy" enough to crank the trailer back up to a sufficient height (using its "landing gear" legs) to slide the yard jockey's rig under it, and then we cranked the legs the rest of the way so we could get our truck back under it.
After all that it was smooth sailing, albeit a LONG day. Well, we did have lots of rain, and especially heavy when we stopped to weigh the truck in Fort Wayne and had to get out and walk into the building. I did the driving from our 2:45 a.m. start 'til we made the scale stop. Since our goal was to get to the Van Buren, AR terminal so I could drop John off (since he'd met his requirements for Phase 1 training with me and was ready to move on to his Phase 2 trainer), we could get that far by "team driving".
I started my 10-hour required break after weighing the truck and John took over at the wheel. (By the way, the load was headed to Houston, TX, so Van Buren was on the way via one possible route from Indiana.) Early en route, before we even got to Indianapolis, I got a message to give the training coordinator a call. She let me know that I could drop John off at our West Memphis, AR terminal instead of VB, so we headed that way instead. But it still made for a long day. John actually made it all the way to West Memphis within his allotted 11 driving hours (it took him 10-1/2), so I was theoretically well-rested and ready to get a load assignment to get me back home.
When I started this tour of duty on January 21, I put in February 19 as the date I wanted to get home next. My younger daughter's 18th birthday is the 21st (today as I write this), so by asking to get home on the 19th, Dispatch would have an extra day in case they missed the target. So getting a load out of West Memphis late Wednesday night would give me a chance to get home by the weekend. However, I didn't get an assignment until around 9:00 Thursday morning. That was to grab a loaded trailer from the West Memphis yard and take it to its destination in Louisville, KY (about 1/2-way between West Memphis and home) for a 7:00 Friday morning delivery. Well, OK, that's still going according to my plan. I drove up to a Pilot just south of Louisville on Thursday. No problems to speak of.
Friday (yesterday) morning all went OK with the delivery (a drop-and-hook), except that I had to wiggle my new empty trailer out of a very tight (front-to-back, not side-to-side) spot. (That's one good thing about my new truck; it has a much tighter turning radius than my previous one...I never would have been able to squeeze out of that spot with the old one. But I digress.) Next came a little bit of a wait for my next assignment. But it was for a pickup at a company in Dry Ridge, KY (35-ish miles south of Cincinnati along I-75) that I'd been to a few times before. The load was headed for Detroit. However, the pickup time was 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. If the load wouldn't be ready early, such as when I could get there before noon, I wouldn't be able to get home or deliver the load within HOS reg's. (I don't know why the rocket scientist load coordinators can't figure these things out.) Anyway, I made the 2-hour drive up from L'ville, only to find out that the load indeed would not be ready 'til 4:00. ARRRRRRRGH!
After protesting, I got taken off that load and assigned another--back to Louisville for the pickup. Well, home for the weekend was now completely out of the picture. I'm the victim of the company's policy of "maximizing equipment utilization", i.e, making sure that some customer is paying for the miles that the trucks run. Heaven forbid that driver needs enter the picture and they allow us to drive a couple hundred miles home if no loads that way can be found. Since the yard where I park my truck while at home closes over the weekend, I gave in and re-set my requested home date 'til next Wednesday so I'll get an extra day at home. (I get 1 day--24 hours, not necessarily calendar days--for every week I'm on the road.)
But back to this load. Pickup time in Louisville was 6:00 p.m., but I arrived there at about 3:30. Yada yada, long story short, they didn't finish up loading 'til about 7:30. (And it was only 8 pallets! Far from a full load!) That left me 45 minutes of my 14 hours for the day to get to a place to park for the night. But that worked out perfectly as I got to a Pilot in Pendleton, KY.
This load is (was) set for delivery at 11:00 this morning in Lima, OH. So I dutifully got up and was on the road before 7:00 for the drive north. En route I ran into some heavy snowfall, so I had the added stress of driving through that. I reached the delivery site at 10:30, then went in to check in with Security. There the guard told me that they weren't accepting trucks today--nobody was there to unload 'em. Despite the delivery appointment on my load assignment. And so it continues.
So now I'm stuck here in Beaverdam. (At the Pilot for now; I may move over to the Flying J across the street tomorrow to do a little laundry. The washing machines and dryers at the Pilot cost $2.00 per load each! So I'll at least check out the FJ to see if they're any cheaper. And at least they have a TV lounge by the laundry machines.) Word has come down from above that I just sit here and deliver the load on Monday. So I'm getting an unplanned restart. For THIS I volunteered to stay out on the road for an extra few days? Sheesh!
So that's my latest batch of stories. Anybody wanna join the ranks of America's Truck Driving Professionals? Sorry to have been so long to add a new entry to this blog. But thanks for sticking with me and checking today. Please do send me some comments and questions, and keep on truckin'.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Rain? Up North? In EARLY FEBRUARY?
DATELINE: BEAVERDAM, OH, 7:45 p.m. EST
Rain, rain, go away, come again...in smaller quantities, please. Man, rain all day; much of the time quite heavy. And it even started late yesterday afternoon! Fortunately it let up almost completely when it was time to get out of the truck to deliver our load (in Temperance, MI) this morning and pick up our next (in Wyandotte, MI) this afternoon. But we're still roaming around in damp clothes this evening.
Anyway, we started out at 5:00 this morning from Walton, KY, where we had reached after an all-day drive from Commerce, GA. Well, along the way yesterday we did stop by Piedmont, SC to pick up that load we took to Temperance. And we had a chance to swing by our Spartanburg, SC terminal so John (my student/trainee/apprentice) could check out those digs (not to mention learn how to get to it when he's on the road in his own truck). But the driving went fine today, despite the weather. I drove the first 3 hours, then let John take over. I need to get him 50 hours behind the wheel during the 7-to-10 days he's in my clutches--er, capable hands.
By the way, I've coined a new phrase that'll soon sweep the English-speaking world (with your help, by the way). It's, "Fluster Bomb": that which happens inside your head when unexpected/unwelcome circumstances cause you to lose your focus, concentration, and normal capabilities. As in, "After that fluster bomb, I just couldn't remember how to tie my shoelaces." Whaddaya think? Is it the next big, overused piece of jargon to enter the lexicon?
But back to trucking stuff. We're taking our current load to Ansonia, OH, where we're due to deliver it at noon. But we're checking on the possibility of delivering it a bit earlier, since it is a short trip. We're spending the night at the Pilot here in Beaverdam, and it sure has gotten windy down here. The truck's really swaying to-and-fro from the "breeze".
Well, it has been a long few days, and I haven't been able to get quite enough sleep, so it's time for me to wrap this up and hit the sack. Thanks for your loyal readership. Please add "loyal comment submitter" as well, and keep on truckin'.
Rain, rain, go away, come again...in smaller quantities, please. Man, rain all day; much of the time quite heavy. And it even started late yesterday afternoon! Fortunately it let up almost completely when it was time to get out of the truck to deliver our load (in Temperance, MI) this morning and pick up our next (in Wyandotte, MI) this afternoon. But we're still roaming around in damp clothes this evening.
Anyway, we started out at 5:00 this morning from Walton, KY, where we had reached after an all-day drive from Commerce, GA. Well, along the way yesterday we did stop by Piedmont, SC to pick up that load we took to Temperance. And we had a chance to swing by our Spartanburg, SC terminal so John (my student/trainee/apprentice) could check out those digs (not to mention learn how to get to it when he's on the road in his own truck). But the driving went fine today, despite the weather. I drove the first 3 hours, then let John take over. I need to get him 50 hours behind the wheel during the 7-to-10 days he's in my clutches--er, capable hands.
By the way, I've coined a new phrase that'll soon sweep the English-speaking world (with your help, by the way). It's, "Fluster Bomb": that which happens inside your head when unexpected/unwelcome circumstances cause you to lose your focus, concentration, and normal capabilities. As in, "After that fluster bomb, I just couldn't remember how to tie my shoelaces." Whaddaya think? Is it the next big, overused piece of jargon to enter the lexicon?
But back to trucking stuff. We're taking our current load to Ansonia, OH, where we're due to deliver it at noon. But we're checking on the possibility of delivering it a bit earlier, since it is a short trip. We're spending the night at the Pilot here in Beaverdam, and it sure has gotten windy down here. The truck's really swaying to-and-fro from the "breeze".
Well, it has been a long few days, and I haven't been able to get quite enough sleep, so it's time for me to wrap this up and hit the sack. Thanks for your loyal readership. Please add "loyal comment submitter" as well, and keep on truckin'.
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