Lease Purchase Journal

New Website!

2009-12-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

I've been working on transitioning my blogs from Google's Blogger to my own website and today begins the switch. I have copied over all 947 blog entries from this blog and my last one, added some new features and rolled it all up into the New And Improved:

OTRjournal.com

Going forward, all new posts will show up at the new site so change over your bookmarks and any inbound links you may have on your own blogs or websites. Thanks!

Truck and Trailer sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

2009-12-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

In the three years I have been driving, the most 18-wheelers I have seen wrecked or in a ditch in a single day was four: on my very first day of driving on December 1, 2006 between Joplin, Missouri and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This was the day after a horrendous ice storm blew through, causing a lot of misery along the I-44 corridor.

This morning I saw four wrecked semis in the first fifteen minutes of driving from Walcott, Iowa where I was forced to stop yesterday. I snapped pictures using my hand held so I could concentrate on the road so some of the shots are blurry and I missed at least half a dozen. I didn't even bother attempting to snap pics of the wrecked 4-wheelers; there were at least 150 between Walcott and Des Moines.

Speaking of Des Moines, the rest areas just to the east had no fewer than four separate semis off the road, two on each side. Remind me to avoid that place in the future.

Here's the truck and trailer in a tree (kinda):

(That isn't a UFO to the left of the scene, by the way: it is a chip in my windshield)

Here's not one but two bedbugger vans in the median, next to each other:

A Hill Bros driver even got into the spirit of things, parking his truck in the middle where there was lots of room:

Will His Airness ever forgive the driver for parking a load of His cologne in the median?

The full album can be viewed here.

I had two scares of my own today. The first was an idiot 4-wheeler who lunged in front of my truck, then slowed down not once, not twice but three times before I left him behind. How he managed to be one of the lucky few not in a ditch is beyond me.

The second scare I got was in the western half of Iowa. This morning I checked the reefer tank and it was about half full, down a bit more than a quarter over night. They are notoriously inaccurate so I try to check on it each time I pull over and when I got into a rest area west of Des Moines I saw it was under a quarter tank. Worse, a few minutes later the repeater light on the left front of the trailer went from a white "T", indicating normal function, to an amber "K", meaning something is wrong. Fortunately, this trailer was equipped with a low fuel sensor and it didn't simply stop when it was out, it gave me a warning.

I had enough time to pull into a nearby truck stop and fill up the tank; keeping fishies alive at 76 degrees when its 5 degrees outside uses up quite a bit of fuel, it seems.

Oh, I also got to use my truck as an impromptu snow plow for the first time. The very first rest area west of Des Moines had the truck side blocked with several trucks and a repair vehicle so I carefully drove to the car side. There were no cars there since it hadn't been plowed and I must have (gingerly) pushed my way through a football field length of 18-24 inch snow. I didn't even dare stop to take care of business, as I was concerned about getting stuck.

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This load was originally set to deliver this morning at 0300. At one point they rescheduled it for tomorrow morning at 0300, but as the day wore on they saw the logic of dropping the load off at 1600 instead and a few hours after that I was empty and headed over to a local truck stop where I sit this evening.

For once I am letting my truck idle overnight instead of using my TriPac. The forecast has it down to -5 or so overnight and even though it shares the same coolant system as my truck does to keep the engine slightly warm, this is a bit much.

Dog kennels and boxing equipment

2009-12-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

You might think that those items have little in common, and you would be right. Somehow, the people at Kennel-Aire in Ottawa, Kansas and Everlast Sports (the guys who make all kinds of boxing equipment) both needed to get some of their products to the Elwood, Illinois Walmart distribution center and a broker knitted together the result into a load for me. The timing was poor since I was supposed to load before I was even dispatched and by the time I made it to Moberly the Everlast folks had already split for the day (insert joke about not lasting here), everything ended up just fine as I made the original appointment time in Elwood.

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While I was being unloaded I got my new preplan: deadhead over to Ottawa, Illinois to pick up a trailer heading to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for 0300 Thursday morning.

What could go wrong with that?

Up, up and a weigh: conclusion

2009-12-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

When the Soviets built and launched their rockets from the Baikonur Cosmodrome they designed them to be built and maneuvered level with the ground, then hoisted into place before launch. Imagining these huge rockets being gently raised up made a connection in my mind as I delivered my load of spuds this morning in Topeka, Kansas:

As you can see in this picture, I backed my trailer on to this special lift, disconnected then pulled forward at which time the operator did his thing and 30 tons of trailer and spuds lifted skyward.

(For those of you reefer operators out there, no that isn't the deflector from the inside of my reefer; it belonged to the truck before me who managed to leave without even checking inside).

Several hours after completing my assignment I was ordered to nearby Ottawa, Kansas via Kansas City where I needed to get my (very dirty) trailer washed out. From there it was on to Moberly, Missouri to pick up the second half of a load heading to Walmart in Elwood, Illinois that I will deliver tomorrow afternoon.

First Ice of '09

2009-12-07T04:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I awoke to find a thin blanket of snow covering my truck and the parking lot of the Flying J in Limon, Colorado.

The air is so dry this time of year there is a lot of static cling, leading to what I refer to as moguls on the back of the cat as her fur bunches up:

The trip distance was a manageable 460 miles from Limon to Topeka, Kansas, almost due east. Most of the ride was along roads with a small amount of blowing snow and a lot of freezing rain -- so much so I had to stop at almost every rest area in Kansas to knock off accumulated ice from my headlights and windshield.

I was told by the broker that my delivery appointment was set at 1800 and I arrived 30 minutes early. The receiving clerk looked up the load number on his list and it showed my appointment seven hours earlier at 1100. Receiving clerk wins argument and I retreat to parking lot to phone broker. Broker swears up and down that it is really 1800 and I wish her good luck convincing the clerk inside that he's wrong. She suggests I offer a $20 "tip" to get unloaded sooner, I suggest she stops taking whatever drugs she's on. The usual trucker game.

Year Two, Second Quarter Results (September 09 to December 09)

2009-12-06T17:39:00.000-08:00

This past week was the 18-month mark in my lease-purchase with Hill Bros. As before, I'm going to be comparing numbers from each quarter this year with the corresponding numbers from last year, with the previous year in parenthesis.

Paid miles for this quarter were 31,025 (33,355) and total miles driven were 34,300 (35,583), resulting in an OOR (Out-Of-Route) of 10.56% (6.68%). Those extra hundreds of miles OOR going home that I recently complained about contributed here.

I purchased 11,244 (15,723) in fuel and received 7,639 (12,145) in FSC, for an adjusted fuel expense of 3,605 (3,578). Divided by miles run shows 10.51 (10.06) CPM for fuel this quarter.

Average paid miles driven per week rose to 2,387 (2,566) compared to last quarter and my weekly net income rose to 1,274 (1,127). Per-mile revenue rebounded to 1.26 (1.33).

I'm starting to track my net CPM each quarter. My goal is to pay myself at least 50 CPM and last quarter it was 48.95. This quarter it is 53.38 CPM.

Net Pay By Week:

14: 1225
15: 1646
16: 518
17: 1993
18: 1799
19: 934
20: 1091
21: 1521
22: 1088
23: 629
24: 1544
25: 1326
26: 1246

Analysis and Goals

I took a lot of extra home time this quarter, mostly because I bought a house in August and have someplace nice to spend my home time! My overall money goal for this year was to make as much income as last year and also take a week off. I spent almost six days at the house over Thanksgiving and a handful of weekends I've been taking a third day off so the extra home time has been seen to.

My goal of 1,200 per week net income was surpassed even with all the extra home time, so I'm going to shoot for 1,300 next quarter. This will put me on a trajectory below that of last year, income-wise, but I'm hoping for the price of diesel to start rising and to figure out a way to keep a lid on those OOR miles to make up the difference. I suppose I could work harder, but where is the fun in that?

A Dead reefer, a plasma cannon, planning and reprogramming

2009-12-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

So I wake up an hour or so before my alarm is due to go off and two hours before the appointment time to be loaded. It is quiet... too quiet. My APU is running but I don't hear the reefer. I pull back the curtain a smidge (it is freaking cold out and the front half of the cab almost has icicles) and peer at my driver's side mirror. In it I can see the activity/alarm repeater on the front left corner of the reefer and it is blinking green and orange in rapid succession. Oy vey.

I toss some random clothes on and slip my feet into my frozen shoes and try to open my door. Then I put some beefcake into it, 'cause the door is frozen shut. That works and shortly I'm outside at the altitude of 8,000 feet or so and -5 degrees or so trying simultaneously to gulp air like a guppy out of water and hold my breath because the air I'm inhaling is killing my lungs. Such happy circumstances we drivers get to enjoy.

The display on the side of the reefer tells me it failed to start. How informative. I clear the alarm codes and it tries again, but after some starter noises come and go the screen tells me it failed to start. A failure that early in the morning must be some kind of record.

I tell the shipping people my reefer has a problem. I tell our night dispatch the reefer has a problem. I tell my dispatcher the reefer has a problem. Heck, I even told our shop people the reefer has a problem. I'm told to expect to head up to Denver (the closest ThermoKing shop, and in fact the only one in the state) to drop off the trailer and grab a different one. I'm told I might just be headed to FedEx in Colorado Springs to swap out then come back. I'm told a bit of Diesel 911 additive might do the trick.

I'm told all manner of things but eventually it is decided that the spud folks will put this plasma cannon thing in the back of the trailer and warm it up for a while, then load me up. This thing is a 155,000 BTU heater thing that looks like it was appropriated from a band of Klingons and it is h-h-hot. Meanwhile, some of the ranch hands with diesel skills take a look at the reefer and eventually conclude its dead, Jim. Wow, two Star Trek references in one paragraph.

They have a movable conveyor belt system that efficiently takes tons of spuds at one end and tosses them into the back of a trailer on the other. An operator guides it back and forth as a handful of his colleagues watch the potatoes go by and pick out the damaged ones.

After what they think is enough are in place in my trailer I head over to their scale and weigh each axle. It seems everything is fine though I'm only at 76,000 pounds so they ask if I want any more. Me? Hell no. The broker and thus my company? Of course! Since loads of this sort are paid by the pound delivered it is most efficient for a pasty-skinned geek behind a computer someplace to, um, encourage drivers to take as much as possible.

They say they'll put on a couple thousand more pounds. It somehow turns out that I weigh in at 79,250, so those last spuds must have been bulking up or something.

By this time it is just past noon and it has been more than four hours since I started complaining to everyone that would listen or receive my satellite transmissions that my reefer is broken. Dead. Won't start. My last directive was to head to Denver to have the TK guys fix it, then continue to Topeka, Kansas to deliver. Being the obedient type, I agree and head up to Denver.

I arrive around 1700 local time to find a very closed ThermoKing dealer. They don't even work weekends, it would appear. By this point it is about 18 degrees out and even with the insulation in the trailer the spuds will freeze if we can't get the reefer running.

I call our night dispatch and leave a message. I call our shop and leave a message. I call the ThermoKing number they have listed on their door and get told to have my dispatcher call them to authorize the after-hours work. I call our HQ again and get a mild tongue lashing from the solitary night guy who is up to his neck in problems like mine.

It boggles my mind that after everything that went on no one bothered to tell ThermoKing I was on my way.

After 30 minutes or so a mechanic showed up and had me back the trailer into a bay. I detached to give him room and he set about doing whatever it is they do. Within twenty minutes he had the unit up and running and diagnosed the primary problem as old software that preventing the unit from starting. He showed me on the display where the unit thought it had run 1.6 MILLION hours and decided it was tits up and on strike. Another thirty minutes and the software is updated (and various filters and lines cleaned out), the unit is running fine and I'm on my way.

Up, up and a weigh

2009-12-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

(Trucker humor - bear with me)

It was early afternoon yesterday before I regained consciousness. The latest plan had rolled in on the satellite which is probably what woke me. I'm to head north to the southwestern part of Colorado to the tiny hamlet of Monte Vista where 20+ tons of spuds await my tender mercies along their path to Topeka, Kansas.

Most of the driving to this gem of the wilderness took place along narrow state highways. Much of the trip was spent climbing, too, and there was a decent amount of snow on the ground for about 20 miles. Any truck driver can tell you this is a barrel of laughs when you are empty.

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I followed the directions sent via satellite and as I was making my final turn just 2.5 miles from the shipper I saw a lot of flashing lights, cop cars, tow trucks and what appeared to be a broke down semi. Not having a dog in that fight I went on my way and shortly thereafter pulled into the shipper's parking lot.

After angling towards the edge of the lot to park out of the way I shut my truck down and pulled the curtain separating the front and back sections of my cab. I was just about to start on some dinner when a light "tap tap tap" noise came from up front. Curious.

A lady in a bulky coat was standing outside my cab and she asked if I was there for a load in the morning. I confirmed this was the case and she asked me if I wanted to make a quick hundred bucks.

Now, don't get me wrong, I was a bit flattered for about two seconds. I might not be much to look at now but I've got good genes. Sadly, she mentioned that it was one of their trucks that was involved in the accident I saw and if I be able to help them transfer the palletized spuds back to their warehouse they would happily compensate me for my time.

As I was preparing to move my rig to help out she and some other workers had a big pow-wow and decided that it wouldn't be any easier than the way they were doing it already (with a small flatbed truck), so I finished wiping away the tears and headed off to bed.

In part 2 of our narrative (coming tomorrow) I'll explain the dead reefer, the plasma cannon, the lack of planning and ultimate redemption found reprogramming a refrigerator.

You must be hallucinating

2009-12-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

The FedEx folks in Phoenix were 1.5 hours late getting the trailer ready so I was up against my delivery deadline pretty much from the git-go. At least they entered it as their fault in the computer system, something that doesn't normally happen even when it is their fault.

At least the load was only 18,500 pounds so climbing up I-17 wasn't much of a hassle.

About halfway I had to take a 30 minute power nap to keep my energy up. I really could have used another one as I was nearing Albuquerque but my GPS showed me arriving right at 0600, the delivery time so I didn't have another minute to spare.

As I was coming up on the Route 66 casino about 15 miles west of town I could have swore I saw a big rig backing on to the freeway from the right, completely perpendicular and hauling an enormous boat of some sort. I squinted and stabbed the brakes to give myself some time but after a few more seconds the scene resolved itself and I had mistaken a freeway sign hanging over the road as the rig. Yes, I was very tired and very bleary eyed and yes, I wish I had pulled off to take another 30 before then and screw the delivery time. After that, the immense adrenaline rush was enough to keep me awake and aware the final few miles in to Albuquerque.

715 freaking miles

2009-12-03T17:44:00.001-08:00

Yeah that is a long drive. I got rolling as early as I could then headed to Phoenix, mostly without stopping. Arrived around 2200 hours local time to drop the trailer then off to bed for me.

I turned down another preplan I was given. The idea was that I would rest all of today then pick up a FedEx load tonight heading to Albuquerque for an 0600 delivery. I don't dislike night runs, in general, but switching from day to night and back again is hell on my body.

Of course, there is no one else who can possibly cover this load so eventually I agreed to it. I'm currently at the FedEx place awaiting a 2000 departure. Freaking protestant work ethic.

The long, long road

2009-12-02T06:36:00.001-08:00

My dispatcher worked out a swap with another driver needing to get back to Texas (the lord bless such folk) and after a dint of hard work and perseverance which included no fewer than eight trailer swaps over the past two days, I'm on a load from Crete, Nebraska to Phoenix, Arizona.

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I had to use up every driving hour possible to get as far as possible yesterday so I can make my delivery by 2300 tonight in Phoenix. I warned my dispatcher that unless everything went right yesterday I would end up 60-90 miles north of Phoenix and out of hours to run the rest without a break.

Today's journey is 720 miles, made possible by the 70 and 75 MPH speed limits in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. I don't like running that fast as a general rule, but the trip is good and I want to make the deadline.

Three Year Mark

2009-12-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

December 1, 2006 was my first day on a commercial truck back when I worked for CFI. This week also happens to be the halfway point between my time spent as a company driver (roughly 18 months) and now as a lease-purchase operator (the past 18 months).

The Alternative

2009-11-30T22:22:00.000-08:00

There wasn't another preplan ready for me by the time I got back to the truck this morning which was a little worrisome. Within a few hours I was swapping my empty reefer trailer for an empty van that another driver brought by and on my way up to Kansas City for a Sam's Club load heading to Lincoln, Nebraska.

Along the way I was told to grab an empty reefer from the dock at Sam's Club then take it up to the Cargill plant in Schuyler, Nebraska and exchange that for a loaded trailer heading to Dallas and Houston for delivery three day's hence.

"Do I have a kick me -- Texas sign on my back?" I sent in.

We were short of trucks tonight and needed someone to step up to pick up the load to keep the Cargill folks happy. Why they would care precisely when a trailer leaves their lot so long as it reaches its destination on time is beyond my ken.

Anyway, my parade was rained on when I arrived in Lincoln as there was only one other van trailer on the dock. I phoned in to night dispatch who even told me the trailer number of the reefer that should have been there, but I eventually convinced them it was just me and two empty vans. The trip up to Schuyler was bobtail.

I check in at the Cargill guard shack only to find that this load they are so worried about us taking off of their hands hasn't even been loaded yet. That was way beyond my ken and I took off to the truck stop down the street where I will stay until early tomorrow morning to pick up the load.

Six days off and a turn down

2009-11-29T07:12:00.000-08:00

Wow that was a nice little vacation. Batteries are recharged and I'm ready to begin again.

Only, not with the preplan that was passed by me on Saturday. It would have had me wait around until 1500 on Monday to get live loaded in Carthage, MO then run all night to make an 0600 delivery in Lufkin, Texas on Tuesday. Ah hell no, in other words.

(E)mail bag #2

2009-11-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

What kind of truck do you drive?

I drive a white 2007 Volvo 780 tractor with a 2006 Volvo D12 engine and a 13-speed manual transmission. The truck was built in October of 2006 and sat at a dealer lot until June of 2008 when I started driving it. It started with 1,337 miles on the odometer and as of this writing has just over 210,000.

The things I love about my Volvo include its very tight turning radius, huge and well-organized interior (the lower berth converts into a table with two seats like an RV), the largest refrigerator of any non-custom truck and a very, very fuel efficient engine and aerodynamic combination which gives me great fuel economy.

How do you calculate fuel economy?

The only way to truly determine fuel economy is to take the actual fuel expense (what you pay at the pump) and divide it by the miles driven. Since there is always some amount left in the tanks from week-to-week, you need to do this over time, such as a month or a quarter.

Since I am paid the fuel surcharge amount determined by the Department of Energy each week for every mile I'm dispatched, I also include that in the calculation:

(Fuel expense - FSC) / Miles driven = Adjusted fuel cost

Purists could note that I lump together my company discount at the pump into the fuel expense, and they would be correct. Its just that I'm too lazy to break it out and it doesn't effect my end cost as calculated.

How can you stand driving at 60 MPH?

It was real easy for me once I did the numbers and decided how I would make money in this profession.

The only large variable expenses you have as an owner-operator are your pay and the money you spend on fuel. In order to maximize my pay, I have to reduce my fuel expense. Think of it like a teeter-totter: the more you pay for fuel, the less you pay yourself and vice versa.

One of the checks I make of my progress is to determine what my CPM pay is. As a company driver, I think it is reasonable to expect somewhere in the low 40's per mile with the right company and experience. Since I take on additional risk and work as an independent, my goal is to consistently achieve over 50 CPM net pay after all truck expenses (excluding my personal taxes and the costs of vacation time, health care and the like that company drivers enjoy). With 133,303 paid miles in my first year my net was $67,740, which is a 50.8 CPM.

I achieved this with an adjusted fuel expense of 11.73 CPM. If my fuel expense was just 20 CPM (which is a truck getting 6 MPG with zero out-of-route miles and zero idle time), my net pay would be merely 42 CPM, or what I could expect to make with much less exposure as a company driver.

That's why I drive 60.

Sleeping with da fishes

2009-11-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

After spending a restful night ghetto parked in an odd spot in Rochelle I took my load in to one of the three Sara Lee places we deliver at in town. You know, the one on the bills.

Naturally, they weren't having any of that and sent me and another HB driver down the street to location #2. There, the guard says we can't drop those trailers on his lot without the people at location #1 signing off on our paperwork first. We both pull a u-turn in their lot and head back up the street to the first place.

Nope, minimum-wage security guard is wrong and we can damn well drop the trailer over there comes the answer from the helpful clerk at location #1. They have someone phone over to the guard and straighten him out and by the time we have returned to location #2 and wait through a long line of trucks we're given clearance to drop in their yard.

There aren't any empties so I cruise over to location #3 and snag the only one there (sorry, fellow HB driver!) then wait a few hours for my next assignment.

I'm told to take my empty reefer down to the PetSmart DC in Ottawa, Illinois and swap it for a trailer full of live fish heading to distributors in Memphis, Tennessee and Little Rock, Arkansas. The schedule is tight and I have to arrive in Memphis in time to take my 10-hour break, unload at 0500 then be in Little Rock by 0900. I really wanted to take a shower along the way but I didn't have enough time and though there are not one but two Pilot truck stops within a mile of my first stop I dare not stop there (the ones in Memphis are a very bad place to park).

Right at 0500 the first receiver is ready to go and by 0530 I'm rolling to Little Rock. By 0930 the last of the fishies are off and that load is in the books.

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There are many things I like about the way Hill Bros operates. I like the number of pre-plans that show up, for instance. I like the accuracy with which they send me home when I ask: I tell my dispatcher a week or two in advance when I want to be home and almost without fail I'm there that day or the day after.

One thing I do not like about the operation here is how they get owner-ops home. Here, they do not pay mileage from the last drop you make to the house so where you are ~~stranded~~ dispatched last makes a big difference. Much of last year my last load would leave me in Carthage, Missouri, roughly 50 miles from the house and I felt this was reasonable.

The last three times I've come home I have had to deadhead (on my own dime) 175 - 210 miles. Since it costs me about 75 cents per mile to operate my truck this translates into more than $400 out of my pocket to come home three times. I was told last year in orientation that they would strive to get owners to within 100 miles of the house before sending them home. My repeated complaints by phone and satellite unit to my dispatcher haven't resulted in a resolution to this issue and I suppose I will have to take it up with Ross, head of operations when I get back to Omaha next.

Sara Lee to Illy

2009-11-23T05:40:00.000-08:00

Late yesterday morning the weekend dispatch crew told me to head a couple miles east in Omaha to a bakery to pick up a load heading to Rochelle, Illinois for Sara Lee.

Having been to this facility once before, I innocently asked if they wanted me to bobtail over or if I needed to bring a trailer. The docks are fairly difficult to back into (you have to block the street in front for several minutes to get the truck oriented properly) and I was relieved to hear that they had enough trailers over there already and I could bobtail.

HB had four loads of goodies heading to Rochelle, all identical. The order number that I was given happened to be the last one on the list for the plant, and I was told they were taking product straight from the production line for each trailer. Not having anything better to do I made lunch, watched some videos and took a snooze.

Around 1400 the shipping clerk came out and knocked on my door. "The driver for this load hasn't shown up yet so back under trailer ##### and you can take it." Sweet!

The load was just over 25,000 pounds so no need to scale and I was shortly on my way fighting a brutal headwind from the East. About seven hours later I arrived at our fueling stop in Rochelle to spend the night, since our receiver doesn't take trailers early on Sundays but will this morning.

On Tandems

2009-11-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

I got running around 0700 this morning, heading north to Fort Collins. At the guard shack I parked my truck (after scaling) next to a CFI truck and opened up the rear to show them it was nice and clean. The guard then asked if I could help the CFI driver with her tandems since they were old and rusty. Sure, no problemo.

I grabbed my new STA-RAT bar thinking this would be a great time to test it out for the first time, forgetting that almost every CFI trailer uses a vertical tandem bar that it can't help with. Ah well. A small dint of effort (and my right forearm banged up against the underside of the trailer -- I had forgotten how fun that was at CFI) and the tandems decided I was the boss and did their part.

After chatting with the lady driver for a few minutes I left to drop my empty and pick up the loaded trailer. Since the trailer number was 7118, I knew it would be old and crusty as well, as our oldest trailers begin with "71". This gave me the opportunity I had been looking for to try out the STA-RAT bar and it worked as advertised. Yay team.

There was quite a bit of room in the rear of the trailer so my first concern was it was loaded too heavily at the nose end and I might have to have them rework it. I slid the tandems all the way up to try to get as much weight to the rear as I could then blocked off the load with a couple of my load bars.

Damn I'm good and damn I'm lucky, as the 44,500 pound load put my drives at 34,060 with the tandems all the way forward.

I only made one stop between there and Omaha, and that was in Big Springs, Nebraska where I had another steak at the Sam Bass Saloon located next to the Bossleman Pilot there. Mmmm mmm good.

Since this load doesn't deliver until Monday morning I've t-called it here in the yard. I'm going to chat up the morning planner tomorrow to see if I can get an out-and-back load or loads tomorrow so I can deliver it and get my new (brand new) load locks back.

"That's like choosing between Hep C and Syphilis, dude!"

2009-11-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

The word this morning from On High was that I would be grabbing a load of spuds from Colorado and taking it to San Antonio, Texas for a Monday morning delivery. Three full days for 900ish miles with a set appointment at a grocery warehouse.

My helpful dispatcher messaged me: "Would you like to run it all the way or t-call it in Dallas?"

I shot back: "That's like choosing between Hep C and Syphilis, dude!"

The load was given to some other lucky customer and I was asked to take the empty reefer I picked up last night at FedEx over to nearby Fort Morgan, Colorado and drop it there at a Cargill meatpacking plant then bobtail back to FedEx and grab another empty.

A new plan popped up. This one had me picking up a loaded trailer from the Bud plant in Fort Collins, Colorado on Sunday morning and delivering it in Council Bluffs, Iowa first thing Monday morning. Since this is Friday and I wasn't really feeling like waiting for the entire weekend for this load I put in a call to Alex, my dispatcher.

It turns out this load is ready to go early and if I can't make it there by the time they stop receiving tomorrow I can just drop it in our yard in Omaha and a local driver will take it over first thing Monday morning. That sounds much better.

Another FedEx run

2009-11-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

I cracked an eyelid after 1100 yesterday morning, having slept late because of the hour I got in on that Emporia load. On the plus side, I found a small gas/diesel stop a couple blocks from the Tyson plant that I've driven by at least a dozen times without realizing they had truck parking there and it was a lot quieter than the Flying J at the other end of town.

Today's orders are to head over to Wichita and pick up a load leaving at 1500 bound for Henderson, Colorado by 0100 tomorrow morning. Its right at 600 miles for the day which is a solid bit of driving.

Only FedEx has its own ideas about what 1500 means. In their playbook they start loading a trailer around then and I actually leave an hour later, at 1600. This puts me an hour behind which is all time cushion anyway, but I would have at least liked to be able to taken a longer break to eat, get a power nap or the like. Not like they care about my creature comforts.

The drive was boring and profitable. I cruised down the long stretches of highway at 60 MPH and made the mistake of believing our dispatch when they told me Colby, Kansas was the cheapest fuel I would get along my route. It was eight cents a gallon cheaper in Denver and I definitely would have driven a couple miles extra to save that kind of money. Ah well.

I arrived and swapped trailers in Henderson by about 0030 local time then hit the sack along a fairly quiet street in front of FedEx.

Team drivers?

2009-11-19T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hill Brothers is about 95-98% solo drivers. When I was in Omaha a few days ago I did notice they were hiring teams for some new semi-dedicated FedEx runs between Salt Lake City and Chicago. Semi-dedicated meaning the teams would run that route a few times a week with other loads from either end of that route to keep them moving.

If you and your team driver have hazmat and a couple year's experience you might want to give Erin in recruiting a jingle at 800-258-4456 for more information.

Midnight versus 2 AM

2009-11-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

Since I knew that yesterday I would have to run all the way to Emporia, I left Denver and headed up the highway an hour or so to a rest area at Wiggins, Colorado. This gave me fewer miles to drive for my Kansas load.

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I've run this trip before. We regularly take meat from a Tyson plant in Lexington, Nebraska and shuttle it down to Emporia, Kansas to yet another Tyson plant. The problem usually comes on the shipping end where they don't have the load ready until mid evening and still expect you to deliver by 0230 in Emporia.

For some reason I was sleepy after a couple hours of driving and stopped in Big Springs, Nebraska to take a power nap. Then, for some inexplicable reason I spent the next couple hours watching video and basically being lazy and that bit me in the butt.

DING! Goes the satellite unit: "Your load is ready now on trailer 579124."

FUDGE! I was still two hours away and it was about 1615 so by the time I get there, get checked in and swap trailers I will be leaving the shipper around 1900, putting me in Emporia around 0200. If I had just kept going after my power nap I would have arrived when the load was ready and would have arrived in Emporia at midnight.

Fuming at my own laziness I drove to Lexington, swapped trailers then headed to Wood River, Nebraska to top off the reefer. Driving non-stop from then took me right to 0200 when I dropped off the trailer in Emporia.

The late-late show

2009-11-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

Ah, the evening routine. It was last night around 8 PM and I was relaxing in my truck, basking in the warmth of my bunk heater and taking care of some chores. The cat was snoozing away (in her castoff cardboard box bottom scavenged from a case of bottled water; her $30 fuzzy cat bed lays unused now), the dirty clothes neatly bagged up, the floor vacuumed.

I had just polished off a nice salad and was in the process of getting ready for bed.

BEEP! I wish I could turn that satellite unit off sometimes.

"Can you run to Ames, Iowa and bring back a load tonight?" This was shortly followed up by a phone call from one of the night dispatchers, my old fleet dispatcher Ross. We went back and forth over the details and I eventually acquiesced.

As I got dressed my log nagged at the back of my head then I remembered. I arrived yesterday morning with only 2.25 hours left in my book and I picked up nothing today. At midnight I would get 7.5 hours back to run with but this would mean this little side trip would scotch my 34-hour restart and force me to sit all tomorrow after I delivered the load. This would be a cluster of the first order so I walked over to dispatch and braced the monster in his lair.

So, late this morning I was put on a FedEx relay from our yard in Omaha to Henderson, Colorado. It was a nice 525-mile run due in tonight and I had a couple hours to spare. One of those hours was burned up waiting for a small trailer repair then I was hooked up and on my way.

The fuel plan for the trip had me filling the tanks at our yard at $2.56 a gallon. Since I get a daily preview of the next day's fuel prices I knew (from yesterday's report) that fuel in Denver was six cents cheaper but at midnight local time it would rise by about six cents. Therefore, after I finished the FedEx festivities I dropped down into Denver and filled my tanks. I also swapped out my locking fuel caps for the regular kind as winter is upon us and enough ice and other gunk makes its way inside the locks to be quite a pain.

Along the way to Henderson I was preplanned with a long deadhead out to Lexington, Nebraska for tomorrow to deliver a load late tomorrow night to Emporia, Kansas.

Numbers

2009-11-16T14:32:00.001-08:00

After Rochelle I was given a preplan to run from Monee, Illinois to Omaha, Nebraska. The timing was just about perfect to use up the rest of my 70 hour clock and will allow me a 34-hour reset in Omaha as an added bonus.

The pickup in Monee was a complete pain in the rear. Imagine a stack of fifty or seventy Bills of Lading and a booklet of preprinted labels you need to peel off and attach to each and every page. Bleh.

At least the load was light. On the way west to Omaha my MPG rose from 8.0 where it was when I arrived in Monee up to 8.2, then 8.3, then back to 8.2, then back up to 8.3. Something for a driver to watch as he goes down the road, I guess.

Anyway, by the time I arrived in Omaha and dropped off my trailer this is what it looked like:

8.4 MPG, yay.

Today I've been taking care of some maintenance items, including:

New coolant filter
Two new cab air filters
A leaky seal in my air pressure system
A full PM for the truck

I also replaced the original left steer tire, which gave me 207,700 miles of service during its time on my truck. I calculate this tire traveled 1.095 BILLION feet in the past 17 months, without complaint. My four drive tires continue to impress with between 7/32 and 10/32nds of an inch tread remaining and should all surpass the distance from the Earth to the moon (approximately 250,000 miles) before they are replaced. Think about that for a moment.

In addition, the tire guys did a 3-axle alignment and corrected a couple minor issues there.

To top everything else off, I got new blank comchecks, seals, got my logs up to date and finally purchased a pin puller called a STA-RAT that helps with balky tandems.

No, I really have trailer 579107 in my mirror

2009-11-14T22:24:00.000-08:00

So I get to the Pilot in East St Louis, Illinois this morning and swap (heavily) loaded trailers with my trucking counterpart. We exchange paperwork and make some small talk then head off to the scales then back to the open road.

As part of this process we also use our satellite units to indicate we've made a switch and we each enter information from the paperwork so the system knows we've got the right paperwork for the right trailer. Only, my dispatcher is sure I have trailer 589860 on board and a simple glance at either of my side mirrors confirms that I have trailer 579107 in tow behind me. Paradox, again.

I send off a message telling him I'm sure that is the trailer behind me and go about my business. Four hours later I arrive in Rochelle, Illinois where I drop said trailer at the consignee and by this time my dispatcher has gone home. Soon after I punch in the proper codes into the system the weekend dispatcher sends a message asking what happened to trailer 589860.

I almost didn't respond but eventually I typed out another message and even phoned in to make sure they were reading it left-to-right instead of the reverse. My simple question: "Is there no way to ask the system what truck currently has trailer 589860 hooked up to it?"

"Nope."

My lord.

Then I'm told that the system says there are three trailers at this consignee that have been there for a week without any further updates. Having just left said consignee bobtail because there are no empty trailers I think our trailer tracking system is full of poo poo.

Free at last, free at last...

2009-11-13T15:18:00.000-08:00

Thank God almighty, I'm free of this Pilgrim's Pride load at last!

To finish up I had to depart Washington Court House, Ohio at 0400 which was kind of a bitch. I wanted to get through Dayton, Ohio before traffic got bad but I was a bit tired and sleepy afterward so I pulled in to a rest area and took a thirty minute power nap. A few hours later I was in Novi, Michigan offloading 10 tons of chicken products for the Little Caesar's pizza people.

A few hours and 100ish miles later I was in downtown Lake Odessa, Michigan trying and failing to find the right tiny side street to take for my next load. It sucks when the address of a place doesn't put you on a street that actually goes to that address and it took someone explaining to me exactly how to get there before I found it.

Two more hours and 22 tons of frozen veggies later, I'm back on the road. In the meantime my load has been shortened to a swap with another driver in East St Louis, Illinois tomorrow so he can take it the rest of the way to Oklahoma then go home for some time off. His load is headed up to Rochelle, Illinois and I should just be able to get it there before my hours run out.

Tonight I'm holed up at a Flying J in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

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Take these wing ding things... please

2009-11-12T19:24:00.001-08:00

Up bright and early and on the road after a brief chat with the driver who parked next to me. He told me he was coming west last night and was stopped for three solid hours around mile marker 150 while the police were in clearing a very nasty multiple fatality wreck out of the way. By the time I got to mile marker 151 this morning they were still in the process of cleaning everything up, including the trailer of a semi that looked like an accordion.

Our people and the Walmart people weren't able to come to an agreement as to when I should show up with the load until late in the day, but eventually I got a satellite message that I'd be worked in so long as I got there by 1900 local time. At that point I was 130 miles out with about 2.5 hours remaining, but Cincinnati, Ohio yet to go, and it would mean running through there at rush hour. Or, as it turns out, crawling through there.

I did the best I could, even hitting 65 and 70 along the way where possible. Still, by the time the last traffic jam faded behind me in the suburbs I was 45 miles out and only had 35 minutes or so until 1900. I rolled up to the guard shack at Walmart at 1905 and hustled the paperwork inside.

Despite the assurance of a late work in via satellite I was told in no uncertain terms the load would have to get another appointment made. I took down the name and phone number of the boss person there and texted it to HQ while I parked nearby. About 30 minutes later I was called by one of our CSRs and she's on a conference call with whoever needed to be massaged ever so gently. Shortly thereafter I was told to boogie back to Walmart and there would be a message left at the gate in my favor.

A few hours later I'm beat and back on the street, minus six pallets of "wing dings." I kid you not.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be another humdinger with another late delivery to finish this load up in Michigan and a new preplan heading to Oklahoma.

Providence

2009-11-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

This morning our people got together with their people and did... well, whatever those people do with each other. Lets just say it isn't pretty.

Anyway, I was eventually offered a few choices. The first choice was to stay put and continue with this load, though the rest might not be loaded until 2300 hours or later. The second choice was a short 250ish mile run in the Texas area. The third choice was one of those live load runs from Irving, Texas to Springfield, Missouri that loaded at 1500.

After careful thought I decided to stay put on the current load. I thought it likely I could get worked in before 2300 and the other loads would require me to first drag my partially-loaded trailer to the far side of Dallas to our yard, then find an empty, then go run one of the other loads. Sounded like a lot less work my way, was the thinking.

Before I could even get on the "work in" list I had to pony up a $60 ~~extortion~~ "work in fee." Funny how another company screws up and I get to hold the bag for a while to get it fixed.

By late morning I was backed into a door and after about an hour's wait the six (yes, six) pallets that this load was missing were hoisted aboard and I got a call to come to the office for the paperwork. Right at high noon I departed, heading east towards Little Rock, Arkansas. Aside from a couple quick stops to take the Browns to the Superbowl and drop off some trip packs I didn't stop driving until I got to Tennessee.

My first attempt to find a place to park was at the oddly-designed Pilot at exit 47. There were a set of three parking spaces, all blind backs that I considered briefly then discarded. I know I could make it into one of them just fine but the problem would come in a few hours when two other tired drivers would attempt the same feat only with less space and a better chance of my truck being hit.

I continued down the road, missing an opportunity to park at a Huddle House at exit 56 (I didn't see if the lot had any free space until I was past the turnoff). My next chance would be around mile marker 73, so I thought, at the first rest area but suddenly a sign for a T/A truck stop popped up at an exit marked "Providence Road."

Feeling providential, I took the exit and moved slowly into the parking area and saw three parking spots open along the back row. BAM! Now there are just two left.

... and then the wheel came off, literally and figuratively

2009-11-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

Early on, I knew today would be a bad day.

On my way from Big Cabin, Oklahoma to Garland, Texas to drop off the trailer I picked up yesterday I was passed by a pickup truck towing a trailer with some construction items piled on top (trusses, two by fours, sheet rock, etc.). A few miles up the road I see that same pickup pulled over to the side of the road so I do the safe thing and pull into the left lane to give them ample room and I go about my business.

A while later, the same pickup passes me again but this time it is swerving slightly from side to side and it seems like the driver is having difficulty keeping it on the straight and narrow. Pickup pulls to the side of the road again, I go around again.

A short time later I'm passed again and the pickup is having a hard time of it and I'm getting worried they are going off of the road or they will ram me or another vehicle. Suddenly, the pickup swerves to the right shoulder and the driver slams on the brakes just as the right rear tire departs for the greener grass on the far side of the shoulder and the rear of the truck droops down to the right, ending in a shower of sparks. Three or four people pour out of the truck as I go by again and this time it is for good.

The thought went through my mind right after this that I hope my day today won't come apart like this. Then my satellite unit beeped and I received a preplan.

Now, I thought when I left the house yesterday I was heading down to our Dallas yard to drop off one trailer then pick up a different one and take it to Springfield, after which I would be grabbing a load from Buske to take up to Omaha on Wednesday. This preplan has me doing a live load in Irving, Texas then driving the whopping 420ish miles up to Springfield and sitting on it for a day, then unloading at a local food warehouse the morning of the 12th. Oh. Hell. No.

I write one of my usual witty sonnets to the dispatcher explaining my position and shortly thereafter I'm told the preplan is banished to the netherworld. Score one for me.

Then my phone rings and it is a friend who tells me that one of my ex-girlfriends has been in a big scrape and could use some money sent to her via ComCheck. For those of you not in the industry, ComChecks are typically used to pay for things like lumpers, washouts and other miscellaneous items on the road that are reimbursed to a driver. Some drivers also take some or all of their pay in this form while on the road, though I myself never have.

For good reason, as it turns out. In order to get a couple hundred bucks shorn from my next paycheck and advanced to me via ComCheck took my dispatcher going to his boss, the head of operations, and the lady in charge of the owner-operator and lease-purchase program at Hill Bros. I almost felt dirty, like being required to prove I had money to be seated at a restaurant. We're in tough times, I'm sure, but c'mon I've been here for more than 18 months and I have a fairly good track record of making money. How humiliating.

My dispatcher finally got the go-ahead on the ComCheck and I sent a SMS message to my ex (another first) with the details. That sorted out, I arrive at our Dallas yard and drop my trailer only to find out the only reefer we have at the yard has a red tag on the air hose connectors saying not to use it because it has been sold to another company. Being in a rush at that point, I had naturally hooked up to it and had the gear up, so I got to winch it back down and disconnect. Bad driver.

Sent in a message asking for guidance and waited. This new trip they offered after the first aborted preplan has me picking up in Pittsburg, Texas at 1630 and also picking up in Fort Worth, Texas at 1630. Clearly paradoxical. My dispatcher is on top of the game and tells me to go ahead and take that red-tagged trailer and the folks in Fort Worth will load me when I get there sometime in the early evening hours.

Wonderful, I don't have to traipse across the hell of the Metroplex to find a trailer and I can make my own hours. Better yet, my fuel stop is along the way and the fuel there is just $2.48 a gallon for us today, compared to a nationwide average of $2.80 or so this week. I decide to hold off fueling until I return from Pittsburg and putter on down the road.

After narrowly avoiding an accident on the freeway I arrive in Pittsburg at the Pilgrim's Pride meatpacking plant. Oh no, I'm informed, that trailer is not clean enough for our products, go down the road a few miles and there is an industrious fellow who will wash it out for you. Thirty minutes and thirty-five dollars later, this is done and I'm given the paperwork for my new load, and I exchange trailers.

Now I'm heading west to Fort Worth which is an odd direction considering my first drop for this load is east of here in Ohio. I'm being paid to make an almost 300 mile u-turn so some of the load can be put up front in the trailer and the rest in back. Whatever, I'm not paid enough to drive and think.

Back to the fuel stop where the next problem rears its head. See, for the past few months every time I take home time my ComData card gets shut off. I assume our crack team at HQ does this so it can't be used if its stolen when I'm away from the truck. Anyway, this means that unless I forget to tell my dispatcher to turn it back on I roll up to the pumps and it will refuse to take my card. Like tonight, for instance.

I get that resolved only to find that the stupid pump I'm at will not pump, even after I've entered all the information it asked for. After a bit of trial and error I determine that the pump on the passenger side of the truck is the master pump and the one on the driver's side won't start until that one has its handle lifted. Since I was also filling up the reefer tank (which at our company is always located on the driver's side) this made for a number of circuits around my truck to turn off and on the pump at the proper time.

But wait! It gets better!

After driving 150 miles or so west to the far western side of Fort Worth I arrive at the facility that will load the other half of this load on to my trailer. Naturally, even though I'm given no fewer than six different sets of pickup numbers, P.O. numbers, confirmations numbers et cetera absolutely none of them is relevant to this particular location. After a tedious series of round-trips to my truck to send in satellite messages to HQ then back to the shipping department of this company it eventually comes out that the Pilgrim's Pride people have made a boo-boo and haven't set up this part of the load to leave until ... wait for it ... wait for it ... Thursday.

So now I'm back in the truck parked down the street munching on a bag of six dollar grapes telling the world about my bad day.

There, now you know.

The wheel in the sky keeps on turning

2009-11-09T18:32:00.000-08:00

I phoned HQ twice over the weekend, once on Saturday and once on Sunday. No go on a preplan, which was slightly irritating.

I pestered my dispatcher this morning when he got in then again a few hours later. I asked if freight was running slow enough I would need to wait another day before heading back out but he assured me they would have something for me soon. After some consulting with the planning demigods I was told they have a load up in the Kansas City yard that needs to be sent down to our Dallas yard for a local driver to deliver sometime next week. Then, there is supposed to be a load at our Dallas yard that needs to get delivered back to Springfield, Missouri (wasn't I just there?) on Tuesday then a Buske load heading from there to Omaha, Nebraska on Wednesday.

If it sounds like I'm doing a big loop back to the house then heading up to Omaha, that's a pretty good version of events.

I got back to the truck and it was still in one piece so I pretripped then headed out. About 180 miles deadhead up to KC where I swapped my empty reefer for a loaded van then chatted with one of our newer drivers who came on with HB three months ago. He lamented some of the common complaints of drivers (dispatchers not recognizing the Hours of Service limits when they send out loads, some loads with lots of downtime before pickup or delivery, etc.) and I mentioned the blog and what I'm doing as a lease operator. Its kind of funny watching the expression of a driver when I explain how I operate a truck and the kind of money I make, and this was no exception.

I went over some of the numbers with him for my first year and how it is looking so far in my second (for the record, pretty close to the first). I'm only averaging about 2,400 miles per week so far in my second fiscal year as compared to 2,564 per week in my first but my take home pay is actually a bit ahead of where I was last year.

Anyway, we chatted for a bit then I took off with my loaded trailer and headed south. I stopped at the Walmart in Lamar, Missouri to pick up supplies for this run and managed to spend six bucks on one (large) bag of seedless grapes. I never let the price of healthy food stop me from buying but that brought a wince at the register when I saw it get rung up.

A few hours later I'm in Oklahoma at Big Cabin, having just left the interstate and I'm feeling a bit tired and out of sorts. The first day or two back in the truck from time off is frequently like this so I stopped a few hours earlier than I had originally intended and will finish the trip to Dallas tomorrow morning. Knowing ahead of time that my next load is waiting there and I can make that schedule is a big help!

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Hometime over the weekend

2009-11-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

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The drop and hook in Rochelle was routine and I was given a preplan to pick up a load from nearby Aurora, Illinois to take to Kansas City, Kansas. Along came a note: deadhead home after the drop in Kansas City.

Just one problem: there were no empty trailers at the food warehouse I dropped at so I had to search around for a while to find an empty. By the time I found one and got back on the road I was too far away from the house to get there before my hours ran out so I stopped in Peculiar, Missouri for the night and finished up first thing yesterday morning.

Olathe, Kansas to Russellville, Arkansas to... where again?

2009-11-04T23:44:00.000-08:00

The drop in Olathe went to plan and I had a preplan ready to head over to Independence, Missouri on a load heading to Russellville, Arkansas. It took a while to get called below to get loaded since there were other trucks in line but it wasn't too much of a wait.

On the way south of Kansas City my cell phone rings. Caller ID shows that it is from HQ, which most likely means my dispatcher. This is typically not good news, but I answer anyway.

He wants to know when I can deliver a load the following day in Atlanta. I say 2100. We hang up and eventually the trip is taken away and replaced with a trip to Rochelle, Illinois. I like this one better and send in the proper code to accept it.

Belatedly I notice that the Rochelle trip originates in Batesville, Arkansas which is a bit of a pain to get to and quite a pain to get out of, heading north at least. I quickly phone in to my dispatcher to see if the Atlanta trip is still unassigned. After some back and forth with the planner and my dispatcher I end up on the Batesville trip to Rochelle.

The trip this morning to Batesville isn't too bad and the loading only takes two hours, which isn't bad for this ConAgra facility. However, the hundred-plus miles of driving narrow and winding state highways made up for it.

Tonight finds me at the Pilot in Troy, Illinois. Tomorrow I'm very short on hours so that will be interesting.

I do believe this makes me the fastest truck driver... evah!

2009-11-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

I was resetting my Garmin the other day on this screen which shows things like average speed during a trip, distance remaining and that sort of thing.

Then it caught my eye. Look at that freaking Max Speed number! No, that isn't photoshopped or anything, my Garmin actually has me going over 166 MPH at some point! And yes, this is in my truck. Heck, when I went through flight school I never flew a plane that fast!

So if the question ever comes up about who the fastest trucker is, you now know the answer. And Garmin even provides the evidence.

Thank goodness, not a FedEx! But wait...

2009-11-02T23:15:00.000-08:00

So my load out from Colorado (after dropping my FedEx load a day early yesterday afternoon) was a load of beer from the Bud plant in Fort Collins to the distributor in Olathe, Kansas. It is about 700 miles total which I rarely do in my truck in one day, but it has enough lead time so I can run the majority today and finish up tomorrow morning or early afternoon as I wish. Not bad.

After I get to the Bud plant I find out the catch. Not only is my load not yet ready but one of the outbound scales they use in this very busy system of theirs is non functional. By the time my trailer gets the green light and I get hooked up I'm back at the rear of the plant behind, I kid you not, 25 or 30 semis in line for the single, solitary scale. What a cluster.

I finished in Salina, Kansas for the night, about three hours from my drop tomorrow. Time for a nice long shower and some quality time in the sleeper.

Up early, done early

2009-10-31T21:10:00.000-07:00

My FedEx load was due to depart at 0400 local time so I was up an hour early to do my pretrip, fuel then head the few miles back to their depot. I checked in at the front gate around 0345 then made my way inside to dispatch where I waited in a short line of other OTR drivers with 0400 departures. Since I made it up to the head of the line just after 0400 the pickup was marked late -- driver's fault. Riiiiight.

Anyway, they don't particularly care when it leaves so long as it arrives on time. I have until 2000 on Monday to drive the 930 miles to Henderson, which means I'm going to deliver it more than 24 hours in advance and get a new load Monday morning.

More good news: the load is only 19,000 pounds so the run up the I-17 corridor was more pleasant than normal and I took the time to stop at the Wal-Mart in Winslow, Arizona to replenish supplies. If you are a truck driver and you like easy-to-get-to Wal-Marts, this is definitely once since there is a (now closed) truck stop right next door.

The exact halfway point to Denver from Phoenix is Albuquerque, New Mexico so I decided to pull in the horns there and pass the night.

Oh, on my way out to Phoenix on my previous load my truck hit 200,000 miles in the vicinity of Winslow, Arizona.

Stuck in a rut

2009-10-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

Apparently my dispatcher has a thing for FedEx going on... for the third time in a row I'm planned on a FedEx load. This time it is heading back out of Phoenix first thing tomorrow morning to Henderson, Colorado.

Blizzard in Albuquerque

2009-10-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

The drive from Wichita southwest was cold, windy and interspersed with icy rain and snow. Just west of Dalhart, Texas it became a real storm for a while with blowing snow but I was soon through to the other side and soldiered on. After a short fuel stop in Tucumcari, New Mexico I drove west along I-70 with the aim of ending up in the western half of New Mexico at the end of my driving hours.

Along comes Albuquerque, New Mexico and a localized blizzard that almost stopped me and thousands of my closest friends in the metro area. The snow was very light and flaky and the wind whipped it up into almost blinding sheets so I had to crawl for several miles before getting back up to speed.

I managed to make Grants, New Mexico by the time my driving hours expired and in order to deliver this FedEx load on time I had to start up again at 0030. Thankfully, the snow storms had moved off to to the east though it was still in the 20's outside.

Six hours later I pulled into Phoenix a few minutes before the load delivery time. The message coursing back to HQ over the satellite unit? "When FedEx absolutely positively needs a load delivered safely and on-time... they call unit 8836 baby!"

"Head to FedEx Wichita, we'll get you a load to Arizona"

2009-10-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

Such was the information from dispatch this morning and off I went. An hour into the two-hour trip south from Salina, Kansas, the trip information arrives along with a fuel recommendation that tells me I can complete the 1,050-mile trip from Wichita, Kansas to Phoenix, Arizona with just the 3/8ths of a tank of fuel that my gauge is showing.

I was touched by the confidence the folks in the rear with the gear placed on my fuel economy but just as a backstop I sent a code in via the satellite unit to redo the math and get me a real fuel solution. A message pops up shortly thereafter telling me I should fuel in Salina, which I departed an hour ago. Why do I bother sometimes.

The trip to Phoenix has an absolutely tight schedule on it. I pick it up 0400 tomorrow morning and deliver it 0600 Friday morning in Phoenix, though I do benefit from a two-hour time zone change in my favor. The weather system that brought snow to Colorado and Wyoming has brought high winds and dust storms to Arizona and New Mexico so my fuel economy should be poor on this run.

Short stuff

2009-10-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

My truck has been leaning a bit towards the driver's side for a while now and I had the shop take a look at it. A while later the problem is identified (worn out bushings on a torsion bar) and fixed and I'm out another $166. Such is the life.

Late in the morning my dispatcher surfaced with a short run down to Olathe, Kansas from Omaha. Before I could reply to the satellite unit another trip showed up, this one going from Edwardsville, Kansas to Henderson, Colorado picking up last night and delivering this morning. A separate message asked if this was doable (about 200 miles for the first trip and 600 for the second, a total of 800 miles) and I spent little time establishing that it wasn't.

The second run was from FedEx and dispatch was desperate to find drivers to cover so they offered to t-call it in Salina, Kansas if I'd pick it up. Sigh, okay.

I delivered in Olathe around 1930 and my FedEx load was supposed to leave at 2000 so I hurried north to Edwardsville and checked in. For some reason it wasn't ready and I was forced to wait until midnight for everything to get straightened out and I was sent on my way. I arrived in Salina at 0300 this morning and the transfer was made, my full trailer for an empty and the new driver headed off to the Denver area.

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A First Time for Everything

2009-10-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Imagine my surprise when I get loaded and let loose in under two hours at Buske in Springfield, Missouri! I asked the office people why that was and they said it was due to few trucks showing up early. I mentioned that when I arrive early I normally wait 5-7 hours so I don't bother, but I'm not sure the point got through to them.

This left me in the unusual position of leaving Springfield around 1300 instead of three or four hours later, so I motored up MO-13 towards Kansas City. I was about halfway around the edge of the city when the traffic got bad at the beginning of rush hour but the northern part of KC is always a breeze so I didn't even have to slow down.

All three scales along the way to Omaha were closed for a change, though it didn't matter to me one way or the other since I scaled out at a little truck stop between Springfield and KC. I even stopped at Rock Port, Missouri (I-29 exit 110) to have a very fine steak dinner at the Black Iron Grill -- highly recommended.

The drop at the Pepsi place in Omaha was routine, and my cat was surprisingly cuddly last night... the 38 degree outside air temp may have had something to do with that.

Buske again

2009-10-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

So the dispatcher calls me on Friday to let me know I'm preplanned for the usual Springfield, Missouri load from Buske heading to Omaha on Monday.

Here and there

2009-10-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

The Fayetteville load wasn't preloaded, like I was told. Nor was it 30,000 pounds, like I was told (it was over 40,000 pounds). The planners didn't even bother including the confirmation number I needed to make the pickup, causing me grief at the shipper.

Worse, by the time the load was ready and I left the shipper I was no longer able to make the delivery appointment on time. Which, by the way, was set before I even arrived.

I wasn't feeling too great when I got up this morning in Neosho, Missouri but I plugged ahead and got the load to the destination when I said it would be there.

Unfortunately, the bridge along the tiny state route I had to take from I-44 to Warrenton, Missouri had a weight limit of 20 tons and I was near twice that, so I had to divert to some absolutely tiny side roads. One stretch of about 18 miles was so steep I was having to double downshift -- going from fifth gear to third, for instance, a first for me. Just a nightmare.

Dispatch wanted to preplan me first on a load out of St Louis to Omaha that would require me to run all night and I nixed that. The next plan had me running a very tight FedEx load overnight to Kansas City and I nixed that as well. Fed up, I just told them I would deadhead home.

My dispatcher did manage to sweet talk me into first dropping an empty trailer near St Louis at the FedEx facility before retracing my steps, grabbing a new trailer then heading home.

Life of the trucker.

Preplan-apolooza

2009-10-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

So I was preplanned for a load out of Indiana to Russellville, Arkansas yesterday and now that I'm running that load I'm preplanned on a load from Fayetteville, Arkansas to a town near St. Louis.

I'm set for home time this Thursday so I'm going to bet that my next preplan will be to head to Macon, Missouri for a load heading to ConAgra in Council Bluffs, Iowa, then a load from there to AmeriCold in Carthage, Missouri.

Lazy weekend trip

2009-10-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

The load really was just 20,000 pounds of various products bound for Sam's Club. There happened to be one of our newest trailers already stationed and being loaded when I arrived. I dropped my empty, hooked up to the new one then waited a few hours while they finished up. Whatever, I'll wait a bit for a light load.

Since the load isn't due in northern Indiana until Monday morning I have a lazy driving weekend in front of me. Thus, it probably comes as no surprise to regular readers that the dreaded Lazies were out in force and I only got as far as Newton, Iowa yesterday. When I stopped in to get some Chester's chicken then parked and fired up the laptop I found there was high speed access. My will exhausted, the truck wasn't turned on until this morning.

The drive out to Indiana was painless and I stopped tonight at a rest area about twenty miles from my drop.

A new preplan has me running across the state to Lafayette for a load heading to Russellville, Arkansas after I get through with this current one.

A day late, a dollar short

2009-10-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Since the local Bud distributor in Omaha stops receiving at noon on weekdays and I wouldn't arrive until a few hours later, I tried to t-call the load in the yard and get something else to run. No dice, have to deliver it myself.

I did get my truck into the local Volvo dealer to get my clutch adjusted, though. The clutch itself is fine but for some reason the clutch brake keeps fading away every 40-50,000 miles until it is a real pain to get it into gear. Apparently, the fix is simple since it was done in about fifteen minutes, and I'm sure once I get the bill it will be at least a hundred bucks. Sometimes I wish I had a mechanical bone in my body.

I also managed to attend a safety meeting at HQ which is a requirement for our safety bonus each quarter (there are other ways to qualify but for me this is the easiest one).

Overnighted at the Bud place and was unloaded early this morning. The new plan has me heading south to Nebraska City, Nebraska to pick up some meat heading to a Walmart DC in Indiana. Interestingly, its only 20,000 pounds or so which is unusually light for a meat load.

"Pull around to inspection bay #1 please"

2009-10-15T21:49:00.000-07:00

The above is one of the last things a truck driver wants to hear when crossing a scale, and that is what I got yesterday morning.

I had just started my driving day at the Arizona / New Mexico border and the scale was a few miles further on along I-40. I wheeled my truck around back to bay #1 and was waved in. This is one of those with an open trench down the middle for the inspectors to use to check your brakes without having to work hard.

CDL. Medical Card. Truck registration. Truck insurance. Trailer registration. Bill of Lading. All of these were provided and when he got to looking at my log book I mentioned I logged electronically and if he wanted I could print him out a copy to peruse. "Oh no, you electronic logger guys are fine." I smiled -- on the inside of course.

Thirty minutes of my day wasted I finally got the green and scooted out of there.

The rest of the trip up to the Denver area was routine and this morning I made my stops in Parker and Castle Rock. Today's preplan had me heading up to Fort Collins for a load of Budweiser heading to Omaha after adding a bit of fuel in Denver. Everything was going swimmingly until I arrived at Fort Collins only to be told that they were backed up and my 1000 load time was going to be delayed. Grrrreat.

It took them until 1645 to get the trailer loaded and another 30 minutes to move it out of the door so I could hook up to it. By then, my hours weren't sufficient to make it to Omaha on time for tomorrow's delivery so I sent in the proper codes via satellite and stopped for the night in Big Springs, Nebraska.

Slow turnaround in Phoenix

2009-10-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

I delivered at the PetSmart DC in Phoenix early Monday afternoon and eventually the bad news percolated up from the satellite unit: the load out of there up to Denver wouldn't be ready until Tuesday afternoon. Not enough time to take a 34 to reset my logbook.

I got caught up on the shows I follow via Hulu: Heroes, Fringe, Daily Show, Colbert Report and that freaking Hell's Kitchen show my brother hooked me on.

The truck was a bit low on fuel so I bobtailed over to the local Pilot and filled up. I then parked to go inside and get a shower when I realized they had a lot of bobtail parking on the south side of the building that I'd never noticed in all the other times I'd fueled there. Since I was in a full-size slot in back I moved my truck over to make room for someone with a trailer.

Afternoon rolls around today and the load isn't ready for a while but finally I get the word that it is done and the paperwork ready. It is just after 1500 local time so I boogie out of town via the 101 over to I-17 and make pretty good time. The rest area just inside New Mexico had a single spot available when I arrived near midnight and I took it.

An amazing air mass

2009-10-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

When I awoke yesterday morning in York, Nebraska my truck was covered in snow. The ground showed a few inches as well, and the plows and sanding trucks had been at it for a while already, given the state of the roads.

The local Walmart was convenient so I loaded up on some supplies and shot some pics:

Within an hour I had reached Aurora and swapped my empty van for a full one. The scale at the shipper was broken (again -- thanks Werner drivers!) so I had to head back to the interstate and scale out at a Loves. Payload was over 43,000 but it is in a van so even with mostly-full tanks I was only at 77,000 gross.

I noticed that the outside air temperature hadn't budged since I started rolling, staying within a narrow band of 28-30 degrees. The sky was overcast and there was a constant drizzle of rain that turned to ice once it made contact with the cold exterior of my truck:

The drive south made me a bit nervous with a thin layer of ice along the roads in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. It never stopped drizzling the entire way to Dalhart, Texas where I spent the night and the temperature never rose above 30 or dipped below 28. Considering this was about 400 miles of southerly movement and another hundred or so to the west, this was one huge air mass.

When I awoke this morning the temps were the same, it was still overcast and drizzling and the exterior of my truck had a pretty good accumulation of ice. I knocked as much of it off as I could reach and hit the road.

The mercury didn't rise above 30 degrees until I was a few minutes away from Tucumcari, New Mexico! Less than an hour later I was surprised by a huge sheet of 1/3" thick ice that covered the entire top of my truck's superstructure came crashing down, shattering into huge chunks and making a loud bang on my windshield.

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I stopped in Winslow, Arizona to use the facilities and didn't have enough gumption to get rolling again.

The (E)mail Bag #1

2009-10-11T04:22:00.000-07:00

This is the first of a semi-regular series of posts responding to reader email pertaining to this site. If you would like to email the author follow this link for instructions.

Most of the first batch of emails offer thanks for keeping up with the blog and posting all of the information the way I do. The most common question has been some variation of:

Why do you produce this blog?

To quote the first post I made on this blog:

I began this series of sites to give people from outside the industry an idea of what it is like for me, moving cargo around the United States day-to-day in a big rig. I don't claim any special knowledge or ability in trucking. You should also know that this site is not sponsored by or beholden to anyone but myself and the views expressed on these pages are entirely my own, whether you agree with them or not. It is also not a recruiting tool or come-on, though I suppose if you were persistent enough you could find out my truck number or driver code and arrange for me to get a recruiting "spiff" if you were so inclined to start driving for this company.

I post much of my financial data to show prospective lease operators one way a truck can be run. Also, when I began my research into trucking four years ago there really wasn't much hard data to go off of, and nowhere near as many blogs and bloggers as there are now.

Why don't you promote your name or truck number more aggressively as a recruiting tool?

As I mention in the quote above (and the tag line at the bottom of each page: "This blog is not authorized or endorsed by anyone, save the author.") the views expressed here are my own and no one exerts editorial control over this content but myself. Some of the operations, safety and recruiting folks at Hill Bros are aware of the blog, as are several of the owners.

Before I came to Hill Bros I made the recruiters well aware of my intentions and showed them my previous blog and I specifically got the head of recruiting to pass the idea of a daily(ish) blog past the owners to see if there would be any heartburn. So far, so good.

I like to think I lavish equal attention on the positives and negatives of trucking as I see them. When operations is on its came and I'm preplanned nicely, I mention it. When a dingleberry gets out of line (from my perspective) I mention that too.

Many trucking companies offer incentives for drivers to spread the word to fellow drivers to get them to sign on. I had some sign on to CFI when I worked there and I've had some sign on to Hill Bros in the time I've been here. However, my goal writing this blog is to inform more than it is to recruit and that is why I play down that angle even though it costs me money I may have made if I splashed my name and truck number on every page. Yes, I'm aware of several drivers who I could have been paid a recruiting bonus for but was not.

In a few months there will be some changes to the look and feel of this blog and there will be a more obvious route to determine who I am should you feel inclined to credit me if you start up with Hill Bros. Until then, just tell the recruiters that you talk to that they are a bunch of Ninjas and Jim in truck 8836 says so and all will be well. :)

Where did the stock portfolio updates go?

I started that on a lark but got bored with it, and the blog is already number heavy. I'm pleased to report quite significant gains across the board and more than a third of my down payment on my new house came just from gains in my portfolio.

Why don't you post data on your health care costs, self-employment taxes, accounting fees, etc? This would give drivers a more complete picture of the actual net you're making -- otherwise a driver could surmise that your net pay are the numbers you post.

My health care and tax situation is likely not the same as anyone else who reads this journal. I did mention in my first quarterly recap that my weekly "nut" comes to $800, which includes all my escrows. I could have been a bit more specific and noted that this includes my truck payment, APU payment, APU maintenance, accounting fee, various insurance payments, 2290 fee and license fee.

That's all for this first (E)mail bag. If you have questions of your own you can send them to me by following the instructions here.

Dream weekend with a nightmare twist

2009-10-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

The drop and hook in Shelby went as planned, though the clerks at Menards didn't understand why our people needed copies of 31 pages of documents for this load. I shrugged and they dutifully sent them through the copier and away I went with the copies and an empty van trailer.

Before I had arrived my satellite unit beeped to tell me that I had yet another preplan -- pick up a preloaded trailer from Aurora, Nebraska and take it down to Phoenix, Arizona to deliver any time Monday. Yes! A solid weekend trip to keep me busy (and to take my miles this week to 3,100 with a couple days left to run even). Nothing can possibly stop me now!

Of course, the weather might have a say in all of that. I was surprised to find a snow forecast for the Omaha area overnight but the temps barely below freezing. Nothing much to worry over, I'm sure...

Meanwhile, my hours ran out about 30 miles east of Aurora at the rest area near York, Nebraska where I am hunkered down tonight. Its c-c-c-cold out and the bunk heater is humming away, making a new feline friend.

Preplanned

2009-10-08T18:33:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention that yesterday I received a second preplan after the first. Once I unloaded in Columbus, Ohio this morning I drove across town and reloaded for Shelby, Iowa. The city streets were very narrow and I was a bit distressed to see a "Trucks must back in from the street" sign at the shipper but it turned out the product I was there for used a separate but tight dock around the rear of the plant.

For some reason this particular shipment involves a master BOL (Bill of Lading) and no fewer than twenty-nine (29!) sub bills. My instructions require me to get a signed copy of every single one so my next trip pack is going to be the size of War and Peace. Even better, I had to write "Hill Bros" and sign my name on every single one. People wonder why my signature looks like a squiggly line.

At least the load is light, in the neighborhood of 25,000 pounds. Leaving the city streets of Columbus was a bit of a challenge but a bunch of kids in a school bus I pulled up next to while I was preparing to make a left turn had a fun time waving at the cat.

I made it to Oakwood, Illinois for the night and I'll drop and hook at Shelby tomorrow afternoon. It is only about 35 miles from there to our HQ so I'll probably get ordered there afterwards, or perhaps to Council Bluffs for a ConAgra load.

Laziest. Driver. Ever... Again.

2009-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

It took several hours for the planners at HQ to get me a new load, but I was too far away to pick up and deliver it on time so that got taken off me. Another hour or so and I was told to head up to Indianapolis to scale my truck and empty reefer, then call a certain number for my next load.

Now, the only reason a shipper would ever ask for this is when they are expecting to load you to capacity. In this case, the folks who ship the prepackaged soups for Panera stores wanted every last drop they could fit aboard, and when I left my truck weighed in at 79,600 lbs. On a side note, my dispatcher asked how much my truck and trailer weighed before I went in to scale and I estimated 35,000. The actual weight was 35,200 so I was fairly close.

I was dispatched around noon and loaded right at 1700 so Indy was all atizzy with the evening rush. The delivery time is tomorrow at 1100 so yeah, mister lazy driver packed it in at the local Pilot and saved the trip for tomorrow to finish.

The LONG road out to Indiana

2009-10-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

My new dispatcher finally beeped me with a trip late in the morning. A nice 170 mile deadhead back up to Kansas City to our yard then east about 500 miles for two drops ending in Bloomington, Indiana.

I take pains to avoid rush hours near big cities like KC so I left immediately with the hope of being on the eastbound I-70 before 1500. I made it to the yard around 1430 and was in the process of swapping my empty trailer for the loaded one when a shout from the front of my truck got my attention.

It turns out a lady driver for ProFleet, a Hill Bros subsidiary, that I've been corresponding with for a short time happened to be there and saw my truck roll in.

As I was finishing up unhooking from my empty I basked in a wealth of compliments, from how young I looked to how sleek and slim I appeared, my brilliant green eyes... and lovely white fur.

"Now wait a damn minute!" I was about to protest. My eyes are blue after all. I look up only to find she was showering compliments on the cat. Ah well.

We had a good chat for twenty minutes or so but my traffic Spidey Sense was tickling real bad so I had to complete the swap and get rolling. Snowie sure looked pleased with herself though.

I managed to beat most of the traffic out of KC and by the time I rumbled through St Louis it was rolling just fine. Late, late in the night I finished my first delivery and ended in Bloomington, Indiana waiting on the second.

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Dang

2009-10-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

Wow Joe -- how 'bout them tigers eh?

Back in the saddle... again

2009-10-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

Four days off. Perfect weather and mild temperatures. Barely any rain or wind.

Of course, this morning it is thunderstorms up the wazoo, raining like it is going for a record and the cat isn't being cooperative.

I called in last night to see if there was a preplanned trip waiting for me but no such luck. I'm here in the truck waiting for the planners to get me something while putting away clothes, supplies and a recalcitrant feline.

Four, count 'em, FOUR days off

2009-10-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

You may recall my last time through the house was almost exactly 34 hours, just long enough to reset my logbook. Not, unfortunately, much of a break from the routine.

This time I'm off until Tuesday morning with the whole big enchilada of a weekend staring me in the face. Aside from a few matters at the house I plan on just relaxing, eating good food, playing some games and maybe watching a movie or two.

As far as my trips went, I was up yesterday at 0100 to finish out the run to Omaha and once I got that out of the way I grabbed a shower and headed to the company yard. A preplan came through with a trip leaving any time yesterday or today and delivering today by 1700 in Carthage, Missouri then off for home. I spent the night in Omaha then did it all in one long stretch of driving this morning and afternoon.

This is my 895th post between this blog and my previous one (linked in the sidebar). I may just hit 1,000 by year's end.

Over the rockies

2009-09-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

My load being as light as it was I decided to take the shortest route back east, over the Rockies. Due to the vagaries of Hours of Service rules I could only drive about four hours on Tuesday, so I ended up at Green River, UT and spent the day being bored.

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This morning I left early and drove and drove and drove until I arrived in North Platte, Nebraska. Since this load has to be in Omaha tomorrow morning by 0700, the alarm is set for 0100 and I'm off to bed.

Trailer snatch and grab

2009-09-28T19:55:00.001-07:00

I got unloaded between 0300 and 0400 this morning (Pacific time) in Victorville, California. Surprisingly, when I put in my empty call I was immediately sent a preplan for a load from our terminal in Santa Fe Springs, California to Omaha, Nebraska. Oh hell yeah I'll take that.

A nearby Pilot truck stop served as a staging point for me to get some paperwork done and sent in, get breakfast and take a shower. Once traffic died down a bit in the Los Angeles basin I headed down there and did a trailer snatch and grab switcheroo with my empty staying and a new fully loaded trailer coming with me. With cargo that only weighs about 24,000 pounds I didn't need to scale and could run the tandems as far forward as possible for maneuverability.

My fuel stop was back in Vegas and I was there around 1700 local time so there was some traffic to deal with. For the first time ever the actual fueling went quickly with no line of trucks to worry about and I was back on the road in under ten minutes.

Tonight I ended up in Cedar City, Utah. My logbook is real thin for tomorrow (just 3.75 hours to run) so I'll probably not even make it out of the state before the federal regulations will tell me I'm tired and have to pull over until midnight.

Amulets of Protection

2009-09-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

The trip out to Victorville, California was mostly boring. For a bit of spice I decided to take I-80 out to Utah then turn south on I-15, rather than I-76 to Denver then on to I-70 (and over the Rockies). This added about fifty miles of Out of Route to the trip but the mountains my poor engine had to climb weren't as steep or high.

Last night I stopped in Provo, Utah and this morning I set out first to Las Vegas, Nevada to fuel up then on to Victorville.

Little did I know that a gigantic traffic snarl awaited me from the south side of Vegas for almost 100 miles. I kid you not, bumper-to-bumper traffic for hours and hours and hours. I never saw any wrecks or police presence so I don't know what the problem was, other than the sheer quantity of traffic heading out of Vegas.

I stopped at the last rest area before Barstow and took care of business. I noticed some Native Americans selling jewelry and out of boredom induced by four hours of my life just being squandered in a long traffic jam, I studied their wares. An assortment of styles, colors, stones stared back.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a jewelry person. I don't own any rings, necklaces or any other jewelry. For some reason, I took stock of what they had and decided on a hematite necklace with an azureite arrowhead. The arrowhead is the symbol of protection in this culture, though I purchased it more for its artistic look rather than its protective aura.

I didn't even try it on at the dealer, instead I pocketed it and walked back to the truck. Didn't put it on then, either -- I stuck it in one of the cup holders. Then, about ten minutes later while I'm driving in heavy traffic I get the impulse to put it on right then, and I did so even though this meant undoing the clasp and redoing it behind my neck.

As I mentioned, I'm not a jewelry wearer. I've never had a necklace, or any Native American jewelry for that matter. Still, it felt kind of... neat wearing it and I drove on towards Victorville.

The last time I delivered at this consignee I went to the south side of Victorville and backtracked a bit. On a whim, I decided to follow the GPS instructions which brought me down from the north side of town. As soon as I turned off the freeway I realized this may get interesting.

The road in question wasn't lit and there were stop signs instead of stoplights. Narrow and twisty as well. Still, I followed my GPS helper along and it did seem to be getting me to my destination by a shorter if not speedier route than I used previously.

Then it tells me to take a left turn and it is over a narrow bridge with a stop sign out in the street for traffic coming the other direction. I have a bit too much velocity on me as I enter the turn so I have to scrub some of that off by braking hard and turning left as rapidly as possible. This is definitely not a turn that I would want to make at any time and I barely missed the stop sign and the guard rail to my right as I straighten out.

My amulet seems to work.

Carpet delivery and a Dingleberry

2009-09-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

That load of carpet I picked up in Calhoun, Georgia had three stops. Two in Des Moines, Iowa and the final one just a few blocks away from our HQ in Omaha, Nebraska. I arrived Thursday at the first delivery spot, set for 0400 the following morning.

Naturally, a worker banged on my door at 0230 in the morning and told me which dock to stick the trailer in. He was only grabbing a few rolls of carpet and one pallet so it didn't take long before I got everything buttoned up and departed for the other side of town to await my 0600 appointment.

0600 rolls around and the new consignee is still closed, the gate chained and padlocked. By 0615 I'm getting a bit concerned so I dial the number given to me via my satellite unit and I reach an answering machine. I also notify dispatch via satellite and they try calling and get the same result.

After a variety of hijinx 0700 rolls around and this place opens. They have been opening at 0700 for the past year, I'm told emphatically, and they have no idea why our trucks keep getting sent for 0600 appointments with them. I'm in agreement and make a note for dispatch.

By 0800 or so another small portion of my cargo is gone and I'm on the road to Omaha. Now, it will take at least 2.5 hours to reach the next consignee and since that appointment is two hours away (1000 hours) I send in an updated ETA macro and indicate I'll be about 30 minutes late on the last drop.

Soon, a message comes back to me berating my lack of foresight in updating my ETA. Now, realize that if the 0600 appointment was a valid appointment (which it wasn't) then I would have had an extra hour or so and would probably have made the final 1000 appointment.

I send in something to the effect of:

"Tell the Dingleberry who sent that last bon mot that if they could get me valid appointments I could make deliveries on schedule."

The message itself was longer, but that was the gist. A short time later, a dull reply comes back with a veiled threat of getting fewer miles if I don't keep my ETA updated regularly with that macro. I send off another witty riposte and my new dispatcher eventually calls a truce.

It turns out the Dingleberry in question is my old dispatcher Cory.

Anyhow, put my truck in the shop for some routine maintenance and had a face-to-face meet with the new dispatcher. Hopefully that is settled now.

Got a new load while truck was in the shop: pick up a preloaded trailer across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa and unload at 0330 Monday morning in Victorville, California. An excellent 1,450ish mile weekend.

Foiled again

2009-09-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

The trip out from Russellville, Arkansas to Atlanta, Georgia was ordinary in all respects until I neared the destination. I had been listening to traffic and weather updates via my XM radio for about half the trip, hoping that I-20 would be open by the time I arrived in late afternoon. Even a single bridge across the raging Chattahoochee river would have done, but alas, I was out of luck. Calls to Georgia's 511 travel service confirmed that I would have to make an enormous end around to the north or south to avoid the flooding and I didn't have enough hours left to accomplish that.

I stopped for the night in Villa Rica, Georgia, less than twenty miles to the consignee. This morning I got up at 0400 just to check 511 and I-20 was still blocked. Went back to bed for a couple hours then checked again around 0600. Still blocked. Crap. I waited a few more hours then reluctantly charted a course southward around the blockage.

Two hours of stop-and-go traffic later I arrive at the consignee after having driven under electronic billboards announcing I-20 was now open. I really must find a solution to my teeth grinding problem.

Then the new wrinkle: dispatch beeps me and tells me that another driver needs an empty reefer from AmeriCold so once I drop off my full one, grab an empty and swap with him (he has a regular van trailer). Since my next preplan is for a load of carpet out of Calhoun, Georgia, everyone would have ended up with the right kind of trailer. Only, when I arrived it was revealed that the only Hill Bros trailer of any kind at AmeriCold was the one that I brought, and it wouldn't be unloaded until 2330 tonight. Amazingly, even after telling dispatch this they insisted I look again to see if there weren't these two other trailers there after all. I contemplated sending them a message indicating that I found two magic trailers and everything was spiffy (to be followed by a "PSYCHE!" message a minute later) but thought better of it.

So I ended up with the empty van trailer and the other driver went bobtail, and I hightailed it north to Calhoun to wait for my load of carpet to be loaded.

A new dispatcher and his first turndown... on day one

2009-09-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

So the last load I got went through the house, ending with a delivery first thing Monday morning. It was a bit far to do it then, so I left Sunday afternoon after finishing my 34 and arrived in the evening. The first time I arrived they kindly mentioned that the reefer wasn't 3/4ths full, so I had to head back to the Pilot and take care of that, then arrive a second time. I'll get that done correctly the first time one of these days.

Come Monday morning and nothing happens for a few hours. Eventually I get a *BEEP* from the satellite unit and it is the first dispatch from my new dispatcher (see here for backstory). A load that doesn't pick up until 1930 that night in Green Forest, Arkansas and delivers first thing in the morning up in Missouri.

Now I went to Green Forest, Arkansas once and never... ever... again. Coming from Russellville, Arkansas you go like this:

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I call your attention to that squiggly line heading roughly northward. That is Arkansas Highway 7, a "scenic" route. This translates into a 55 MPH two-lane road with no shoulder with turns so tight there are 15 MPH blind corners and a lot (and I mean A LOT) of hills to climb and descend. Great views, true, but no place to take a big rig.

Accompanying the dispatch was a short note telling me that was the best they had. In this case, their best just wasn't good enough and I had to kick back the first load he ever offered me. Ah well, one to grow on (he looks fairly young).

Later in the day I get a fresh dispatch: grab a loaded trailer from the same ConAgra plant I delivered at yesterday and take it to Atlanta, Georgia. Hmmm, wasn't there something in the news about Atlanta recently?

Murky water swamps Georgia homes, roads

This should be interesting.

Short time at home

2009-09-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

After attending the safety meeting on Friday I was given two trips to get me home. The first was picked up at the Tyson plant in Council Bluffs, Iowa and went down to Olathe, Kansas to a different Tyson plant. The second picked up in Independence, Missouri in the caves and delivers Monday morning in Russellville, Arkansas.

By the time I was able to deliver the first load and work out some problems with the second it was very late and I didn't arrive in Springfield until after midnight. I slept in my truck and went to the house Saturday morning.

Since the load that I'm under delivers tomorrow at 0730 I am just taking a quick 34-hour restart at the house then I'll deliver tonight and be ready to run first thing Monday morning.

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While at the house I got some furniture delivered, installed three blinds (including two motorized with remotes for the master bedroom!), put together a computer table and printer stand, then mowed the overgrown lawn. How relaxing.

My first three-way -- and I think I like it!

2009-09-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

Now don't get all up on your high horse until you finish the post, please.

Last week a driver from a message board I frequent emailed me to let me know he was attending orientation at Hill Bros this week and he put me down as a reference. Like many trucking companies, the company I drive for rewards current drivers when this happens. If he finishes orientation I get $500 and should he remain a driver for two months I'll get another $500.

On Wednesday I spoke with Jason in recruiting and he mentioned that there was that driver and a lady driver as well that mentioned me when they were recruited. "Oh realllly?" I breathed.

Then, after I arrived in Omaha and flipped on my computer I read a post on the same message board from one of the drivers in the orientation class who tells me there are THREE drivers in that orientation who have put me down as a reference.

Three referrals? It turns out there was a recruit who didn't know my details that had used that same message board to decide to come on board. He updated his application and cha-ching!

I'm happy to report that all three new drivers (Brad, Shirley and Andrew) finished orientation and next week's paycheck should be quite large.

(Next time we meet up I owe you a full-on trip over to Red Lobster, Shirley! Ditto for you two guys as well!)

A boring trip to Omaha and Robert DeNiro

2009-09-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

It really did take until the next day to get my unloaded at that Kraft warehouse in Huntington, West Virginia. It also took a tight blindside back to get into the smallish parking lot and oriented towards their docks but that is par for the course sometimes.

On the way out of town I had a retarded guy steering a large tricycle (complete with basket on back) almost commit Suicide by Trucker by jumping out from behind a parked panel truck right into the lane I was using. Screeching to a halt, I was more than a little amused to see that this guy bore an incredible resemblance to the actor Robert DeNiro.

I boogied west to Louisville, Kentucky to pick up a load of Appliances from GE heading to Omaha then spent the night at a rest area in Indiana. Yesterday I drove the rest of the way up to Omaha only to find that Nebraska Furniture Mart didn't want those appliances until the very end of the delivery window, 0500 this morning. So mote it be.

Sometimes it is hard to know what to think

2009-09-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

The folks at the Kraft DC in Morris, Illinois couldn't get my trailer loaded in less than five hours so by the time they were done and I was rolling it wasn't possible to finish the trip out to Huntington, West Virginia without a break. This meant the original 0900 delivery time went out the window and I notified dispatch that I would be arriving about 1500 instead.

My next calculation was to figure how far I would drive last tonight and how far I would drive today. Since I was taking the most direct route and there were more than 100 miles of narrow state highways to run from Cincinnati, Ohio to Huntington I pulled in the horns at Greensburg, Indiana and called it a night (at the last semi-legit parking spot at the Petro there).

This morning I arose to find yet another preplan, and it was a bit vexing: after I deliver my load in West Virginia, head back over to Trenton, Ohio and pick up a suspiciously light (11,000 pound) load of beer from the Miller plant there and take it to Joplin, Missouri for a Friday morning delivery. The better part of three days for roughly 800 miles. Bletch.

I'm not really looking forward to that when I roll into Huntington this afternoon and find the Kraft warehouse. As I'm parking the rig to use my satellite unit to tell HQ I'm there, a warehouse guy comes out and purposefully strides to my door. "Great," I think. He's going to get me in right away.

Um, nope. "You can't unload today. We closed at 3 PM." (some five minutes before my arrival). Oh, and: "I have an appointment at 0800 and 1200 tomorrow and you're late so you'll be a work-in. Don't know when you'll get a dock." Greatttttt.

On top of all of this my preplan was changed to a different one, now going to the GE hub in Louisville to pick up a load of appliances headed to Omaha, Nebraska. PLUS, a separate message telling me the trailer has to be clean and dry before I go to pick up the load.

To which I naturally reply: "I guess the pagan goat sacrifice / goat sashimi trailer ritual is out then?"

More news as it becomes available.

Lord of the Flies

2009-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

Ten freaking hours wasted at the Cargil plant in Nebraska City, Nebraska. There were another handful of Hill Bros drivers being ~~loaded~~ delayed while I was waiting and no one was too happy about it. One driver was halfway through being loaded when the plant had him leave the dock, close up the trailer and park off to the side while they prepared the rest of his load. And here I thought Swift meat plants were bad.

Meanwhile my truck was assaulted by a crack battalion of flies. I literally could not open the door without some of them slipping inside, much to the delight of Snowie.

I finally left around 1830 hours for the seven hour trip out to Sterling, Illinois. The delivery time was scheduled at 0503 hours this morning and ordinarily when we see a time like that it means that the delivery is open... but not in this case. After a few hours my trailer was empty and I finished snoozing.

My next preplan arrived during the trip. After delivering in Sterling I was to head back to Aurora, Illinois to pick up another load heading to Kansas City. But by the time I finished my break in the late morning the preplan had gone away. After a short wait a new plan comes in: head over to Morris, Illinois and pick up a load heading to West Virginia.

Year Two, First Quarter Results (June 09 to September 09)

2009-09-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

This post covers the first quarter of my second fiscal year as a lease-purchase operator at Hill Bros. I'm going to be comparing numbers from each quarter this year with the corresponding numbers from last year, with the previous year in parenthesis.

Paid miles for this quarter were the lowest yet, just 29,917 (33,898). With 32,090 (37,000) total miles driven, it comes to 7.26% (9.2%) Out-Of-Route miles which isn't bad.

Total fuel expense this quarter was 10,975 (22,533), FSC was 6,774 (18,587), leaving adjusted fuel cost of 4,201 (3,946). Holy crap look at those numbers! I had almost triple the FSC a year ago because fuel prices were so high.

My adjusted fuel expense per mile was 13.09 (10.66). In other words, that super high FSC helped me out by about 2.5 cents per mile last year compared to my most recent quarter.

Average paid miles per week was 2,301 (2,608), compared with 2,564 average miles per week across all of last year. July was a brutal month for miles this year.

Total revenue for this quarter was 34,879 (50,585), or 1.17 (1.49) per mile compared with last year's average of 1.26. The difference here, by far, was the difference in FSC.

Average gross revenue to the truck each week was 2,683 (3,891).

My net pay for the quarter was 14,644 (14,433), or 1,126 (1,110) per week.

Up until the last line you may have been thinking how dismal a quarter I had, but despite everything I still made more per week in net profit than I did in my first quarter last year. I did have some extra escrow payments deducted last year that I didn't have this year, but I'm also currently paying 10 CPM towards my maintenance escrow now that I was only paying 5 CPM then so it is something of a wash.

I'm glad that my OOR is below 8% again -- those miles really take a lot of money out of my pocket. I'm also glad that even though my average weekly miles dipped by about 250 over last year's average my weekly net income remained just 28 dollars off of last year's average.

My second quarter last year saw an increase of net weekly pay of 17 dollars over the first quarter. My goal for my next quarter is to increase my net weekly pay by 74 dollars, to 1,200 per week.

Net Pay By Week:

1: 1916
2: 769
3: 1811
4: 61
5: 985
6: 1475
7: 1201
8: 1425
9: 1105
10: 1344
11: 1303
12: 535
13: 714

Another day, another preplan... but no trailer

2009-09-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

The food warehouse trailer lot in Kansas City was full way beyond overflowing... ordinarily we park loaded inbound trailers on row 4 or 5, with row 6 as an overflow. The yard driver saw me looking for a spot and saved me some time telling me to take it over to row 3 since every other spot was taken. He hadn't seen it that busy ever, including Thanksgiving. I'm guessing there were 150-180 loaded trailers in the lot, not counting the ones that drivers doing live unloads had on the other side of the building.

Hill Bros had six trailers on the lot including the one I brought but all of them were full. I had a new preplan but it requires a clean reefer and I got nada. Told dispatch I'd camp out until morning and take an empty if AWG managed to unload one.

No joy there: this morning all of our trailers were still there and still full. I drove over to Nebraska Furniture Mart on the west side of KC and found a single empty reefer so I grabbed it. It had quite a bit of debris on the floor but I stopped on the way to Nebraska City, Nebraska and swept it out (not an easy task in a reefer with a ridged metal floor).

Here I wait after having checked in at a Cargil meat plant. My preplan has me taking a load from here to the Walmart DC in Sterling, Illinois with (praise Jeebus) an open appointment at the other end.

I'm going pretty good on miles this week. After I deliver this tonight I should have about 2,500 miles and the cutoff isn't until Wednesday, so it could be 3,500-4,000 by then.

Another day, another preplan

2009-09-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

The rest of the trip up to Rochelle, Illinois was uneventful and I swapped my full trailer with an empty. The next trip was already lined up: deadhead east about forty miles to Aurora, Illinois to take a load heading to Kansas City for delivery any time Saturday. I like it.

I checked in several hours early in Aurora to miss some of the Friday evening Chicago traffic and even with that extra time they still managed to take almost five hours to get me loaded. Since that was more than two hours after the appointment time I punched in the macro for some detention; maybe I'll see a buck or two in a few weeks.

The lazies kicked in on my way back west and I ended the day back in Rochelle.

Whoops, my bad

2009-09-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

Russellville, Batesville, thisville, thatville. What is the difference?

I misread the communique from headquarters last night before I went to bed and thought my next load was coming from ConAgra in Russellville, Arkansas. Apparently, the computer lied to me or something because the load actually originated from Batesville, Arkansas, about 150 miles away. Whoops.

Dispatch was notified of my boo-boo and I motored as fast as I could to the real shipper. Upon arrival, the shipper dithered for four hours before finally getting their act together. I departed in a pouring rain to start four hours of driving along a series of crappy state highways in Arkansas and Missouri before reaching civilization.

I know that the consignee in Rochelle will let me drop and hook so there isn't any real hurry to get there. Because I didn't knock out the deadhead miles to Batesville yesterday I can't complete the entire trip, so I have to stop someplace along the way and Troy, Illinois won the mental battle.

Independence caves to Russellville, Arkansas

2009-09-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

By the time I regained consciousness in the (late) morning a preplan had arrived: head over to nearby Independence, Missouri and grab a load of boxes for the folks at ConAgra in Russellville, Arkansas.

The loading itself was uneventful, though it was interesting to watch a newer driver trying to get backed into a nearby door in his first time "down below". Tried to help, but he wanted to do it his way. At least he didn't scrape anything.

Lots of rain heading south and I went slightly out-of-route to fuel in Joplin, Missouri. Quick quiz: the price of fuel in Joplin was 4 cents lower per gallon than anyplace else on my route. Was it a smart idea to drive 16 extra miles to get that fuel, assuming I needed 160 gallons? I'll answer this tomorrow if I remember.

Anyway, dropped the trailer in Russellville last night and I already have a preplan heading to Rochelle, Illinois for today. Seems like things are picking up.

Lumpers and TiHi's

2009-09-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

My out-of-the-house load this time wasn't from Buske in Springfield, Missouri, but a refrigerated load from Baxter Springs, Kansas up to Kansas City. The load info said it didn't pick up until 2000 hours, but I got there around noon anyways and the lady at their office told me "Oh, we never get out of here that late."

Yeah, right. I finally get called back to the docks around 2300 and was loaded with a whopping three pallets and the wheels turning by 2345. The load was due at a food warehouse in Kansas City by 0230 and I barely made it on time.

We deliver plenty of loads to this particular place and the times I've been there before have all been drop and hooks, but not this time. Me and my three pallets of goods had to get in line, grab a door and do a live unload and this is where I made my mistake.

Mistake, you ask? I figured I would bypass the usual lumper routine and just scoot those three pallets on to the dock myself then turn and burn. Mistake.

It turns out there is this terminology in lumperdom called "TiHi". Basically, it means when you get a big pallet of different kinds of goods it has to be separated into individual pallets, and each of those pallets needs to be organized in a certain way. For instance, there might be a TiHi for a particular product of 24x4, meaning that you're supposed to put 24 boxes on a single level in a pallet and you can stack up to 4 levels high of that product before you need a new pallet.

Now, I was only dealing with three pallets of goods on my truck with a combined weight of just under a ton. How tough could this be?

After getting the paperwork from the receiving drone I was given the news: there were a dozen different items on those three pallets, meaning I would have to break it down to a dozen different pallets. This being a refrigerated load, I'm on a refrigerated dock in my shorts and t-shirt during this little adventure.

By the time I have everything sorted out (boxes kinda look like other boxes -- you have to read the labels and sort them into their own groups) stacked up and "TiHid" it is after 0400 and I'm pooped. The back aches and I'm sweaty, even though it is right at the freezing point where I'm working. Finally, everything gets tagged and signed off on and the paperwork completed, and I retreat to the truck... slowly.

Miracle of miracles, there is actually a parking spot that just opens up at the nearby small truck stop right as I drive in so I quickly park and toss my carcass into the bunk and go to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Some ridiculousness over the Labor Day weekend

2009-09-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

The load of salt heading from Kansas to Nebraska went okay but by the time I arrived in Omaha it was late and I was tired, so I bobtailed to the local Sapp Bros truck stop and snoozed the night away.

Saturday morning rolls around and as soon as I was legally able I was rolling with the new load down to Carthage, Missouri.

Originally, the load was scheduled to deliver there at 1800 on Friday but I was still on the previous load at that time so that didn't happen. I did send in a message to HQ asking them to make sure they have taken care of a late delivery with AmeriCold and was told they would accept the load when I got it there.

Mistake.

Oh, they were happy to accept the load all right but not until I ponied up a $100 Comcheck for the late fee. Now, all our people had to do to avoid this charge was to pick up the phone the previous day and say "Hey, our guy is going to be late." That's it. Somehow this step got omitted. Ridiculous.

Anyway, after an extra 45 minutes of paperwork and time spent waiting for HQ to approve the Comcheck, I dropped my loaded trailer in a door in one of the underground tunnels and picked up an empty up top.

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I deadheaded home for the weekend where I and my checkbook (and my good friend Visa) romped across the greater Springfield area purchasing significant quantities of furniture. Places were just about giving away the stuff!

My least favorite part of trucking

2009-09-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

Some days, my least favorite part of trucking is a tossup. Yesterday, for instance, it was between being delayed at a shipper from 0800 to 1845 (almost eleven hours) waiting on a load or having to still run said load into the wee hours of the morning to get it to its destination on time so I wouldn't be late.

Other things that bother me about this particular load include the realization that I probably won't be paid anything for my wait, and because it was so late it has subsequently jeopardized my weekend plans because I won't be home until Saturday now and there is something that I have to take care of Saturday morning that will impact my entire Labor Day weekend.

Today's satellite tweets from The Overlords include instructions to deadhead to Hutchinson, Kansas to pick up a load of salt heading to Omaha. Once there, drop that trailer at the consignee then head across the river to Council Bluffs, Iowa to pick up a loaded trailer headed to Carthage, Missouri. From where I am now is 741 miles, and even if I were able to run all those miles it would still leave me 50 miles from home.

Ah well, the paycheck will be nicer for it I suppose.

700 miles

2009-09-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

It is a long way from Green River, Utah to Kearney, Nebraska. Seven hundred long miles, in fact. I know, I drove them all today.

The Pilot in Denver was exactly halfway on my journey and I filled up the tanks there. A couple hundred miles or so down the road I stopped in Big Springs, Nebraska for a steak and some soup at the Sam Bass saloon; very good as always.

Already have a preplan for tomorrow: as soon as I drop off this load of clothes I head back east about 30 miles to the Tyson plant in Lexington. They have a loaded trailer ready now that is heading to Emporia, Kansas.

Dispatching the dispatcher

2009-09-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

I've been through three regular dispatchers here at Hill Bros since I started: first was Ross who was quickly replaced by Cory. Then a month or so ago Cory moves over to planning and Bryan enters the picture. Today I had to let Bryan go.

A couple weeks ago I was getting ready to head home after having delivered a load on the south side of Kansas City, Missouri. There isn't anything headed towards the house for the rest of that day, so my dispatcher tells me to pack it in and we'll do something tomorrow. Okay, no problemo.

Since any load heading south will probably be dropped in our yard, I deadheaded there and called it a day... until my dispatcher calls with a problem. Turns out, there is a load there at the yard another driver has left that has to be over at the Coca-Cola plant in Lenexa, Kansas at 0300 the following morning. All of fifteen miles for less than twenty bucks in pay, and I pay for the fuel and everything else. Not a bad deal for an independent truck, skilled driver and the early hour. And no one but me can possibly get it there in time. Oh my.

Naturally, I call horse hockey. We go back and forth for a while until eventually I agree to take the load over so long as I can deadhead home after the trailer is empty and the miles will be counted as deadhead towards my next load, the load I will pick up in a few days from the local Buske operation. This is agreed to and I set my alarm for 0200 and I make everything happen as planned.

Last Friday I got my settlement emailed to me and, as usual, I go over it line-by-line. I don't see any deadhead on that load to Lenexa, nor the one that follows. Where's the beef, I ask.

Yesterday morning I'm told the miles were added to the previous load (where I went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for that load of Miller beer kegs) and it is in the system. Yes sir, its right there. If you don't see it on your settlement, talk with payroll they will get it straightened out.

Well, I double check and it still ain't there so I call the nice lady in payroll. She says she sees the notation for deadhead miles to Springfield when I went home and they are on the previous trip, just like the dispatcher said. Only, there are 242 deadhead miles on that trip and those were what I was paid for running from Eau Claire, Wisconsin to Milwaukee to pick up the load.

I confront my dispatcher (via satellite unit) again, supplying all the trip information and the like which is kind of a pain-in-the-butt with the goofy keyboard. Still, he eventually responds that he's getting together with payroll to get me the miles.

No problemo, I settle back and putter down the road. A while later an unsigned message arrives with a Beep (unsigned messages usually come from the higher-ups) telling me I won't get paid for those miles because after I delivered the Lenexa load I went home. I patiently explain that this was the agreement and I'm still owed my miles.

More puttering and another Beep, and its my dispatcher. Now, remember, I've been on him over the satellite unit since last Friday about these miles. He's told me that they were appended to that other load, that he's getting with payroll to get it straightened out and suchlike, and I have a photographic record of his "tweets" to this effect.

Now the story is different -- I couldn't have made that deal with you; that wasn't the agreement; we only talked about getting more miles, blah blah blah. I didn't bother mentioning I have a record of his remarkable 180 degree turn on one of my cameras.

So, the final message to him is a kind of Trump ending: You're fired. Don't pass go. Get your boss to assign a new dispatcher, blah blah blah.

I was going to post pics of the screen grabs I have but for some reason my $2,000 Nikon can't grab pictures of the satellite screen anywhere near as well as my $200 dinky point-and-shoot I have at the house. I had to settle for videotaping the unit while I page forward through the messages. Regardless, I have the evidence I need, the dispatcher has been dispatched and I will have my satisfaction.

Departing SoCal

2009-09-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

As soon as I put in my empty call at the Ralph's DC a new mission presented itself: head 45 miles southwest to Irvine, California and pick up a load of clothes going to Kearney, Nebraska for Wednesday morning. About 1,360 miles and less than two-and-a-half days to get it there. Groovy.

Afternoon traffic heading south and west along 71 and 55 was surprisingly light and I made the trip in under an hour. If you had told me I would do 45 miles in under an hour in Los Angeles on a workday I would have called you insane. Ah well.

The shipping people for the load were frantically finishing up some FedEx and UPS loads when I arrived but I eventually was waved into a dock. Then that was changed and I was waved into another dock. Whatever, I just drive.

The usual bumping motions commenced with the pallets being moved on one by one. Then that ceased and I went in to see if the paperwork was ready. Only, someone hadn't counted the actual boxes on the pallets and they only thought 498 boxes were aboard and there were supposed to be 503. Heads were scratched, people consulted and eventually the entire freaking trailer was emptied and everything counted. The box count was right this time and everything was moved back into the trailer. Not a very organized place.

Good news: the load only weighs 15,000 pounds so heading back over the Rockies won't be a huge deal.

I only had enough time to run to the Pilot in Hesperia, California then it was lights out.

Today's trip started mid-morning after a refreshing shower. After three or four hours I pulled into an incredibly backed up Pilot in Las Vegas, Nevada (cheaper fuel there than the one in California) and managed to waste a lot of time before I ever got to the pump. Nevertheless, I got in and out as soon as possible and continued northeast along I-15 until reaching I-70 where I turned east towards Denver.

Tonight finds me in Green River, Utah with exactly 700 miles to go to my destination. I may knock all that out tomorrow, or I may leave an hour or two to finish up on Wednesday morning. Dang lazy bug, never gives me any warning.

Waiting and reading and catching up

2009-08-31T14:27:00.000-07:00

I'm here at the Ralph's DC in Riverside, California. Saw some news coverage of the wildfires just north of here and that they are advising surgical-style masks for people with breathing issues. I'm not one of those, but I'm still going to stay inside and keep the AC on, not least of which because its over 100 degrees outside.

Oh, and apparently there is a freaking hurricane on the way to southern California. The one freaking time in recent memory I'm out here, sheesh.

I've been going through some of the reports that Google Analytics comes up with showing traffic patterns, referral sites and the like. It is amazing how much information Google has on what people click on the web.

Anyway, I've been reading up some of the other blogs that have, for whatever reason, decided to link to this one. If you think I've been through some trials and tribulations, you might want to take a gander at VBob's OTR Journal -- this guy started at Millis, had to quit, got rehired, had to quit then got rehired again! At least I think that is how many times that cycle has happened -- I'm not through the 2009 posts yet. Show him some reading love.

Mountains and wind and wildfires, oh my!

2009-08-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

Regular readers of this forum know by now that I tend to be fairly lazy about my driving. By which I mean, miles that don't have to be run until tomorrow generally are left to be run tomorrow. Friday was no different.

I got the loaded trailer straight from the dock at ConAgra in Council Bluffs, Iowa in the late afternoon. Since the cargo was only 32,000 lbs or so there was no reason to scale out and I hit the pavement heading west. By 2100 or so I was nearing Lexington, Nebraska (which regular readers also know is home to My Favorite Wal-Mart) and I decided to pack it in for the night.

Now, I probably should have gone on for a few more hours. The trip out to California is 1,520 miles or so and if I had done only 450 or so my task on Saturday and Sunday would have been easier. But, this is a load with a 1400 appointment out in California so there isn't much need to rush, so the miles left to run were left to run, so to speak.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early (it sure is bright around 10 AM) and I mushed west some more. After five hours or so I made it to Denver and fueled up at the Pilot then continued on I-70 across the Eisenhower and Vail summits. For those of you from elsewhere on the planet not familiar with the Rockies, they are a big-ass range of mountains that divides the far western US from the midwest. This photo, taken several years ago from over 12,000 feet shows the tops of some of these mountains:

Even with the average weight load I was hauling my small engine struggled mightily to climb up the steep grades and my fuel economy sucked badly until I got to the far side.

As darkness was falling I decided to stop at a rest area in Fruita, Colorado. I managed to park next to a "WWE" wrestling truck with large photos of various entertainers plastered on the side. If that is how they get around no wonder they look pissed off all the time.

I awoke to moderate winds this morning and as I made my way west along I-70 the intensity kept building. By the time I made Richfield, Utah and pulled off to use the little driver's room some of the gusts were 35-45 MPH with lots of dust and grit in the air. There was even a whiff of something burning and my eyes were starting to water.

For a while I thought maybe it was smoke from the fires out in the southern California area but that didn't make sense given the distance I was at. Eventually, I came across a large wildfire in the southern part of Utah near the border with Arizona and that explained the smell.

Today's driving concluded at a truck stop in Las Vegas, Nevada. I was considering driving another hour or so but, you know, those damn lazies caught up with me again.

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The (e)mail bag

2009-08-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

When I started my first blog it had one of my email addresses displayed but after a time I ran out of time to answer each of the emails personally. So, I discontinued the practice.

Now there are many more readers of my old and new blogs and my time is still at a premium, yet a few enterprising souls have managed to send in missives via Picasa or YouTube comments and the like.

Therefore, I have come up with a compromise:

I'm going to start an occasional (e)mail bag feature here on the Lease Purchase Journal blog where I answer questions submitted by you, the gentle reader. Since I still don't have much time I can't promise a personal, private reply but if you have something you've wanted to ask, praise or criticize for some time this will give you an outlet.

The address for the (e)mail bag is OTRjournal (at) gmail (dot) com. If you are at all familiar with email addresses you will recognize the address intended and your email will make its way to my attention.

I will post the questions (edited for content, readability and the like) and responses occasionally here on the blog.

(At the time of this writing, Google Analytics shows approximately 2,000 readers each month who get their fix via the website; an unknown quantity receive updates via RSS/Atom/etc. Thus, I'm outnumbered by a fair margin.)

The end of the line...

2009-08-28T07:28:00.000-07:00

... for my trailer.

After unloading this morning I drove back to the yard and took my rig through our safety lane to be inspected. The trailer I have is one of the oldest in the fleet and apparently its number found its way on to the sell off sheet. Instead of worrying about its lights, brakes or insulation it was instead fitted with a red tag marked "SOLD" and I dropped it off in our farthest lot. I've been a driver now for almost three years and this is the first time I recall that happening.

Good news! The Powers That Be assigned me a trip from Council Bluffs, Iowa out to Riverside, California for Monday morning delivery. This means 1,520 uninterrupted blissful miles then the potential for an equally long trip back to the midwest. I urged my dispatcher to check on the condition of the load planner in question, as apparently his palsy must be acting up if he managed to key in my truck number for such a load. Not that I'm complaining.

The load is only about 30,000 pounds which is a very light one coming out of ConAgra. Since my Little Engine That Could and I have to run over Eisenhower and Vail summits in Colorado along the way this is a Good Thing.

This cracker is in Omaha

2009-08-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today's journey was short and sweet. Short in that I only had to drive about 280 miles to Omaha, Nebraska and sweet in that this week is Driver's Appreciation week and Hill Bros is having a cookout each day in one of the buildings, with lots of free food and drink. You don't have to tell drivers about this twice, I note.

I offered to tcall the trailer here at the yard since I had hours to run but there wasn't enough freight and I was told to deliver it tomorrow morning. Thus, after ransacking the free vittles I drove over to the west side of town to the local truck stop for a shower, which happens to be less than a mile away from the Kraft warehouse I deliver at 0600.

New day, new swap

2009-08-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

My body decided I needed to be awake earlier than I set my alarm for. This required a quick dressing session and speed walking to the Flying J building, then a consultation with the porcelain goddess. Is she ever a relief.

Since the other driver I met last night had a load himself, I had to deliver it today about 270 miles northwest in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Everything went smoothly until I actually arrived in Fort Dodge then all hell broke loose.

They are doing some major road destruction in the downtown area and it was directly in the path I needed to take to get to the beer distributor waiting patiently for the 22 tons of suds I had in back. I had to make several tight corners and work my way back out of some narrow streets before I got back to the main road and found another way in to my target.

This is one of the things I don't understand about those (few) drivers who do not care for GPS units. If I didn't have one today I would have been completely borked and it would have taken a long time to get to the distributor. Instead, I zoomed in the map a bit and played around with routes until I made one that went around the blockage and in about five minutes I was chatting with the beer folks in person.

Unloading was the typical slow, we're-in-no-hurry affair I discuss so often. After all the pallets had been removed and only some plastic bulkheads remained the guy doing the unloading went off to an office for a 15-20 minute break. He may have been handling some sort of paperwork but why is any of that my concern? He took the bills with him and when he came back one was signed and he handed it to me after taking care of the bulkheads. Perhaps I aggravate easily, I don't know.

My new orders were in place and I had to deadhead about 105 miles to Marshalltown, Iowa to yet another Swift meatpacking plant that does everything different, yet again. This place has you go past the trailer lot first to the next entrance where you find the washout company, but you back into the dock then keep your trailer once they are done. But you close the doors and seal them with a white seal, which of course you don't do at the Swift plant I was at yesterday. Then you take the paperwork back to the trailer lot and check in at their guard shack and, if you're lucky, your load is ready and all you have to do is drop your empty trailer in a very muddy and pothole-ridden lot. If you are unlucky, you still get to drop but then you get to wait in said lot. Such is your lot in life.

Turns out, we have two loads going to Elkhart, Indiana for 0600 tomorrow morning. The one I was waiting for was MIA, the other load was ready to go. Perfect.

I inform dispatch what the deal is and sit down for dinner. *BEEP* goes the satellite unit.

Eh!? My masters say they've switched loads and I can leave now with the one that is ready. Be still my heart!

I race to get everything taken care of (get paper with trailer number on it; find trailer, hook up, pretrip; scale out; park; walk back to guard shack with paperwork) and leave before someone changes their mind. Biff, bam, boom soon I'm rolling.

Today's trip is, again, a bit too much for a solo driver to legally log. This entails another switch, this time in Atalissa, Iowa. The new driver is ready to go so we swap trailers and paperwork and he boogies, as much as you can boogie with 44,000 pounds of pig in back that is. I hook up to his relatively light (35,000 lb) load heading to Omaha and am calling it a night.

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Swapped load

2009-08-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was told to deadhead from Omaha to Worthington, Minnesota for a load heading to Washington, Missouri. The shipper was a Swift plant (big meatpacking concern) that processes pigs into pork products.

On arrival I followed signs directing me to a business down the street that handles trailer washouts. After a small bit of confusion I get directed to a door and my trailer got a nice bath and a once-over by an inspector. Passing muster, I'm told to drop it somewhere in the large lot and they will handle its movement from then on.

My new trailer is in a nearby lot and eventually I figure out how to get the paperwork... on every day but Sunday you simply go to the same truck washing business and they have the paperwork there. Odd, but every Swift place makes it up completely from scratch.

Trailer attached, paperwork in hand and codes punched into satellite unit I set off across the street to get scaled out. The load is heavy, but I have it right the first time so I nearly sprain my elbow patting myself on the back.

Out to the street to get on to I-90 but the eastbound ramp is closed so I got to drive through lovely downtown Worthington. Once is enough for me.

Since the trip was a bit too long for me to legally complete in one day my dispatcher found a truck with more hours that I could swap with in Alexandria, Missouri. I arrived after dark and we swapped trailers and paperwork, and the other driver headed off into the night to finish off that journey.

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Underground in Valmeyer, Illinois

2009-08-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

I forgot that I shot some videos of one of the caves I've delivered to. Here is a two-parter for your viewing pleasure:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Things we work for

2009-08-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a bit more interesting than normal. On Friday I sat down in the office of a title company and finished the (lengthy) paperwork required in the purchase of a new home.

I have been searching for just the right place for the past three months and the confluence of interest rates under five percent, house prices off a third from their peak and that wonderful $8,000 tax incentive pushed me off the sidelines and into the real estate market.

The weekend was spent with a very lengthy list of things to purchase and install, like a new refrigerator, blinds, lawn mower, carpet mower (vacuum) and the like. I'm definitely doing my part for fiscal stimulus.

This morning we returned to the truck and Snowie is beside herself with joy:

I'm picking up at the Buske underground location in Springfield as usual to run up to Omaha, Nebraska for tomorrow morning.

Beer Hell

2009-08-19T15:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning I drove to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to pick up one of our reefers then east about four hours to Milwaukee for a load of beer from the Miller people. This is the first Miller plant I've been to before and if it is representative of the lot they have a lot of catching up to do with the Budweiser folks.

The check-in procedure was a bit weird. Go to one guard shack, pick up some paperwork, park truck and go to a "driver's lounge" where you use one of two phones to speak with the shipping people. Then, monitor the CB until they tell you what door to head to.

On the back of the paperwork the guard handed to me was a map and he told me to follow the clearly-marked path from the staging lot to where the shipping doors would be. I do so, but the doors there are numbered (roughly) 1-30 and my door is 70. On the back side of the building, perhaps? Nope, but I did get a football field length straight backing opportunity out of the exercise.

So I walk into the shipping office (which is at that building) and ask where the heck they are hiding my door and it turns out there are ten or so docks at some other building a quarter mile away. Back out to the street, make some tight turns, eventually pass through a gate then back into a diagonal slot dock.

Several hundred kegs of Miller Lite beer are forklifted into the trailer and I'm eventually turned loose with the paperwork. Just in time to head out of town in rush hour with 79,600 pounds of truck under me.

I stopped at one of the crappiest Pilot truck stops in the network, that being Beloit, Wisconsin for the night. Crappiest because of the way too tight parking lot and traffic that comes in from two directions on the same u-shaped piece of pavement. Backups galore.

The alarm goes off at 0345 this morning and I'm off. I didn't want to get up at that hour but my load had to deliver by 1400 and it was at least eight hours and a fill up to get to Kansas City. Roughly eight hours and a fill up later, I was there and got the beer off of the trailer speedily enough.

My dispatcher is well aware I need to be home tomorrow and I ask if I should stay where I am at the southern edge of Kansas City or head over to our yard. "Not much moving there, you'd better head to the yard." I do so.

Naturally, a few hours later the nothing much turns into a load sitting at our yard that needs to deliver across town in Lenexa, Kansas at the propitious hour of 0300 tomorrow. All of 15 miles of work on my part, plus wait for it to be unloaded and of course all of the paperwork. In exchange, I exact the promise they will assign me my dreaded Buske load and deadhead me there to pick it up on Monday.

We'll see how well that works out.

An Important Documentary

2009-08-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Cove is a documentary filmed in secret in Japan. Watch the trailer and see the movie when it comes to a movie theater near you (it is in limited release now).

Switching sides

2009-08-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

The trailer I got from the Budweiser plant in Fort Collins was one of our older ones and by the time it came to a rest at the distributor in Omaha the product inside was knocked around pretty good. My load locks were on the floor along with most of the dunnage, including one of those neat inflatable bag things to hold everything in place. Thankfully, the product itself still stood on the pallets and nothing had to be restacked.

I noticed the very rear of the trailer where the metal met the oak floor was bent upward and cautioned the dock supervisor to let his workers know that it was looking sketchy. Then I plugged in a trailer breakdown macro and waited to be unloaded.

The unloading went on and on, more than an hour after the truck before me had left. Then there was nothing heard or felt bumping around in back for a while and I went off to investigate. This is where I found the entire trailer filled nose-to-tail with plastic pallets and separators that the Bud folks use to shuttle their beer on.

Soon enough the manager came out and explained that this trailer was going to be used for today's backhaul to Fort Collins. I mentioned that the trailer was a bit damaged and in need of some TLC and he wisely decided to not bother putting a seal on it, since our maintenance folks would have to immediately tear it off to repair the floor (and anything else causing a ruckus back there).

I was instructed to pull the trailer from the door and drop it on the far side of the parking lot. This is when I realized I was simply being used as a yard jockey and my long wait had been solely for the reason of moving the trailer off the dock once it was loaded. Just another priceless moment in trucking that reinforces my adage: "A trucker's time is only worth something to that trucker, and no other."

The nearby Sapp's truck stop was a good place to take a shower and I took full advantage. My dispatcher also called to get the 411 on the broken-trailer-being-loaded-for-Fort-Collins situation and that got settled. My flu symptoms were still bothering me so I told him as long as we were short on freight in the area let the other drivers go ahead for a bit.

Later, he offered a run down to Atlanta, Georgia but the hours were short and I pointed out that I needed to be home this Thursday for some important matters. He spoke with the Georgia dispatcher to see if we had any freight that would slingshot me home from there and that didn't fly, either, so I was taken off of that load.

The QualComm went off an hour or so later and I was ordered to our yard to pick up a trailer headed to Mondovi, Wisconsin. Only 420 miles or so and I could deliver it any time the next day. Very few details on the load screen though.

I get over to the yard and head in for the paperwork only to find out I'm taking a brand new empty trailer belonging to a company called Marten out to their HQ in Wisconsin. Never one to pass up a light load in the summertime, I hooked up to the trailer and split. I even treated myself to a 63 mph pace for most of the way!

The final couple hours were over state highways in Iowa and Wisconsin, right as night was falling. This place was so far out in the boonies I had to dodge not one but two cows standing in the middle of the road. Arriving in tiny Mondovi I find the address listed on the bills but it turns out they have opened a new facility a mile or so away in just the past month. Getting to it was a bit of a problem because the industrial park in which it was located was so poorly lit, but the buildings themselves were first rate (even nicer than CFI's when I worked for them, which says something in my book).

The head mechanic was out on break when I arrived so I had chance to drop the trailer and park my truck before wandering around aimlessly. Then, a flurry of paperwork and he checked out the trailer to see if everything worked and I was off to a nearby dead-end street where I passed an uneventful night.

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This Ault to be fun

2009-08-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

The people at the Sam's Club DC did their thing this morning in about the time frame I expected, and I was out of there by 1100 or so. A quick jaunt up the interstate to the Budweiser plant in Fort Collins and I swapped my empty for a trailer full of beer.

Ordinarily, when I head to the east from Fort Collins I just go north up I-25 to Cheyenne, Wyoming then turn on to I-80. My GPS showed a shorter route taking Colorado 14 due east from Fort Collins to I-76, which then connects to I-80 in Nebraska. The first town you come across along the way is Ault, Colorado, thus the title of this post.

The road was very straight and almost entirely one lane each way for just under 100 miles. Not too much traffic, though there were a number of bicyclists using the very narrow shoulder. One sneeze on my part and they would end up as a hood ornament real quick.

I stopped at Big Springs, Nebraska (I-80 exit 107) for yet another wonderful steak at the Sam Bass Saloon. From there it was about 340 miles to the Budweiser distributor in Omaha where I'm parked for the night, unloading to begin around 0600.

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Da flu

2009-08-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

Runny nose? Check. Sore throat? Check. Cycles of sweating and chills? Check.

I guess its the flu. Hopefully it is the new pig kind so I can put that puppy behind me. The symptoms were worst yesterday when I left Phoenix, so I only managed about 370 miles up to Jamestown, New Mexico where I fueled this morning.

A nice shower and some good hot food got me going this morning and I managed to rumble, stumble and fumble my way to the Pilot in Denver, Colorado. The load I picked up in Phoenix delivers tomorrow morning just north of here, then I'm preplanned on a beer load immediately after heading to Omaha. Hopefully the body will be up to all of that.

Phoenix

2009-08-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Made it to Phoenix. Waited in stupidly long line to get into PetSmart DC. Dropped trailer then drove back out to the street to park. Not feeling too great, going to get off to bed early and hopefully I feel better tomorrow.

Ciao.

Laziest. Driver. Ever.

2009-08-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well, morning came and woke me up and I got my truck in the shop. My batteries have been acting up for the past month or so and I got tired enough of it that the $350 or so it cost to replace them seems like a good deal.

Of course, doing a simple changeout wouldn't do... there was one connector that wasn't attached to anything and when the new batteries were put in the engine would turn over but wouldn't catch and start. Another mechanic took a look and found a small, innocuous cable the first one had missed that goes to the ECU and that was why it wouldn't start.

I told my dispatcher that I would be ready to go Tuesday morning at 0400. He rewarded me by giving me a load picking up in Aurora, Nebraska and heading down to PetSmart in Phoenix again... just like last week.

It took almost an hour to hunt up an empty van trailer in Omaha... everything we had at the lot was either loaded or red tagged by the shop. I got sent over to the Nebraska Furniture Mart after one of our local drivers spotted a couple empties there.

The drive to Aurora was easy enough and the trailer I was picking up was loaded and ready to go. Even better: the tandems have that neat-o air slide system so I didn't have to pull a muscle trying to get the weight distributed properly. Scaled out on site, the guard did his thing with the paperwork and I was on my way.

Now, my plan was to head down to Salina, Kansas for a fill up then drive a few more hours to Dodge City, Kansas for the night. After I got showered and fed myself the dreaded lazies kicked in and I mentally surveyed the situation. It is about 1,100 miles from Salina to Phoenix which means two 550-mile days -- no problem for most drivers. Driving those few extra hours today would make the next couple days a bit shorter but that would require initiative and determination, and I was plum out of both.

So here I sit at the Bosselman Pilot. Tomorrow I'll run down the state highways to Tucumcari, New Mexico and end up in Santa Rosa or Moriarty, or even Albuquerque if I'm feeling up to it.

Busy weekend

2009-08-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't had many busy weekends this summer but boy howdy this last one made up for it.

That light load of PetSmart stuff was due in Denver Sunday morning at 0500 local time. I drove from Grants, New Mexico to Denver on Saturday and parked across the street from one of my favorite restaurants: Claim Jumper.

Now, I used to live in southern California and was a regular devotee of CJ but since I've been in the midwest it has literally been years since I stepped inside. The menu and portion sizes were as I remembered (huge), the quality great and the ambiance the same. If you haven't been to one yet and you have a chance, give it a try it really is that good. This was the something special I referenced in my last post.

Anyway, I remembered that there was a closed Circuit City across the street from Denver's CJ so I parked there along with a lot of other cars and trucks. Colorado is doing work on the 470 West route and it was backed up big time when I arrived, but not so much at 0400 the next morning. Not at all, really.

The PetSmart guy had my trailer unloaded by 0530 and I was on my way to my next stop: the Sierra Trading Outpost distribution center in Cheyenne, Wyoming. A couple hours of driving got me there, then the long wait began.

Our company takes a trailer full of their products heading to the UPS distribution hub in south Chicago every evening. My dispatch said it would be ready to go by 1700, but the warehouse folks told me it would be 1900. Since it is almost 950 miles due east to Chicago and it has to be there the following day by 1500, a solo driver like myself can't get it there legally. Thus, we t-call the load at our HQ in Omaha and another driver takes over.

The load was ready at 1900, which is really 2000 central time. So, I've been up since 0400 that morning and now it is almost nighttime and I have to drive another 500 miles. My least favorite part of trucking, by far.

I did nap a bit and had some chocolate on hand (for medicinal purposes only, mind you). Chocolate has caffeine so it is a mild stimulant and since I don't smoke or drink colas it is one of the few pick-me-ups I have access to.

The hours slowly went by and I kept myself entertained listening to an audio book that covers all the kings and queens of England from William the Conqueror in 1066 to the present. Fascinating stuff if you enjoy history -- for instance, I didn't realize there have been fewer kings and queens than US presidents! They have us beat hands down in the colorful character department however.

I had to stop midway to Omaha for a 45-minute power nap, then it was back on the road and listening to more court intrigue and such. By the time I was approaching Lincoln, about an hour away from Omaha, I started running into intermittent heavy fog. Fog is about the worst thing you can drive in and I slowed down and added nearly an hour to my travel time to be safe.

Finally, about 0430 I arrived at our company yard and hand off the trailer to the new driver then hit the sack.

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Windy trip down to Phoenix

2009-08-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Wednesday and Thursday were spent chugging down the road, through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico then on in to Arizona. I timed my 1900 arrival in Phoenix to avoid much of the evening rush and the 101 loop around the west edge of the city was busy but moving at full speed.

The PetSmart DC had a bit of a traffic jam with a line of five or six trucks trying to enter at once. Since I was shutting down for the night anyway I parked a block away and had dinner while the jam cleared up. Went in myself, dropped off the paperwork and trailer then back out to the street for a good night's rest.

The last 300 or so miles of the trip were increasingly windy and my truck was buffeted quite a bit descending to the Phoenix area. There was a nice rocking motion overnight that helped me get to sleep, though.

First thing this morning I flipped on my truck ignition to wake my QualComm from its sleep mode and entered a daily macro giving my mileage and hours. Within a minute it beeped at me and I had my next trip: take a load of (what I expect at least) flour from Phoenix to the Kansas City area for first thing Monday morning. Not a bad weekend trip, 1,200ish miles over three days but there was a snag: when I went back to the PetSmart lot to grab an empty van I was told they couldn't release any and in fact needed some more delivered!

I advised dispatch and waited for several hours while things percolated through the system and eventually was taken from the KC load and put on a PetSmart load. Better, it is one of the rare one-stop loads and only weighs 15,000 pounds! The hills north of Phoenix will quake before my tread!

Before anyone could change their minds I grabbed the (half) loaded trailer and punched in the codes to tell HQ I have the trailer and am underway. It was just after 0900 local time so the traffic was still heavy but the 101 was still moving well and in about 30 minutes Phoenix was fading away in my mirrors.

My truck easily powered up the hills of I-17 to Flagstaff then I turned right on to I-40 and took it to Winslow, Arizona for some shopping then Jamestown, New Mexico for fueling, then Grants, New Mexico for the night.

It was very windy all of today which was nice getting a push in the butt heading up towards Flagstaff but after turning east it was squarely on my right side and with such a light load I was blown around a bit. Still, given the choice, in summertime I'll stick with the light load.

I'm planning something special for tomorrow so stay tuned...

"No thanks, I'll t-call in Omaha."

2009-08-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

Monday morning brought orders to pick up a load of spuds from nearby Minden, Nebraska and take it down to Frito Lay in Jonesboro, Arkansas. One catch on this 700-mile trip: it can't deliver until Wednesday morning, two full days hence.

"Ah hell no," I snorted.

A while later my new dispatcher asked if I would be willing to at least pick up the load, take it to Kansas City then t-call it and he'd get me a good load from there. Now, I've only been here 18 months or so but the odds of getting a good load out of KC are pretty close to the birthers closing their case but being a good team player I agreed to the deal.

About 45 minutes later I'm at this spud processing plant out in the middle of nowhere with dump trucks filled with spuds straight from the fields coming in and unloading on a conveyor belt that leads into a large warehouse structure. There is a single dock with a movable conveyor belt arm thing poking out so when you dock it is about fifteen feet or so inside your trailer (think proctology exam). The conveyor is then turned on and twenty tons of fresh-from-the-field spuds are dumped inside on the floor.

My turn comes and I back the truck up (coughing, for some reason) and set the brakes. They have it set up with a scale under the truck while you're being loaded so they can put on as many pounds of spuds as they need to. I even shot some video but haven't had chance to process or upload it yet.

I'm loaded and have the paperwork so I head out. It has been a few hours by now so I message my dispatcher and ask for an update on the t-call and the new load out of KC. After a short delay he tells me that the t-call is no problem but they have squat coming out of KC so I'll kind of be stuck. The under-the-radar message is, of course, "Hey, why don't you take that neat-o load down to Jonesboro for us!"

"Ah hell no," I snorted.

I messaged back that I'd be up in Omaha in an hour and we can t-call it there. He responds that Omaha is out of route and they'll try to move the delivery appointment up. Later, he sends a message stating that they can't but I can try to sweet talk the broker.

I roll into our Omaha yard and t-call the load.

My truck needs some TLC anyhow, and I figure the odds of getting a decent load are about 53.8 times better from Omaha than Kansas City.

So, truck gets greased, oil change, new filters, patched a few holes in Rosie (don't ask) and I even had the tire shop rotate my super singles since the ones in the rear are wearing down faster than the ones up front.

A few hours after all that is taken care of on Tuesday morning the QualComm beeps and I'm heading to Aurora, Nebraska (about ten miles from Grand Island, where I was yesterday before I was sent on the Great Spud Adventure) to take a load of pet chow down to Phoenix. Only, it is noonish and the load won't be ready until 2100.

2100 rolls around and, indeed, the load is ready. Pick it up, adjust tandems, scale out, take care of paperwork and roll down the road. Just under three hours later I'm in Salina, Kansas and done for the night.

Another slow weekend

2009-08-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

There may be a competition I am not yet aware of to determine exactly the fewest number of miles you can drive over the weekend. In my case, it was under 300.

Once I was unloaded in Kansas City the planners got to their thing and determined that my next trip would pick up Sunday morning on the east side of town (Missouri side) and deliver Sunday night at the Sam's Club 2200 in Grand Island, Nebraska. Bleh.

At least the load was ready early and I picked it up, then went to the nearby Blue Beacon to get scaled (the one in Kansas City has a CAT scale with a drive-up window, love it!). The load is nose heavy but I have some slide left so I put that in, but no go. Still 760 pounds over on the drives.

Head back over to the Sam's DC and they reworked the load. Turns out it was a newer forklift guy who didn't appreciate the difference between a regular van and the extra weight up front in a reefer. Scaled out again just a bit off so slid the tandems back a bit and finally scaled legal. Four scales for one load, ouch.

The trip up to Grand Island was windy but boring. I stopped at the Bosselman Pilot there to grab a shower then spent a few quality hours on the docks getting unloaded. A Walmart down the road served to fill up my fridge and pantry so at least I'm ahead on that score.

Danville, Arkansas

2009-08-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, back to Danville, Arkansas, site of my post "Turn left at the dead coon, dodge the tree stumps and watch out for the tight turns". This time, picking up a brokered load at a large chicken processing outfit to take up to Kansas City, Kansas.

The shortest route from Texarkana to Danville is a very twisty two-lane road that I would prefer to avoid. I would have preferred to avoid the extra eighty miles of out-of-route but that was the choice.

Arriving right at noon I discovered that my trailer wasn't completely up to snuff for their inspection criteria and got directed to a neat little outdoor washout area. They provide a ladder, some brooms (and a rake, yikes) and a pressure washing hose with fairly anemic pressure. It turns out that washing the inside of a reefer isn't that bad and if it was a bit hotter, it may have turned out to be quite enjoyable!

Then the real wait began. Wait for a dock to open up. Wait for the trailer to be inspected. Wait a long time for the product to be loaded. Wait to be told to depart from the dock and button up the trailer. Wait for the paperwork. Wait for the seal. Wait for everything to be signed off on by the company ~~Gestapo~~ health inspectors. Wait for the little old guard lady at the gate to laboriously check everything over then walk to the back of my truck to inspect the seals instead of letting me pull forward. Wait, wait, wait.

Five hours after arrival I was on my way north to Kansas City. I fueled up in Peculiar, Missouri last night since the price of fuel is going up by nine cents this weekend across our fuel network. Spent the rest of the night there at the truck stop, then ran out the last 45 minutes or so after my split break ended this morning.

More wait, wait, wait at the consignee. Three hours to take off 20 or so pallets. Such is the life.

I broke the (memory) bank

2009-07-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

Mid morning rolled around and I was given a load from nearby Schaumberg, Illinois to Texarkana, Arkansas. Weird instructions too -- its a load of rejected products heading back to AmeriCold and consists of six pallets.

I find the shipper and that is a doozy. Think a city block with a narrow path around three sides of the building for trucks and cars to squeeze by as they make their way around. Some of the shipping docks, including the one I used, are actually inside the building itself. Inside, dozens or hundreds of workers are working to package and distribute pizza ingredients going to make the Tombstone pizza brand, for instance.

The labyrinth was traversed and those six pallets hustled aboard. All 5,400 pounds of chicken knuckles (I kid you not) that apparently didn't pass quality control. How bad a chicken knuckle has to be to fail such a test is unknown to me.

Chicago traffic wasn't bad at all as I made my way south to I-57 for the rest of yesterday's trip that ended at Mount Vernon, Illinois.

Along the way a curious thing happened: I have my electronic DID (Driver Information Display) on my dash set up to show my current MPG and the MPG averaged since the last time I reset it. I normally reset each time I fuel so I can get a rough idea how well I'm doing.

Glancing down I saw that it not only reset itself but failed to restart the "since the last reset" value. It would show me what I was doing that moment, fuel-wise, but the running total wouldn't display. I even took video. Eventually I reset it as if I had just fueled and that seemed to satisfy the beast.

Today's drive was very routine to begin with. I fueled in Hayti, Missouri then headed west along I-40 in Arkansas in intermittent heavy rain showers. There were a number of cars and even a big rig spun out in the median or along the shoulders on both sides of the interstate; surprising how many people don't understand basic driving principles.

Anyway, my trusty tires kept me on course and I made it safe and sound to Texarkana and was unloaded without delay. The preplan for tomorrow could well be a doozy... but I'll leave you hanging on that for a bit.