Bill the Truck Driver?

Hey Folks.  It’s still busy out here but I’ve carved out a few hours for myself this afternoon to try to catch up on several things, including this blog.  I’m going to try keeping a running ‘diary’ in MS Word on the laptop from now on. Maybe that will make it easier to just copy & paste it to the blog when I have time (and an Internet connection).

It seems like my day to day life is becoming a bit repetitious, so to keep the blog from becoming the same to you readers I’m going to change the format a bit. At the beginning of each entry I’ll list the load info for the day; pickup/delivery locations, where I overnighted, etc.  Then if anything interesting (and worth writing about) happened I’ll add that afterward.  That way my family and friends can keep up with where I am at a glance, and hopefully any extra prose I add will be more entertaining.  Let me know if you like it (or not).

Saturday, 11/25:

• Picked up an empty trailer at the Charlotte OC .
• Drove to Cowpens, SC to exchange it for a load of corrugated paper.
• Hauled the load to the Atlanta OC to drop for relay.
• Next assignment: Picked up a High Value load on a container trailer in Ellenwood, Ga (near
  Atlanta) destined for Manteno, Il.
• Went back to the Atlanta OC to spend the night.

I had a nice two days at home w/ Terrie for Thanksgiving, but now it was time to get back to it.  The first load was pretty routine; just a short drive down I-85 to Atlanta.  There wasn’t much more to the second one either. Once I got the trailer and was ready to roll it was about time to quit for the day, so I decided to just stay at the Atlanta OC for the evening and get an early start tomorrow.

Sunday, 11/26:

• Left Atlanta  ~7am
• Drove as far as the Indianapolis OC to spend the night
• Mileage: 552

These are the kind of days I’m beginning to like; driving all day with no pickups or deliveries.  There was one interesting event on the way:

On I-65 N, just before I got to Indianapolis, I came up on a rider on a Harley Davidson trike.  Not one of those nice high-dollar jobs, but a cheap conversion type that still has the original back wheel with what looks like two large training wheels tacked on.

Anyway the guy was going ~10 mph below the speed limit, so I eased over to the left and passed.  A few seconds later he hit the gas and zoomed around me to pull in front again.  After a mile or so he slowed suddenly and started jerking the handlebars back and forth, swerving from the lane to his left to the shoulder and back again.  Traffic was fairly heavy and I couldn’t go around him, so I had to hit the brakes pretty hard to keep from running all over him.  His swerving was so violent that cars in the other lanes were afraid to pass him and he ended up holding up all three lanes of traffic.

After a few seconds of these antics, he straightened up and accelerated back up to the speed limit.  After a mile or so he repeated the whole show.  I assume he was running out of gas and was swerving the bike to try to shake a few more drops into the pickup in the tank, because after each time he would accelerate again briefly.  Either that or he wanted to commit suicide and kept chickening out, ‘cause he almost got run over several times.

He finally pulled off at an exit with a gas station.

Monday, 11/27:

• Left the Indy. OC ~6:45am
• Made my delivery at the Sears DC in Manteno, IL
• Next assignment: Bobtail to the K-Mart DC in Manteno to pick up an empty trailer
• Dropped the empty in Kankakee, Il and picked up a loaded one headed for
  Statesville, NC
• My route took me back by the Indy. OC, so I stopped there again for the night
• Mileage: 356

 

Tuesday, 11/28:

• Left the Indy. OC ~8am
• Drove all day, stopped for the night at a Flying J truck stop on I-77 in
  Wytheville, Va.
• Mileage: 430

Another day of nothing but driving.

Wednesday, 11/29:

• Made my delivery at the Lowe’s DC in Statesville
• Next assignment: Pick up an empty trailer from the Lowe’s DC, take it to Lexington
• Exchange it for a loaded one bound for Emerson, NJ
• Stopped at a Pilot truck stop on I-85 in Whitsett, NC to weigh the rig
• Drove as far as Colonial Heights, Va before stopping for the night at another Pilot truck stop
• Mileage: 366

 I had been hoping that since I was so close to home my next load would bring me through Charlotte, where I could go to the house for a night.  But as you can see I was sent in the other direction.  Maybe next time…

  

Thursday, 11/30:

• Made my delivery in Edison, NJ
• Next assignment: Pick up an empty trailer in Edison and take it to Keasley, NJ
• Exchange the empty for a loaded one bound for Findlay, OH.
• Drove as far as Columbia, NJ before stopping at a Travel America truck stop in I-80
• Mileage: 418

Apparently this wasn’t my day to meet friendly people.  I don’t know why, but everyone I came in contact with today was a…. well…. let’s just say they were less than cordial.

The first was the ‘nice young man’ in the shipping office at the warehouse in Edison.  As is common practice, I had been sent a specific empty trailer number to pick up there. Schneider owns a LOT of trailers and tries hard to keep tabs on where each one is.  Therefore it’s important that we drivers follow through on those instructions, or else go through the process of getting the assignment changed.

The warehouse personnel had parked all the empty trailers in a line nose to tail so close to each other you couldn’t open the doors on any but the last in line. Obviously the only one that I could couple to was the first in line, which wasn’t the one I was supposed to take. When I asked the ‘nice young man’ if they could get it out for me he threw a tantrum and started ranting about them being all the same and told me to just take one and leave him alone.

OK…fine with me.  I don’t argue with our customers, I let our Customer Service folks do that.  So I called my STL with the story, but rather than deal with the ‘nice young man’ he decided to just change my assignment so I could take the trailer I could get to.

Next was the ‘nice gate guard’ at the warehouse in Keasley.  Frankly, I think he is the father of the ‘nice young man’ at the last place, except he wasn’t as charming.  First he was quite put out because I didn’t already know where to drop the empty trailer.  Then I had the NERVE to ask where the shipping office was.  By the way, unlike most warehouses there’s not a single sign on their property pointing out where these things are located.

OK…fine.  I got to the office and was told the paperwork wouldn’t be ready for another half hour, so I went back to my truck and spent that time catching up on my trip plan for the load.  When I went back a half hour later the paperwork was ready, so I headed out to get the trailer.

Their lot was pretty crowded, and try as I might I couldn’t find my trailer number.  Not wanting to see that ‘nice gate guard’ again so soon, I parked the truck and started searching on foot.  And there it was, right in front of me, behind three other trailers that had it blocked in.  Fortunately a ‘yard dog’ (guys on small tractors that jockey trailers around the lot) came by about the time I found the trailer.  Unfortunately he was also prone to tantrums and threw a big one when I asked about freeing my loaded trailer.

OK…fine.  Back to the ‘nice gate guard’, who immediately informed me that if I wanted a trailer moved I’d have to find a ‘yard dog’ to do it.  See the circle we’re turning here?

I didn’t want to do this twice in one day, but it was time for another call to our support folks who by now were the night shift people in Green Bay.  I was told that they’d call our Customer Service dept., who in turn would call the shipper to see what they could do to get me on my way.  If I’d wait just a few minutes they’d send me a reply via the Qualcomm.

About a half hour later I spotted a guy with a clipboard walking down the dock checking trailers.  I watched him for a few minutes and he didn’t SEEM to already be angry about anything, so I gave him a shot.  To my surprise he was fairly civil, and said he’d see what he could do for me.  In about 5 minutes the original ‘yard dog’ came sliding up and yelled out his window for me to show him which trailer I needed.  I did so, and stayed far out of the way while he moved the three blocking trailers; a feat that took him another whopping 5 minutes.

I sent a ‘never mind’ message to support with the good news, and finally got away from that place a little after 6.  The timing was perfect for me to join the daily rush hour traffic, and did so for an hour and a half before getting to the closest truck stop.  Oh, and about the time I was pulling into my parking spot the Qualcomm beeped with a message from support; they wanted to know if I still needed them to call the shipper.

 

Friday, 12/01:

• Left the TA in Columbia, NJ ~7:45
• Drove to the Seville, OH OC and stopped for the evening
• Mileage: 387

I could have gotten an earlier start today and drove further, and probably should have.  But after several days of leaving early and not getting to a stopping place until after dark I was ready for a little break.  Considering the aggravating day I had yesterday I decided to take my time leaving this morning and just drive as far as the Seville OC.  Besides, the delivery time on the load is any time before noon tomorrow.

There’s a large wave of cold, wet, windy weather working it’s way across the country and I got a little taste of it today.  This morning it was cloudy with temps in the mid 60’s when I left Columbia.  The weather deteriorated to pounding rain as I headed west across PA and into OH, and by day’s end the rain was gone but the wind was gusting in the 50s.  Oh, and the temps had dropped to the upper 30s.  Looks like tomorrow may be quite interesting.