Hey gang… I’m updating from home for a change!  After three and a half weeks on the road I got here for TAH on Friday afternoon.  On Saturday we hosted a wedding shower for our youngest son and his fiance, giving us a chance to visit with friends and family.  On top of that our sons and their ladies spent the weekend with us, which is a treat we particularly enjoy…

• Date(s): 4/10 to 4/11
• From/To: Midway, TN to Indianapolis, IN
• Mileage: 377
• Cargo:  Pallets

Had to wait an hour or so to get three trailers moved that were blocking my load, but otherwise a decent trip up to the Indy OC.

• Date(s): 4/12
• From/To: Indianapolis, IN to Gas City, IN
• Mileage: 84
• Cargo:  Store Merchandise

Picked up this relay and took it just up the road to Gas City for a live unload.  I’m getting used to the fact that a few days before TAH the loads get a little ‘quirky’ as they start routing me home.

• Date(s): Gas City, IN to Statesville, NC
• From/To: 4/12 to 4/13
• Mileage: 573
• Cargo:  Cardboard cartons

The pickup was a live load about three blocks from my last unload, followed by an easy drive to Statesville for a live unload.  Afterwards I drove the 40 miles to the Charlotte OC to drop the empty and start a much anticipated three days at home.

Hello from a rainy Indianapolis OC.  It’s Wednesday afternoon and I’m sitting on a relay load with a 6:30 live unload appointment for tomorrow morning.  Since there’s a little free time and Internet access together I thought I’d get an update posted.  Hope you’re all doing well… 

• Date(s): 3/31 to 4/2
• From/To: McCook, IL to Mechanicsville, VA
• Mileage: 813
• Cargo:  Dessert Preparation

This is a relay load I picked up at our drop yard in McCook, which is a community in the middle of the Chicago metropolitan area.  And for once I was happy to pick up a relay, ’cause the shipper was also in the city and probably wasn’t as easy to get to.  The driver who picked up the load didn’t have a change to get it weighed so I stopped by a TA in Gary, IN to do so.  It took a little tandem sliding but I was able to get the load legal.

There was good mileage on this load but it also had a live unload scheduled for 11 pm on Monday, and I could arrive on Sunday evening.  I called Adam to see if he could do anything to help me avoid the delay, and he tried but there was nothing he could do.

It’s the first of April and the beginning of a new quarter, which for a few brief hours gave me another chance to earn a quarterly bonus.  But apparently somewhere in my subconscience is a burning desire to keep that from happening, because when I arrived at the food warehouse to make my delivery I immediately backed my trailer into another drivers truck.  I felt I was being careful, even got out to look a couple of times, but to no avail.  The damage was no more than a scrape on a piece of fibreglass, and the driver was quite understanding, but as they say the damage was done.

The food warehouse finished unloading me by ~3am, and even though I had more hours left on my clock I decided to stop for a little rest.  My log didn’t reflect it, but it had been a tough day.

I had to have the mandantory talk with my STL the next morning, and of course she quickly reasoned out exactly what caused my ‘incident’ and how it could have been prevented.  I just went along with her quietly.  After all the bottom line is I was driving the truck and it was my responsibility, regardless of any other circumstances.  Trying to explain to someone who has never “been there” was pointless.

• Date(s): 4/2 to 4/3
• From/To: Williamsburg, VA to Raymond, NH
• Mileage: 665
• Cargo:  Store Merchandise

This was a drop-and-hook load from one Wal-Mart DC to another, and with decent mileage to boot.  It was a good load and I was ready for one.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought spring officially started a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve even seen trees starting to bud and grass turning green in VA, but it seems the New England area is running a little behind this year.  On Monday I drove as far as Perryville, MD before stopping for the night, and when I hopped out of the truck it was COLD.  Then on Tuesday I was driving through a cold rain and then snow by the time I made my delivery that afternoon.  Jeeze, I’ve seen enough of this stuff!

• Date(s): 4/4 to 4/7
• From/To: Rumford, ME to Danville, KY
• Mileage: 1213
• Cargo:  Rolls of Paper

I was awakened several times during the night by the noise of an engine passing back and forth past my rig, accompanied by a strange scraping sound.  I guess I never woke up enough to recognize what it was, but by morning’s light I could see where someone had scraped the fresh 6″ of snow from the parking lot during the night.

It was still snowing lightly as I started up I-95 toward ME, and the farther I went the harder it snowed.  The Interstate was in fair condition with only occassional covered stretches, but what worried me was that the last 40 or so miles to the shipper was on a state highway.  And sure enough when I got that far there were parts of it that hadn’t seen a snow plow.  The only thing to do was slow down and stay very alert for the slightest indication that the truck was beginning to lose traction.  A couple of other drivers came up behind me, but I must have been making reasonable progress ’cause they kept their distance and didn’t seem impatient.

Some guys chatting on the CB said the area got 15″ of snow the night before, and I have no doubt that it’s true.  However the shipper had done a good job of clearing paths to their trailer lot so I was able to drop my empty and pick up the load with no problem.

As I started back down the road toward I-95 about an hour later I was startled at the progress that had been made in clearing the roads.  Not only was it completely cleared of snow, but in a few spots it was already dry!  Granted the temperature was hovering around freezing and the sun was peeking out from time to time, but the change in such a short time was amazing none the less.

Snow showers, sometimes quite heavy, continued throughout the rest of the day but the roads remained clear and I made it as far as Newburgh, NY by day’s end.  And that same weather stayed with me until I delivered on Saturday morning in Danville, where it had become a beautifully sunny but chilly day.

• Date(s): 4/7 to 4/8
• From/To: Kimper, KY to Carlisle, PA
• Mileage: 637
• Cargo:  Prepared Food

This trip started with a drive across the Kentucky back country.  The roads were pretty good, but it was some of the most rugged terrain I had traveled through.  The steepness of some of the grades made me glad I was pulling an empty trailer.  The shipper was out in the middle of nowhere, and by the time I got there it was late and I was once again out of hours for the day.  Fortunately they allowed overnight parking, so I spent the night there and picked up my load the next morning.

Then it was back north, and believe it or not back through more heavy snow squalls along the route.  I made it to the Harrisburg, PA OC where I was to drop the load for relay.

• Date(s): 4/9
• From/To: Carlisle, PA to Mount Carmel, PA
• Mileage: 84
• Cargo:  Rolls of Paper

This was another relay pickup at the OC that had a live unload just up the road.

• Date(s): 4/9 to 4/10
• From/To: Lebanon, PA to Midway, TN
• Mileage: 549
• Cargo:  Paint

Live load in Lebanon, then an uneventful ride down to another Wal-Mart DC in Midway.

I like driving a truck… I wish I did it for a living!  Sorry to start a post on a negative thought, but lately it seems I spend more time sitting than driving.  I’m currently parked at a truck stop on I-64 near Lexington, VA.  This is where I spent the night, and I’ll have to sit here until ~8pm before I drive to Mechanicsville for an 11pm live unload appointment.

 In fact out of my last 9 loads, 8 have had a live load or unload.  On top of that almost every load has had an appointment on one end or the other (or both) that forced me to sit when I should be driving, often for half a day or more.   It may just be a string of bad luck, and I certainly hope it is, but it doesn’t come anywhere near the “90% drop and hook” that the recruiter and class instructors bragged about.

For those not familiar with the business, the frustrating part of sitting is that you’re not being paid.  Our salary is based on cents-per-mile, so as the tired old saying goes “If the wheels ain’t turnin’, you ain’t earnin’”.  We do receive a small amount of compensation if we’re delayed at a shipper, but that doesn’t apply to the unneeded time between appointments.  As a result my last few paychecks have been miserably small.

• Date(s): 3/28 to 3/29
• From/To: Baltimore, MD to Norwich, CT
• Mileage: 315
• Cargo:  Copper Cathodes

This was another live load with a live unload at the other end and included an extra bonus; a scenic drive through the middle of New York City.  I survived that, and otherwise it was an uneventful trip.

• Date(s): 3/29 to 3/31
• From/To: Bridgeport, CT to Joliet, IL
• Mileage: 922
• Cargo:  OTC Drugs

I don’t particularly like running the northeast and midwest areas, especially around big cities.  Joliet is south of Chicago but close enough for their traffic to suffer.  Courtesy is nonexistant, even among many truckers.  But at least I was able to head west from CT and avoid another trip through NYC.

The shipper’s dock was in a very small and busy alley behind a building shared by a number of businesses.  When I arrived there were three other trucks waiting to be loaded, so I checked in with the shipper and waited.  All of the other trucks were day cabs pulling short trailers (what you’d normally see making local deliveries in the city), and they had to maneuver a bit to get to the dock.  Getting my OTR truck and 53′ trailer in there was a bit of a trick, but I was able to work it in after a few restarts.

When my turn came the shipper had to act as traffic control to get me in because the two trucks that had arrived after me kept trying to jump in while I was trying to get backed up to the dock.  One driver seemed ready to fight, but while he and the shipper were ‘discussing’ the issue I managed to back around him and get set up for loading.

At least I had the best smelling rig there; that Oregano from a couple of loads back was hanging tough.  I would finally be able to drop this trailer in Joliet.

There was a little spare time built into the schedule on this one (as in most lately) and I took advantage of it by stopping at our Seville OC (near Akron, OH) to take care of a little maintenance.  The trailer needed a tire, and my tractor had an air leak that needed attention.  Both were taken care of in a timely manner and I was once again on my way.

Hi Gang… We had a wonderful time this weekend visiting our kids in the Raleigh area.  Now I’m back to it, sitting at a dock in Baltimore waiting on a live unload.  Hope you’re all doing well… 

• Date(s): 3/20 to 3/21
• From/To: York, PA to Dublin, GA
• Mileage: 720
• Cargo:  Recycled Paper

I’ve run this same load before, and as always it was nice to get a run back to the south.  The only event of note was the citation issued by the Virginia State Trooper at a weigh station in VA.  They had an officer standing behind the scales checking tires as you pulled on, and I had a couple on the trailer that were in bad shape.

When I pretripped the rig that morning I noticed one trailer tire that was well worn, but it looked to me that it would be OK for a few more miles.  On the other side of the trailer the tires looked new.  What I didn’t do was pull the trailer forward a few feet to check the side of the tires that was on the ground.  Had I done so I would have seen the two huge flat spots worn past the steel belts and into the cord.  It was obvious that someone had drug the trailer with that hub locked and had ruined two tires.  I don’t see how a driver could do this much damage without knowing it.

But while the tires were bad enough to warrant a citation (and fine), the nice officer sent me on my way without worrying about when/if I would have them fixed.  I suppose that shows exactly where their priority lies.  I contacted SEM before leaving the weigh station and arranged to have the tires replaced at the first available stop on my route.  They looked bad enough to me to be dangerous, and had I seen the damage when I picked up the trailer I wouldn’t have pulled it at all until they were replaced.

I was happily surprised when my STL forwarded the citations to Green Bay to be paid, and since there was no moving violation or license points involved there was nothing more said about it.  She even volunteered that she wouldn’t have thought to check the bottom of an otherwise ‘good’ tire either.

• Date(s): 3/21 to 3/22
• From/To: Garden City, GA to Charlotte, NC
• Mileage: 345
• Cargo:  Lawn & Garden Merchandise

Garden City is a suburb of Savannah, and is where a major shipping port is located.  I’ve only been to sea ports a couple of times, and between the extreme security and sheer volume of cargo being moved about each turned out to be a frantic exercise in dealing with utter chaos.  This trip was no different, but at least I was expecting the worst and that made the ordeal a little less stressful.

Once I had the load I headed up I-95 a few miles before finding a place to spend the night.  The next morning I had a pleasant drive to Charlotte, dropped the loaded trailer for relay, and headed off for a much anticipated four days at home.

• Date(s): 3/27 to 3/28
• From/To: Charlotte, NC to Baltimore, MD
• Mileage: 410
• Cargo:  Oregano

Coming off my TAH I was as cranky as usual, and another load heading up the I-95 corridor didn’t help much.  The TA truck stop right at my exit in Baltimore where I spent the night was a real rat hole of a place as well.  Anyway I survived the night, then sat for a live unload the next morning before heading out on my next load.

Hi everyone… I’ve gotten several loads in a row with ‘extra time’ built in.  After talking to several other drivers it seems to be pretty common.  I guess freight is a little ’soft’ right now, as the company has been saying.  From what I hear there’s usually a busy season beginning soon… we’ll see.

• Date(s): 3/15 to 3/16
• From/To: Dayton, NJ to Shelby, NC
• Mileage: 607
• Cargo:  Wax

Another drive down the I-95 corridor, and thanks to the next load an unexpected night at home!

• Date(s): 3/16 to 3/19
• From/To: Charlotte, NC to Concordville, PA
• Mileage: 548
• Cargo:  Plastic bottles

Another load with plenty of ‘extra’ time built in.  I had to drive to York, SC (30 miles away) on Friday afternoon to pick up an empty, and since the pickup was scheduled for Saturday afternoon I spent the night at the Charlotte OC (in other words, home).

The pickup went smoothly enough but took several hours.  The delivery wasn’t scheduled until Monday morning, and with only one day’s drive to get there I spent another night at home.  These surprise home visits are great, but frankly if I’m going to be a truck driver and paid by the mile I’d rather be loaded and driving.

• Date(s): 3/19 to 3/20
• From/To: Logan Township, NJ to Camp Hill, PA
• Mileage: 143
• Cargo:  Plastic Containers

This had a live unload scheduled for the next day, and since the customer wouldn’t allow an early delivery I ended up waiting an extra day with the load.  Fortunately I was near the Carlisle OC so I spent the night there.

Wow, have I gotten behind on posts!  Sorry gang…

• Date(s): 3/5 to 3/6
• From/To: Owatonna, MN to Plano, IL
• Mileage: 441
• Cargo:  Pet Food

Yet another live load followed by a live unload, both with appointments.  At least the appointment times were reasonable and could be made without problem, or so I thought.  Owatonna was only a little south of Minneapolis, and I found the shipper and got my load with no problem.

I pulled in to a little stop on I-90 in New Lisbon, WI for the night with only about 3 1/2 hours left to drive for an 11 am appointment tomorrow.  I turned in confident that I’d have an easy day.  When the alarm went off the heater was still churning away and I was nice and toasty.  Problem was the dome light wouldn’t come on, indicating that the LVP had activated.  From what I had been told this should have also shut off the heater.

My first concern was whether the engine would crank, and sure enough the battery was drained far too low to produce anything more than a sad growl when I turned the key.  So much for the mechanics assurances…

I made the now too familiar call to SEM at ~5:30, and after a number of status checks from myself and Adam, one of the STRs on my board, the road service truck arrived ~11:45.  We got the truck running in short order and by 12:30 I was finally on my way to Plano to deliver the load.  Adam had contacted Customer Service for me and got the delivery changed to a drop, and changed the appointment time to ‘as soon as you can get there’.

The delivery was only ~75 miles from the Gary, IN OC, so Adam arranged to have me dispatched there for maintenance as soon as I was done with this load.  After arriving there ~7:30 pm I had a talk with the Estimator and learned that the Webasco heater isn’t included in the LVP circuit, however it does have it’s own low voltage protection and will shut off if the battery it’s connected to drops below a certain level.  Therefore, as the mechanic in Des Moines said, the heater should not drain the batteries to the point of not being able to crank the engine.  In fact, there supposedly is no way I can drain the batteries with any accessories, so there is in fact something wrong with the truck. The Estimator wrote my truck up and said they’d get to it ~9am tomorrow, so I had a nice hot shower and dinner in the OC and turned in for the evening.

The next morning the truck was in the shop by 9 as promised.  I was paged and told it was ready ~3 that afternoon after they replaced all 4 batteries, repaired a cable at the altenator, and (surprise!) put on 8 new drive tires.  I updated my STL and sent in a fresh MAC 18, then settled back to await my next load.

By the way, while I was waiting on the truck I spoke with my STL about running out of gas last Saturday.  Turns out that is counted as an incident and therefore I’m no longer eligible for my bonus this quarter…again.  She said it was automatic and no extenuating circumstances would be considered, so I let it go at that.  Oh, did you notice I said “she”?  The STL on our board was suddenly changed.  There hasn’t been any sort of announcement yet as to what’s going on, but Adam (STR) told me about it last week.

• Date(s): 3/7 to 3/8
• From/To: Gary, IN to Livonia, MI
• Mileage: 224
• Cargo:  Pre-recorded Home Entertainment Products

Picked up a relay at the Gary, IN OC that had a live unload appointment for 5pm on the next day, and since the drive would only take ~4 1/2 hours I ended up spending another night there.  When I checked to see if the trailer had arrived I was told that it had, but was due for a PM and wouldn’t be released until that was done.  This is something that the driver who dropped it should have taken care of but obviously didn’t.

I next stopped in at the Estimators desk to see if they’d get the PM taken care of overnight, and they said they would be happy to. The next morning when I checked in at the Driver Services desk to pick up the trailer it still hadn’t been done, so I got to babysit the thing until they could get to it.

All of the wasted time sitting at the OC the last couple of days netted me a 34 hour restart that I didn’t need (or want).  Guess that’s my punishment for my truck breaking down.

• Date(s): 3/9 to 3/11
• From/To: Troy, MI, Perrysville, OH, and Lancaster, OH to Newnan, GA
• Mileage: 839
• Cargo:  Store Merchandise

This was a first for me; a three stop pickup.  All three were live loads (of course) and all three had appointment times, but the times were actually planned to allow for both travel time and fit within my 14 hour clock (barely).

The first pickup was at 9am in a suburb of Detriot so there was a bit of center-city commuting traffic to deal with, but all went well.  The second was in a small town about half way between Akron and Columbus, and went as smoothly as the first.  The last was a few miles southeast of Columbus and at first went better than the first two; I was loaded and waiting at the shipping office for the Bill of Lading within a half hour of arriving.

Then we looked at the paperwork and discovered that they had put the wrong load on my truck, so it was back to the dock for an unload and reload.  Unfortunately the reloading process took much longer than the original load, so by the time they finished I was out of hours and ended up spending the night in their lot.

On Saturday morning I got an early start and drove as far as the Atlanta OC before stopping for the evening.  On Sunday morning I made the delivery in Newnan, less than an hour’s drive from Atlanta.

• Date(s): 3/11 to 3/12
• From/To: Atlanta, GA to Summerville, SC
• Mileage: 302
• Cargo:  Recycled plastic

After delivering the last load this came in; pick up another relay at the Atlanta OC and deliver it the next day.  The load was nothing special, but the driver(s) who relayed it ignored the fact that there were repairs needed and scheduled maintenance due on the trailer (again).  Therefore, as a few days ago in Gary, I ended up waiting most of the rest of the day for maintenance to finish the trailer.

They got through with the maintenance just before 5pm, but there was an extra problem.  The repairs on the box couldn’t be made until it had been unloaded.  The outcome was that I ended up delivering the load on Monday, then driving the empty trailer to Charlotte for repair.  Strangely the timing worked out just right and I got to spend the night at home.

• Date(s): 3/13
• From/To: Brevard, NC to Charlotte, NC
• Mileage: 240
• Cargo:  Consumer Goods

This was waiting when I got in on Tuesday morning; pick up an empty trailer at a church in Charlotte (?), take it to Brevard for a live load, then bring it back to the Charlotte OC to drop for relay.  I’ve stopped asking…I just did it and was happy to spend another night at home.

• Date(s): 3/14 to 3/15
• From/To: Lexington, NC to Edison, NJ
• Mileage: 568
• Cargo:  Consumer Goods

This is getting old; once again I went to pick up a trailer (this time an empty) and the previous driver had dropped it without reporting that it was unusable.  The first clue was when I tested the brakes and found out it had none.  There was no report on record in maintenance, so I had them write one and went looking for another empty trailer.

The delivery was dated two days out but it would only take a day to drive to Edison.  Fortunately the Load Advance team was able to move it back a day.  It was an otherwise uneventful load.
 

Im waiting for my truck to be fixed at the Gary, IN OC, so I thought I’d answer another few questions…

Mike in Virginia wrote:

“I was wondering a few things. Daily routine – fairly predicticable or really out of your control (sleeping, eating, etc)? Job Satisfaction and Stress – compared to the ’standard’ workplace?Money – January looked like (approximating) 20 days driving, 8047 miles, 2012 miles weekly, $563 weekly. Is this accurate? January is supposed to be a ’slow’ month in the industry; was it for you? I know you were doing little hops not long hauls. Do you expect improved miles / pay?

Do you see and chat with other Schneider drivers? Can you relate some of their stories?

Hope you are well. Thank you for the site.”

“Daily routine – fairly predicticable or really out of your control (sleeping, eating, etc)?”

Seldom out of control, but not always predictable either.  I don’t seem to have any problem sticking loosely to a daily routine, but it takes a little planning, and it can potentially affect your miles (and money).  The HOS rules (14 hour day, 10 off) naturally help you stay close to the same start and end times each day unless you have a long run where you can actually drive 11 hours before the 14 is up.

Normally I like to stop for the evening by dark and get started the next morning an hour or two before dawn.  This usually means I take roughly 12 hours off for my DOT break.  If I wanted to maximize my miles I’d drive until I reached the 11 or 14 hour limit (whichever applies), take 10 hours off, and start back driving without regard for the time of day.

One thing I am fairly strict about is stopping during my 14 hour work day; I don’t.  If I take time for meals it’s either before starting my day or after I stop for the evening.  Eating during the day is usually a pack of crackers or other snack type food, and of course the ever-present Gatorade.  Obviously details of your load, such as appointments and/or time windows on either end, will dictate when and how long you run.  But I think more than half the time you can work out whichever scenario you want.

” Job Satisfaction and Stress – compared to the ’standard’ workplace?“

That’s a tough one to answer, mainly because what I find stressful you may find fun, and vice versa.  And for new drivers I think it depends on how realistic your expectations are.

Personally I find that I have to take satisfaction in reaching my personal goals on a daily basis, because I can’t depend on anybody else to recognize that I’ve busted my butt to get the job done, and done well.  Not that my support personnel (STL, etc.) aren’t encouraging, it’s just the nature of the job.  You spend the majority of your time alone, and many of the folks you do come into contact with during the day seem to be against you. Shippers and receivers often act like truck drivers are dirt, and too often other drivers will whine and complain at you over the CB at the slightest inconvenience you’ve caused them on the highway, whether real or imagined.  And then at the end of the day, when the only thing you want is a place to park and get some sleep, you find that the same authorities who insist that you stop could care less whether there’s enough places for you and all your fellow drivers to do so safely.

The short answer; there’s not a lot of job satisfaction compared to other jobs I’ve had, but the stress level can be just as high if you let it.

” Money…“

Your figures are fairly accurate as far as mileage pay, but there are other payments included.  You do get paid for things such as: delays (over an hour), short loads (under 50 miles), live loads and unloads, and a few others.

I have seen an increase in the miles of my loads, and hopefully it will continue to grow. However part of the ‘problem’ with my short loads is directly related to my answer to your first question.

From what I understand you are rated by the average number of miles you drive a week, and are loaded accordingly.  In other words, the harder you run the more you’re given. Since I haven’t aggressively run every possible hour I could I haven’t gotten my average as high as it could be, and therefore haven’t gotten loads as long as I might have.  A driver with more ‘drive’ would probably do a little better.

” Do you see and chat with other Schneider drivers? Can you relate some of their stories?“

I do see other Schneider drivers and do have the opportunity to chat, but frankly I seldom do so.  Again this is a personal thing; while I do enjoy personal interaction with others, I’m afraid I’m not very tolerant of others.  In other words, I don’t get a thing out of participating in bitch sessions or trading war stories with a bunch of blowhards. Sometimes I bump into an interesting driver who will exchange experiences in a casual and entertaining manner, and those brief conversations I do enjoy.

Thanks for taking the time to write, Mike.  I hope I’ve been able to answer your questions, but if not please feel free to dig a little deeper and I’ll try to help where I can.

Hi everyone… hope you’re well and happy.

This tour has been a little challenging so far, so prepare yourself to hear (er…read) a bit of complaining.  And because of that I need to say this; I write these posts as ‘real time’ as possible, and usually I’m under the influence of whatever emotions the events have produced.  As I reread them for this posting I feel the need to remind the readers that all in all things are going pretty well.  My weekly mileage is creeping up, I couldn’t ask for better support from my STL and staff, and though the weather is cold and depressing I remain healthy and in good spirits (most of the time).

 Of course being away from Terrie and the rest of my family is depressing, but they are amazingly supportive folks and provide the encouragement I need to continue.

• Date(s): 2/26 to 2/27
• From/To: Charlotte, NC to Mehoopany, PA
• Mileage: 596
• Cargo:  “Consumer Goods”

Not a bad load for coming off TAH, but leaving again was still tough.  My Monday started by meeting my STL at 8am to get a truck assignment since my old one had aged out (2003 w/ 689,000 miles) and was removed from service.  He gave me the new truck number and out I went out on the lot to find it.

I found it all right, and to say it was a piece of junk would be an understatement.  It was filthy inside and out, the exterior was more beat up than my old one, and the battery was dead.  Now I realize that new guys, particularly those that run solo, don’t exactly get the best or newest equipment, and rightly so.  And all of the problems with this truck could be taken care of with a little work, which I have no problem with either.  But I feel that I’ve been doing a pretty good job for Schneider so far and to be presented with this piece of crap as a replacement was a slap in the face.  Besides, I was already in a foul mood because of having to leave home again.

So I walked back into the office and said thanks but no thanks and that I’d just keep my old truck rather than be punished with that ‘new’ one.  Of course that couldn’t be done, but they were sympathetic and did come up with another truck that, while just as old, was in much better shape.  Whoever turned it in had taken the time to first clean it well, and I appreciated that very much.  It was only a year newer than my old one (2004) and has 530,000 miles on it, but it is still an upgrade.  After all, this one has a Wabasco heater!

I took a few hours to load my junk in the truck and connect the radio and computer, then I was off with my load.  I’d have to spend whatever spare time I had in the next week or two getting completely moved in and settled. Otherwise there was nothing special about this trip; just another ride up  I-77/I-81.

• Date(s): 2/27 to 3/2
• From/To: Chester, PA to Tulsa, OK
• Mileage: 1427
• Cargo:  Paper products

Great mileage on this one; wish they were all like this!  I had to play the usual game of “find the empty” on Tuesday afternoon and was finally sent to Wilkes Barre for one.  The delivery date/time was tight on this load (3/2 at 8am) so I tried to get to Chester to make the pickup that evening, but ran out of hours and had to stop for the night instead.

I arrived the next morning only to find out the load wasn’t ready yet, so I dropped my empty and waited.  About 4 hours later they finally had it ready, in the same trailer I had just dropped!  The wait didn’t exactly help the tight schedule, so I hit the road and got as far as Hebron, OH before shutting down for the night.

Thursday was a long day of driving starting as soon as my 10 hours were up.  I made it to Strafford, MO by evening and shut down for 10 hours again.  Early Friday I finished the trip and arrived on time.  This was supposed to be a live unload, which was the reason for the appointment, with a 4 hour estimated duration.  However when I arrived they were swamped with incoming loads decided to have me drop the trailer instead.  Oh well, I suppose it was at least a good exercise in making the best time possible.  I sent the appropriate messages on the QC and waited for my next load.  By the way, in order to save half an hour (time was that close) I skipped a fueling stop on Thursday after calculation I didn’t need it to reach my destination.  More on that wise decision later…

• Date(s): 3/2 TO 3/5
• From/To: Tulsa, OK to Bloomington, MN
• Mileage: 668
• Cargo:  Paper products

Ever played hurry up and wait?  After rushing to get the last load to Tulsa for an 8 am live unload (that turned out to be a drop) I ended up waiting about an hour and a half for my next (this) load.  It’s coming from the same shipper and was supposed to be loaded and ready to grab.

When I walked in to the shipping office to get the paperwork I found out that the load wasn’t ready and probably wouldn’t be for a couple of hours.  Oh well, I was expecting to be here a while on the last load so waiting was no problem.  Besides, the delivery was specifically scheduled for Monday and couldn’t be moved up which left me plenty of driving time.

So all was set.  They told me which door the trailer was in and I coupled to the trailer and waited.  Around 4pm they finally started loading, and shortly afterward another Schneider driver wandered over and said “Whatcha gonna do ’bout that big hole in the trailer?”.

And sure enough there was about a 4″ x 6″ hole in the front upper corner of the box.  It was so obvious that I wondered how I could have missed it.  It’s possible that the forklift operator did it when they started loading (the truck shakes around so much anyway as they load I wouldn’t have noticed the extra punch), or maybe I was just that slack when I did the pretrip on the trailer.

Initially the shipper and I agreed that they’d put a patch on the hole and make a note on the Bill of Lading.  But being a new guy (and a little paranoid) I decided to give my STL a call to make sure that plan was OK with him.  He also did a CYA and called Customer Service, who in turn called the customer, and when all the calls were over they decided the load needed to go on a different trailer.

So I disconnected, the shipper came up with another empty, moved the cargo from the other trailer, and a few more hours later I was finally on my way.  Initially I was worried about my 14 hour clock running out, but it turns out that I’d been there over 10 hours anyway and that counts as a DOT break.

I drove to the truck stop around the block and spent the night, and the next morning I was raring to go.  Fuel was becoming an issue since I had skipped my last stop, and in spite of me reporting ‘0′ for available fuel, Schneider’s ‘fuel solution’ had me driving ~100 miles to the next authorized fueling location.  After some quick calculation with the figures from the fuel shown as used so far and my current mileage it looked like I could make it with a little to spare.  And to help matters more I was now pulling a load that was 3,000 pounds lighter than the previous one, meaning I should be getting a touch better mileage.

And about an hour later I learned that fuel calculations in my ‘new’ truck varied somewhat from my old one as I coasted to the shoulder of I-44 in Oklahoma.  I called SEM and, after a 45 minute wait in queue, got them to call someone to bring fuel.  After waiting another hour or so I had 20 gal. of diesel delivered and was once again on my way.  Next stop was at a Petro truck stop 25 miles down the road for a tank of fuel.

While waiting on the side of the highway and monitored the CB I found it comforting that a number of drivers called me to see if I needed assistance.  I thanked each one as I responded that help was on the way, and for the first time since beginning this adventure I truly felt I was part of a brotherhood of professionals.  Thanks to every driver who cared enough to check, and to those who would have if they hadn’t already been in range and heard others ask.

Unfortunately, as is always the case when dealing with people, there were a couple of drivers who not only didn’t care that I had a problem, but felt compelled to blurt out a nasty jab or two at the ‘dumbass’ Schneider driver.  I sincerely hope someday when they find themselves in the same situation they receive kinder treatment from their fellow drivers.

Fine, I said, now I know not to figure fuel as close in this truck.  As I continued on my merry way, still with plenty of time to make the delivery appointment, the truck once again demanded my attention.  This time it started slowing on uphill grades as if I had a full load, and the ‘check engine’ light started coming on from time to time.  I was only a couple of hours away from the Des Moines OC, so I decided to press on.

Once I got to Des Moines, the mechanic on duty at the shop wrote up my truck and said that they MAY be able to get to it tomorrow, but no promises.  Since I was only ~4 hours away from the delivery location I still wasn’t worried about time, so no big deal yet.  The next morning I checked in at the shop and they decided that all I needed was a new fuel filter, so they swapped it right away and off I went again.  Oh by the way, while the mechanic was working I asked him several questions about the truck, including whether the Webasco auxiliary heater ran through the LVP (low voltage protection) circuit.  He assured me that the heater would not kill the battery and I could run it all night without worrying about cranking the next morning.  Stay tuned for more on that…

Monday morning I did arrive in Bloomington to finally deliver the load.

• Date(s): 3/5
• From/To: Blaine, MN to Fridley, MN
• Mileage: 40
• Cargo:  Paper Rolls

These short little loads are a little annoying, but I suppose we all have to take our share of them.  I was in Bloomington, which is on the south side of Minneapolis, and had to pick up a relay load in Blaine, which is on the north side.  Then make a 9 am appointment in Fridley, which is also on the north side.  Not really a huge problem, but rush hour traffic made is close and I arrived just in time.

It didn’t help that the young forklift operater that directed the unload was a nasty little smartass… hopefully he’ll grow up before some truck driver with less will power decides to help him along.

A couple of folks have sent questions that I thought I’d take a few minutes to answer in an extra post:

This came from Sully on Friday, 2/16:

… If it is OK, I would like to ask just one question. How do you feel about your safety on the road. Ive noticed from your posts you have been near some pretty undesirable areas. (As far as the high crime areas of the country)How do you feel about your personal safety on the road?…

To tell you the truth Sully, out of all the places I’ve been in the past few months I haven’t felt threatened in any of them.  I had the same concern before I got out on the road, especially after reading some the detailed descriptions of the seedier truck stops posted on forums.  But in my personal (and quite limited) experience the worst truck stops, while unkept, unclean, and certainly in need of repair, were not teeming with unseemly persons of questionable purpose.  Even the rest areas that I have spent the night in have been quiet and seemingly safe.

Now as I’ve pointed out my experience is very limited as to the length of time that I’ve been on the road, and all of it has been in the Eastern half of the US.  I’m sure there are places where it would be unwise for one to stop their truck for the night, but hopefully by following my instincts and gut feeling I’ll be able to identify and avoid them.  I have pulled into places and after taking a quick circle through their lot, without being able to identify any particular reason, just not had a good feeling about the place.  In these rare cases I’ve not hesitated to pull right back out on the road again and search for another place to stop.

Your personal safety is just that; personal.  Everyone has their own threshold between feeling safe and threatened, and that’s what has to be your guide while on the road.  Overall though I feel that truckers are generally good people and tend to watch out for one another, so I have no problem with being among them when I’m at my most vulnerable.

Steve posted this on MOnday, 2/19:

I’ve been Western Regional w/SNI for about a month now and the Maptuit directions are getting me into real big jams. Have you used any kind of GPS to augment what SNI is sending you?

Absolutely!  I’ve been toying with GPS receivers almost since they’ve been available to the public, and have come to depend on their help whenever possible.  But let me break that down for you a little further.  What most of us generally refered to as “GPS” actually consists of two key components; the actual GPS signals and a good map program.

If you have a laptop or other computer available it is entirely possible, and quite useful, to use the map program without having a GPS tracking signal.  I personally use Delorme’s Street Atlas 2007, although there are a couple of others that I’m sure are just as good.  This one just seems to suit my tastes better than the others.

What I normally do is first enter the shipper’s and consignee’s addresses into the program and let it plan a route.  Next I compare the location found for each address with the SNI directions by following the driving instructions on the map.  If they both lead to the same spot I feel pretty good about the reliability.  If not I make a call to the respective company and ask for driving directions to their location and use that as the final word.  Finally I take a close look at the route to see if there are any obvious changes I’d like to make, like taking a bypass around a major metropolitan area.

I could stop here, but I think that would be a huge mistake.  Without fail I check each and every road chosen by the program against my atlas, looking for low clearances as well as restricted roads that may have been chosen.  After all, the mapping program was written for the average automobile and doesn’t consider our special needs as truck drivers. Once I’m as sure as I can be that my route is legal I compare it to the Maptuit route sent by Schneider.  They’re often pretty close and sometimes I make subtle changes based on what they send.

This sounds like a long and involved process, but in practice I’ve found it to be much quicker than doing all the route planning by hand in the atlas.  An added benefit is that once finished I have all the data I need to send in a pretty accurate MAC 18.

Now that I have a route I feel good about I find it very helpful to track myself with the GPS receiver.  Knowing where you are on the map at any given moment can be priceless when, for whatever reason, unexpected detours become necessary.  And personally I enjoy knowing exactly where I am and how far it is to my next destination.

All of this sounds very nice, and I think it is.  But it’s vital to remember that you’re depending on devices that can (and will) stop working at the most inopportune moments.  For that reason I always jot down my route on a piece of paper (or print it out, now that I’ve bought a cheap printer) and keep it handy just in case.

I think it’s also important to warn against letting the GPS screen become a distraction while driving.  If used carefully it’s no worse than scanning your other gauges, however it is easy to get mesmerized by the indicator following the road on the map if you allow it.  As long as I’ve been using them I still have to remind myself to glance at the time and/or mileage indicators only and save the detailed examination of the map for when I’m stopped.

Hi gang.  It’s been an eventful few weeks; went into Canada for the first time in my life, and saw more snow than I care to see again!  Hope you’re all well… 

• Date(s): 2/15 to 2/16
• From/To: Hebron, KY to Mebane, NC
• Mileage: 477
• Cargo:  Sporting Goods

This load was mostly uneventful until the very end.  I stopped at a TA in Wytheville to fill up w/ fuel (as directed) and immediately afterward the truck started having problems.  As I pulled back onto I-77 I noticed a severe lack of power and noticeable shaking as I tried to climb hills.  It was so bad that I was downshifting to sixth gear and barely maintaining 25mph up the slightest incline.

I was becoming a hazard to traffic so I decided to pull off at an exit ramp before the truck quit on me in the middle of the road.  This was followed by a series of calls and QC messages in an attempt to contact SEM (Schneider Emergency Maintenance) and keep my STL notified of my issue.  Roughly an hour and a half later I talked to an SEM rep who diagnosed my problem as a clogged fuel filter and asked if I could make it to Mount Airy (just across the NC border) where there was an authorized repair facility.

Since it was only ~30 miles, much of it down hill, I decided to forge ahead rather than sit for who knows how much longer waiting for help to arrive.  I did make it although I’m sure I irritated a number of drivers along the way; sorry guys.  The repair shop replaced the filter in short order and all was well again.

The couple of hour delay shouldn’t have been a problem, and my STL was kept aware of my progress (or lack thereof) during the entire ordeal.  However when I arrived at my delivery point in Mebane I was told that they stopped receiving at 4pm daily (it was ~5:30) and that the next delivery opportunity wasn’t until Monday morning.  At this point I received most disappointing instructions; take the load to the Charlotte OC to drop for relay, and be ready to head out on my next load on Saturday morning 8^).  Shucks, it looks like I have to spend an unexpeted night at home…

• Date(s): 2/17 to 2/19
• From/To: Eden, NC to Mississauga, ON, CA
• Mileage: 762
• Cargo:  T-Shirts

Here’s the load that I’ve been both anxiously anticipating and dreading at the same time; a border crossing into Canada.  I hate that it came on a weekend when I didn’t have the usual support of my STL, but here it was and I had to deal with it.  Before leaving the Charlotte OC I made sure I had all the paperwork I might need, but I couldn’t start filling it out until I made the pickup and had the Bill of Lading in hand.

You would think that as often as Schneider trucks cross the Canadian border that the process would be common knowledge, and to drivers who cross often it may be.  The problem is that there are several different methods of submitting paperwork to the broker and each has it’s own requirements, and at least the weekend support staff didn’t seem very familiar with it.  My crossing type was given to me in the load message, and I have a Schneider “How-To” booklet that describes exactly what to do and when to do it, but the forms I picked up didn’t match what was in the booklet and I needed some reassurance that I had everything in order before approaching the border.

As luck would have it the pickup was in Eden, NC where I had no cellular service, so I headed north cross-country to I-64 before stopping at a truck stop and making some calls.  To make a long story a little shorter, I reached a very helpful rep on support shift who promised to find out exactly what I needed and send a QC message with the info.  He did follow through with the message, which was a phone number for the broker and assurances that he/she knew exactly what was required.

Time was a factor on this load and I needed to keep rolling as much as practical so it was Sunday morning before I could call the broker.  After making several calls, trying to follow the “How-To” book, and a lot fretting on my part I found out that all the necessary information had been supplied by the shipper ahead of time and was already in the Canadian system.  All I had to do was show the Bill of Lading with the appropriate bar coded label on it and I’d be cleared to cross the border.

And that afternoon I found that the process was just that simple; the agent at the border asked for the paperwork and my ID, asked a few simple questions, and within 5 minutes I was across the border and headed toward my destination.  I only wish I could have known the facts before spending the time worrying about it…

• Date(s): 2/19 to 2/20
• From/To: Guelph, ON, CA to Reading, PA
• Mileage: 427
• Cargo:  Scrap Copper

Now that I was in Canada I was looking forward to crossing back into the US for several reasons, the biggest being that I was scheduled to be back in Charlotte in a few days for a long weekend at home.  Driving in Canada wasn’t a big deal although there were a few obvious adjustments to make, like converting speed limits and distances from metric to US.

The load was a relay that I picked up from the Toronto OC located in Guelph.  While there I was fortunate enough to run into several folks who were quite familiar with the border crossing procedure back into the US.  It’s a good thing I ran into them cause the “How-To” book was somewhat out of date, and they knew what had been changed and/or added.  Once completed I faxed the paperwork to the broker, gave them an hour or so to diget the info, then called them to confirm that I was “in the system” and ready to cross.  I was given the go-ahead when I called and left the OC shortly afterward.

Crossing back into the US took a bit longer than coming into Canada; partly because of the number of trucks trying to cross at the same time, and partly due to the relentless questiOning from the crossing agent.  I suppose I should be comforted by the fact our border agents cast a critical eye to anyone attempting to enter the US, but in spite of all the questions the grumpy young lady threw at me she never once asked for my birth certificate or passport to prove that I was an American citizen.  I can only assume that she knows her job…

• Date(s): 2/20 to 2/21
• From/To: Chester, PA to Gordonsville, VA
• Mileage: 263
• Cargo:   Paper napkins, toilet paper

Nothing special on this load except that after all the snow I’ve seen lately it was nice to see the ground again.

• Date(s): 2/21 to 2/22
• From/To: Hagerstown, MD to Charlotte, NC
• Mileage: 524
• Cargo:  Store Merchandise

This load would get me home for a long weekend.  When I was still ~45 minutes out I got a message from my STR; say goodbye to my truck, ’cause it was to be traded and I would get a new one before going back out.  This came as quite a surprise; even though I knew my trucks age and mileage had it on the trade list, I wasn’t expecting it to happen this soon.

I expected to be in Charlotte by noon, and had already been cleared to head home.  My plan was to spend a few hours cleaning and reorganizing my truck, but now I would spend the time moving out instead.  I had to stuff everything I owned into my jeep as they didn’t have my new truck assignment yet, but at least this way I’d have the chance to sort through everything with a more experienced eye toward what I’d really need and want to reload into the new truck.

And no it won’t be a NEW truck, just a newER truck.  Which is fine with me; I don’t feel the need to drive the newest thing available so long as it’s reliable and most of the accessories work.  I was assured however that my next ride would have a Webasto auxiliary heater, so I should no longer have to decide between staying warm or meeting my idling index!