Tags: Everthing Else
It’s been five months since I have been “turned loose” in my own truck and I am finally getting into good working habits. Things like buying fuel near the end of the day, doing paperwork in a timely manner, keeping the truck clean, for example, are becoming more efficient each week.
My driving skills are also improving, although not as fast as I’d like them to. I find myself thinking back to what my trainers said to do in different situations, glad that both trainers are very good at what they do (even with their quirks, and yea I have my quirks too). The more experience I get the more I realize I should have been asking questions non-stop while with the trainers. Work with your trainer (make them if necessary) to improve your skills. Are you stopped at a truck stop for a couple of hours before a delivery, then practice your backing. Or just drive around the parking area practicing turns and low speed shifting. Time permitting don’t ever park in the fuel island to “just get a cup of coffee”, go back in to a regular parking spot to get the extra practice. You will be tired and want to use down time to take a break\sleep, but get some extra practice in before taking that break.
Looking back I realize that I underutilized my trainers. I allowed my trainers to be distracted [on computer or phone, which is ok sometimes] when I could have been harvesting their knowledge. That was my fault. Your trainer will do their job and teach you, but it’s your job to take charge and get the most training from them that you can. Show them you are going the extra mile and good trainers will give you two extra miles.
Tags: My Adventure
When I wrote the last post I was stopped for the night in Florence, SC with a delivery 2 days later @ 0130 (that’s 01:30AM) in Upper Marlboro, MD. That delivery went well and I was dispatched to Sandston, VA to pick up with delivery in Miami, Fl 0800 Wed. After being unloaded in Miami, I parked on a side street waiting for the next trip. I looked down at the qualcom and the no signal light is on. So I called dispatch to get the info. Now here is where you gotta have a positive attitude or you will give yourself indigestion. It’s Wed @ 1300 in Miami, Fl and my next trip picks up on Fri 0800-1500 NW of Orlando, FL for delivery Tue 0700 in Jamesburg, NJ. The computer says that’s 1037 miles and it takes 21 hours 13 minutes to drive it. That would stink for most drivers, but the yard, my home, and the shipper are all close to each other so I go back to the yard then get home Wed night. On Fri I drive back to the yard. Pick up at the shipper and take it back to the yard (this takes only 2 hours including drive time from & back to the house). Then back to the yard on early Sun AM to start driving. It worked well for me got plenty done while home for a few days.
On The way to Jamesburg, I first had to stop and get scaled. Scale ticket in hand I find that I am overweight on the tandems, I pull the release lever and the pins are stuck. Some WD40 and sledge hammer persuasion get then unstuck. Go back for a rewiegh and now the drives are over, made another adjustment and back for another reweigh. Oops, grumpy from having to deal with the stuck tamdems I slid the fifth wheel the wrong way, fix that and another reweigh. Finnaly one last calculation, a last slide of the tandems and done. Not. Now the pins won’t go back into the holes. Half an hour later and some more persuading the pins pop back in and I can leave. I stop for the night in Florence, SC, once again (my aircard gets good coverage there). While in Florence I scaled again just as an experiment, funny how this time the figures are so much better even with the same amount of fuel. I always have to fight with my weights when I scale in Ormond Beach. Gotta find a different scale to use.
Left Florence Monday morning and stoped in Ruther Glen, VA. for the afternoon. Holiday traffic was picking up and I just didn’t feel like fighting it as I went further north. Left Ruther Glenn at midnight. While paying the toll for the tunnel in Maryland engine warning lights come on. I pull over to have a look see. It’s a coolant leak. For the forth time, since I started this job, I wake up the shop boss at home (it’s 02:30AM). He says to take it to the truck stop at the next exit as they have a repair shop. The lady in the shop says they will be glad to look at it . . . . . in about six hours. The only mechanic is on a road call, in Pennsylvania, and one other truck in front of me needs 4 tires. I ask her to wake me when it is my turn. I let dispatch know what is going on via the qualcom then I hit the sack.
At 06:30 I am woken up (earlier than expected) and told to pull my truck into a bay. They say they can have it done in an hour and I go back to sleep. Two hours later, I am woken up again, this time to be told that the water pump is leaking also. Something smells rotten in Denmark! I tell them it has not leaked one drop in the four months I have had it and they should call the office and see what they want to do about it. At the same time I call the office and speak to the shop first to let them know something stinks on this end. The shop says they will look at the water pump when I get back and I let them know I will pay extra attention to it until then.
I pull out of they bay and park. It’s 08:30. My delivery appointment was at 07:00. I let dispatch know I can roll again and ask if the receiver will still take me today. While waiting for the return message I run into the store for a breakfast snack and fresh coffee. Back in the truck the return message say get there before Noon and they will take me today. I think I can make it with 45 minutes to spare so I head out. With some traffic delay I arrive at 11:46 only to find that the receiving office is at lunch from 11:45-12:30. I am at the window when they reopen and they get me unloaded. I let dispatch know I am unloaded and get new trip info. They want me to load in Martinsburg, WV. at 20:00 (8PM) I message dispatch that I will be out of hours to drive today long before 20:00, asking if they could reschedule for 07:00 Wed. I head towards the shipper while waiting for a response. 07:00 is cool so I find a truck stop. I stop in Carneys Point, NJ, get fuel, dinner and a shower and the hit the hay.
Waking up at 02:00 I grab coffee, a soda and a sandwich to go and hustle over to Martinsburg. Arriving at 06:55, I
relearn never to trust directions that are not from the shipper or reciever (CoPilot steered me wrong this time). Loaded at 08:45 I pull away from the dock and head over to get the paperwork. While closing the trailer doors I notice that the last two pallets say Jacksonville, FL on them. I was told to deliver in Tampa, FL. I let the shipping people know and they tell me that there are two stops for this load. I sign for the load and message dispatch about it. They say they will fix things so I am paid correctly.
I head to Clear Brook, VA to get scaled, then spend 45 minutes tyring to get parked so I can go inside to get the scale receipt. The truck stop was packed. I got lucky after waiting for someone else to back into their spot, I round the corner and find two spots right in front of me. I pull through the first to get to the second. This scale works out well. I don’t need to move anything. Grabbing some lunch I take it back to the truck to eat. Moving again I drive non-stop to Kenly, NC. After getting fuel and eating dinner, I am updating my blog once again.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining. Things happen. It could have been much much worse. As it stands I’ll leave here about 06:00 and be in Brunswick, Ga about 14:00 with no trouble at all. Then I’ll visit the CB shop there and try to get some radio issues resolved. That still leaves plenty of time to be in Jacksonville by 09:00 on Fri., then Tampa after that.
Hopefully, I’ll get to spend a day at home before heading out again.
Tags: My Adventure
It has been a long and busy time since I’ve last updated my blog. Mostly I have been doing the regular driver stuff like
- Waiting 10+ hours to get loaded in Williamson, NY
- Drove what I call a “Lap around the USA”, Central Florida to Buffalo, NY to Yakima, WA to Salinas, CA and back to Central FL.
- Dealing with the brokers (worst part about the job so far).
- Being in the dispatch office while they were dealing with the same brokers. Both dispatchers, our customer service rep and the person who gets us our loads all busting butt trying to solve 1 broker caused problem.
- Got inspected by the Virginia DOT and passed.
- Saw Mount Shasta in California. I think it was Mount Shasta. Here is the photo I took.
- Passed by “Wimp Road” in Oregon (that’s what the street sign said, really, truly it did)
- Saw lots of great scenery in the NW USA (Running such a tight schedule there was no time to stop and take pictures of it).
- Took a few days off every once in a while to deal with things at home.
- Went to one of our regular customers to swap trailers for a 53ft one, only it was not there. Ran out of hours for the day while trying to find it, they have multiple facilities to check. Turns out the one I am told to get is in our yard 6 states away. What a waste of time!
- Trying to figure out what is wrong w/ my cb. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Don’t know why yet. Electrical groung issues I think.
And of course the winner of many events which happened recently. About 0300 southbound on I-75 in Georgia I hear on the radio to get in the left lane before 31 mile marker because there is debris in the right lane. I move to the left lane and scan the road. Then I see it, something metal in the right lane, but also something smaller is scattered in the left lane as well. No where else to go, jersey barrier on the left and orange barrels on the right. After going past it I hear on the radio that someone spilled a box of big screws (and other construction materials). There are trucks and cars on the shoulder so I pull into the closed scale house to check my tires. 16 of 18 tires had screws in them. Only 4, all on the rear axle of the trailer are actually leaking. Called the shop manager at home, he says he will take care of it in the morning. Must have been 50+ trucks in that scale house checking tires. By the time I woke up at 0730 there were still 12 drivers waiting for tires. Most had 3+ tires damaged, one had 9 and another had 7 + a fuel leak. The tire guy told me there were trucks on the shoulder all the way to the state line. 
My tires were finally fixed at 1230, too bad my appointment was for 0730 in Tampa.
While I was waiting for the tire guy someone gets on the radio a says “someone has got to have a camera to get a picture of this”. So I say “I have a camera what are we taking pictures of?” Long story made short, in the northbound weigh station the prisoner is watching the Gaurd mow the grass. It went back to normal after not to long, but it was funny while it happened.
I keep telling myself to post more often. Hopefully I am gaining enough experience to have the time to do so. Guess we’ll see.
Tags: My Adventure
Witten by Dan on Monday June 4th, 2007
2 Comments
After showing up at the office and after doing another pre-trip, backing and road test I am officially driving trainer free. Then I had to choose from 7 available trucks. This was like choosing an elected official. Time to pick the best from choices I don’t like anyways. So I checked them out, rated them and told operations about my choice. Boom it’s mine. Time for a thourogh pre-trip on it. I made a long list of thing to fix …
- Doesn’t start
- Scalloped tires on the front drive axle
- 6 of 7 A/C vents missing
- Passenger side power mirror does not adjust
- Wet dogs slept on the mattress
- If money was taken out of my check to have the truck detailed when I turn it in, why is it not CLEAN when I get it? (At least it does not smell like puke and poop mixed, as one of the other choices did.)
- and that’s some of the bigger things
That was Monday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon I stop by to load my stuff in the truck and get a head start on my first trip. I am due in Maryland 0500 on Friday. It will be bad if I am late on my first trip. Well the truck is still in the shop. Dispatch does not have a trailer to take for my drop and hook. They say come back Wednesday @ 0830. OK, see ya then.
0830 arrives and I load up my belongings in the truck, then head over to see my dispatcher. Dispatcher gives my trailer number and says to shoot him a message on the quailcom when ready to leave. I hook up to the trailer and type the message. Dispatcher send back the required info and away I go. This will seem like the last thing to go right for weeks.
One third of the way to the shipper I find the brakes are loosing air pressure. Just applying the brake for 45 seconds makes the alarm sound. Get to the shipper and find it will not go into 2nd, 3rd or reverse. I have to turn the truck off to put it in gear then restart to get moving again. Drop and hook completed, I fire off a qaulcomm message that I will be heading back to the yard for some repairs. On the way back I miss getting into 2nd while stopping at a traffic light, so I turn off the truck again , put it in 2nd and now it will not restart. I am stuck in the middle lane on US27, in FL. I flag down a cop so I don’t get killed while in the middle of the road, set up the triangles and call the shop. We talk and they say a tow truck is on the way. Several hours later the tow truck arrives. We get back to the yard about 6pm.
Good news (not), I get the poop & puke smelling truck to drive while mine is getting fixed. A quick swap of my stuff into the loaner and I am on my way. Loaner truck has a problem with the dryer. About every 45 seconds it makes a very loud “pisstt” noise. Keeps me from sleeping so I turn the truck off. No A/C at night for a while.
My first full day of driving and I make good progress. I stop in Ruther Glen for the night, get up early and head for my 0500 appt. in Jessup, Md. As I clear the last scale house in VA. the “Eng Warn” light comes on. I pull over and take a look under the hood for obvious problems. None. Get back in, restart the loaner, and the “Eng Warn” is off. So off I go again. Five miles down the road guess what, “Eng Warn” is on again. Time to do another check under the hood. All is still OK, so I hop back in and the “Eng Warn” is off again. Back on my way, again. Third time in 10 minutes that the “Eng Warn” is on. I wake up the shop manager at home. He says as long as no red lights are on keep going. Well “Eng Warn” is amber so I ignore it. I get to Jessup about an hour late thanks to the “Eng Warn” problem.
It’s 10:00 Friday and I am unloaded. I send the appropriate messages via the Qualcom and they send my next load back. Pick up in Martinsburg, WV. @ 13:30 Sunday. 48 hours of waiting at a truck stop what fun. I find the closest truck stop and proceed to be bored for 2 days.
Woke up at 08:00 Sunday. Got breakfast, did paperwork, 09:00 and I am ready to leave and can not start the loaner truck. Back on the phone to the shop manager, at home, again. Get some jumper cables & charge it from the reefer unit. OK. Hour and a half later I call back to tell him that didn’t work. He tells me to call someone local to come out and give me a jump.
Road service shows up about 11:00. He tries to charge the batteries. After a few attempts he gets the truck started. Then he breaks out his meter and checks the batteries and alternator. He says I should take the truck to his shop so he can test further. Back on the phone with our shop, they say go ahead. At the road service shop they say the truck needs new batteries. Call our shop again they say go ahead, again. New batteries in place, road service shop checks the alternator, says it is not charging and is very hot. Damn is it hot. Hotter than the exhaust manifold. (Ouch) I am watching what is going on and while not a mechanic everything seems to be on the up & up. Once again, back on the phone with our shop. They are not happy. They say we are not going to rebuild a truck on the road. Our shop asks some questions. I provide the info. Our shop gives the go ahead again. New alternator installed road service checks things again. Finally everything is OK. Payment arrangements are made and off I go.
Only 4 hours late to Martinsburg. They say they will get me loaded when they can fit me in. Back up to a door for now. It’s now 21:30 and I see a driver heading my way. I roll down the window to talk to him. He says they have been calling me on the radio & I am finished being loaded. I tell him thanks for letting me know as I don’t have a radio yet. Back to the shipping office to pick up paperwork and at 22:00 I am on my way. I head to the first truck stop to fuel and scale. Even though I am tired I have to go on down the highway as there is no parking left at this truck stop. Two rest areas down the road I squeeze into a creative parking spot and sleep.
I drive hard to get to the receiver’s on time. At the first stop I am 40 minutes early. By the time I get unloaded I no longer have enough time to make the last 2 stops on time. As I am heading to the 2nd stop I have the pleasure of going through a 20 mile long Love Bug swarm. Ten miles into the swarm I have to stop to clean the windshield. Just before reaching thhe interstate I make another windshield cleaning stop.
I get to the exit for the second stop and start following the directions given to me by the receiver. That got me lost in a hurry. I find a place to stop and consult the map. Turns out the directions I was given are from the wrong Interstate. I call the second receiver let the know what is going on and where I am. After getting new directions it is no problem finding them. I stop inside to get a door from receiving. I back in and wait. And wait, and wait. Time to go back inside and see what is happening. Oh, you are in door xx, we were wondering who was there they say. Apparently I got lost in their shift change. They get me unloaded next and I get to head to the last stop in rush hour traffic & construction.
At the last stop they know how to get things done. Before I get out of the truck some one says back in to door 11. I back in, bring my paperwork to the receiver who is coming out to meet me. We take care of business and I inquire about a restroom. On my way out of the restroom receiver spots me & says they are all done, drive safely. Wow do they have their act in gear. Time to find somewhere safe to stop for the night.
Next morning the quailcom beeps with messages. New load info & stop by the yard to pick up my regular truck, it’s fixed they say. So I pick up the new load and swap out my stuff again, at the yard. I also talk to the shop about problems with the reefer unit. Now I am behind schedule again since the yard is not located near an interstate and I will have to travel on 2 lane roads till I get to one. I head out again to get scale and fuel, then sleep for the night. As I am doing some paperwork I watch the air pressure rise and fall. Calling the shop, after hours, again I describe the problem they say that is normal for the older trucks to do that. As long as it seems like it will stop I’ll make this run & then show it to the shop when i am back. Also the reefer unit is still having problems so the the shop say to set it on continuous.
After this I decide that I will name this truck “Norma L.”, get it NormaL.
The next day is uneventful and I stop in a Virginia rest area for the night. The next morning the truck will not start. Making my favorite phone call to the shop (they are on speed dial #1 by now) they send out someone from the International dealer down the road. He say I need a new starter, the shop say “do it”, so I go to the International dealer (who is the wrong direction from where I am going of course). New starter and another 6 hours behind schedule I am back on the road. After no more surprises I make it to the receiver and get new load info.
Finally a good trip with plenty of time. I am early so I park in the yard and head to the house for a few hours. I get back to make my delivery, return to the yard, do paperwork to get paid, write up more problems with the truck (found the air leak, windshield is pitted, etc.) and go home for 2 days.
Tags: My Adventure · Delayed Blogging Posts
