Very enjoyable and informitive posts about how driving really is. Hard to believe the driver survived that wreck but am glad to hear it!!.

 

Excellent day today, the weather was perfect again, cool. 8)

I got up in Gary nice and early, and even though I wasn't supposed to have the trailer in Marshfield until Wednesday morning, I told them I would be there today, and wanted a load, so they needed to be looking, and they said ok! Now, I don't know if it's because the "slow season" is over or if it's because something has changed, but I am loving my job here lately.

No big long waits, nice long runs, and getting home on the weekends, not to mention the great paychecks(to me anyway) but more on that later. I would have been able to leave Gary at 6am, but they wanted me to hang out until the office opens so I could let them download my pictures of the trailer, and the place it was parked. So I waited around, chit chatted with some people, some of which I hadn't seen since I started training there last year. It was fun to catch up.

Anyway, I waited and come to find out, they use a different memory card than I do, and they don't have anything that will accept my card. Oh well, it was still great fun talking with people I haven't got to see in a long time, and I was out of there by 8am, so it wasn't that big of a hold up.

I knew that leaving when I did would put me in Chicago at a busy time, but it actually went pretty smooth. I can remember my first trip to Chicago when I worked for the nursery, I told them I didn't ever want to come back, lmao, and now, even with heavy traffic, it just isn't that big a deal.(never thought I would say that) I have learned what interstates go where, and what lane to be in, plus my heavy traffic lane changing ability has evolved more than I ever thought possible. Keeping a safe distance from the person in front of you is key, and is also very hard, because 4 wheelers are jetting from lane to lane trying to find the fastest route, and they don't care to cut you off, in fact I don't think they even look before they make their lane change.(at least it seems that way)

I got through chi-town with no problem, and was soon in Wisconsin, whoo hoo, making good time baby! I stopped about 5 hours into the trip to take a break, and check the trailer over again just to be sure. Wonderful day, man was it nice! I decided to call Chris, and he was having a great day to, he got the nova out for the first time since the beginning of winter, and he was having a blast(working on cars is his greatest escape, nothing makes him happier, unless I am home :wink: ) getting the car cleaned up, and topping fluids(pretty much doing what I do on a daily basis, a PTI).

Hearing his day was going great made my day all that much better! A short time, and a thousand questions over the cb about the trailer, later I was in Marshfield. I parked the trailer, and went inside to talk face to face with dispatch. Good news yet again! My dispatcher is getting to be really good to me, he gave me yet another oversize load!! whoo hoo!! :shock: 8)

Another thing I learned is that I am not earning a measly 37cpm, I am earning top dollar when I pull this stuff, 40cpm baby! Now THAT is some good money for a company driver, lol. Not only that, but the trip is over a thousand miles :shock: :shock:

THEN if all this isn't good enough, I find out that this weeks paycheck is almost as much as last weeks(now I feel rich) I grossed 906.04, and brought home 642.83! And with the miles I already have, plus this oversize load, I will have another awesome check next week, man, does this stuff get any better?

 

One thing about this biz is you need to really appreciate the good times because they do not last, but then again niether do the bad ones.

And yes the slow season is really winding down and the spring and summer seasons are starting to really gear up in retail and trade (ie construction). Things should pick up a little more in the next month or so and then pretty much level off until about the end of the year.

 

And just to think that a couple of weeks ago you were looking for another company to drive for...
Girl you are doing great.


Hey do ya'll run with the spread axle trailers?

 

Novacane
I have enjoyed your posts! I will be starting training with Roehl on May 8th. Looking at doing nation vans hopefully coast to coast runs. Thanks for all the informative posts!!
K

 

"vans hopefully coast to coast runs" Might want to check into that, not that many companies routinely do wall to wall runs by a solo nowadays. BOL

 

If you are a new driver, don't plan on seeing the west coast until you have about a year experience. That's not set in stone, but about right for most!
Denver will be about as far west you will see.

 

Another day of wonderful weather, nice sights, and easy driving, well, pretty easy, lol.

I started nice and early as usual, and pulled out of Marshfield anxious to get some serious miles under my belt. We take hwy 10 to get back to I-39 and at the slower speeds, everything was cool, finally hit the interstate, and my first problem started to show up. I had a "door" on the machine that wouldn't stay shut. It was getting worse and worse, so I had to pull over to make sure nothing got damaged.

I got out, and it seemed like it shut nice and tight, it felt good and sturdy, must not have been shut good, ok, here we go again. But 5 miles later, guess what, the door is waving again, ok, this time I will fix it for good. I get pulled over and go crazy with bungees, no way this sucker is coming open now!

Wrong!! less than a half hour later, it is waving again :x So once again I stop and tighten the bungees as much as possible without breaking them(remember we use inner tube homemade bungees, but hopefully not for long) and am pretty sure this will hold.

Wrong!! :evil: Now I am really mad, c'mon, it shuts pretty decent, and it has PLENTY of tight bungees on it, what gives? I go back and tighten them as tight as I can pull them, and hope they don't snap and cause me to fly off into a whole different realm of pissed off. Thing is that they were pretty tight before and I couldn't tighten them THAT much. So I call dispatch to see if I can use some duct tape to help reinforce everything, but nope, it might leave residue, so that's a no no.

I consider just using a chain, but due to the location, and the fact there was virtually no way to keep the fresh new paint from scratching, decided against that idea. There just isn't anything I can do to make it more secure(isn't that what I do for a living?) it's just in too weird of a spot. So I pull everything back off again, and put a nice tight nylon rope on it to begin with, then wrap as many bungees as will fit, and pull them as tight as they can go(broke 3, and they all missed me, whoo hoo!).

I get on the road yet again, and what do you know, it finally holds, but you can tell that it is trying, so it will be something I will have to keep my eye on the entire trip.

Spent the next couple of hours just enjoying the day, trying to make up the half hour or so I spent trying to get the door to shut. I come to a weigh station, stop on the scale, and what happens? Can anyone guess what color was illuminated right in front of me? Man I don't need this, and I am nervous beyond belief and for what reason I don't know, my logs are always correct(thanks to Roehl, they really won't let you mess up) and I have all the paperwork I need to be here.

So I pull around back, and in just a second a dot woman is knocking on the door(how do they get to the truck so fast?). I roll down the window, yes ma'am. "Do you know you are over gross?" uhh, yeah, that's why I have my beacon on, oversize load sign, and flags on the truck. "ok, let me see your log book, and permits" Ok here you go officer.

She looks them over, "ok, everything seems to be in order" and hands them back. "Lamps!" she yells, I said what? "turn on your headlights" so I do, "left blinker" "right blinker" and proceeds to go around the truck looking at every bulb. That's cool, because there was a problem with the lights on this machine yesterday, and that prevented me from leaving at a decent time, so I had maintenance go over the whole thing to make sure everything was in tip top shape, whew, that was a decision I don't regret making!

She comes back up to the truck, "why don't you have a tag on the truck" I said, well, I do, but it's covered with the oversize load sign, "oh you mean the sign that is torn, and ripped to shreds, that needs to be replaced?" I said well I guess so(it's only got rips on the ends of the sign where the ends wrap around the bumper, and they are very minor).

"Do you know your tag number" I said yes and told it to her, "let me see that log book again" I hand it to her hoping that she wasn't just looking for any little thing to nail me on. She looks it over again, and hands it back. Then starts looking over the truck. I thought I would get out so she doesn't have to keep coming to the window to ask questions, but she told be quickly to get back in the truck, so I do.

She comes back up, "do you realize you have a air leak around one of the glad hands?" I said no, "did you perform a PTI this morning" I said yes ma'am, "let me see that log book again" she looks at it, "well you logged it, but did you do it, or just write it down?" I said I really did it, I have no wish to die or kill a innocent person from being lazy.

"well get out and lets see the plate on the truck" so I get out, untie the oversize load sign to show her the tag, "well, you know your number, that's good, you can put it back on now" I comply, and she says "I could site you for 2 violations, the leaking glad hand, and the torn oversize load sign, but I tell you what, there is a truck stop down the road a few miles, if you promise to stop and get a new sign, I will let it go, and don't try to skimp on me, I have a friend that works there and I will tell him to look for you. Plus, before you leave, you will have to stop the air leak, if you do these things, I won't site you today, how does that sound?"

I said no problem(what would I say, "no officer, I'd rather have some tickets") She goes back inside, and I get to work, I check the glad hands, but I can't hear a leak, so I wiggle them around, and you can just barely hear air leaking, if there were another truck around, or even someone talking, you wouldn't be able to hear it. So I get that fixed, and pull back around to the scale, stop, and she waives me through, didn't even check if I fixed the leak, but oh well, she probably seen that I was working on it and just assumed I had.

Now, as you are reading this, you are probably thinking wrong, if she seems mean or something, she wasn't. She was strict, and straight to the point, but overall really nice, besides, she could have gave me a citation, and she didn't, so she can't be all that bad, lol.

I ease on down the road, and even stop where she told me to so I could get a new oversize load sign($20) just to be safe. So I am rolling again, and enjoying everything and thanking my lucky stars I didn't get in trouble. But again, I had to stop after a couple hours, I am getting close to running out of permits, so I need to pull over, and get them to fax the permits and my planned route. Dispatch was on it today, got the papers faxed, and back on the road in record time!

I kept driving with no other mishaps all the way past Indianapolis where I had to shut down before dusk. So here I sit at the 95 on 65 in a pilot parking lot, looking over at the uhmm, other pilot, lol, they are multiplying! Anyway, that's all for today, I get to go by the house tomorrow and plan on having lunch with Chris, this will be the first time I have been routed by the house through the week, so I am looking forward to it.

 

Hmm, This sounds fishy to me. You have to stop at a specific location to purchase an item that you don't really need, but will otherwise get a ticket for. Not that you could do anything about it, but you have to wonder what's in it for the DOT officer? Kickbacks perhaps?

 

I doubt it. If it was the closest place to purchase one, they they can make her stop there, or shut her down. Her choice.
I doubt the kickback on a $20 sign would really be much.