Well.....sorry if I came across as nit picky...that wasn't my intent. For first year drivers, knowing that US97 to WA14, is not only the shortest route to the Camas/Vancouver/Portland area, but one that is spectacular in it's scenic views, but can also be hazardous due to those few short narrow tunnels(there have been, over the years, several accidents in them), is somethikng worth knowing about..or not. On the drive across 14, there are several pullout area's, where a driver can stop, take a short break, and just sit on the guardrail of one of those pull outs, to watch windsurfers on the river, barges on the river, or salmon grouping in the pools along some of the cliffs, under those pull outs, resting for the continuation of their trip upstream...nothing boring about any of that. Seeing one of those pools black with salmon is an awesome sight..and makes a person wonder about all the cries of decreased salmon populations.
Yet another incredible drive, is the trip across White Pass on US12. It is an awesome drive 12 month's out of the year...with winter being a trip for the hardiest driver. There is nothing quite like looking across towards Mnt. St. Helens on a clear day, especially when she is smoking. Mnt. Adams and Mnt. Rainer are also spectacular to view, on those days when you can see them. That route also allows you the chance of breaking at one of the better truckstops in the northwest...CC's at exit 50 on I-5. Very good food, decent showers and friendly people. :wink:

 

2008
WEEK NINE
Monday February 25th through Sunday March 2nd


Well, it’s Monday again and time to get back to truck driving. I’ve sat at the Petro outside of Beaumont, TX and have had time to do a 34hr reset, although that was the last thing I needed at this point. But there was no freight in the area after my Saturday afternoon delivery and I had to wait until today to get loaded. I had an open PU time anytime after 8am and usually like to arrive at least one hour early but this shipper is just opening at 8am and if I show up too early I run the risk being turned away so I decided to arrive at 7:30am. I’m only 15 minutes away but run into heavy fogs almost as soon as I get started and a wrong turn finds me at the shipper at 8:15.

When I get there I find that there are two other drivers just coming out of the shipping office and am annoyed with myself for arriving too late. It turns out that there are only 2 loading docks and I will have to wait for an hour or so before I get my turn.

As things work out, I’m better off (for now) than the 7 other trucks that pull in behind me over the next 1/2hr.

Once the loading began I notice what was being put into the trucks at the dock and I was not at all please to see that not only was it a paper product (looked to be paper pulp in sheets), but it was being loaded on the floor of the trailer with NO pallets and even worse, NO slip sheets. Each bundle was simply wrapped with a heavy paper. This revelation sent shivers up my spin. Why, you may ask? I don’t know if you recall from last weeks recap but I had a very clear flashback relating to the somewhat formidable oil stain that I had discovered after delivering my load of insulation (that was a floor load and wrapped in plastic bundles) up in Montana.

This oil stain was of concern to me then, but there was nothing I could do at the time. My next load was bags of some kind of white powder (non toxic diatomaceous earth, or something along those lines) that was used to make plastic sheeting. When this was being unloaded the forklift operator had torn open one of the bags and a bit had spilled onto the floor. This worked out well at that moment because as I pushed it around with a broom it did what at the time seemed like a very good job of absorbing the oil on the floor of the trailer.

Now I get the feeling I’m about to pay for my lack of attention, or desire to deal with this problem effectively when I discovered it.

With this in mind I head back and open the door and jump up in the trailer to get a look at the problem area. Sure enough, the oil spot was still very obvious and right then and there I knew things were going to take a bad turn. I went into the warehouse and hunted down the supervisor to get my trailer inspected by him, there was no point in waiting another hour or so for the other trucks to get loaded only to back into my door and be refused then. The result was as expected and the trailer was rejected. Isn’t this great, sit all weekend and now here I sit with a trailer that can’t be loaded and a Monday morning dispatch that is probably being bombarded by a thousand unresolved weekend problems.

My messages to dispatch are answered with silence, just as I had expected. I don’t hold dispatch responsible; my daily hassles on the road can be a real pain in the back side. I can’t imagine what it would be like sitting in an office and trying to solve the problems of hundreds of drivers every day with Monday mornings throwing an entire weekend worth of problems in your lap all at once. With this in mind I do my best to remain patient (very trying) and after about an hour I start to get some correspondence. I basically told dispatch that the trailer can’t be floor loaded and a wash out wasn’t going to be effective on an oil saturated wood floor. I could PU a palleted load, but dispatch would not do that because the next driver would then be put in the same situation I was in. I suggested that I could take the trailer to the Wilmer, TX (300+mi) yard outside of Dallas but dispatch couldn’t approve that and they told me to contact Breakdown.

A message off to dispatch was meet with the same speedy response and after all the info was repeated I was giving clearance to pull the empty trailer to Wilmer. I headed that way and arrived in the yard at 4pm and was informed shortly thereafter that no loads were available and to check back after 9am in the morning. The worst thing about the whole ordeal is that if I would have addressed it after unloading in Houston on Saturday it wouldn’t be a problem today. There is no one to blame but myself (and the driver who dropped this trailer before I came across it).

Tuesday started with the hope of better things to come and I sent a message off to dispatch at 5am. This was earlier than dispatch had told me, but I wanted to get a head start on the other drivers if possible. I also let them know that I had been empty since Saturday and my trailer had been refused at the shipper and I was sitting here without a load, boo hoo, feel sorry for me kind of message and topped it off with a “I’m trying to get to Phoenix for hometime if you have anything going in that direction.”

I was surprised to get a response, “No freight going to Phoenix, but here is a load to Salt Lake City (1414mi), you can take this load and try getting a load to Phoenix form there.” Well, I couldn’t ask for much more than that in this freight climate, so I thanked them and accepted the load. The one big problem with this load is that it was an appointment delivery Friday morning and I had to be in Phoenix by Saturday for my Grandmothers 90th B-Day celebration.

This load was a drop/hook PU scheduled for anytime after 3pm in Paris, TX. I knew from previous loads at this shipper that the trailer was in all likelihood ready to go. With this in mind I headed out and made it there by 10am and sure enough it was ready.

The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday was spent driving with the intent of getting to SLC ASAP so that I could talk dispatch into Tcalling this load in our yard. I was also able to shave off about 100mi by taking two lane roads through the interior of New Mexico, Colorado and Utah instead of the interstate routing that the company had suggested. This saved me a good amount of time (not to mention completely avoiding a wind swept I-80 across Wyoming in the process) and made for some great scenery along the way.

;

Travel went well and I found myself in SLC by 8am Thursday morning. I sent a message off to dispatch and was allowed to Tcall my load in the yard but was also informed that there was no freight available to get me to Phoenix (they might be able to get me something going that way Friday morning). I was disappointed by this but not surprised. I had somewhat assumed this would be the case. I told dispatch I would find a way home on my own and set my return PTA for the following Tuesday.

I was initially going to rent a car and drive down to Phoenix (I found a compact for $20 day). It was a 650 mile trip and figured it wouldn’t be all that bad of a trip. At least I knew it would be much faster in a car that the truck. Just for kicks I was checking out airline tickets, but with no notice flights were running around $400. As an after thought I checked out hotwire for flights one last time and was delighted to come across a supper saver fair that wasn’t there an hour ago of only $205, including all taxes. WOW, what a deal for a last minute booking. The big concern here was that I could only pick the departure and arrival dates, not the times. But for that price I wasn’t going to fret over it. I put in my info and bought the flight. The flight times turn out to be very agreeable and I was set for some time off.

I found myself with nothing to do for the rest of Thursday (my flight didn’t leave until late) and had already put my truck in the shop for a B service. The shop found all kinds of things that needed to be replaced on my 600,000 mile truck and said it would have to be in the shop for a couple of days. Perfect timing on that one, I just told them I’d pick up the keys next week.

Once I got things settled with the shop I called dispatch and let them know I had access to a yard truck if they had any shag loads that needed to be done. They had a load that needed to be delivered and I shuttled a couple of empty trailers around town to occupy the rest of my day.

As evening rolled around I called a cab and headed over to the airport.

I would have rather pulled a load down to Phoenix, but things don’t always work out perfectly. I was just thrilled to be able to pickup my wife at the airport the next day and spend some very pleasant time with our families. The 80° days were nice too.



WEEK NINE RESULTS
Monday, February 25th through Sunday, March 2nd
Miles include deadhead

Beaumont, TX to Salt Lake City, UT..................1849


Total Paid Miles...........................1949 miles(Monday through Thursday)
Actual Miles………………………1849 (took two lane roads to cut miles)

1949mi x .42 = $818.58 (plus shag pay $35)

 

Orangetxguy wrote:

I apologize for taking your comment in the wrong way. Posts are not always read in the way they are intended, and for this reason I usually try not to respond to what I perceive as insulting posts. But every once in awhile I let my guard down.

 

Texas sucks for freight right now. I dropped in Paris Last Fri about 8am and was told to go find a truck stop and check back at 3pm. Well the TS I was at had 8 Crete drivers waiting for loads, some of whom had been there since midday Wed!!! As the day wore on loads were starting to come out but they were all crap. Two drivers who had been there the longest ended up taking Columbus Oh loads out of Sapulpa Ok. that couldn't deliver till Tues! 900 some odd miles for 4 days not includiing the two they had already sat. Finally the guy who was in line just ahead of me got a load out of Paris going to Sterling Il to deliver as soon as he could get it there. Not too bad except for the fact it wouldn't be ready till the next morning. Now comes my turn. Qualcomm beeps and I don't even look for a couple of minutes. Trying to get myself set for major disappointment. Finally I look and I couldn't believe it. They wanted me to DH to Bartlesville Ok, 237 miles, for an 8am appt to pick up a load going to Walmart in Menomonie Wi for as soon as I could get it there. Ended up with 947 miles for two days. Kept thinking about those two drivers who took those Columbus loads just to get moving. By the time they delivered on Tue I had run to Menomonie, picked up a Menards load in Eau Claire going to Omaha then picked up a load at Kelloggs for Columbus Wed morn. Ended up with 2239 miles for the same amount of time they got 900 and some. If they would have refused to take those loads and waited for something better they might have done alright. You never know.

 

Great pics. It's been a long time since I've seen the "nipple" rock. Makes me want to move back to Farmington. :wink:

 

Somehoe I seem to keep missing the snow and fun times everyone is having with the storms running through the east. I either get there in Ohio or Indiana before the storm and get out or levae before the next one. I just got a load from near Augusta and going to near Cleveland. Not really sure what the roads are gonna be like but am assuming (Which is bad thing to do) will be cleared up by the time I get up there tomorrow.

Good luck everyone and be acreful out there.

 

That's right, If they had been "cool" on the stool and waited and gambled on setting there overnite(again?) then YOU would have gotten the rotten load offer-
The dispatchers alway have to try and "marry off" the ugly sister before the pretty one gets to go to the dance.

 

2008
WEEK TEN
Monday, March 3rd through Sunday, March 9th




It looks like it is time to start another week on the road. Monday was my last day of home time that was spent in Phoenix, AZ. I’m not exactly looking forward to more winter driving after spending the last few days in 80° weather. I can’t wait for this winter to pass.

An early Tuesday morning flight found me in Salt Lake City and in my truck well before noon and I sent in my “ready for load” message, but wasn’t expecting miracles because SLC hasn’t been one of the stronger freight bases of late. Therefore, the “check back in 2hrs" message wasn’t a shocker. I wasn’t overly disappointed by this because it gave me time to get settled in. I spent an hour or so in the drivers lounge and heard the usual. Some getting good miles, some not with a couple of drivers in the room who had been hung up in Washington state for a couple of days. This defiantly seems to be one of the worst places in the country for Crete freight at the moment. Over all, the general consensus seems to be that the wait for freight is defiantly more prominent than it has been in the past, but for the most part everyone seems to be getting descent miles so far. At this particular time there were 8 drivers waiting on loads when one of them came in and said he had recently checked his massages and found that a good load had been offered, but he wasn’t in the truck at the time and it was pulled from him 15mins later because he didn’t reply in a timely manner. With that I decided I best spend my time in the truck until I hear something.

Once in the truck I sent another message asking for a load and ran some paperwork into the office. When I returned, I had a load offer to PU in WY (damn, I hate that state, at least for the remainder of this winter) and it was a D/H PU. What jumped out at me (in an annoying kind of way) was that the PU time for this load was anytime today. That means it’s a preloaded trailer and has been sitting there all morning while I’m patiently waiting on a load for the last few hours. I guess they were looking for a load the was closer so I wouldn’t have to deadhead 190mi (can’t really blame them for that).

Good news is that I’m rolling and my short week will start off with a decent 1678mi run to Northwest Ohio. Bad news is it isn’t scheduled to deliver until Saturday, but it’s an open delivery time so I assume it’s a drop and hook and I make plans to deliver early. A couple of good running days and I can have the load there by Thursday night and might even have some time left to PU a load afterwards. All I know is that I don’t want to be putting in an MT call on a Saturday in Ohio.

I made it to my PU and did a quick D/H and headed on down the road in anticipation of what I-80 and Wyoming had in store for me today. Before leaving SLC I had checked the weather radar and wasn’t exactly thrilled to learn that I was going to be seeing the usual windy conditions with a good possibility of snow by the time I made it to Rawlings. That turn out to be very optimistic because I hit my first snowfall 200 miles before that around Fort Bridger. Nothing horrible, but unwanted none the less and it only lasted for 20 miles or so. From there it was smooth sailing for the next 200 miles but CB reports were not at all encouraging. As I got closer to the snow line the stories of the severity and the duration of the storm was increased by every driver I talked too. From the sound of things, the storm was growing and moving east and it looked like I would be running with it for most of the night.

The storm turned out to be less sever than some of the others that I had dealt with so far this winter across Wyoming, but it still qualified as a nasty pain in the a**! Once again I was dealing with crap. One particularly nasty section of about 20 miles was a horrible sheet of ice with a handful of obligatory cars hitting the ditch. I even got to watch one up close and personal today.

A Suburban that was pulling a small trailer (with no brakes on it) was going too fast (big surprise). We came up on a lane closure due to road crew trying to clear off an amazingly large snow drift from the granny lane. This forced all traffic into the left lane and a drastic slowdown in traffic. Well, once the Suburban tried to slow down, he found out his little trailer had no plans to do the same. The trailer started to squirrel around and each swing back and forth got a little more sever. I just slowed down, pulled into the center of both lanes with my flasher on to warn oncoming traffic and watched the show. I’ll give him props though; he almost saved it but eventually lost complete control and found himself going sideways. The look on his face was priceless, I think he thought I was going to hit him broadside in the drivers door. Lucky for him I was paying more attention to what lay ahead than he was. The finale was a graceful plunge with a relatively soft landing into a foot or two of snow. Another one bites the dust. It was such a slow build to the final ditching that I actually had time to snap a couple of pics.




This weather continued for another 200 miles with varying degrees of severity. Every thing from serious ice build up with high winds to sections of near white out. I considered stopping a couple of times, but the weather report was one of continued snow and poor conditions. So, no matter how bad it was at the moment, it would just be worse when I woke up in the morning and I had no intentions of hanging around and waiting for WY to close the road on me. Nothing new for this blasted state. I finally broke out of it around the Nebraska line and pulled into Bosselman’s outside of Big Springs, NE before running out of hours. Well, that was a great way to be welcomed back from my time off.


Wednesday was an oh hum, nothing special day of driving across NE and IA with a final stop in Western IL. This got me close enough to the customer so that I could plan on making it to the consignee in the area of 6pm on Thursday (this was scheduled for a Saturday delivery) and leave me with a good 4-5 hrs of drive time available in the event that there is a load available somewhere in the area. Not likely this time of night, but I can always hope.

Upon arriving at the customer (I assumed I would be able to drop/hook) I was assigned a door for a live unload. I was a bit confused by this because I could see a few of our empty trailer on the property, but since I was so early and they were accepting the load I wasn’t going to complain. While I was waiting at the shippers window I was reading all the little signs they had posted for our reading pleasure. Two in particular stood out to me. The First one “If you are going to spend your 10hrs break here, you must sign in with the guard”. This is a good, depending on how long it takes to get unloaded and my next load offer, I have that option available to me. The second sign said “Loading hours 7:30am to 10pm, if you arrive after 10pm, you will have to wait until the following morning to load”.

I was sitting in the truck and counting the pallets (by each bounce of the truck from the forklift) being pulled off. I had 18 pallets and when they had pulled off 9 I put in an empty call (and hoped the load count didn’t come up short, not really a possibility with this particular load). By doing this, I would be able to save some time and get my next load offer and assignment while I was waiting for the rest of the trailer to be unloaded.

Putting in an MT call before being completely unloaded is not usually a good idea (nor approved of by the company) because if there is a discrepancy in the final count or if for some reason the unload takes much longer than anticipated it can cause a big problem with dispatch if you are sent a hot load and all of a sudden you're telling them you have a problem and can’t leave or your not completely unloaded yet. But with this particular load I felt confident there would be no problems and the sooner I can get an MT call in, the higher I’ll be on the load list. Minutes can make a difference between getting a load now or waiting till the next day, especially later in the day.

After about 15mins I was sent a one load offer. I didn’t like what I saw. This was a 9am appoint PU at the same place I was currently delivering to. I didn’t mind the next day PU as much as the delivery time. It was a nice 590mi run to Des Moines, but the killer part was that it didn’t delivery until Monday (it is now Thursday night). That means 590 miles over the next 3 days. That, in my assessment is total BS. I try not to let things bother me too much, but I want to know what bonehead schedules a PU and DEL like that.

I have never refused a load and I’m not going to start now, but I’m going to do anything I can to perhaps talk dispatch into a change. I started off by not accepting the load (ignoring it for now) and sent off a message to night dispatch (low expectations from this bunch). “This load will have me sitting for over 60hrs, I would rather not spend the entire weekend in the back of my truck, is there any chance of getting a different load or Tcalling this in the Romeoville (Chicago) yard, THX”

At this point I’m wound up and as close to pissed off as I generally get (because I already know night dispatch probably isn’t going to be very helpful), but make it a point to never let that attitude show in my Qcomm messages.

After 30mins of no response (that in itself is an answer) I realize I will have to make this work on my own. The delivery time on this load is an open window between 9am and 2pm next Monday. What I take from this is that they are only open M-F. If they were open Saturday the appointment would have in all likelihood be set for then. The PU for this load is here at this shipper and scheduled for the following morning at 9am. I have about a 9 ½ hr drive once loaded. That means that if I do a live PU as scheduled, I’ll be ready to roll by around 11am and the earliest that I could make it to the consignee would be around 8-9pm Friday night, therefore forcing me to sit till Monday to make my delivery. Total crap!

During this dilemma my mind went back to the sign I had read in the shipper's office “No loading after 10pm”. Well, that leaves plenty of time to load me tonight if I can catch them in a good mood. So off to the shippers office I go to tell them I have been sent a load that is scheduled to PU the following morning and inquire as to the possibility of loading tonight instead. That is answered with a sharp “What’ your pickup number”. Well I don’t have that yet because I haven’t actually accepted the load (and may actually have a different load offer by the time I get back to the truck, yeah right), and am told that they can’t help me without the number. At least this lets me know they are open to the idea if the product is available at this time.

Back out to the truck I go in the hopes of finding a new load offer, but of course I am met with silence. At this point I decide to accept the load and assume I’ll be able to load tonight. If it works out that way, I’ll be able to take my 10hr break on property, take off at 3am, drive my 9½, fuel and be able to make it to the customer Friday between 1-1:30 and hope that they will unload me.

Once I received the load information I headed into the shipping office with my newly acquired PU#. The first question the surly lady at the shipping window asked me was if I had an MT trailer? This catches me a bit off guard since she just handed me my signed BOL for the trailer they had just unloaded. So with a rather inquisitive look on my face I assure her that I do in fact have an MT trailer and am delighted to be assigned a door. The loading goes much quicker than the unload and I sign in with the guard and park in the back for the remainder of the night. Oh yeah, after accepting the load I did eventually get an answerer to my plea for another load stating that I can check with the day crew about Tcalling the load in our Chicago or Indy yard the following day. I didn’t bother telling them I was already loaded.

Friday went exactly as planned and I made it to the customer in Des Moines at 1:15pm. There was one guy there and he was more than happy to unload me and by 1:45 I had sent in my MT call (2½ days early)and was awaiting my next load offer. Within a couple of minutes I was sent a “working on it message” and was quite pleased with myself for saving what would have been a dismal 2268mi week. Although I didn’t get started until Tuesday afternoon and that wouldn’t have been all that bad for a short week.

Within 15mins I was sent a message that there were no loads left for today (no problem for me, I only had 1½ of drivetime left today anyway) and received a one load offer that was a 5am PU the following morning just up the road. The pain in the backside about this load is that it delivered to Wichita (426mi) the next day at 11pm. Another bone head planning job. PU a load at 5am, drive 7hrs or so, sit for 10 hrs and then deliver in the middle of the night. Oh well, after my last run, these are bonus miles for me anyway. I accept the load and drive up to the shipper so I can get an early start the next day and maybe they will unload me early.

Saturday starts early and I arrive at the shipper at 4am for a 5am appointment. They assign me a door, I back up, feel the truck get locked into the door, get one quick bounce and I’m loaded. Just like that. I was picking up a load of plastic soda bottles. I’ve done this a couple of times before and it’s a slick operation. What they do is have the entire load staged in front of a door. Once you are positioned they simply get behind the very light load of bottles with a forklift and push the whole thing in. It takes all of 15 seconds. I wish it was always that fast.

Off I go and arrive at the Pepsi Bottling Co in Wichita, KS by noon. My hopes of an early unload are spoiled by the guard who informs me that these bottles are JIT (just in time) loads and they don’t warehouse them. They simply take them off the truck and put them into the production line, basically making me a moving warehouse. The guard takes my phone number and tells me he’ll call when there ready. OH well.

The wait isn’t as long as expected, instead of 11pm I get the call at 8pm and bump the dock. The unload process is painfully slow and I am able to watch the new movie “Bank Robbers” (descent movie by the way) while I wait.


My MT call is met with yet another one load offer (don’t seem to be getting too many choices these days). It is now Saturday night and this load is a D/H PU in Kansas City between the hours of 9pm and Midnight on Sunday and is a two stop Delivery with my final stop in Wausau, WI (831mi) Tuesday at 11:00am. Definitely not the greatest load due to yet another bone head job by the load planers. The load assignment gives me the preloaded trailer number, so I know it’s ready to go now and I could easily deliver this load by Monday. I’ve been sitting around long enough to log a 10hr break and could head over to KC to get my trailer, but it’s late and I’m in no hurry so I decided to put in for the night.

I got a relatively late start Sunday and decide to treat myself to a hot breakfast and head over to KC to PU my trailer. My first stop is scheduled for Tuesday at 7am outside of La Crosse, WI which is less than 500mi away. I decide to get to the customer tonight and maybe they will unload me first thing Monday morning.



WEEK TEN RESULTS
Monday, March 3rd through Sunday, March 9th
Miles include deadhead

Green River, WY to Old Fort, OH.........................1678mi
Old Fort, OH to Des Moines, IA.............................590mi
Ames, IA to Wichita, KS.......................................459mi
Kansas City, KS to Onalaska, WI..........................685mi


Total Paid Miles............................................. .......3412 miles (6days, Monday = Home)
Actual Miles………………………3442

3412mi x .42 = $1433.04

 

Good and interesting info you've posted . You must have delivered and picked up at Arm and Hammer Baking Soda in Old Fort , been there , done that many times back in the day . Hopefully freight picks up , good luck .

 

I have really been enjoying reading your week by week posts. Makes me wish I was back out there. Keep up the good work