There's No Place Like Home!

No...not home yet...but I will be tomorrow! Ah...sweet relief! It's been a long 4 weeks! So not used to being gone that long. But you do what you gotta do to make them dollars. I have some home repair plans in the works for those dollars.

A few days ago coming off the highway to a truck stop to get parked I had to go over a bridge that was under construction. Luckily I was going slow as I came around the corner because I saw a several of glowing eyes on the road. Once I got the headlights shining right on them what I saw was a mama raccoon and her two babies trying to cross the road on the bridge. Mama ran quick when she saw me heading in their direction but the babies froze right in my head lights. Poor things were terrified. I sat and waited for them but they were frozen still. So I started to inch towards them and that got them moving...they ran straight for their mama on the other side. Sorry...I'm a softie...I could not run over them just because they were in front of me.

So where have I been this week? Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois.

I was in Chicago yesterday and today. And I absolutely just LOVE driving through Chicago (said no truck driver ever). Slow-ass traffic yesterday heading west through Chicago...slow-ass traffic today heating east through Chicago. Apparently today's was mainly as a result of some parade they were having there. Yes...driving through Chicago is one sure way to burn up some hours on your clock. While stuck in this snail-pace traffic I got quite a laugh at the van I saw in the next lane ahead of me. I really think he should consider getting the lettering on his van fixed. I'm not prone to call a business with a sign that says "Assmasters & Trim Inc."

 On my way through Indiana of course the clouds started to get a little angry looking ahead of me. So I had to pull out the old camera and take a quick click of what I was heading into. Can you say "Free Truck Wash?" Why yes...thank you! My truck is pretty clean now. There's still some of those nasty dried on, hard to clean off bug guts on the windshield but not nearly as many!

Time was short today. Hours were in the very low range. I think I argue with my dispatcher every single week about my available hours and where he thinks I can "trim" some time off my on-duty time to give me more time to get to the next stop. I'd had enough of that this morning and put my foot down. I've NEVER played with my log numbers before working here and I don't want to do it now. There's a really good reason I don't have any hour of service violations on my record with the DOT. It's because I DO NOT COOK MY BOOKS! I'm sure I pissed him off, but I don't really care. He's pissed me off every week with this "hours" argument. Having paper logs gives me a little wiggle room indeed (which of course the dispatchers think gives them wiggle room too)...but to blatantly falsify logs is not something I'm interested in doing. I pointed out to him too that he'd plan a 10-hr work day instead of taking a driver straight to the edge of their 11-hr every single day it's less likely a driver will run out of hours. But he wants to fill every single moment of that 11-hr clock. What is he gonna do with the 30-min break being mandated next week? That's 30 minutes he can't schedule us for! Oh my!

Finally make it to my destination and OMG! I can't believe some of the places that you are supposed to get your truck into! Why do they choose such places to put up a business? You kinda have to go into that poor residents front yard to get backed up into the docks here. Now keep in mind the panoramic view in the camera kind of distorts dimensions, but I think you can guess what I was up against being on a residential street that would be tight for even two trucks to get past each other. Some of my LEAST favorite places to go. I AM getting a little better backing in tight spaces...but I do still struggle with it some. 

So I'm outta here for now. Can't wait to get home and kick my feet up a bit. Gonna take my baby girl to see a movie this weekend too! I think we both deserve it.

It's a Miracle I Tells Ya!

It's been a long, tiring couple of days. I do NOT like using the sleeper berth split. It leaves me exhausted having to split up my downtime like that because I'm one of those people who cannot just stop and lay down and fall asleep. I have to unwind a bit, get my paperwork for the day done and then go through my emails (and maybe a bit of FaceBook). I had to use the split yesterday and of course I was so tired I ended up having to stop on the way to the next stop and close my eyes for about an hour...they had gotten too heavy to keep them open. Then add today to it and I'm ready to hurt someone over these split hours. But unfortunately dispatch put me in a position where I had no choice. I told him that I had to be parked at 7pm. So what happens? I get a load that doesn't get me to the shipper at...wait for it....7 PM! Go figure. So once I got docked, I got watch as trucks came in after me, got unloaded and leave. And wouldn't you know it...I was pretty much the only truck left in the row by the time they finally got around to unloading me and got to leave at 2am. Well...sleeper berth split again to make it legal for me to drive to a truck stop. 

And this is where the miracle happens. It's a rare thing to find parking spots open after 7pm. I pulled into the closest one from the receiver and OMG! There was a spot open just beckoning me. Obviously someone up there was watching out for me. So now I get to unwind a bit. Gotta get up at 10:45 (that's the earliest legal time according to my Driver's Daily Log software). And then pass out.

So it's a g'nite y'all!

Here I Am Stuck in the Middle With You

Here I sit in the driver's lounge of a Freightliner dealer in Knoxville, TN. Yes...I'm still here. Four days now. The initial part finally came in this morning and they installed it...but it's still needing more work. They replaced the filter for the DEF, but now they have to replace the pump. Of course my company is NOT at all happy, but can you really blame them? The dealer has told them each day "tomorrow" and then on tomorrow it's still not done. But I've been told the average wait time here is 5 -6 days. So the company was positive I'd be back on the road today and went ahead and setup a load. I kinda figured they were jumping the gun...and I was right...truck needs different part now. Go figure. Dispatcher says this is bullshit...I told him that it's what you can expect anytime you go to a vehicle dealer for repairs. I personally have not come across any dealer of any vehicle type that can get a vehicle repaired within a day or two.

BUT...the good thing to have come out of this was I got to eat at Bojangles again! I hadn't had any Bojangles chicken for about 6 years and it was great! And only in Tennessee can it seem normal to see a blue grass band playing live in a fast food chicken restaurant. LOL! I made sure to make a note in my phone on where this Bojangles is located since there is a truck stop right across the road then I can stop in again should I get through the area.

HOS...Hours of Shit...I mean Hours of Service

The date that the new hours of service rules is enforceable is fast approaching us. There are still many who are confused on how the whole thing works. Company's are pushing to get all their drivers trained for it. These new rules will have a huge impact on the driving industry and drivers are all up in arms over it. As one driver said "If the old rules worked...why fix something that isn't broken?" And it's true...the rules that have been in place since 2003 has done what they wanted it to do. Increased safety and reduced accidents. It worked! So why are we changing it? Well...basically the FMCSA wants to (without any true merit behind it).

I've had the pleasure of discussing these rules with an ATA member and they were kind enough to provide me with two documents that may shed some light on the changes themselves (which can still be kinda confusing in some areas) and the ATA's response to those changes. Now..if only the FMCSA would actually take to heart those points made by the ATA regarding these rules changes.

Take a look...see what you think.

FMCSA Restart Phase 1

ATA's HOS Comments

We'll Leave the Light On For You

It would seem that everything was conspiring against me to NOT make it to the 2nd receiver yesterday. Six hours at the first receiver. Actually more than that but thanks to HOS I couldn't really start the official waiting period until 6am...I was actually there all night waiting in line with the rest of the trucks. One guy had been there since 6 pm the previous day so I guess I can't complain TOO much...but I'm going to anyway. My dispatcher made a phone call and not too long after I got called down to dock. Got all snug in my assigned doc...went inside to check in...WRONG DOCK! That dock was for chicken loads only and I had beef. No dock for you! Go sit by the fence. More waiting...then FINALLY into a dock where I belonged. And finally unloaded.

Stopped to get fuel at a Pilot. Used the Comdata card...told it I wanted both reefer and tractor fuel. Didn't really pay attention to the screen and started to fill up. That damned thing cut off at about 25 gallons. Tried to run the card again and it told me to see the cashier. So I went in and the damned pump had only given me reefer fuel and I was pumping in the tractor. ARGH!!! He was able to get the tractor fuel set back up for me but no reefer...there was a two hour wait on the card before you could get reefer fuel again. No biggie. I had half a tank...it could wait until I got close to the destination. 

BUT on the way to the Pilot this light that looks like an engine symbol  lit up on my dash. Not long after the check engine light is on. Pulled out of the fuel island and found someplace to sit for a few while I called the shop about it. After much discussion and trying a few different things the shop decided the tractor needed to go to a shop to be looked at. So the only place they could find that was in the direction of the next receiver was in Knoxville...an hour and a half away. Got over there and after several hours of waiting they finally put the machine on it to read the codes. It's an issue with the stupid regen. It had already started shutting down "zones" as they told me. If I had kept going it would have shut down the truck completely at some point. So! The truck was going to be there overnight for them to look at it. Continental paid for me to stay at the Motel 6 (as they have a shuttle that runs from the Freightliner Dealer to their motel).

Took a wonderful shower after sweating all day. Ate some dinner at the Ihop (because I can't miss an opportunity to hit one up since there isn't one in my home city). Came back to the room and got to sleep to wake up an hour later VERY sick). Doing better this morning but tired as hell now.

So that's the end of my update for this morning. I have to get dressed and get my crap together to take the shuttle back over the dealer.

Stay safe my friends!

I'll Get You My Pretty...and You're Little Dog Too!

Funnel Cloud of a Brief Tornado in Shelby, OH

Amazing weather yesterday and this morning. Luckily I did manage to miss most of it. Saw some heavy rain for a short bit as I headed for Chicago from Louisville. I stopped to shut my eyes for about a half and hour and when I got up it was gone. But I got to see a hellacious light show before hand. It was so beautiful...flashes of lightening every 2 seconds. Most of them just in the clouds but a few were earthbound too. Now they had a little more excitement back home. A small town, Shelby, close to my home of Mansfield experienced a brief funnel cloud but it did not fully form thank goodness. Shelby is probably about 20 miles from my house. It was scary for me since I wasn't home but my daughter and all the furbabies were. I'm so glad that no damage was seen there. I worry that something will happen at home while I'm out on the road. But I am thankful that I didn't run into any of that bad weather. I heard it got pretty nasty north of where I was.

Tonight I'm parked at a teeny, tiny Pilot truck stop with only about 15 parking spots...maybe not even that many. But of course you know there's more than that parked here. They are parked around the edges, next to the scales, and in the striped no parking areas. Got one guy parked right in front of another truck that's in a parking spot (he'll be getting woke up to move his out of the way I'm sure). From what I'm seeing out my window I think there's another parked cross-ways across several trucks that are in parking spots. But hell...I bet they don't have much choice. When you're out of hours you're out of hours. And there's not a lot of choices around this area for parking. I was lucky (or unlucky considering I was out of hours) that I got in early and had no problem getting into a spot. There were about 4 open when I got here. Now if someone parks in front of me...no problem. I'm stuck here until tomorrow afternoon. If I leave in the morning I'll be bumping my 70 hour clock before I can even get to the receiver. But the delivery time isn't even till 8:30 pm anyway and I'm 4 hours away so if I wait until afternoon to leave I won't have to worry about the 70 hr clock. Hopefully it won't take them long to unload me so I can get on to the 2nd receiver (another 5 hour drive) so I can get unloaded and parked for the rest of the night before my hours run out.

So let me mention here that the tool I use to make sure my hours are all straight is Driver's Daily Log. It's not pretty to look at but it does the job and it does it very well. It's already got the new HOS rules in it all I have to do is switch over to them come July 1st. It really helps me keep  my paper logs in proper order and I never have any mistakes on them.

I'll be working this weekend...3rd week straight...but by choice. I could go home every weekend if I want to. But I need the extra miles (money) right now. I will go home next weekend though. I'm gonna need a break by then. Going to tell them I need three days...that's one day for each week I've been on the road...I think that's fair. Need some downtime OUTSIDE my truck. :-)

While I don't have to get up early I am getting tired. I got up and on the road at 2 am so yea...I think it gives me good cause to get my ass in the bunk and snooze! Night y'all!

The Incredible, Edible Egg

Today's message brought to you by the letter E. I picked up a full load of eggs from Croton, OH this morning. Talk about tight parking! Holy cow! They don't give you much room to get just three trucks into the bays. Plus they have empties sitting around to avoid. While I was sitting there waiting for them to finish loading the eggs I played around with phone camera and found the panorama option! Of course by the time I played around with it the parking area had been cleared out of all the trailers parked on the opposite side. LOL

As you can see I was in BFO (bum fuck ohio). Miles and miles of...well...not much of anything. I then carried all that precious cargo to London, KY to the Wal-mart Distribution Center located there. 


Then I got sent over to Bowling Green, KY for a drop & hook...that wasn't actually a drop & hook. Apparently at one time they had a trailer there for doing those, but some bobtail went in one day, took it and another was never put back in. So that quick drop & hook turned into a 3 1/2 hour loading time. Oops...out of hours! Argh! And no place there to park for the night of course. 

Drove about 22 miles to get to a truck stop in Somerset, KY. It's one of the no-names (not one of the big names) but has pretty good size parking lot so even at 9pm (central) there were still actually spots open! Not a lot but at least 7 that I could count and that's something you usually don't see at one of the big name truck stops. Unfortunately I'm often wary about trying to go to one of the no-names listed in the gps because the last three turned out to be shut down. 

A lot of people have no idea how hard it can be for a semi to find a safe place to park. I know I harp on that...but it's a huge issue. The recent debate regarding the ban on trucks in Coon Rapids, MN continues on and yes...they are getting lambasted by the truckers for this ruling. One thing I find unsettling in the debate is the statement that "truckers are lowlifes". Of course there are some truckers who are...but not all of them. There are "lowlifes" in EVERY profession. Not all "lowlifes" dress in ragged clothes and drink beer as a hobby. Some are clean and polished and blend into society. Unfortunately it's the actions of the few that make the rest get blamed and stereotyped.

Anyway...time for a snooze. Stay safe and remember...trucker's deserve to be thought of as more than lowlifes. They are hard working friends, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters and brother's.