The Northeast...redux

The Northeast, even though the people leave a lot to be desired (not ALL of them, but a majority), has some breathtaking scenery. I shot this little video today after leaving with my load in Canaan, Ct. Rode beside this river for miles and decided to get out and take a look. It seems this is a trout river and you can only fly fish in it. Simply awesome if you ask me.

I saw a covered bridge about a quarter mile from here but couldn't stop to get pictures. and I know, my iPhone doesn't do great at video...it definitely doesn't do this place justice.

More later.

I do NOT like the North East...

I guess my dislike of the Northeast doesn't come from the scenery, because that is simply breathtaking at times and in some areas. No, I think my dislike comes from a much more personal level. Ill list a few reasons here - 

1. The roads. As much money as these states charge for taxes, you would think that they would have decent roads. Nope. As soon as I hit Pennsylvania, my kidneys know it. They know it because they are usually in the bottom of my throat because of the crappy roads that they have up here. Now, normally I wouldn't even consider Pennsylvania as the "Northeast" because other than the roads, it really doesn't fall into my dislike category. In fact, I think it is one of the prettiest states we have...but I digress.
2. Fuel. The price of fuel is VERY high up here. In fact, EVERYTHING is more expensive up here. Don't like it.
3. The roads are all toll roads. It goes back to my statement about them FIXING the roads with all of the money the states make off of drivers.
4. There is absolutely no truck stops up here. Everywhere else in the country you can find a truck stop easy enough. One with parking, even. Not up here. If you DO get lucky and find a truck stop, you have to be extremely lucky to find a parking spot. They just aren't that truck friendly up here.
5. They can't make Grits right. I will give them an A for effort, but an F in the final product. Lumpy, not salted at all, not cooked long enough (I guess they like theirs "Al Dente"), and Lord knows they have no clue that butter belongs in grits. It was the reason butter was made...to add to Grits.
6. Last but not least, the attitude of the people here. Now, I married a woman from New Hampshire and it wasn't a good thing. She had the Northern thing going and so did all of her family. They tried to explain to me that people up North just don't get in other people's business and they keep to themselves. I kept asking if that entailed not speaking to people when they say hello to you on the street, etc. I just never got it. Thank GOD I found my soul mate in a woman from the great state of Georgia. NOTHING like a Southern woman!

I'm the type of person that will ask you how you are doing today and genuinely mean it. I say yes ma'am and no ma'am. Let me give you an example of the attitude thing that actually happened to me today - 

I got yelled at and cussed at by a security guard simply for coming on the property. His exact words to me were "You guys have got to stop coming in here all at one time. I haven't seen a truck in two hours and now you are all piling in here at once. This is f'in BS! You just are going to have to wait your F'in turn"! This was after me just parking and walking up to his shack. There were three trucks there...me, another SNI inbound and a Swift outbound. I didn't say a word to him before the tongue lashing. I just kind of laughed at him. 

He kept complaining to himself - "you f'ers sit down at Wal Mart or wherever you sit and gang up and all come at once". I was about to wet my pants I was laughing so hard. Told him "yeah, we all got together and said lets go mess with the 7.00 per hour security guards at Kimberly Clark". He didn't like that too much. Just took my bills and signed them, then shoved them back at me. Someone ate his Cheerios this morning and he didn't get any.

This guy was seriously in a bad mood. I normally find this kind of attitude in the people who live above the Pennsylvania state line.

Oh, and there is too much traffic and people can't seem to drive up here.

So, that's it. Thank God I'm heading to NC from here, where people actually have a dab of sense. Think Ill just get me an RC Cola and a Moon Pie when I get back down home. If yer from  the South, you know what I'm talking about! I think Ill do my next post on why the South is WAY better. Like Bocephus sang -"If the South would have won, we'd of had t made!"

More later...Be safe out there guys! 

Oh the woes I have known...

This past week has been one for the books! I get a load from Memphis to Connecticut and think to myself just how awesome is a 1200 mile load to end my week going to be? I grab the load with no problems and leave Memphis all happy and looking forward to the trip. As I am headed down I-40 almost to I81, I get this twinge of pain in my stomach that was just a small dull ache. wondering what I had eaten to make myself sick, I remembered that I had eaten NOTHING that day.

So, I get on 81-N and look for a place to get something to eat, thinking the ache was the ole' belly telling me to feed it. Found a Subway and ordered my usual morning meal of Sunrise Subway Melt. I love these things and just KNOW it is what I need to fuel me for the rest of my trip today.

Back on the road with fuel in my body and that pain pops up again. Wait a minute, belly...i just fed you. At that, he grumbled at me and I knew something wasn't quite right. I kept on driving and started feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. I took some Goody's Powders that have never failed me when it comes to headaches. Get a headache, take two Goody's, headache gone! Not this time...

This time, the pain in my stomach and the pain in my head were playing a concert together. Oh, was it loud! This wasn't any Frank Sinatra concert. This was a KORN, AC/DC head banging balls to the wall, split your skull concert. The pain in my head was getting worse by the second. Yet, I drove on.

I got to Virginia and had to pull over and let the Sunrise Subway Melt I had a few hours before out. It didn't like being in me and wanted out! Let me tell you, it is no fun puking your guts out on the side of an interstate.No sir, no fun at ALL!

I made it to exit 77 at the flying J and decided enough was enough. By that time, I had the heat wide open in the truck and was freezing. Nose was running, coughing, feverish, aching. I knew I couldn't continue this trip so I called my DBL and he shut me down. Told me he would get someone to relay this load (which is another blog post all its own, but I digress), and for me to just get better.

That was Friday. Today is Monday. I don't remember much of Saturday and Sunday except for running into the Flying J on several occasions. And I mean RUNNING! I do feel like a new person right now, though. I can actually eat more than dry toast and keep it down and am regaining my strength. Have updated my available time and am ready to hit the road!

The moral of this whole story is, if you are going to drive a truck...don't get sick! Being sick sucks. Being sick in a truck hundreds of miles from home and what feels like hundreds of miles from a bathroom sucks WAY worse!

More later...be careful out there!

Not liking our new dispatch system...it has a mind of its own

We went from an old system at Schneider for getting our loads to a new one called "workflow". This new system is supposed to make things a lot easier and smoother. It is supposed to make finding trailers flawless. Remember that I said that, because I'm about to tell you a story about it.

So, I go on workflow after i come back from sometime for my wife's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!). I get back in my truck at 0700 on Monday morning and sign in and await the load that I am sure to get ASAP. Well, ASAP turned into all day. It seems the system didn't show me as being ready to get a load, even though I had done the proper procedure to get one according to Workflow paperwork and my training. It didn't take.

Around 11:30pm, I finally get a load to pick up an empty trailer in the yard I was sitting in at the Atlanta OC. I accepted the load and went to sleep. When I got up, I proceeded to try to find the empty trailer that they told me to get, to no avail. I let them know it wasn't here and went through the "exceptions" tab to request a new empty. Now, in this tab, you tell the system that the trailer you were sent to get is not there and then you list up to three trailers that are there and empty and it will assign you one of those. Workflow. It flows your work. Makes things smooth as silk, right? Huh.

Once I send the request with three separate trailer numbers that are ALL empty and ALL right in front of me, I get a response that says neither of them are within 30 miles of Atlanta and therefore i can't get one of the ones that I am LOOKING at. So, I find another three and back under one and send the form again. Same thing. In fit, the one I'm backed under is not at this yard and is more than 30 miles away. Im backed under it. In THIS yard. Physically touching it. No matter, workflow knows more than me.

I spend the next two hours chasing down an empty trailer that is never there until I find one and go get my load. The rest of this lad goes pretty smooth until i get to my drop and drop the trailer. Workflow tells me to pick up an empty at the place I dropped the load. No such empty. Cant find one anywhere. So, I was told by dispatch to bobtail to a truckstop and they would find me a trailer. I woke up the next morning and had a message to go to KC, Mo to pick up a trailer there and then go get my next load. So I head there and when i arrive, guess what? No empties there. I'm told then to go to Independence, Mo and pick up and empty there...no empties. They tell me to go to a different place in KC to grab an empty...you guessed it, NO empties.

This kills my 14 hour clock and I'm not going to be able to drive as far as i wanted to drive today because I am wasting time driving all over Missouri and Kansas trying to chase down an empty trailer. I finally get one and head to my pickup three hours late. I get loaded and try to leave...new problem.

When I send in my depart, it tells me I don't have a load. WHAT?!? I cal dispatch and for some reason, the load is showing in my "preassigned" tab, but on my system, it is active. This is a major problem, apparently. I have to sit for another two hours while the eggheads in the office try to figure this whole thing out. Finally, they gave up trying and just told me to run it to the destination and they would straighten it out later.

As I am leaving the KC area, it starts to snow. HARD! Roads are getting nasty so I pull over at a truckstop and go to sleep figuring it will be better the next morning. It wasn't. LOL. I just started driving and made it through. I did notice a small little crack in the bottom of my windshield and watched it grow from a small speck to a large crack within 100 miles of leaving.

I am now sitting in Dallas at our OC getting a new windshield installed. I have about 240 miles left to drive to Houston to drop this load and hopefully get another one unless my workflow is still screwed. Here is to hoping that it is fixed and I can roll on.

I do think that the new system is going to be awesome when they get the bugs out of it. When it worked for me, it worked great and really did make things easier. The trailer situation threw a wrench into it though, and really set me back a little. I talked to a guy that is working on the bugs and he told me that the trailer thing is the most heard complaint that the drivers had. At least they are working on it.

More later...be safe out there!

Ever have a "lazy day"?

Im taking one today. Im tired. I feel like crap. Ive got 330 miles to drive and could pretty much make it to the drop today and have a load in the morning, but Im stopped at the OC in Memphis and this is where Im staying until 0400 when I pull out headed to Oklahoma. I have until 2359 tomorrow night to be there.

It's not so much me being lazy as it is just needing to stop and refuel myself. Been running pretty hard lately and need a bit of a break. These 12-14 hour days are starting to gang up on me. Im driving 9-11 hours per day and I'm getting a bit tired. I figure if I can take a half day today and just sit and veg out, it will do me some good.

I think I also need some time to just recuperate. Lately, I have just been feeling worn down and sick. Im sure its from the stress of the job as well as just running myself ragged. I think Im going to take some advil and hit the bed early today and try not to think of deadlines or appointments or how many miles I have in front of me. Im just gonna lay back and open up Netflix and watch The Andy Griffith Show until I fall asleep.

On a side note, Im sure that most of you would take tomorrow off to watch the Super Bowl, but frankly, I could care less about the game. I hate both teams playing in it so it is of no interest to me. I wonder if there is a way that BOTH teams could lose?

Ya'll think about that.

Bad days, good days, and a new domain name...

This week started off not so good. Got a load from the Charlotte, NC OC that was headed to a "Granite Collector" in Milan, NH. My first red flag on this load was when I went to find it on the NaviGo GPS that we have in our trucks. This GPS should find ALL of our customers and route us to them on truck specific routes. Not THIS customer. LOL. The GPS couldn't find the address that was entered so it started yelling at me that it couldn't resolve it. This was a problem. I could get to NH, and I could get close to the customer, but without truck specific directions, i would have to call them and get directions from them. This was just the beginning of the problems with this load.

The night before I was supposed to leave to go up there is when they sent me the load. My truck was in the shop getting some much needed repairs on it and I didn't get the messages until after 10:00pm when I got my truck back. This load needed to be ON TIME in Milan, NH in 36 hours. 1200 miles and I need TWO 10 hour breaks required by law. If you are any good at math...hell, even if you aren't, you can see there is going to be a problem with this load.

At this point, I call weekend/night support and explain my situation. The nice guy in Green Bay tells me to just head that way safely and legally (they love to tell us to go safely and legally...kinda covers their butts in case we screw up...LOL) and they would get someone with more hours or a team to relay it to. So, I did as they asked me to. I made it from Charlotte to Hagerstown, Maryland and they advised me to meet "Russell" at the Pilot in Hagerstown to relay the load. He was coming with a box truck and a pallet jack to get the load out of my trailer. Fine with me, it was just one pallet anyway.

Russell gets there, unloads my trailer into his truck and off he goes to NH. I back into a spot there at the Pilot and settle in for a long Winters nap. Only the nap didn't last long before my QualCom starting beeping telling me where to go next. Head up to Baltimore and pick up a load and bring it to Hagerstown, Md. Wait, I'm IN Hagerstown, Md.

I accept the load, go get it when I awake, and bring it back to deliver it. The load was a drop and hook load and was ready for me when i got there. When I got back to Hagerstown with it at Volvo/Mack Trucks, I opened the doors and they kind pot "popped" open. Kinda strange, I thought. I backed into the dock and they unloaded me. This is where it gets worse.

Once empty, I went to close the doors and they won't close. At all. The left one won't latch properly and the right one had a three inch gap from top to bottom at the seal and couldn't be loaded again. I find this out  just as I get my next load from - GASP - Baltimore, Md headed to Baton Rouge, La. Well, I can't get THIS trailer loaded like it is, so I call our maintenance service like I am supposed to. They make me wait until they can get me to somewhere that can fix this POS. As I am getting it fixed, my 14 hour clock is gone now.

The next morning, I wake up, head to Baltimore and pick up this load and it is another drop and hook load. I got to drop the POS trailer and pick up ANOTHER POS trailer that was loaded with 44,430 pounds of Motor Oil. Apparently, they need oil in the worst way in Baton Rouge!

After picking it up, I had my first really good day in a while while driving. The sun was shining, pretty blue skies, the hills of Virginia were amazing...and then I made it to West Virginia. I had to take a few US highways to make it to the I-81 interstate and the scenery in WV was simply breathtaking! Curvy roads, mountains, and a stream that I got to ride along for 20-30 miles and it just made my day. I love awesome landscapes! So, yeah, this was a GREAT day! One of those days that make me glad that Im doing this job and not working in some stuffy office with a tie on. I dont have those days often, but when I do, I remember them for a WHILE!

On a side note, I have wanted to put my blog onto my own domain for quite some time now. Well, it happened today! If you notice at the top of the page, it says http://www.truckingtiger.net that is my new address for this blog. The old address from blogger will still work if you use it, but you may as well just update any bookmarks that you have. Makes it simpler for you and makes me feel like getting this domain was worth it. LOL.

Be careful out there guys!

More later!

A few things about DOT...and a BIG welcome back!

First of all, before I get into this rant, I want to take a little space here on my blog to welcome a fellow trucker back to the road and back to Schneider National. She has been gone from OTR now for a few years and has decided to come back out over the road. Her name is GiGi Roxx. She has an awesome blog that was the very first trucking blog that I actually read every time she updated it. I loved her stories and her wit and she just kept me coming back to read more. Go check her blog out at GiGi Roxx: The Ravings of a Lunatic. Go ahead...I'll wait.

Did you check it out? GOOD! Book mark her blog...you will LOVE it!

Now, to MY blog...The Department of Transportation has enacted a law that says drivers of a commercial motor vehicle can not text while the truck is in motion. This is a good law, right? I agree with this 100% as driving one of these monsters takes pretty much all of your concentration and looking at a phone while typing on it can seriously hurt someone. But why stop at trucks?

Today as I was driving I happened to see a car in my mirror coming up pretty fast behind me and straddling the two lanes in the road. I thought he was going to hit me. At the last possible second, I saw his car jerk left and he slowed down and came up beside me trying to pass. I looked down and there it was. His phone was in his right hand and he was typing with his thumbs as he was trying to drive.

It made me think about our new law. It also made me want to see if there were MORE people who were doing this. So, I decided to check on some people as they passed me. As you probably know, we can see straight down into your cars as you pass us. You would be surprised at what I have seen as drivers drive down the road. But I digress.

I counted twenty cars passing me on I-65 Southbound today in Alabama. Of those twenty cars, sixteen either had their phones in their hands texting or up to their ear talking. Two of them had their hands on the wheel driving and one was actually reading something from a piece of paper. The last one that came by me was picking his nose really deep. That was when I stopped counting.

I guess what I am trying to say here is truckers are PROFESSIONAL drivers. We do this for a LIVING and most of us are extremely safe while doing it. It's the people in the CARS that are dangerous. A law needs to be passed for ALL drivers that text. Not just the truckers.

I don't know...maybe its just me, but I feel like we as truckers are starting to get picked on a bit by the government with the rules and regulations. They want to cut our driving hours back, they want to make using a CB against the law, They want to take away talking on the phone (which we can't do NOW unless we have a hands free device to do it with), they want to just regulate us into oblivion. Next, you won't even be able to adjust your AC our heat unless you pullover to do it. It is getting ridiculous!

Ya'll think about it. more later!