TruckingTiger's Life on the Road

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

2012-02-01T15:38:00.000-05:00

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!

2012-01-27T17:45:00.000-05:00

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!

two months in - state of the position!

2012-01-23T18:23:00.000-05:00

Well, now that I have two months on the job at Schneider National, I think its time to recap my time here so far.

The first few weeks were really different for me as I was in Florida running someone else's route on a dedicated account. I really didn't count this first few weeks as it wasn't MY truck, or my route. But I got paid well for doing it, so I was appreciative.

Once I got my truck on Jan 3, the miles have been pretty good. Im averaging between 2700-2900 miles per week so int is going pretty good. I am usually getting preplanned on loads before I am halfway through the current load, so I am hardly ever waiting on a load. I DID have to wait on one last week, but only because he was routing me home and we needed a load close to me so I could route to Atlanta.

Waiting on a load was one of the things I hated when I was at the other company. I would deliver a load and wait sometimes a day or two before I would get another load. That way was not very conducive to my financial well being. SNI has been good to me in that regard so far.

SNI has been pretty good to me all the way around so far, actually. Everything they have told me has been true and they have yet to steer me in the wrong direction. Im pretty satisfied with them so far. I hope it stays that way.

just a thought on showers...

2012-01-16T19:02:00.000-05:00

For starters, Ive said this once and it bares repeating...if you drive for a living, it isn't against any regulations to take a shower. I was in line tonight behind a guy that I swear hadn't taken a shower in at least a week. Clothes were filthy dirty and so was his skin. I thought for a second that he was a poor homeless man until I watched him go get into his nice brand new Peterbilt. The girl behind the counter at the Pilot was about too hurl. I just stepped back to avoid her hurling and his stench.

Anyway, that isn't what I wanted to talk about. I DO want to talk about showers, but just not the way I started. LOL.

I was taking MY shower tonight and was just enjoying that strong stream of hot water bearing down on my back and thought to myself...I said, "self, its almost like this shower takes away the grime and the dirt and the smell of diesel fuel away from me, but it also takes the grime and the dirt of the day away as well".

Let me explain...truckers dont just drive for a living. We drive. We perform countless safety moves per hour just to keep you four wheeling crazies safe and alive to get home to your families. We put up with stares and with scoffs and we do it mostly without responding. We deal with shippers and receivers that look down their noses at us and treat us like we are less than human. And we do it because it is our job!

All of this that we put up with on a daily basis is very stressful. That shower felt like it took all of these things and washed them away and I watched them flow down the drain. It was nice to be able to relax and just feel the water and the heat cause my muscles to loosen up. No tension in that shower. No SIR! No dispatcher yelling at me. No shipping clerk giving me dirty looks. No crazy drivers cutting me off at 65 mph. Nope, that all flowed soundly down the drain. And good riddance!

Now, I get to do it all over again tomorrow!

More later, peeps! Be safe out there!

Smokers just PISS me off!

2012-01-14T18:38:00.000-05:00

Tonight, after a hard day of driving and not being able to pull over to eat, I shut down at the TA in Florence, Ky. I figured this was a decent place to get a shower and get some food and possibly update this blog. Well, I got two out of three...or maybe it would be better to call it 2.5 out of 3. I did get a shower and I am updating this blog tonight. The food is another story.

I figured that since this particular TA didn't have a sit down restaurant that the soup and salad that I wanted was out. So, I meandered on over to the Popeyes that is here. No one was in the place except for an older couple in the corner and me. I ordered my food and sat down, took one bite and BAM! BOTH of the idiots sitting in the corner lit up cigarettes WHILE they were eating. I couldn't believe it.

It took about four seconds for the pungent aroma of cigarette smoke to pierce my nostrils, at which point my meal was done. I just turned and stared at them and they were oblivious. Smoking away and chowing down on their chicken. I was hoping one or both would choke on it like I was starting to do on their damned smoke.

Im diabetic. My family has a history of heart disease. With the diabetes, I am doubly susceptible to heart disease and death from it. There is also a history of cancer in my family. I dont need these jackasses next to me to speed my journey to the grave with their pollution that comes out of their mouths. It is a FACT that second hand smoke can kill you. Dont believe me? Check out wikipedia or just type 2nd hand smoke in a google search. I found this in about eight seconds -

"The International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization concluded in 2004 that there was sufficient evidence that secondhand smoke caused cancer in humans.^[4] Most experts believe that moderate, occasional exposure to secondhand smoke presents a small but measurable cancer risk to nonsmokers. The overall risk depends on the effective dose received over time. The risk level is higher if non-smokers spend many hours in an environment where cigarette smoke is widespread, such as a business where many employees or patrons are smoking throughout the day, or a residential care facility where residents smoke freely.^[76] The US Surgeon General, in his 2006 report, estimated that living or working in a place where smoking is permitted increases the non-smokers' risk of developing heart disease by 25–30% and lung cancer by 20–30%."

In France, passive smoking has been estimated to cause between 3,000^[70] and 5,000 premature deaths per year, with the larger figure cited by Prime minister Dominique de Villepin during his announcement of a nationwide smoking ban: "That makes more than 13 deaths a day. It is an unacceptable reality in our country in terms of public health."^[71]

How much proof do you need? I can cite thousands of articles about this very subject. This irritates me and pisses me off to no end that people have NO regard for other people to smoke in a restaurant while they are eating. Stupid @$$holes are in their own little smoke filled world not worrying about what diseases they are causing to the people around them.

On top of all the health issues that they have most certainly caused me tonight, I STILL haven't eaten because of them. I may as well just go sit in a graveyard and wait.

***Disclaimer - if you follow me and you smoke, I have no problem with you doing so. You have the right to do with your body as you want. It just pisses me off when people smoke when I'm trying to consume and enjoy a meal. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just some random thoughts from this week...

2012-01-10T18:35:00.000-05:00

Some Random thoughts...

Well...WHEW! Ive been running my keister off for the past week. Been from the Big Apple to the the southern part of Georgia to the middle of NC and now headed to Wisconsin with a load of thread. I guess they need to have thread up there to sew those sweaters, or to make the Championship hats, shirts, and jackets that will be able to sell after the Packers win the Superbowl. LOL.

Im now sitting in Wytheville, Virginia with three hours left on my 70 and one drive hour left for today. Figured i had better pull off and find a spot before it is too late. I get five hours back tonight at midnight and nine tomorrow night and deliver on Thursday afternoon in Sheboygen. I think I am going to have to go to Green bay to take the Workflow class that I need. We got a QC message today telling us that we go live on January 28th. Looking forward to learning yet ANOTHER way of doing things. LOL.

Whatever happened to being nice out here? When i was training with my trainer at Prime, he told me about this brotherhood that we have out on the road...that we flash people over and thank people when they do the same to us. We wave at each other and help each other when we can because we are all in the same boat out here...all on the same team.

What happened to that?

I notice now, that people DONT wave. They DONT help. They DONT flash you over nor will they thank you if YOU do. Its like truckers today have this FTW attitude and frankly, its starting to get on my nerves. I noticed it a little at the end of my Prime days but I notice it a LOT more today. it IS a brotherhood, drivers...we are all we have out here and if I can't rely on a brother driver to help me maneuver safely, who can I rely on? Four Wheelers? pshhh. A little niceness goes a LONG way!

Im tired. Been chasing empty trailers for two days. Get an equipment disposition to drop a loaded and get an empty at WalMart...no empties here, so I get another Equip Disp to go 52 miles South to get one. Get there and of the three they have, NONE were empty. They had just loaded the last empty they had. Got sent 58 miles back North to get one and it took me, a guard, and two yard drivers to track one down. And THAT one wasn't the one assigned to me but I wasn't leaving there bobtail again. I sent a reply with that trailer number and they sent me one back to take it. So I did. I HATE trailer hopping.

And whats with the live loads? I have been live loaded on at least 90% of my loads so far. Hell, if i wanted too sit for hours at a shipper/reciever, I would have went back to pulling reefers. LOL.

More later guys! Ya'll be safe out there!

Any worse and it would be funny.

2012-01-05T18:17:00.001-05:00

Not a good day today. Woke up at 01:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Couldn't start driving til 5. Then at my delivery, as I was lowering my landing gear to drop the Trl in a door to get unloaded, as the gear hit the ground, the handle came off in my hand with a busted bolt. Had to leave it there, drive 100 miles out of my way to Lewiston to get an empty. Got there and was walking around trailer on the pretrip and stepped on the only patch of ice in the lot. Fell flat on my back. Tried stand up real fast and slipped on the SAME patch of I've and went back down. Scaled out, was 1300 over on my Trl axel and the stupid pins wouldn't release. Took me an hour to fix that problem. Now I'm in Sturbridge mass at the Pilot because my 14 ran out. Got 240 miles to go to drop. I'm late. I'm tired. I'm hungry. And I'm pissed. I just wanna go to sleep now, but of course I can't. Sigh.

Very Clean Truck...Very First Load...Very Short Run

2012-01-03T19:26:00.002-05:00

Today was a good day. I woke up this morning after very little sleep and went to the OC in Carlisle where I met Mr. Bob, who trained me on the ins and outs of the Automatic Transmission in a truck. We went over to the shop, picked up ol' nasty truck, which was very clean today except for the smell, and proceeded to drive around with a trailer behind me with him telling me what to do as I drove. Iy really wasn't hard to master the transmission and before long, I had it down.

I said that my truck was clean and it was. Yes, it is the same nasty truck that I saw on Sunday, but today it was spotless inside (the outside leaves a LOT to be desired, though). The only thing I could find wrong with it was the smell. Smoke and BO from hell! Sprayed about a half can of Lysol in the truck and we trained in it. Once I finished training, my DBL called me and asked about the truck. I told him the smell was horrible, but I was going to try to fix it. He said right then that he was going to route me back to Atlanta and switch me to another truck if I wanted to. I said, if I could get the smell out, I would be good wit this one. He said that if I want to switch in the future, its my call, which I thought was cool of him.

Brad (my DBL) also told me to go to Wal-Mart and buy all of the cleaning and deodorizer that I needed and send the receipt in and he would reimburse me. I did. I got 26.00 worth of supplies to get this smell out of here and mostly it worked. Febreze...lol...I sprayed about half a bottle on the seats. Got lysol wipes, a citrus puck (HUGE) that goes under the seat and a few other things. It was definitely worth it to me.

Finished that, took the rental car back, and Brad called me on the phone again to tell me that he was sending my first load to my truck. He said it was a short one, but it would get me out of the yard and he didn't want me to be too far away in case this truck was screwed. The load left the yard going to Mt. Holly, NJ hauling a load for Dunkin' Donuts. It was kind of ironic that is what it was, because I was looking for DD ALL day to get a Mocha Espresso Latte. I thought it was ironic, anyway. LOL.

I left the yard and drove the load on down to Mt. Holly and shut it down. My appointment is at 0600 and Im about 15 minutes away at the Petro in Bordentown, NJ. Short trip today of about 150 miles, but at least I'm in MY truck hauling MY loads, so Im OK with it.

So, truck is good, load is good, drive was good, night is good. Gonna sleep well, me thinks.

More later!

Trucks and trash and urine..OH MY!

2012-01-01T15:30:00.000-05:00

Um, first of all...HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Second, if you are hung over and not able to take some serious graphic descriptions of my day today, then please change the channel. This isn't gonna be pretty!

I spoke with my DBL (driver business leader) on Friday and he advised me that he had me a truck! Yay, right? No. First of all, it was a truck that was parked in Carlisle, Pa. and I am in Atlanta, Ga. Guess who had to drive a rental car 700 miles to get to the truck? That part was easy and not a big deal. When I GOT to the truck is when the drama started.

Now, brad, my DBL told me on Friday that there might be a "few personal belongings" in the truck that were the property of the former driver who had just been fired for four preventable accidents in six months. THAT should have been a red flag to me. He asked me to box up his personal belongings and just hang on to them if I would. No big deal...a few things won't be a problem to stow away on the top bunk for the former driver until I get back to ATL.

So, I get here to get to the truck and my DBL hasn't put me on the truck in the system, so I can't do anything at all as far as a load if I wanted one...which is a GOOD thing, because I'm not driving this truck. I go out in the yard and find the truck and my second red flag! As I am driving up to the truck I see boxes piled in the truck above the top of the window. I open the door and boxes fell out on top of me. As soon as the door swung open and I dodged the boxes, the funk in the truck hit me like a ton of bricks. I step up on the side steps and toss boxes away so I can get in the drivers seat and then I see it...

On the floor just beside where the gear shift SHOULD be (its an automatic, which is another reason I can't take it. I'm not trained in auto shift. Well, right there where the gear shift is is a gallon jug on its side and under it is a HUGE puddle of urine that had leaked out and was all over the front floor board. I stepped out on the step again and look in the back and there was another gallon jug and another puddle of what I can only assume is the same thing. As I was looking over the front of the cab, I see a tobacco spit can in the cup holder and it appeared that it had tilted and spilled down the front of the dash. The steering wheel had some sort of brown goo all over it, which I assumed was tobacco spit.

Remember earlier when i mentioned that Brad told me about the "few personal belongings" the other ~~pig~~ I mean driver had in the truck? Yeah, well, it wasn't just a "few personal belongings"...it was everything he had. EVERYTHING! Pillows, sleeping bag, nasty nasty mattress, peanut butter, food, and a round igloo cooler that was almost black, but through the nasty I could see it was really blue...I refused to open the lid as I was afraid of what I would find in there. I almost puked when I saw this. I felt like I needed a bath just by looking in there.

How can people live like this? This was the nastiest site I have ever seen in my life. And my DBL wants to have me drive this pig sty around and live in it? Not gonna happen. Ill do a lot for the company and for my leaders and bosses, but I refuse to get close to that truck again. There is NO WAY they can clean it enough for me to get in it.

I called driver services and explained the situation to them and Melissa, who I was speaking to (VERY nice lady, by the way), said that this was unacceptable and for me to to open the door on that tractor again. She said that I would need to get with Brad so he could assign me another truck. I told her that if i was going to drive for Schneider, he WOULD get me another truck because I'm not driving that one and she agreed with me.

The smell in there was terrible as well. It smelled like human BO and I really think that whoever gets the job of cleaning it should call a hazmat team out to do the job. I just don't see how people can live with themselves being this nasty. I'm just glad it was cold here and not hot. The smell would have been ten times worse if it were hot.

So, that is my story of today. I'm off for a week for Christmas and come back out today and run into this. The New Year isn't starting so well for me, I don't think. SNI put me in the hotel for the night and here I sit watching football and typing this up.

I think I'm going to take a shower or two. More later, guys!

One more from 2011...

2011-12-21T18:55:00.001-05:00

I will be on a vacation of sorts through the Christmas holidays...I just wanted to wish everyone a very -

Merry Christmas from

Truckingtiger!

See you guys in 2012!

Nothing to blog about...

2011-12-18T12:11:00.002-05:00

Boy, if I were to do this dedicated thing for good, I would never get to update this blog. It's the same old trip, day in and day out. Pick up in one place...drop it in another. Rinse, repeat.

I will say this...it is nice to know where you will be parking for the night, every night. Im always at the TA in Wildwood, Florida. Nice store, here. Good food, good people. Except for this morning. Let me tell you about it.

I was sitting down for breakfast this morning and placed my order for unsweet tea and a skillet breakfast (this is where they mix everything in one skillet to cook...eggs, hash browns, mushrooms, green peppers, onions). I drank my tea while waiting on the food. Once the food got there, I got no more tea. I was stuck having to wait on the ice to melt some to have any liquid nourishment. Let me teal ya...it wasn't fun.

I asked for a manager, but was told that there wasn't one at the store. Now, I ask you, what good is a store that has no manager? This is probably why my tea wasn't refilled. So, being that there wasn't a manager to be found, I came out to the truck and fired off a nasty email to corporate headquarters of Travel Centers of America. Maybe Ill get a response, maybe i won't but at least Ive said my peace!

Ive only got four more days of this dedicated thing to do. Once Thursday gets here, Schneider will rent me a car, and pay me to drive that rented car home. Isn't that just the coolest thing? Most companies will put you on a Greyhound and leave you on your own. Not SNI. These guys do it right.

While I am at home for a week (got a prior engagement for the week, so I get the week off), my DBL will be getting me a truck of my own, finally. I get to get out of this white POS and get into an ORANGE POS. LOL. I like orange a LOT better!

Im going to try to update a few times over Christmas. If you are going to be out and driving during the Holidays, be safe out there and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

more later, guys!

Whew...this dedicated thing SUCKS!

2011-12-14T17:54:00.002-05:00

When I last left you guys, I had gotten out of class and headed to Florida with a load that dropped in Tampa. I delivered that and headed to Ocala to begin running these two weeks for Tom, who is on vacation. Well, let me just say here and now that I do not envy Tom one bit!

I like driving, I really do, but I don't like driving on the same two roads for 12 hours per day. Its a three hour trip taking the fast way from Ocala to Kissimmee, Florida. I have two loads per day. That is 2.5 hours each way which gets me finished after driving 10 hours. Count the other things that we have to do, that is a 12 hour day.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not afraid of 12 hour days, but I hate having to drive the same two roads for those 12 hours. The first few times, it was pretty cool. There were things that I haven't seen before, but you can only see the same fruit stand about twice before it gets old. LOL. Not only that, but the people at the drop in Kissimmee are not the nicest people in the world.

The first day, I get there to drop my first load and the guard has a power complex or something. I just smile and do as she asks but she is talking to me pretty much like a dog. Like I am beneath her and her 7.00 per hour job. She was all snotty with me from the get go. I let it slide and go into the receiving office and to the window and THAT lady just looked at me. No, "hello" or "good morning"...just a blank stare. I asked her if I were in the right place and she just looked at me and said "give me your bills". I just politely smiled and handed them to her.

I don't like confrontation, but I'm not going to let people run over me, either. But I did let it slide. Maybe they were just having a bad morning. Maybe they just got a haircut and the little hairs were tickling them. I'm not sure what it was, but they weren't pleasant. Every other time I have been there, the lady behind the glass was OK to me, but that guard still had her robocop attitude on. I'm gonna give her about twice more before I tell her about my OWN experiences as a REAL police officer. For now, I will just let it go.

So far, Schneider is all it is cracked up to be. They are running the dog out of me, but at least I am running. I could be at home making NO money, so I am grateful! Now, if i could JUST get their systems in my head I think I will be OK. The Equipment dispositions are killing me now. I get confused on what I am supposed to be sending. Its causing my DBL some headaches, and it makes me feel stupid. He keeps telling me to not worry about it that it will come...but I was a trainer and instructor at Prime and here, I feel like a rookie with these systems. LOL.

Oh well.

More later, guys!

Loneliness and Despair and the Road...

2011-12-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

Just going to jot down some rambling thoughts I was having today at breakfast.

As I was sitting in the Flying J this morning having breakfast, I noticed the Christmas decorations hanging up, the waitresses were cheerful, the place was bustling with older people having their brunch. I also noticed a handful of people, right in the middle of them, that are no doubt truck drivers.

"No Doubt", you say? Yep. No doubt. I noticed these men and watched them for a while. While the older people around them were happy and talking and wondering what in the world they were going to get Jenny for Christmas, these men had none of that on their minds. These were a lot of lonely people sitting in the restaurant.

I could see it in their eyes. I could see the one man at the bar eating...well, pretending to eat. He sat there just staring out into space with a cup of coffee in front of him, a plate of food, and a slice of toast that he just held in his hand for what seemed like hours to me without actually moving it to his mouth. He was obviously in a great deal of thought. I sat and I wondered what he was thinking about.

The guy next to me at the table eating, never looked up. He ate in total silence. The waitress came by and filled his cup and he never acknowledged her. He just sat there with his head down and ate. he looked absolutely, wonderfully, miserable.

The table to the right of me had two men sitting and eating face to face. They probably didn't say ten words between them. One kept just looking out of the window, probably thinking of his wife and his children, or maybe not. The man that was with him looked around at the other people in the restaurant, probably thinking that all of the people in here looked just as lonely and miserable as he felt.

This driving gig isn't for everyone. There a LOT of lonely days and nights out here. Sure, you can speak with your family on the phone as much as you like, but it will never replace being at home. The funny thing is, when you are at home, you miss the road...when you are on the road, you desperately miss your family.

The life of a truck driver is probably the weirdest life you can live. We are rock stars without the fame and fortune. We are nomads. We can't be still. We HAVE to be on that road! I wrote a piece a while back about this very thing, and I would like to share it with you here. It is called "The Road".

The road is my friend.

Sometimes there are days when I think that the road is the only friend I have. No matter how I feel, how grumpy I am, or how the weather is, the road is always there...leading me to another town or another state. He is always showing me something new, and he always makes me think.

He makes me think of just how lonely he is. Oh yes, the road is lonely. I'm out here with him every day, and he talks to me. He has seen death and destruction, grown old and haggard, and been patched more than you can imagine, yet he is always here. He has known millions of people, yet he is still alone.

He has been good and bad to me. You could say that we have a love/hate relationship. He is great to me as he leads me home to the people that I love and long to be with, but he has been a bitch to me as he takes me away from them a few days later.

Those are the times when I hate the sight of him. I despise his different colors and different textures and shapes. I loathe being out with him during those times, but he always seems to take me somewhere or show me something that makes me feel a little better about traveling with him. Besides, he always promises to bring me back to my wife and little girl, and so far he hasn’t lied to me about it.

I’ve seen a lot of things with him. He has shown me the tall palm trees in Hollywood and the short ones in Miami. He has taken me to the Battlefields of Gettysburg, where I could almost hear Abraham Lincoln giving his famous “Emancipation Proclimation”. He has led me to the Mountains of South Dakota where I saw four Presidents etched into the side of a mountain at Mt. Rushmore, and felt the chills on my spine as I gazed up at it.

He has taken me to forty eight of the fifty states in this country. I’ve seen the Sun rise over the Atlantic, and the sun set over the Pacific. I’ve been over every mountain range and through every desert.

The road has shown me more beauty than I could ever imagine, but he has never shown me anything as beautiful as my wife and daughter’s faces as he led me to them. He delivers me safely to them and gives me up for days and weeks at a time, with no complaints, and for that I thank him.

Yep, the road is my friend.

Orientation Over. Already in Tampa.

2011-12-10T13:10:00.000-05:00

So. We finished up orientation on Thursday and I finally got all of my stuff together before I left and went home. Had everything that I needed except a truck. I met with Brad, my DBL, and he didn't have any trucks available to him to give me one so he asked me for a favor. You have already read that post.

Fast Forward to Friday. I wake up after a sleepless night and call Brad, thinking he is going to tell me to head out on Sunday for Florida. WRONG! He basically said that he needed me at the OC in Atlanta ASAP as there was already a load dispatched to me to g pick up in McDonough, Ga and head to Tampa for 6:00 AM on Saturday (today). Um, wait...Ive had no sleep. No way Im gonna make it to Tampa on Friday night. He told me to go as far as I could and we would deal with it. Now, dont forget where we are right here...tie a knot in it and hang on.

From there, I meet Tom, the driver whose route I'm taking over for the two weeks and get my stuff in the truck and he is telling me about the intricacies of this particular truck (White truck, 760,000 miles on it...LOL. Its a beater!). As we are talking the Qualcom goes NUTS and I get the load to Tampa along with three others back to back. Im set until Tuesday!

Remember when I told you to tie a knot and hang on? You can let go now. As we are looking through the loads, Tom notices the Tampa load doesn't deliver until 0600 on MONDAY morning. We talk to Brad and lo and behold, the load info is correct. I did have to pick it up on Friday, however, so I decided to just bring it on to Tampa and get a 34 hour reset in while I'm here. According to Tom, I need a clean 70 to run this route every week.

I leave Atlanta after filling up the tanks and head to McDonough for my loaded trailer. I bob tailed to there so I didn't have a trailer to drop. Everything went pretty smooth and I took off and headed South on I75. I didn't even make it to the state line and had to stop, though. I was way too tired to be driving. I stopped at the Loves in Tifton, Ga to get my 10 hour break in. I figured I would make it to Tampa by 1:00pm even if I took my time, and that gave me plenty of time to sit and take this 34 hour reset.

So, I got up this morning and did a pre trip and headed out towards Tampa. Had a pretty nice ride down with no problems at all. Very smooth. I am now sitting in Zephyrhills, Florida...home of Zephyrhills Water. This is where Ill sit until 5am Monday morning.

I'm having some problems with the macros that SNI has as I have never had to do most of them when I was at Prime. The Macro 18 is the one I'm having a real problem with. Its just confusing and I just don't "get it" just yet. I'm sure it will click to me soon, but this macro is how they plan loads for you so you have to be pretty much on the money with it. You CAN make changes as you go, however. I get the feeling there are a LOT of changes coming for mine. LOL.

More later, guys! Be safe out there!

Final paperwork, getting "stuff", finished!

2011-12-08T16:06:00.000-05:00

Today, we went in to the OC to finish up some final details and paperwork. It was pretty easy and we had to listen to a few people talk to us as well. Safety was first followed by maintenance, and finally was a recruiter. The recruiter was actually MY recruiter that talked to the class so that was pretty cool.

A few things DID go wrong today, however. We were to have gotten our driver numbers today and everyone but me succeeded. It seems that my recruiter was on vacation last week and his fill in didn't do her job and send my paperwork in to request it. This threw a snag in my whole day as we couldn't get equipment, boots, etc or be assigned to a truck without that number. So, while everyone else was getting ready to outfit their trucks, I was just sitting there. This went on until about 1:30 when they expedited my number and then I was set. That would have been bad enough, but...there is more!

Everyone in the class was speaking to their DBL's and getting trucks assigned and planning their next few days. I ended up having to wait for my DBL, which wasn't a problem, but he threw a wrench in my plans. I was supposed to get a truck and be ready to roll by Monday morning. I went in the office with my DBl and he asked for a favor from me (which struck me as odd that I would already be doing favors...LOL).

There is a driver that does a dedicated run in the state of Florida only that is going on vacation tomorrow. The account doesn't go on vacation, so SNI has to find someone to take over that account for the next few weeks. So, I will be getting inn this drivers truck and running his dedicated route until Dec. 23 when I am scheduled to be at home.

The reason that I was asked to do this, is really two fold. They NEEDED someone ASAP and the main reason was that there are no trucks in ATL that are available for me to get. So, I get to run this drivers truck. It is a win win. Besides, I dont mind helping out when I can and I'm going to get a better truck out of the deal as well. My DBL said that he would make sure I got a "newer" truck. I hope so, but if not, that's OK too.

Once we got all of that straight, you would think that it would be smooth sailing from here, right? Nope. Medical was supposed to have overnighted me the loaner CPAP machine because they failed to send it to ATL at the beginning of the week. when I left, it still hasn't shown up. The thing is, I can't move the truck unless that machine is in it. So, I am to call my DBL in the morning and we will get this all straight then.

I should be rolling by Saturday morning, but we will see.

More later!

Orientation is DONE!

2011-12-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

YAY me! Today was the last day in orientation and we are good to go! We do have to go sit through some talks by the higher ups tomorrow and get assigned our trucks and then be on the road!

Today, we finished up with trip planning, and e-logs on an actual MCP-200 Qualcom system. This machine was really nothing new to me as I have used them and e-logs extensively at Prime when I drove for them. It was basically an easy day for me and nothing really noteworthy happened.

We will get our boots tomorrow as well as comdata cards, ID's made, trucks assigned, meet with our DBL and get our trucks loaded up with the necessary paperwork that we need on the road.

I am torn about going back out there, really. I dont want to leave my wife and little girl here, yet I HAVE to because there are no other jobs. I never wanted to go back to driving. Driving s what I know how to do, though. Ill do it for a few more years, I suppose and then get back out.

Anyway, tomorrow should be more interesting!

3 down, 2 to go...

2011-12-06T18:46:00.000-05:00

Today was day three of orientation at Schneider National. It was a good day, yet very confusing. I liken it to trying to sip water from a fire hose! A LOT of information was thrown at us today in a very short time an it was just kind of hard to take it all in.

We went over electronic logging, which for me wasn't hard at all since I had the same system when I worked at Prime, so I was very familiar with the whole thing. this was where the familiarity took a dive!

We went from electronic logs to learning how we get our loads and what to do with the messages that come with the loads. This is where I just lost my mind. It just didn't make sense to me at all. At Prime, we got simple messages that told us the information that we needed. What Schneider sends for loads is in code of some kind. At least it seemed that way to me. On top of that, you have to do trip plans that tie into getting your loads.

This is one cool thing that I found out today with learning trip planning...you pretty much are pre-planned two loads ahead so that you never have to wonder where you will go once you drop the load that you are currently hauling. Pre-plans are GOOD. Sitting and waiting on a load is BAD! o trip planning is an integral part of getting paid. It isn't easy yet, though! Trip planning is sort of confusing to me right now, but our instructor said that it would click tomorrow when we tied everything together. I certainly hope so!

So far, Schneider has been all it is cracked up to be. Every person that I have come into contact with has been awesome! Everyone wants you to succeed and will go out of their way to help you do so. From drivers to the office people that I have come into contact with, they all genuinely seem to be laid back people who care. I like that.

Orientation at Schneider...Day 2

2011-12-05T19:41:00.001-05:00

Today was kind of boring to me. Let me explain why.
On Friday, as I was going through all of the red tape with medical and trying to get my DOT Card, the ladies in medical decided that I wasn't going to be able to get things done by 5:00 so they actually deleted me from the class that I am currently in. I did get it straight with my recruiter and she put me back in the class.
Now, fast forward to today. We all were supposed to complete this series of video training to get through orientation. Now, this would have been just fine, except for the fact that since I got deleted my medical from the class, it also deleted me from the system. Easy fix, one would think, right? Wrong!
Since I was deleted from the system, so was all of my information including user names and passwords to get into the video portion of the training. This is an online training course and without that user name and password, I was dead in the water. So, while all of my classmates were busy finishing their online training, I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs until my recruiter came it at 9 am. Not so bad, one would think, right? Wrong!
You see, not only was I deleted from the system and couldn't take the video courses, I also couldn't go out on my road test because they had no clue if I passed my drug test or not without me being in the system. So, while three of my classmates got to go out on the road test, I got to sit and twiddle my thumbs. But, it had to be at least 9am by then, you say? Yep, it was actually around 10am at that point and my recruiter took her sweet time getting me into the system. At around lunch time, I was finally recognized as being a person as far as Schneider was concerned and got my user name and passwords for the training portion, but it was lunch so I couldn't do them at that point.
I DID, however get to go at that point and do my road test. This was a fiasco on it's own. when I was at Prime, I was a CDL instructor and Driver trainer, so you would think I wouldn't screw the pooch on a road test, right? Wrong!
We started out with a pre-trip and I forgot my name! I could not, for the life of me, remember half of what I knew about a pre-trip inspection. I couldn't even remember where the light switch was for the headlights. I felt like SUCH a rookie! Now, in my defense, I haven't driven a Century class Freightliner in over three years and the switches are all different on the Cascadia's and Peterbilt's, so I had that going for me, yet I still felt like an idiot. LOL.
Once I stumbled through the pre-trip, we head out and drive. I got through that pretty well, because if there is one thing I CAN do, is drive! Once we came in from the road, I was to back into a spot between two trailers. He told me late which hole he wanted me in and I didn't set it up right so I ended up screwing it up. I drove around and reset myself up the right way and one-shotted it at that point. PASS!
Got back to the classroom and we watched videos on safety, the guy that runs the joint in Atlanta came and spoke to us and we were outta there by 3pm.
So, here I sit...on my couch at home listening to these training videos while I am writing this report out. I need to have these twelve modules done by tomorrow because we really get into things starting in the morning. The dreaded LOG BOOK classes! These are about as exciting as watching ice melt. Oh well...it's gotta be done, right?
I should have a truck by Thursday, according to my instructor, and hopefully will be out on the road by Friday afternoon. I hope so!

More later!

Orientation Day 1 at Schneider National...

2011-12-04T13:33:00.000-05:00

Today, I started day one with Schneider National. This was basically a day of doing pre-hire paperwork (i-9, tax forms, etc.) as well as a Pre-work job screen. This consisted of carrying some weights a distance, crouching under a platform to simulate going under a trailer, and several other exercises to simulate different things that are done while out on the road. These were all pretty easy and I passed with flying colors.

We also were sized for our boots that we get. These are brand new Rocky boots that retail for about $125.00 that Schneider gives its drivers each year. This is an awesome perk for the driers and something that I think is really cool from a company!

The instructor for our class is Chuck. He is a really cool guy and I think this will be a fun class to sit through with him for the next 5 days.

All in all, so far this is looking good! Everyone at Schneider that I have coe into contact with, have been super cool to deal with. It is really giving me a good feeling that I chose the right company to continue my driving career.

That is pretty much it, for today. Not a lot going on the first day there and I was actually sitting on my couch before 12:30 this afternoon.

Im all set!

2011-12-02T19:50:00.000-05:00

So, Schneider wanted me to go take another physical because the one I took a month ago didn't have "sleep disorders" checked on it and I am diagnosed with sleep apnea. So, I got up today and went and took that physical and passed it. But not quite. You see, the Dr. who gave me the physical wanted me to get a download of compliance from my cpap machine. Yet, she had no way of downloading the data at her office.

This became a fiasco as I had to call sleep point, the company that I got the mating through. They agreed to read my data stick, but I had to go to a truck stop 40 miles from where I was to upload the data using a machine at the TA. Did that, only to be told that my data stick was corrupt and that we would have to format it, then stick it in my cpap machine for 5 minutes while it uploaded the data to the stick. Wouldn't have been a problem, but my machine was 40 miles BACK where I came from.

I went back home, got it straightened out, took my data stick and got it uploaded again and went back to my Dr's office with the data that sleep point had sent to me. This took a little over 5 hours to accomplish today. I got my DOT card from the Dr at 4:15 PM, which I had to fax to SNI medical for them to release me. They called my recruiter at 5:15 to tell her that I was clear and could come to orientation on Sunday.

Speaking f my recruiter, she stayed late today just so I would be assured of getting into the class on Sunday. She went above and beyond what she was paid to do. She didn't have to wait, yet she did. That is a check in the good box for me. The people at Prime wouldn't have given a flip and would have left at 4:45 leaving me stuck. SNI didn't!

So, I start orientation at SNI on Sunday morning. FINALLY, I'm back to work! It's been a LONG 8 months, but I'm back in the saddle again!

More later.

Progress...

2011-11-29T10:56:00.000-05:00

To be able to get to go to Schneider to drive, I needed to get a copy of my Sleep Study that I had done for sleep apnea. I thought this was going to be a long drawn out process. Instead, it was quite simple, really.

I had taken the sleep study when I was applying at Crete back in August and they were the ones who had me do the study. Crete didn't work out, and I didn't keep my copy of the study so I had to call Crete to see if they would send me a copy. They didn't even say anything but "sure"! Now, that was easy, ut that is also where the problem started.

To be able to be inn orientation on Sunday, I needed to have that sleep study as well as the long form for my DOT physical in to Schneider by tomorrow. The sleep study was being mailed to me this morning and would not get here until maybe Friday. Bad situation.

I called Crete back and they agreed to go above and beyond and scan the study and email it to me. What a break that was. I have now sent all of the documents that Schneider needed. Hopefully they will call me and send me for the drug screen today. We will see.

The Trucking Tiger is BACK!

2011-11-28T21:09:00.001-05:00

I have been off of the road now for a while. I've also been unemployed for a while. Not a good thing, especially if you are like me and like to have a meal every day. So, I have decided to get back out there and drive.

I tried to get back on with Prime, but they wanted to see what my A1C was and made me wait for three months to come back, so I went with a temp home delivery job at FedEx. To drive for FedEx, even for a home delivery job like I have, you have to be DOT certified and have a medical card and all. I went and got my card with them and have been out on a route a few times, but it isn't steady. They keep telling me that it will pick up, but I dont have faith in it.

I called Schneider National and they told me that if I have my DOT card, all they need is a copy of that, as well as my long form and I won't have to retake the physical. I got that long form today and i am all set to head to the Atlanta terminal (about 20 miles from the house, so I can sleep in my own bed) on Sunday to start orientation.

Yep, Im gonna be a Pumpkin Driver!

Ill type more later!