Latest update.

Redcoat got to spend a couple days at home and left early Monday morning for the 98-mile drive down I-40 to Burgaw, NC to deliver his load. That was done on time. Then he got a QC message to head to Huger, SC to pick up a load from NuCor headed to Bensalem, PA. It was a 4-hour drive down Hwy. 17 to get there and Redcoat arrived a little before his appointment time of 1700.

There was a long line of trucks along the entrance road so he queued up. He heard the guard calling the truck numbers over the CB so he tried several times to call her to check in but never got an answer. He decided to make the hike up to the guard shack to check in the hard way and it took 20-minutes. It was a bit farther than he thought. She told him he was late and missed his appointment but he told her he had arrived on time but couldn't get through on the CB and so had to walk. Her supervisor told her to fit him in with the others.

When he finally got called, he got his paperwork and had to go weigh. Then he made his way inside the shed to get loaded. He was first in line of a group of 5 trucks. It took HOURS to get loaded and once that was accomplished he drove out to the tarping area. By then it was dark and there are NO LIGHTS at this place and NO SIGNS to tell you which way to go to get out. Since he was first in and first out, he wasn't able to follow anybody.

Redcoat tried to flag down a forklift driver but he just beeped his horn and kept going. He knew he had to get back to the scales and he saw an SUV heading in the direction he thought they were but when he tried to go that way, there was a sign for No Trucks. So he had to turn around and go back the other way and try to figure a way out. It sounds like it should be a simple thing to do and it probably is in the daylight but with no lights and in the middle of the woods, it's hard to figure out which way to go using only your headlights.

By this time Redcoat had run out of his 14 hours. He finally figured out how to get back to the guard shack and she told him there was a parking area 'over there.' So he made his way back down the entrance road, turned around and drove back up to where she had indicated. He found the parking area but it was full.

Now what to do....

On the way up the entrance road he'd seen several gaps in the line of trucks so he drove BACK down the entrance road, turned around again, and made his way back up the road looking for a large enough gap that he could get into without going into the ditch that was along the road. It took a couple tries but he finally found a place where he could fit in and called it a night.

I can't help thinking of the Jason's Law legislation. Here is a prime example of making shippers/receivers provide a well-lit, safe place for drivers to park when they run out of HOS. NuCor had a parking place but it wasn't well-lit and it definitely was inadequate. There is very little to no signage telling drivers what to do and where to go so that causes new drivers to waste a lot of precious time. There were truck stops on I-26 out of Charleston but Redcoat wasn't able to get to them because he'd be in HOS violation driving to them.

All in all, just a bad day to start off the week. By now he's making his way up I-95 to north Philly. At least there are no mountains to deal with. When he was coming down from Cleveland he stopped at a rest area and talked to another Maverick driver who was also heading to Burgaw. Redcoat said they both left the rest area at the same time and within 10 minutes the other guy was out of sight. RC is looking forward to getting a new truck as his is just tired. He said it drops down to 8th (if he's lucky) and most of the time 7th gear to pull the hills and he knows that's not right.

Stay tuned.

__________________
It's not how bad you screw up; it's how well you recover.
Do or do not. There is no try. --- Yoda
All men are not homeless, but some men are home less than others. --- Henny Youngman
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. --- Yogi Berra
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. --- Charles Kuralt

I always pull up to the gate if it's right at my appointment time. Then the guard can tell me what to do. (turn around, come in, come back later, whatever). Just because there is a line of trucks doesn't mean they are all waiting to get loaded. Some may be 12 hours early, some may be in a deep sleep in LA LA land. Or, Redcoat can ask the truck in front of him what the procedure is.

Good point. Will pass that along to Redcoat who is currently making his way across the Pennsylvania Turnpike on his way to somewhere in Pittsburgh. He doesn't know where he's going yet. They just told him to head to Pittsburgh and they'll let him know.

Stay tuned.

__________________
It's not how bad you screw up; it's how well you recover.
Do or do not. There is no try. --- Yoda
All men are not homeless, but some men are home less than others. --- Henny Youngman
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. --- Yogi Berra
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. --- Charles Kuralt

Alot of the things that don't make since to Redcoat will start making more since with time, I'm a log truck driver turned flat bedder at the first of this year, I'm getting along alot better with time. I did see 5 Maverick trucks loading at the same shipper as me last week in Denver, no tarp loads too.

I think in the three months Redcoat has been driving for Maverick, he's had only ONE load that didn't need to be tarped.

Latest update.

Redcoat has made his way from Charleston, SC to Bensalem, PA, dropped off that load and then deadheaded all the way to Columbus, OH to pick up a load going to Madison, MS on Monday. I know Maverick's intention is for him to go "home" for the weekend but Redcoat really doesn't care to hang out at my mom's house so he intends to just reset on the way to the con.

When he was loading his truck in Columbus, he noticed an 18-inch long shiny spot in the middle of his trailer on the passenger side. On a closer look, he saw that there was a scrape down the side of it. It was dented in but still usable for strapping. It wasn't there when he left Bensalem and the only place he can think of where it happened was in the service area on the Pennsylvania Turnpike where he spent the night. When he pulled in, he was thinking that there wasn't going to be any spots but the very last one was open and he pulled in there for the night. As he studied the scrape, he figured that another truck must have tried to pull in beside him during the night, couldn't make it fit, pulled up, then backed up to get the angle to get out and that's when it must have happened.

The damage hasn't made that portion of the trailer unusable or anything but it irks Redcoat that somebody hit him and now his trailer has a shiny mark on it.

Speaking of irksome things. Redcoat has a coil and he told me that he considers this particular tarping job to be rather immaculate if he does say so himself. It took him an hour to secure the load and put the canvas tarps on and then the metal tarp. Another Maverick driver was there at the same time, loaded after Redcoat, and left in about a half an hour. Redcoat suspects he didn't put a canvas tarp on and was of the opinion that the man's tarping job looked like "a kindergarten kit" as he put it. He said it was a sloppy mess.

Definitely not NCO.

Stay tuned.

__________________
It's not how bad you screw up; it's how well you recover.
Do or do not. There is no try. --- Yoda
All men are not homeless, but some men are home less than others. --- Henny Youngman
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. --- Yogi Berra
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. --- Charles Kuralt

Latest update.

Why do Mondays always suck?

Today, Redcoat dropped off his load at the con in Madison, MS and got a dispatch to deadhead to Mobile, AL to pick up a load at the docks.

I'm going to deviate from the story a bit here to give you a scenario that we used to train for when I was in the Air Force. As an engineer on the C-5, it was drilled in to my head that the airplane was a CREW airplane. Even though the AC (aircraft commander) was in charge and was the highest ranking officer on the crew, he was trained to listen to any concerns of other members of the crew whenever a decision had to be made as far as airworthiness or anything to do with passengers or load. By the same token, the rest of the crew was trained to speak up if they noticed anything weird or odd no matter how insignificant it might seem. They weren't supposed to let the rank of the AC be any kind of intimidation factor. The AC needs every bit of information to see the big picture to make an informed decision on a course of action so he (or she) depended on the crew to speak their minds without any fear of repercussion.

Which leads me back to picking up a load at the docks in Mobile.

After delivering his load in Madison, there were several Maverick drivers there and they all got the same dispatch as Redcoat to head down to Mobile. Since they had been there before, Redcoat decided to follow them. What he didn't know was that they were going to make a fuel stop at the Pilot in Jackson, MS. Redcoat makes it a point to try to deliver with a full tank of fuel so he didn't need to fuel before he left. Once he realized they were going to stop for fuel, he decided to go ahead and head on down toward Mobile. His QC message said that he also needed to supply a fax number because paperwork needed to be faxed to him before he could pick up his load. There was a time factor involved as they were supposed to be there by noon and it was going to be pretty tight making that deadline. So Redcoat decided to stop on the way down to get his faxed paperwork rather than wait for the other Mav trucks to finish fueling at the Pilot in Jackson.

So he gets to Hattiesburg, stops at Dan's truck stop and QC's the fax number to his dispatcher (who is actually a sub working in place of Redcoat's REAL dispatcher who is out for a couple weeks). This is around 1030.

At some point, the question comes up about a TWIC, which Redcoat does not have. The paperwork was completed in orientation but so far he hasn't heard anything on it and hasn't thought to ask.

As Redcoat is leaving Hattiesburg, he gets a QC message: STOP!

They have just figured out that RC does not have his TWIC which means he can't pick up a load at the docks in Mobile.

At some point, this question should have been asked. It briefly crossed my mind when he told me he was headed to the docks but I didn't ask the question. Redcoat thought about it when he first got the dispatch but then got distracted and didn't think to ask until he saw it on the paperwork faxed to him. I'm thinking his dispatcher should have had that info on the computer somewhere before the man gave the dispatch to Redcoat. Redcoat was figuring that the TWIC was required mostly for the docks in California and Florida. He figured he didn't need it down in Mobile which was why they went ahead and gave him the dispatch.

Wrong.

End result, Redcoat drove down to Hattiesburg and then back up to Byrum near Jackson to pick up a load headed to Rome, NY.

He would have had a great start on the day without the 230-mile detour down to Hattiesburg and back.

In the end, he got loaded with some coils and he has given his tarp job 9 out of 10 stars. He said the front and sides are immaculate but the back looks a bit "naf" because of all the extra tarp material that he has to fold up.

Why doesn't Maverick give their drivers coil tarps???

So he's spending the night at a Pilot on I-55 before he heads out on the 2-day run up to Rome. Google maps says it's 1308 miles but Maverick says it's 1230. He plans on taking the I-71 to I-90 route which will keep him on relatively flat terrain so he can squeeze out the best fuel mileage out of his tired truck.

Stay tuned.

__________________
It's not how bad you screw up; it's how well you recover.
Do or do not. There is no try. --- Yoda
All men are not homeless, but some men are home less than others. --- Henny Youngman
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. --- Yogi Berra
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. --- Charles Kuralt

Those Mobile loads are always pretty tightly dispatched...

And after all that, you will be happy to know...when you get there and they ask for the TWIC card, you start to pull it out and they say..."Thats OK...I don't need to see it".

He should get paid for the "detour" to Hattiesburg...it was a dispatch (we get paid for all dispatched miles last I checked)

TWIC cards are or will be required at all ports. Some even require an additional card to go along with the TWIC.

Our Crew Resource Management classes mimic what you were talking about on the C5. The gave good examples of aircraft accidents that occured because someone was intimidated by a superior and didn't speak up. I am Army aircrew on USAF E-8C aircraft by the way. That is when I'm not on the ground in Iraq.

__________________
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."- Thomas Jefferson

Latest update.

Redcoat has made it to Rome, NY without any issues. He is spending the night a mile short of the exit to the con which is located only a half mile north of the exit. His delivery time is 1300 tomorrow and he QC'd his dispatcher to see if they could find out if he could deliver at 0700 but got some canned answer back about the ETAP that made no sense. So he is going to take his chances on trying to deliver first thing in the morning.

Redcoat will be glad when his real dispatcher gets back.

On the way up to Rome, he went past a Maverick truck having a bit of a problem. There were three tow trucks there trying to get empty spools back onto the trailer bed. Redcoat said it looked like they had slipped off to the side and caused the trailer to tip. Guess that driver was having a bad day.

Other from that -- same-o, same-o.

Stay tuned.

__________________
It's not how bad you screw up; it's how well you recover.
Do or do not. There is no try. --- Yoda
All men are not homeless, but some men are home less than others. --- Henny Youngman
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. --- Yogi Berra
Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. --- Charles Kuralt

I always show up to deliver at 7:00 am, even if I have a later app., seems like its ok with flatbeds.