My Journey as a Truck Driver

Relay a load of apples from Hyrum, UT to Walmart/Gas City, IN.

I pick up my new truck at about 7 am, supposed to get my first load at noonish, a relay load. Relay driver decides he's going to do a 34 hour reset at his home in Idaho, and will come down the next day. That would've been fine, 1500 + miles in about 88 hours is doable, however it brought weather into the picture. A snowstorm came in Saturday night, but roads were clear by the time I left about 1pm. By the time I reached Evanston, WY though, it was starting to snow. About 50 miles outside of Rawlins, roads were snowy/icy and winds were blowing. Since it was my very first payload, I thought it imprudent to take too many chances, so I pulled over in Rawlins. Plus Wyoming and I have a history, its my nemesis state. I ran out of gas outside of Rock Springs on a New Years morning many years ago while headed to college. Honestly, I started looking for gas just under half a tank, but because it was New Years and about 3 am, nothing was open. Anyway, about 3 hours later, they shut down I-80. They open I-80 briefly about 4 pm on Monday. I take off towards Laramie . . . roads were pretty packed with other traffic. WY-DOT did a pretty good job of clearing the roads, Elk Mountain was a bit dicey, but with traffic and wind and road conditions, often driving about 30 mph, but averaged 45sh. Roads completely cleared up about 25 miles west of Laramie, started driving 65 mph. Minimal winds, clear roads, I was expecting to run hard and possibly make an ontime delivery. I heard over the CB that I-80 was closed again just outside of Laramie, but I frankly didn't believe it, conditions were so good. Sure enough, Exit 116 I-80 was closed. Apparently 100 mph wind gusts on top of Sherman's Pass. Luckily I found a Walmart right at Exit 116.

Tuesday I went for a run, even though wind was howling pretty strong. Walmart blocked most of the wind. Listening to weather forecasts, no opening in sight, wind advisories of 80 mph, truck overturn warnings, plus another blizzard was supposed to come in the next day around noon. I was resigned to staying in Laramie for the next few days. About 4 pm though, another JBS driver called me and told me that 280 was just opened, and she wanted to caravan with me on that route. She was headed to Denver, and I could intersect with I-76 and bypass Cheyenne. It'd take me about 100 miles out of route, but I thought that better then sitting in Laramie for another 2 days. 280 was a mostly southern route into Colorado. Roads conditions would be completely clear, then randomly completely icy and snowed over, with high wind gusts . . . but as soon as we reached the Colorado border, winds were still blowing, but roads were completely clear. By the time I reached Fort Collins, winds were mild and I was pretty much in the clear.

Had to reschedule the load for a 3am Friday morning delivery. Spent about 17 hours at home in Illinois, 2 of which I spent doing a recruiting presentation at the CDL school I went to. For me, not a big deal not getting home time really, can't make money without getting miles in, but at this point I've basically have had 15 hours "off" in last 8 weeks.

Relay driver ended up really putting me in a pinch. I basically lost an additional 24 hours off, plus the load delivered just barely too late for me to get paid on it on next payroll, so will have to wait 3 weeks to get paid for this weeks work. Part of it was weather of course, but if driver would've brought load as scheduled, I would've been ahead of weather, gotten more home time, gotten paid on the load next week, and probably another 800-1000 miles or so. My Driver Manager (DM) did give me a days worth of layover pay. Also because of the way everything worked out, even though I sat a lot, not ever a long enough stretch to reset my 34, so now I'll have to juggle my 70 hour HOS.

Such is the life I suppose.

Recap: Hyrum, UT to Gas City, IN.
Paid Miles = 1521. Actual Miles = 1726.
Fuel = Avg. 6.8 mpg pretty good considering there was a lot of downtime idle in that.

Blunder of week. While sitting there at Walmart on Tuesday, I hear over the CB from another driver that he's watching the I-80 barricade online and that they are removing the barrier and opening I-80. I wait for other verification, call into the 511 hotline, but nothing is confirmed. After a few more minutes he says that traffic is now moving through, and its open. So I figure that the hotline just takes a bit to update, but we're getting instant reports, so I leave my cushy spot in Walmart and head out. Other drivers on CB are telling me that its still closed, but I'm thinking that they aren't privy to the instant info that I have, and assure them that it is open. Sure enough, I get to the blockade, I-80 is still closed. So now I've started my clock for the day, lost my parking spot and know that there is no way I'm going to find another decent one - trucks and cars are parked everywhere, side of roads, etc, and I'm going to have to eat crow and drive by the same drivers that I was assuring that 80 WAS open. I decide I can avoid some of that by parking on the side of the on ramp, but the winds were blowing so hard, my truck was rocking and I was way too exposed. Then a warning comes over my qualcomm about high winds over turning trucks . . . so I end up doing the drive of shame and roll back into town to find another parking spot.

 

Thanks, good luck to you! Let me know if you change your mind about JBS . . . I could use the referral bonus

 

That's awesome! Good luck to you, be safe!

 

Delivered to Gas City, IN ended up with a 14 hour HOS violation leaving Walmart Distribution to a KMart parking lot only .7 miles away. Deadhead to Tipton, IN, pick up a CHR broker load of seed headed to York, NE.

I get about 15 miles past Champaign, IL and my DM calls and asks me to pull over, I may need to go back to Champaign to meet another driver and relay his load to Ankeney, IA. Apparently he didn't plan his HOS correctly to deliver on time. I pull over on the next off ramp I get to, and I sit there for about 30 minutes, but now because of the loading time earlier, I'm running out of 14 hour clock, which is messing up my schedule to eat, fuel, etc. I call my DM, and was a bit impatient with her when I felt that she wasn't understanding why I needed a decision. I don't mind helping on a relay, but I got screwed over on the last one, and I want to maximize my time now. As a side note, my I specifically requested to be assigned to my DM because of suggestions from other drivers and planners that I talked to, and thus far have been pleased with our interaction, even with this hiccup. I was needlessly short with her and I apologized. The fact remained though that if I was doing the relay, I was going to lose miles and time, and if I didn't do the relay, then my schedule was getting messed up. I get a message over qualcomm to proceed with as planned with original load. I no sooner get up to speed and back on the freeway, I get a message on my qualcomm asking me to pull over again. Since I'm some miles away from another exit, I proceed on, and get another 3-4 messages saying go, stop, finally go again. I know its not her fault, that the planners are trying to figure something out, but I'm shaking my head a bit.

I get to Decatur, IL and stop to eat for about 45 min. By the time I get back to the truck, I have an urgent message on my qualcomm, and somehow I had missed calls on my cell phone from night dispatch. I get rolling again, call back, sure enough they want me to go back to Champaign. I drive to Champaign, find the other driver at a remote little stop, switch trailers with him, and find that I'm relaying yet again with another driver since I now no longer have enough time to deliver this load myself on time. Other driver is in LaSalle, IL, so I drive the load to him, find him at the Flying J there, and switch trailers again.

Originally I was to only get paid Tipton, IN to Champaign, IL mileage, but once I explained everything to my DM, she adjusted the mileage, although not as much as I actually drove. I still ended up making multiple stops and basically losing a day of driving. Again, my DM has been very reasonable and gave me a day's layover, which is really all I can ask of her I think. It doesn't make up for what I lost, but again, such is life.

Recap: Gas City, IN > Decatur, IL > Somewhere north of Decatur > Champaign, IL > LaSalle, IL
Pay miles = 252 +114. Actual miles = 436 + 115
Fuel = 5.7, 7.1 . . . some strong winds that dissipated.

 

The trailer I pick up in LaSalle is a sweet looking brand new trailer. My rig looks good, my trailer looks good, I'm feeling like I'm rolling down the road pretty styling.

Then I pull into the pork plant at Marshalltown, IA . . . oh well. Pick up one of the older trailers JBS owns, which isn't that old, but old enough that it doesn't have the air system to move tandems. Some lever system that I've not ever seen before. My CDL truck had a stop bar system that you put into the hole you want, I'd prefer that to this lever system. Its 20 degrees out, I can't get the lever to move, finally a wily veteran driver helps me out by bringing a little sledge hammer and banging the pegs into submission.

Pick up combo packs of pork headed to Arnold, PA. Maybe some of you ex-military guys can explain something to me . . . what time is 00:00? My load pick up is 00:01, which I take to be 12:01 am, on Sunday. Delivery is Feb 27 at 00:00. I wasn't sure if that meant 12:00 am, but I understood 24:00 to be midnight. I called the receiver, and security tells me that the warehouse is closed until 8am Monday. So then I assume that 00:00 means open delivery time. I know, I know, @$S U Me . . . whatever.

I have family in Mansfield, OH area, since my route takes me by there, I stop there Sunday evening, see aunt, uncle, bro/sis in law, mom and sis randomly happened to be there too, hug niece, eat, sleep in a real bed, etc; leaving me with about 130 miles to delivery in Pittsburgh area. Go to breakfast with fam at Cracker Barrel (thanks mom for breakfast and the chex mix!), planning on arrival around noonish at receiver. I got a call about 5 am from dispatch, but they didn't leave a message, but then I get a call from CSR while at breakfast, asking me about my ETA, and that receiver is urgently waiting on my load, inferring that I'm late somehow. I explained to her that I called receiver, didn't get any answers, but I could be there by 1200. Get a message that an appointment was set for 1400 . . . so still not sure if I messed something up for not. I asked DM, but she didn't respond either. Maybe I'm getting silent treatment.

Recap: LaSalle, IL > Marshalltown, IA > Arnold, PA
Paid miles = 976. Actual miles = 1026
Fuel = 5.9

Impressions: I was impressed with Pittsburgh. Drove through some areas that was very old, but not run down as I expected. There seems to be some pride in Pittsburghians. Roads are not easy to navigate, old, narrow, poorly marked, definitely not truck friendly. I never really understood that Pittsburgh is essentially built on a mountainside and 3 rivers. Makes for some interesting twists and turns and random steep hills.

 

Load up in York, PA with frozen foods headed to Crown Point, IA. Stop at a TA in Youngstown, OH for night. Wake up next morning and I have a Engine Diagnostic error, Clutch Fan. It was raining pretty heavily all night, so I debated chalking it up to moisture and ignoring it, but having no idea what its related to, I call breakdown (guy is a bit of a jerk, btw) and I'm directed to a KW dealer nearby. I'm hoping its quick because I have a 900 mile preplan that I don't want to lose, I had budgeted an extra 2 hours for delivery, so anything longer than that will be a late delivery as well.

Well, KW is quick, but still takes about 3 hours, had to replace solenoid. DM wants to know ETA for load delivery, and I tell her, but she doesn't believe I can drive 372 miles in 6 hours, which would make the delivery about an hour late from original appointment. So I lose the preplan, and end up with a 280 mile preplan out of Chicago . . . and 48 hours to do it in. With that trip, I'll be averaging about 285 miles/day. Hope that improves soon.

By the way, I beat my ETA by 12 minutes.

Recap: Arnold, PA > York, PA > Crown Point, IN
Pay Miles = 866, Actual Miles = 922
Avg. Fuel = 7.3

Newbie moment:
So I had never Transflo'd any paperwork before, not even with trainers. I had 4 trips I needed to send in, and tried doing it at TA. I saw another driver do it, didn't look too hard, and tried doing it myself right after. Spent about an hour trying to figure it out. Couldn't find JBS Carriers as an option, so I thought maybe was listed as some other entity, called DM, no answer, called "Old Man", no answer. Finally the gal at desk tells me that they don't take Transflo, system is called TripPack . . . oh.

I guess I'll need to find a Pilot/Flying J.

 

It's not too bad, I'm in my 4th week solo, averaging 340 miles/day which needs to improve. Overall my expectations are pretty low, so not too disappointed really. I'm enjoying things quite a bit. I do get caught up in the crap sometimes, but have to remind myself that I knew it was going to be like this . . .

 

Well, I crack Chicago . . . and maybe a few curbs. Pick up rolled paper to deliver to Iowa. I get into the shipper just fine, but I left in a different route, I should've backtracked. I ended up taking a few right hand turns about 5pm . . . really bad idea. My original route from my GPS had me really close to I55, but I had to make a right turn onto a road that trucks were not allowed. I had to block traffic a few times to execute some turns, but it all turned out in the end.

Recap: Crown Point, IN > Chicago, IL > Marengo, IA
Pay miles: 288, actual 310
Fuel: 6.3 mpg