Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

sadwar · Aug 27, 2013

You know, every time I start to think I am having a bad day I just tell myself 'I'm sure diesel is having a much worse day', and suddenly this little ray of sunshine appears and everything seems better. Because compared to the ##### that you go through, I am picking roses and kissing babies. Stay tough.

FatDaddy · Aug 27, 2013

dieselfuelonly said: ↑

MOTHER OF GOD... ANOTHER DAY OF... JUST... WELL JUST READ

Alright, so as I mentioned earlier I was sitting at the Fairless Hills drop yard, waiting on a load and hoping to pick up a relay out of that yard headed somewhere far far far from the Northeast. Perfect scenario.

Of course, I get the exact opposite of what I wanted: Pick up empty, drive for an hour and a half, pick up loaded trailer, go deliver to grocery warehouse in Massachusetts.

Alright, tight schedule, but doable. Grab an empty, leave the yard. Qualcomm wants me to run 60 miles of PA backroads all the way to the customer. **** that. Run 10 miles extra out of route, take interstates and toll roads instead.

5 miles to the customer. Last toll booth, ready to take my exit. State farm H.E.L.P. ROAD ASSISTANCE WITH FLASHING LIGHTS AND FLARES AND JUST WANTS ATTENTION pickup truck has blocked off the entire exit I want to take. Great.

So, I have only one option which is to get going the wrong direction. So, take the exit, mute Qualcomm as it starts yacking at me. I've got my CB on and am listening for someone to come up with a way around it. Don't get it, GPS shows a double cloverleaf up ahead, looks good, so I take it and get turned around and am heading towards the customer.

On the way in I pass by the ramp that state farm was blocking. Daycab took the cloverleaf too fast with a 53' and rolled over.

Then, as I'm approaching my exit ramp, over on the left there is a smoke cloud. Oh look, a car is just ON FIRE. The whole front end was crushed and it appears that he got the front end run over by a truck, thanks to one of PA's many 3-foot-long merge lanes with a stop sign at the end. I'm just speculating here, but truck was probably trying to get off, car was trying to merge on, car failed to yield and boom. Yeah, quite the inferno. Others had already stopped so I kept on going. Thankfully I got away from there before the firetrucks showed up and then everyone from 10 miles has to slowdown to 4MPH in a 65MPH zone to take pictures with their cell phone.

Finally reach the customer, drop empty, get ready to pick up the loaded trailer. I still do the newbie-thing we were taught in Schneiders school and get out and check my 5th wheel height every time and always crank the trailer down so that it picks the legs up when I back under it. Yeah, yeah, I see you guys just back up to trailers without stopping all the time and never have any problems. But, I still do it... just habit. I do this so a. I will never, ever high hook a trailer, and b. if I'm not lined up just perfectly and the kingpin has to slide a little, the landing gear aren't being pulled sideways on concrete with a 47,000lb load trying to prevent them from moving.

Ok, so I get out and of course the trailer is too high for my liking. Try to crank it down, can't move it low gear, can't move it high gear, its not even popping its just taking up any force I apply to it like a rubber band and when I let off the handle shoots back. Can't say I didn't try. Its just low enough to contact the 5th wheel, so all I can do is try and see if I can get a bit of weight off of it. I back under, it picks it up a tiny bit, after fighting the landing gear for 5 minutes I finally get them cranked up. Strap in the pallets, seal the trailer... look for a scale. Aaaanddd... nothing. Nothing within 30 miles. There is a scale along my route 30 miles away... conveniently where my fuel stop was. A weight station shows up along the route at almost exactly the same mileage away. Can't really tell which is first. Oh well, only one thing to do... go for it.

I start seeing the signs for the weigh station, yep, its before the truck stop. CRAP. I see trucks ahead moving over to the right lane. CRAP. Finally as I round the bend I see a nice red CLOSED on the sign. Thank God. I had no clue if I was legal or not.

And then the fun starts. Yeah, ya'll know the TRIFECTA OF TOTAL S*** TRUCKSTOPS off of 78 up here? There is a Pilot, a TA right next to the Pilot, and another Pilot about 4 miles down the road. All are completely full 24/7. I'm supposed to fuel and scale here.

AND SO IT BEGINS.

Exit off. The Pilot? Backed out into the street. Go around the stopped trucks, enter the TA. There is an open fuel bay there, screw fuel compliance. So I fuel at the TA. It was my only option, I was showing 150 gallons burned, my fuel gauge buried in EMPTY and the low fuel light on. No telling if someone siphoned some fuel, or what, not gonna chance running out. Realized I should have scaled first. Then realize there is no scale here. Ok, plan B. Keep going.

Leave the TA, go back by the Pilot. Still can't get in the entrance, so no hope of scaling there. Back on 78 heading west, see the signs for the other Pilot down there. This one is always just as bad as the others. See the signs for Clint's Truck Stop. Haven't been able to find that yet even though I've tried before, I'm gonna try it. Maybe they have a scale. So, I exit off, looking closely at the signs. It shows a left arrow to Clints 1.1 miles down the road. So, that means... go through the intersection, right? RIGHT?

Get to the intersection where I would have normally turned right to go to the Pilot about 1/4 mile down the road. But Clint's has gotta be down the road on the other side of the intersection just a bit. Screw it, lets try. So I go straight through.

DO. NOT. EVER. DO. THIS.

Next thing I know I am going through some backwoods s*** with a line of about 5 cars behind me, absolutely no shoulder, absolutely no where to turn around. I look left for a chance at getting back on the main road. 4-ton weight limit. Nope, that ain't gonna happen. I'm just going deeper and deeper into pure hell. I'm desperately looking for a place to stop or turn around. There is just NOTHING. I missed my once chance at a pull-off earlier on. Its only getting worse. Next thing I know I'm driving straight up the side of a fricking winding mountain road. Loaded to 47,000lbs. 8th gear? NOPE. 7th? NOPE. 6th? NOPE. F*** THIS. Button down, ram it in 5th gear, and just romp on it. DETROIT IS NOT HAPPY. I'm just waiting for an intercooler boot to just explode. Line of angry cars behind me is growing larger. Put on the 4-way flashers to piss them off even more. GPS shows me eventually hitting a state highway. Unless I find a place to stop or see a bridge that forces me to stop, there is absolutely nothing I can do but KEEP GOING.

Deeper into the backwoods I go. Luckily this load is extremely heavy and loaded towards the front so I had my tandems slid up to about the 7th hole. Otherwise it would have been very interesting for cars passing the other direction in the curves.

Ok, we're getting closer to the town that this load leads to. 4 roads make up the entire town, all crossing into the state highway I see ahead. Road 1? NO TRUCKS SIGN. Road 2? Looks like it might be the only option. Road 3 and Road 4? Downhill with another no trucks sign. ROAD 2 IT IS. Tractor against one curb, trailer tires against the other, make the turn without taking out any signs. Odd looks from the local out trimming his front lawn. Finally, I SEE THE STATE ROAD. One mother of all button hook turns later, I'm on the state highway. Mash the throttle and work my way back back to 78. Reach 78, head back west towards the Pilot I originally passed. Finally get to the Pilot. Turdburglar trucker in front of me weighs and then PARKS IN FRONT OF THE SCALE, EXITS WITH HIS COFFEE CUPS AND GOES INSIDE. Lady at the counter hears me mumble "YOU F****** IDIOT" over the speaker and tells me to back off the scale and park in the no parking to the right of the scale.

Go inside. ####### is filling his coffee cups and paying for his ticket, taking his leisurely time as he blocks the scale exit. Get my ticket. Over on drives. Thankfully that scalehouse was closed, and thankfully I didn't put too much fuel in. Slide tandems forward 2 holes, and GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE.

Well, ONE good thing did come from today. I have now found not one but TWO super secret parking areas that I will now use instead of wasting my time looking for a spot at one of those three ######## truckstops.

Messaged after hours and told them that this was gonna be late because yet again, I cannot magically pull driving hours out of my ###. Even if I hadn't taken my scenic tour of whatever the hell town that was, I STILL would have been late.

Steve is right, something is up with the planners lately, the past two weeks I have had absolutely nothing but problems with preassignments being sent to me that I simply cannot make, all the appointments are being based off absolutely perfect conditions which we all know never happens.

Time to get some frickin sleep.
Click to expand...

C'mon man. You have been doing this long enough to know not to play guessing games on roads you don't know. Especially in the northeast where trouble is always lurking around the next corner.

Also get yourself a trucks top guide. You would have known ahead of time that truckstop you were looking for doesn't have a scale. Would have saved you a lot of heartache

Happy you made it unscathed though

FatDaddy · Aug 27, 2013

Also unfortunately the setup at that Peelot makes it virtually impossible to park anywhere else but in front of the scale. I have never got out of ther under 30 minutes.

Sledge07 · Aug 27, 2013

you guys need new planners or dbls. i've yet to run into waiting or anything. i also need a laptop because there is no way in hell that i'm typing a daily story out like this on my droid 4, #### that.

stevep1977 · Aug 28, 2013

Sledge07 said: ↑

you guys need new planners or dbls. i've yet to run into waiting or anything. i also need a laptop because there is no way in hell that i'm typing a daily story out like this on my droid 4, #### that.
Click to expand...

Let the jinxing commence. Lol

I've found that its best not to jinx yourself out here. A few weeks ago I tell myself "you know, it's been like 6 months since I've had a blow out! Man I've been lucky". I then proceeded to have blowouts on back to back loads.

And the moral to diesels post? Don't ever #### with New Jersey. Don't stop there if you really don't have to and get the hell out of that pos state as fast as possible

dieselfuelonly · Aug 28, 2013

FatDaddy said: ↑

C'mon man. You have been doing this long enough to know not to play guessing games on roads you don't know. Especially in the northeast where trouble is always lurking around the next corner.

Also get yourself a trucks top guide. You would have known ahead of time that truckstop you were looking for doesn't have a scale. Would have saved you a lot of heartache

Happy you made it unscathed though
Click to expand...

Oh believe me, I will do anything I can to avoid getting off the interstates up here... sometimes though its just not possible. Of course I have a big truck stop guide, but there is only so much information they can pack into a book like that short of giving us door to door directions to every stop off the interstate. One thing I do want to make clear is that I did NOT go blindly following GPS directions to try to find this place, lol. But, I knew that parking would not be an option at any of the other 3 truck stops, but the signage on the exit ramp made me believe it was one place when when it actually was at another. With my 14 running out I had to fuel, scale , AND park. I did find it though and had tons of room for me to park. Off to make the delivery!

91B20H8 · Aug 28, 2013

sent you a link in pm DFO

JohnnyC · Aug 28, 2013

DFO
Good read, had me spitting coffee. Did a similar excursion in WV one time. Got hung on landing gear in an s curve. thought for sure I was going to have to call Mr. tow truck. Fortunately a local state highway worker was there to help me get it out. Lesson learned... don't get off the big road when your in banjo land.

dieselfuelonly · Aug 28, 2013

Of course this morning on my way to delivery my Qualcomm nearly explodes with messages as someone form support shift just DELETES THE ENTIRE WORK ASSIGNMENT. WTF? Finally found a place to pull off and called in to the OC see what the hell was going on, finally they got back to me saying someone decided to relay it and deleted the work assignment instead, but told me to go ahead and make the delivery. Good God what is wrong with Green Bay.

Anyway, at the customer now, being late actually worked out good because as soon as I showed up they put me straight into a dock. How often does that happen at a grocery warehouse, lol. No preassignment yet, who knows where to next.

sadwar · Aug 28, 2013

Sitting at the Mobile port waiting to get escorted on site and get loaded. Only for other Schneiders waiting for the same thing. Another long day.

On the plus note, gonna relay this load into West Memphis and put my truck in the shop. Can hopefully get this vibration problem finally fixed. Five months is enough. Even got told i would get breakdown pay and a hotel. Woohoo.

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