What’s the longest day you’ve worked?

i worked 34 hours once

 

Days plural.

You are not sufficiently rested in 4 hours for a new working day by Law in HOS. You are required to stay home or in hotel or in sleeper berth (Bed...) until you have been rested.

There is another law that says you will NOT be corected in driving when you are under the weather, not enough sleep etc.

So let's see. Riffles through stories about the worst time in trucking anywhere.

Tuesday AM. I had been sick in Frederick Md for three days (Two was on a weekend so that's out.) I stagger into the DM Bowman Flatbed property in -20 plus and lower when accounting for the winds. Ice everywhere. sculpted by the wind.

The tractor and trailer was given to another driver the previous day. Because I am home sick, they care alot of using the equiptment BS in the trucks until they are used up ahandoned.

I finally found the DVIR in a wadded ball in the floor boards. Stomped by the boots of the previous driver. I had different sols by implant by shows Pita if you ask me.

airstart cranked the thing. Now here is the thing. the only computer aboard that #### thing is strictly the tripmaster. It can make up its own mind #### well it pleases thank you.

Start Marked freightminer. Fuel is a touch off from full. WTF? Noticed Voltmeter being pulled down way too much in this airstart truck. She stabelized and settled into this... idle that is not a happy truck for that day.

My company shop when I showed up could not be bothered to adminster to my boo hoos and tears. T'marraw. B'ak Tmarraw.. All fix, you happy in block visit.

STomped to that tractor past my safety boss and told him if this ##### breaks down today I will have some things to tell you when I get back. But not until then.

3 AM Tues 8000 pounds of roofing foam from Atlas Camphill onboard. Roared out across the 301 route 17 dead south east to norfolk. 4 hours later Im inside the navy base at norfolk watching bales of insulating sheets disapper into the ship assembly.

JUST when I had put away the very last roll of the stupid straps into that sidebox she shook like a wet dog and quit running. Thats that a dead truck.

She did display a light saying shes on alternator for that dead battery,hence the need.

Two man came and got her, got me too. (He better...) Took me to a hamptons quiet paid everything

Truck goes to shop 20 miles across the city. No way I am able to check on the #### thing.

Watched pay tv until I threw up. Watched papers until I threw up. Found a trove of books until I got sick etc. Fianlly wedensday got the #### truck towed to me with trailer. checked out was in doswell in time for dinner. This was wed PM.

Came out of dinner at Doswell Petro pushed in the two Mr Pops, nothing. Air pri and air sec nailed at zero. No twitch no nothing.

Hunted all the air system under the tires. Found the compresser dead. Junk bricked. COLD. No lube-dub-clank nothing.

Called company. This time diswpatcher said #### your other driver had that problem last monday while you were sick.

What problem.

Bad compressor, Truckstop stuck a reman on it instead of one of ours.

They send a tractor down to me, this time it's going towards sunrise thursday AM.

Took bad tractor away.

Got breakfast. (We are never going to get out of here...... FAMOUS LAST WORDS, KEEP YOU R MOUF SHUT)

Climb in tractor. SHes disorderly. UGH. Brake pedal been slammed, ick. Steering wheel has a flaw in it. Aw man..

Kicked that thing (Not drive, kicked with feet and cursing...) onto the interstate.

At 30 half a mile from ramp on the entire front end steering went out. Then she threw a electrical and air alarm. Stop that circus right there on the interstate. Set down VERY PRETTY triangles as prescribed.

Three DM Bowmans show up. Shiny Macks and so on. They take off.

Another tow truck showed up at my spot at sunset rush. This time I am beet red. Burnt)

This time she drops a 1975 freigthliner long nose with a big kitty and a transmission to die for. Everything was all about what we do in trucking.

Rumbled back to Frederick filled tanks 20 miles from yard because the tanks were too tiny. And shop only had one filled. I #### near ran out in north Frederick. This time I decided that somehow I am being set up. (Oh really? Took you what? 5 days to come up with that little concept sparky? no wonder)

Dropped the thing the yard in any old spot, went home. Safety man knew better than to say anything just yet. I was righteously angry by then.

Friday noon, I show up. Talked to safety man who knew all about that week. And asked him one important question. WTF is that BS with musical trucks? If you cannot find me a good truck, MY truck with my name on that door, no one else drives it but YOU or some Bowman Poobah once a decade then forget this whole employment BS.

He calmed me down, used his former Marine experiences to get it done because I was about to march to one of the shop bosses and take him around back. Sometimes applied violence without involving the Law or Govt in any way is the one source of solving issues one way or the other.

Told me to go home and here is a payroll for everything. See you monday at 8 am in clean clothes? No one has asked me that before.

Monday rolled around 8 Am. A brand new production 350 Mack CH or CL model daycab airride short wheelbase with all the goodies inside that cab plus plenty of gauges to occupy me. 4 miles on the ODometer.

Our first load up townhill towards Breezewood sealed it. The old 87 COE would do about 19 on a good day upgrade in 4th low. That mack sailed up it 5 miles up in a few minutes at abour 48 mph with the same 80000 load going to Fishertown.

Most of that winter was dediated to fishertown off Rte 56 on the mountain top up there. IT's a 2 mile pull with about I think 9% and a 10 mph 220 degree curve back at the bottom. In ice.

One day that ice was so bad I considered for a moment sitting up there the right lane with 4 ways on not moving cars pass me on the left then realized what I am thinking on with the ice al the way down.

I managed to move forward to 6 mph then popped all brakes to see if she will continue sliding down on her butts as it were all the way down. But at a very light weight empty doctors Office. She slid to a halt.

Ok, I put her into 7th high let the clutch out and she walked off at idle with engine brake in. And trolley at 4 pounds stretchign the trailer out. I was around 800 RPM some of the way down without too much trouble. She got to 1450 and started biting into the jacobs. I had to switch it off spin the wheel one time and watched my world of rock wall gets replaced by sky then forest as we came around that switch back.

All of my cars stayed with me away from my left, then away from my right, then away from left, stayed to the rear 200 feet and so forth. Everything was flawless all the way down.

That driver could have done a little bit of a better job in buses. Thats ultimately where he stayed.

That Mack continued to earn the title mountain goat the rest of that winter.

One of the few good trucks. (It better be....)

If they had all that time to let me out, they already paid the employer my wages and time etc. Employer was working with her when the new girl came back to tak over her job.

Employer or unemployer. You can have your 4 worse days and 5 nights out there any time.

Payroll that week?

Let's say they filled it with money. The kind of money that gets the old blood moving again on a friday night.

 

Whew, x1, gonna have to dumb it down for me a bit, I lost ya' half way thru.
What, how many hours have we ever driven in one stretch? Because how do you put in 19 hours of driving these days, take 4 off and do another 12? Aren't there laws agin those hours? Anyway, If I started at say midnight, I could go that night, all the next day, and most of the next night, but by say 3 am, the next night that was it, so what is that, 27 hours? The rail yards in Chicago were open 24 hours, so you could do that,especially at places that had trailer pools.

 

Im sorry. I essentially worked straight through tues after midnight all the way through until friday afternoon.

The hotel was the one time I got about 5 hours then they knocked and said it's time to checkout so I did. The rest of the sleeper berth time was essentially awake waiting for the towtruck.

I'll try to rewrite that and improve on it later on today. Payroll as a base rate gave me from midnight tuesday am all the way until 6 PM friday 10.00 hour flat, regarldless of any other income and essentially gratitude pay piled on top of that. I think the check showed 104 hours that week base rate 1060 or so dollars gross followed by the usual companys stuff trip paid 80.00 for the roofing delivery and they threw in another 600 which they called yelling money because the shop manager was finally caught and admitted to being at fault.

First he denied the reliable 70's era bobtail to be sent to me. Company policy was change to require any driver broke like i was is to be issued that truck first by tow truck asap. If the breakdown is sufficient trouble they will retire that tractor and give driver a brand new virgin mack day cab. They care converting the frederick fleet anyway.

He also denied the cabover queen sent to me had 5 OOS issues with just the front end. Had I gotten it up to speed around 60+ on I-90 two half bags on the right would have failed potentially twisting the springs away and probably ripping the drives out, drop the shaft and maybe disconnect the trailer into all those cars.

That queen should have never left the property. I think they scrapped that one very quickly. Gone.

I was offered two other kinds of flatbed trucking out of Frederick to support several accounts. however they settled on either a Lowes dedicated to Lewes DE and tiedwater or fishertown from Lowes hagerstown rail transload fo that particular customer. Regardless of winter weather, road closure or problems that load has to be and is there at 8 sharp. PA's acts regarding closure of Tpike or all roads in face of winterstorms were ignored. And I improved on my deep snow and ice experience that winter there fast. I had to.

I apologize for the round about post. I'll clean it up later today and see if I can make it easier for you and everyone.

There are times my writing is bad, that would be one of them. However the story itself is a epic in trucking. 5 days to resolve a truck one company driver broke and another shop manager made sure I could not do my job that week.

At the end of all that, things improved greatly. Much better. Im just sorry the williamsport suits and their precious regional 55 mph governor in the South was something they will just have to fall on their collective swords.

 

That's ok, you're one of the good ones. You must have some kind of voice recognition thing, because I could never type that much. It's probably me, I have a short attention span,,,it's why I became a truck driver in the 1st place .

 

@x1Heavy you have really outdone yourself buddy lol

 

The most hours i ever worked was 22 hours but it wasnt as a truck driver. I ended up working close to 300 hours on 1 paycheck (2weeks).. i was 18 years old at the time so it didnt even phase me

 

Back in paper log days, when I went to work for a company I did two things right off the bat.

1. Remove passenger seat and install a 55 gallon drum of 5 hour energy or Red Bull with a sterile IV hookup and several hundred feet of tube.

2. Install a 500 gallon tote of diesel fuel powered by a bicycle generator that replaced the driver seat.

The extra tube allowed me to go into truck stops, customer,etc and the bicycle generator pump kept me in phenomenal shape. I would run for 6 weeks straight coast to coast without sleep.

When I came home I would have a complete blood transfusion and have my body frozen for a week. Once I thawed, I hooked up the IV and off I went again.

Now on Elogs, I work 2 to 3 hours a day because they're more efficient.

 

Before the pussification of the stateside oil and gas industry my entire crew would charge 154 hours in a week, sleeping maybe 15-20 in the time.