Millis OTR journal

I decided to stop a bit early yesterday afternoom to avoid that same mess. Saw it on Google Maps. Got up early in the morning and breezed thru westbound. Eastbound was fine too. I detest blowing time in that kind of traffic and wasting my clock so whenever I can I avoid it.

 

When Google shows red in your direction of travel on that road hop on US 40. You have a couple of little towns and red lights and crap bit it beats the hell out of wasting hours of your clock sitting in that cluster.

 

Does anybody know if Dairy Farmers of America in Mechanicsburg, PA will take a glass load early?

 

They had something similar in Japan when I was stationed there. The locals spent literally 1000s of dollars, went to months of schooling to get a license. It was a waste of time and money though. They still can't drive worth ####. I'm not joking!

 

Same in China. My wife had to do all kinds of stupid stuff, most of which is nearly irrelevant. Chinese drivers are terrible. Worse than here. Driving in the right lane? Better keep a firm eye on that shoulder. Any opening and someone's firing thru and cutting within inches of your bumper. Buses, trucks, cars...everyone does it.


Anyway, Midwest Warehouse has done it again. Seemed things were pretty decent for a while. Both gates opened to make entering and exiting less of a traffic jam and easy to get set up for a nice sight side back for your reload door. Easy to get to the check in office.

Then they changed the entrance to the Challenge Dr side. Now they've closed the far gate again and it is a bottleneck getting in and out. But they do have tiny little signs telling guys to not come in until they have a door assignment. Of course, I've gotten assigned a door the last two times, walk all the way back to discover the door is occupied by a dropped trailer. Ask the dock workers if I can just take the door next to it...nope, walk back and check in again...and get the door I suggested.

Can we park on challenge drive opposite the building to run in and check in. At best I think it's a risk since it says no parking any time...sigh. I guess they care about our health and getting us some more steps for the day in the Memphis humidity.

 

So I've had a weird day. Delivered the load of what I think will be Starbucks Frappuccino bottles in Mechanicsburg. While waiting to unload I was told that once empty, take my trailer to Mark Anthony in New Jersey and drop it. Place would have really been fun to find if it hadn't been for the QC notes, as the warehouse nor the street are in my GPS or even in Google. Once I was there I was told to go to the Lowe's DC in Bethlehem and pick up....a Dart trailer. I thought maybe we had spotters up here and once of them had tore it up (esp. since they wanted pictures of it) but nope...I go pick up freight with it tomorrow. Speaking of which, what do I need to know about Terminal Corp on Baltimore?

 

Yeah I'm really getting tired of many of the places we go to. That about sums that up.

Also getting tired of picking up trailers dropped by other drivers with obvious significant issues that I get stuck dealing with. Was not able to deliver a load today to get it on this paycheck because of the latest. I'm going to start posting the trailer numbers and locations on here every time it happens. Might sound like a $*/> thing to do but that is how much I'm sick of it. Especially today after I failed to hit a mileage bonus threshold because of it.

 

Terminal Corp, just go straight on back past the guard house. You will run into shipping and receiving. The road sort of dead ends at the office. Once back there the fun begins with a tight u turn to get back out to your assigned dock. They are quick though so that’s a plus.

 

Yeah, I had a few week stretch where it seemed every trailer I picked up had lights out, a tire bulge, etc. Got really used to loves and ta shops.

Couple weeks ago I was just about sick of drop and hooks. They were all taking longer than just live loading probably would have. Landing gear issues, figuring out where the hell to get paperwork (Kroger load at a fleetmaster terminal in Roanoke), etc. A double drop and hook at Shred It in Minneapolis took almost 4 hours because the previous driver who dropped it in the door dropped it just a tad too high that I couldn't get enough pressure off the gear to be able to crank it. Fun times.

 

Well that didn't take long. My very next trailer, loaded and sitting at Trenton had an audible airleak from one of the center hub areas on the wheel. Could hear it with all the noise in the yard. Thankfully the shop was open. Had to change something in the wheel hub assembly.

Trailer 19029 out of Virginia going to Bolingbrook, IL