From School to Superior Carriers

8/8-8/9

I made it out of Brooklyn unscathed. I did get to drive about 8 miles down Atlantic Ave hitting just about every stoplight and avoiding a crane taking up 2 lanes. The plant itself was great. Next time I get this load I will run it up there at night and sleep there.

I got unloaded right at 5:00 PM and was going to sleep there to avoid rush hour. Qualcom went off with my next load that required me to get the tank cleaned in time to load by noon 8/10. Out into rush hour I went. Fortunately I only had to go about 30 miles down to Keasbey NJ.

I load Castor Oil in Bayonne NJ headed to Greensboro so I should be home Wednesday.

Below is Atlantic ave right after 3 cabs caused me to wait another light cycle.

 

Uneventful load from Bayonne to Greensboro except that they kept me waiting so long loading it made me 2 hour late delivering. No biggie. Just called dispatch who called the customer and i was good to go. They even took me right in as soon as I got there.

Made it home this afternoon. Looks like I will be here for a couple of days. They have me doing a local caustic load that is going to suck. Hourly pay for having to suit up in this heat. At least it is only 14,000 lbs and with a 3 inch hose that shouldn't take any time to get unloaded. This has been the week of running all the loads no one else wants. Oh well. Have to take the good with the bad.

 

8/12-8/13

Just as I thought I worked around 18 hours local Thursday and Friday. They had me load Caustic Thursday morning and run it about 60 miles to a Waste Water treatment plant. This one was real small. Pulling into the driveway up to within 6 inches of the gate left my back bumper only about a foot outside the white line of the lane I had to cross to get in there. That was a bit unnerving. Fortunately they opened the gate real quick.

They had me load into a small tank that looked like an old fuel oil tank you see next to houses in this area. Fortunately it went real fast because it was hot in that suit. Only took about 30 minutes to unload after I got everything hooked up.

I even learned a trick for dealing with caustic from the guy who worked there. After we finished he poured vinegar on my fittings and straps to neutralize the caustic. He also had me wash my gloves and hands with vinegar I case I had gotten a drop or 2 on me.

I headed back to the terminal arriving around 12:45 thinking I was done for the day. They had a glue load they wanted me to deliver Friday that loaded at 5:00PM. TM told me to go take a nap on the clock. I went to lunch and realized I wouldn't be able to meet the 7 AM delivery appointment without split breaking. The only problem with that is you must log sleeper berth to do that. I asked my TM if the delivery appointment could be moved back a couple of hours so I could take a full 10 and not sleep in the truck at my home terminal. This was a last minute order because the plant had run out of glue and wanted it ASAP. He had another driver bringing heal back to the plant I was loading at, so he arranged for him to load that trailer and bring it to the yard so I headed to the house.

Friday the 13th
Headed out the next morning around 5:00 AM Friday 8/13 hoping for the best. Got to the plant around 6:30 and was immediately directed to the pipe I was to pump my load into. This was a really screwed up set up. They had a 3 inch line running into the bottom of the storage tank. The tank was about 20 feet high and open at the top. Most of these tanks are piped so that the product is loaded from the top. That way when the tanker blows dry it doesn't blow air into the bottom of the tank like some kid blowing bubbles with a straw in his chocolate milk.

The guy who met me to do paperwork was an older guy who said he had worked at that plant for 26 years. Several times during our conversation he complained about his new supervisor who had been changing things. This guy was in charge of ordering the glue and had let the tank run dry. It became obvious to me that the tank wasn't going to hold all of the product. The supervisor showed up and was climbing a ladder with a flashlight to see how high the level was in the tank. They had no sight glass or rope and weight system to know how much product was in there.

Once it got almost full they had me shut off the flow. Supervisor would yell to 26 year old worker who would yell at me. Worked fine the first time. They then began to pump product into totes to make room for what I had left in my tanker. They dropped the level some but not enough.

I opened the valves again and 5 minutes into unloading my lines started jumping telling me I was empty. I immediately shut it down and walked around to the back of my trailer just in time to see the supervisor come out into the yard covered head to toe with white glue.

He had been standing on that ladder leaning into the storage tank shining his flash light when it blew dry. He is lucky it was a water soluble product and that he didn't fall off that ladder. That tank is probably designed to only be filled 3/4 of the way up.

They wound up with quite a mess to clean up. I got out of Dodge and got home around 2:00 PM. I have a load waiting for me on our yard that delivers in Cincinnati Monday morning. Probably head out Sun afternoon. Hopefully they will give me a long run out of Cincy. The last couple of weeks have been great for home time but a bit light in the paycheck department.

Today's check for last weeks work was the smallest I have had all year but I was off Tuesday-Saturday that week. Still grossed $600.

 

Its a daily deal especially in the rain. 4 Wheelers run so close to each other they can barely see because of the spray so they slow down. Try to pass one and they speed up or cut in front of you and then slow down. That's fine until you hit a grade loaded.

The worse thing about NYC from my limited perspective is the way they park right up to the corners. Its often impossible to make a right turn.

 

Sun 8/15-Friday 8/20

Better week than what I have been getting lately. I started with a snot load to Cincinnati with a delivery window of 8:00-14:00. Fortunately I ran 400 miles on Sunday. I got to the plant around 10:00. They had a pump right there so it was one 3" hose. Got unloaded in about an hour and was expecting to be sent up to PSC Tank wash since our terminal doesn't clean this product. Sure enough that's where they sent me.

I hauled butt up there, dropped my trailer, wrote it up and had them clean out my fittings. When I got back in the truck there were a couple of messages telling me to take my dirty trailer to Memphis. I called the terminal and they had me grab a clean one since I had already dropped mine. I was glad I left as early as I did Sunday and was able to make it all the way to Memphis.

Getting there Monday night allowed me to collect about 5 hours of layover pay after waiting for the spotted trailer to be ready Tuesday afternoon. It was another load back to Greensboro delivering Thursday morning. I ran easy and got home Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday I delivered the load and did some local trailer shagging and spotting collecting about 7 hours of local work. I also picked up my load for today.

This was a hot load of plasticizer...around 200 degrees Centegrade. It loaded in Greensboro in a dedicated trailer going to Charleston. At 275 miles one way it is a perfect out and back one day load and a great way to finish the week. That was until it took 5 hours to unload me. I figured I would stop about an hour out near Charlotte until I started hearing about a 5 mile back up on I 26. I went ahead and shut it down rather than burn up my 14 sitting in a traffic jam. I plan to grab 8 and head out about 3:00 AM like I did this morning.

Check out the suit this guy had to wear to unload me. He looked like an astronaut.

 

8/21-8/22

Been a great weekend. I got home around 8:00 AM. Made it to the Panther Game last night, church this morning, grilling this evening then heading out Monday. They are loading another snot load for me. This time its heading to a Waste Water Treatment plant in Houston Tx delivering Wednesday. Should be a good week even if they shoot me right back home.

The Panthers suck but not as much as the Jets are overrated.

 

8/22-8/27

Busy week. Got my load Monday around noon without a hitch. It was waiting for me to just hook to and leave. I got around Atlanta and shut down around 8:30 PM to establish a dawn to dusk running pattern for the week.

I was making great time Tuesday when I stopped to have lunch in Breaux Bridge La. Got to get that authentic Cajun food when you can. Did a walk around tire check after lunch and to my surprise my Right Front Inside trailer tire was flat. It looked fine. I never would have known had I not slapped it with my hand. I was only about 5 miles from the TA so I limped it down there to save a road call. Had I realized there was a scale in that 5 miles I probably wouldn't have done that. Fortunately I got prepassed through. I probably would have been OK anyway since the tire wasn't obviously flat.

4 hours later I had a new recap on my trailer and I just shut down there for the night. I had already driven 550 miles for the day.

Wednesday I headed on into Houston to unload. That went very well and I made it to the Pasadena terminal by 3 PM. They had me loading Thursday morning so I decided to attend a quarterly safety meeting that started at 3 PM. I haven't made one in about 9 months because I have always been under a load when they are scheduled. This one had a distinctly different flavor from the ones I have been to in the past. They stared out showing video of wrecks. It was like the films we used to see in Drivers Ed in High School. Made you think though. Another notable announcement is that we will have new upgraded Qualcoms by the end of 2011 complete with GPS directions.....Oh by the way we will also be going to paperless logs.

Thursday I loaded at a plant I had never been to in Dickenson TX with a load going to Osceola Ar delivering Friday. I chose to drive the longer route that is all interstate rather than run US 59 out of Houston and deal with a bunch of small towns and traffic lights. Managed to hit a lot of traffic in Baton Rouge that probably made it longer time wise. Fortunately I breezed right through Memphis this morning and made my delivery on time.

I expected to get one of the "QUAT" loads out of Ciba/BASF headed to Greensboro but they had another idea. I literally drop/hooked my empty for a clean trailer at the Memphis terminal and high tailed it 70 miles out to Brownsville TN to live load a trailer headed to Denver Pa delivering Monday.

I really didn't have time to evaluate this load until I was under the rack loading it. I then realized that I would not have enough time left on my 70 to get it there on time. If I just ran with it I would wind up 2 hours short with no hours to drive on Monday. It wound up quicker to go ahead and reset 34 here in Tn. That will make it late but Monday afternoon is better than Tuesday morning. I called Memphis dispatch and they said to get it there as soon as I could.

I had another scare when the Bills had a completely different product on them than my travel order. I thought I was loading Acetic Acid which is hazmat with placards. The load was actually some type of plasticizer without placards. I made another call to dispatch and they changed it in the computer. The loading plant goes off of order numbers and those matched up.

I was really glad it wasn't a hazmat load since that allows me to reset in a hotel. I grabbed a $36 room at the Knights Inn exit 108 off I 40. Its a dump but the mattress is new though hard, and I have a fridge and microwave.

Going to head out early Sunday morning and run the 900 miles as quick as I can.

Pictures are of the sidewall blowout on my tire. The cut was right on the seam where the recap is sealed. I am thinking defective recap. The second is a picture of a wreck on I 10 I was stuck in. We had to change lanes to allow a wrecker pulling that truck to get by.