Superior Carriers 2011

1/31-2/5

After a relaxing weekendI headed down to the terminal. They told me on Friday that I would be working local delivering a load up to Mt Airy NC in the morning and then grabbing a system polymer load heading to Mobile Al.

Looking at the weather report that looked good to me. I thought I would be able to stay south of that massive snow storm.

The Mt Airy load went well. Other than not having directions into the plant and coming up on some truck restricted roads it went off without a hitch.

As I was getting my fittings cleaned at Shamrock Tankwash in Greensboro I cot a call from dispatch. My Mobile load was pushed back to Thursday and I was now on a dedicated out and back to Iowa City Ia. I was heading right into the teeth of the storm with an empty tanker.

After a couple of hours hanging around the terminal waiting for my empty to get washed out I headed down the road. Normally with this load timeline I would have left early Tuesday morning. I have run this before with 2 10 hour breaks. You have to average over 625 miles a day to do it though. I knew that wasn't going to happen in the storm so I got an early start heading out Monday.

I shut down in Beckley WV so I could monitor the storm first thing in the morning. It appeared to me that the freezing rain line for Tuesday was above the KY state line to the North for Tuesday. I chose to run 50 miles out of route on I-64 to Louisville then up I-65 to Indy rather than take I-70 across Indiana.

That proved to be a good move. It was in the high 30's all day. I didn't hit any ice until just south of on I 65. It got pretty bad real quick. I saw a truck that passed me jack knifed off the shoulder right before I came up on the Loves at exit 95. I decided to call it a day. As I was heading up the exit ramp I heard on the CB that 2 more 4 wheelers had wrecked just ahead. I made a good decision to stop.

We got about an inch of ice and freezing rain where I sat. Tuesday I found out that I 74 was shut down in 2 places so I just stayed put. There was no sense in moving only to be sitting somewhere else and risk not being able to find parking due to a road closure and i was only about 350 miles away from the plant.

I wound up sitting there for 40 hours. The plant closed down and I-74 didn't open back up until that night. I turned in 15.25 hours of layover/weather/boredom pay.

Finally got rolling again Wednesday at day break. Other than some partially covered roads and a little black ice the rest of the trip went well. I got back early Saturday morning. This weeks check should be OK but not great. The weather delay added to 9 hours local work Monday brings it up to average.

This week will be a short one. I have Jury duty Thursday. That pays a whopping $20 a day. One good thing. TM told me he will pay me for 8 hours a day minus what the court pays me for it. I had turned in some vacation days that now I will not need to take.

 

2/7-2/10

This week started out with a delivery of last weeks load over to Brown Summit at 8 AM. After that I bobtailed back to the terminal and had the tank wash rinse out my tractor pump since I would need it for my next load and haven't used it for months. That added about an hour to my check which was good because my load wasn't ready at Sherwin Williams anyway.

This load was going to Dover Oh and was a pump unload at 7:30 AM Tuesday morning. It was a placarded load that contained RQ of Butyl Acetate. The load was in a 3 compartment trailer with only about 1000 gallons/7400 lbs loaded in the center compartment.

I headed out with it and ran up to Ripley WV and stopped at the Loves about 140 miles away. That gave me plenty of time to get up there and back to High Point if that is what they do with me. My next dispatch terminal was Karns City but with me having Jury duty Thursday I full expected to be sent back home.

I arrived at the plant right on time at 7:30 AM. The plant personnel seemed surprised to see me and couldn't seem to find a record of my load. I gave them the paperwork and they saw Butyl Acetate on the bills and directed me to a inlet pipe labeled Butyl Acetate.

It seemed pretty cut and dried to me so I hooked up all of my hoses to the pump, vented the dome lid and went inside to get them to sign off on my paperwork. I found the guy who pointed to the pipe and he signed off on it.

We have them sign in 2 places once before and once after the unload. The first line indicates that the correct product is going into the correct tank and that the tank will hold it. The second line indicates that all the product has been delivered.

I am real glad I got that signature before unloading even though the plant manager had pointed to the fill pipe and it was labled with what was on my bills.

This was a light load and only took about 25 minutes to pump off. As I was breaking down and packing up my hoses the plant manager came up to me wanting my paperwork. This was an hour after I got there and he had found out from the late arriving office people what the product was.

It wasn't raw Butyl Acetate but a clear coat product that contained BA as the RQ hazardous material. I had a contamination on my hands.

Fortunately I had followed procedures to the letter and and my butt was covered. I finished up my paperwork, headed to the nearby truck stop and called dispatch to report what had happened.

He told me to stay put while he investigated the situation. I had breakfast and sat there for about 2 hours before being absolved of any blame for the problem. Fortunately the plant manager was honest and took responsibility for what happened rather than blame it on the truck driver. Always do you paperwork and get the right signatures.

I was still able to get back to the High Point yard Tuesday evening and was immediately dispatched on a dedicated out empty back loaded run to Fairburn Ga and Brown Summit for P&G. This loaded at a Trimac transloading facility 340 miles from our terminal. I took the load knowing that I wouldn't be able to legally make it back to High Point in one 11 hour driving day.

I had to call a number at the sheriffs department Wed after 5 to see if I had to report for Jury Duty Thursday. I figured I would still have time to drop the trailer at our terminal Thursday AM and report if I had to. It turned out that my number wasn't called so I just delivered my load up to Brown Summit Thursday AM and picked up some more hourly pay getting my pump washed out. I went home around noon.

For a Jury duty week where dispatch had to keep me close this one turned out about as good as can be expected. I had around 1500 miles in 4 days 4 load/unloads, around 4 hours delay/truckwash pay and I took a vacation day Friday. Decent week and we are 7 days closer to spring.

I am heading out Monday with a dedicated out and back gravy run from High Point -Hopewell VA- Houston Tx- High Point.

 

2/11-2/27

Been a while since I updated this thread. SPCR has been pretty busy from my perspective. Below are the loads I have run:

Mon-Fri
High Point NC - Hopewell Va (E)
Hopewell Va - Houston Tx (L)
Houston Tx - Hopewell Va (E)

logged 2850 miles

Off Sat Sun Mon

Tuesday-Sunday
Greensboro NC - Mobile Al (L)
Axis Al - Rothschild Wi (L)
Rothschild Wi - Westville Il (E)
Valprasio Il - Laurel Ms (L)

logged 3055 miles


The Laurel load delivers Tuesday 3/1 at 11:30 AM. I am sitting in a company paid hotel 58 miles away where I will collect 16 hours of layover pay from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning. I would rather be home but this isn't too bad.

 

Yep. Looks like they are heading me towards the house. Sitting in Axis Al at the moment. Loading at BASF in the morning headed to Charlotte. I started to call Axis dispatch asking to stay out since I got a reset in. I decided to let things play out by chance. We have some pretty good loads out of High Point.

I also started a new hobby the first of the year...beer brewing. Have a batch fermenting now and another batch that will be bottle conditioned 03/04/11. I wouldn't mind a couple of days at home to sample it.

 

Superior pays weekly