schneider...a year in review

Im finally at home now for my TAH. Had a pretty decent week, but the mileage really didn't make it to where I wanted it, but that IS because I am taking time off. Had a few thousand mile loads this week and got one to bring me home that was a little over 700 miles. Was going to be able to drop it and then get paid for it, but the company won't accept it more than 24 hours early and it is due on Tuesday. So, I was told to just stay hooked to it in the yard and deliver it when I come back out on Tuesday morning.

Now, speaking of Tuesday, I have to be at the OC in Atlanta at 7am to go through the training for the new system (Workflow). Not sure if Im going to like the new system or not...I JUST got comfortable with the OLD system and now I have to change.

Sheesh!

 

Hey guys...been a pretty hectic week or so for me. No time to do anything but sleep and I didn't get much of that done the past few days.

I came out of the house with a load from the Atlanta OC to Savannah, Ga and then back up to Atlanta to drop it. Left there and headed to Alabama where I had a two stop load. Wouldn't have been a problem, but the deliveries were at 10:00pm and 0200.

The load that I dropped the night before, i did so with three minutes left on my 14 so I was forced to park on the street that night to take my 10. My plan was to sleep late and head to the pickup so as to time my drops so that I could get them done and take another 10 at 0200. It didn't quite work out like that, though. At 0530 there was banging on my door and the nice policeman was making me move my truck which started my 14 hour clock. I called th Sams in Hoover and asked if they would let me deliver early there so as to make it to my final drop. No can do.

So, I have to make my delivery in Hoover, take a 10 and deliver at 0600 four hours away. It sucked that they kept waking me up in Hoover so I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Limped into my final drop at 0600 tired and worn out and still had another 7 hours to drive as I had just got my next load. Needless to say I was TIRED when I finished that day.

Ended up delivering that load in Charlotte and here I sit waiting on my truck to get out of the shop. Put my eta for 0700 tomorrow. Probably won't get a load, though. The qualm system is backed up and that has thrown all sorts of wrenches into this whole weekend.

At least I get to sleep. Ordered Chinese food and am gonna hit the bed soon!

 

This week started off not so good. Got a load from the Charlotte, NC OC that was headed to a "Granite Collector" in Milan, NH. My first red flag on this load was when I went to find it on the NaviGo GPS that we have in our trucks. This GPS should find ALL of our customers and route us to them on truck specific routes. Not THIS customer. LOL. The GPS couldn't find the address that was entered so it started yelling at me that it couldn't resolve it. This was a problem. I could get to NH, and I could get close to the customer, but without truck specific directions, i would have to call them and get directions from them. This was just the beginning of the problems with this load.

The night before I was supposed to leave to go up there is when they sent me the load. My truck was in the shop getting some much needed repairs on it and I didn't get the messages until after 10:00pm when I got my truck back. This load needed to be ON TIME in Milan, NH in 36 hours. 1200 miles and I need TWO 10 hour breaks required by law. If you are any good at math...hell, even if you aren't, you can see there is going to be a problem with this load.

At this point, I call weekend/night support and explain my situation. The nice guy in Green Bay tells me to just head that way safely and legally (they love to tell us to go safely and legally...kinda covers their butts in case we screw up...LOL) and they would get someone with more hours or a team to relay it to. So, I did as they asked me to. I made it from Charlotte to Hagerstown, Maryland and they advised me to meet "Russell" at the Pilot in Hagerstown to relay the load. He was coming with a box truck and a pallet jack to get the load out of my trailer. Fine with me, it was just one pallet anyway.

Russell gets there, unloads my trailer into his truck and off he goes to NH. I back into a spot there at the Pilot and settle in for a long Winters nap. Only the nap didn't last long before my QualCom starting beeping telling me where to go next. Head up to Baltimore and pick up a load and bring it to Hagerstown, Md. Wait, I'm IN Hagerstown, Md.

I accept the load, go get it when I awake, and bring it back to deliver it. The load was a drop and hook load and was ready for me when i got there. When I got back to Hagerstown with it at Volvo/Mack Trucks, I opened the doors and they kind pot "popped" open. Kinda strange, I thought. I backed into the dock and they unloaded me. This is where it gets worse.

Once empty, I went to close the doors and they won't close. At all. The left one won't latch properly and the right one had a three inch gap from top to bottom at the seal and couldn't be loaded again. I find this out just as I get my next load from - GASP - Baltimore, Md headed to Baton Rouge, La. Well, I can't get THIS trailer loaded like it is, so I call our maintenance service like I am supposed to. They make me wait until they can get me to somewhere that can fix this POS. As I am getting it fixed, my 14 hour clock is gone now.

The next morning, I wake up, head to Baltimore and pick up this load and it is another drop and hook load. I got to drop the POS trailer and pick up ANOTHER POS trailer that was loaded with 44,430 pounds of Motor Oil. Apparently, they need oil in the worst way in Baton Rouge!

After picking it up, I had my first really good day in a while while driving. The sun was shining, pretty blue skies, the hills of Virginia were amazing...and then I made it to West Virginia. I had to take a few US highways to make it to the I-81 interstate and the scenery in WV was simply breathtaking! Curvy roads, mountains, and a stream that I got to ride along for 20-30 miles and it just made my day. I love awesome landscapes! So, yeah, this was a GREAT day! One of those days that make me glad that Im doing this job and not working in some stuffy office with a tie on. I dont have those days often, but when I do, I remember them for a WHILE!

On a side note, I have wanted to put my blog onto my own domain for quite some time now. Well, it happened today! If you notice at the top of the page, it says http://www.truckingtiger.net that is my new address for this blog. The old address from blogger will still work if you use it, but you may as well just update any bookmarks that you have. Makes it simpler for you and makes me feel like getting this domain was worth it. LOL.

Be careful out there guys!

More later!