My Experience as a Line Haul Driver

well last night kinda sucked:

dispach in HQ had their panties in a wad because one of our russian drivers was at work 45min early...so they decided to give me his run....to atlanta! Only one more pissed then me was him, he's a senior driver and they took his money run and gave him my run to VA (Atlanta only pays $30more but to him...that alot.

Anyway so i go grab the trailer, flat tire and a missing light, take it to the shop, at this point its 7pm they wanted this run headed south at 630..oh well my shift dont start till 7...second i pull into the shop my phone is blowing up "hey man, you left yet? in the shop! what? WHY? how long ya gonna be there? drop that trailer grab this one! never mind just keep that one.."

7:10pm i was on the road headed south. Had to stop for the bathroom at the 160 so i tried the comcheck while i was there since they said they checked the # and it was good...ya right still dont work.


got to the Atlanta terminal with the Van i took down there put it in the dock at 11:45pm. and went inside to unload it. I've found that no matter where i go I ALWAYS get the messed up load, i had 40 pallets, some fallen over, 90% of the trailer was decked (we build racks to double stack in the trailers) but luckily the other to charlotte drivers had small easy loads and are cool guys, after they finished their load they came over and helped me MT my trailer.

Then we all got a walking papers (load paper work to come home) i got a set, only took 20 min to hook this set dispite the tight area i had to build it. I've now pulled a set the right way and i gotta say i dont see all that big of a differance but they pull better and straighter from what i noticed when the heavy trailer is in the back, but whatever i"ll keep putting the heavy one in front....


Anyway left ATL at 2:30am and made it back to charlotte at 7am and had both pups MT by 7:45am and went home took 4 of us to do it that fast.




American Trucker

 

no, his shift starts at 7pm, the Atlanta loads need to leave by 630pm, he's senior driver who calls dibs on the atlanta runs everyday since they are the highest paying runs. He wasnt their at 6:20pm and dispatch said the load was "hot" so it HAD to leave so they pulled it from him and gave it to me. He was pissed as was i, he can keep this stupid run




American Trucker

 

one of the newer guys that usually does the extra atlanta runs is on vaca yesterday and today so i had to go to atlanta again yesterday, thats 4 13-14 hour days in a row with no more then 4 hours sleep inbetween them. So last night i took a van down their, worked the dock from midnight to 2am, i went into the office at 2 to get my paper work or to start my mandatory 30min break, manager looks at me like im crazy when i asked for my paper work said he didnt have any, and to give him 15 min, so i go back to unloading my trailer (95 pallets on this trailer!) and 2 min later he's pageing me back to the office "andrew...andrew...charlotte 282 andrew come to the office quick!" i get there "uhhh ya i thought you we're the new guy from nashville, my bad sorry about that, go take your break and i'll have your paper work ready when you get back"


then when i get my paper work, i made it 40' and the truck dies....i topped off the coolant before i left charlotte....it was EMPTY when i got to atlanta, so i had to go to the shop and fill it yet again, made it out of their with a van thank god at 3am.

Made it back to charlotte at 715am, and worked the dock till 9am and went home. Now im sure their going to send me back to atlanta again tonight, i sure hope not, but since the only other new guy doesnt have double/hazmat he cant go down there so i'm the only other driver that can do it....FML


I also got the call this morning that my parts are in, so i'll be working on the boat tomorrow morning after work and hopefully on the lake with some friends on Sunday!




American Trucker