Starting at May Trucking...

Just back from the last trip.

Lesse - questions answered first>

BigRay - a little of both. I drive until I run out of hours, then my trainer drives if he feels like it. Some days he does, others he doesn't.

Panhandlepat - They used to allow it, but now it's against policy. That being said, a number of drivers take the tractors home on weekends to work on them (change out CB, wash the outside/detail the inside - that sort of thing). They do it with the understanding, though, that if caught, they'll hear about it. Don't think it's a terminal offense, though.

On to this last trip.

Rolled from Denver to Ft Collins, CO - empty. Did a drop/hook and picked up a full load of... beer. Destinations: Erie PA, and a small town just outside Boston. Was a day early in Erie (we dawdled, but still got there a day early). Tried to deliver, but the receiver shuts down their dock at 14:30 every day. Holed up in a smelly truck stop about 20 miles away. Smelled as though there were dead bodies in the brush .. gah!

Receiver in older part of Erie - full of one-way narrow streets - and low bridges. Mostly residential, too. One rude driver saw us coming and STILL pulled in to make his delivery (different place, not where we were going) blocking the street in both directions for a half an hour.

Joy of joys, was a left-side back. In and out of the dock in about 30 minutes. Almost made a horrendous mistake leaving the place - Coming back to the main drag, should take right turn. Left turn heads for railroad... bridge... low.. no way to fit. Trainer caught on when it was too late to go right, so went straight. No worries after that. On to Boston.

Discovered one reason I don't want to do 48. New York toll road. By the time we reached consignee, we'd paid almost $250 in tolls - 200 or so of that in NY. That's obscene.

Found consignee - very nice area - two lane road back in the trees, far from anything interesting - if you don't like trees.

We were day early (again!), but they took us anyway. Only complaint was that we were only half full.

Next load is out of New Jersey - just across from Philadelphia. I'm out of hours, so trainer makes the drive. (yay - I don't have to drive in NYC!)

The entire trip from Boston to Philadelphia was uneventful. Barely even slowed down in NYC (though the northbound lanes were stacked up for miles). Overnighted in truckstop - woot! a pull-through slot at 23:30!

Picked up load in the morning - 40K pounds of toothpaste. Felt a little funny, so we went to weigh. Hit a Pilot in Bordentown, NJ. Oh, my word, what a complete cluster. Possibly the most badly laid out truckstop in the industry. Eventually went across the street to a Petro - weighed out, slid tandems, and discovered a flat tire on the tractor.

They took it apart, but found no leaks. Assumption is that valve extenders leaked. Refilled and we were on the road again - Enroute Buffalo.

Arrived in area day before delivery. This place won't accept earlies, so we found an empty lot and settled in for the night. Got woke up at about 04:00 by a couple FedEx drivers baning their trailers together and swapping freight. Whole #### lot to work in, and they pull in next to us. Won't describe language we used.

Hit shipper *right* at the delivery time. Banged the dock and settled in for a wait. Lumpers. Oh well. Truth to tell, though, this place had their ducks lined up. Looked like a madhouse inside what with the pallet jacks and forklifts running every whichway, but they had the truck unloaded in an hour. Problem was.. while the unit count was dead on, the actual product was completely hosed. Took S&R about 3 hours to sort it out. Accepted load and after a few tries, the frazzled agent got all the paperwork signed and we were on our way.

On our way to Beaver Falls, PA. The last 15 miles were insane. 2-lane highway, up and down, curves, etc - typical east coast mountain road.
Problems arose when we hit town. Old-world streets (as in, 15 feet wide, I swear!) and trying to turn a 75 foot rig from one street onto another. Made it without killing any signs or posts. Next time, if there is one, I'm routing myself in. Much better way in than what we were directed to.

Drop/hook load destined for St Helens, WA.

Just east of Omaha, I-80 at a standstill. Still not sure why. We jumped on federal highways and rolled into Council Bluffs as a nasty storm hit. torrential downpour, hail, and 60MPH winds (according to NWS). Made life interesting for a half hour or so, but no problem. Others had problems, but not us.

Trainer thought I'd be worried about the drive down into Pendelton, OR.. yeah, it's a bit steep, but that's why we invented Jake Brakes.

Hit St Helens a day early (again!). Dropped trailer. No pending load, so spent night (along with other drivers) in pick-up yard.

Next load assigned. Beer again. Grab empty from lot and head to Portland to load. Arrive 30 minutes early for appointment - they toss us in a door. Start loading. It's slow, but while being loaded, other drivers with same appointment time arrive ON time, and have to wait. Muahahah!

Full load - about 40K pounds again. Headed to Medford OR. Another place that won't accept early loads. We're only a few hours early, though. Kill time at nearby truck stop. Mostly by eating lunch.

Arrive, back in, and get unloaded. Felt slow, but were only there for about 90 minutes. I think the heat contributed to the feeling of sluggishness.

Before we even pull out, got next load assigned. Run MT down to Oakland for it. Pleasant drive - even got some cook pics of Mt Shasta.

We're way early for midnight appt, so we hang out in a truck stop up near Sacramento for a while.

Headed down .. I ran out of hours about 30 minutes out from the shipper, so trainer got the hot seat. Lo and behold, essentially no traffic. Dispatcher directions good - to a point. Street signs screwed - looking for street, and found it. Turns out, was SAME name as street we were looking for (I checked), but not connected to it at all.

We were getting a bit peeved, when we stumbled on the right street. Headed down looking for "a brown building on the left". Problem is, they are ALL brown buildings on the left. Turns out, place is one of those ()*^$(#*&$^ business parks where all buildings are addressed on the street, but buildings stretch back a quarter mile or so.

Finally found the right building, and even found S&R (of course, on the other side of the building). Nobody answered the door. re-read dispatch. ARGH! appt is for 10:00, not midnight!

Fortunately, bay area is nice and cool. Wonderful night's sleep in the parking lot. 09:30, woke up and got started. Hit the door at about 09:50. Most of load was already staged, so they started filling the trailer immediately. ALL load was ready in time for a non-stop load. We were out of there by 11:30 or so.

42K pounds of cookies, destined for PA. Load felt good, but rule of thumb is: over 30K, weigh. Found a Cat scale we'd passed the night before. Oh, lord, what a horrible place for a scale. Basically, under the freeway - tight turn in right onto the scale (no staging area out of traffic), and only one way out (well, two, if you want to take your truck down a 'no trucks' street). Good for freeway access, though. Scaled ok and were back on the freeway in record time. Northbound (well, East, but the compass said north) on I-80 toward Sacramento and PA.

Again, no traffic. All the way to Sacramento at speed limit (or as close as we could get).

Up towards Donner.. love those steep inclines. 25mph at times. Add in miles of construction and single lane highway, made for a long day. Smoke from countless grass fires prevented us from seeing any.. scenery.

Spent a bunch of time on the downside trapped behind a carrier out of Manitoba. Don't think driver was happy in mountains. I swear, he never exceeded 30mph. Curves REALLY bothered him.

Dinner in Reno. Decided I wanted a sit-down meal. Hit one of the casino restaurants for prime rib. $11. Woot! we were rolled back to the truck.
Spent night in Wells, NV

Finally found a more boring drive than Kansas: Utah's salt flats. <yawn> Interesting for 37 seconds, then the tape loops.

Dealt with the detour around SLC and headed up into the pass. MORE construction. Miles and miles of cones, for a construction site that's 1000 feet wide. Add in a fender-bender ahead of us, and it was a long climb to WY. Took about 4 hours to go 100 miles.

Some driver bent the hell out of his rig/trailer just west of Sinclair, WY. Emergency crews still on scene as we passed - but they had the truck attached to a wrecker by then. My first thought was 'hot brakes', but the hills leading to that point really don't justify that. For now, I'm guessing either sleepy driver, or he got cut off by a 4-wheeler.

Rest of drive to Denver uneventful. I'm here for the weekend, test for solo Monday. Trainer is on his own - gotta get them frozen cookies to PA by monday night, midnight.

 

Nice to have you back safe and sound.

Karma is alive and well in trucking....... he'll get his....

Note to OTHER newbies......... look! Someone willing to admit a trainer might be a good thing to have around!
Glad he was watching...... you really could have been caught in a lurch........

Note to self..........(or you Lurch)...... how do O/O or Independents absorb such high costs??

See........ told you..... karma is alive and well in trucking........ and you never know, maybe that road hog in Erie finally pissed in the wrong bowl of cheerios the next day and got his 5th wheel release pulled by some driver not as understanding as you......but we know those things never actually happen....... hahaha

The signs and posts thank you......
Read alot about the routing........ but I think that is one that really has to be learned from experience.........

Isn't it supposed to be summer......... I think I am going to have to stay in the West..... storms in July..........

Kept you awake I bet!

Now........ that sounds more like a typical post around here!!!

What do the ads say? "See America the Beautiful! Get paid while you travel and tour the country!" ..........

Good Luck!


Thanks for keeping us posted............. sounds like it might just be what you were hoping it would be?

 

I'll probably keep posting to this thread.. but for any of you who care.. I've put in a blog at http://surly-hermit.blogspot.com/

 

Dunno for sure - I'd assume they absorb it - include it in the cost of shipping the freight, just as they do fuel costs

they'd better!

Absolutely

a little - but no more so than any other stretch of road. I spent a fair bit of time looking out to the west, admiring the view.

thanks.. I'll probably need it.

so far, yeah. Been having a blast. No serious bad surprises.

 

Driverfor5 -
glad the issue wasn't serious.. and that you'll be back. No telling, if I pass my solo and don't screw up the skills whozit in Peyete this week, I may be seeing you now and again..I'll be running Western 11.


Supercargo out of Denver tomorrow...

 

lurch i have a load going to hermiston, from joplin i del on sun.

 

Come back in about 6mo's and let me know if you are still driving that 60mph truck around pulling high cube 12 year old trailers.

 

During my first 4 weeks, my mileage wasn't that great. I avg around 1900 miles a week. I am going to move to Phoenix soon and May said that when I go back to work I will be driving on the 'Phoenix Loop.' That is freight into and out of Phoenix. Basically, the same miles, but more time at home.

Hope your not one to care about driving legal because that Phoenix loop will probably guarantee you won't be.

1900 miles a week average in your first 4 weeks? Man did you get the shaft they usually don't cut you back to that till you are there a few months. 60mph trucks to Phoenix? better keep that truck on the fog line and the cb off.

 

How many miles are company drivers getting in the Western 11 per week or month with May.