Missing a Gear: Pulling the Hills of Western PA

@mickeyrat - Is this what you saw at the Wash Courthouse DC? Portable AC unit with the vent out the passenger window. More expensive than a window unit, but then, less chance of dropping an air conditioner out your door. I also like the styrofoam frame- easy to cut to the right size and shape for the window.

 

Well, had a decent load to get me back to Wintersville by tonight and then likely home, as there probably wouldn't be anything I could turn with the few hours I would have left. But those leftover hours are now coming in handy on the front end. I got stopped at the guard shack leaving because one of my reefer zones was too warm- by 3 degrees. I took it back to the shop, waited for a while, then the shop looked at it, then we all waited some more. We checked the temps and waited a few more times, and then the shop made the call that the temp just wasn't going to drop that last 3 degrees and would have to be reloaded - "You've got a bum trailer- it just won't cool enough." All for those 3 degrees! I said this to one of the mechanics, and he told me, "They're pretty strict on temps. We used to be able to sneak through if they were close, but then we had to buy a couple loads of ice cream, so that was the end of that."

I get it. A pain, but it happens. And fortunately, the load was going to leave me with extra hours anyway. So I'll still make it home tonight. Just not before the kids are in bed.

So I sit. Hardly ever do I have down time when I'm out. May actually read a book...

 

Ha! Yes, I'm still with Schneider, and still pulling Walmart trailers all over Western PA, Ohio and WVA...

Haven't posted much (have I ever posted much?) just because I've been staying busy. For a while, I generally had once or twice each week where I was down for a few hours either waiting at a shipper or waiting at the distribution center for a load - and it made for a good time to update what was happening. But lately - the past month or two - not so much. Good, because I've been keeping the wheels turning and staying busy - 14 on, 10 off, rinse, repeat 6 times, go home, then start all over again - but of course I haven't had much time to update...!

So here's where I'm at: I passed the six month mark the beginning of August, which meant a couple of things:

1) .04 cent/mile raise - though that hasn't kicked in yet because it starts on the 1st of the month, and my six months was actually August 3. After a couple weeks, I finally asked about it and found that out, so I'm expecting it to start, hey - today! It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up to a few extra dollars on every load, which will come out to an extra couple thousand for my second six months. Every little bit helps.

And 2) The six months with no preventable accidents means I can take a passenger with me. So, my oldest kid (11-years-old) spent a week with me before school started, which was fun. It took her exactly one day to figure out that she didn't have to get up with me in the morning - she could just move from the top bunk to the bottom and continue sleeping until noon...! Once she was up in the afternoon, we put Taylor Swift on the stereo and played carpool karaoke. (Please don't judge me.) And she got me to buy a lunchbox cooker and cooked hot dinners for us. So it was a good week. Even though I spend a lot of nights on the road, I do come back to the distribution center in Wintersville at least once a day, so my wife will probably come out for a day, or even just part of a day, sometime. That kind of thing helps with the fact that I'm on the road and away every week.

3) And there are other perks with the six months: I am now the proud owner of a couple of Schneider logo-ed shirts, a pair of fluorescent yellow and orange gloves, and a fluorescent yellow ball cap with led lights built in to the brim. It's all about safety, folks. I threw that stuff into a cabinet on the truck, and one of these days I may wear it all at the same time just to see how ridiculous it all looks together. I think a good recruiting commercial could have the tagline: "Schneider: Stay for the free stuff."

But seriously, going pretty well. No job is perfect, and this one isn't either, so you just have to find what works for you. And for me and my family, this company - and this account - is working out about like I expected for us. I know a lot of guys who are unhappy, or who have left, sometimes for reasons that I understand, and sometimes because drivers have unrealistic expectations, or let trivial things frustrate them. Maybe I'll write a bit about that later.

And now I'm gonna go bug dispatch again about when my next load is going to be ready.

 

Slow start this morning. I've been ready, but loads are coming out slow today, so doing some waiting. Happy Labor Day! A couple of IC's were lounging around in lawn chairs between their trucks, one with a shiny KW. Maybe he was taking advantage of the sun reflecting off his fresh polish job?

 

Running a system load today. We get sent on these every so often- I suspect we wind up with some of these one-day (or less) loads if they're in our area because they're not worth giving to OTR guys. They're not really worth it for us, either, but they're not a bad change of pace if you don't get them too often.

Anyway, picking up near downtown Pittsburgh (Strip District if you know Pittsburgh), so I shut down behind a Walmart about 5 miles away. Appointment time was 8:00am. Last time I did this, it took me less than 15 minutes to get to the warehouse. So this time, with my 10-hour break ending at 7:30am, I figured I'd be fine.

Boy was I wrong. It took nearly 45 minutes to go the 4.7 miles, and I showed up 15 minutes late. Nobody seemed to care, they started loading me right away, and it won't make any difference. But it's irritating to me, and I may hear about it from my DBL (and if I do, I'll just tell him I should have planned better & will try to do so in the future).

But I'm wondering: Was traffic unusually light the last time, or unusually heavy this time?