Beginning the Long Awaited CDL Process

Not my butt I hope.


It's bad luck to hit old people.

 

We almost met for a third time last week in Rome, GA.

 

Hello There.

It's been quite a week.


First, I want to thank Sammycat and Truckerdave1970 For taking the time to visit me while I was taking my 10 hour break out side Rochester, NY.

Sammycat, I was honored to meet you, finally. Getting to meet Dave was a bonus, and I did enjoy swapping driving stories with him. I promise the next time we meet, I'll eat instead of just drinking coffee......lol. I'm glad I finally had a chance to meet you and Dave. You are both great people to be with.



And as requested:

Mastertech: Sammycat is a living, breathing person.


On Tuesday morning, I completed my 2 stop run at a Furniture Row retail store in Syracuse. I'm not a big fan of delivering to retail stores, but these Furniture Row chains aren't too bad. I was unloaded in an hour, and got a pre plan with 3 pick ups in 3 different cities. This was a first for me. I had to work more heavily with the Macros that I didn't use that often.

1st stop was in Buffalo, NY. I only picked up 3 pallets. I bumped the dock, chocked my tires, and walked back to the tractor to log off duty. I no sooner closed the door when the dock worker banged on the box telling me I was loaded............making my day. My clock was starting to run down, so I appreciated getting loaded so fast.


2nd stop was in Fedonia, NY. This was a longer stop. Easy to find but my assigned dock was right in front of a fenced off gas pipes. So I had to keep watching for that fence as I jacked this box up to the dock. This load was larger, 26,000 lbs of peanut butter. My timing was right, because they started loading me immediately. They finished up in about 30 minutes, which gave me a chance to grab some great tasting vending machine food from the drivers lounge.

With my hours running low, I stopped in Erie PA for the night. I fueled up there the next morning, and then headed for my final pick up appointment Pittsburgh, PA. I arrived in the city early, and glad I did. Never having been in downtown Pittsburgh, I was attempting to exit 279 to PA 380 east, was in the wrong lane and ended up in the corporate downtown area. Things happen mighty fast during rush hour.


I had to slowly work my way over to 376 and come in from the south, no choice. I wasn't going to try any time saving maneuvers in the downtown area. In 15 minutes I was able to make my 2nd attempt getting to the customer and found it with no further problems. This was a city street dock and the company has a guy who comes out to stop traffic so you can dock. That made life easy. Once I docked they loaded me up pretty fast, and I was headed to Family Dollar DC, in Mathews, NC.

I love going to the DC's because they can get you in and out in a hurry. They are great at handling truckload after truckload of goods, mostly drop and hook,..... for me, anyway.

I was out of the Family Dollar DC with an mty within an hour, and found a small parking area about 2 blocks down where I waited for dispatch's next assignment. It was now Thursday morning and should have been home for my home time by now. I have friends visiting from CT.

In less than 30 minutes, I get dispatched to pick up in Kings Mountain, NC, and deliver in Madison, AL. Not exactly what I was hoping for, but the routing would have me stop at our Tunnel Hill, GA terminal, where I could drop this trailer, and, with time permitting, grab a different load and transfer it to our Ellenwood terminal. An outside chance I'd still be home on Thursday.

Well, not all "live loads" are created equal, and being loaded during a shift change is the pits. And to top it off, it was "driver count" which also slows things up a bit. 2 1/2 hours later I was loaded. I would make our Tunnel Hill terminal with ease, but that would be all. I'd have to spend the night there, and head to Ellenwood the next morning.

Sometimes it just doesn't work out perfectly, and I understand that. They found a load that was headed for Marianna, FL and I ran it to Ellenwood in the morning. I made it home a day later than planned, but we were able to adjust accordingly.

It is what it is. Transportation, for now, is not an exact science. I try not to make plans too close to my home time start date. This way I won't be disappointed if I happen to run behind schedule.



It's great to be home. I've been out for 4 weeks, and have a lot things to get done this time around (like the taxes for one thing) once my friends leave for home.





That's it for now.


Thanks for reading.

-Wedge