Calex Express....My New Home!

Thanks there stranger. Where you been hiding?

 

Saturday no, Sunday, yes.

 

Left the house at 5am and was empty in Ft. Lauderdale at 7am. My reload was sitting on my computer in the truck when I got to it this morning. I load in Jacksonville at midnight going to Florence SC for 8am. Lucky me, I get to drive all night tonight.

 

I got the email saying my check is there for direct deposit. The only problem it's for about half of what it should be.

 

I'm home. This has been a very whacked last few days since I left the house on Wednesday morning. I got up to Jacksonville at 1pm Wednesday to start my 10 hour break and load at 11pm. I have to say, I have absolutely no use for any brewery in this country. They don't let you park on their property, and after loading you have to leave. The broker could care less, all they are concerned about is the load. I will admit, I am wrong for doing this load by manipulating my log. I have no one to blame but myself, and trust me, I have always learned from my mistakes, and believe me, this will not happen again.

I got to one of two prostitute infested crack filled rat hole truck stop 6 miles from the brewery to take my break. I woke up about 10 pm and drove through city streets to get to my pick up. The reason for it was because I can drive under 5 miles without my log automatically switching over to driving, as long as I come to a complete stop, say at a red light, then I could get to the brewery without disrupting my sleeper berth. You could actually drive to California this way if you stop every 4.5 miles, it just might take you a year to drive across the country though.

I got to the brewery and was loaded by 11pm. I still had 45 minutes left on my sleeper time so I had to spend that time on the on ramp to 95 right by the brewery because you're not allowed to stay on their property after getting loaded. I left at 12:30 am and had 305 miles to delivery, which I had to be at at 7am. I got to my delivery right at 7am and then it took 3 hours to unload. Like I had to drive all night for this crap. Jason called to tell me he was sending me my load that was a drop and hook in Greenville, 185 miles from where I emptied in Florence. Then Louie called to tell me he was sending me my Florida load out of PA for Monday delivery. Good, now I have all my preplans to get home.

My only issue was I would only have less than 2 hours left on my clock for the day after I was to drop and hook in Greenville so I called Louie and told him I would be in the Yard about 5pm Friday. He said no problem and that he would leave my trip envelope in our drivers box.

I got empty and went over the 3 miles to the TA in Florence to fuel and get a shower. I got my second wind, had a bite to eat then headed out for the 3 hour drive to Greenville. This is no BS, as I was turning into the gate at our shipper in Greenville my phone rings, caller ID said it was Louie. I answered the phone and here's what transpired between me and Louie. He asked me how far I was from Florence, I told him exactly 183 miles. I asked him why then he told me he had a truck broke down at the Flying J at the 169 mm with a load going to Tampa from our shipper in PA.

He said it had to deliver at 8am in the morning and that I was the only truck in the area that could rescue this load. It was scheduled to also reload in Belle Glade Sunday morning with a load of lettuce going to our customer in Jersey. I told him that from where I was to go back to Florence, switch trailers then get to Tampa was 685 miles, which is not a problem, except I had 1.5 hours left on my clock for the day and that I wouldn't be ready to leave until 4am, so that would put me in Tampa around 4pm. He told me to hold on and he would call me back. I knew what he was doing, he was calling the receiver in Tampa, and our customer in Jersey to push everything back until Monday. About 20 minutes later he called me back to tell me the delivery was changed to Monday at 8am and that my reload will be sent to me Monday morning.

So that's the story of my last three days. I'm now home, got here last night at 7pm and will leave Sunday night to go deliver in Tampa. One last thing, I made it to the Flying J in Columbia with 2 minutes left on my clock Thursday night and got parked. I was planning on getting up at 5am then head the last 70 miles to Florence to switch trailers. About 3am these 2 container haulers parked directly across from me. Now picture this, 2 trucks, 2 containers, music blasting from their hip hop gutter music taste, disturbing everyone around them and not caring one bit about anyone within 100 feet of them trying to sleep.

After switching their containers they leave. Container number one leaves with no problem, container number two, not so lucky. He pulls out of his spot, turning to his left and my right, then drops his 20 foot container loaded with 36 thousand pounds of overseas freight right on it's nose directly in front of me. My only thought was that karma can be a real biotch. My biggest problem at 5am was having to back out 2 spaces, mine and the empty one behind me to leave. My only thought as I was leaving was that I was convinced if they had lowered their wonderful taste in music they might have heard the jaws on the fifth wheel lock, or better yet try this wonderful concept that seems to work for the rest of the trucking world, pull up a short distance then pull your trolley handle to make sure you are locked. Or how about this concept, get out with a flash light and look at the jaws on your fifth wheel to make sure they are locked. I wonder how much the tow company charged that dude to come out and lift that container up off it's nose.