Carry Transit

Wed 6-13

Nothing really exciting to report, just left terminal this morning and headed back out to WY. I Stopped for the night at TA in Grand Island, NE.

Thur 6-14

Nothing really exciting to report here, just more driving. I shut down in Rock Springs, WY at the Flying J. The Denny's there has the worst service ever!!! Food was okay, but nothing to write home about.

Fri 6-15

Woke up and got fuel and scaled empty at Flying J. Drove to shipper and arrived a few minutes before 0700. My travel order and Qualcomm both said to be there at 0700. Check in at the security office to be told they don't come in till 0800. They let us go in at 0755 so we can be standing in the shipping office at 0800, however she didn't show up till 0815.

The lady informed me and the other Carry driver behind me that they had to move some rail cars, but go ahead and get ready to back in. Hours and hours later they still hadn't moved the cars. Called in to Decatur to let them know what was going on. They kept saying that it was mechanical problems. I was sitting around back and the other Carry driver was around front. We both kept seeing the rail car movers running all over the place, in the front and back. The problem was that the line we needed the cars moved on to load is a union line (1 of 3 union lines out of like 15 total, the rest are non union, in the mine.) The union only has one engine to move cars with, and it was broke down. So because of the stupid union garbage they ended up paying SBL over $3000 in demurrage for the both of us.

Got a 10 hour break in while sitting there. Left and figured even though I had a full 11 and 14, I'd just drive till I got tired. Made it to the TA in Cheyenne, WY and shut down.

Sat 6-16

I just drove all day...nothing really to report. Shut down at Sapp Bros in Sidney, IA. Walked into the bathroom and there was a guy starring at the mirror on the side wall. Used the bathroom and washed my hands and dude is still standing there. I'm thinking this guy really likes looking at himself. On my way out I notice that there is a TV behind the mirror with Fox News on. I heard it in the bathroom, but thought that is was just the audio from the TV in the diner or out in the store. Everyone that came in there had to stop and look at it. It was something different for sure. Oh, and really nice bathrooms here too. I'm thinking that is a trade mark at Sapp Bros., having really nice bathrooms.

Sun 6-17

Uneventful drive back to Decatur. I got there around 1600. Was going to unload mine Sunday morning, but after being held up all day at the shipper, they pushed mine off to Monday. They just had me drop mine at the yard and someone else is going to take it and deliver it Monday.

Mon 6-18

Off

Tue 6-19

Off

Wed 6-20

Off

I was getting ready to leave the house about 0900 this morning to head back out to WY for another load when the phone rang. They canceled these load for this week so I got today off too. Now tomorrow I'm just running from Decatur, IL to Cordova, IL to pick up molasses. Then I am just bringing it back to Decatur, IL and delivering. Depending upon what they have for me after that, I will most likely just come home again tomorrow night.

 

Thur 6-21

Left Decatur, loaded molasses in Cordova, IL and brought back to Decatur.

Arrived at customer to drop tank, as Qualcomm said. They told me that I have to unload cause we had to use my pump. No big deal I think. Then they tell me that we are putting it in totes. Still no big deal, just going to take longer than 45 minutes to unload. We walk to the back of the tank and I see a 3" male end hooked up to a 1" air hose. They told me they were using this to unload. Now it becomes a big deal.

After 2 hours and only 2.5 (out of 18) totes being loaded, they come out and are like this isn't going to work...DUH!! I told them I would realign the back of my trailer right up to the door and we could use both hoses and just let it come out the end of my hose into their totes. This would have only taken about 2 minutes per tote. They said no cause the need a valve on their end to shut it off. I told them again that it doesn't matter that if I'm pumping they can't shut off their end unless my pump is stopped anyway.

Second shift comes on and finds a 2" hose and makes an end so they can shut it off. I told the guy DO NOT shut it off unless my pump is off. We unload 2 totes taking about 3 minutes per tote. I'm like oh yeah, we'll be done in no time. We were on the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] tote and I'm standing there waiting to shut off the pump cause it should be done any second when I hear GGGGGRRRRRRNNNNNTTTTTT and the pump stops and I smell hydraulic fluid (which is leaking from over my tandems on the trailer with a puddle on the ground.) I run up and shut the pump off on the truck. I walk in and the first words out of his mouth are "My fault." Yep...he shut his valve off while I had the pump going.

I ended up dropping that trailer and ran back to the yard and grabbed another clean tank. Went back and used the pump off the clean tank to finish unloading the other tank. First tote we go to load when I get all set up, he decided to not hold the spout when I turned on the pump. He ended up wearing quite a bit of it. Now we are down again while we wait for his wife to bring him some clean clothes and he cleans up the mess all over the floor and tote.

It ended up taking 7.5 hours to unload that load. LONG DAY!

Fri 6-22

There was a load sitting in the yard that I took up to Loves Park, IL. Then took empty liquid tank to Gurnee, IL and dropped and hooked to a loaded pneumatic and headed to Memphis, TN. Pretty much an uneventful day, with the exception of Chicago traffic. Shut down at the Pilot in Gilman, IL. I don't recommend showering here, their water is really hard. I've never had water this hard, it doesn't even feel like you are clean. Ugh.

Sat 6-23

Was another uneventful day. Delivered in Memphis (drop loaded and picked up empty.) I made it to Mount Vernon, IL when I ran out of hours there. There was one of the nicest servers at the TA there. Glad I went there instead of the Denny's at the Pilot next door.

Sun 6-24

Took the empty pneumatic from Memphis back to Gurnee (it's a dedicated run with dedicated tanks.) Picked up the empty liquid tank I dropped yesterday and brought it back to Decatur. Washed my truck and went home.

Mon 6-25

Called in and was told there was nothing. In less than 10 minutes the phone rang. Seems another driver came in and was having some personal issues and wasn't going to be able to take his load, so now I have it. Left out with a dirty tank and dropped it in Fairfield, OH. Took break here.

Tue 6-26

Picked up a different clean tank and went down to the tank farms on the river in Cincinnati. Got rejected due to dirty pump and odor in tank. Took it back to PCI and got it rewashed then went back and it was good. Got loaded and made it to Flying J in Austinburg, OH where I sit until around 1300 tomorrow. I will be delivering in Macedon, NY tomorrow night, and then it's a mystery from there.

 

Wed 6-27

Wasn't suppose to deliver till 2100 tonight, but went ahead at went over there. I was only 4 hours away when I shut down lastnight. I planned it just right so that I would either unload early and get out of there, or have just enough time to squeeze in an 8 hour SB for a split break to get out of there tonight. They took me when I got there, so now I'm back where I started this morning for my break at the Flying J in Austinburg, OH. I will be home tomorrow afternoon for a little over a 34, then back out to WY...if they don't cancel again.

 

Thur 6-28

Ended up not making it home. I was a day short in picking up hours. This is the first time I have had to roll my hours/work a recap in over 3 years. Made it to the Flying J in Spiceland, IN.

Fri 6-29

Made it back to the yard at 0900. Dropped my dirty liquid tank and ran across town to Bulkmatic to pick up a clean pneumatic. Then went home. The air went out in my car while I was in the office turning in my paper work and getting my uniform shirts that came in. That really sucks because my driver side window wont roll down either. The motor broke and I haven't been able to coordinate swapping cars with one of the in-laws cars yet.

I have a 2000 Cadillac Devillle. Until this year it hasn't ever had any problems. Just brakes, tires, wipers, oil change. In the last year it has started falling apart. I think they are made to be 99% maintenance free until its 12 years old and then fall apart.

Sat 6-30

Left out this morning for a trip back out to WY. Pretty uneventful day. Shut down in Aurora, NE at the Love's.

Sun 7-1

Another uneventful day. Stopped for breakfast at Pilot/Bosselman in Big Springs, NE. Couldn't decided what to eat, so I just ordered the breakfast buffet. Turns out it was cheaper than anything I thought about ordering. Shut down at the Flying J in Rock Springs, WY.

Went in to eat at the Denny's (though I debated it.) This place is horrible. I walked in and stood there for about 3 minutes with servers walking right past me. I finally just sat myself at the counter. Sat there for 10 minutes as they kept walking right by me, looking right at me, and kept on going. After a guy came in and stood there waiting to be seated without success and walked out, I decided to do the same. Went out and got me 2 corn dogs. Showered and went to bed.

Mon 7-2

Got up and went to shipper. Travel order once again said to be there at 0700, but they don't come in till 0800, so I just sat there for an hour. It an hour extra detention guaranteed, so I'm not complaining. Took them a couple of hours after the came in to load me. Got loaded and made it all the way to Rawlins, WY (exactly 150 miles away) and the phone rings. Turns out they think they loaded the wrong grade of baking soda, so I have to turn around and come back.

Now I am sitting at the same Flying J I started at this morning. My boss had it all set up to have someone meet me there with a blower (my truck doesn't have one, just a hydropack) to unload me tonight and reload in the morning. Well it turns out the union wont allow a non union person to unload me. I could do it myself since its my truck, but I don't have a blower. So now they have to find someone tomorrow that is union and who is qualified to unload pneumatic tanks. I have only ever refused to go somewhere twice in 8 years of driving, and I think this is about to be a 3rd. This is why I left ADM. I CANNOT STAND THE UNION MENTALITY!! I like this run, but there is always some problem whether its me or any of the others coming here, and its always union bs.

Hopefully tomorrow will be much better

 

Good Lord, I didn't realize I was almost a month behind. Man time has flown.

Well all I have been doing is the WY to IL run. Not too bad to walk into a company and get on a dedicated route. Pay is the same every week with the exception for the fluctuation of detention. We just got 13 more weeks of this confirmed, the boss man is looking at setting up having 2 people run between Green River, WY and Grand Island, NE and have me and another guy run from Grand Island to Danville, IL. If this can be pulled off right we'll only need the 4 drivers, trucks, and tanks to get the job done. This will free up the other 2-3 drivers we have to use right now to do other runs to make even more money.

Seems like the bugs are really getting worked out of this system. About the only problem we have is on the shipper end. They like to take their sweet ole time...union ya know...lol I guess someone is getting tired of paying all the needless detention because the last 2 weeks they have pretty much been jumping right on us when we get there.

We lost a driver yesterday morning. He had just unloaded in Danville and was heading back to the yard in Decatur. Got on the interstate at exit 215 and made it to the 209. Had a massive heart attack. Glad it was at 0420-0425 so there wasn't any traffic on the interstate. He was a good guy. If we had to loose a driver, he's wasn't one that you'd want to loose. Kinda messes with you when you know that you were one of the last 3 people someone interacted with before they die. We swapped trucks, then he dealt with the unloader, then the security when he left. He was in pretty good health too, or at least as far as anyone knew. I guess it just goes to show when it's your time, it's your time. He will be missed.

Well going to shower and get to bed so I can get up and go load in the morning. I won't be updating much while doing this run. I will just drop in from time to time until this ends.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and a good week next week.

 

Well last week (8-5 - 8-11) the customer in Danville decided it was time to shut down for a week and clean out the baking soda tank, so we didn't run the Wyoming loads.

I left Monday (6th) with a load from Decatur to Owensboro, KY. Went to unload and pump started leaking right away. Though I was going to have to shut it down but the leak slowed to almost nothing so I kept going. Was almost empty and the pump sped up like it was empty and the hose started jumping, but I still had quite a bit left. Didn't look like much of a grade, but I guess the whole lot had a slight slope to it which made it look pretty well level.

Stopped the pump, shut off the PTO in the truck, dollied down, unhooked the 5th wheel and pulled up about half a foot, and finished cranking the dollies all the way down. I restarted the PTO in the truck, went back and turned the pump back on, opened the valve and the seals blew out in the back of the pump. I had about 2 inched of corn syrup in the bottom of the cabinet. They didn't have anywhere for me to get it out, so I just dammed it up as best I could. Took a whole roll of paper towels, the last of my absorbent pads I had (3 or 4,) a hand full of napkins, and my fairly new gloves.

Took tank to Dayton and dropped and took my break there. Got up the next morning and went down to Fairfield, OH and picked up a 3 hole trailer, then went to Florence, KY and picked up a load of chocolate. Took it up to Grand Rapids, MI, and then dead headed back to Decatur.

Had a nice long weekend. Got back Thursday afternoon and was off till Monday afternoon.

This week (8-12 - 8-18) me and another guy were going to team the WY loads all week, while everyone ran them solo to try and get them back up and running. However, Friday afternoon the mine called and said they had to do an emergency shut down, so there wouldn't be any loads till the middle of the week.

I left Monday afternoon and bob tailed to Fairfield, OH. There was supposed to be a tank there, clean, and waiting on me...but no such luck. Went into the office and asked about it. They said that it wasn't scheduled till first thing Tuesday morning, so I went to bed.

Woke up 30 minutes before my break was over. Checked the yard and the tank still wasn't there. Went back into the office and asked about it. Was told it was scheduled to be there at 0900. It was only 0700, so I had to wait till it showed up at 0915, and then got it washed.

Left tank wash at 1030 and headed down to Cincinnati to load. Got there and got backed in, but he had just started loading another one of our drivers. He didn't want to come back out in the heat until he came to close up the other driver (I should've got there 10 minutes sooner if I wanted loaded as soon as I got there (as if I had control over it.)) Finally got loaded and kept sitting there. He waited until another driver came in, that way he could close me up and start the next driver and not have to come back out in the heat. It was only like 80 degrees. I wasn't even sweating sitting there with the engine off while loading (which they require.)

While I was checking the seals, I notice 2 flat spots on the passenger side front axle of the trailer, on both tires. Now I know why the guy who I was waiting on to bring it to me got out, walked back there, got back in and pulled up about a foot to drop it. He parked it right on the spots so I wouldn't see it. So I stopped in the TA in Florence, KY to get them fixed. They got me right in a bay. However, one tire guy just started working on replacing all 8 tires on an O/O's flatbed, and the other tire guy was walking out to go do a tire road call. He had to take it instead of doing me because the work order was written about 10 minutes before I got there. Once again, about 10 minutes late. Only took 3 hours to get 2 tires changed.

Finally got out of there and am going as fast as this 65 MPH truck will go. Then going through Louisville, KY I hear a load thunk sound and see rubber flying. Now one of my caps on my drive blew off, which I had been trying to get them to replace it since I got this truck. There is another that's gonna go anytime too. Didn't want to sit on the side of the interstate in rush hour traffic, and it was still aired up, so I limped about 5 miles to the Pilot in Hillview, KY just south of Louisville. When I got the ETA call from the tire guy, he told me he just sat down to dinner with his wife so it would be after he ate. Was about 15 minutes late this time, instead of 10 minutes. Only took about 2 hours to get this fixed.

By the time I left there I didn't have much time left on my 14, so I made it down to the Pilot in Sonora, KY. Went in and got a shower and went to bed to end a bad day.

Wednesday was an uneventful day. Stopped at Loretta Lynn's Kitchen in Hurricane Mills, TN and ate breakfast. Sat in the same spot I sat 26 years ago on my first trip in my grandfather's truck. That was the trip where I determined I'd one day be a trucker. Ordered a $6.99 western omelet. I was expecting one about the size of Denny's or Petro. Nope, I swear they had to put like 5 large eggs in it, and at least a half-pound of ham, bacon, onions, peppers, and cheese. I couldn't eat it all, though I wanted to. It was so good.

Due to all of Tuesday's issues, I ran out of hours before I made it to the customer in Dallas, where I had originally planned to break. I stopped at the Love's in Mt. Vernon, TX. Pulled in and there was an empty spot waiting on me right there. Thought my luck had finally turned on this load.

I told them Wednesday that I would be at least 3.5 hours late after dealing with Tuesday's events. I ended up only being 2 hours late, but the customer only unloads by appt time, so I had to sit there until after my appt time. It was originally for 0530, but they changed it 0900 due to Tuesday. Finally get scaled in, backed in, and unhooked my trailer. He came back out to cut seals, I put my Christmas tree on. They take care of everything else. Watched him take my sample and I ran to the bathroom. Came back out and they are already unloading. I checked everything to make sure nothing was leaking and got back in my truck.

About 15 minutes goes by and they come out and there is a major leak. They stopped unloading and unhooked everything. Took them over an hour to vacuum it up. The seal was bad where it comes out of the tank at the butterfly valve and the pressure from air unloading was making it leak. They got their mechanic to come and see if he could tighten it up. He got about a quarter turn on one bolt, and half on the other and said that was all he could do. Open the valve and its still leaking. So they scaled me out and told me to sit at the side till they could figure out what to do.

The load was a Kosher food grade load. They couldn't have someone come out and fix it cause the discharge line would have to have a Kosher wash, but I couldn't just throw some seals on and leave. I guess since this particular process hadn't already been Orthodox Union approved, without a Rabbi there to oversee the resealing process, it wouldn't be Kosher if I just through some seals on it and left. So I had to sit there all night.

Was awoken to a call this morning and told to throw some seals on it, put them on the travel order and bills, have them check it and sign it, and take it to our Arlington, TX yard. All was approved. I was going to get it fixed, washed, and come back and unload today. I do all that and he comes out to check it. Tells me it will be Tuesday before they can take me. No matter what the product is, they only take 2 trucks a day. They have 2 today and 2 for Monday. I called and told them, so they said just drop it at Arlington.

They had a load sitting there to come up to Tulsa, OK for 0400 tomorrow, so they just threw me on it. I'm sitting here now. Going to unload this and head home tomorrow. I have a dr.'s appt Monday morning, and then I'm back on the WY runs.

Some complaints I have with Carry:

1. Every liquid load I have pulled has leaked. Though most have just been a minor annoyance, I've now had 2 that have been major problems. I have only hauled 7 liquid loads since I've been here. I will unload my 8th in the morning.

2. They don't give us a spill kit.

3. Almost every trailer I've picked up here I have to get something fixed on it. I write up every little thing that is wrong when I drop a tank so the next driver doesn't get screwed over. Seems like most drivers here just don't care. They will even take extra steps to hide something instead of writing it up when they drop it to be fixed. Its not like they even have to stay with it most of the time.

4. When I drove for H.R. Ewell and Prime (both pulling tanks) I hardly ever dealt with a union. I left ADM to get out of and away from dealing with unions. So far being here at Carry, EVERY place I have been has been union. I'm beginning to wonder why I made the move. At least there I was paid substantially more to put up with all the union garbage and headaches.

5+. There are a few other things that I wont mention on here for various reasons, but really don't like them.

Hope everyone has a good weekend and a good week next week.