Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

After picking up the Sappi load in Maine, I headed south. Hours were low so I had a couple days of only a couple hundred miles, mixed in with the 4th of July holiday, so the receiver was closed so there was no getting there early anyway.

I'd never done the cross-bronx/GW bridge route headed south yet, so I decided to run it on the 4th. I almost chickened out and decided to take the Tappan Zee, but figured I've got time, I wanted to try it, so why not. I velcroed my little GoPro camera to the top of my CB and made a video. Sorry its a little shaky, and the quality isn't the best but I had to render it on lower settings to keep the file size small enough to be able to upload on my mobile internet without it taking half the day. Luckily I picked up a 4G tower which helped a lot.

Here is a link to the video:



The next day I made my delivery and got a preassignment that took me into PA. At least I was getting away from the coast, that was an improvement.

Stopped through Carlisle, hopped back on the PA Turnpike and headed west, stopped at one of the service plazas for the night.

I think the PA Turnpike is one of my all time favorite runs to make. Nice open road, not too much construction, plenty of places to stop...

This morning I delivered that load, then got another preassignment that took me into Donora, PA. My delivery was supposed to be a live unload, but they changed it to a drop when I got there. Forgot my load bar in the trailer... not happy about that. Picked up another candidate for "Schneiders Crappiest Empty", possessing all the qualities a crap trailer should posses including all the ABS wiring ripped out and wrapped around the airlines, a bent rear door, and iffy tires. But, it was the only empty they had left, I had no time to go on a search and the remarks made it very clear that this was not a customer that would tolerate a service failure. It rolled and stopped, so it would have to work.

After crossing the bridge and taking the right into Donora, I'm quickly greeted with a "NO TRUCKS EXCEPT LOCAL DELIVERIES" sign, and the road that looks like it would take me to where I wanted to go simply had a NO TRUCKS sign on it. I immediately knew this was going to be fun.

A rolled a block into town and yeah, I needed to stop before I went any further.

I found a place to pull over, tried to call the customer and get directions. Goes straight to voicemail, awesome.

So, I start using my GPS to try to get an overview of the roads in the area. Qualcomm route wanted me to drive down a road that would have required me to drag my trailer through half of someones front yard and garage to make the turn. Nope.

GPS wasn't that helpful either, but it is OK for getting any idea about what roads connect to what. I slowly proceeded further into town, then finally found a road big enough to make a turn on. I had my tandems slid all the way forward and was just barely able to make the turn even though I took up the entire intersection. Headed down a small hill, OK we're making progress, looks like this road connects to the route the Qualcomm wanted me to take in.

Get to the bottom of the hill, get ready to make the right, and NOPE, Werner is delivering to Dollar General and is parked facing the direction opposite of traffic flow. More people are just sitting in their cars stopped on the other side of the road. Couldn't make that turn. Threw on the 4 ways, got out and walked down the hill. Yeah, not gonna make that turn no matter how hard I want to.

The locals were out and about, one saw me get out of my truck and came up to me and agreed that that right turn wasn't going to happen. I told him about where I was trying to get to, he gave me some directions for another route to try.

Followed his route, again, extremely tight, but made it without issue and got to the shipper.

They got me loaded up, after an issue with the paperwork that had me marked down as Werner instead of Schneider, we got that worked out. I got directions for the best way out, scaled on their scale, and headed out. Of course, the way out was super easy, and was the same way that I would have originally come in except it was marked NO TRUCKS. Why that sign was there I don't know.

Yeah, that was an adventure. Definitely the tightest place that I've been through, even more so than the paper company in Chicago.

Got back to the interstate and headed west. Stopped through Obetz to see if they even wanted to touch some of the issues with the trailer. Of course there is just one poor guy working there, and he only worked on trailers, didn't even want to look at my ground issue on the truck wiring. The quick fix the service call guy made the other day is still working though, so it'll have to last. After showing the mechanic the issues with the trailer, he says there's really not much he can do with it now. He put in a work order so I could get out of the gate, we both laughed when a message came up on the screen saying the trailer is marked for disposal. Maybe I'm taking it on its final journey.

Made it to a TA, got some good food at the Denny's, and hopefully will have a 550+ mile day tomorrow.

Glad to be out of the Northeast, that's for sure.

Until next time...

 

Time for a little update... been an interesting couple days. Miles haven't been great, but haven't been terrible either. I never expect a good week when they're trying to get me home though, so thats OK. Loads lately have not been fun, haven't had a drop and hook in weeks it feels like. Got sent down to Mississippi, that was a quick unload with the materials I picked up from the little town up in PA. After that I got sent off to what was by far the worst place I've had to navigate through - a fricking scrapyard. Its the kind of place where all the locals know about it and many of them work there, everyone who is there has been there for years and they all just know how it works - throw someone who has never been there before (me) into it and you can't get a straight answer from anyone.

Showed up at the scale out front, took in my paperwork. Had a couple different numbers so I asked what their pickup numbers start with, she says "well you're the one that's supposed to know that". I look on the paperwork she has behind the window and find one that matches, so I rattle off that one and we finally get the ball rolling. Then she tells me I have to back away from the scale and go across the street (I will not go into details about what direction I had to be moving in to get across the street, lol) and wait until they pulled a trailer from the dock. Everyone is too busy to watch but luckily I can see well enough out of both windows as I'm not completely on the scale. Finally she tells me to come in in the CB, so I drive on the scale, she weighs my empty truck, then tells me to go in. I ask where I'm supposed to go, no response. Nothing but giant piles of scrap everywhere, excavators with magnets loading trucks. Its extremely tight and designed for their single axle daycabs with their short frameless dump trailers - not a 53' dry van with tractor that has a 70" sleeper. I find dock and decide to get out and have a look, I kinda stare at this hood thats lying upside down with scrap piled on top of it blocking the path my trailer would have to follow to get the dock. Someone from the dock gets a hint and comes out with a skid steer and just rams it into a pile next to the docks. Whatever works.

So, after squeezing my trailer in the dock, with my doors about 1" from the 48' trailer that appeared to not have moved for the past 15 years as I made the turn, I finally bump the concrete wall at the back. No bump stops, just concrete. Guy on the dock tells me to pull up a hair and slide my tandems to the back, so I do.

Now, remember, I still have the crap trailer on me. This thing is barely holding together. So what do they use to load the cardboard bales with? A fricking skid steer. And not a little Bobcat 743, no, this is the big hoss model, I can hear the turbocharger whining on it. I'm honestly just waiting to see this thing fall straight through the floor of my trailer as I can feel it bouncing as he rams the bales to the front of my trailer.

Finally they get me loaded. I pull off the dock and ask about how to use the scale on the way out, he just says to pull and she'll tell me what to do... so, I find a spot to turn around and slide my tandems up. Another truck is being loaded next to the entrance/exit. I get as close as I can start to turn to get on the scale. Get my tractor on the scale, slowly pull forward while watching the trailer, nope, trailers not gonna make it. So, had to wiggle around back and fourth to get my trailer moved over enough to get up there. Had to get out twice to make sure my trailer didn't ram into the guy getting loaded behind me, as there was only about 2 feet of room between the rear of my trailer and the side of his trailer. Finally, got worked over enough to get my inside tires on the edge of the scale, pulled way up, then backed on. Waited and got told I was weighed and to pull off.

So I go in to get my paperwork, she hands me a scale ticket. It doesn't make sense so I ask which weight is my drive axle. She says "well you didn't stop on each axle so I don't know". Great. So, I ask if I can pull back on the scale again. Get turned around, go back on the scale with each axle. Now there is a second truck beside the other guy still getting loaded. About 4 pickup trucks are blocking the other path with their little scrap trailers. Now I really can't go anywhere, its gridlocked. I tell the girl over the CB that its going to be a minute until someone moves out of the way because I can't go anywhere, so I just sit there on the scale. She thinks I want to weigh just my rear trailer axle (wat) and tells me to pull up some because my drives are still on the scale.

FINALLY, she understands and gets another driver on the CB to watch traffic so I can back off the scale and reverse straight across the street to the yard on the other side. Get my ticket, we're legal. FINALLY get out of there.

By far one of the most frustrating places I have been. How I managed to get out of there without any chunks of metal in my tires I do not know. I watched the excavators magnet hover above the ground and there was all kinds of crap getting sucked up from just under the surface of the dirt.

If you end up there just be prepared to do some driving that is not exactly "Schneider approved" to get in and out.

Made that delivery today after sitting for about 2 hours before they started. I hate having an appointment window, arriving there right at the beginning and still being told to wait.

Got a Sears preassignment out of Georgia. Hauled butt and arrived there an hour late due to the delays, luckily it was a preloaded trailer at a quite warehouse in the middle of nowhere, so one one cared I was late.

Got sent back up towards home with this load. Gonna have fun delivering to 2 absolute dumps of megamalls tomorrow. Can't wait to go try to work my way through parking lots full of cars and find the "dock" that is basically a genie left embedded in the ground that could be anywhere around the entire mall parking lot. 2 stops at 2 different malls. MY FAVORITE.

Oh well, counting down the days till hometime now. Since this load ran by home I got a chance to have dinner with my mom and sister that I haven't seen in several months. I was planning to stay in the parking lot there tonight, but the shopping center lot already said "no trucks". One of the local cops was there so I pulled in and asked if I could park there long enough to eat dinner, he said that was no problem but recommended that I don't stay overnight. After a quick dinner flew back to the truck stop I fueled at earlier, after my post trip I had one minute left on my 14. It sucked taking that out-of-route hit since I had to backtrack, but hey, it was nice to get to spend a little time with my family I haven't seen for a while.

Hopefully home by the end of this week... I'm really not looking forward to these two deliveries tomorrow. I'll take a 46k Procter and Gamble load any day over an 8k Sears load.