Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Just a quick update from home... My last check of my trip meter that I reset at the beginning of my solo driving career has met at over 10,000 miles on my truck. I'm happy to have reached that. I've been driving for 5 weeks now, so that's only averaging 2,000 miles a week but I have a feeling that will hopefully improve.

I've been home since Monday afternoon, and I'm headed back out tomorrow morning. I don't have an assignment yet, but I've got my NAT set as then so as far as I'm concerned I'm ready to roll.

A couple things I've learned that are working for me:

1. I'm saying "screw the bonus" for this first three months. I will reconsider going for it over the next. When I have a heavy load and I'm hitting hills, I drive the entire thing with my foot on the floor. I cannot even begin to describe how much easier this makes my life - I'm only dropping 1 gear on the long hills, and the short ones I'm cresting in 10th gear instead of having to drop into 9th and lose all my momentum just as I'm getting to the top.

I'm running 64 MPH instead of 59 and not having to waste all my time trying to handle the hills with heavier loads is making my trip planning much, much easier. I no longer feel like such a danger at merges. My average moving speed has increased by 3-4 MPH according to my GPS that I've had since near the start and while I know that this isn't how everyone may choose to drive, it's working well for me.

2. I'm starting to understand how to avoid getting stuck in the Northeast - if you don't have a full work day available in your 70, take a 34. The short hours make the computer look for shorter assignments. It's just not worth it. I had one day where I sat around waiting after doing a short run and so I regained a lot of hours the next day, enough for a full day. BAM, 500 mile run the HECK OUT OF THERE.

3. I'm no longer wasting all my cell phone messages trying to play phone tag with DBLs. I use the Qualcomm to send a freeform messages, and if they're slow to check their messages that is THEIR PROBLEM. When I have super urgent issues I'll use my phone, but I'm not putting up with sitting on hold for 20 minutes any more just to get a simple question answered.

So, I'm almost done with my home time and will head back out tomorrow. I was out for a total of 3 weeks was happy to have a bit of a break, but I am ready to get going now.

I'm learning which Schneider OCs are an absolute joke. So far Obetz and Atlanta are on my AVOID AT ALL COSTS lists.

Obetz is basically a parking lot but their shop is decent, clean and fast. Laundry? Nope. Showers? Nope. Food? Nope. One restroom. No hand soap.

Atlanta is the equivalent of a NYC rush hour traffic gridlock parking lot, with the saddest excuse of a shop I have ever seen. I sat around for 3-4 hours while I had to explain to no less than three different mechanics multiple times what the issues were with my truck. All I needed done was a flat tire replaced, a lamp replaced on the truck and my front brakes adjusted. I had to remind the mechanic reapply the tractor brakes before he replaced one of the tires. He had the tractor brakes released and an axle on the trailer already jacked up. I DO NOT CARE IF IT IS A SUNDAY... I'M OUT HERE WORKING TODAY TOO. Then they didn't have the LED marker lamp assemblies that needed to be replaced on the trailer. They basically told me "sorry we don't have them, tough luck". I called SEM, they told me the shop was supposed to then help me find somewhere to get it fixed if they didn't have the parts. I told this to the shop foreman and he said he'd never heard of them doing that. Then I called SEM back again, told them everyone was giving me the runaround and SEM ended up telling me just to drive it to Charlotte. I asked for them to send me a message on my Qualcomm giving me an OK to drive it with both rear markers out on the trailer, they said they would. The message never arrived. What a bunch of lazy, sorry, idiots. But, I made it to Charlotte without issue, and as usual Charlotte was quick to fix up any repair issues I had and sent me on my way.

Communication is still crap. I got a message last week stating that my license plate (which went missing after I took my truck through the shop weeks ago) was at the fuel desk in Charlotte. Great, I can pick that up too! Of course I get there, and the guy at the fuel desk has no idea what I'm asking for and no idea where it would be. The rear offices are closed for the day, and my load is already cutting it so close to being late due to having to stop at 2 OC's for repairs that I had no time to sit around and play games. Fueled up and hammered down for the rest stop past all that dang road construction along I-85 that I wanted to get past before the AM hours. My temporary registration card that I have expires in 2 days, I need that license plate!! I messaged the DBL earlier in the week, no response back yet, but hopefully she knows and will get me a load through Charlotte...

On a positive note, some TOYS arrived for my truck, I got my Dometic Coolfreeze CF-25 compressor cooler... words cannot describe how awesome this thing is. It is almost silent, sucks almost no power and can be used as a freezer if I wanted to. This thing is awesome, I can't wait to try it out this week.

I also got my Wilson mirror mount antenna installed for my Millinecom USB modem and my signal jumped up 2 bars. Hopefully I'll be able to get useable internet WHEREVER I go now.

So, I'm going to try a 2-week out/3-day off run this time and see how I like it. The 3-week/4.something day was nice, but I still want to see what I end up liking the best and what gets me the best miles... hopefully I can find a good compromise. The longer stays out will be much much easier now that I have my fridge cooler and hopefully better internet.

Well... off to the grocery store to load up on food and drinks for the next week...

 

I have a older Freightliner Century, I just have it sitting off to the side on the floor in the sleeper. That way I can open it up while I'm sitting on the bed and make a sandwich on the slide-out table. The model I have isn't very big so it's not in the way by any means. Its perfect for my needs, but if you are someone that wants to be able to keep a lot of soda cans, water bottles, etc., you'd probably want a bigger model. The CF-35 and larger are nice because you can plug them in to 120v when your truck is sitting. I liked the smaller size and portability of the CF-25 so I went with that one, and can always get a 12v converter to power it off 120v if I need to. It sucks so little power though the truck can easily sit for several days without issue from what I've found.

So, some updates from the road:

Saturday was just a classic "Schneider" day where I feel like I drove that little "highway to hell" decal on the side of my truck all day long. I bobtailed from home to go pick up an empty. Of course, I get there, and am told I can't get an empty because I have to be bringing in a trailer in order to take one out. So, I know the Greensboro drop yard is only about a mile down the road so I head down there to check. Lots of trailers, but all sealed up. I call the weekend DBLs and ask for some help, after a lot of back and fourth and sitting on hold, the box planner apparently thinks there are 2 empties here... the DBL gives me the trailer numbers, I walk around and double check twice... nothing.

So then the real fun starts. The DBL tells me the box planner has found 9 empty trailers up at a Target DC in Virginia. I'm told to bobtail 180 miles into Virginia (no joke) and pick one of these up because one of these 9 should be usable. He tells me "make sure to get a good one, because you're going to a paper plant and they require newer, clean trailers". I'm told I would get paid for those miles... OK... money is money so I'll drive it.

I finally reach the Target DC and head inside and of course EVERY SINGLE TRAILER that is there and empty is over 10 years old. So I can't take it. I call up the DBL again and we both sit there in silence wondering how it is possible that this guy simply cannot get a THING right. DBL gets ahold of the box planner again, then gets back to me saying that I'm going to have to bobtail ANOTHER hundred miles to look for empties. This time the DBL gets the box planner to give me a list of empties that are at this location and meet the requirements of the paper plant. He sends me a list, and I head on my way.

Eventually I ended up with a good trailer, then deadheaded another 90 miles to the paper plant to drop this empty and pick up my load. What a gong show.

So, 280+ miles of bobtailing just to find an empty trailer.

My Qualcomm shows 444 miles of actual driving for Saturday. With all of the adding, changing and deleting stops the planner did I'd be surprised if I get paid for half of that. I'm going to call my DBL and see if I can find out how many of those miles were actually paid for.

Anyway, I drove my 11 down to 30 minutes today, had to drive 9 of those hours non-stop with my foot on the floor to make up for all that lost time. My mileage today was good, I got 577 miles including a lot of sitting in traffic coming through Hartford, CT.

I should be able to make it on time tomorrow.

So who knows where I'll go from here...

On another note, this antenna for my 3G/4G modem is working great. It only amplifies the 3G signal but 4G is so few and far between I never use it anyway.

 

No, I have _never_ been able to idle this truck in the cold due to that sensor, and I'm talking February way up north in nowhere, Maine, cold. Not once. I've heard the newer trucks have much better bunk heaters, ones that will actually get so warm you have to turn them down. Mine, I can set it on max when its 45-50* outside and its still cool inside the truck... Oh well, at least spring is almost here (maybe).

I'm sitting on hold right now trying to get ahold of permits. I called my DBL to get directions to a receiver, she mentioned she had my license plate and tried to route me through Charlotte, etc. etc, I told her how they had me write the plate number on a piece of paper and stick it on the dashboard, get the back and fourth and am told to call Permits and explain the situation.

I swear if anything is going to kill Schneider its the fact that EVERYONE is on a COMPLETELY different page and the drivers do nothing but get the runaround in between.

 

Hmm.. that's an interesting idea, but sounds like a fair bit of liability sitting there with your tractor brakes released, even though the trailer brakes should hold... especially with all this monitoring stuff Schneider puts on here I bet they can tell when the brakes are released and when they are not... I can just see it turning into a "HE ROLLED INTO ME, I DIDN'T BACK INTO HIM" type situation.