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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;wsyrob, post: 1098370, member: 10487&quot;]<b>11/1-11/6</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Driver appreciation week at the terminal. I pretty much missed it but did stock up on some free truck food supplies.</p><p><br /></p><p>Headed down to the terminal Monday around 3:00 PM since my load was supposed to be ready at 4:00. I had to swap out tanks so I got there a little early. My yellow check engine light came on so I pulled it into the inbound check line and asked the mechanic to check the codes on it. It had been coming on under load for for a few weeks but would go off whenever I restarted the truck. Never seemed to be on when I was at the shop. They checked the codes and decided to replace the ERG valve.</p><p><br /></p><p>That meant I had to move into a &quot;spare truck&quot;. Got moved in, backed under my trailer and did a pretrip. The tractor had a flat spot on the drives that looked boarder line and there was a lot of oil covering the drive axels. I had the mechanics take a look at it and they decided to put me in another &quot;spare truck&quot;. I took another 45 minutes to drop the trailer and move all my stuff into it. It was filthy with a full ashtray and cigarette ashes covering everything. Fortunately the mattress had a plastic liner over it even if it was half the thickness of my usual one. I considered swapping it for the one in my truck but didn&#039;t want to contaminate it with smoke smell. </p><p><br /></p><p>The worst part of this truck was the drivers seat. It hit the back of my legs at a spot that after 3-4 hours on the road caused leg cramps in hamstring muscle. It was a pretty long week but at least I was moving and making money.</p><p><br /></p><p>Since it was 9:30 PM by the time I got my load I decided to stop 3 hours down the road and split break. It is possible to turn this load in 2- 10 hour breaks if they don&#039;t take too long to unload you. That&#039;s an unknown and about 1/3 of the time they run out your 14 under the rack. I decided to plan for that. I shut down about 12:30, headed out at 8:30 that morning after an 8 hour break. I took a 2 hour lunch/ shower/ walk break and backed under the rack with 90 minutes to spare on my 14 around 9:30 PM. I told the guy unloading me that I needed to stay there 8 hours and went to bed. The next morning I drove the 2 miles to the truck stop where we weigh and took the other 2 hours of my break. That got me headed for home around 8:00 AM Wednesday morning.</p><p><br /></p><p>I had planned to take my time getting back and drive about 8-9 hours. Got a call from dispatch wanting me to load in Winder Ga at 4:00 Thursday. In order to make that I had to max out my hours Wednesday to be able to leave late enough to get the load. I shut down in Beckley, Wv and made it back to the terminal by 8:45 AM.</p><p><br /></p><p>When I got there I found out my truck wasn&#039;t ready yet. It seems another driver pulled in there under load with a problem. They took a part off my truck to keep him moving then the parts supply company screwed up the order and the new part for my truck didn&#039;t come in. I was stuck in the &quot;spare truck&quot; for another day.</p><p><br /></p><p>The rest of my week was uneventful. I got back about noon Friday after dropping my load. Got moved back into my truck and was rewarded for my troubles with a 2500 mile run from Greensboro NC to Whittier Ca for next week. 24 hour delivery window. Really get to stretch my legs next week.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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