My Experience as a Line Haul Driver

well last night SUCKED!

I origionaly had my normal run, BUT as i was getting my paper work a baltimore driver called in, so dispatch decided to have me run it all the way to richmond, va. So 590 miles + 3 hours on the dock when i get back would have been $240 or so...


Well my POS truck had other plans....I made it 98 miles north to mm138 on I-85 (yes just past the TA) and the Belt Tensioner Broke in half, so the belt poped off, and got all caught up in the engine fan that has to be on 24/7 so that the truck doesnt over heat, thus shreding the belt and getting all wedged in the fan. Now this run is Very tight to begin with, even worse that the truck i was driving only does 65mph and i was HEAVY so i had NO time to spare. in the 1/2 mile from where the belt broke till i got stopped, the voltage dropped to 9v and the water temp hit 250* so i blew out alot of coolant.


I get stopped, pop the hood, then call Break Down, i sit there 45 min waiting for the guy to answer, when he does he says "whats wrong with the truck?" so i said "its a POS" and the ####### hangs up on me! SO i called dispatch told him where i was, what was wrong with the truck and told him to tell road service to deal with it. I broke down at 830pm

Service truck shows up around midnight, he says hmm well this aint good your belt it toast and no one is going to have it thats open now...I said wont the TA have a belt? he says "nope and even if they did they wont sell it to me" so he calls his boss who finds out the freightliner is still open and has 3 of them. So the guy takes off to go get it, the freightliner guy leaves 5 min before he gets there. Then he goes to the TA and buys one there...WTF! Then he comes back to check the pullys like i told him since belts dont just pop off for no reason i knew something else had to be wrong, sure enough the tensioner was broken, so he goes back to the TA and gets one of those.

Then he gets to learn first hand why mercadies suck, took him 3 hours to fix it all, then i got to sit on hold for 45min waiting to get dispatch on the phone, finally pulled off the shoulder at 4am, 7.5 hours on the side of the road.


I had told dispatch at 915pm when i called in the break down that he needed to come up with a plan B since i wasnt going to make richmond, i was 5 miles short of our Burlington terminal so i could drop it there or take it all the way back to charlotte....they had me drag it 100 miles back to charlotte...IDIOTS


got back at 6am and worked the dock till 830am.


Came home and intended to take a 1 hour nap....i set my screaming meanie.....4 hours later i wake up only because i got a phone call...i dont know how i slept threw that thing haha





American Trucker

 

3 things:

1st i keep forgeting to post this, last saturday as i was leaveing work, there was a New Century Driver stuck on the train tracks on Graham st, CLEARLY posted to let trucks know NOT to cross the tracks, this guy got a brand new truck/trailer stuck, wedged the landing gear pretty deep into the asphalt.

2nd On Thursday night when i got that pre-hooked set in atlanta, the idiot that dropped it dropped it about 1 foot from a 53, so i couldnt get out, i had to do a 45 back to get the set straight again, then back the whole set up 20 feet so i could swing around this 53. Took about 5 min to do it, go 3 feet backward dolly would turn, so i would have to pull forward 2 feet to get it strait then 3 back and over and over and over but i got it lol.

and last on Friday i told the terminal Manager i wanted the 1st shift job, he has one more senior driver he has to offer it to first, which im 99% does not want it and it should be mine! Same run i do now (or am suposed to be doing) 420 miles a day mon-fri to south hill, va and back.





American Trucker

 

just a heads up if your going to burlington as a line haul driver. Burlington is a "end Line" terminal, so what that means is they go to a terminal like charlotte (1.75-2hr drive) and work the dock all night, then they bring a loaded trailer back to burlington, work that frieght and then they can go home. Personally i would recomend you look for a better job just my .02cents. I'm not sure about money in burlington with those little runs they do, but at our activity center i gross $975-$1100 a week and work 70 hours for it just to give you an idea of what you'll have to do for this crap money




American Trucker

 

Monday:

Went to South Hill, VA and back worked the dock till 9am

Tuesday:

Went to South Hill, VA and back worked the dock till 730am

Wednesday:

Went to South Hill, VA and back worked the dock till 745am











American Trucker