Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

A couple weeks later I was in the Dividend yard and this geezer, smelled like a cigarette butt, asked me for help with the QualComm, that he'd never used one and they'd given him this brand new, never smoked in Cascadia and Orientation was over. Would I help? Could I help?

They had told him he had a dispatch and he was afraid to go back into the terminal and had no luck figuring out how to log in and retrieve the dispatch.

In the worst way I wanted to walk away, knowing he was gonna pollute that pristine truck. Couldn't do it. Got him logged in, showed him the basic MACROS and gave him the tutorial I would have wanted, had I known more back when I was in Orientation.

Pulled up his dispatch, showed him how to accept it and get directions and fuel instructions, pull up 'once off the interstate' directions, yada yada.

Didn't take 10 minutes. He thanked me but I hated doing it...

 

More PeopleNet
From MAIN menu, login with USER ID and PASSWORD, using NEXT or BACK to move from field to field. If login fails, recheck your USER ID, PASSWORD and COUNTRY. You will then see last TRAILER NUMBER. If correct, press YES. Otherwise, press NO and enter correct TRAILER NUMBER. You will then see last SHIPPER. If correct, press YES, otherwise, press NO and enter correct SHIPPER.
USER ID, PASSWORD, TRAILER NUMBER and SHIPPER are all required fields. Use NEXT or BACK to move from field to field.

Duty Status and Location. Scroll to select your duty status. UND indicates UNDEFINED. For Location, UNK indicates UNKNOWN, otherwise PeopleNet shows your last location. If correct, press NEXT. Otherwise, press BACK key on keyboard to erase and enter correct location. If everything correct, press YES.
Vehicle inspection. Allows you to enter time of pre, inter, post and DOT inspections. Inspections can only be entered when vehicle stopped. Select type of inspection. Does not replace paper inspection sheets. Just documents on your log that you did inspection.

EDriver log Smart Mode. When you start driving and go further than a specified distance, Smart Mode changes your duty status to Driving. Changes your status to On Duty when you stop. Log entries are for actual time. No time is lost!
Automatic Duty Status Change is most efficient way to log duty status. You have 15 seconds to skip an auto duty status change.

Logging out at end of shift is essential. Else, another driver's activity may be recorded on your log. From MAIN menu, select LOG OUT, press next and select duty status while you are logged out. Confirm location. Change if not correct. Press DONE. Verify. Or change. You will be asked if you want to leave your log in the vehicle. If using the same truck the following day, entering YES will save you time. If YES, you will be asked to certify your log. Pressing PROCEED has same consequence as signing a paper log.

Roadside inspection. Refer to DOT section of User Manual. Main Idle Screen. First thing to show DOT officer. Shows On Duty, Total On Duty and Driving time for the day. If DOT officer asks for more information, go to VIEW HOURS. To do this, go to MAIN menu, then select DRIVER LOG, scroll to VIEW HOURS, press SELECT. Displays driver name, time zone, off duty time, sleeper berth time, driving time, on duty time and total on duty time. Yada yada.

If DOT officer asks for still more information, go to REVIEW LOG SHEETS. Log detail includes company address, terminal location, start time, vehicle number, trailer number, co-driver, time and location of duty changes and miles driven.

To review logs, go to MAIN menu, select DRIVER LOG, scroll to REVIEW LOG SHEETS, then press SELECT. Select day you want to review, scroll to log item you want to see. Press SELECT. Yada yada.
Select vehicle, trailer, shipping, co-driver, terminal to review. When done, press DONE. Scroll to bottom.
Miles represent total miles driven current day.
Once certified, certain information like co-driver cannot be changed.

Citation. Select citation and enter citation information. Remarks are optional. You are required to enter citations and inspections into PeopleNet system.

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Yada yada. Next up more Slips, Trips and Fall Prevention. But they slipped and it's the same as earlier course. Um-m-m, that feels like a sprain or strain for sure. Next in line after duplicate slip, is Smith System. Enough for tonight. Had dinner at Chambers Restaurant, Smorgasbord Community Meal Monday Night, $6. Good meal, too. Roll me home. Scotty. (Like, beam me up. Not really, I was pretty good... )

 

Hi, Blu. Yes, if PeopleNet is MSFT-based, it's gonna be clunky. Spent a long time in the Microsoft world, still get emails. QualComm was clunky, too. Figure the courses are based in FlashPlayer and Steve Jobs hated both Flash and Adobe. Which is why my iPad is useless for this training. The difference between Apple and MSFT is that if it's Apple, you plug the hardware in and it either works--or not. If not, you get replacement hardware. Simple as that.

With MSFT, you hook up hardware, then configure it. And configure it.

And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it. And configure it...

 

Shotgun to Fort Campbell

A little over an hour ago (6:30 pm) Frank and I pulled into the Bloomington yard from our Fort Campbell turn, wrapping up an 11-hour day with me in the shotgun seat all day long. Not uncomfortable at all. The automatic shift Mack's a good ride, pulling our 26,000 pound load with ease; BTM (Bloomington Terminal Manager) assigned us a sleeper truck, despite that Frank usually drives a day cab. We both welcomed the extra room.

BTM set up a mailbox in the office for me with more forms to fill out, fuel card and flat, white gate key (about the size of a credit card, thicker) and we retrieved those after we dropped the empty reefer (except for return pallets) and parked the truck. It had started to sleet out. Rained most of the afternoon on the way back, but definitely Frank is a cool hand as when a blue SUV came right off an on-ramp without looking and would have hit the cab mid-ship. What was she thinking??

Dunno. Frank handled it with ease. Probably oblivious, she was. Feeling bullet-proof, maybe. Lucky, for sure.

We stood next to his pickup in the cold, sleety night.

Traded jokes until he pulled out last weeks earnings statements. 5 Fort Campbell's, $216 and change per, 1908 miles and $1105 gross with some small extras thrown in. Each Fort Campbell pays $197 plus stop pay, average 58-cents a mile--although it's figured per trip, not per mile. Extra pay for delays you can't control.

I was up in the shop truck with Reed the Mechanic when Frank pulled up in the road truck rather than his Mack day cab, which I had parked next to. Reed had been telling me how the Pete, their only non-Mack truck was a money pit, their experiment with rebuilding a truck. First, they dropped in a new engine, then rebuilt the tranny, two rear ends and $6,000 in parts to rebuild the front end.

They decided to forget it--a rebuild process that the Haz outfit I'd worked for was, and still is, committed to. Older trucks, fully rebuilt. No, this outfit will just go with new Mack trucks, thank you. Well, until the new Volvo's start arriving. Already have a few. Apparently Volvo owns Mack. I didn't know that. Those are comfortable trucks.

When we pulled into Fort Campbell, signs stated that if you had your TWIC card, go right in, you don't have to stop, get a pass. I have a TWIC card. At home. On a desk. Frank brought in his CDL, registration and proof of insurance. His background check had expired and had to be rerun. Without my TWIC, they had to run a background check on me, which is good until June, but I'll have my TWIC with me next time.

Told my Landstar buddy, who's 50-years-old, about the ESOP that vests in 5 years and might make a driver up to a half-million or even a serious million dollars at retirement... well, as long as the company doesn't go out of business. After 4 years, he's thinking of skipping Landstar's EOBRs next year.

Company driver's looking good to him again.

 

ESOP Fairy Tale??

Think I read about J.R. Schugel going all employee-owned. Dunno. This new outfit has been employee-owned for some time and the video on it about knocked me over. In addition to their 401(K), every employee who works over 1,000 hours/year (2,000 hours is a 'standard' work year and we truckers blow past the old 8-hour/day 5/day work week in about six months, depending on what outfit you work for)--every employee with over 1,000 hours/year gets so many shares for his trouble each year.

Based on wages. Which vests after 5 years.

The video is old but shows the knock-you-over growth in the value for a full-time driver and the 'actual' increase in value of company stock, which is appraised every year by an outside appraiser. So the company stock has been going up year-after-year for a number of years until this year and drivers like Frank and his buddy who joined up about 4 years ago are about to vest.

Unfortunately, company was at-fault in a horrific accident that took more than a couple lives and rumor is it will be costly. Company has $1 million insurance policy so the value of Frank's ESOP may take a big trimming. But the ESOP is interesting.

For my Landstar buddy, though, that could be almost a positive because he would get in at a time when the stock value has tanked and will hopefully go up once they climb out of the hole they're about to have swallow up the value of company stock.

And he's young enough at 50-years, to ride it out until the stock value starts back up...

(With apologies to Aesop's Fairy Tales, of course... )

 

Where's Sister??

Well, not MY sister. Got 2, actually and both from Hell, I figure. Long time ago told my Mom that when she passes, I won't be at her funeral. Not interested in contact with my sisters after that.

But, I digress.

Two nights ago, when I got in the first thing I did was take the dogs out. Maybe you know how, when pre-occupied, you're vision and mind tunnels. Heard a chicken coo, thought nothing of it since the coop's right there at the far edge of the porch so I don't have to go out into the weather to deal with it, yada yada. Did the dog thing, got them outside the fence where they prefer to do their dog thing.

When I brought them back, realized that one of the Comets (Golden Comet chicken) was at that rather late, dark hour on top of one of the straw bales coo-ing for my attention. She had not gone into the coop. Have been thinking about it since, that I should have taken the opportunity to feel her for an impacted lump like her dead sister had. Well, I didn't.

Until tonight. Same hen was again there waiting for me.

This time I put her under my arm, felt her bottom and bum, no lump found. Thought about it and decided she wants to know what I did with her sister. Whaddya say?? Stroked her a little bit as I brought her over to the chicken-entry way into the coop. We didn't really talk...

But her sister's gone and not coming back.

One night, coming out of Columbus, Indiana from Cincy with mail for the USPS mail annex in Bloomington, Indiana, saw a deer in a left-turn dog-leg on the west side of town. Slowed up. Always slow up when you see a deer. There are probably others, sometimes many. Have seen them come out of the woods, crossing the highway ahead, single file, sometimes many feet apart so the one you think last in the group actually has a small, youngster trailing back even further... sometimes several. Single file. Counted six once. All single file.

Anyway, as I slowed this deer just stood in the left-turn dog-leg and didn't budge. Just didn't move away. Truck got closer. Still slowing further. Deer still doesn't budge. Then picks at something below and finally I saw it, her sister. Had been hit, died there and sister had come back for her.

She stood guard there over her sister as I passed slowly by, almost at idle.

 

How Do They Compare So Far?

When I pulled my mail from my mailbox last night, funny thing. An unexpected envelope from the Prairie-run outfit, a check dated on my birthday for $250, dated the 12th, my birthday. $250. Huh? How nice. Says it's a bonus!

Signed by Michael, one of the two owners. First check ever from him. Have to email a thank you to Brian the CFO...

Hey!! Thx, Brian!! Wonder what, if anything, Yard Boss had to do with this?

The Fort Campbell run at 434 miles out and back from Bloomington is pretty comparable miles-wise to first leg of Prairie run. Prairie's 425-450 whether I ran up 39 through Madison and across or take 61 up through Dubuque. Depends whether I've got an outbound load, too, and pays extra for that. Got hills, of course. From Bloomington, Indiana to Fort Campbell and back's more comparatively flat. Lots of 2-lane on both.

That first leg of the Prairie turn pays half of $329, $165; Fort Campbell $216 for similar miles. New outfit has far better equipment, some slower than the truck I had, but most of the old outfit's stuff ran about 62, mine was some faster than most at 66-67.

Probably won't be pulling loads off brokers for the new outfit. We brought empty pallets back and there were two other Fort Campbell truck's yesterday, one arrived while we were unloading. They deadheaded back.

Shortest run for the new outfit is to Fort Knox, longest up at Sparta, Wisconsin. Might be some Indy shuttles, too, with $145 the shortest pay if called in. Old outfit had a lot of intrastate stuff I never got involved with--in fact, Prairie was the only over night run.

Comparisons will continue...

3 eggs in nesting box this morning from yesterday when I didn't want to disturb the flock that were already in coop when I got in from China Star Buffet, Ellettsville. Got a large Comet egg, medium-sized Rhode Island Red and small Buckeye this morning.

How cool! Well, I'm up 4 pounds after Chambers Smorgasbord on Monday and China Star Buffet last night. Uh, not so cool...

Then I had the loaded cappuccino from Pilot near Fort Campbell, 3 inches of cappuccino, 3 inches of Brazilian coffee and filled up the rest with creamers, chocolate, caramel and French vanilla.

Yeah, that'll take a toll, too.

 

Shareholder (Driver) Lunch...

New outfit has a driver meeting this afternoon and again tomorrow, called a 'Shareholder Meeting'. Will plan on tomorrow as am still chasing down personal errands today.

Had long phone chat with O/O who has been with them since Day One, pulled their second load out of Bloomington. Says something right there in comparison with Prairie-run outfit, where they have set up to work with O/O's, have never done it and asked me for a proposal. Don't expect any company has everyone happy...not likely. But if outfit keeps both O/Os and company drivers reasonably happy over the long term and is located nearby... kind of silly not to give more consideration to the closer yard.

Now have phone numbers for 3 drivers. Haven't talked to the 2nd yet, but he apparently knows me from when I was trying to get on with mail contractor! I guess we've met here in Spencer...

Will probably work Tuesdays and Saturdays, mostly. Have more online classes to do and HR paperwork to fill out.

Try have that all wrapped by lunch tomorrow...

 

Driving for Dollars
All company trucks newer than 2009 can show driver whether achieving good fuel economy. Called 'Driving for Dollars'.
System shows $$ when driver achieving optimal fuel economy.
By enabling the Driving for Dollars tool, drivers can see what driving habits achieve best fuel economy.
Select 'fuel economy' from the main menu. You can view trip fuel economy or active (current) fuel economy.
'Stalk' switch is located on right side of steering column. Has 3 buttons: Stop (Esc), Up/Down and Enter.
Esc takes you out of or stops current operation.
Enter displays a list of menus and enables selection of an option.
Up/Down scrolls through menus.

Roll-up Door Safety and Injury Prevention
Between 2010 and 2012 company drivers suffered 19 injuries from roll-up doors.
These injuries occurred opening/closing door and working under door.
Causes include door coming off track, door falling from overhead, slipping, improper opening and closing, debris coming off door.
As of video production, these 19 injuries cost the company $244,540.81 and increasing.
Nothing should pass through doorway until door has come to a stop.
Injury types: Fractures, sprains, strains, contusions, trauma, fatality.
Parts of body injured: arm, legs, feet, hands, fingers.
Verifying door has stopped moving reduces the likelihood of malfunction and injury.
Roll-up door malfunctions typically occur while in use.
Most common: Broken door guide jams door; counter weight cable snaps; door rollers come out of sockets; deformed grooves and loose bolts cause slats to separate; spring broke and rapidly unwound.
It is important to visually inspect roll-up door and get repairs started immediately.
Theme song: "If you're going to be dumb, ya gotta tough..." as video opens.

Video begins of driver opening roll-up door. Door rolls up, driver tries to stretch with door as it goes up. Then has hand under door as he pulls it down with other hand. Both get 'WRONG' labels.
Video continues with driver at dock, squats down, has one hand leaning on door, other hand pulls strap. Labelled 'RIGHT'. Driver on ground pushes three stacked, empty crates forward--labelled 'RIGHT'.
Video shows roll-up door coming down onto melon, splitting it. Labelled 'WRONG'.
Song continues, "If you're going to dumb, ya gotta be tough..."

Roll-up doors can cause injury if used incorrectly.
Proper opening roll-up door. Verify door in good working order. Check door for loose items that may fall out. Use proper lifting technique.
After opening roll-up door, check that door will stay up before entering or working in trailer.

From dock. Use legs to help lift door by bending at knees and lifting while rising.
From ground level. Place both hands on door and shake; if pressure is felt, fallen items may have lodged against door.
If no pressure felt, open door just enough to visually inspect for fallen items.
If none, use 2 hands to open door fully.
Applies to fixed roll-up doors at customer facilities as well.
Please use caution.

Opening roll-up trailer door from ground level. Visually inspect for malfunction. Shake door, then lift a few inches to inspect.
Utilize both door handle and grab handle to maintain 3 point contact.
Open door fully, then if safe, release door fully.

Closing. Roll-up doors can exert high force. Important to close safely.
Proper method. Bend at knees. Keep hands and feet out of path of travel. Close door completely before releasing. Use available handles or straps.

Improper. Jumping from trailer while riding door down. (No-no-no) Releasing door before it closes. Not using handles or straps.

Not always possible to close roll-up door from floor level. Sometimes have to close roll-up door while exiting the vehicle. Use 3 point contact, ICC bumper as a step, Control the descent of door until completely closed.

Preferred method to includes using bumper rail of truck to get up into trailer.

----aside----
This module had just enough false leads to make me run through it repeatedly! Wa-a-a!!
----end aside----