Swift - Starting the New Year training with Swift 1/7/13 - A long read...

Interesting movie. Haven't seen that one in a while.

And I would have definitely have liked to show her the QC by way of my lap. Next time I go through there I may go in voluntarily without the green arrow.

 

I'm at the Columbia, NJ T/A on I-80 just over the border from Pennsylvania and the Delaware Water Gap. Got one night of WiFi while I'm eating at Country Pride.

Its been a while since I ate in a restaurant although I did get to grab a pie the other day at the consignee in Jersey City. I couldn't order it the night I arrived as it was Easter Sunday and the evening. So I got a large pie delivered to the consignee in the morning before leaving for the Turnpike service area.

While at the service area I continued to get crazy loads. One was way up in Massachusetts when I have my home time set in the other direction towards Tacoma. I sat in the NJ Turnpike service area for almost two days while I waited to leave on this current load. I do not like that service area. Just feels dirty, its on the middle of the Meadowlands swamps and its run down. I drove north yesterday to grab a shower and maybe a change of scenery at a Pilot. I think it was on hwy 17. I got there around noon and not only was there no parking spaces but there were no showers. They didn't have any showers period. So took that trip for nothing and returned to the service area while my driver mgr tried to get me loads.

I ended up talking to him on the phone and I was getting kind of annoyed. He's a good guy but I don't think he understands how long it takes to get around, especially out here in the congested NYC metro area. He also doesn't truly undestand how hard it is to get parking here. He was basically telling me that I needed to not work loads at 50 mph and that I needed to kind of loosen up my planning a little. He was saying this due to the Mac 9s I sent with adjusted times. I told him that when I'm out west or Midwest, basically almost anywhere outside the northeast I can figure times based on a faster average speed but out here its not possible. The longer the trip, the more miles, the more accurate I can predict arrival times and also I have a higher average speed. But shorter trips, loads out in the northeast or bad weather are going to result in a slower average speed. I just don't think he understands completely. Good guy tho all the same.

The load I got was down near Aberdeen, NJ south of Newark. Live load there, then a stop in Edgewood for another live load then the delivery out in Indiana. I'm behind schedule already. I didn't realize that the 2nd stop was in Long Island over the George Washington Bridge across the very congested and dangerous Cross Bronx Expressway (also known as I-95). I saw two accidents that had just occured - one was a bunch of cars that rear ended each other and the other was a car and semi that merged into each other before the GWB after the toll. What a trafficked mess. Then while we are all cruising packed in like sardines they close the right land for bridge repair and at the last second I notice the morons parked their repair truck sticking out into the right lane, one of only 2 remaining lanes open to traffic. So freaking stupid. I saw an explosion of mirrored glass as the truck in front of me tried to swerve unsuccessfully but his passenger side mirror kissed the repair trucks mirror hard shattering both. I had to swerve into the lane to the left to avoid my truck touching the repair truck sticking out. Unreal. The repair guys had the whole other lane already blocked and they parked their truck in such a way as to make traffic swerve into the only other lane open. Pissed me off.

I originally thought that Edgewood, NY was up near the Catskill Mountains. It wasn't in my Rand McNally atlas so when I plugged it in to my maps app I though it came up as a little west of Kingston, NY. What we call upstate. It was not so very the GWB I went and came back. Miles sucked today as I whittled down my 14 to only 2 hours. I grabbed a spot here at the T/A before it was too late.

I haven't seen many Swift truck going along my route thru NYC today. Not sure why but most of the trucks were s!aller independents. Didn't see many of the mega carriers at all as a matter of fact. I did, however, see a ton of stupid commercial driving. Not sure how some of these guys even have a CDL from what I saw. Makes me nervous parking out here.

The Northeast has a severe shortage of truck services - parking, truck stops, Walmart, showers - everything. For the most congested area of the country and NJ being the most densely populated state, the area where freight needs to move, there is an absence of truck services. Its terrible. I am starting to really hate driving out here and may risk turning down these loads in the future. Once you are out here they try to keep you here. I see why my 1st trainer wanted to tcall our first load in Gary way back when, prior to us getting to NY. Makes sense. As a result of the lack of parking I see trucks parking crazier and crazier out here.

This morning, I woke up at the Vince Lombardi service area to not 1, but 2 trucks double parked in front of and perpendicular to me. The trucks parked against the rear of the trucks in front of me as the night went on and parking was gone. Understood but when I woke up to another truck that looked like he just parked wherever he wanted, perpendicular to mine and all crazy like but double parked and parallel to the other one, there was no room for me to pull out. My impression was that this guy just didn't give a f about anyone to park like that. I got steamed pretty quick. Felt a little bad about it afterwards but not sure if I should. He knew he was blocking all of us in but he needed to shut down. No worries - its your world, I'm just living in it. I banged on his trailer first and gave him about 7 seconds to respond. Then I banged on his sleeper, a little harder than I meant to. Woke him up quick but I wish I didn't have to. And I pounded hard. Part of me just doesn't feel good about it. He wasn't a #### or anything. Then later today at another truck stop I went to a guy parked his truck perpendicular to the pumps, if you can imagine, rendering only 2 of the 5 bays operable as truck traffic backed up out into the street. I almost lost it. I called inside the Pilot and asked them to ask him to move as I didn't feel calm enough to do it myself. Just a lot of behaviors I don't see outside the Northeast. Get me west!

More fun facts...

- Don't use the Vince Lombardi shower stall #5. Water comes out either freezing or near freezing and floor will flood with water ensuring everything you have gets soaked. I was told that it was all state built. Where do the taxes go with such a crap service area?!?

- The toll to cross the GWB alone was $13 per axle! I don't know how o/ops do it.

- there are no scales on Long Island closer to Queens. Not that I found.

- Rush hour over the GBW is all day. Cross in the middle of the night maybe.

- Potholes are everywhere. Plan on an alignment after traveling thru here.

- Truck restrictions are everywhere. No trucks on the Garden State Parkway. Even on the NJ Turnpike there are 4 lanes to the left for cars only and the other side to the right where trucks are permitted has 4 lanes. Trucks only allowed in the 2 right lanes of the 4! So there is a truck restriction within the truck restriction!!

Looking forward to getting out of here.

 

Thankfully it does. I just saw the sign and how much the toll was and my eyes bugged out of my head. Then there's a couple more tolls after that if you're heading into Long Island. I'm curious how much the tolls are for the rig on the NJ Turnpike. Probably not cheap.

 

SoCal is bad sometimes too but I don't seem to mind it as much. I couldn't find anything between L.A. and San Diego one late night. Out here it just feels more congested though and it seems like there's barely any services at all for us.

I'm probably being a big baby as drivers drive this stuff everyday out here but I think I get kind of spoiled out in the west and Midwest with more options. I know I can't nearly run the miles out here like I do out west. Some days I can run nearly my full 11 if I want to out there since I can predict where I'll end up a little better and there are turnouts and such to swing into in the middle of the night.

I know when I got to the NJ Turnpike service area the other day early in the afternoon I had a hard time finding legitimate parking. I grabbed one of the 2 or 3 remaining spots.

Im reluctant to start parking outside the legitimate spots so far. Just don't have the balls for it and I know if I get hit outside of a legit spot Swift may come down on me harder.

 

Speaking of passes I finally have my Kansas and Oklahoma EzPass things mounted. I think the 3 passes now cover every state but Florida. I could be wrong.

 

Ha ha Sussex. I know it pretty well. Have some cousins there and in Sparta. Pretty part of the state.

Now sure if you remember these 2 places:
-Space Farms I think was in Sussex.
- Action Park - the best theme park ever until it closed

And you are right about the cost of real estate. I was thinking about that today when I passed some WaWa's. I was wishing that WaWa would open a chain of truck stops or at least allow truck parking. I love those sandwiches. But why do that when they can fit 3 or 4 cars in the space a truck takes up and theres no guarantee that a truck taking up parking lot space is buying anything. Its just not financially responsible for WaWa. The exception is one WaWa that I found that had a few spots for trucks. I think it was in S. Jersey but I'm not positive.