Well a lot.
I quit today.
I was already thinking of when to quit after I was informed I am scheduled for orientation in Amarillo on Monday. I wanted to get some miles in and have something of a paycheck. But, uh, yea. I'm done with this company and it's lack of commitment to driver safety through having trucks and trailers in good condition - and - not giving a crap really whether it's that way or not.
I mean, after Donny contacted me today, I was already ready to go home anyway. Rene isn't there, he had a seizure - he has them sporadically, some jackass thieves tried to break in after that was over. I'm like, what the heck? He couldn't find my pistol, called the police and whoever they were were gone before police arrived.
__________________________
I started that a few days ago. I got busy. I was supposed to head to Arkansas with a load, but the trailer had bad tires on it. So I contacted the dispatcher - this trailer needs a couple of tires installed on it. Okay, head over to the yard, I'll contact them to let them know you are coming. Cool, I replied, I'll get the truck loaded first. So, truck loaded, I head to; yard. They certainly weren't "ready" for me by any stretch of the imagination. The head mechanic basically told me to wait my turn. Fine, I thought, until i started looking at what they were working on and realized that nothing they were doing was of immediate importance, while what I have going is a load that needs to get on the road.
And after they got done with what they were doing? They went on lunch break. I was astonished. Seriously? The whole lot of you are going to go on lunch break all at once? I thought, didn't say, cause' at that point, I was thinking about simply leaving then and there. I can't deal with a place that operates like this. No wonder trailers have issues, who wants to pull one in there and have to waste that much time of their working day sitting around waiting for these people to get their act together.
So, I'm seriously contemplating just quitting instead of attempting to get a few more days in. I haven't said anything to anyone yet. Then, a dude pulls into the yard in a pickup, gets out, asks what's wrong with the trailer, I point at the dry rotted tires. Oh. I'm new here, in fact, this is my first day. He disappears, comes back and starts removing the tires. About the time, the dispatcher contacts me. Umm, no, I"m over here at the yard, they don't even have the tires off yet. Not to mention I don't see any replacement tires here anywhere. He has a cow, apparently called them because in a few minutes, the whole lot of mechanics came out and started getting busy on my truck.
But it's still taking forever. And, they had to go get the tires? What kind of shop doesn't keep tires there? lol that's when I said screw it. I started getting my stuff ready to go. That took half an hour - figuring out how to get everything that's important to take back with me into my giant suitcase. Good thing I had that thing with me. I left the water bottles, the granola bars, the pillow and the sheets. I might have lost $30 in things, but everything else I got crammed into my suitcase and another very small bag I was carrying with me. I just so happened I was removing my stuff from the truck when they finally told me - 2 hours later (yes, 2 hours to replace 4 tires!), that it was ready to go.
No thanks, I'm quitting this job, y'all can move this truck if you want yourselves. They just stood there staring at me, but I didn't make any fuss, I am out of there. Went into see Dan, the recruiter. Dan doesn't care about you after he has lured you into the place. Which is kind of what I told him. He asked me if I told anyone my concerns. Dan? I have sent you numerous emails, it's all in writing. To the owner as well. Texts and phone calls to my dispatcher. Don't act like you don't know what's going on here.
But, that was obviously going to be a huge waste of time, so I just gave him the phone and the fuel card back, went out front and waited for my Uber ride to take me to a hotel in downtown Jackson, which is right across the street from the bus station. Got there, paid more money for one night's stay than I have done in since I stayed at the Marriot in Scottsdale probably 10 years ago, found a restaurant, ate some dinner, went to my room and relaxed. I decided I wanted to be able to get to the bus station by foot and not have to trust that I could get a ride there from some other motel at that early hour in the morning. Oh, yes, I also got a bus ticket while I was out eating. Between the hotel stay and the bus ride I spent about $200 getting back, so I can't really complain too much about that. Airfare would have been much more expensive than the $71 I paid for the bus ticket and I still would likely have had to spend the night somewhere at a hotel.
Oh, yes, the hotel was the Hilton Rose Garden Inn. It's an old brick building that Hilton apparently dumped a large amount of money into restoring it. It still needs some work, but it is a beautiful structure. Everything there overpriced, of course, so I didn't eat there.
Fitful sleep that night. Too much floating around inside my head. But I did manage to get some shut eye in and figured I would want to sleep on that bus anyway. I hate Greyhounds and this Greyhound trip did nothing to change that view of them. You take the ride because it's cheap, not because you like taking Greyhound busses. The cheapest flight tho that I could find - in a hurry anyway just using some of my favorite flight search engines such as CheapO Air, was $360. Just no way I could justify spending that much money on a short flight.
Yet, the bus was everything I expected. The driver got in the bus, got on the horn and asked nicely for everyone to stop talking for a minute while he explained a few things. The dude sitting behind me was yakking in Spanish incessantly on the phone and paying zero attention. The driver got his mirror, aimed it back at him while moving the bus slowly down the street, please pay attention. Welp, we got to a round-a-bout and the driver stopped. If you don't stop talking I'm going to take you back to the terminal and dump you there. That got his attention. But only enough to decrease his voice volume so the driver couldn't hear him. This man, did, actually, talk for two hours straight. I put on my headphones shortly after the bus driver was done with his announcement, put on a Youtube video that plays the sound of a box fun running and went to sleep.
That is what I do on Greyhounds, I try to sleep through it so I am not in agony listening to other people's phone conversations - people talking obnoxiously loud, as if the entire bus wants to hear your phone conversation. Somewhere mid way through the trip, the bus filled up and i was forced to allow someone to sit next to me. I was fending them off at most stops - not by saying anything but by having all my stuff in the seat next to me, basically sending a message. Welp, this older gentlemen ended up sitting next to me - he smelled horrible. My nose hair curled up into a ball and died. It was disgusting. Okay, I thought, another hour and a half of this and I"m home. I just had to focus on getting there and getting this over with. Just so gross though.
What goes through a person's mind when they are thinking, I"m going to take a trip, but hey, I'm not going to bath or even make any attempt to make myself smell good enough that other passengers won't be grossed out?
We finally pull into Shreveport - the bus driver has the same junk applied to him for a 30 minute break that truck drivers do, so we were forced to take what turned out to be a 45 minute break there. No biggies, at least my nose wasn't being assailed with noxious fumes. Finally back in the bus, same dude sits back down next to me, smell back in my nose. 40 minutes later, I'm standing in the pouring rain waiting for the bus driver to get my bag out from underneath the bus and I couldn't have cared less that I was getting drenched. It was so much better than sitting in that abomination in front of me.
Donny came rolling up in his pickup a few minutes later and I was home in no time. We went out to eat, my treat. Rene isn't here and I sure as heck didn't feel like cooking. Got back from that and I built a nice fire in my brand new fire pit. It was 47 degrees outside, perfect temp to have an outdoor fire going and just sit and meditate. Life was never dealt the "easy" hand to most of us, I'm certainly not outside of that range. It will be years before I have any real money saved up to even being thinking about retiring and that only if my health stays good enough to pass the 2 year physicals. Most of us truck drivers worry about our blood pressure over anything, that's the one that gets a lot of us. I did that the other day and it was at 121 over 71, so that's not bad. Not as good as it could be, but not bad, either. My vision was funny cause one eye 20/20 and the other is 20/30 - yet I still have to use reading glasses. I dunno about the hearing test, hadn't done one of those in decades, actually.
Alright. Well it's 8:00 am. I got up early - I went to bed early yesterday. After the fire, I decided that Greyhound trip was enough for anyone's day, I can't even fathom doing across the country trips. The dude in front of me with his little boy was doing just that. He was obviously weary from being on the bus for a couple of days. If I really had to do an across the nation trip for whatever reason, I would put a flight on my credit card before taking a bus that long, that's all I can say about it. It'd be nice if they would let you purchase 2 seats and just have a whole space for yourself - the price tag would still be far lower than flying.
What i can say is that I am very happy that I'm driving my car to Amarillo on Sunday and not taking any busses. They aren't sending us back in a truck so we have to have our own way there, which is fine by me. Maps says it's over 7 hours. I'll have that whittled down to 6 plus hours for the speed I drive at on Texas Interstates and knowing where the cops hide.
The car needs an oil change and the front brakes replaced. I'm not going to do that today, wait for the temps to warm back up. Ummm, strike that. Just looked, the temps aren't going to warm back up at all. Guess I'll have to sit out there and freeze putting brake pads on. At least I have all the proper equipment now to be able to get it done efficiently. But I need to get over to Longview first and and hand over my newly minted 2 year medical certification to what will be my new manager. I think she has some more forms I need to fill out, too. I'll get that done first and then I'll figure out when I want to do the brakes. Perhaps it will at least warm up this afternoon a bit. I suppose I could get a fire in the pit going and just drag that thing close to where I'm working. Hmm, now that sounds like a great idea : )
I'm really glad, tho, that I have a few days off before starting back into yet another job. I'm going to be in Amarillo for a week "learning" and that is going to get boring. I mean, yes, I'll try my best to stay attentive but class rooms aren't my thing. Or at least, they weren't the last time I was in them. Still, there is likely important info I need to digest in hauling an extremely volatile chemical that can take out a city block if it did happen to somehow blow up, such as in an accident. I have to tell you that I was kind of surprised this company took me on not having any tanker experience whatsoever. I plainly, freely admitted that to the manager and everyone else there. The only "objection" the manager put up was, well, you do know we're hauling highly volatile substance? Are you okay with that? Yes, I'm fine.
I'm a safe driver. I stay in my lane mostly and don't get in a big hurry. I won't have to with this company at 51 cents per mile plus all the other pay that is included. Actually, 1 longer trip per week would be fine by me and have the rest of the week off lol. I know that isn't going to happen, tho. She said you get maybe one good trip a week and a couple shorter ones. Doing that math, that's $1,500 just for the driving, which doesn't include the other pay you get. Just that amount there is 78k per year. Add on the other stuff you're well into the 80k range. If you really want to drive, you can up it from there.
This job I just quit, i was making money, I'm not going to say I wasn't. Just all the stuff that I have already commented on made it a bad place to work. I looked them up yesterday. They have doubled the size of their fleet in a year's time and are looking to double it again. They can't even deal with what they have now, how do they expect to double it again and actually have an efficient operation going? But, I don't care at this point, just musing all the comments I heard from the other drivers in that company, only 1 of which was mildly content working there, the rest had complaints, a few of them "bitter" type of complaints. No need to get bitter, just find yourself another job. There are plenty of them out there. Regardless, even tho i was making money, I wasn't make as much as I'm fixing to start making.
Well, these are my daily musings. Okay, not so much daily. I try to get on here in this circus act that is currently my life and report on the goings-on. I need to get the rent into the bank for the owners of this house and since the fire ban has been lifted, I'm going to get a 3 month burn permit. Not starting that today, but I have no idea whether I will have a chance down the road to get in there. They are only open during bankers hours, basically, I am not exactly in that mix right now.
Addler and Aspyn were greatly happy to see me come home yesterday. Rene is gone, so the caretaker left is Donny. Donny said he looked up Great Danes, because Addler was getting pushy for some of his attention. Yup, they are people dogs. Probably every description you''ll find online will include some statement about how they want to be around people. And they will get pushy for it. And if there isn't anyone around for a long enough period, they will get into trouble. Prince, a Great Dane I used to have, was testament to that. Oh, BTW, the spelling of "Aspyn" is correct. At least, correct for the person the dog is named after, which was not my doings. Aspyn Ovard, I believe is her name, of some fame that I have no knowledge of and don't really care, lol.
Well, it's early yet and I would like to get about the day's business. Likely I'll be back on here writing again later as I collect my thoughts.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Monday, November 6, 2017
The amount of bs it takes to hire on to a new trucking company makes it compelling to simply stay where you are at regardless of how it is.
Well maybe not so much that, if the place you are sucks, you're going to get the high-horse out of there. But it's ridiculous. It's a truck, I'm not flying an airplane and I'm not buying a house.
Let's start at the beginning of this. With this company I am intending on hooking up with. It was a 14 page application on the internet. That's right. Very intrusive, too. I mean, they want to know alot more about you than I think they really need to.
Anyway, I didn't hear from anyone at my current job this morning. I got up at 6:00 am, thinking I was going to get a call or texts with next load instructions. I sat there for a while and decided to take a shower and make a pot of coffee, figured that if I did that, that would somehow cause it to happen, lol.
It did not. So I called the prospective employer and asked what company does their drug screening and DOT phyisical? Good Shepherd Occupational in Longview. A short discussion and I said, okay thanks. I sat and pondered a while. Should I go for it? I mean, while I'm home and this company I am currently working for hasn't bothered to contact me at all? I jumped in the car, drove over to my hopeful new employer. It took her quite a while to go through numerous screens on her computer to select and print, explaining that she has to do this for everyone.
When she finally got through pushing the "print" tab, she got up and went to the next office over. The printer in there. She handed me a pile of paper at least an inch thick. What on earth is all of this? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Oh yes, I had to fill out all of this when I signed on I don't even know how to drive a truck and most of this is for truck drivers!
Yes, of course it is. The most regulated industry in existence, I believe, the amount of bs you have to go through. Well, I had gone there to get the paperwork to go to the DOT testing, but she handed me all of that too. I called the place. We do physical from 8 to 11 and 1 to 3. Ugh, it was almost 11 am. I understood what today was going to be: shit. haha, sometimes I have to laugh at myself. I sat down at a table there - 2 hours to burn to go get the physical, not even knowing if current employer will call or text with - whatever - and spent an entire hour filling out paperwork. Let me tell ya, I don't take my time with that stuff, either. I try to blaze through it - been doing it that way my entire life - and get it over with, meaning that I usually get done with something like that well before most other people would.
Just saying. For it to take me an hour to go through all of that would mean many other people taking an hour and a half or even much longer depending on the person. Ridiculous. They don't need this much information to drive a freaking truck. But I kept my mouth shut about that. I want this job. It will give me the experience driving tankers and extremely volatile, hazardous chemical that will eventually get me to gasoline tankers and home. Home every day type of home. Or maybe I'll get used to it and just stay there. Who knows.
I filled all of that out, handed to her and left. Arriving at the doc office, of course, even more endless paperwork to fill out. I expected it, though. I took a seat after filling it out. A nurse eventually came through the door and called my last name, haha. I was tired. Dunno why but I woke up tired today. And this kind of stuff beats me to death. Paperwork and doctor's offices, a lethal combination.
Pee test. You have to take everything out of your pockets and put it into a basket. People try to get away with drug use by having a bottle of someone else's pee with them. You go into the bathroom. The toilet lid is taped shut. The hot and cold water valves on the sink are taped shut . You can't flush the toilet. The world we live in for urine tests. Then, the lady says, well an audio test and you are done.
Umm, no? I'm here for a DOT physical, this is just the beginning. No, sir, this is all that is on that paperwork. I picked up the paperwork, scanned through it, found where physical was checked off, no ma'am, it says it right here. Oh no! she replies, telling me there is a "pile" more paperwork you will have to fill out. My God in Heaven. And sure enough Pages and pages and pages of more junk.
Ugh. So, somewhere around that time, I finally get contacted by "my" company. It's 2 texts from the dispatcher. Not, hey how are you doing? It's the place where I am going to pickup and the place I am delivering - which I am sitting in their parking lot right now. I did not reply to him right away. If they are going to treat me like that, they are going to get the same treatment back at them. The pickup appointment in Mount Pleasant wasn't until 5pm, which actually helped me because shit was going south here at this doc office. After filling out all of that paperwork, I was taken to a room to wait. And wait. And wait. A doctor finally came in 45 minutes later. Long haired hippie dude, looked like a relic from the 70's. Much older than enough to be from that era.
He started to converse with me about getting this done and then noticed another guy in the room across from me. "You've been here alot longer then him, I need to take care of you first". I'm like, what? Okay, how long is this going to take? I've already been waiting. 30 minutes for him and 30 minutes for you. I can't do that I have to get on the road and get to an appointment on time. He just looks at me. Fine, I'm going to have to finish this some other time
I walked up to the desk, lady asks if she can help me? I don't have time to finish this today. I've already been here an hour and a half for this. That doc told me another hour. I have to go. She says, wait for a minute, let me see if the other doc is available. Well, long story short: other doc shows up, gets it over with in a few minutes, signs off on it Meanwhile, that other doc is still doing whatever with that other guy.
I literally run out of that office to my car. I need to get home, deal with stuff, say goodbye to my dogs and get on the road. Addler has this figured out now and knew right away I was leaving. Starting jumping all over the place and getting all kinds of excited. Donny took me in his pickup up to the truckstop, I wasted no time getting on the road. But it was funny, cause a broker had called and texted me - of which I ignored and the dispatcher also tried to call - of which I also ignored
I got the truck fired up, started rolling. Never did call the dispatcher back - hes ignored me for almost 5 days, let him have a taste of his own medicine. The broker I texted back - 30 minutes later lol.
Anyway, things are moving along. I expect and hope to have landed a new and much better job, but, until I'm told I actually have a job? Nothing is secure. Yet, I was informed of orientation of Monday coming, that I would be paid for my driving there - take my own car which is fine by me, hotel paid for, breakfast at hotel, lunch supplied at orientation and dinner keep a receipt for. It's a week's training, not the two I had originally been told it was by whoever, don't remember now.
I need to get my physical back to the manager. That is the next thing - like tomorrow, if they send me to Lufkin and then up to get a load again in Mount Pleasant? There will be a stop in Longview along the way. I actually considered quitting on this trip, but I think I will get another 900 miles on the "clock" for a paycheck that will help tide me over. I'm 99% certain this job is a done deal for me.
Anyway, it's 12:30 am. I wasn't going to pull out the laptop, but I needed to wind down. I need to get some sleep.
Well maybe not so much that, if the place you are sucks, you're going to get the high-horse out of there. But it's ridiculous. It's a truck, I'm not flying an airplane and I'm not buying a house.
Let's start at the beginning of this. With this company I am intending on hooking up with. It was a 14 page application on the internet. That's right. Very intrusive, too. I mean, they want to know alot more about you than I think they really need to.
Anyway, I didn't hear from anyone at my current job this morning. I got up at 6:00 am, thinking I was going to get a call or texts with next load instructions. I sat there for a while and decided to take a shower and make a pot of coffee, figured that if I did that, that would somehow cause it to happen, lol.
It did not. So I called the prospective employer and asked what company does their drug screening and DOT phyisical? Good Shepherd Occupational in Longview. A short discussion and I said, okay thanks. I sat and pondered a while. Should I go for it? I mean, while I'm home and this company I am currently working for hasn't bothered to contact me at all? I jumped in the car, drove over to my hopeful new employer. It took her quite a while to go through numerous screens on her computer to select and print, explaining that she has to do this for everyone.
When she finally got through pushing the "print" tab, she got up and went to the next office over. The printer in there. She handed me a pile of paper at least an inch thick. What on earth is all of this? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Oh yes, I had to fill out all of this when I signed on I don't even know how to drive a truck and most of this is for truck drivers!
Yes, of course it is. The most regulated industry in existence, I believe, the amount of bs you have to go through. Well, I had gone there to get the paperwork to go to the DOT testing, but she handed me all of that too. I called the place. We do physical from 8 to 11 and 1 to 3. Ugh, it was almost 11 am. I understood what today was going to be: shit. haha, sometimes I have to laugh at myself. I sat down at a table there - 2 hours to burn to go get the physical, not even knowing if current employer will call or text with - whatever - and spent an entire hour filling out paperwork. Let me tell ya, I don't take my time with that stuff, either. I try to blaze through it - been doing it that way my entire life - and get it over with, meaning that I usually get done with something like that well before most other people would.
Just saying. For it to take me an hour to go through all of that would mean many other people taking an hour and a half or even much longer depending on the person. Ridiculous. They don't need this much information to drive a freaking truck. But I kept my mouth shut about that. I want this job. It will give me the experience driving tankers and extremely volatile, hazardous chemical that will eventually get me to gasoline tankers and home. Home every day type of home. Or maybe I'll get used to it and just stay there. Who knows.
I filled all of that out, handed to her and left. Arriving at the doc office, of course, even more endless paperwork to fill out. I expected it, though. I took a seat after filling it out. A nurse eventually came through the door and called my last name, haha. I was tired. Dunno why but I woke up tired today. And this kind of stuff beats me to death. Paperwork and doctor's offices, a lethal combination.
Pee test. You have to take everything out of your pockets and put it into a basket. People try to get away with drug use by having a bottle of someone else's pee with them. You go into the bathroom. The toilet lid is taped shut. The hot and cold water valves on the sink are taped shut . You can't flush the toilet. The world we live in for urine tests. Then, the lady says, well an audio test and you are done.
Umm, no? I'm here for a DOT physical, this is just the beginning. No, sir, this is all that is on that paperwork. I picked up the paperwork, scanned through it, found where physical was checked off, no ma'am, it says it right here. Oh no! she replies, telling me there is a "pile" more paperwork you will have to fill out. My God in Heaven. And sure enough Pages and pages and pages of more junk.
Ugh. So, somewhere around that time, I finally get contacted by "my" company. It's 2 texts from the dispatcher. Not, hey how are you doing? It's the place where I am going to pickup and the place I am delivering - which I am sitting in their parking lot right now. I did not reply to him right away. If they are going to treat me like that, they are going to get the same treatment back at them. The pickup appointment in Mount Pleasant wasn't until 5pm, which actually helped me because shit was going south here at this doc office. After filling out all of that paperwork, I was taken to a room to wait. And wait. And wait. A doctor finally came in 45 minutes later. Long haired hippie dude, looked like a relic from the 70's. Much older than enough to be from that era.
He started to converse with me about getting this done and then noticed another guy in the room across from me. "You've been here alot longer then him, I need to take care of you first". I'm like, what? Okay, how long is this going to take? I've already been waiting. 30 minutes for him and 30 minutes for you. I can't do that I have to get on the road and get to an appointment on time. He just looks at me. Fine, I'm going to have to finish this some other time
I walked up to the desk, lady asks if she can help me? I don't have time to finish this today. I've already been here an hour and a half for this. That doc told me another hour. I have to go. She says, wait for a minute, let me see if the other doc is available. Well, long story short: other doc shows up, gets it over with in a few minutes, signs off on it Meanwhile, that other doc is still doing whatever with that other guy.
I literally run out of that office to my car. I need to get home, deal with stuff, say goodbye to my dogs and get on the road. Addler has this figured out now and knew right away I was leaving. Starting jumping all over the place and getting all kinds of excited. Donny took me in his pickup up to the truckstop, I wasted no time getting on the road. But it was funny, cause a broker had called and texted me - of which I ignored and the dispatcher also tried to call - of which I also ignored
I got the truck fired up, started rolling. Never did call the dispatcher back - hes ignored me for almost 5 days, let him have a taste of his own medicine. The broker I texted back - 30 minutes later lol.
Anyway, things are moving along. I expect and hope to have landed a new and much better job, but, until I'm told I actually have a job? Nothing is secure. Yet, I was informed of orientation of Monday coming, that I would be paid for my driving there - take my own car which is fine by me, hotel paid for, breakfast at hotel, lunch supplied at orientation and dinner keep a receipt for. It's a week's training, not the two I had originally been told it was by whoever, don't remember now.
I need to get my physical back to the manager. That is the next thing - like tomorrow, if they send me to Lufkin and then up to get a load again in Mount Pleasant? There will be a stop in Longview along the way. I actually considered quitting on this trip, but I think I will get another 900 miles on the "clock" for a paycheck that will help tide me over. I'm 99% certain this job is a done deal for me.
Anyway, it's 12:30 am. I wasn't going to pull out the laptop, but I needed to wind down. I need to get some sleep.
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Well.
Got up this morning around 8, shaved, showered the usual stuff.
(though I wish getting up in the morning in a truck would also include that, it normally doesn't).
I was informed that the road test wouldn't be until this afternoon, call the dude this morning. No hurry, tho, to call him. Get a couple of cups of coffee in me as well. But I decided while sipping on the first cup to call.
Yeah, c'mon. Now? Yes, now. Okay. Ann had said you wouldn't be available til' this afternoon. Nope, if this truck has brake problems, I don't know what it is, I want to do the road test with you and see what you think. Okay, well it's gonna take a bit of time to get there. No problem, he replies, I'm here all day today.
I get there. This truck has hoops to go through to turn it on lol. You don't turn the key and it fires up. You have to input a 4 digit code, push a hidden button and then you can turn the key. Okay, I get it: highly volatile chemical trucks, highly explosive chemical, they don't want anyone that comes along to just fire it up and take off with it. Why bother with a key, tho, if you have to input a code?
Nice trucks. I love Peterbilts. Haven't driven one in ages. These are newer and in excellent condition.
They also don't believe in driving around in a truck with issues. They will do whatever it takes to get a truck fixed on the road.
Well anyway, I hooked the tractor up to the tanker, we got in and I pulled around, out of the yard. This was their alleged first hurdle, pulling through that tight corner. Yeah, no biggies there. The next big deal, they claimed, was pulling out onto the main road at the end of the driveway. On both sides of it, concrete drainage ditches. No big deal there, either, ample room to swing out and around.
Then it was railroad tracks. Of course you have to stop and put on the flashers in a hazmat situation. And then, a preplanned exit off the Interstate that curves around sharply and has a guard rail that if you aren't far enough over, you're gonna hit it. Nothing that was presented to me was nothing I haven't faced a 1,000 times before. I'm not saying I'm anything special, any good truck driver would be able to do the same thing.
We got back, instructed to back the trailer anywhere there is a hole. So, I chose the hardest one available. Why? Cause it was nothing compared to backing into a full truck stop where the parking spaces are narrow and you best be good enough to get the thing jacked in there or you're going to be finding yourself looking around the area for a spot to park for the night - which happens anyway when the truck stops are full, but still.
So the guy goes off on how this other driver couldn't even back in there - at all. I'm thinking, if he can't back into a hold that big, he isn't really a truck driver. Yes, you have to totally crank the truck around, yes you kinda have to get it straightened out in good timing, but it's not that hard. It really isn't. A little practice and you get good at it. Still, the hardest part a truck driver has is backing the thing up, after that driving in rush hour traffic.
Anyway, he announced after he got off the phone with the manager that I had passed the road test, get the physical and the drug screening done and you have a job! Alright, so where am I going to find time to stop and get a drug screening and more importantly, where are locations of their preapproved places to get it done? I guess I'll figure that out when Ann calls me and we discuss this next phase. Such a long, drawn out process, tho, to get a job at this place.
That was that. Went out to eat, got a fresh haircut, did some shopping at Walmart before I headed back over here.
This is what this does for me: gives me an out if this company starts hell with me, because honey? I fully expect the s*** to hit the fan this coming week there. I make some statements in text messages to the dispatcher that likely isn't to go over too well. And frankly? I don't give a damn. This company i am at now sucks. It was an out, to get away from an even worse company, but it's not the place I'm going to call home unless some stuff drastically changes - and those changes would have to come immediately.
I have no such expectations of change occurring over night in a company that wants to expand at a rapid pace but doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with it. That is their problem, coupled with the idea of bringing trucks in that need fixed immediately on the road, instead demanding they be driven back in unsafe condition, and further complicated with lies. Trucking company lies.
You know what I did the 3 times I have been at this other place? Talk to whatever drivers were there. I got to talk to 2 drivers that have been there 20 plus years. Man, they had nothing bad to say about the company. One wants out of atruck and into some other role at the place, understandable at his age. The other is retiring next year. The one that is retiring I must have spent an hour talking to.
This wasn't drive over there, take the road test and leave. This was stick around for quite awhile and get into conversations. You have to give some credence to the idea that drivers are content there.
I'm neither looking forward nor dreading this week to come at current company. Let the chips fall where the may. I have no truck quitting that company. None, whatsoever. I just chalk that one up to a reunion with lying trucking companies that will say anything and make any promise you want them to make to get you there. My paycheck next week will be smaller, but I can deal with that.
My only goal in all of this is to get some money saved up and get into a better position for eventual retirement. This company has 401k matching up to 6% which you just can't pass up. Set that sucker at 6% and then save cash in a bank account until there is enough there to invest. I have ideas of starting a business and that is a goal I will be working towards. Meanwhile, pay off my debt, get my credit score at least in the 700 range and position myself for a bit brighter future. Pay the price living in a truck, oh well. If something else comes along, great. In actuality, this job will get me tanker experience and eventually I could land a local gas hauling job that would pay the bills and then some and have me home every night. There is a plan here and getting that hazmat/tanker experience is only done by doing OTR. I haven't found a company yet that is willing to give you a local gig unless you already spent the time on the road first.
There is another aspect of this that will help. Pulling these dry vans is - boring. There is much more appeal going into giant chemical plants then pulling into a newspaper factory that has nothing but - loading docks. Call it strange, but I am much more intrigued by all the processes going on in plants like this. Not to mention the stop is actually paid for, whereas Thursday, I spent 4 plus hours to get unloaded and of course, I get paid nothing for it.
Onto other things. Rene - the lady tenant - took off for Michigan a few hours ago. Currently sitting in DFW. We helped her out. She is terrified of flying. I talked her into it - Greyhound buses are miserable, wretched things that belong in a horror movie. Like riding in hell. I hate those things. She doesn't like them either, with a bit of coaxing I talked her into flying. She had a few drinks after the first flight and proclaimed that this was a "small" jet that only holds 50 people. Yes, the regional flights are smaller, but there are far smaller aircraft than those things. This is likely an Embraer 175. They do the job. Short hops to get you to the main airport.
Anyway, she'll like the 737 better - smoother flight. Not that the Embraer is that bad, but I guess if you don't like flying, that thing does get a little more movement from turbulence. I will miss her cooking and her taking care of my dogs while I"m on the road. She really loves those dogs, which is a plus at this point. The male tenant will take care of them. They''ll at least be fed and let out for potty and roaming the back yard breaks.
I've done a lot of thinking about my current situation. I could have averted all of this if I had simply went back to school. I flirted with the idea for years, but balked at the costs. That was for white collar situations which I probably wouldn't fit into very well, anyway. Then, more recently, I flirted with the idea of going to AC service school. I would probably get into that, even if having to deal with the heat. The mechanics stuff I'm definitely no longer interested in. But, some dude at the age of 53 going to school to start over? Sounds strange, lol. And anyway, it's too late now. Life is more than half over. Well more than half over. I hate being out on the road for extended periods, but it's the only thing I know to make good money.
Which is the biggest reason I am already wanting to switch jobs. This current job is a pile of s*** for so many reasons that I can legitimately say no thanks to it. Soon enough, as long as I pass physical, which I just did 2 months ago so no reason I wouldn't now - I will be on my way to Amarillo, Texas and doing 2 weeks of training. And then, $1,500 per week - more actually - and getting back into much better financial situation. Just going to have to invest in the stuff truckers invest in to keep themselves occupied while driving. Audio books, mostly. Sirius radio - I love to listen to talk radio, can be very stimulating. Face slapper - don't have to buy that. Take hand, slap face, wake up haha
Got up this morning around 8, shaved, showered the usual stuff.
(though I wish getting up in the morning in a truck would also include that, it normally doesn't).
I was informed that the road test wouldn't be until this afternoon, call the dude this morning. No hurry, tho, to call him. Get a couple of cups of coffee in me as well. But I decided while sipping on the first cup to call.
Yeah, c'mon. Now? Yes, now. Okay. Ann had said you wouldn't be available til' this afternoon. Nope, if this truck has brake problems, I don't know what it is, I want to do the road test with you and see what you think. Okay, well it's gonna take a bit of time to get there. No problem, he replies, I'm here all day today.
I get there. This truck has hoops to go through to turn it on lol. You don't turn the key and it fires up. You have to input a 4 digit code, push a hidden button and then you can turn the key. Okay, I get it: highly volatile chemical trucks, highly explosive chemical, they don't want anyone that comes along to just fire it up and take off with it. Why bother with a key, tho, if you have to input a code?
Nice trucks. I love Peterbilts. Haven't driven one in ages. These are newer and in excellent condition.
They also don't believe in driving around in a truck with issues. They will do whatever it takes to get a truck fixed on the road.
Well anyway, I hooked the tractor up to the tanker, we got in and I pulled around, out of the yard. This was their alleged first hurdle, pulling through that tight corner. Yeah, no biggies there. The next big deal, they claimed, was pulling out onto the main road at the end of the driveway. On both sides of it, concrete drainage ditches. No big deal there, either, ample room to swing out and around.
Then it was railroad tracks. Of course you have to stop and put on the flashers in a hazmat situation. And then, a preplanned exit off the Interstate that curves around sharply and has a guard rail that if you aren't far enough over, you're gonna hit it. Nothing that was presented to me was nothing I haven't faced a 1,000 times before. I'm not saying I'm anything special, any good truck driver would be able to do the same thing.
We got back, instructed to back the trailer anywhere there is a hole. So, I chose the hardest one available. Why? Cause it was nothing compared to backing into a full truck stop where the parking spaces are narrow and you best be good enough to get the thing jacked in there or you're going to be finding yourself looking around the area for a spot to park for the night - which happens anyway when the truck stops are full, but still.
So the guy goes off on how this other driver couldn't even back in there - at all. I'm thinking, if he can't back into a hold that big, he isn't really a truck driver. Yes, you have to totally crank the truck around, yes you kinda have to get it straightened out in good timing, but it's not that hard. It really isn't. A little practice and you get good at it. Still, the hardest part a truck driver has is backing the thing up, after that driving in rush hour traffic.
Anyway, he announced after he got off the phone with the manager that I had passed the road test, get the physical and the drug screening done and you have a job! Alright, so where am I going to find time to stop and get a drug screening and more importantly, where are locations of their preapproved places to get it done? I guess I'll figure that out when Ann calls me and we discuss this next phase. Such a long, drawn out process, tho, to get a job at this place.
That was that. Went out to eat, got a fresh haircut, did some shopping at Walmart before I headed back over here.
This is what this does for me: gives me an out if this company starts hell with me, because honey? I fully expect the s*** to hit the fan this coming week there. I make some statements in text messages to the dispatcher that likely isn't to go over too well. And frankly? I don't give a damn. This company i am at now sucks. It was an out, to get away from an even worse company, but it's not the place I'm going to call home unless some stuff drastically changes - and those changes would have to come immediately.
I have no such expectations of change occurring over night in a company that wants to expand at a rapid pace but doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with it. That is their problem, coupled with the idea of bringing trucks in that need fixed immediately on the road, instead demanding they be driven back in unsafe condition, and further complicated with lies. Trucking company lies.
You know what I did the 3 times I have been at this other place? Talk to whatever drivers were there. I got to talk to 2 drivers that have been there 20 plus years. Man, they had nothing bad to say about the company. One wants out of atruck and into some other role at the place, understandable at his age. The other is retiring next year. The one that is retiring I must have spent an hour talking to.
This wasn't drive over there, take the road test and leave. This was stick around for quite awhile and get into conversations. You have to give some credence to the idea that drivers are content there.
I'm neither looking forward nor dreading this week to come at current company. Let the chips fall where the may. I have no truck quitting that company. None, whatsoever. I just chalk that one up to a reunion with lying trucking companies that will say anything and make any promise you want them to make to get you there. My paycheck next week will be smaller, but I can deal with that.
My only goal in all of this is to get some money saved up and get into a better position for eventual retirement. This company has 401k matching up to 6% which you just can't pass up. Set that sucker at 6% and then save cash in a bank account until there is enough there to invest. I have ideas of starting a business and that is a goal I will be working towards. Meanwhile, pay off my debt, get my credit score at least in the 700 range and position myself for a bit brighter future. Pay the price living in a truck, oh well. If something else comes along, great. In actuality, this job will get me tanker experience and eventually I could land a local gas hauling job that would pay the bills and then some and have me home every night. There is a plan here and getting that hazmat/tanker experience is only done by doing OTR. I haven't found a company yet that is willing to give you a local gig unless you already spent the time on the road first.
There is another aspect of this that will help. Pulling these dry vans is - boring. There is much more appeal going into giant chemical plants then pulling into a newspaper factory that has nothing but - loading docks. Call it strange, but I am much more intrigued by all the processes going on in plants like this. Not to mention the stop is actually paid for, whereas Thursday, I spent 4 plus hours to get unloaded and of course, I get paid nothing for it.
Onto other things. Rene - the lady tenant - took off for Michigan a few hours ago. Currently sitting in DFW. We helped her out. She is terrified of flying. I talked her into it - Greyhound buses are miserable, wretched things that belong in a horror movie. Like riding in hell. I hate those things. She doesn't like them either, with a bit of coaxing I talked her into flying. She had a few drinks after the first flight and proclaimed that this was a "small" jet that only holds 50 people. Yes, the regional flights are smaller, but there are far smaller aircraft than those things. This is likely an Embraer 175. They do the job. Short hops to get you to the main airport.
Anyway, she'll like the 737 better - smoother flight. Not that the Embraer is that bad, but I guess if you don't like flying, that thing does get a little more movement from turbulence. I will miss her cooking and her taking care of my dogs while I"m on the road. She really loves those dogs, which is a plus at this point. The male tenant will take care of them. They''ll at least be fed and let out for potty and roaming the back yard breaks.
I've done a lot of thinking about my current situation. I could have averted all of this if I had simply went back to school. I flirted with the idea for years, but balked at the costs. That was for white collar situations which I probably wouldn't fit into very well, anyway. Then, more recently, I flirted with the idea of going to AC service school. I would probably get into that, even if having to deal with the heat. The mechanics stuff I'm definitely no longer interested in. But, some dude at the age of 53 going to school to start over? Sounds strange, lol. And anyway, it's too late now. Life is more than half over. Well more than half over. I hate being out on the road for extended periods, but it's the only thing I know to make good money.
Which is the biggest reason I am already wanting to switch jobs. This current job is a pile of s*** for so many reasons that I can legitimately say no thanks to it. Soon enough, as long as I pass physical, which I just did 2 months ago so no reason I wouldn't now - I will be on my way to Amarillo, Texas and doing 2 weeks of training. And then, $1,500 per week - more actually - and getting back into much better financial situation. Just going to have to invest in the stuff truckers invest in to keep themselves occupied while driving. Audio books, mostly. Sirius radio - I love to listen to talk radio, can be very stimulating. Face slapper - don't have to buy that. Take hand, slap face, wake up haha
Friday, November 3, 2017
Done with this company. Every trailer I pick up has issues with it. They are notified of the issues and they aren't dealt with. ABS light, a bald or half flat tire, wheel damage from dragging tandems over curbs on full weight, etc. Tell the lead mechanic about an issue with a trailer and he just looks at you funny. WTH.
_____________________________
Yesterday. I roll into Lufkin at 1:15 pm. Contact my dispatcher via text. They want us to let them know when we arrive and when we leave. I guess a few hours later I texted him again. And then again. And again. No reply to any of it. I was there 4 plus hours to get unloaded, even though I was there before the appointment time.
With no response from the dispatcher and him not answering his phone, either, I went the Love's 2 miles up the road to get fuel. 20 minutes to get any dispatcher to answer the phone on numerous phone calls. Finally, okay, well I need the fuel card turned on and btw? Jay isn't answer his phone or replying to text messages, what am I supposed to do next? Long interval. This lady didn't know, she contacted the dispatcher who talked to the manager and they said I could spend the night at home. Okay. She said, then after that, maybe have you get a load in Mount Pleasant (maybe 70 minute drive from here) to deliver on Monday. Fine by me.
So, I go home. This morning, I wake up around 6:41 am. I'm not calling them again, this time, they can respond to either my text messages or they can call me. We aren't going to continue to play this game. Nothing. I went about my business, bank, cell phone shop, fire department to try and get a burn permit. Permits not available because there is a burn ban - though it's been raining on and off all week. Whatever. Can I send a request through the mail? No. Well this is my only day off, can I just get the permit and I won't do anything until the ban is lifted? No. Fine, I"ll just burn the leaves when the ban is lifted and y'all can do whatever you want.
It's 2:30 pm. I went to Applebee's to get their lunch special. Not bad, got a club sandwich. Finally, I get a text from a dispatcher who says he is helping my dispatcher (who is obviously overloaded with too many drivers and can't keep up with all of it, especially after telling me this week he gets 300 text messages a day and as many phone calls - how can anyone deal with all of that? Answer and obvious: he can't). So this dude Chris is telling me to roll up to Mount Pleasant today, get loaded and deliver on Sunday? lolololol.
I wrote him back a lengthy text message right away. No thanks, I am refusing this load. This company promised me weekends off. I worked 6 straight days last week until 9:00 pm Saturday night. You are contacting me 21 HOURS after I contacted y'all? And you think I'm workiing on the weekend? No. If this company has an issue with this, please have Douglass ( the owner of the company and the person who initially made the promises followed by the recruiter who backed it up) call me. The truck is parked and I have no intention of getting back into it until Monday morning.
Guess what? It's almost an hour and a half later and no reply. Shocking! I'll quit the company even if I don't have another job secured before I cave into this bs. We had an agreement, it's obviously not even being considered - at all - and I'm done with it. This is the way trucking companies used to be when I was last in this game. I had no idea that this was still going on. I have all of this stuff on my Iphone - the texts and a log of when I called. I mean, this dispatcher told me yesterday that I would load today and take it in Monday and then they come back and change that plan and think I'm working on a Sunday?!!!
Ha!! Good luck with that. I'll be happy to take that truck back to their yard, park it and get my last paycheck on Monday if it comes down to it. They are growing the number of trucks and drivers the have long before they have the office structure in place to deal with it. And they want to double the number of trucks they have by this time next year? To further this, I have been talking with other drivers as I encounter them from this company. Lies. All of them have been made promises the company didn't keep. And then the mechanical issues, an old truck that smells like an ashtray and the situation with them having me drive over 600 miles with a huge air leak.
______________________
3 hours later, I texted this dude back again. "So I don't get any kind of reply from anyone. Classic".
This dude Chris finally replies: "This is Chris. I have forwarded all these messages to Jay". What hoopdee doo. Forward them to the owner of the company, a manager, someone that is actually going to see it and - make a determination one way or the other. I don't even care what happens at this point. Just another lying trucking company, promise the world, deliver you a sewage treatment plant.
Meanwhile, I got a call back from Ann at the other place. Truck will be there tomorrow to get the brakes fixed. After the mechanic is done fixing it, that truck will be available to use for a driving test. Wish me luck. Though I'm driving every day, lol. You never know, tho, what nuances a trucking company wants to see when you are driving and I am going to spend a few minutes refreshing myself on hazmat driving. Stop at all railroad crossings of course, but there may be other things I don't even know about. It's on the net, I'm sure of it.
_____________________________
Yesterday. I roll into Lufkin at 1:15 pm. Contact my dispatcher via text. They want us to let them know when we arrive and when we leave. I guess a few hours later I texted him again. And then again. And again. No reply to any of it. I was there 4 plus hours to get unloaded, even though I was there before the appointment time.
With no response from the dispatcher and him not answering his phone, either, I went the Love's 2 miles up the road to get fuel. 20 minutes to get any dispatcher to answer the phone on numerous phone calls. Finally, okay, well I need the fuel card turned on and btw? Jay isn't answer his phone or replying to text messages, what am I supposed to do next? Long interval. This lady didn't know, she contacted the dispatcher who talked to the manager and they said I could spend the night at home. Okay. She said, then after that, maybe have you get a load in Mount Pleasant (maybe 70 minute drive from here) to deliver on Monday. Fine by me.
So, I go home. This morning, I wake up around 6:41 am. I'm not calling them again, this time, they can respond to either my text messages or they can call me. We aren't going to continue to play this game. Nothing. I went about my business, bank, cell phone shop, fire department to try and get a burn permit. Permits not available because there is a burn ban - though it's been raining on and off all week. Whatever. Can I send a request through the mail? No. Well this is my only day off, can I just get the permit and I won't do anything until the ban is lifted? No. Fine, I"ll just burn the leaves when the ban is lifted and y'all can do whatever you want.
It's 2:30 pm. I went to Applebee's to get their lunch special. Not bad, got a club sandwich. Finally, I get a text from a dispatcher who says he is helping my dispatcher (who is obviously overloaded with too many drivers and can't keep up with all of it, especially after telling me this week he gets 300 text messages a day and as many phone calls - how can anyone deal with all of that? Answer and obvious: he can't). So this dude Chris is telling me to roll up to Mount Pleasant today, get loaded and deliver on Sunday? lolololol.
I wrote him back a lengthy text message right away. No thanks, I am refusing this load. This company promised me weekends off. I worked 6 straight days last week until 9:00 pm Saturday night. You are contacting me 21 HOURS after I contacted y'all? And you think I'm workiing on the weekend? No. If this company has an issue with this, please have Douglass ( the owner of the company and the person who initially made the promises followed by the recruiter who backed it up) call me. The truck is parked and I have no intention of getting back into it until Monday morning.
Guess what? It's almost an hour and a half later and no reply. Shocking! I'll quit the company even if I don't have another job secured before I cave into this bs. We had an agreement, it's obviously not even being considered - at all - and I'm done with it. This is the way trucking companies used to be when I was last in this game. I had no idea that this was still going on. I have all of this stuff on my Iphone - the texts and a log of when I called. I mean, this dispatcher told me yesterday that I would load today and take it in Monday and then they come back and change that plan and think I'm working on a Sunday?!!!
Ha!! Good luck with that. I'll be happy to take that truck back to their yard, park it and get my last paycheck on Monday if it comes down to it. They are growing the number of trucks and drivers the have long before they have the office structure in place to deal with it. And they want to double the number of trucks they have by this time next year? To further this, I have been talking with other drivers as I encounter them from this company. Lies. All of them have been made promises the company didn't keep. And then the mechanical issues, an old truck that smells like an ashtray and the situation with them having me drive over 600 miles with a huge air leak.
______________________
3 hours later, I texted this dude back again. "So I don't get any kind of reply from anyone. Classic".
This dude Chris finally replies: "This is Chris. I have forwarded all these messages to Jay". What hoopdee doo. Forward them to the owner of the company, a manager, someone that is actually going to see it and - make a determination one way or the other. I don't even care what happens at this point. Just another lying trucking company, promise the world, deliver you a sewage treatment plant.
Meanwhile, I got a call back from Ann at the other place. Truck will be there tomorrow to get the brakes fixed. After the mechanic is done fixing it, that truck will be available to use for a driving test. Wish me luck. Though I'm driving every day, lol. You never know, tho, what nuances a trucking company wants to see when you are driving and I am going to spend a few minutes refreshing myself on hazmat driving. Stop at all railroad crossings of course, but there may be other things I don't even know about. It's on the net, I'm sure of it.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
And sure enough, I made it home tonight. I don't expect more than the 10 hour break, that's fine. I pushed it to get here tho. Too many obstacles seem to get in the way more often than not in attempting to get some intended schedule accomplished.
The funniest thing was this plant manager this morning. Didn't actually slow me down from doing anything, but she apparently had a melt down that I was parked - where all the rest of the trucks are parked - but sleeping there. Hey lady?!! Do you have the same disdain for the product we are bringing you that keeps your plant running? Cause without it, this plant shuts down!
I don't get the hatred fro trucks. Never have. Yes, they can be slow. Yes, they get in your damned way. Yes they have to do things in traffic that car drivers think is outrageous. But I don't see anyone complaining about full grocery stores, Walmarts, Home Depots, etc etc etc ad infinitum. I really would love to see the entire trucking industry shut down for about 4 days. That would be long enough to disrupt the wheels of the economy to the point of near chaos in the public sector. This nation simply doesn't work without trucks and people to drive them.
And the thing is, because so many places don't want trucks there - except of course to make deliveries - and so many communities all over the nation have extreme restrictions on where trucks can park, the truck stops are always full. Any truck stop at this time of night is going to be filled to the brim. This is why you see trucks parked on the on ramps to highways, they couldn't find anywhere else to park.
I was taken by surprise coming into the truckstop where I park my truck to come home tonight. It was full. This is a dirt lot, full of holes and gaps where the dirt is gone and you are bouncing all over the place. Yet, it is a place to park. There is no asphalt, there are no lines for parking, it's just a s***hole. BUT, it's a place to park, and when you are tired and your work day is over, you don't want ot spend a bunch of time looking for a parking space.
But I need to drive my car around this coming weekend - providing I actually get the entire weekend - and see if I can find anywhere where I can park the truck or go in and ask if I can park it there. Or even find a place where I can park my car so I don't have to call Donny to come get me.
Anyway, the last 100 miles was pouring rain. In and of it self, not a big deal. But because people freak out and have no idea how to drive in the rain, it escalates it to challenging driving conditions. People only really need to understand: slippery when wet, longer braking distance and most importantly: Hydroplaining. You can always tell, hard to describe but yes, trucks can hydroplane as much as small cars. Weight doesn't affect that. Just let off the accelerator.
Okay exhaustion just set in. I was up driving until 2:00 am last night and now it's hitting me.
The funniest thing was this plant manager this morning. Didn't actually slow me down from doing anything, but she apparently had a melt down that I was parked - where all the rest of the trucks are parked - but sleeping there. Hey lady?!! Do you have the same disdain for the product we are bringing you that keeps your plant running? Cause without it, this plant shuts down!
I don't get the hatred fro trucks. Never have. Yes, they can be slow. Yes, they get in your damned way. Yes they have to do things in traffic that car drivers think is outrageous. But I don't see anyone complaining about full grocery stores, Walmarts, Home Depots, etc etc etc ad infinitum. I really would love to see the entire trucking industry shut down for about 4 days. That would be long enough to disrupt the wheels of the economy to the point of near chaos in the public sector. This nation simply doesn't work without trucks and people to drive them.
And the thing is, because so many places don't want trucks there - except of course to make deliveries - and so many communities all over the nation have extreme restrictions on where trucks can park, the truck stops are always full. Any truck stop at this time of night is going to be filled to the brim. This is why you see trucks parked on the on ramps to highways, they couldn't find anywhere else to park.
I was taken by surprise coming into the truckstop where I park my truck to come home tonight. It was full. This is a dirt lot, full of holes and gaps where the dirt is gone and you are bouncing all over the place. Yet, it is a place to park. There is no asphalt, there are no lines for parking, it's just a s***hole. BUT, it's a place to park, and when you are tired and your work day is over, you don't want ot spend a bunch of time looking for a parking space.
But I need to drive my car around this coming weekend - providing I actually get the entire weekend - and see if I can find anywhere where I can park the truck or go in and ask if I can park it there. Or even find a place where I can park my car so I don't have to call Donny to come get me.
Anyway, the last 100 miles was pouring rain. In and of it self, not a big deal. But because people freak out and have no idea how to drive in the rain, it escalates it to challenging driving conditions. People only really need to understand: slippery when wet, longer braking distance and most importantly: Hydroplaining. You can always tell, hard to describe but yes, trucks can hydroplane as much as small cars. Weight doesn't affect that. Just let off the accelerator.
Okay exhaustion just set in. I was up driving until 2:00 am last night and now it's hitting me.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
So. Yesterday, I go down to Lufkin to get the truck unloaded. Welp, 6 other trucks ahead of me, informed by other drivers that some of them had been there 3 hours. Geeze. Wish I had known that before I went down there, I would have just stayed home a couple more hours. But, it was "only" 2 plus hours later and my truck was unloaded.
But you see, in this world of trucking, they dump you with your next load long, for the most part, long before you are even unloaded with the current load, sometimes before you even get to the destination to do the unloading. Which in my view is dumb. Because, stuff like this comes up. They make these appointments for the next trip which are totally unattainable because of the holdups at the docks. Same yesterday.
I was sent a text message from the dispatcher saying appointment for next pickup is at 4:00 pm. I looked at the clock, it was 4:08 pm, still hadn't gotten unloaded yet, showed up there half an early to boot. So I lol'ed back at him. Dude, I'm not even done here yet, how can you send me an appointment that has already passed? Not to mention this appointment is 132 miles away! Whatever the case, I shot straight up the the flour plant in Mount Pleasant, they got the truck loaded quckly. It was late, not many trucks there. Then I did the math. No way on earth to take a 10 required break and get there in time to get unloaded. But, the 10 hour break was a given, I had to do it.
So, I drove straight there, all 357 miles of it, until 2:00 am. I had the truck unloaded early - like 2 hours before the appointment time, which was fine by me. Cheating a bit, not really supposed to be doing anything truck related while on your off time, but the Feds can go crank it. They continue to come up with ridiculous rules that dump on everyone for the actions of a few. The Hours of Service is the biggest contention with truck drivers you will find with any of them. If you have been out here a while, you can remember back to simpler days without much Federal intrusion.
Anyway, the fun part is sitting here for hours. There are no stores so I can neither buy anything to eat nor fill up the truck. I've got about 40 minutes left before the clock starts fresh again, I have the next load given to me at a place about 100 miles from here, I'll be stopping for fuel and food shortly after I leave here and....true to their word....they gave me a load taking me by the house and a delivery appointment time back in Lufkin that means I can take my 10 hour break at home. Thank you.
In reality, I would have been able to do that last night if I hadn't been held up at that loading dock in Lufkin for so long. Ample time would have been given to get loaded, get home, get up in the morning and drive over here, not having to spend 10 hours in the truck in a parking lot. Oh well. At least they are trying to fulfill their word, I'll give them that.
Last week's work period over, I should have another healthy paycheck coming this week.
And, I am still on the hunt for that elusive tanker job. Can't take a road test when there isn't a truck to take one with. Okay.
And it feels good to pay almost all of my bills and have money left over in the bank. At this rate, that leftover portion will grow and grow until it's more like a sizeable chunk of change versus "leftovers". I have heard nothing from anyone about the old job. Everyone that has left has completely washed their hands of the place - like a living hell over there. I sometimes think about how it would have been nice if I could have stayed on - with good management. But I will never miss that ahole boss and the miserable working conditions he created there not to mention cutting back our hours for the sake of corporate.
Anyway, I guess I'd best get off of here, get my paperwork settled and get ready to move out of this place as soon as the clock resets.
But you see, in this world of trucking, they dump you with your next load long, for the most part, long before you are even unloaded with the current load, sometimes before you even get to the destination to do the unloading. Which in my view is dumb. Because, stuff like this comes up. They make these appointments for the next trip which are totally unattainable because of the holdups at the docks. Same yesterday.
I was sent a text message from the dispatcher saying appointment for next pickup is at 4:00 pm. I looked at the clock, it was 4:08 pm, still hadn't gotten unloaded yet, showed up there half an early to boot. So I lol'ed back at him. Dude, I'm not even done here yet, how can you send me an appointment that has already passed? Not to mention this appointment is 132 miles away! Whatever the case, I shot straight up the the flour plant in Mount Pleasant, they got the truck loaded quckly. It was late, not many trucks there. Then I did the math. No way on earth to take a 10 required break and get there in time to get unloaded. But, the 10 hour break was a given, I had to do it.
So, I drove straight there, all 357 miles of it, until 2:00 am. I had the truck unloaded early - like 2 hours before the appointment time, which was fine by me. Cheating a bit, not really supposed to be doing anything truck related while on your off time, but the Feds can go crank it. They continue to come up with ridiculous rules that dump on everyone for the actions of a few. The Hours of Service is the biggest contention with truck drivers you will find with any of them. If you have been out here a while, you can remember back to simpler days without much Federal intrusion.
Anyway, the fun part is sitting here for hours. There are no stores so I can neither buy anything to eat nor fill up the truck. I've got about 40 minutes left before the clock starts fresh again, I have the next load given to me at a place about 100 miles from here, I'll be stopping for fuel and food shortly after I leave here and....true to their word....they gave me a load taking me by the house and a delivery appointment time back in Lufkin that means I can take my 10 hour break at home. Thank you.
In reality, I would have been able to do that last night if I hadn't been held up at that loading dock in Lufkin for so long. Ample time would have been given to get loaded, get home, get up in the morning and drive over here, not having to spend 10 hours in the truck in a parking lot. Oh well. At least they are trying to fulfill their word, I'll give them that.
Last week's work period over, I should have another healthy paycheck coming this week.
And, I am still on the hunt for that elusive tanker job. Can't take a road test when there isn't a truck to take one with. Okay.
And it feels good to pay almost all of my bills and have money left over in the bank. At this rate, that leftover portion will grow and grow until it's more like a sizeable chunk of change versus "leftovers". I have heard nothing from anyone about the old job. Everyone that has left has completely washed their hands of the place - like a living hell over there. I sometimes think about how it would have been nice if I could have stayed on - with good management. But I will never miss that ahole boss and the miserable working conditions he created there not to mention cutting back our hours for the sake of corporate.
Anyway, I guess I'd best get off of here, get my paperwork settled and get ready to move out of this place as soon as the clock resets.
Monday, October 30, 2017
I'm standing true to my word and not watching NFL games at all, until this idiocy of kneeling and pumped fists and such is done away with.
However, I am definitely watching the World Series and what a hoot that game was last night!
Kept me up a bit later than I wanted to be up, but worth it - well I think worth until I have to get on the road later on today lol.
But I only have a 93 mile trip down to Lufkin so I can rest for a while after I get there if need be. Likely will get sent up to Mount Pleasant to load and then over to a place not far from Jackson, MS to deliver it - a giant Koch foods plant. Now I understand how these Koch brothers got so rich - they don't have small facilities and every one of them I have been in has hundreds and hundreds of cars parked in employee parking lots. Huge facilities - one of them stinks badly, would have to work there. Well I wouldn't work there anyway for I am sure the pay isn't all that great for the blue collar workers.
Meanwhile, the rats are trying to come into the house in a mass attempt to get out of the cold. I have been buying glue traps like crazy and yes, they are catching those nasty vermin, even the big ones. They get so stuck in the glue there is almost no way off of it. Sometimes they wiggle their way off, but usually those glue traps are their demise. However, there are creatures in the ceiling, I can hear them and they sound bigger than rats. Possibly raccoons also attempting to get out of the cold. I figure that I am going to have to have a rodent exterminator come out here, crawl up in there, find out where they're coming in at and seal it all up. Probably won't be cheap, either, but we can't have rodents tearing up the attic. They can tear up a lot of stuff, including electrical wires and cables running through there.
Meanwhile, next weekend the lady tenant is off to Michigan. Near Detroit. I bought her the ticket - she made enough of a commotion about needing to go that I finally just broke down and put it on the credit card. Just paid $200 of it, the other guy in the house said he was going to pay the rest of it. These folks are on fixed incomes - she is on a very small budget. She has a friend up there that was diagnosed with ALS and the husband you best come now if you want to talk to her while she's still coherent. Her family is also up there so she's going on a 10 day visit around the area.
Fortunately for me, the guy in the house said he would deal with my dogs. Otherwise I would be looking for someone to come and tend to them at the house - or worse, have to put them up in a kennel. Which would be very costly and not really good for dog psyche. Welp, no need to go to Walmart for a bag for my toiletries, found the one mom gave me last time I saw her and packed it all up into there. I might could get one for dirty clothes, but plastic trash bags will work for that for now. I'm still sorting out whether I want to do this job or not. If they could get me home pretty frequently as they are now claiming, it wouldn't be much different than going to work in the morning and coming home at night.
I mean, before the new manager came in and changed our hours, I was getting up at 5:20 am to be at work by 7 am. There was 38 miles of driving either way. Got home normally around 5:45 or so, depending on traffic and some days much later on runs that kept me out later. So there's 12 hours of every day that was consumed by work. If I thought I was leaving this afternoon and coming home tonight, I wouldn't even be stressing about this. But I know that isn't going to happen because I am starting the work day too late. However, I should be home tomorrow or at the latest Wednesday. I don't know how they want to work this out, but they reassured me with confidence that they would be able to do so.
I am not going to count whatever I get to do after this load today for this since it is so late in the day and I don't mind. I do mind not getting home on Friday night or at the latest, Saturday morning. That was some bs right there and I was starting to get agitated Saturday evening attempting to beat the clock to get home in time. Not to mention I didn't want to drive over 600 miles on a Saturday. Get me my work during the week, get me the miles and then, get me home. This is what we agreed upon.
Well hey, the dispatcher called. Asked if I had my 34 reset? yup, that occurred at 5 am this morning. That's when you stop for 34 hours and the 60 hour clock starts over again. Basically, you start a fresh work week with that being done. Otherwise, I think you just don't get any more hours. I'm not sure about that one since I didn't have to worry about that on my previous job. We were off every weekend and we were subject to different rules since we were a "local" type operation that doesn't even need to have log books kept. Anyway, kept any hostilities out of the conversation, excepting that Saturday, I drove over 600 miles and was 6 minutes from going over hours when I finally pulled into the yard.
I don't have to tell him now. He knows I am not happy about that. But, if it looks like a repeat this coming weekend, I will say something on Thursday about it. That's when you figure out whether you're going to make it home or not. I might not be too objectionable to working til Saturday morning this week since I'm starting late today - but then again, none of this was of any fault of my own. So, maybe just take less miles for this week and get a bit smaller paycheck. I think 2,500 miles per week is the minimum they want us to drive. At over 600 miles per day, that is pretty easy. Plus the new work week doesn't actually start with this company until Tuesday. Any work you get down before Tuesday goes on the previous week's miles. So, the delivery today will count for last week, which means I am close to 3,500 miles for the week, which is a healthy, nice paycheck.
However, if I don't have time to spend it, what good is it? Hmmm, not a terribly bright statement, i guess, considering the debt I am in and now going to start paying it off. Which started earlier. I paid all my credit card bills this morning and applied an extra $200 to the Capital one card that I have racked up so much on. 10 months of that will get me in the hundreds of dollars range owed on that particular card and then i can start working on another one. I'd really like to get about $1,500 in debt paid down quickly, tho, to get my credit score back up.
Well, ending this one. I still have stuff to get done before I leave and I need to get to the truck early so I can get it situated with clean sheets for the bed and such.
However, I am definitely watching the World Series and what a hoot that game was last night!
Kept me up a bit later than I wanted to be up, but worth it - well I think worth until I have to get on the road later on today lol.
But I only have a 93 mile trip down to Lufkin so I can rest for a while after I get there if need be. Likely will get sent up to Mount Pleasant to load and then over to a place not far from Jackson, MS to deliver it - a giant Koch foods plant. Now I understand how these Koch brothers got so rich - they don't have small facilities and every one of them I have been in has hundreds and hundreds of cars parked in employee parking lots. Huge facilities - one of them stinks badly, would have to work there. Well I wouldn't work there anyway for I am sure the pay isn't all that great for the blue collar workers.
Meanwhile, the rats are trying to come into the house in a mass attempt to get out of the cold. I have been buying glue traps like crazy and yes, they are catching those nasty vermin, even the big ones. They get so stuck in the glue there is almost no way off of it. Sometimes they wiggle their way off, but usually those glue traps are their demise. However, there are creatures in the ceiling, I can hear them and they sound bigger than rats. Possibly raccoons also attempting to get out of the cold. I figure that I am going to have to have a rodent exterminator come out here, crawl up in there, find out where they're coming in at and seal it all up. Probably won't be cheap, either, but we can't have rodents tearing up the attic. They can tear up a lot of stuff, including electrical wires and cables running through there.
Meanwhile, next weekend the lady tenant is off to Michigan. Near Detroit. I bought her the ticket - she made enough of a commotion about needing to go that I finally just broke down and put it on the credit card. Just paid $200 of it, the other guy in the house said he was going to pay the rest of it. These folks are on fixed incomes - she is on a very small budget. She has a friend up there that was diagnosed with ALS and the husband you best come now if you want to talk to her while she's still coherent. Her family is also up there so she's going on a 10 day visit around the area.
Fortunately for me, the guy in the house said he would deal with my dogs. Otherwise I would be looking for someone to come and tend to them at the house - or worse, have to put them up in a kennel. Which would be very costly and not really good for dog psyche. Welp, no need to go to Walmart for a bag for my toiletries, found the one mom gave me last time I saw her and packed it all up into there. I might could get one for dirty clothes, but plastic trash bags will work for that for now. I'm still sorting out whether I want to do this job or not. If they could get me home pretty frequently as they are now claiming, it wouldn't be much different than going to work in the morning and coming home at night.
I mean, before the new manager came in and changed our hours, I was getting up at 5:20 am to be at work by 7 am. There was 38 miles of driving either way. Got home normally around 5:45 or so, depending on traffic and some days much later on runs that kept me out later. So there's 12 hours of every day that was consumed by work. If I thought I was leaving this afternoon and coming home tonight, I wouldn't even be stressing about this. But I know that isn't going to happen because I am starting the work day too late. However, I should be home tomorrow or at the latest Wednesday. I don't know how they want to work this out, but they reassured me with confidence that they would be able to do so.
I am not going to count whatever I get to do after this load today for this since it is so late in the day and I don't mind. I do mind not getting home on Friday night or at the latest, Saturday morning. That was some bs right there and I was starting to get agitated Saturday evening attempting to beat the clock to get home in time. Not to mention I didn't want to drive over 600 miles on a Saturday. Get me my work during the week, get me the miles and then, get me home. This is what we agreed upon.
Well hey, the dispatcher called. Asked if I had my 34 reset? yup, that occurred at 5 am this morning. That's when you stop for 34 hours and the 60 hour clock starts over again. Basically, you start a fresh work week with that being done. Otherwise, I think you just don't get any more hours. I'm not sure about that one since I didn't have to worry about that on my previous job. We were off every weekend and we were subject to different rules since we were a "local" type operation that doesn't even need to have log books kept. Anyway, kept any hostilities out of the conversation, excepting that Saturday, I drove over 600 miles and was 6 minutes from going over hours when I finally pulled into the yard.
I don't have to tell him now. He knows I am not happy about that. But, if it looks like a repeat this coming weekend, I will say something on Thursday about it. That's when you figure out whether you're going to make it home or not. I might not be too objectionable to working til Saturday morning this week since I'm starting late today - but then again, none of this was of any fault of my own. So, maybe just take less miles for this week and get a bit smaller paycheck. I think 2,500 miles per week is the minimum they want us to drive. At over 600 miles per day, that is pretty easy. Plus the new work week doesn't actually start with this company until Tuesday. Any work you get down before Tuesday goes on the previous week's miles. So, the delivery today will count for last week, which means I am close to 3,500 miles for the week, which is a healthy, nice paycheck.
However, if I don't have time to spend it, what good is it? Hmmm, not a terribly bright statement, i guess, considering the debt I am in and now going to start paying it off. Which started earlier. I paid all my credit card bills this morning and applied an extra $200 to the Capital one card that I have racked up so much on. 10 months of that will get me in the hundreds of dollars range owed on that particular card and then i can start working on another one. I'd really like to get about $1,500 in debt paid down quickly, tho, to get my credit score back up.
Well, ending this one. I still have stuff to get done before I leave and I need to get to the truck early so I can get it situated with clean sheets for the bed and such.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
I'm trying to get a grasp on a more positive outlook of what has been going on with this company, or if nothing else, my state of mind, but geeze. The dispatcher said they'd get me unloaded by 11am.
Look, I was in Batesville, MS last night. That's as far as I could get from Columbus, Ohio in one day's driving. It rained for half the trip and people don't drive very well in the rain. I was pushing it, tho. I stopped once to take mandatory 30 minute break and fuel, that was it. I drove the rest of the time until my hours were up.
Truckers don't have mileage limits, they have a clock. Start the clock on electronic logging and there is no shutting it off. You are burning up that clock regardless of what you are doing. Of course, 14 hours is plenty of working hours in a day, but it forces truckers to keep going. Instead of being able to take a sleeper berth and extend that 14 hours, the ELD doesn't care. It's an electroni contraption that just says well, you turned me on, if ya want to get the miles in, you're going to have push your self for your 11 hours driving time. This is why owner operators are staging protests. The FMCSA is a group of people that think they know what's best for truckers, when in reality, they don't know anything. At all. A bunch of "minds" coming together saying, well, one thing happened here, so we are going to enact new rules against everyone - instead of targeting the one driver that did something stupid.
It's ridiculous. I've pretty much come to hate the trucking industry for the Fed rules. I haven't looked up to see yet if they did away with this unbelievable idea to implement a rule that you can't even talk on a phone, with a headset, hands free. How did all of us truckers survive before all of this regulation? Oh, yeah, we can rub our bellies and heads at the same time.
Whatever, I'm ranting, but I've been in the industry for a long, long time, so I figure I have 25 cents worth of input. I put in 660 miles yesterday, the only thing I'm complaining about is not getting home on Friday. In fact, I didn't get home until 2 hours ago - at 7 pm. That's on a Saturday. I've been living in that truck for 6 full days. Do you know what it feels like to come home? I already knew this about myself when I applied for this job, I don't do OTR.
Anyway, I got up 15 minutes before I could get on that clock again this morning. Got a coffee, got in the truck and drove - straight through - to Hattiesburg, MS. I got there at 9 am, they said I missed my appointment so I'll have to wait. Yes, that appointment was originally set at 5:00 am. It was abandoned when the dock worker decided to spend 3 hours unloading 2 trucks. This guy has personal issues, 2cd time I've encountered him, grow up. He's probably in his 50's, he acts like a 5 year that didn't sleep well last night.
That 3 hours cost me. I got to the pickup place for the next load and they were closed. Which meant spending the night in an industrial park I found - the only truckstop I could find in that town was a Pilot and it was totally full- very small, and drivers going around in circles looking for a place to park. No thanks. I drove a mile down the road and found unlimited parking. 500 feet from a restaurant - with very good food I might add. There are alternatives to truckstops - and much better alternatives. In fact, I'm sure a person could get rich coming up with an app that shows truckers alternate parking areas that are close to the amenities they are looking for.
Well anyway. I spent 4 hours - 4 full hours - waiting to get unloaded at a Sam's club Distribution Denter because of all that junk in Ohio - of no fault of my own. NONE. I watched at least 30 trucks come in, go into the same office I did, get their dock, get unloaded and leave. I went in to the office after a while of sitting in that truck and found they had a 44 inch flat screen turned on with college football playing. Better than that truck, I can guarantee ya that. It was 3 plus solid hours before they got me onto a dock. And then, I had to unhitch the tractor and go wait somewhere else for them to unload.
That was a shocking thing that took me by surprise once I got into this stuff - back into this stuff I should say. You don't just open the doors and back up to a loading dock any more. There are varying degrees of security in place now. Red and green blinking lights. Red - don't move your truck, please. Chalk your wheels. Pull the red air hose off your trailer? Wow. That was a new one. I finally asked at a place: you must have had some truck drivers pulling out before the unloading or loading was complete? Oh yes.
I find it amazing how all truck drivers are forced to pay for the infractions of a few. At several places, now, I have had to get out of the truck, stand at a door and give them the key to the truck to place in a lockbox. And last time, it was freezing cold out there. Y'all can come up with all the rules you want, but if your dumb @$$es are going to make EVERYONE pay for it like that, provide us a place out of the elements, thanks.
But, it is a sign of the times. I'm watching behavior in truckstops that is unfathomable. On the roads as well. I'm becoming accustomed - slowly - at looking at asphalt and concrete replete with white and yellow lines all day long. Yes, folks, the trucking industry is not an industry of professionals anymore. It's any moron that wants to take up a company on their "train and drive contract. I had a Werner truck "change lanes" on me today - he cut me off with maybe 5 feet of room. I mean, I was approaching him in the passing lane, going much faster than him, this dude just comes over. When I finally am passing by him? Waving at me. I had no such gestures back at him. This is dangerous driving, I could have and probably should have reported him, but I had a clock sitting in front of my face.
And that clock? Was counting down to zero quickly. When I got to the truckstop in my town, the clock had 6 minutes left on it. I had already decided long before I got there that I would go over hours to get to the truckstop and get home. After the way I was treated this week? Yeah, don't care. Fire me if you like.
Anyway, I'll find out quickly next week if their promise of getting me home frequently actually comes to fruition. But really. Doesn't it make more sense to go after the money while I still can? I'm taking that driving test tomorrow no matter how burned out I am. Coming home was a breath of fresh air today. Finally out of that damned truck. It's a piece of junk tho, definitely. One of those new, fancy things would be much more amenable, as I was "informed" that I would be getting within the next 3 months. Whatever.
The guy is going to call me tomorrow. I'm figuring on going to bed soon, actually. It's almost 10 pm and I want to be rested for a driving test. I guess I don't need to be tho, I've driven 12,000 miles in the last month, not like I don't know what I'm doing. But it still kinda makes you nervous having someone scrutinizing your performance.
________________________________
I'ts now late Sunday morning. I didn't get a call from that guy, I assume there is no truck available to take the road test. Which is actually quite fine by me, I'm exhausted. I need a day to recoup. Driving 37 miles over to that town, getting in that truck and performing a road test isn't high on my list of things to do today. I am going to very nicely but bluntly ask that I be home Friday night, Saturday morning at the latest next weekend. I need the time to get stuff done around the house and the time on Sunday, especially, to rest, relax, do whatever I want and recoup. The only consolation I got was that I don't have to get up in the wee hours of Monday morning. Tomorrow I leave at around 1 pm to get to Lufkin for a delivery, after that, I will see if they are going to hold true to their word. My idea was trips to Grenada, MS, turn around and head to Lufkin and then back up to my town for 10 hour off. That wouldn't work every day, but it would get me back at least a couple times a week. 4 of those trips a week would be well over the 3,000 mile limit they want you to reach.
Tho there are drivers at 2,500 miles per week that they apparently are comfortable with as well. I was also informed of another individual that wants to be home more often and they have him doiong turn arounds such as what I was thinking for the Lufkin run. They have 8 loads a day going there, one of them can be mine every time. But they also have other stuff going on in this area, it doesn't have to be limited to any one thing, just keep me coming and going around here so I can get home, thanks. I like sleeping in my bed, the dogs went plum crazy yesterday when I walked through the door for I had been gone so long.
Addler is giving me the looks today. He knows I am going to leave again, he just doesn't know when. Not today, buddy, not today.
So, that's that. Now I have to go out and spend a couple of hours going to stores. Also not big on my list of things I want to do. Honestly? I just want to lay in bed and sleep today. That's how I feel, especially after yesterday. That was a very long day.
Look, I was in Batesville, MS last night. That's as far as I could get from Columbus, Ohio in one day's driving. It rained for half the trip and people don't drive very well in the rain. I was pushing it, tho. I stopped once to take mandatory 30 minute break and fuel, that was it. I drove the rest of the time until my hours were up.
Truckers don't have mileage limits, they have a clock. Start the clock on electronic logging and there is no shutting it off. You are burning up that clock regardless of what you are doing. Of course, 14 hours is plenty of working hours in a day, but it forces truckers to keep going. Instead of being able to take a sleeper berth and extend that 14 hours, the ELD doesn't care. It's an electroni contraption that just says well, you turned me on, if ya want to get the miles in, you're going to have push your self for your 11 hours driving time. This is why owner operators are staging protests. The FMCSA is a group of people that think they know what's best for truckers, when in reality, they don't know anything. At all. A bunch of "minds" coming together saying, well, one thing happened here, so we are going to enact new rules against everyone - instead of targeting the one driver that did something stupid.
It's ridiculous. I've pretty much come to hate the trucking industry for the Fed rules. I haven't looked up to see yet if they did away with this unbelievable idea to implement a rule that you can't even talk on a phone, with a headset, hands free. How did all of us truckers survive before all of this regulation? Oh, yeah, we can rub our bellies and heads at the same time.
Whatever, I'm ranting, but I've been in the industry for a long, long time, so I figure I have 25 cents worth of input. I put in 660 miles yesterday, the only thing I'm complaining about is not getting home on Friday. In fact, I didn't get home until 2 hours ago - at 7 pm. That's on a Saturday. I've been living in that truck for 6 full days. Do you know what it feels like to come home? I already knew this about myself when I applied for this job, I don't do OTR.
Anyway, I got up 15 minutes before I could get on that clock again this morning. Got a coffee, got in the truck and drove - straight through - to Hattiesburg, MS. I got there at 9 am, they said I missed my appointment so I'll have to wait. Yes, that appointment was originally set at 5:00 am. It was abandoned when the dock worker decided to spend 3 hours unloading 2 trucks. This guy has personal issues, 2cd time I've encountered him, grow up. He's probably in his 50's, he acts like a 5 year that didn't sleep well last night.
That 3 hours cost me. I got to the pickup place for the next load and they were closed. Which meant spending the night in an industrial park I found - the only truckstop I could find in that town was a Pilot and it was totally full- very small, and drivers going around in circles looking for a place to park. No thanks. I drove a mile down the road and found unlimited parking. 500 feet from a restaurant - with very good food I might add. There are alternatives to truckstops - and much better alternatives. In fact, I'm sure a person could get rich coming up with an app that shows truckers alternate parking areas that are close to the amenities they are looking for.
Well anyway. I spent 4 hours - 4 full hours - waiting to get unloaded at a Sam's club Distribution Denter because of all that junk in Ohio - of no fault of my own. NONE. I watched at least 30 trucks come in, go into the same office I did, get their dock, get unloaded and leave. I went in to the office after a while of sitting in that truck and found they had a 44 inch flat screen turned on with college football playing. Better than that truck, I can guarantee ya that. It was 3 plus solid hours before they got me onto a dock. And then, I had to unhitch the tractor and go wait somewhere else for them to unload.
That was a shocking thing that took me by surprise once I got into this stuff - back into this stuff I should say. You don't just open the doors and back up to a loading dock any more. There are varying degrees of security in place now. Red and green blinking lights. Red - don't move your truck, please. Chalk your wheels. Pull the red air hose off your trailer? Wow. That was a new one. I finally asked at a place: you must have had some truck drivers pulling out before the unloading or loading was complete? Oh yes.
I find it amazing how all truck drivers are forced to pay for the infractions of a few. At several places, now, I have had to get out of the truck, stand at a door and give them the key to the truck to place in a lockbox. And last time, it was freezing cold out there. Y'all can come up with all the rules you want, but if your dumb @$$es are going to make EVERYONE pay for it like that, provide us a place out of the elements, thanks.
But, it is a sign of the times. I'm watching behavior in truckstops that is unfathomable. On the roads as well. I'm becoming accustomed - slowly - at looking at asphalt and concrete replete with white and yellow lines all day long. Yes, folks, the trucking industry is not an industry of professionals anymore. It's any moron that wants to take up a company on their "train and drive contract. I had a Werner truck "change lanes" on me today - he cut me off with maybe 5 feet of room. I mean, I was approaching him in the passing lane, going much faster than him, this dude just comes over. When I finally am passing by him? Waving at me. I had no such gestures back at him. This is dangerous driving, I could have and probably should have reported him, but I had a clock sitting in front of my face.
And that clock? Was counting down to zero quickly. When I got to the truckstop in my town, the clock had 6 minutes left on it. I had already decided long before I got there that I would go over hours to get to the truckstop and get home. After the way I was treated this week? Yeah, don't care. Fire me if you like.
Anyway, I'll find out quickly next week if their promise of getting me home frequently actually comes to fruition. But really. Doesn't it make more sense to go after the money while I still can? I'm taking that driving test tomorrow no matter how burned out I am. Coming home was a breath of fresh air today. Finally out of that damned truck. It's a piece of junk tho, definitely. One of those new, fancy things would be much more amenable, as I was "informed" that I would be getting within the next 3 months. Whatever.
The guy is going to call me tomorrow. I'm figuring on going to bed soon, actually. It's almost 10 pm and I want to be rested for a driving test. I guess I don't need to be tho, I've driven 12,000 miles in the last month, not like I don't know what I'm doing. But it still kinda makes you nervous having someone scrutinizing your performance.
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I'ts now late Sunday morning. I didn't get a call from that guy, I assume there is no truck available to take the road test. Which is actually quite fine by me, I'm exhausted. I need a day to recoup. Driving 37 miles over to that town, getting in that truck and performing a road test isn't high on my list of things to do today. I am going to very nicely but bluntly ask that I be home Friday night, Saturday morning at the latest next weekend. I need the time to get stuff done around the house and the time on Sunday, especially, to rest, relax, do whatever I want and recoup. The only consolation I got was that I don't have to get up in the wee hours of Monday morning. Tomorrow I leave at around 1 pm to get to Lufkin for a delivery, after that, I will see if they are going to hold true to their word. My idea was trips to Grenada, MS, turn around and head to Lufkin and then back up to my town for 10 hour off. That wouldn't work every day, but it would get me back at least a couple times a week. 4 of those trips a week would be well over the 3,000 mile limit they want you to reach.
Tho there are drivers at 2,500 miles per week that they apparently are comfortable with as well. I was also informed of another individual that wants to be home more often and they have him doiong turn arounds such as what I was thinking for the Lufkin run. They have 8 loads a day going there, one of them can be mine every time. But they also have other stuff going on in this area, it doesn't have to be limited to any one thing, just keep me coming and going around here so I can get home, thanks. I like sleeping in my bed, the dogs went plum crazy yesterday when I walked through the door for I had been gone so long.
Addler is giving me the looks today. He knows I am going to leave again, he just doesn't know when. Not today, buddy, not today.
So, that's that. Now I have to go out and spend a couple of hours going to stores. Also not big on my list of things I want to do. Honestly? I just want to lay in bed and sleep today. That's how I feel, especially after yesterday. That was a very long day.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Well, I pretty much let them have it last night and going on into today.
I got stuck in Ohio overnight, which meant not getting home today and then finding
out that instead of dropping the load at the yard, I have to take it clear down to Hattiesburg.
I drove almost 700 miles today to try and get this stuff done so I can actually make it home tomorrow. I''m 244 miles from there, drove out all my hours to get as far as I could, including driving 4 hours in pounding rain with stupid drivers who haven't got a clue.
I swear. Some of these people out there. I got stuck behind a driver in the passing lane who was just hanging out there - for at least 30 miles. I couldn't get past him. Well, I finally did get a break and passed him on the right. There were cars lined up so far behind me I couldn't see the end of it because of this person. Then, later on, I got stuck behind yet another one of these. When an opportunity finally availed itself, this jackass sped up, of course, to try and stop me from passing. But by then, I was clear of Memphis traffic and it didn't matter anymore. He eventually fell back behind me - yes, still in the passing lane.
It's 100 miles from Hattiesburg to the yard, 247 miles to home from the yard. That's a total of 591 miles I have to drive tomorrow to get home. Is it possible in 11 hours? Yes. Will it happen? No clue. If traffic is good and no slow downs, I'll get home. If there is any kind of back up that takes an hour or more, probably not. then I will be fuming mad. I mean, I will be making even more phone calls. And demanding time off during the week. If they fuss about it, I'll drive that truck back to their yard and they can have it. I'm at the end of this, I've had enough.
Anyway, the deal with home time turns out to be that neither the owner of the company nor the recruiter ever let dispatch department know about my desires. I talked at length with my dispatcher today about it, this thing went the rounds over there. My letter to the owner of the company and my rather turbulent and long text messages to the dispatcher resulted in promises. That is, "we have 8 loads a day, at least, going to Lufkin". We can't get you home every night, but we can definitely get you home several nights a week. We didn't shit about this and that is squarely on the feet of the owner and the orientation dude.
I have written Mr. Orientation. I'm not gonna dump on him too bad though. His mom just died and they doctors are telling him "something is wrong with his pancreas", but they won't identify it until they get all their tests done. I feel bad for him. Pancreas problems are no laughing matter.
Anyway, I have these promises but yet, I face tomorrow wondering if I'll even get home on Saturday. I'ma try real hard, I can tell ya that. Time to go to bed, get up at 4 am and finish this drive to Hattiesburgh.
I got stuck in Ohio overnight, which meant not getting home today and then finding
out that instead of dropping the load at the yard, I have to take it clear down to Hattiesburg.
I drove almost 700 miles today to try and get this stuff done so I can actually make it home tomorrow. I''m 244 miles from there, drove out all my hours to get as far as I could, including driving 4 hours in pounding rain with stupid drivers who haven't got a clue.
I swear. Some of these people out there. I got stuck behind a driver in the passing lane who was just hanging out there - for at least 30 miles. I couldn't get past him. Well, I finally did get a break and passed him on the right. There were cars lined up so far behind me I couldn't see the end of it because of this person. Then, later on, I got stuck behind yet another one of these. When an opportunity finally availed itself, this jackass sped up, of course, to try and stop me from passing. But by then, I was clear of Memphis traffic and it didn't matter anymore. He eventually fell back behind me - yes, still in the passing lane.
It's 100 miles from Hattiesburg to the yard, 247 miles to home from the yard. That's a total of 591 miles I have to drive tomorrow to get home. Is it possible in 11 hours? Yes. Will it happen? No clue. If traffic is good and no slow downs, I'll get home. If there is any kind of back up that takes an hour or more, probably not. then I will be fuming mad. I mean, I will be making even more phone calls. And demanding time off during the week. If they fuss about it, I'll drive that truck back to their yard and they can have it. I'm at the end of this, I've had enough.
Anyway, the deal with home time turns out to be that neither the owner of the company nor the recruiter ever let dispatch department know about my desires. I talked at length with my dispatcher today about it, this thing went the rounds over there. My letter to the owner of the company and my rather turbulent and long text messages to the dispatcher resulted in promises. That is, "we have 8 loads a day, at least, going to Lufkin". We can't get you home every night, but we can definitely get you home several nights a week. We didn't shit about this and that is squarely on the feet of the owner and the orientation dude.
I have written Mr. Orientation. I'm not gonna dump on him too bad though. His mom just died and they doctors are telling him "something is wrong with his pancreas", but they won't identify it until they get all their tests done. I feel bad for him. Pancreas problems are no laughing matter.
Anyway, I have these promises but yet, I face tomorrow wondering if I'll even get home on Saturday. I'ma try real hard, I can tell ya that. Time to go to bed, get up at 4 am and finish this drive to Hattiesburgh.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Well here we did away with another day.
got up at 5, got on the road at 5:30, went at it until 7:00.
Messed up tho. The dispatcher started loading me up with stops long
before the truck was out of the shop. He had been told it would take "about 3 hours". Well that's nice, but the reality of mechanics is it will take as long as it takes. And it took much longer than 3 hours.
So what to say. I'm looking at an hour of drive time available, the first pickup is 45 minutes away and that doesn't include getting through the gate, getting the truck loaded and getting out of there. I would have had to spend the night at that place.
Which might not have been a big deal, but I hadn't had anything to eat all day long besides a couple of granola bars. So, I opted to go to a truck stop and get something to eat. I got over there early and found out their machinery had malfunctioned and they wouldn't have been able to load me last night anyway. But this dispatcher didn't understand that, even tho I put it plainly in writing. Why? It's becoming obvious he doesn't read my texts. He also doesn't answer the phone. I tried calling him twice today to get the fuel card turned on to fuel up the truck. I finally just called the main number some dude got on the line that I have never spoken to and said, Ben B!!! How may I help you? I can't say that the trucking industry hasn't modernized itself and has all the latest gadgets.
Well, I need the fuel card turned on, I'm just wasting time here. I sent 2 text messages to my dispatcher an hour ago to please turn it on, no reply. I tried calling him twice, no answer. Oh yes, we need to get you on down the road! He went into this long diatribe while turning the fuel card on, just a talker I guess. Thank you sir, I'm out. Was my reply.
257 gallons of fuel later, I had to park and take the mandatory fed 30 minute break. I just about fell asleep too, good thing I didn't. I might have slept for hours lol. I drove out the rest of my hours, got to some town near Nashville at a Love's Travel Center - this one turned out to be a very nice facility. I got my free shower, I was amazed at the room. It isn't just a shower and a toilet, it's a huge room with a large bench seat, a sink with mirror and a toilet. Ample room, rather spacious indeed. I was in there for the better part of an hour. Just felt like home. Oh, at Love's the showers are free for pumping X amount of fuel, which I had done 3-1/2 hours earlier Next month, if I'm here which I'm sure I will be since it's almost the end of the month, I will go to Diamond status with Love's which means all kinds of freebies and perks. Like, 4 points for every gallon pumped. It spends like cash in the store.
Every fill up will be almost $9 worth of points. Free refills every time you go in there. 4 free Fastpasses per month - meaning you get all 18 tires checked for free.
I have no idea what to do now. Go with the other company that pays so much more? But not have guaranteed weekends off? Continue to bug Saia about a job there? Home every night? Stay with this company with the promise of, if nothing else, a newer or even brand new truck? With Direct TV and a 22 inch TV installed in the sleeper? Not going to complain about my checks here. I dunno what these other guys are getting paid, but I was astounded to hear one of them complaining about pay. If you are doing 3,000 miles per week, you are going to have a healthy paycheck. $1,500 gross pay anyway.
Well whatever. I'm just passing a few more minutes here until I need to go to bed. It's 6 hours to Columbus, Ohio and then this dispatcher really needs to get me a delivery going back to or beyond - west - my town. If he gets me back to Jackson, I wont' be home until Saturday. And that isn't going to set well with me. After the air leak fiasco, I'm no holds barred at this point. Let them know exactly how I feel, even if they don't give two s**** about it. No surprise if I quit and go somewhere else. The route to home doesn't even take me through Mississippi, I'll just wait and see what happens.
Well that 's it for today. I spent several hours talking on the phone today. Had given up on phone calls until now. I got time, lol, I got a headset. I listen to whatever talk shows that come on the radio, but that isn't a granted, many times you are in places that don't have them. Today it was the people running my house in Phoenix. The guy portion of the deal was who I was talking to and he went on, and on, and on. It was cool, tho, I had forgotten how much deference they give me for anything and everything. I don't criticize him at all, on anything, I just listen and say cool, great job, stuff like that. If my pay holds out - regardless of who I'm working for - they will get a rent free month in December, which is my yearly gift to them.
Anyway, I do have a potential road test on Saturday. I say potential cause' I'll be there whether they have a truck or not, unless they call in advance and tell me - we don't have a truck available. They have plenty of these specialized trailers, they have no extra tractors. I was already informed if they hire me they will have to rent me a tractor until they get more new ones in - which are on order. Of course, I won't get a new one lolol. That will go to the tenured drivers but rightfully so. When I say tenured, I'm talking people that have been driving for that company for 15, 20 25 years.
G'nite.
got up at 5, got on the road at 5:30, went at it until 7:00.
Messed up tho. The dispatcher started loading me up with stops long
before the truck was out of the shop. He had been told it would take "about 3 hours". Well that's nice, but the reality of mechanics is it will take as long as it takes. And it took much longer than 3 hours.
So what to say. I'm looking at an hour of drive time available, the first pickup is 45 minutes away and that doesn't include getting through the gate, getting the truck loaded and getting out of there. I would have had to spend the night at that place.
Which might not have been a big deal, but I hadn't had anything to eat all day long besides a couple of granola bars. So, I opted to go to a truck stop and get something to eat. I got over there early and found out their machinery had malfunctioned and they wouldn't have been able to load me last night anyway. But this dispatcher didn't understand that, even tho I put it plainly in writing. Why? It's becoming obvious he doesn't read my texts. He also doesn't answer the phone. I tried calling him twice today to get the fuel card turned on to fuel up the truck. I finally just called the main number some dude got on the line that I have never spoken to and said, Ben B!!! How may I help you? I can't say that the trucking industry hasn't modernized itself and has all the latest gadgets.
Well, I need the fuel card turned on, I'm just wasting time here. I sent 2 text messages to my dispatcher an hour ago to please turn it on, no reply. I tried calling him twice, no answer. Oh yes, we need to get you on down the road! He went into this long diatribe while turning the fuel card on, just a talker I guess. Thank you sir, I'm out. Was my reply.
257 gallons of fuel later, I had to park and take the mandatory fed 30 minute break. I just about fell asleep too, good thing I didn't. I might have slept for hours lol. I drove out the rest of my hours, got to some town near Nashville at a Love's Travel Center - this one turned out to be a very nice facility. I got my free shower, I was amazed at the room. It isn't just a shower and a toilet, it's a huge room with a large bench seat, a sink with mirror and a toilet. Ample room, rather spacious indeed. I was in there for the better part of an hour. Just felt like home. Oh, at Love's the showers are free for pumping X amount of fuel, which I had done 3-1/2 hours earlier Next month, if I'm here which I'm sure I will be since it's almost the end of the month, I will go to Diamond status with Love's which means all kinds of freebies and perks. Like, 4 points for every gallon pumped. It spends like cash in the store.
Every fill up will be almost $9 worth of points. Free refills every time you go in there. 4 free Fastpasses per month - meaning you get all 18 tires checked for free.
I have no idea what to do now. Go with the other company that pays so much more? But not have guaranteed weekends off? Continue to bug Saia about a job there? Home every night? Stay with this company with the promise of, if nothing else, a newer or even brand new truck? With Direct TV and a 22 inch TV installed in the sleeper? Not going to complain about my checks here. I dunno what these other guys are getting paid, but I was astounded to hear one of them complaining about pay. If you are doing 3,000 miles per week, you are going to have a healthy paycheck. $1,500 gross pay anyway.
Well whatever. I'm just passing a few more minutes here until I need to go to bed. It's 6 hours to Columbus, Ohio and then this dispatcher really needs to get me a delivery going back to or beyond - west - my town. If he gets me back to Jackson, I wont' be home until Saturday. And that isn't going to set well with me. After the air leak fiasco, I'm no holds barred at this point. Let them know exactly how I feel, even if they don't give two s**** about it. No surprise if I quit and go somewhere else. The route to home doesn't even take me through Mississippi, I'll just wait and see what happens.
Well that 's it for today. I spent several hours talking on the phone today. Had given up on phone calls until now. I got time, lol, I got a headset. I listen to whatever talk shows that come on the radio, but that isn't a granted, many times you are in places that don't have them. Today it was the people running my house in Phoenix. The guy portion of the deal was who I was talking to and he went on, and on, and on. It was cool, tho, I had forgotten how much deference they give me for anything and everything. I don't criticize him at all, on anything, I just listen and say cool, great job, stuff like that. If my pay holds out - regardless of who I'm working for - they will get a rent free month in December, which is my yearly gift to them.
Anyway, I do have a potential road test on Saturday. I say potential cause' I'll be there whether they have a truck or not, unless they call in advance and tell me - we don't have a truck available. They have plenty of these specialized trailers, they have no extra tractors. I was already informed if they hire me they will have to rent me a tractor until they get more new ones in - which are on order. Of course, I won't get a new one lolol. That will go to the tenured drivers but rightfully so. When I say tenured, I'm talking people that have been driving for that company for 15, 20 25 years.
G'nite.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Today was hellish for me.
For some reason, I could not sleep last night. I went to bed at 9 pm, woke up at midnight and that was it for sleep for me. I did every trick I know to get back to sleep - I was getting up at 3am to get to a delivery appointment in Oklahoma City by 9am. No dice. I fell back asleep right near the end, fell into a deep sleep at that, which is when one of my tenants came and knocked on the door - time to get up!
I had told him I needed to leave at 3 am. It was 2:40 am, he thought I mean be AT the truckstop by 3. Doesn't matter, 20 minutes wasn't going to change anything. But I felt like HELL on feet. My head was banging and I was exhausted. I didn't have time to take a shower or anything. I spend a couple of minutes with Adler - he hates when I leave - and got my stuff going and got out of there.
But this was bad the way I was feeling. Like no way I am going to driving anything anywhere in this condition. So, my tenant left - very nice of him to take me, btw, in the middle of the night, I didn't complain to him at all lol - I got in the truck and yes, I crawled in the sleeper. I didn't care if I made the appointment late. The dispatcher is giving me these deliveries to unload after a weekend at a time schedule I don't want to keep. I don't want to get up at 3 am, or last Sunday, 2 am or the Sunday before that, 12am! to be at a delivery by an appointed time. If it has to be there that early, give it to someone that lives over there.
I laid in that sleeper for 2 hours and still felt like crap when I forced myself up and got behind the steering wheel. I was really just wanting daylight. When I am that tired, the only thing that really helps enough to keep me awake is sunlight. Whatever. I got to the drop place in Oklahoma City 2-1/2 hours late and I simply didn't care. The truck has all kinds of issues, I'm not a freaking robot, I'm going to get my sleep and still, I will get up early, but not THAT early. Screw this stuff. I felt bad most of the day. I had to stop twice on the way to Ok City and take short naps. That's how bad it was. If they don't like my performance, so beit. It's no sweat off my back, I am back to fully looking for another job.
And btw. That job I applied for right after I got on with this company? Called me today. I was too grumpy and too tired and too exhausted to take anyone's calls, I let it go through to voicemail. But, this guy left a message: Hi ben, this is so and so from Saia and I am looking to set up an interview with your for the job you applied for. Heck ya! And no, I didn't call him back today. I want to be on point for any communications with any potential company, today was the Monday from hell, I just wasn't going to risk a potential job offer because my mind is sluggish and not thinking crisply.
I freely admit that this OTR junk is not for me. But, this wasn't supposed to be an OTR gig, they just didn't tell the truth and that is that. Here is the recruiter's reply to my email over the weekend, well part of his reply anyway: "Hey Ben, I had an emergence issue on Friday which required me to be admitted in the hospital. Ben I’m sorry for any confusion on the home time! We try to get everyone home for weekend and any truck issue’s you have it’s to be reported to Jay or Marcus."
At this point, I apologize for the cussing in advance. Confusion my ass. His statement to me was, "We'll make our best effort to get you home frequently" after bringing up the conversation I had had with the owner of the company, because I would have just continued looking for a new job. This guy is full of shit. I'm not going to stay with this company, I am at least 90% convinced of that. Between this bs and the issues of the truck. \
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Heck, I didn't even get to the issues with the truck yet. The freaking thing started leaking two fold more air pressure out the bottom of the air bags than what it was doing on Friday. I'm in OK city, responding to emails from the director of the maintenance department - who had been forwarded my email to the recruiter. This thing, if inspected, would get this truck put out of service, I would be issued a ticket and have to pay a fine, was my response to him and my response over the weekend to all of them. This guy was, please get the truck back to the shop ASAP so we can fix it.
What the HELL kind of trucking company wants their trucks driving down the road with air dumping out of the system at a rate that that truck's air compressor is having a hard time keeping up with it? To save them money my ASS. No reputable company does that. They find the nearest service place and you go there, they pay them and it's done, over with.
So whatever. If Saia wants me, they'll have me. It's a very decent hourly wage to start an
home every night and NO weekend work. If not, the other place definitely wants me. It's100k per year but it's a life on the road. The drivers, though, are quite happy there and that is a big plus. They say it isn't living on the road all the time, I understand that all the trucks have to come back there after every trip, but still, you are on the road quite a bit. I could, tho, invest in a lot of mind stimulating stuff for the road if I got a job like that. Well, I could and would do that now with this job but I don't feel like I'm going to be spending too much time with this company.
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I'm already making waves. I make no apologies. If something isn't right, speak up about it. Don't sit in silence and expect the world is going to see what is going on with you. They won't, and the company won't. As I said when I got hired on here, I'm not married to this company. This is, in reality, regional work. It's actually OTR with home on the weekends. I don't give a shit about this place now, they have fully reneged on their statements, they don't care about operating equipment that is - dangerous in some respects to use, tho I am keeping my eyes on the air gauges now the entire time I am driving - and they figure you are what? Nothing. This is the way trucking companies operate. Much of nothing changes. The place in Longview, from what I have witnessed in their operations with other drivers, is a class act. Well it should be if the stuff you are hauling can take out a city block in an explosion!
Okay, I am admittedly doing nothing to help me get to sleepy mode. But it's only 8:45 and I need not get up until 5:30 am. Really, if i was to do this forever? yes, I want a truck that has Direct TV and a flat screen tv mounted into it. I want a double bunker so I can at least try taking my dog with me once.
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That was yesterday. Today, I got up, got a cup of coffee at the truckstop I was at, got in the truck and drove for 6-1/2 hours without stopping. I got the truck unloaded at 2 stops, the first one was unbelievable. This was a newspaper in downtown Jackson, MS - on a 2 lane street with a loading dock inside the building. I got her in there, but the leaking air bags - leaking from over-pressurization because the levelor was faulty - was making life difficult. Anyway, I went STRAIGHT to the yard after that. Dropped the trailer in the yard, and pulled that tractor right on up to the shop. Sat there for several minutes doing paperwork - every stop = paperwork. Not that much, but I wanted to record everything I was doing at that particular point, so I was inputting stuff on several fronts.
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Anyway, this dude that wanted me to drive over 600 miles with air literally dumping out came up and asked me to turn the truck off. I almost gave him a piece of my mind, but I was already hopping out of the truck anyway, paperwork done, I wanted to go find him and have a discussion. Instead, he completely disappeared. He gave me a look and left for the day.
Well, they had already ordered all the parts to fix the thing, which I didn't know until I got into a discussion with the other mechanics there, apparently they took my word for what was wrong with it and there ya go. But, they had problems, of course. The leveler valve they ordered was not a Mack OEM part, they had a Chinese built POS delivered instead. That was the culprit that ate up the rest of my driving hours for the day. Hours and hours, 5 hours for that s***.
I spent several hours in the office of the recruiter. He's a nice guy, but he obviously has no qualms telling people whatever to get them into the company. The owner of the company, tho, I would have thought maybe different story. I told him all of my complaints - but nicely. He isn't going to do anything and I just gave up on it. Between the lies of the home time and this s*** with the mechanics of the truck, that is enough for me already. I called Saia back today, but the guy was busy. The other place I will call tomorrow.
Meanwhile, instead of "home most night", I'm "home" in Jackson, MS tonight in the sleeper (with my laptop, at least, tethered to my Iphone) and tomorrow night, I will be somewhere well on the way back up to Ohio. They have runs galore going to Lufkin, but that doesn't work for them, I guess. My lifelong problem - seriously - is that I just give my all to anything I"m doing and I have been taken advantage of in the past for that trait. On numerous occasions in various venues. In this case, it's not like I"m doing it for free, I"m getting miles and money - excepting for losing half a day to a broken, old, pile of junk truck.
I don't even know what to think now. Just, what? How did I end up in this nonsense? Home most nights my @$$. Home whatever nights they want me home, which is the weekends and that's that.
See? My thinking is, beyond all this mechanical stuff and running quite unsafely, I won't do it again - is if I'm going to be out on the road all the time, why not go with that other company that will get me a minimum 20 to 30 grand more in my pocket at the end of each year? I can't work forever, shouldn't I just take advantage of the best paying job that comes along? My retirement is far from being anywhere even remotely near enough to retire on.
Whatever. After talking with the recruiter - the peeves I have with the company went on for a while, but we ended talking about things like Jason Bourne - a movie series he had never heard of yet he loves those kinds of movies - and other things. I then ended up talking to the Safety Officer. Not by choice, I wasn't seeking him out. If they want to run this company like that - running with huge air leaks that is - that is their choice. I showed him a video of the air leaking out. Yup, I took one today, which supersedes the one I posted on Facebook, the air is just gushing out of the bottom of an airbag. He was like, well if I had known about it, I would have had the thing fixed right then and there. Tell your mechanic that is running your truck repair division about it then. He was shocked that the guy wanted me to drive the thing all the way back in.
Well, he must have had a good reason for it. I'm thinking, what reason? I said: I have never heard of a trucking company in recent times that wants their machinery driven in that condition. No, he said, I definitely would have said to get it fixed. Well then, what the hell reason could there be for wanting the damned thing driven that far back into town? To save money, that's all it is. To show the presence of an in house shop is warranted. To preserve their jobs. Nothing more than that. I flatly told him I wouldn't do it again. If that truck has a problem that needs fixed, I will park it, call y'all and if you don't fix it, that truck is going to sit there. Thanks. I don't give two s**** what happens to my job there at this point. I could care less - other than it wouldn't look good on my employment record - if I even got fired.
That's it for now. Just thinking about that other job hauling that chemical all over the nation. It doesn't have any weekends guaranteed home. It's just 3 days on 1 off, but the 1 off may also be done away with if they have a load that needs to be hauled somewhere. In other words, come back, get the tanker refilled and head off somewhere.
For some reason, I could not sleep last night. I went to bed at 9 pm, woke up at midnight and that was it for sleep for me. I did every trick I know to get back to sleep - I was getting up at 3am to get to a delivery appointment in Oklahoma City by 9am. No dice. I fell back asleep right near the end, fell into a deep sleep at that, which is when one of my tenants came and knocked on the door - time to get up!
I had told him I needed to leave at 3 am. It was 2:40 am, he thought I mean be AT the truckstop by 3. Doesn't matter, 20 minutes wasn't going to change anything. But I felt like HELL on feet. My head was banging and I was exhausted. I didn't have time to take a shower or anything. I spend a couple of minutes with Adler - he hates when I leave - and got my stuff going and got out of there.
But this was bad the way I was feeling. Like no way I am going to driving anything anywhere in this condition. So, my tenant left - very nice of him to take me, btw, in the middle of the night, I didn't complain to him at all lol - I got in the truck and yes, I crawled in the sleeper. I didn't care if I made the appointment late. The dispatcher is giving me these deliveries to unload after a weekend at a time schedule I don't want to keep. I don't want to get up at 3 am, or last Sunday, 2 am or the Sunday before that, 12am! to be at a delivery by an appointed time. If it has to be there that early, give it to someone that lives over there.
I laid in that sleeper for 2 hours and still felt like crap when I forced myself up and got behind the steering wheel. I was really just wanting daylight. When I am that tired, the only thing that really helps enough to keep me awake is sunlight. Whatever. I got to the drop place in Oklahoma City 2-1/2 hours late and I simply didn't care. The truck has all kinds of issues, I'm not a freaking robot, I'm going to get my sleep and still, I will get up early, but not THAT early. Screw this stuff. I felt bad most of the day. I had to stop twice on the way to Ok City and take short naps. That's how bad it was. If they don't like my performance, so beit. It's no sweat off my back, I am back to fully looking for another job.
And btw. That job I applied for right after I got on with this company? Called me today. I was too grumpy and too tired and too exhausted to take anyone's calls, I let it go through to voicemail. But, this guy left a message: Hi ben, this is so and so from Saia and I am looking to set up an interview with your for the job you applied for. Heck ya! And no, I didn't call him back today. I want to be on point for any communications with any potential company, today was the Monday from hell, I just wasn't going to risk a potential job offer because my mind is sluggish and not thinking crisply.
I freely admit that this OTR junk is not for me. But, this wasn't supposed to be an OTR gig, they just didn't tell the truth and that is that. Here is the recruiter's reply to my email over the weekend, well part of his reply anyway: "Hey Ben, I had an emergence issue on Friday which required me to be admitted in the hospital. Ben I’m sorry for any confusion on the home time! We try to get everyone home for weekend and any truck issue’s you have it’s to be reported to Jay or Marcus."
At this point, I apologize for the cussing in advance. Confusion my ass. His statement to me was, "We'll make our best effort to get you home frequently" after bringing up the conversation I had had with the owner of the company, because I would have just continued looking for a new job. This guy is full of shit. I'm not going to stay with this company, I am at least 90% convinced of that. Between this bs and the issues of the truck. \
\
Heck, I didn't even get to the issues with the truck yet. The freaking thing started leaking two fold more air pressure out the bottom of the air bags than what it was doing on Friday. I'm in OK city, responding to emails from the director of the maintenance department - who had been forwarded my email to the recruiter. This thing, if inspected, would get this truck put out of service, I would be issued a ticket and have to pay a fine, was my response to him and my response over the weekend to all of them. This guy was, please get the truck back to the shop ASAP so we can fix it.
What the HELL kind of trucking company wants their trucks driving down the road with air dumping out of the system at a rate that that truck's air compressor is having a hard time keeping up with it? To save them money my ASS. No reputable company does that. They find the nearest service place and you go there, they pay them and it's done, over with.
So whatever. If Saia wants me, they'll have me. It's a very decent hourly wage to start an
home every night and NO weekend work. If not, the other place definitely wants me. It's100k per year but it's a life on the road. The drivers, though, are quite happy there and that is a big plus. They say it isn't living on the road all the time, I understand that all the trucks have to come back there after every trip, but still, you are on the road quite a bit. I could, tho, invest in a lot of mind stimulating stuff for the road if I got a job like that. Well, I could and would do that now with this job but I don't feel like I'm going to be spending too much time with this company.
\
I'm already making waves. I make no apologies. If something isn't right, speak up about it. Don't sit in silence and expect the world is going to see what is going on with you. They won't, and the company won't. As I said when I got hired on here, I'm not married to this company. This is, in reality, regional work. It's actually OTR with home on the weekends. I don't give a shit about this place now, they have fully reneged on their statements, they don't care about operating equipment that is - dangerous in some respects to use, tho I am keeping my eyes on the air gauges now the entire time I am driving - and they figure you are what? Nothing. This is the way trucking companies operate. Much of nothing changes. The place in Longview, from what I have witnessed in their operations with other drivers, is a class act. Well it should be if the stuff you are hauling can take out a city block in an explosion!
Okay, I am admittedly doing nothing to help me get to sleepy mode. But it's only 8:45 and I need not get up until 5:30 am. Really, if i was to do this forever? yes, I want a truck that has Direct TV and a flat screen tv mounted into it. I want a double bunker so I can at least try taking my dog with me once.
____________________________________
That was yesterday. Today, I got up, got a cup of coffee at the truckstop I was at, got in the truck and drove for 6-1/2 hours without stopping. I got the truck unloaded at 2 stops, the first one was unbelievable. This was a newspaper in downtown Jackson, MS - on a 2 lane street with a loading dock inside the building. I got her in there, but the leaking air bags - leaking from over-pressurization because the levelor was faulty - was making life difficult. Anyway, I went STRAIGHT to the yard after that. Dropped the trailer in the yard, and pulled that tractor right on up to the shop. Sat there for several minutes doing paperwork - every stop = paperwork. Not that much, but I wanted to record everything I was doing at that particular point, so I was inputting stuff on several fronts.
\
Anyway, this dude that wanted me to drive over 600 miles with air literally dumping out came up and asked me to turn the truck off. I almost gave him a piece of my mind, but I was already hopping out of the truck anyway, paperwork done, I wanted to go find him and have a discussion. Instead, he completely disappeared. He gave me a look and left for the day.
Well, they had already ordered all the parts to fix the thing, which I didn't know until I got into a discussion with the other mechanics there, apparently they took my word for what was wrong with it and there ya go. But, they had problems, of course. The leveler valve they ordered was not a Mack OEM part, they had a Chinese built POS delivered instead. That was the culprit that ate up the rest of my driving hours for the day. Hours and hours, 5 hours for that s***.
I spent several hours in the office of the recruiter. He's a nice guy, but he obviously has no qualms telling people whatever to get them into the company. The owner of the company, tho, I would have thought maybe different story. I told him all of my complaints - but nicely. He isn't going to do anything and I just gave up on it. Between the lies of the home time and this s*** with the mechanics of the truck, that is enough for me already. I called Saia back today, but the guy was busy. The other place I will call tomorrow.
Meanwhile, instead of "home most night", I'm "home" in Jackson, MS tonight in the sleeper (with my laptop, at least, tethered to my Iphone) and tomorrow night, I will be somewhere well on the way back up to Ohio. They have runs galore going to Lufkin, but that doesn't work for them, I guess. My lifelong problem - seriously - is that I just give my all to anything I"m doing and I have been taken advantage of in the past for that trait. On numerous occasions in various venues. In this case, it's not like I"m doing it for free, I"m getting miles and money - excepting for losing half a day to a broken, old, pile of junk truck.
I don't even know what to think now. Just, what? How did I end up in this nonsense? Home most nights my @$$. Home whatever nights they want me home, which is the weekends and that's that.
See? My thinking is, beyond all this mechanical stuff and running quite unsafely, I won't do it again - is if I'm going to be out on the road all the time, why not go with that other company that will get me a minimum 20 to 30 grand more in my pocket at the end of each year? I can't work forever, shouldn't I just take advantage of the best paying job that comes along? My retirement is far from being anywhere even remotely near enough to retire on.
Whatever. After talking with the recruiter - the peeves I have with the company went on for a while, but we ended talking about things like Jason Bourne - a movie series he had never heard of yet he loves those kinds of movies - and other things. I then ended up talking to the Safety Officer. Not by choice, I wasn't seeking him out. If they want to run this company like that - running with huge air leaks that is - that is their choice. I showed him a video of the air leaking out. Yup, I took one today, which supersedes the one I posted on Facebook, the air is just gushing out of the bottom of an airbag. He was like, well if I had known about it, I would have had the thing fixed right then and there. Tell your mechanic that is running your truck repair division about it then. He was shocked that the guy wanted me to drive the thing all the way back in.
Well, he must have had a good reason for it. I'm thinking, what reason? I said: I have never heard of a trucking company in recent times that wants their machinery driven in that condition. No, he said, I definitely would have said to get it fixed. Well then, what the hell reason could there be for wanting the damned thing driven that far back into town? To save money, that's all it is. To show the presence of an in house shop is warranted. To preserve their jobs. Nothing more than that. I flatly told him I wouldn't do it again. If that truck has a problem that needs fixed, I will park it, call y'all and if you don't fix it, that truck is going to sit there. Thanks. I don't give two s**** what happens to my job there at this point. I could care less - other than it wouldn't look good on my employment record - if I even got fired.
That's it for now. Just thinking about that other job hauling that chemical all over the nation. It doesn't have any weekends guaranteed home. It's just 3 days on 1 off, but the 1 off may also be done away with if they have a load that needs to be hauled somewhere. In other words, come back, get the tanker refilled and head off somewhere.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Hmm, well I started this yesterday and forgot about it, so post it in incomplete form, lol.
And just like that, my credit score takes a 31 point nose dive on 2 of the reporting agencies. I opened up an account a few months ago that had zero fees to move from one card to another, so I maxed the thing out. It's 18 months interest free, which I fully intend on paying off long before 18 months is up. That is, if my income starts flowing in the right direction.
So, I guess if I pay a few thousand dollars off of debt, the score should bot back up. Right? Maybe, credit scores and what affects them are a netherland to me. You do something you think will help and it does, but then it hurts you. In this case, it appears to the credit reporting agencies that I just used $1,500 of credit card limit and therefore, I think if I am assessing this right and all the reading I have done, I must be desperate for money. So, double whammy - I opened a new account and I used $1,500 instantaneously on it.
I didn't figure getting my credit score to go back up would be an overnight proposal, tho. once I pay my debt down to below 30%, that will raise my score significantly. I'm at 37% right now, so that really shouldn't take too long once I get a good flow of income in.
My previous employer sent my final vacation payout. The company "lost" the hours and that is why i didn't get paid. Well ho ho ho, Merry Christmas! If I hadn't of said anything to former GM, it would never have been resolved. Seriously. They just switched over from one format to another for signing in and employee information, my vacation hours were left on the old format and hadn't transferred over. Yet, the Regional manager got a bit testy with me. I wrote him a nice letter back, telling him if he has issues with me, that's fine, but my stance is, why is this taking so long? It''s company policy, it's in writing. I bid him a nice day and never heard back from him.
Anyway, my first full paycheck was more than 2 paychecks at the previous employer, as expected. Still, you never know, so I kinda held back any optimism until I actually saw the thing deposited into my bank account.
I have my doubts about this company, tho. As I reported yesterday, the truck is having issues - some serious issues - and after bringing it up to both my dispatcher in texting and the head mechanic in person - and getting nowhere with it - well. that's a big red flag on my list. You don't make money broke down on the side of the road. Or even if it's in the company shop, you aren't making money sitting there waiting for days for them to fix it. If the transmission is having the trouble I think it is, it will definitely take a couple days to fix.
Then there is the issue of who is going to get blamed for that damage. I can honestly say that in all the years I have driven trucks, I have never trashed a motor or a tranny, or a differential for that matter. Never burned up a clutch, either. In the first years of driving, without engine brakes, I smoked the brakes a couple of times coming down off of very long, steep grades. I was a rookie, some things are going to happen. But nothing ill became of those instances. So, I will not accept and declaration that "you did this" unless I actually, really did do it, but since there is no way of proving that and I know that I haven't done anything to cause it, it's a moot point in my book. The truck has half a million miles on it, that alone is enough to simply be a wear and tear issue.
Well who knows, I'm not going to fret about the blame game, but I will have an issue if this thing breaks down out on the road. Not after I warned them about the issues and actually told them this truck needs fixed to 2 different people, now 3. I asked the recruiter who I am supposed to report this stuff to since the head mechanic didn't do or even say anything.
Meanwhile, tomorrow morning at 9 am I have a road test with the first company I had wanted to go with. At this point, it seems very prudent that I go ahead with that and play this thing out. Because, I have quit companies in the past that wouldn't maintain or even repair their equipment and get pissy about it breaking down for no fault of my own. One such time was a bad fuel pump. I told them it has a bad fuel pump. They said how would you know, we are sending someone to get it started. I said fine, but it isn't going to fix the problem. It's a long story, I won't go into it here, but the end result was the service guy got it running (not a mechanic) by spraying starting fluid into the intake. I drove the truck half a mile and it stopped, on the highway, at a light. All hell broke loose after that and I ended up quitting the company. I didn't even tell them - til the end. I drove the load back to Phoenix (where it was going anyway) after they fixed the truck, delivered the load, took the truck back to their yard. Got all my stuff out of it, handed it back to them and quit.
Same thing would happen here. Take the truck back, get my stuff out of it, take a bus back home, c'ya. That's it. I haven't heard back from the recruiter, maybe I won't. Dunno, but if I don't, I am definitely going to take it up with the owner of the company who contacted me about this job in the first place. Whatever he determines, that is what I will base my decisions off of. I'm sure these are all nice, good people, but, they have to deal with the negative elements of the trucking industry and includes broken trucks.
And just like that, my credit score takes a 31 point nose dive on 2 of the reporting agencies. I opened up an account a few months ago that had zero fees to move from one card to another, so I maxed the thing out. It's 18 months interest free, which I fully intend on paying off long before 18 months is up. That is, if my income starts flowing in the right direction.
So, I guess if I pay a few thousand dollars off of debt, the score should bot back up. Right? Maybe, credit scores and what affects them are a netherland to me. You do something you think will help and it does, but then it hurts you. In this case, it appears to the credit reporting agencies that I just used $1,500 of credit card limit and therefore, I think if I am assessing this right and all the reading I have done, I must be desperate for money. So, double whammy - I opened a new account and I used $1,500 instantaneously on it.
I didn't figure getting my credit score to go back up would be an overnight proposal, tho. once I pay my debt down to below 30%, that will raise my score significantly. I'm at 37% right now, so that really shouldn't take too long once I get a good flow of income in.
My previous employer sent my final vacation payout. The company "lost" the hours and that is why i didn't get paid. Well ho ho ho, Merry Christmas! If I hadn't of said anything to former GM, it would never have been resolved. Seriously. They just switched over from one format to another for signing in and employee information, my vacation hours were left on the old format and hadn't transferred over. Yet, the Regional manager got a bit testy with me. I wrote him a nice letter back, telling him if he has issues with me, that's fine, but my stance is, why is this taking so long? It''s company policy, it's in writing. I bid him a nice day and never heard back from him.
Anyway, my first full paycheck was more than 2 paychecks at the previous employer, as expected. Still, you never know, so I kinda held back any optimism until I actually saw the thing deposited into my bank account.
I have my doubts about this company, tho. As I reported yesterday, the truck is having issues - some serious issues - and after bringing it up to both my dispatcher in texting and the head mechanic in person - and getting nowhere with it - well. that's a big red flag on my list. You don't make money broke down on the side of the road. Or even if it's in the company shop, you aren't making money sitting there waiting for days for them to fix it. If the transmission is having the trouble I think it is, it will definitely take a couple days to fix.
Then there is the issue of who is going to get blamed for that damage. I can honestly say that in all the years I have driven trucks, I have never trashed a motor or a tranny, or a differential for that matter. Never burned up a clutch, either. In the first years of driving, without engine brakes, I smoked the brakes a couple of times coming down off of very long, steep grades. I was a rookie, some things are going to happen. But nothing ill became of those instances. So, I will not accept and declaration that "you did this" unless I actually, really did do it, but since there is no way of proving that and I know that I haven't done anything to cause it, it's a moot point in my book. The truck has half a million miles on it, that alone is enough to simply be a wear and tear issue.
Well who knows, I'm not going to fret about the blame game, but I will have an issue if this thing breaks down out on the road. Not after I warned them about the issues and actually told them this truck needs fixed to 2 different people, now 3. I asked the recruiter who I am supposed to report this stuff to since the head mechanic didn't do or even say anything.
Meanwhile, tomorrow morning at 9 am I have a road test with the first company I had wanted to go with. At this point, it seems very prudent that I go ahead with that and play this thing out. Because, I have quit companies in the past that wouldn't maintain or even repair their equipment and get pissy about it breaking down for no fault of my own. One such time was a bad fuel pump. I told them it has a bad fuel pump. They said how would you know, we are sending someone to get it started. I said fine, but it isn't going to fix the problem. It's a long story, I won't go into it here, but the end result was the service guy got it running (not a mechanic) by spraying starting fluid into the intake. I drove the truck half a mile and it stopped, on the highway, at a light. All hell broke loose after that and I ended up quitting the company. I didn't even tell them - til the end. I drove the load back to Phoenix (where it was going anyway) after they fixed the truck, delivered the load, took the truck back to their yard. Got all my stuff out of it, handed it back to them and quit.
Same thing would happen here. Take the truck back, get my stuff out of it, take a bus back home, c'ya. That's it. I haven't heard back from the recruiter, maybe I won't. Dunno, but if I don't, I am definitely going to take it up with the owner of the company who contacted me about this job in the first place. Whatever he determines, that is what I will base my decisions off of. I'm sure these are all nice, good people, but, they have to deal with the negative elements of the trucking industry and includes broken trucks.
Finally home.
Truck is having issues.
The fuel filters were the top of the list, now it's secondary.
The air leveler valve - a 99% solid guess - is bad on the truck and needs replaced.
The transmission is making grinding, chunking noises that sound like the thing is going
to fall apart.
That's 3 issues. All of them need immediate attention.
Yet, when I brought it up to the dispatcher, he asked a few questions and then, disappeared.
I actually saw the head of the mechanic division today and mentioned all of it, he said nothing and did nothing.
I shrugged my shoulders. Who is it going to hurt in the end? Me and the company. Me, because the truck is going to break down on the side of the road and I will be stuck. I'm not making money if I'm not driving the truck. The company because it will cost them 3 times as much to fix it somewhere other than their own shop AND they won't be making money off of the truck.
It's whatever. If the thing happens to make it back from Oklahoma this coming week, I'm simply going to tell them the thing needs to go to the shop and get fixed. If they refuse, I'll call the owner of the company - whose cell phone number is printed in very large letters with the orientation packet and you can call him anytime type of thing - and ask him how he would like to handle this.
I've got a road test on Sunday morning. Guaranteed that company takes care of their equipment. When you're hauling a chemical that can kill a lot of people in a nano second if there was a serious crash, they aren't going to fool around with bad equipment. They have newer Peterbilts and replacing all of them with brand new Peterbilts. So hey, it's whatever to me.
______________________________________
So, Saturday evening. Looking forward to this road test. Just because - providing I pass it of course - I have an out here. An out that I had originally planned as the first choice.
Whatever the case, I have spent the day getting mundane stuff done, going around town getting chores taken care of and basically relaxing for the most part.
I did get a chance to talk with my son today. For an hour, lol. But hey, our conversations are far and few between. Texting here and there, but not the same as talking on the phone. He's busy, he's got a new wife, they are adjusting to the lifestyle of living with one another, I totally understand. So, it makes the gems of talking to him at whatever occasion even more precious to me.
There's one thing that my dad did for me that I feel inclined to carry on. He sent me checks at random intervals. Hi son, just wanted to help you out a bit. I miss my dad. I look back and wish I had visited him much more often than I did. He really was a great influence on my life. We used to email a lot, tho, before the Alzheimer's set in, I have that to feel that at least I connected with him - rather often at that. Thousands of emails over a span of a great many year's time, still in my AOL email account. I read some of them here and there. He was a man of God. Always had a positive outlook - well mostly, sometimes his relationship with his wife got the better of him, but al most always he was upbeat and encouraging.
Anyway, that's it for today. Tomorrow will be a new adventure. I guess I will be a little bit nervous. It'a always that way when you have someone scrutinizing your performance even if it's something you are totally comfortable doing, have been doing it for decades and do it well.
Truck is having issues.
The fuel filters were the top of the list, now it's secondary.
The air leveler valve - a 99% solid guess - is bad on the truck and needs replaced.
The transmission is making grinding, chunking noises that sound like the thing is going
to fall apart.
That's 3 issues. All of them need immediate attention.
Yet, when I brought it up to the dispatcher, he asked a few questions and then, disappeared.
I actually saw the head of the mechanic division today and mentioned all of it, he said nothing and did nothing.
I shrugged my shoulders. Who is it going to hurt in the end? Me and the company. Me, because the truck is going to break down on the side of the road and I will be stuck. I'm not making money if I'm not driving the truck. The company because it will cost them 3 times as much to fix it somewhere other than their own shop AND they won't be making money off of the truck.
It's whatever. If the thing happens to make it back from Oklahoma this coming week, I'm simply going to tell them the thing needs to go to the shop and get fixed. If they refuse, I'll call the owner of the company - whose cell phone number is printed in very large letters with the orientation packet and you can call him anytime type of thing - and ask him how he would like to handle this.
I've got a road test on Sunday morning. Guaranteed that company takes care of their equipment. When you're hauling a chemical that can kill a lot of people in a nano second if there was a serious crash, they aren't going to fool around with bad equipment. They have newer Peterbilts and replacing all of them with brand new Peterbilts. So hey, it's whatever to me.
______________________________________
So, Saturday evening. Looking forward to this road test. Just because - providing I pass it of course - I have an out here. An out that I had originally planned as the first choice.
Whatever the case, I have spent the day getting mundane stuff done, going around town getting chores taken care of and basically relaxing for the most part.
I did get a chance to talk with my son today. For an hour, lol. But hey, our conversations are far and few between. Texting here and there, but not the same as talking on the phone. He's busy, he's got a new wife, they are adjusting to the lifestyle of living with one another, I totally understand. So, it makes the gems of talking to him at whatever occasion even more precious to me.
There's one thing that my dad did for me that I feel inclined to carry on. He sent me checks at random intervals. Hi son, just wanted to help you out a bit. I miss my dad. I look back and wish I had visited him much more often than I did. He really was a great influence on my life. We used to email a lot, tho, before the Alzheimer's set in, I have that to feel that at least I connected with him - rather often at that. Thousands of emails over a span of a great many year's time, still in my AOL email account. I read some of them here and there. He was a man of God. Always had a positive outlook - well mostly, sometimes his relationship with his wife got the better of him, but al most always he was upbeat and encouraging.
Anyway, that's it for today. Tomorrow will be a new adventure. I guess I will be a little bit nervous. It'a always that way when you have someone scrutinizing your performance even if it's something you are totally comfortable doing, have been doing it for decades and do it well.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Well first off, I've been sitting at a place in Hammond, Louisiana, for 7 hours and will be here at least another 10 before I can get out of here. When I found out they wouldn't unload me today, I took off to the nearest truck stop and had dinner, tho. Spaghetti and salad. Very tasty with some leftovers that I am about to eat. I wasn't near as hungry as I thought I would be.
I did get some exercise today, tho, in traipsing through woods where the truck is parked. And stood on a set of railroad tracks for an hour at least, just thinking about things. I know how truck drivers get so fat and out of shape. I am struggling to figure out ways to avoid that. I already had a gut going before I got into this job. Yet, I am eating some granola bars throughout the day and having dinner at night. I want to change that to eating the meal earlier and not before I am going to bed.
Anyway, the truck is making some chattering noises in the gear box and I have my doubts that it's going to last much longer before it dies and needs repaired. I did say something to the dispatcher about it, he asked if it was a throwout bearing. Very well could be, I replied, to which he had nothing to offer. Great, if the thing breaks down, I thought, don't say I didn't say anything, is in writing. He's a cool guy but he is far too overextended. 32 drivers? How does one person manage that many drivers in a day? I just text him mostly, he can get back to me whenever unless it is urgent then I try to call him.
If the truck doesn't die on me, then I will get this thing finally unloaded at 4am this coming morning, get on up the road to 17 miles to a load site, then up to near Jackson to drop the trailer, go to another site, pick up another trailer and head - home. Should be doable in one day. Monday morning I will have to be in Oklahoma City at 9am.
Meanwhile, my first paycheck is everything I thought it would be and then some. The orientation dude said there are potentials for bonuses on paychecks, I had no opinion one way or the other. Just sounded like blather that oritentation guys give when they are trying to get you hired on. If it's true, wonderful, if it's not, I wasn't holding my breath for it and turning blue anyway. Well, there was $150 bonus on that check. It was amazing to see that. I busted my ass last week tho, not like it was a free ride. Still cool tho. Not complaining. Haha
And then there is the prospect of this other job. I am just in limbo. What to do, what to do. I'll tell ya what, I netted $400 more on this paycheck in one week's work than I netted in any paychecks in recent times from my previous employer for two weeks worth of pay. If that stood, that's a net gain of $1600 per month. That's after taxes, mind you. Net, not gross. Gross pay even more. I could get used to this job for a while. I could. Weekends off. The other job offered, however, is even more pay. But, no weekends off, not guaranteed anyway. Just come and get the truck, drive over to Eastman and get the tanker loaded - they do all the loading, you actually have to unhook the trailer and leave the premises while they do that (very hazardous material, the the 195 below zero factor is enough to kill you instantly, if not that, the suffocation and one other thing that kills you that was explained to me that I have since forgotten). But I don't really care about that. They haul these trailers all over the place.
If I did have some happenstance that took my life, I figure instant freezing wouldn't really be that bad? I dunno, not really wanting to find out, but I do think death would be quick, fast and - painless? I laugh at these people that say "instant death, no pain". How the HELL does anyone KNOW that for sure? Haha, great minds that propagate their scientific wares, anyway.
I'm getting more comfortable with this. I hate being away, but this stuff I can endure. Would be better in a newer truck and definitely if it was the new trucks that have the free Direct TV in them with a 22 inch flat screen tv mounted in the sleeper and a double bunk - I'd brink Addler once at least to see if he can deal with it, because from what I am seeing, he is a grumpy dog when I leave. That's coming from them, at the house, not me. He is well loved, tho, and well taken care of. Two other dogs for company as well. So not the end of the world, I just want better accomodations if I'm going to do this. I can't get the cigarette smoke smell out of here as much as I have tried, it's tamed down quite a bit but that pervasive odor doesn't go away.
Anyway, I'm going to wind down for the night, meaning getting off of here and dealing with paperwork and getting ready to go to sleep. 3am I need to be in there with my paperwork. I don't have to drive anywhere, the door is 300 feet away : )
I did get some exercise today, tho, in traipsing through woods where the truck is parked. And stood on a set of railroad tracks for an hour at least, just thinking about things. I know how truck drivers get so fat and out of shape. I am struggling to figure out ways to avoid that. I already had a gut going before I got into this job. Yet, I am eating some granola bars throughout the day and having dinner at night. I want to change that to eating the meal earlier and not before I am going to bed.
Anyway, the truck is making some chattering noises in the gear box and I have my doubts that it's going to last much longer before it dies and needs repaired. I did say something to the dispatcher about it, he asked if it was a throwout bearing. Very well could be, I replied, to which he had nothing to offer. Great, if the thing breaks down, I thought, don't say I didn't say anything, is in writing. He's a cool guy but he is far too overextended. 32 drivers? How does one person manage that many drivers in a day? I just text him mostly, he can get back to me whenever unless it is urgent then I try to call him.
If the truck doesn't die on me, then I will get this thing finally unloaded at 4am this coming morning, get on up the road to 17 miles to a load site, then up to near Jackson to drop the trailer, go to another site, pick up another trailer and head - home. Should be doable in one day. Monday morning I will have to be in Oklahoma City at 9am.
Meanwhile, my first paycheck is everything I thought it would be and then some. The orientation dude said there are potentials for bonuses on paychecks, I had no opinion one way or the other. Just sounded like blather that oritentation guys give when they are trying to get you hired on. If it's true, wonderful, if it's not, I wasn't holding my breath for it and turning blue anyway. Well, there was $150 bonus on that check. It was amazing to see that. I busted my ass last week tho, not like it was a free ride. Still cool tho. Not complaining. Haha
And then there is the prospect of this other job. I am just in limbo. What to do, what to do. I'll tell ya what, I netted $400 more on this paycheck in one week's work than I netted in any paychecks in recent times from my previous employer for two weeks worth of pay. If that stood, that's a net gain of $1600 per month. That's after taxes, mind you. Net, not gross. Gross pay even more. I could get used to this job for a while. I could. Weekends off. The other job offered, however, is even more pay. But, no weekends off, not guaranteed anyway. Just come and get the truck, drive over to Eastman and get the tanker loaded - they do all the loading, you actually have to unhook the trailer and leave the premises while they do that (very hazardous material, the the 195 below zero factor is enough to kill you instantly, if not that, the suffocation and one other thing that kills you that was explained to me that I have since forgotten). But I don't really care about that. They haul these trailers all over the place.
If I did have some happenstance that took my life, I figure instant freezing wouldn't really be that bad? I dunno, not really wanting to find out, but I do think death would be quick, fast and - painless? I laugh at these people that say "instant death, no pain". How the HELL does anyone KNOW that for sure? Haha, great minds that propagate their scientific wares, anyway.
I'm getting more comfortable with this. I hate being away, but this stuff I can endure. Would be better in a newer truck and definitely if it was the new trucks that have the free Direct TV in them with a 22 inch flat screen tv mounted in the sleeper and a double bunk - I'd brink Addler once at least to see if he can deal with it, because from what I am seeing, he is a grumpy dog when I leave. That's coming from them, at the house, not me. He is well loved, tho, and well taken care of. Two other dogs for company as well. So not the end of the world, I just want better accomodations if I'm going to do this. I can't get the cigarette smoke smell out of here as much as I have tried, it's tamed down quite a bit but that pervasive odor doesn't go away.
Anyway, I'm going to wind down for the night, meaning getting off of here and dealing with paperwork and getting ready to go to sleep. 3am I need to be in there with my paperwork. I don't have to drive anywhere, the door is 300 feet away : )
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
A short entry.
4 accidents in various places today left my in want on the total number of miles driven. I guess 600 isn't that bad but closer to 700 would have been better.
Meanwhile, this lady from that other place called today. I had totally given up on them. She wouldn't call me back, but it's a large, nationwide company that is reputable and has great benefits, better than what I would currently be getting at new job. They still want to hire me, they said, when can you come in for a road test?
I didn't bother to tell her I was working a new job, I figured to go ahead and schedule it - for this coming weekend - to give myself some time to think about this. And also to see my first real paycheck from this new company. I had ample miles last week, I should have a healthy check. But the proof isn't in the pudding until you see what that check is.
I have always wanted to do tankers, tho and this other company is nothing but tankers. Enough experience with them - like 1 or 2 years anyway - and I could easily score a local job hauling gasoline and home every night, making decent money. In fact, this company has a huge fleet of gas tankers running all over the country. You've seen them, KAG or Keegan Advantage Group.
Doing the road test and just even leading up to doing the road test gives me time to revisit this in my mind. For I was sold on that job in the beginning, I was going to go for it. But she got caught up in whatever is going on over there. I did talk to several other drivers and they wouldn't do anything else. People that have been working there since the 80's and 90's, when their yard was located in Magnolia, Arkansas. They moved to Longview cause - well, the supplier of the chemicals they are hauling is in Longview.
So anyway, I do want to see my first paycheck here, before I make any decisions and I willl get that on Friday. Well I got the "first" paycheck, it was only for 2 runs and that wasn't going to be that much money, obviously. The difference between home time for current company and the other one is actually quite a bit. Current company at least gets me home on weekends. That company gets you home every 3 days - but only for a day and only if they don't have another run for you to turn around and go out on.
But, the future is what I"m looking at and KAG could eventually lead to a local job, either with them if possible or move on to another company. Preferably stay within company.
And then I was thinking about doing online classes with ASU today, as I keep hearing their ads on the radio and they are offering over 150 courses that you can do whenever you can get to it, all online, all the same credits as if you had shown up in the classroom. ASU is from my 2cd hometown, they have the most registered students of any college in the nation. They continue to expand all over the place, I didn't even know they were offering online courses.
Tho, I learn better in a classroom setting, to be honest.
Anyway, that's it. There's more but it's bedtime and I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Driving in hellish traffic all day long today. I was sent to Columbus, Ohio, a place I haven't been to in decades. Had to pass through several large cities, got caught in rush hour traffic in one of them. But that, bad as it was, wasn't the worst thing. My GPS came on and told me that I could "save 36 minutes" by taking an alternate route.
Well darn if there wasn't a bad crash and I got off the Interstate just in time, so I thought. I got to a turn in the road that said "trucks turn left, bridge ahead 11"".
Traffic was totally snarled anyway. I gave up on that, went back to the Interstate and spent two hours - yes, two freaking hours - going the distance of 4 miles. I mean, 30 minutes of that was sitting on the side of the Interstate - I ran out of hours, I had to take my mandatory 30 minutes break or be in "Hours Of Service" violation, so I did. Just pulled over and parked. By the time I woke up - I was tired, fell right asleep - 25 minutes later, the traffic had completely cleared.
Anyway, traffic ate up my drive hours today and I didn't have enough time to get to the drop place. Or I might have, but I wouldn't have had any time to leave that yard. No thanks. I'm not sitting in a yard all night long with no access to a toilet or food. Yes, I could "improvise", but why bother. Well, I was fighting the clock just getting here. I mean, I pulled into this Pilot truckstop with 3 minutes left on the clock! I stopped, pulled the valves and put myself on "On Duty", taking myself off of "Driving". Yup, electronic logs. Pros and cons to it. Pros are it's much easier than filling out a log book. Con - Once the 14 hour clock starts, you don't get off of it. You can't just stop, but yourself on "Sleeper Berth" line and take a few hours to sleep if you're tired, losing no on Duty or Driving time.
Lots of truckers are complaining about that and another road block apparently is being planned, or so I heard on the CB radio today. Ahh, yes, just found it, a Facebook group called Operation Black and Blue, but it's a closed group. Kinda dumb to be a closed group if you're trying to encourage a bunch of truckers to stop dead on the highway for 2 hours and block traffic. I asked to join anyway, just to see if this guy I was hearing on the radio was making accurate statements.
Well anyway, this is a small Pilot truck stop. I guess they are all small, but when I pulled in there, I was aghast. I am out of hours, I am not going anywhere, even if every single parking space is full. And they were - allllll - filled up. I drove around to the fuel pumps to act like I was fueling - which I was not, had fueled up earlier since I also pushed that one to the limit and ended up putting 226 gallons of fuel into this thing. See, if you aren't doing electronic logging, you can just fudge the books if you have to drive down the road to find a place to park. In this case, you can put yourself off duty, but if you start pulling through the gears, that thing is automatically putting you back on "Driving" status. So I stated in 3rd gear only.
Well, I pulled through the fueling lanes and much to my surprise, a truck pulled out of it's spot, right there. And at the same time, another truck had pulled in and was backing into another spot. I pulled up in front of my intended parking space and waited. And waited some more. You see, this lot wasn't exactly designed for big trucks to be pulling intricate backing maneuvers into tight spots between 2 trucks already in there. This is a daily dilemma for truckers across the country and have been complaining about it for years - it's only getting worse.
I can envision an entrepreneur with money simply buying up land, opening up parking only lots and charging a monthly fee for nation wide access. Yea, I mean something on a big scale. I mean, if I got out of this truck right now, at 7:00 pm, I can guarantee you there are no empty spaces and this is the only truck stop around. That I know of anyway or saw coming in. There are several 50 miles outside of town, but not here. I was afraid I was going to run into parking problems when I got here. Anyway, I waved all the fuel lane trucks trying to leave past me. Yup, please go on. Cause I was going to go down, to the end, flip a U-ey and come back. NO way I am backing a truck this big and long into a space that small without doing it from the right side. Blind side backing is dangerous even for the most skilled driver with backing skills. You can do it, but you are likely going to have to get out of the truck several times to make sure you aren't about to take out the truck you are backing against.
I have seen drivers using a spot mirror on a pole so they can see out the passenger side while blind side backing. It is just highly not recommended if you can avoid it. If you can't, do what you must.
My problems were exaggerated by a broken down pickup across the other side and a parked semi over there behind it. I could not get the full access to pull up as the "designers" intended. Fortunately for me, a man decided he was going to help me back into that spot, and I was very much grateful for the help. He was quite adept at giving hand signals, obviously been helping drivers get their trucks into spaces long enough to have gotten good at it. But, at the same time, the driver has to have the sense enough to get that thing angled right and get the truck banking around just right. You take a tractor that long and a trailer that long and get it off even a little, you are pulling up and trying again. I had to do 2 pullups just because of the obstructions in front of me, but the 3rd time was the charm.
Thank you! To the man that took his own time out to help me.
\
So, I am stuck here for another 12 hours. Yup. I could get the load delivered after 10 hours - meaning 2am - but I can't get the next load on until 8am and it's only 13 miles away. So, I have some free time! And, I am going to decide what movie I want to watch and go on Putlocker and watch it. I have so much gigs every month on my phone, I can do a lot of streaming before I even come close to running out. And, the phone works very well at supplying the computer it's needed input to pump out a movie. I watched Unstoppable last night - runaway train movie with Denzel Washington, trying to decide what I want to watch tonight. Anyway, that's enough for one entry.
Well darn if there wasn't a bad crash and I got off the Interstate just in time, so I thought. I got to a turn in the road that said "trucks turn left, bridge ahead 11"".
Traffic was totally snarled anyway. I gave up on that, went back to the Interstate and spent two hours - yes, two freaking hours - going the distance of 4 miles. I mean, 30 minutes of that was sitting on the side of the Interstate - I ran out of hours, I had to take my mandatory 30 minutes break or be in "Hours Of Service" violation, so I did. Just pulled over and parked. By the time I woke up - I was tired, fell right asleep - 25 minutes later, the traffic had completely cleared.
Anyway, traffic ate up my drive hours today and I didn't have enough time to get to the drop place. Or I might have, but I wouldn't have had any time to leave that yard. No thanks. I'm not sitting in a yard all night long with no access to a toilet or food. Yes, I could "improvise", but why bother. Well, I was fighting the clock just getting here. I mean, I pulled into this Pilot truckstop with 3 minutes left on the clock! I stopped, pulled the valves and put myself on "On Duty", taking myself off of "Driving". Yup, electronic logs. Pros and cons to it. Pros are it's much easier than filling out a log book. Con - Once the 14 hour clock starts, you don't get off of it. You can't just stop, but yourself on "Sleeper Berth" line and take a few hours to sleep if you're tired, losing no on Duty or Driving time.
Lots of truckers are complaining about that and another road block apparently is being planned, or so I heard on the CB radio today. Ahh, yes, just found it, a Facebook group called Operation Black and Blue, but it's a closed group. Kinda dumb to be a closed group if you're trying to encourage a bunch of truckers to stop dead on the highway for 2 hours and block traffic. I asked to join anyway, just to see if this guy I was hearing on the radio was making accurate statements.
Well anyway, this is a small Pilot truck stop. I guess they are all small, but when I pulled in there, I was aghast. I am out of hours, I am not going anywhere, even if every single parking space is full. And they were - allllll - filled up. I drove around to the fuel pumps to act like I was fueling - which I was not, had fueled up earlier since I also pushed that one to the limit and ended up putting 226 gallons of fuel into this thing. See, if you aren't doing electronic logging, you can just fudge the books if you have to drive down the road to find a place to park. In this case, you can put yourself off duty, but if you start pulling through the gears, that thing is automatically putting you back on "Driving" status. So I stated in 3rd gear only.
Well, I pulled through the fueling lanes and much to my surprise, a truck pulled out of it's spot, right there. And at the same time, another truck had pulled in and was backing into another spot. I pulled up in front of my intended parking space and waited. And waited some more. You see, this lot wasn't exactly designed for big trucks to be pulling intricate backing maneuvers into tight spots between 2 trucks already in there. This is a daily dilemma for truckers across the country and have been complaining about it for years - it's only getting worse.
I can envision an entrepreneur with money simply buying up land, opening up parking only lots and charging a monthly fee for nation wide access. Yea, I mean something on a big scale. I mean, if I got out of this truck right now, at 7:00 pm, I can guarantee you there are no empty spaces and this is the only truck stop around. That I know of anyway or saw coming in. There are several 50 miles outside of town, but not here. I was afraid I was going to run into parking problems when I got here. Anyway, I waved all the fuel lane trucks trying to leave past me. Yup, please go on. Cause I was going to go down, to the end, flip a U-ey and come back. NO way I am backing a truck this big and long into a space that small without doing it from the right side. Blind side backing is dangerous even for the most skilled driver with backing skills. You can do it, but you are likely going to have to get out of the truck several times to make sure you aren't about to take out the truck you are backing against.
I have seen drivers using a spot mirror on a pole so they can see out the passenger side while blind side backing. It is just highly not recommended if you can avoid it. If you can't, do what you must.
My problems were exaggerated by a broken down pickup across the other side and a parked semi over there behind it. I could not get the full access to pull up as the "designers" intended. Fortunately for me, a man decided he was going to help me back into that spot, and I was very much grateful for the help. He was quite adept at giving hand signals, obviously been helping drivers get their trucks into spaces long enough to have gotten good at it. But, at the same time, the driver has to have the sense enough to get that thing angled right and get the truck banking around just right. You take a tractor that long and a trailer that long and get it off even a little, you are pulling up and trying again. I had to do 2 pullups just because of the obstructions in front of me, but the 3rd time was the charm.
Thank you! To the man that took his own time out to help me.
\
So, I am stuck here for another 12 hours. Yup. I could get the load delivered after 10 hours - meaning 2am - but I can't get the next load on until 8am and it's only 13 miles away. So, I have some free time! And, I am going to decide what movie I want to watch and go on Putlocker and watch it. I have so much gigs every month on my phone, I can do a lot of streaming before I even come close to running out. And, the phone works very well at supplying the computer it's needed input to pump out a movie. I watched Unstoppable last night - runaway train movie with Denzel Washington, trying to decide what I want to watch tonight. Anyway, that's enough for one entry.
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