Holy hell! You're still here?

Ok, I know I haven't updated in a long time... again. But I've been BUSY!! By shutdown time, I've been too exhausted to even think about putting together coherent sentences.

Anyway, I was going through my comments and came across one from "anonymous" back in August asking for a retrospective since I've been doing this for over a year now. Here goes:

It's been a LOT of learning, a LOT of mistakes, and a LOT of growing. Not so much my body. I think I've gained a little weight, but I'm not needing new clothes yet so I think I'm ok for now.

The biggest thing to understand is that when you're getting started, the money isn't there. It is very discouraging at time. VERY discouraging. It takes time, patience, stubbornness, and an OPEN MIND to get this job. An open mind is the most important thing because if you're not willing to change anything, you're going to keep screwing up and keep flushing the dollars down the toilet. The day we stop learning is the day that we die.

Advice to newbies: watch everything. Watch how truckers conduct themselves in all situations. Listen to the CB chatter. Listen to them talk. Watch how they back in to docks or parking spaces. You will learn much by doing this.

For the talk, you have to understand that 99% of everything that truckers say is pure BULLSHIT. The important thing is to learn to not only recognize the bullshit, but to understand WHY it is bullshit. They brag and boast but the reality is that they're not doing any better than you are, and quite likely worse.

For general conduct, you will learn what to do and what not do to. Don't piss and moan at your shippers and receivers. I don't care what they tell you to do. Just smile, say "ok", go back to your truck and scream there. I have plenty of shippers and receivers that I despise, but THEY will never know that. Also watch for general etiquette and PLEASE remember to avoid getting in people's way whenever possible. Fuel islands, parking lots, docks, etc. Don't block stuff unecessarily.

For parking and driving, watching the veterans and beginners is a very good habit to get into. You'll learn little tricks to try (and some to NOT try!). Even watching newbs back in is good because you can watch them make the same mistakes that you make and see why they're mistakes.

Anyway, that's enough posting for one night. Hope everyone had a good Turkey Day!

Massive Stupidity in Louisville...

This has got to be by far the stupidest thing that's ever happened to me at a shipper or receiver. Actually, in this case, this consignee just happened to be my next shipper. Zero deadhead miles. Woot.

So I got this load on Saturday to pick up at our contracted drop lot in Bensalem, PA. Delivers Monday at 0200 in Louisville, KY. No problem. I pick it up and drive down to the TA in Elkton, MD to call it an early day on account of laundry.

No sooner did I get my clothes in the wash than dispatch called me asking how soon I could get the load to Louisville, preferably in the morning. Uh, no. Still 650 miles to go, clothes in the wash. Try 1700-1800. Reason he was asking was that the consignee has a load ready to go (pick up no later than 1200) bound for Romulus, MI and it would be good to get the load squeezed in and get another one in after that before payday cutoff. He tells me that 1700-1800 will work ok, and that it will be a drop and hook. Well, it would have been ok, but...

Next day, I haul ass to the consignee. Get there at 1730. There is ONE person working the entire building and the full crew isn't due to arrive until midnight. They can't unload me until 0200, the appointment time.

Me: "But I was told it was going to be a drop and hook!"

He: "Uh, we don't do drop and hooks any more. All unloads are live. And I'm not showing a load to Romulus as being ready yet."

Fine. As I was heading back to my truck, I noticed a flammable placarded Prime trailer sitting in one of the ready pads. I walked around it and saw that it was all sealed and everything. Nothing unusual, but I just had "that feeling" that my destiny would be intertwined with this trailer somehow later on.

Now the story starts getting good.

So I come back at 0-dark-thirty as instructed. Check in, assigned door, open trailer, back into door. Unloading commences. Unloading finishes. Check out, ask for next load, and HEY!! It was loaded all the time on that trailer that I noticed earlier and rather bluntly foreshadowed for you.

That's not the good part. Here is the good part.

In order to hook up to the loaded trailer, I had to drop my empty one. Drop and hook, which the consignee doesn't do for incoming loads for some reason. So when I backed to the door, I had to disconnect from the original trailer while being unloaded (safety reasons), wait to get unloaded, hook back up, move the now empty trailer to another spot in the yard, drop it, and hook up to the new loaded trailer.

You mean to tell me that I couldn't have just left the loaded trailer in the door, hooked up to the new load and been on my way? They had yard goats, for crying out load! Basically, I was sitting around waiting to move an empty trailer for them.

Ugh. Needless to say, ontime delivery in Romulus, MI was no longer possible, and had to be rescheduled for tomorrow because they can't take loads after 1200.

This is not a job for hotheaded people, that's for damn sure. Ugh.

Getting fingered in Slowhio... (coarse language!)

The following is a letter to an asshole:

To A Gentleman in a Grey Pickup Truck Who Passed Me Near Cincinnati This Morning:

I was in the passing lane doing 63 (in a big rig, that's speeding in Ohio!) going around traffic that was moving just a little bit slower so it took a little while. Should have been pretty easy to understand. After I overtook the vehicles, I moved over to the right lane and watched traffic pass me. You were second in line, and you flipped me off as you drove past.

There really is no delicate way to put this, so I'll be blunt: WHAT THE FUCK, DUDE?? If you're pissed off because I was holding you up by only going 63 even though my truck will certainly exceed that speed, might I remind you that your beef is with your idiot Ohio lawmakers who mandated that the speed limit for trucks be set at 10mph below the rest of the traffic. That is, 55mph when everyone else gets to go 65mph. I was doing 63mph, which was pushing it. Given Slowhio's reputation for harassing truckers, I wasn't going to risk a speeding ticket just for your convenience. I was also not about to sit behind traffic moving slower than me.

In addition to this, was that two or three minutes really that important to you? Were you that late to be somewhere? If that was the case, I have no sympathy for you. I did not cause you to leave home without ample time to get to your destination. If you were running late, the fault lies entirely with you. So again, don't pin your idiocy on me.

I'm a professional driver, and I do my best to be a courteous driver. You could certainly help out my cause by being a little more patient and willing to share the road. Instead, you chose to be an asshole. For that, I pity your parents. Fuck you.

Love,

Rodger

Delivering in Delaware...

Here I sit, waiting for this Wal-Mart distribution center to finish unloading my trailer. The drive through Maine yesterday was quite pleasant and relaxing, and everyone at the shipper sounded like comedian Bob Marley. I'm not kidding there.

Of course, things turned crappy once I got back to Massachusetts and got worse in Connecticut. Friggin' Northeasterners need to learn how to drive. They don't seem to understand a few basic concepts such as:

• Every lane change contributes to backed up traffic. Multiple lane changes by the same care compounds the problem.
• When entering the highway, you're supposed to be a freeway speed BEFORE you get to the end of the ramp.
  
• Traffic already on the highway has the right of way. These bastards push their way in like you wouldn't believe. Again, adding the backup.

Things deteriorated really quickly as I approached New York. Apparently, a tree decided to fall on the highway and this caused a nine mile backup to the last service plaza in Connecticut. Joy.

I took my break in New York's retarded, evil brother, New Jersey. Actually, New Jersey wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the people living there, but that's a whole other essay (or rant). In any case, I stayed at the Vince Lombardi service plaza. If I had more time, I would have taken a shuttle into NYC to poke around a bit because there's a LOT of truck parking there and I've never really seen NYC in any meaningful way. Just I95 and JFK airport. Some other time, though.

I'm preplanned to go to Chicago next. While I'm no fan of Chicago traffic, it beats the crap out of what I've been dealing with this week. This load also is another piss-poor payer, not even $1.00/mile. But there are two things that are making up for it:

• My expenses are already paid this week (and then some!), so all the profit goes directly to my bank account
• I'm getting the HELL out of the northeast!!

The bad news is that unless my fuel optimizer has a better solution, I have to go brave Washington, DC. Ugh.

Maine...

Delivered my load in Lewiston, Maine tonight. Created myself a parking spot at a nearby truck stop, and hopefully they won't bother me about it while I'm sleeping. I'm past my 14 hours for the day and I'm exhausted. I really don't need to be hunting up another spot in the middle of the night.

Anyway, I'm preplanned to pick up a load of nonrefrigerated goods in Wilton, ME for delivery in Delaware on Saturday. The pay sucks for this load, but that's the freight in Maine for you. You get paid well coming in, crap on the way out.

By the way, I still hate driving in New England. What's the deal with all those toll roads? What are they doing with all the money they collect on those? I know what they're NOT doing - paving the roads. Or even modernizing the cash boxes so that they don't create traffic jams. Open road tolling a la Chicago would be a really nice way to use some of that money.

New England...

Driving in New England sucks. I don't know how people do it day in and day out. I'd refuse loads in an out of there, but they pay too well. I wish freight rates would switch for the northwest and the northeast, because driving out there is far preferable. Oh, and you haven't seen traffic jams until you've gone to Pennsylvania, New York, or New Jersey. Traffic jams of breathtaking scope. And lots of road construction. Just resurfacing. They're not doing anything useful like widening the roads like everyone else is doing. Basically, they're just making sure that you crawl along slowly on somewhat smoother roads.

That's my rant for the day.

I start today in Zanesville, OH after a murderous run on little two-lane state highways through southern Ohio. Get to Pittsburgh, PA, where I faithfully follow Prime's fuel optimizer and take PA28 up to I80. It was fine until it went down to two lanes, and then it degenerated into another twisty turny hilly mess. Like Slowhio, but more road construction. Finally, I make it to I80 and crawl through its various traffic jams. I got fuel at the Sapp Bros. in Clearfield where I was surprised to find that they were having a barbecue for truckers. For trucker appreciation week, apparently. Whatever they're calling it, it was free grub. Much appreciated, y'all.

Tomorrow, I get to blast through New York (thankfully not the city this time!), Connecticut, and a couple of other states on my way to Maine.

Posting Again!

Yeah, yeah. Once again, I've become lazy and haven't kept this thing up to date. Still going strong with Prime.

Started out in York, NE this morning and got a "check engine" light and the engine started running crappy in the middle of Omaha. Nice. Got it to the TA in Council Bluffs and found that my fuel filter is clogged and I'm getting EGR codes from the engine. The fuel filter got changed, and now the engine is running better. I'll have the EGR fixed later when I have time.

This fiasco put me about 2 hours behind, so I rolled up to my consignee in Valparaiso, IN about 1.5 hours late (had the appointment changed, so no service fail!). Was a long and rough day, and I'm done. Should get a load home tomorrow.

Fun With Reefers

I finished my hometime this morning and drove out to the Budweiser plant in Fort Collins to pick up an empty trailer. After a while, I found the trailer, and it was certainly empty. Of fuel. And battery charge. I call my dispatcher who sends me to road repair who tells me that my dispatcher needs to decide whether to have me get the trailer fixed now or go find another one. This is the fun part. For over an hour, I send messages over the Qualcomm asking for a solution. I also called a lot, but got an automated message saying that my dispatcher is "away from their [sic] desk".

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHH!

I finally call the Prime "all purpose" number and get transferred to the supervisor who discovers that I'm being dispatched from Salt Lake City today (my normal dispatchers get days off?!) but the phones aren't transferring properly.

After all this is straightened out, it is decided that I am to go get this trailer fixed. First, I go to Johnson's Corner in Loveland since it is close and not far out of route. I get the trailer fueled and find that the shop doesn't open for another hour and decide that instead of waiting, I'll just drive down to another shop that's near my pickup. Great idea, huh?

Fast forward to the Tomahawk Truck Stop in Brush, Colorado. One guy is working the shop. Needless to say, this takes a while.

So after waking up at 4 am to get a trailer and get my load, I finally roll into Fort Morgan and grab the load at 3PM. Great start, huh?

Headin' HOME!!

Finally, I'm on my way home. I've earned it, having been out for over a month now.

Anyway, things have been going well at Prime so far. The last week wasn't so productive because your options get VERY limited once you have to go in a particular direction. But that's ok.

I spent the last week driving around New England, delivering frozen vegetables and picking up and delivering ice cream. Had a four-stop load of ice cream treats to Ohio to supply the ice cream trucks. Man, talk about some messed up backing situations at those places.

I talked to my ex-codriver tonight. He had found a new codriver, but that arrangement lasted only about a week before he got fed up with the guy. Since then, he's been back at the Ford account as a utility driver and is starting Monday morning at Knight Transportation. Good luck, dude.

You want me to drive WHERE?!

Prime wasn't able to get another truck to take my load before I took off yesterday, so I just started driving as hard and fast as I could to gobble up some of those high-paying miles on the load, planning to stop at Glade Spring, Virginia. Late in the day after I passed Knoxville, Tennessee, I received a message on the Qualcomm: "Can you make it to Hagerstown, MD"? WTF? As in, 300 miles past my planned stopping point? Do remember, I started out near New Orleans.

Umm... I don't think so. Almost 1100 miles in one day is way too much, and I don't have millions of dollars to spend on any negligence suits that may crop up if I were to crash and take someone with me. Needless to say, they found me a swap. And the driver I swapped with brought me a gift: a two stop load to Delaware and Vermont that pay $1.91/mile to the truck. And the first drop (Delaware) doesn't drop until 6/4! That means I really don't have to start driving until the afternoon!

Now to get a PM busted out...

Fun with Haz Mat and The Value of a Good Post Trip Inspection...

I ended up spending a second night in Springfield and earned a 34 hour restart for my 70 hours. I woke up, drove out to the yard to find my trailer, found it, and did a pretrip. The trailer had a flat tire. Now this just pisses me off because tires just don't go flat in such a short amount of time unless they blow out. Never mind that, being a Haz Mat load, the person who brought it in should have been checking the tires (pressure and temperature) every 200-250 miles and logging said tire checks. It's a DOT requirement. Never mind that this trailer is equipped with the nifty TIREMAAX autoinflation system. When a tire is 10psi below optimum pressure, the trailer shines a BRIGHT ASS light in your driver's side mirror.

This was just pure laziness. The fact that this jackass couldn't be bothered to spend 10 minutes post tripping the trailer and turning it over to the shop to get the trailer fixed ended up costing me about 3 hours. See, not only was the tire flat, but part of the rim was bent around the brake drum which meant that the rim had to be CUT off and the brake chamber had to be changed. This could all have been done while I was sleeping last night. But no, this dipshit was too lazy to bother. Cost me three hours to save himself 10 minutes. For those of you who read this, do your post trip inspections properly! And even more importantly, if you find something wrong, GET IT FIXED!! I promise that it will cost the next driver more to take care of it than it would have cost you. Don't be an asshole. Please.

Even worse? It meant this genius was dragging around 41,000 pounds of hazardous material with a flat tire. This is dangerous.

After I finally left the Prime terminal, the rest of the day was just driving. Found a little rest area south of Dallas to park in for the night.

My fleet manager messaged me on the Qualcomm practically begging me to take a load out to Jersey for delivery on Saturday. Problem is, I'm supposed to be at home on Sunday for my wife's birthday. Well, the load is 1540 miles, paying at about $1.42 per mile, plus fuel surcharge. The minimum fuel surcharge this week is $0.25/mile, so I'm looking at $1.67/mile minimum, maybe as much as $1.72/mile. I called my wife and we decided that I should go ahead and do it so that I don't have to struggle to break even this week (this dumb load to Houston is only $1.o7/mile, INCLUDING fuel surcharge!) and actually should be able to turn another tidy profit. That'll probably put me home late next week since it'll take 2-3 loads to get me home from Jersey. Shorter loads out of there pay MUCH better than longer loads.

The Great Rigmaster Install and a very twisted road

I woke up this morning bright and early to deliver a load of cut fruit and vegetables to Wally World in Clarksville, AR and prepared myself for the "short" drive up to Springfield, MO to get my Rigmaster generator installed. To shorten the drive and make it interesting, I chose to take state road 21 to US412 to US65. Well, I did succeed in making it interesting...

I wouldn't dare compare Arkansas SR21 to the likes of "The Tail of the Dragon" (www.tailofthedragon.com), but taking a truck through there wasn't wisest of choices. I'm not stupid. I knew what taking a little state route through the Ozarks in Arkansas would entail. And for the most part, it wasn't THAT bad. Just a couple of 25-35mph stretches which were really twisted and one curve that was posted 25mph and became VERY apparent once I was in the curve that the 20mph I was going was about 10mph too fast. And I got to climb a long 11% grade. And the atlas has the route marked as a designated route and no restrictions are listed. So imagine my surprise when I encountered a 34 ton bridge. I drive a truck with a gross combination vehicle weight rating of 40 tons. Let's just say that: 1) I was empty, 2) no cops around, and 3) there was no where to turn around at this point. I'll leave my solution to the problem to your imagination.

I finally arrived in Springfield after fighting strong temptation to run over some of these Missouri drivers who absolutely refuse to drive any faster than 50mph in a 60mph zone. With the amount of traffic on the road, it's dangerous to impede the flow of traffic like that, but I guess that they don't care and never will.

My truck gets to spend the night in the shop getting the generator installed while I get a bunk room at the terminal. A bunk room is essentially a scaled-down motel room. It has a double bed, a couple of nightstands and lamps, a chair, and a tiny tv with basic cable. It's not the Hilton, but it's comfortable. And it's free.

*sniff* Farewell, load!

Here I sit at a tiny truckstop in rural Mississippi on my 10 hour break waiting for another driver to come by to repower my load. See, I can't legally deliver this load on time anymore. I pulled into our terminal in Springfield to get fuel, the trailer nazis found some stuff that they wanted to fix on the trailer and wouldn't let me leave until it was done. Only took four hours. Two hours ahead became two hours behind, and my fleet manager was unable to reschedule with the customer. So, the options are to repower the load with someone who has the hours to do it or let me be late, get worked in, and probably be late for the last two drops as well.

No worries, though. We're still early in the pay period, so there's plenty of time to make money.

Wasted Day

I delivered my load of cooking oil in Cheyenne, WY, this morning and immediately got a new dispatch. Woohoo! It's a little longer than I wanted because I was hoping to get a quick one done before Tuesday to fatten up this paycheck, but that's ok. Next one will be all the more fatter.

Anyway, I get to the shipper and find out that they haven't yet killed enough cows to fill my trailer. So I wait. I finally get called in at 1700 (A whole 2.25 hours before I HAVE to shut down). They tell me which trailer it is and where to find it. I hop into my truck, search the lot twice, and go back to the guard shack and tell them that it ain't there. After some confusion, they get someone to finally drag it out for me. I hook up, pretrip it (there's a hole in the side that road assist told me to get fixed at a TA, Bosselman's, or Petro as soon as I can. it's not penetrating the insulation or leaking cold air, so it's ok for a day or so). I also take pictures at road assist's request so that they can bill the shipper for the repair. I haul the trailer over to the exit, wait for the guard to finally decide to check me out, and he discovers that the seal number is incorrect. ARRRRGH! (No, I couldn't check it because they don't give us the bills of lading until we're checked out) An hour later, someone FINALLY comes out and fixes it. Great. I have just enough time to scale and shut down.

They can't all be good days, I guess.

Sleeping in!

A rare treat today. I got to sleep in! My next load isn't scheduled to be picked up until 1600 EDT so I didn't set my alarm and just woke up whenever. When I did get up, I called over and they told me that the load would be ready in an hour. I pull up a little over an hour later and they're still not done. No worries, I still have plenty of time.

Not all loads have "plenty of time", though. I had to bust my ass to deliver my load last night, and I was still 2.5 hours late. You can thank the orange barrel crews in Ohio and Pennsylvania for that one. I mean, no sooner does the snow melt than they start shutting down half of the traveled parts of the highways. I'd probably be a little more forgiving if the freshly paved portions in Pennsylvania didn't feel like I40 through Oklahoma City. (BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!) Granted, I should have taken a little more time in planning the trip and noticing the lack of time immediately, but I'll live and learn. The consignee got revenge by making me back into their most difficult door, so I did my penance. Only one pull up, too. I'm not sure if I could do that again.

Holy crap! I've been keeping track of the comments that I've been getting and I'm astounded that this blog is attracting a bit of a following. It's nice to know that I'm not typing to nobody at least. Oh, and the comments are always appreciated.

Tonight I shut down about 45 miles from my first delivery. I have to go on a rant about my least favorite place to drive thus far: Pennsylvania. See, Pennsylvania is a VERY pretty state and the people seem nice enough, but driving around it in a truck is a major pain in the ass. A LOT of people live there, which means that there are a LOT of cars on the road. Nevermind that the Pennsylvania turnpike feels rather cramped in a truck WITHOUT the extra traffic. And there are only two types of drivers on the turnpike:

1. Those who will go 10mph above the speed limit and no slower
2. Those who will go 10mph below the speed limit and no faster

I friggin' HATE driving in Pennsylvania. I won't even get into the other highways. Yeesh. And don't tell me all about its history and how it was built back in the days of horses and buggies. I know that, and it does nothing to change the fact that it's still a pain in the ass to drive through.

Eastbound and down...

I didn't post for a couple of days because things were sensationally uninteresting. I was deadheaded back to my house to wait on a load that wasn't ready until this morning.

Other than that, this is a typical "drag some product across the country" load and nothing noteworthy has happened.

One Load Down, Many More to Go...

I promised my fleet manager that I'd get that load delivered by 1500 today, and damned if I didn't come through with 30 minutes to spare! It took some seriously hard running to get it done, but I did it.

I make it to the consignee and see where I might have to pull it, but it looks TIGHT. Instead of getting stuck, I went in to see where they wanted me. Sure enough, that's where they wanted me, and a closer look showed that I could fit in there if I lubed up the truck enough. The lot wasn't particularly small, but they had their stuff all over the place, making it into one of those "you want me to put this truck WHERE?!?!" yards. Ok, I'm exaggerating. It really wasn't that bad, but it was still pretty cramped and took some serious wiggle work to get the truck aligned with their "dock". Oh, and backing up a hill sucks. Thankfully, they were nice people and unloaded me quick. In an out in an hour, including the backing exercise.

Afterwards, I took my truck down to Prime's Salt Lake City terminal for more repairs. My power steering pump was making a racket trying to steer when the truck was stopped. The stereo speakers in my passenger door were cutting in and out, too. Got a new power steering pump and the guys fixed my stereo's wiring. Believe me, I'm being NITPICKY with this warranty. The power steering was a must, but the stereo was just gravy.

The repairs put me pretty much at my 14, so I'm taking the night off and am starting again in the morning. Besides, the stress of the last couple of days really wore me out. The terminal has wireless internet access, so I'm good to go.

On the road... FINALLY!!!

My load FINALLY arrived at the terminal at about 1000. No worries, still plenty of time to deliver on time. I grab the trailer, get my tanks topped off, and then run across the handy scale at Prime's terminal. 35000+ on the drives. Crap. Ok, so I decide to slide the tandems forward. Except that the trailer brakes don't hold and the just roll. Crap. And my air conditioner quits blowing cold air. And smoke is coming out from under my hood. I open the hood to find that the air conditioner compressor has seized up and is in the process of melting the belt. CRAP!

So I drag everything over to maintenance. Of course the shop doesn't have time to deal with my air conditioner, so I just have the trailer fixed and got it legal. I drive down the road to a TA and they get my truck right in. The replace the compressor and belt and it's still not blowing cold. Needs a new air dryer and expansion valve. They don't have the parts and have to go to Springfield and get them. CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP!!

My truck is FINALLY done at 2000. Man this was expensive in terms of time. Doesn't cost me a penny, though, because I've got a 60-day bumper to bumper warranty on this thing which Success Leasing extends to everyone who leases a used ride. Now I just have to get my VORAD fixed (headway is having problems, and the people at the TA looked at me like I had antlers when I mentioned "VORAD").

Redid my trip plan, and I'm gonna be LATE. Late enough to miss the pay period cutoff on Tuesday. Sheesh. Great way to get started, huh? Oh well. It just means that next week's settlement will be that much larger, and missing a week isn't going to starve me.

And now we wait...

Here I sit at the terminal, waiting for my first load.. and waiting... and waiting. Actually, I haven't been waiting that long. I only became available about an hour ago.

Orientation today was spent doing fun stuff like permits, security, lease orientation, and getting my truck ready for the road.

That last part was EXPENSIVE... wow. Here's what I spent on that:

1 tire gauge: $14.87
2 load locks (need to minimum to prevent load shift): $30.00 ea
1 3 pc security set (air cuff, big padlock for trailer doors, little padlock for inspection door): $115.13
2 sets of link chains (remember, I live in Colorado!): $50.94/set
1 set of cable chains (for retarded states who like chains on trailer; Oregon and Washington): $42.19
1 digital thermometer (I work reefers, remember?): $11.00
4 Nev-R-Tips (for blocking and bracing w/ load locks): $12.50 ea
1 flashlight (didn't bring one thinking I was b-seating): $7.98
1 accident camera: $7.34 (yes, I should have bought one at Wally World, but oh well)

Grand total of $410.39, spread out over the next few settlements so that I can build up positive cash flow. And all tax-deductible.

After that, I still had to spend more of my money because I was a moron and left BOTH of my truck atlases at home. Can't work without that, so I had to buy one. That was completely my fault, so I take a little business loss for being an idiot. I did have some extra money set aside for buying a few extras and not-so-extras, so I bought:

1 logbook cover that fits these Prime logs
1 400 watt inverter (my other inverter is sitting uselessly in my car in Denver. but it sucked anyway)
a couple of hand tools
inexpensive boot mats for my steps ($6 for 2 of them - haven't seen a better price yet)
Prime's alternative to the Pumpkin book, just packaged fancier
lanyard for my Prime id/fuel card because it has to be visible when I'm on Prime property and is also the access card to all the doors. The free one sucks.
Zip ties (mats didn't come with any. still cheaper)

Also, I noticed that these trucks don't come with the privacy curtain that goes around the windows. I didn't HAVE to have one, but I like them to help keep out the sun and the yo-yos who like to stare into my windows. So I got one. No big deal.

Now I get the fun of dealing with Opti-Idle. It's kind of a neat feature, and yet kind of annoying. See, you set a temperature range on it, and the truck will turn on and off to maintain that temperature as well as keep its batteries charged and whatnot. It's annoying because the thermostat makes a loud BEEP! when the truck turns on. That will probably get old fast. I'm not really worried because I'll quit using it once I get an APU installed on this puppy. In the meantime, though, it will be cheaper on fuel that running the truck all the time.

I need to devote some time to talking about the truck a bit. This is VERY much not the same Freightliner Century that Schneider uses. It has more gauges. It has better quality and more comfortable seats. It has a cruise control on the shifter. It has a very different Qualcomm. It has a thermos holder on the floor. It has Sirius satellite radio installed (damn it! I'm an XM person!). It has VORAD on the passenger side and front. It has another mirror above the passenger door. It has no passenger side sidebox (damn it!). It has a better mattress. It has no fan above the driver's side vent. The CB mounts above the driver's head instead of on top of the dash. It has a panic button. It has 515 horsepower. Man, it tries to get away from you if you're used to Schneider's eunuch trucks. I have to relearn at what speeds the gears like because the ones that I got used to at Schneider just grrrrrind like crazy on this thing.

Now for the Millenium Building, which is the crown jewel of Prime's operations. All I can say is "wow". Talk about a contrast to Schneider's dull grey operating centers. This place is colorful, full of fountains, and a little hard to navigate if you're not used to it. The fuel pumps are full service. As in, you're not allowed to pump your own fuel. There are a few posters around featuring Robert Low (at Prime, you don't get any higher than him) practically DARING you to play basketball with him and others at lunchtimes Monday-Friday. I haven't seen this spectacle yet, but the word is that he used to play college ball and he is GOOD.

Now for those of you who have been through Schneider's training and are looking at Prime... or those who have READ about Schneider's training and are looking at Prime, let me explain a few things that I've learned here. Prime is a LOT less hand-holdy than Schneider is. If you don't understand anything and don't ask, nobody is going to help you. There are several different groups all doing different things commingled together, so don't rely on other students or new guys. You have to ask the instructors or others who have been around. Those of us who came from Denver had COMPLETELY different itineraries from those who have been here, and I had a different schedule from the b and c seats who came from Denver with me. You've got to be paying attention. Also, I was CLOSE to taking off without any Transflo forms (no Trippak here!). That would have sucked painfully come time to scan my stuff to get paid. Nobody was going to remind me. Especially if you're not with the main group.

Now I just get to wait for my first load...

Still going...

After a boring day of sitting around in the hotel room yesterday, I rose at 0530 to eat breakfast and make it to the 0700 class. The problem is, our schedules were wrong and they didn't need us folks from Denver until 1015. Wow. I could have slept in. Ah well.

I killed a couple of hours by walking down to Wal-Mart and buying some bedding for the truck so I don't have to use my sleeping bag. I would have brought bedding to start with, but I didn't plan on being an A seat and going right out on my own.

At 1015 we did our benefits orientation and I made my first business decision. Other than the basic life insurance, I'm staying away from Prime's contractor benefits. I guess the truckers are a piss poor risk group because those premiums are awfully high for awfully mediocre benefits. I've already got a couple of quotes for less than half the price - without the three month waiting period.

So now that I decided not to shell out $70/wk for health insurance, we went to our logging class. Logging is still logging, but Prime allows its drivers to split a 10-hour break and use all those complicated rules. Schneider expressly forbid that as a matter of company policy. I can see where the split can be handy, but I'm not sure that I'd use it often. Also, Prime prefers that we log at least 15 minutes for a Post Trip Inspection, and just flag the Pre Trip. That's completely the reverse of Schneider. And actually, I think I prefer the Schneider way. Prime's log forms are CLUTTERED, too. It's going to take some getting used to.

Once that was out of the way, I was shuttled off to the terminal to pick out my truck. I had seven to choose from: five 2005 models, one 2006 model, and one 2007 model.

Three of the 2005 trucks didn't pass the appearance test. One was yellow, and I *HATE* yellow as a color for vehicles. Another was "twilight royal plum" and was a little too beat up for my tastes given that there were available trucks in better shape. The same went for the dark red one.

Of the two remaining 2005 trucks, one was "radiant fire". I fell in love with that color and took it for a test drive. I was almost heartbroken to find that it drove like crap. WAAAY too much freeplay in the clutch (almost to the floor to get in the working area!) and a heck of a sloppy transmission. I had a hell of a time finding gears in that thing. After that, I tried ANOTHER "twilight plum" (purple to the rest of us) truck. It drove beautifully. Just over 300,000 miles on it, and the lease would be up in February 2008. Definitely worth another look. The problem I had with it is color. I don't have anything against purple per se, but it is a very common color at Prime and I was hoping for something more distinctive and "me".

Next I drove the 2006 blue tractor. When I first looked at it, I disliked the color. It's a lighter blue of a shade that gets on my nerves. Even so, I tried the truck and it acquitted itself well. 240,000 miles. Lease would be over in September 2008. $20 more per week. I disliked the fact that it only had a hood mirror on the passenger side. I got used to having both hood mirrors at Schneider, and I'm not really ready to give that up.

I then went to get the keys and maintenance records for the 2007, but someone else was already trying it and then he decided to grab it. No worries though. I don't think I wanted to go up to that high of a payment and that long of a lease to start with.

In the end, I decided to get the "twilight plum" 2005 instead of the 2006. The 2005 truck was in just as good shape as the 2006, had only 60,000 more miles, and wouldn't cost me an extra $20/wk. I just couldn't find any value in the 2006 truck. Besides, I hated the color and the fact that it only had the one hood mirror.

After all the running around Prime's lot, I had to inspect this truck. Unlike Schneider, Prime wants detailed damage inspections. I had to go around detailing every nick and scratch on this thing. The only thing I found that needed immediate repair was the passenger side running light, which wouldn't turn on unless the turn signal or hazard lights were on. Tires look to be in good shape, and they credit my tire fund for the amount of tire already worn.

All I need to do now is make an appointment to get a generator/APU installed and all will be well. The truck comes with Opti-Idle, but I really don't want to use that any more than necessary.

Well, I'm absolutely beat. I'll just close with a couple of quick pics of my new ride.

Prime Orientation, Day 2...and then some..

Springfield, MO 8:09AM

Didn't get to post anything yesterday because we went from orientation straight to driving out here.

We got to sleep in yesterday as they didn't want to start us until 0900. The day was spent watching videos. I'm apparently getting another Highway Watch number. The video was interesting the first time with Schneider, but watching it again was not fun. After that, we watched a long, drawn out sexual harassment video and two even longer, even more drawn out maintenance/inspection videos. For those of you pumpkin drivers who read this, the maintenance videos made Schneider's "Three Points of Contact" video look Oscar-quality.

Speaking of Schneider, the pumpkins got razzed in these orientation videos. They were talking about accident avoidance and mentioned watching out for all those "orange trucks you see in the truck stops." And of course, Schneider was used in the example of what to do when a truck rips off your hood when you're parked. Bastards. The maintenance guy DID have a good idea, though. He strongly suggested that when we park, we write down the company names, tractor numbers, and trailer numbers of the trucks parked on either side of us in case bad stuff does happen and they don't have the integrity to own up to it.

FINALLY, the videos were over (about 1600) and we were stuffed into a rental minivan with a third guy who started orientation last week but had a family emergency that forced him to wait another week. After a long 12 hours, we're here at this hotel which seems to house Prime applicants and drivers and not much else. Seriously, the parking lot is secured and all the spaces are large enough to accomodate bobtails. There are a bunch of classrooms for the various training classes that they have here. The rooms are decent. Nothing fancy, and unfortunately no internet access. Thank goodness I have other ways of getting that access. We get three meals a day at the cafeteria here.

Well, I'm absolutely beat. We have the day off to rest, and I intend to do just that. We start tomorrow morning at 0700.

The orientation begins...

Just as I predicted, a simple conversation with the Denver recruiting and orientation contact (Tammy) fixed my hotel problem. So all is well there.

Breakfast was unexpectedly good here. Instead of the standard continental fare, we actually had a buffet consisting of biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage links, french toast, and the like. Continental-style eats were also available, but I wasn't interested. No juice though, which was a bit of a bummer.

Since my reservation was messed up, I thought it might be a baaaaad idea to trust that a shuttle would show up and decided to drive myself. It also seemed a bit ridiculous that they'd commit a shuttle to pick up just one person. On my way out the door, I ran into a guy who was starting orientation with Navajo (their terminal is just across the street from the Prime terminal) and he claimed to be a former Schneider driver. A bit bitter, though. Before I was able to get away from him, he had told me how he'd lost his house because of Schneider and whatever other sob story he had.

I'm going to digress now. I've noticed a pattern developing among truckers, and the defining characteristic is attitude. If your attitude sucks, you don't make much money in this career. It's that simple. All the truckers I've talked to that are going broke do nothing but friggin' BITCH BITCH BITCH. And their monetary difficulties are never their fault. I'm sorry, but in a career that requires you to be almost completely independent, you are entirely responsible for how you do. If things start going south, it's up to you and you alone to fix it. Nobody else is ever going to babysit you here. Excuses don't pay bills. If your carrier REALLY and TRULY doesn't have the freight base to keep drivers moving, then move on. If you're not making money but everyone else around you is, then you're doing something VERY wrong. I could go on and on here, but I should probably get back to the subject at hand. Just be positive and have an open mind. Trucking is what you make of it. No more, and no less. It's all YOU.

I drove down to the Prime terminal and was confronted by the locked gate, a keypad for entering the code, a speaker for talking into, but no call button or phone to plead my case for entry. After sitting there and trying a few different code combinations in hopes of someone calling out to me, I drove to the parking lot next door and called Prime's general purpose line. Yes, I should have called the Denver terminal directly, but I left that number back at my room like a moron. Luckily, Tammy is the one who answers and she lets me in.

Now, when I say that this place is small, I mean it is SMALL. There is no fuel there. There is a small row of back-in parking that fits maybe 20 trucks. Not much activity. The building is one of those portable modular things with all the usual safety propaganda featuring pictures of crashed trucks hung up on the walls. There is one shower - in the men's room. Functional, and not much else. It seems to be all they need for the traffic they get there, though. Only a couple of trucks came and went during orientation today.

Just when I thought I'd be by myself this whole time, another fresh face shows up. He's experienced, but less so than me. In fact, I noticed that I was classified as a B-2 seat (3-4 months experience, requiring 60 days of training instead of the 30 days that I was promised!) and I asked the WTF question about it. Tammy promptly reran my motor vehicle, DAC, and employment history and came back with good news: instead of being B-1 (30 days training) like I was promised, I now qualified as an A seat and get my truck immediately following orientation. WOOHOO! I tell you, there's a lot to be said for paying attention to your paperwork and asking questions. Like I said in the last paragraph, you've got to stay on top of this stuff because nobody else will do it for you.

This morning was pretty much consumed by the medical clinic. We went down and got new DOT physicals and drug tests. Pretty standard stuff; was poked, prodded, and molested by the doctor. And thanks to the coffee and water that I started drinking early on, fessing up the urine sample was a breeze. In fact, I was getting rather eager to donate.

After that, we went back to the terminal, watched a couple of "welcome to Prime" videos, ate lunch (they sent out for sandwiches), did a ton of paperwork, and had our integrity interviews. Pretty simple, and really informal seeing as how it's just two of us. We concluded at about 1500 and were told to show back up at 0900. Woot! Sleep in!

That's pretty much it. Tammy gave me a voucher for $8.50 worth of food good at the hotel's restaurant, so dinner is taken care of.

On my way to Prime, and not without complications...

Here I sit in the adequately appointed Best Western of Central Denver. Actually, it's a pretty nice room (much nicer than the Best Western Ontario Airport that Schneider likes to use in California!). It's just in a questionable area of town, but that's just the trucking life. We don't get to see the nice parts of cities very often.

I encountered a problem at check-in; they didn't have a reservation for me. Or for Prime, Inc. Hmmm. I'm guessing that since I'm the only new employee this week in Denver that it slipped their minds. A quick conversation in the morning should rectify this and make sure that the authorization for $80.38 on my bank card doesn't actually get charged. This will be a good test of how Prime handles odd situations. I guess I could be pissed, but I just don't see the point until I give them a fair chance to set things right. Things never go exactly as they should anyway.

During my long and meandering search for food around here I accidentally found Prime's facility here in Denver. Wow. It's SMALL. Very, very small. Again, not really worried because it's my understanding that I won't see this place very often.

Now it's time for bed so that I can stay awake for this orientation.

Goodbye, Schneider!

I got home last night after my codriver dropped me off on the way to Denver. I cleaned my stuff out of the truck (holy crap I accumulated a lot of stuff!) and went for a little welcome home dinner with my wife.

It's a couple of days early, but that's the nature of the business and freight is shaky these days. And I'm glad for the extra time at home with Jill because I'll probably be gone for over a month on my first trip out with Prime, Inc.

Today was fairly productive. I touched base with Tammy, the person in charge of the orientation in Denver and had her e-mail me all the information I need for getting started. Where the hotel is, when to be there, what to bring, etc. Pretty standard stuff.

I also went down to the DMV and picked up a hazmat endorsement for my CDL. I just got my letter from the TSA last week declaring that I'm not a terrorist. (FINALLY!) It only took a month and a half. Gotta love the goverment.

And now for a few pictures from my last run with Schneider...


Me, the truck, and the Rocky Mountains (Vail Pass rest area)


Big mistake. Got stuck in a muddy truckstop parking lot in Oklahoma.


Another view


And another


An attempt to photograph the Rockies in Montana


10,000 Silver Dollars Casino/Restaurant/Gift Shop/Truckstop in Haugan, Montana

Killing a day in Wisconsin

So I wake up this morning at the weigh station on northbound I94 at the Wisconsin/Illinois border. Just another 90 minutes of driving to get to the consignee. In the meantime, our replacement load comes in; a nice load to beeeyoootiful Laredo, TX. Ew. But it's certainly nice to have a load that actually moves over 1000 miles for a change, so I won't complain too much.

Anyhow, I get the load delivered ok and have some time to kill because it's a live load at 1500 and it's about 1000. I start bobtailing south toward my empty trailer pickup and what do I see? Held's! Yes, it's a Cheese/Sausage/Jerky seller with a handy truck turnaround on US41, exit 64. I went in there, lost my mind, and spent a good amount of money on cheese and jerky. It's going to be hard to hold onto some of the cheese until I get home, but my wife will kill me if I eat it all. Very highly recommended.

Anyway, after I part with money and put my newly purchased dairy treats in my power cooler, I finish the bobtail run to the Kohl's distribution center in Menomonee Falls, WI. I grab the empty, sweep it out, and check the lights. Whoa, missing a license plate light bulb. Thankfully, I carry extras. Snap 'er in, and I'm good to go. Haul it down to South Milwaukee for a live load, arrive an hour early, and find that the good folks at the shipper have already loaded a trailer for me and just want me to drop and hook. Darn the luck!

So I pretrip it, close the doors, lock and seal it, and slide the tandems to what I think would be a good legal place for 34,000 lbs. 7th hole should do it. I swing by a Pilot 1 exit south, scale it, and of course I was right. I'm always right. But I also always scale, JUST IN CASE. I just have to be caught wrong once, you know.

So after I get my scale ticket, a horrible thought enters my mind. In the hubbub of getting the paperwork, sliding my tandems, and getting out of the next guy's way, I totally forgot to check the tires. So I did. And of course, one's flat. I called Schneider Emergency Maintenance and experienced a miracle: no hold time. At all. As in, someone answered the phone immediately. This must be my lucky day. Even luckier, we had a tire bank just across the interstate. So I limp it over there, perform a harrowing blindside back off a public road into Wingfoot's driveway (there was absolutely no other way to do it, and the Wingfoot guys helpfully blocked traffic and spotted me), and watch this tiny little guy change the tire. I was amazed that a shrimpy guy like him changed the tire so quickly. I mean, this guy couldn't have been more than 5'4" and couldn't have weighed more than 110 pounds soaking wet. But he got me on my way, and I was definitely grateful.

Finally, late in the day, I'm actually ready to put down some miles. Yeah, just in time for Chicago's rush hour. I made it through, but I'm done. Killed my driving output- only 395 miles for the day. Should have a better day tomorrow. We'll see.

I thought that this was supposed to be spring...?

We took last night off because our shipper wasn't open until 0800. So I wake up and cast my eyes over northern Pennsylvania and am stunned to see how brown, cold, and.. well.. wintry it looks. After picking up the load and getting it scaled, I proceed west on I80. And hit snow. On and off all the way to the Seville OC. WTF?? Why won't winter just die this year?!

In the meantime, we got our next load assignment. A high-value expedited load in which we do FedEx Ground's job for them and deliver a trailer full of packages from one terminal to another. Problem is, it's an 0700 pickup. Uh, we're not going to make it until about 0900. I send in the appropriate macro on the Qualcomm saying 1000, just to be safe. 45 minutes later, the Qualcomm beeps. Imagine that! We've been removed from the load. No worries, though. It was short, and we'd done that exact run before. We'd like to finally get a 1000+ mile load, but 900 is the most they've given us thus far, and it's really wearing us down because we can't get into a rhythm with all these stupid short lengths of haul.

Now it's time to go to sleep and let my codriver deal with Chicago. I got us out of Pennsylvania, and that was PLENTY.

On the road again...

I'm back on the road for the final time with Schneider. I sent in my notice via Qualcomm. So far, this trip is shaping up much like the last one - plenty of miles, but all in short trips. It's really getting tiring because when you're picking up and dropping off every day, you can't get settled into a good routine. I can't get a good, long sleep because when I'm done driving, we're only maybe 100 or 200 miles from the consignee and I just can't sleep through the starting, stopping, coupling, and uncoupling.

I'm also getting really tired of bouncing around the midwest and to the east coast. I don't know where all the westbound freight is, but we really need to pick up some of that.

Other than that, there's really not a whole lot to post about.

New developments... and there are many!

Well, we finally got back on the road soon after the last post. And we got to keep the original truck, meaning that we cleaned her out for nothing. Oh, and our dedicated STL never changed us to the system board. His boss ended up having to do that for us.

Anyway, we've been on the road and things improved greatly. It wasn't a great run because it was loaded with short runs between high value expedited runs. But decent money came in and the working conditions are much better.

Well, last week I had a message come up on the Qualcomm asking me to call our STL. I did, and he asked if we wanted a new truck. As in, brand new. 2007. Of course we did. We picked up her up last Wednesday in West Memphis.



The fun part of all this is that I'm giving three weeks' notice of my intent to resign to Schneider on Thursday, when we go back out. You see, I accepted a position with Prime, Inc and start orientation in Denver on Monday, April 30th. I'm going to try my hand at leasing a truck and working for myself.

I went into this after much thought, soul searching, and quizzing of Prime drivers and Schneider independent contractors about how they run their businesses and how to succeed. There is a LOT of bad sentiment on the internet where leasing is concerned, but the vast majority of it is rants by people who can't compose a sentence. Makes me question their business sense. The rest appears to be the opinions of those who have never even tried it. All the Prime drivers that I talked to said that there is a lot of money to be made, but you HAVE to control costs and treat it like a business.

I'll give it a shot. If you disagree with my decision and wish to tell me so, I'll thank you in advance for keeping your comments polite if you absolutely can't keep them to yourselves. I'm doing this and will update the blog accordingly - both good and bad.

AAARRRRGGHH!! Frustration, frustration...

Ok, I last posted that we were trying to get out of our Ford dedicated account. Last week was finally our last week at that, and we're set for 10AM availability tomorrow. Sounds good, right?

Riiiiiiight....

First, we have no truck. We cleaned it out on Saturday and it went to the shop today to have a cattleguard installed (EWW! Poor girl, now she's going to be hideous!) so she can run on a more elk-prone route. We're supposed to be assigned to some beater truck that needs to get taken back to an operating center for trade, and then we're supposed to pick a more appropriate truck for teams. Sounds good, right?

Riiiiiiiiight....

Our STL from the dedicated account told us to call our new STL today to find out what's going on with the truck situation... like which truck we're taking. So I called and found out two things:

1) We're still assigned to the dedicated board
2) We're assigned to a load (WTF?!)

So, last call to our new STL had him telling me that he'd call our old STL, get it straightened out, and give me a call back. Well, about 3:45 (Pacific Time) I called back and was informed that the new STL had gone for the day.

WTF? WTF? What the f---?! We just want to run and make money. It would be nice to have been able to do that without someone botching the transfer. This is the first time that I've been disappointed and pissed at Schneider. Hopefully, it'll be the last.

Whew! What a month!

Once again, I promised that I would keep up on this better, and once again I have failed in that simplest of tasks.

Anyway, it's been a rather eventful month. A few weeks ago, my codriver and I got a message on the Qualcomm practically begging us to come drive for Schneider's Ford dedicated account in Denver. It promised a salary (no more mileage pay) and more home time... well... it would have been more home time if I lived in Denver. Which I don't. Well, that's ok because I at least get to go home for the weekends. But...

I really don't mean to rant and rave and make Schneider look bad, because there was no lying involved. They didn't misrepresent the situation. It's more of a distorted look at the realities of living 60 miles from work that got me. Hell, I even thought that I could live with just the weekends. It certainly seems logical. The problem is that I just barely have enough time to start relaxing before I have to get up and drive back out to Denver to start the whole thing over again.

It's like living OTR with none of the benefits. At least over the road, my time at home would be at least 3 or 4 days. That means that I don't have to rush around as much during my time off. I also liked having more options as to how to run the loads. The set schedule going around the same route over and over and over again got old a lot quicker than I thought it would.

Anyway, my codriver is not enjoying it much either, so we're in the process of going back to 48 state system. More money + less hassle = happier drivers.

Oh, and our Coleman cooler died. The 12v plug melted. RIP, Coleman.