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.