10/16/2009

Really need to trade in my steel tarps for some lumber tarps. In the last year I've had to tarp one, maybe two loads of steel and I'm not sure how many loads of lumber. It was enough that I should have made the change a while back. So the next time I get to the terminal (maybe Monday) I gonna make the change.

Anyway after moving to Jacksonville, FL by 8am I got the dubious honor of waiting around till noon to get my w/a. Normally I'm a roll with it patience kinda of guy. Today was not that day. Finally at 11:15 a message "Can you make it to Blackshear, GA by 15:30 (3:30pm for the non military types) and get a load weighing 47100". Now I still have to break down the glass racks but we are only talking 106 miles so that part is do able. As to the weight hell I don't know off the top of my head. So I look it up in our handy dandy securement book that Maverick provides. The whole time I'm thinking your the load planner why are u asking me. Anyway the book says this trailer is rated to carry 47000 and that's what I send off in my message. No response.

11:55 w/a comes through proceed to Blackshear, GA for a 15:00 pick up.

Now lets do some math

Lost 45 min waiting for this to come through

Lost 30 min because the pickup time is 30 minutes earlier.

Still have to break down the racks. that that takes 45-60 minutes if there is no problems.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I already ticked for having to wait 3 hours to get a hint of a load. Then another almost 60 min to actually get the load. Now I've got to haul ass to get to the pickup in time.

I've known for four days where I would be today. They've known for four days where I was gonna be today. Why in hell should I have to haul ass.

Anyway made it to the shipper with (according to the w/a) 10 min to spare. Come to find out they load until 4 or 1600. There was a back up when I got there because it had been raining and they can't load lumber when it's raining. The loading crew was extremely efficient (something to do with it being Friday) and they drop 2 bundles off the load to get me under the legal limit. Did the math prior to loading so that saved a lot of time. Tarping went very fast. I must be getting better at the tarping thing. I would be embarassed to tell you how long in took for me to do that the first time. This time loading and tarping 2-2.5 hours later I'm on my way. Considering what I expected that was extremely good.

Didn't make it home last night because I stopped before getting to Jacksonville, Fl and I ran out of time but I got home before the chickens this morning.

Gonna work on doing as little as possible while here and then Monday morning it will be off to Conway, SC to drop this load. Good bet is I'll be headed to Laurinburg, NC to get a glass load next, but we all know how my bets work out.

Have a good weekend!

Bookerz out

10/15/2009

Back into the door 25 minutes before my appointment nice way to start the day. Ripped the damn tarp as I was pulling it off the back racks. Unloaded in short order. Fortunately I had some plastic that will help cover the glass and provide some extra protection. Resecured and tarped and on my way at 10:30. Figured I would arrive 10 min before the delivery window closed at Tamarac, Fl. My experience so far is if you arrive that near to the end of the day they will push you to tomorrow.

So I mossied my way there and arrived at 13:50. Grabbed my bills and figured I had to at least try. As I was walking upto the receiving door one of the supervisors walk out and spotted my truck and told me to back it in. Ok better than I expected. I pull up toward the door and the actual unloader walks out and says let me see your bills. Suddenly it is not looking so promising. He fed me a line about a 4 o'clock delivery and they are waiting on that glass. Ok so where can I park this beast so I'll be out of the way. He points over that way and away I go. About ten minutes the supervisor that originally told me to pull it in. Comes over and tells me that they will take me today (now). Feeling like a ping pong ball I start backing it in. Two hours later I'm unloaded and pulling out the bay. I pull over to the side out of the way. Catch up on the log bog and generally screw off waiting for some direction from on high. On a side note the mysterious 4pm delivery never showed. I'm not saying -- I'm just saying

Got a deadhead move to the greater Jacksonville, FL metro area. They are trying to find something in that area for me. KK good enough and off I go. It got to be 6 O'clock and I realize they won't find me anything at least till 9am tomorrow. By the time I get to Jacksonville there won't be any parking available. My butt is worn out and therefore I decide going all the way up there tonight is nonsense. I pull over in a rest area and will get up in time to be in the area at 9am. Good enough.

Have a good day

Bookerz out

10/14/2009

Well today went as planned. Took off about 9:30 headed down I-95 and everything cooperated to keep the left side door closed except for load checks. Stopped in Brunswick, GA to top off the belly tank and Sampson, Fl to top off the fuel tanks. Made it to Oralndo by 10:30 and here it gets a little funny.

I had scoped out the place on google maps and they indicated the consignee was on the corner. Having made the final turn and not seeing the consignee. I went down the road pulling as close to the curb as possible and I pop the brakes. It's an industrial park so I figured ignoring the no parking sign for a few minutes would be fine. Besides the truck would be in view so I might be able to head off any erstwhile law enforcement types with a burr in thier saddle. I walk back to the corner and took a closer look at the businesses on the corner to make sure I hadn't missed them. Nope no luck there. Hmmmmmmm. As I walk back to the truck I'm now checking out all the businesses and lo and behold. I had popped my brakes 5 foot from the driveway from my heretofore lost consignee. Extra exercise aside not bad.

So plan for tomorrow. Untarp and unsecure back racks. Consignee unloads thier portion of the load. Tarp and secure (not neccesarily in that order) the back racks. Either JET or mosey down to Tamarac, FL for the second stop on this load. If Tamarac's recieving window is still possible I'll jet down and try to get unloaded otherwise I'll mosey down and park in thier parking lot for the night.

Not sure where I'm headed after that but this is my hometime weekend. Kind of hoping that an Ottawa, IL load is in my immediate future. Got a sausage burger on my mind and there is a place right next to our drop yard that serves a mean tasting one.

Have a good day

Bookerz out

10/13/2009

Well ok. As we resume our search for the trailer I was to grab we/I come to the conclusion it is not on site. QC (qualcomm) the office and I was told well grab another step deck and let us know which one. Alright no problem except there is only two and one is missing half the glass rack and neither is step up in glass mode. Let me explain a bit. If we drop a trailer at a glass plant it is suppose to left there in glass mode. This is two times running I've had to set up a glass trailer at a glass plant before I could get a glass load. Some will argue it is not worth the twenty dollars to set up the trailer and to be frank (although that is normally Frank's job) I agree, But it is what we are suppose to do and I have yet to drop a trailer without setting it up proper like. To top it off the trailer I was to grab had been stripped of it equipment. No problem the trailer I just dropped had the equipment I needed and I knew the tarps were good. Trailer is set up totally equipped and ready to load with two hours to go before load time.

By noon backed into the door and ready to load. This load has two stops very unusally for glass at least in my experience (first one) so it required some forethought by the loaders. Turns out there was too much on the second stop to get it all on the front racks. So they were going to have to put a single stocce on the back rack. Well that is gonna suck retarping it and it will look like hell going down the road but oh well. Turns out there was still too much slot to go on the front racks so the load had to be rearraged. They had to unload part of the front racks and move more to the back racks. Well at least now there will be a bit on both sides of the back rack now. It will still look bad as the tarps are designed to cover a lot more glass but it will be better.

Finally about five-thirty everything is done and ready to roll. Still got to put on about 350 miles to make a Thursday morning delivery possible. Wasn't looking forward to trying to find a place to parking on the I-95 corridor at midnight, but that is why we get paid the big bucks or something like that. Found a spot in northern North Carolina for the night. Cant roll till 9:30 so I should be in the greater Orlando metro area well after the traffic dies down. Consignee has overnight parking so that is the plan for tomorrow.

Have a good night/day!

Bookerz out

10/12/2009

Woke up this morning slid down to the lobby to lay on a bit of grub. A bowl of oatmeal, a bowl of cereal, and copious amounts of coffee. Done!

Nine bells roll around I call the repair shop. I waited till then knowing full well how Mondays are especially to people that get the weekends off. I do the same thing for my FM for the same reasons. The news I receive is that it will be very late this evening maybe even Tuesday morning before they release my truck. I relay this infomation to my FM who in turns relays the info to Fleet-net. So far, so good. Fleet-net doing the same I would in their position calls the repair shop on their own and receives a different assessment of the situation. They tell fleet-net that it will be late afternoon before they can release the truck. They inturn tell me that I will need to check out of the motel and proceed to the repair shop and await the release of my truck.

All I can see at this point is a very pissed off truck driver namely me waiting around a repair shop for hours on end without a nearby location to get something to eat. In the end having to return to the motel and spending another night. At this point an extremely pissed off driver.

So noon rolls around (the check out time) I call the shop and get the same dude on the phone and he sings me the same song and dance. After that I explain that someone was singing fleet net a different song. (Juke box analogy almost exhausted). He turns and apparently asks someone who knows what they are talking about and finally everyone gets on the same tune. They give me a ride back to the shop about an hour later. And thirty minutes later the truck is released.

NOT the train wreck of a day I had envisioned.

I let the boss know and she said to proceed to Geneva, NY and they would work on getting me a load. KK everything looking good. Trucks running fine gauges look good life is great. 15 miles before I get to Rochester, NY I get redirected to Mount Holly Spring, PA. Perfect timing if you ask me. Make a right onto I-390 and head south. 280 miles later I'm at MHS and drop my trailer. Now I was directed to pick up a specific trailer to get loaded at noon tomorrow. I haven't found the specific trailer but I will resume my search in the am. It's off to bed for the night. Plan on running over to the Flying J in the morning to see about getting some grub and resume the search for my trailer.

Have a good night

Bookerz out

10/11/2009 pt 2

The Bucs confirmed they suck. Oh well maybe next year. Watched some tv and finished book 5 in the Left Behind seriesApollyon. Gonna start book six after taking a short break. Walked over to a chinese joint about a mile or 2 away. It was good and the walk would have been nice too except for the wind. This hotel is nice and the staff seem to have the customer service angle down.

In hopefully 24 hours or less should be under way again destination unknown at this point but we will see what the future holds. Should get breakdown pay for Monday and perhaps part or all of Sunday not sure how that all works but I'm sure I'll get it all cleared up tomorrow. Would have been nice if there had been a picture show within walking distance but I reckon you can't have everything.

Have a good night

Bookerz out

10/11/2009

What a long weekend! The Cards lost their bid to remain in the playoff's. My alternate team is the Rockies and only because they came back so well. So no investment there. The Tampa Bay Buc's look like the very early Buc's. In other words they are sucking.

Went for a walk yesterday. Basically down what would be a main street in most places. Almost as bar on every corner and a lounge/resturant half way through the block. All mom and pop places not a chain place within sight. It was kind of charming in a way. None of them allow smoking inside which was a pain for a dedicated smoker such as myself. Plan on another walk today and perhaps I'll remember to bring my camera today. Hope to find a gold mine of good food somewhere along the way today and perhaps take in the Buffalo game I imagine it will be playing almost everywhere they have a TV.

As it stands my Betsy should be up and running Monday evening. After they fix whatever and throughly test it. They are suppose to release her to me. Here's hoping.

I may post again today and regale you with my adventures be those as they may.

Have a good day

Bookerz out