01/28/2010 Spectulation gone awry

After the movie last night I had stayed up late enough that it would not be long after I awoke that work assignments would start be dispatched. I had not expected much due in most part to the large number of drivers already at the yard when I pulled in last night.

I figured it would play out much like this. I'd get a mid afternoon dispatch for a system load (read non-glass) delivering some where Friday in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, or New Jersey. After that a deadhead move to Laurinburg or another system load somewhere in the Southeast that would deliver Monday but that I could run through the house for the weekend. That would allow the company to maximize the tractor utilization and also allow me my time at home. A short time at home but time at home none the less. It would also allow me to get my mileage up for the week which stands at a record low 600 miles or so. None of that happened.

On a side note. I should have waited until Sunday to deliver the Coshokoken, PA to Newton, NC. Our week closes Saturday at midnight. That would have served to keep Uncle Sam from digging into my paycheck so deep and beefed up this weeks miles to a somewhat more respectable level. That was my error. I hadn't been tracking my miles and didn't realize that they were as high as they were.

Anyway all the expectations and figuring expressed in paragraph 2 were totally off the mark. So much for knowing what is going to happen. Kudos to the powers that be, that decided early enough to make this weekend very nice one indeed.

Nine O'clock or so the QC beeps. New work assignment. Pick up glass load 1/27-30/2010 17:00- 23:59. That means the load could be ready anytime between yesterday 01/27/2010 at 5pm to 01/30/2010 at midnight. The load delivers Monday so this is my get me through the house load. Ok so no more miles this week. No problem the boss/wife has already been warned about this possibility. The window on them getting this load ready is pretty large. It is now time to see how lucky I am. So I call the shipping desk to see when the load might be ready. BINGO!!!. It is ready now. By the time I cinch down the load and drive to the house it will only be mid-afternoon Thursday. SWEET. Perhaps I can surprise my wife. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at home that will certainly balance out the pain from a extremely small check next Friday. Got to find the Silver linings where ever they present themselves.

I'm at home now. I don't have to leave until Sunday morning. And Monday morning I'll be in Jackson, MS with 1100 miles on the books. From there they usually send me further west to Texas. But to speculate further than that is a waste as I have shown here today.

You have a nice weekend. I know I will

Bookerz out

01/27/2010 end of day note

Well it was 4:15 am when I rolled out of the bay. Like I said quick and easy unload these people are a pleasure to deliver too. It did present a small quandary. What to do until between 8 and 9am when the powers that can direct me to my next destination. I read a book for a bit, listened to a book for a bit, fired off an email. Finally a fell asleep for an hour or so.

At 8:15 the QC beeped. Deadhead move to Laurinburg. Fired off a macro with my ETA, put her in gear and away I went. Other than a mild slow down in DC the drive came off with any hassles. By 6pm I was in Laurinburg.

There was a few drivers walking about the yard, a half a dozen or so in the driver lounge (the lounge term is used with considerable literary license) and an untold number in their tractors. Not looking very promising for an early start tomorrow. But that is what I was expecting, it has been a slow week. Last week was very good so you got to take the good with the bad.

There is a picture show place here and one of the features is Avatar. I have been wanting to see this one and my wife isn't all that interested in seeing it. So this was a good time to make that happen. It was good and I am very glad I didn't wait for it to come out on dvd. A tv screen even a big one would not have done it justice.

Well I'm gonna read a bit and see if sleep is in the cards.

Have a good night

Bookerz Out

Caffeine Free OH MY!

Bang Bang Bang

Cue: Electric car window rolling down sound

Receiver: “You got your paper work?”

Cue: white ballon above head

(I know I set that alarm clock. Why didn't it go off?)

Driver: One second.

Cue: rustling sound

Driver: Here you go.

Receiver: Back it in Door 6

Cue: Electric car window rolling up sound

Dialogue ends proceed to scene 2

Well it's 2:30am that explains why the alarm didn't go off. It still had an hour to go. It is time to do my first caffeine free back in job. There two things going for this back in (despite the lack of caffeine in my system) it is a drivers side back and the building is a newer one, so there is more than 4-6 inches clearance on each side of the trailer.

To be fair, just, and unbiased. It was a one shot back in just like a professional might do. So much for the drama of a caffeine free back in. If it sounded like I was complaining then I conveyed the wrong impression. If all our customers wanted and acted like they wanted their merchandise like these guys do my job would be so much easier.

Well this was just a quick post while I wait for them to unload the product. I will post again later.

Have a nice day

Bookerz out

01/26/2010

Had breakfast with a fellow driver. North Carolina has join the rank of states that doesn't allow smoking inside businesses. I would like to complain, but it has be coming for years and I imagine even though I can't smell it the smoke must pervade the environment. So oh well another minor adjustment to be made.

After breakfast I wondered over to the drop yard to cinch down the load and take off. Other than the last driver putting the landing gear to high. I had to lower the trailer in low gear for about five minutes it went off without a hitch (so to speak).

There was a good bit of piss poor planning on my part concerning my departure time. It was going to put me on the south side of Washington at 4pm. I didn't figure there would be any problem on the south side. I figured the problems would materialize on the east side as I headed out US50/301. Today it was either too early or the DC types have to work till 5pm. At any rate they had kept their respective heads screwed on straight and nobody caused an accident or back up the whole way through. If it was just dumb luck I'll take that as well.

I got to the consignee by 7pm and all is well. I got to be up to deliver at 4:30 but getting up early won't be a problem. Hopefully I get something relatively early tomorrow with which I can flesh out the miles for the week.

Have a good night

Bookerz out

01/25/2010

I got a deadhead order shortly after 8am to proceed to Laurinburg, NC.

A mere 3 hour drive later and I'm there. Two hours later I receive a W/A for a Wednesday A.M. Delivery in Pedricktown, NJ. Better yet the load will be on a glass only trailer. That leaves only a few post delivery options. Most likely will be a return journey back to Laurinburg. I for some reason have a full blown lazy on and so far freight conditions are cooperating. I will probably dislike the mileage results for the week, but sometimes you got to take the good with the bad.

It was just one of those days

Have a nice day

Bookerz out

01/25/2009 Last week mileage

Mileage week 03

Concord, ON	Laurinburg, NC	DH	807
Laurinburg, NC	Selma, AL	LD	531
Selma, AL	Laurinburg, NC	DH	531
Laurinburg, NC	Huger, SC	DH	139
Huger, SC	Bridgeport, CT	LD	762
Bridgeport, CT	Conshohocken, PA	DH	159
Conshohocken, PA	Newton, NC	LD	512
	Total Miles		3441

Brk Down Pay – 8.00

Gls Trlr Pay – 20.00

Tarp pay – 40.00

Detention pay – 16.00

Total 84.00

Bigot, Racist pig

I don't get it. I like to think of myself as a free thinking man. Someone who approaches a situation without preconceived notions. But I'm wrong. I did just that today. I walked into a pizza parlor and saw two Latino workers behind the counter and basically said (to myself) oh crap. They proved without a doubt that my prejudice was without justification.

On dealing with a man/woman in the work place and irregardless or racial ethnicity . I've proven to myself time and again to let the person prove or disprove themselves of worth.

On the battle field of culinary quality. I find myself a bigot beyond contempt.

It is heretofore my stated objective to not walk in to a pizza parlor expecting Italians, a Chinese joint expecting orientals, a Cajun joint expecting Cajuns, a Coffee joint expecting Coffeeians (I might have carried that to far). To banish my last known field of prejudice.

While it is true I am disappointed in myself. It is also true I had entirely too much time on my hands to contemplate this post.

Have a good day

Bookerz out

Mowmow

 

Chillin cat

Photo attempt

 

WHAT!

Testing

This was only a test.

If this had been an actual blog post I would have written some aimless ramblings.

But This was only a test

01/23/2010

01/23/2010

I got lazy. In fact extremely lazy for me. The alarm scream it's murderous cry at 3am just as I had instructed it to do. Sat up in my very cold truck, shut the alarm off and asked myself why. Why get up so damned early? It was Saturday after all and the traffic in Baltimore and Washington while heavy won't be as bad as it is in the touristy months. Having failed to get a satisfactory answer. I fired up the truck to generate some warmth left the alarm off and went back to sleep. That is the nice thing about weekend runs there is generally extra time to sleep in later. I slept in till 7:30am when my bio-clock (not sure that is a word) woke me up and said that was enough laziness.

I fired up the coffee maker. I really don't know how truckers that are addicted, as I am, to coffee survive without a coffee maker in their truck. Yea there are truck stops in lots of places, but you never know what kinda of cup of coffee you'll end up with. Some make it so strong it is a wonder that the Styrofoam cup doesn't break down much less your stomach lining. Others buy the cheapest crap they can get there hands on and call it coffee. Beside the quality you have to consider the time involved in stopping to get a cup that is at least 15 min for each cup. Yea you can buy them 2 at a time, but by the time you get to the second cup it is to cold to be truly good and that is assuming the first cup was of halfway descent quality. I don't know about you but 1 Cup of coffee does not start the day properly. One pot yes, but one cup no way. Alright I will get off my coffee soapbox.

After a pretrip on the truck and combing my hair it was time to roll. Last time I left here I zigged instead of zagging and ended up playing fifty rounds of "How the hell do I get out of here". Today not so much. Some intensive studying of Streets and Trips prior to departure and zip I was out of there. It was early enough on a Saturday morning in the Philly area that even the shoppers were not even out yet. A quick stop in Perryville. MD to top off the fuel tanks. I grabbed some morning fuel for the belly as well a quart of chocolate milk and two Bon Apetit danishes and I was on my way.

Two or three hours into the run today I get a message from extended services (our weekend/ night connection to the back office) " Harvey if you got the hours. The consignee will be receiving from 11pm tonight till 3pm Sunday afternoon.". Kool . I was originally going to pull up and hour or so short and run the rest Monday morning. Now this is a very nice place to deliver. The people are very nice and the facility is good as well. A truly rare combination. But if you pile 12-16 trucks into there all at once it would be a nightmare. So in order to avoid that I decided to run all the way in and get unloaded tonight. I figured there would still be 4-6 trucks an amount that this place can handle. I rolled in there at 6pm the lone truck. Pulled the tarp and chains and still had a couple of hours to wait. A few minutes before 11 another truck pulled in. Forty-five minutes later I was sending in my empty call and still no additional trucks.

I hadn't been keeping track of my miles. If I had I probably would have waited until Sunday to deliver. It seems that if you get above a 3000 miles Uncle Sam takes an undue interest in how much I make and decides to tax the additional miles to the point of why bother doing them. At any rate I finished the week with 3450 miles and about $100 in ancillary pay. Not to shabby a week considering last year at this time I was struggling to get 1500 miles.

A preplan would have been optimum at least I could have headed the way I need to go for Monday. I will get a 34 hour reset in so no worries about hours next week. I found a place to park and there is what looks like a mom and pop pizza joint here so that will be Sunday's dinner. Now All I have to do is get motivated and clean the interior of the truck. I'll work on that (getting motivated that is)

You have a good day

Bookerz out