04/29/2010

I am not sure what is happening with PPG, but it is spooky.

I took off at 8am and the put me at the plant at 11:30am. At noon I was backed in the door and 50 minutes later I pulled out of the door empty. See what I mean spooky. The load went well and the unload went equally as well.

After unloading I pulled back into the drop yard and sat around there for several hours. About 3 I got a work assignment picking up a load in Jefferson Hill, Pa and taking it over to Owatonna, MN for a Tuesday delivery. That is a bit of a long time between pick up and delivery, but they did talk about relaying the load in either Ottawa, Il or Dewitt, IA. Well see, as lazy as I am feeling I would be just as happy to take the load all the way in and sit on it for the extra time.

I made it over to Sliding Hill service plaza for the night. It leaves me about 2 hours out from Jefferson Hills. I plan to make it in there about 9am and perhaps I'll get loaded a bit early.

The only aggravating thing of the day was the trailer I had to pick up. The idiot who had it before me taped the bridge boards to the a frames with ½ inch paper masking tape. Tied the straps to the frame and left the honeycomb cardboard all over the trailer. Once that stuff gets wet it makes a huge mess. So I spent way to much time setting up the trailer for travel. Once that was done the rest of the day went smoothly.

Well I need to get to work

Have a nice day

Bookerz out

04/28/2010

What can you say. The weather was excellent, the roads were good at least until I got to Pennsylvania. So the hardest battle I fought today was the urge to pull into a rest area and grab a nap. I won that battle and made it over to Smithton, PA by 5:15. My appointment isn't till noon so the plan is to start rolling about 8am.

I'll be at a glass factory so odds are they will try to load me out of there.

Have a good day
Bookerz out

04/27/2010

Well the unloading didn't go as fast as I would have liked. But when the receiver said they would get to me as soon as they could the big red flag reared its ugly head. All things considered it wasn't too bad 3 hours later I pulled out of the door.

If I had bet on what the rest of today would have entailed I would have lost. Granted they want us to haul glass as much as possible, but it was 300 miles to the nearest glass plant and I have a trailer which can be broken down to haul system freight. So odds would be a system load.

Nope not happening off to Mt Zion, IL I went. Now Mt. Zion is the worst live location we service. It is a union shop and is a personification of all the worst things unions entail. Having said all those negative things. Today was totally different there.

My appointment was at 5pm.
I was backing in the door at 4:15 (weird)
At 5:10 they started loading me. (strange)
At 5:35 they were done. (fantastic)
At 6:10 when I was ready for the crane to put the tarps over the glass. They were on break.
At 6:30 they were back and using the crane to put the tarps up. (unbelievable)
At 7:30 I was pulling off the property.

If someone had told me I would be pulling off the property as the sun went down I would have ask the to share the drugs they were on. Today might have just been an aberration, but I take it and run with it.

This load is due in Mt Holly Springs, PA Thursday. I just about make it there tomorrow or pull up a bit short all depends on how lazy I feel and what time they set my appointment for.

Until then....
Have a good day
Bookerz out

04/26/2010

Well I dodge the misadventures with the bees. It was raining to hard and they probably wouldn't have shown themselves anyway.

Two good notes for today. I-40 in western North Carolina is open, it doesn't officially open till tomorrow so I went through as a test dummy today. They only have one lane open but it is not widely known that it is open so no back up today. The second good note. I have in fact been here before. It is a nice facility and it does have space for over night parking. So that was the target for today.

I took off when my wife had to go to work. Might as well leave then and she makes an excellent back up alarm clock, though I don't think she likes that role. I am not a mind reader she told me as much Sunday night. I actually did pretty good waking myself up. I usually make her beat me about the head and shoulders when I know she'll be there. On the road I have an alarm clock called the "Screamin Meanie" and as the name suggest it produces a god awful sound. If it is left run long enough it will wake neighboring drivers. Not a good scene. I usually spring out of bed/bunk once it goes off.

These guys will unload you early if they can so that is good. But nobody will be in load planning till 9am est. So... what happens tomorrow is a mystery. I think the last time I was here I had a double drop which we can only load glass on, today I have a step deck, which once the racks are down anything is possible. It is 360 miles to Ottawa, Il my favorite place and 300 miles to Mt Zion, Il not my favorite but it keeps me hauling glass. So we will just have to see what the jury(CSRs) says.

Until then
May your roads be flat
May the wind be at your back
May all the four wheelers take smart pills
May you have a safe day

Bookerz out