10/07/2009

Well today went almost good. The drive in for the most part was uneventful. Arrived 45 min early with enough time to loosen the tarps and pull the stop blocks. It looked like it might rain so pulling the tarps outside as they sometimes have you do was out of the question. Back in about 1:30 pm pulled the tarps. They got a good crew here so they had the glass off in good time.

Now to the address the "almost" part of the good day. As I was in line at the I had thought it through as I did at the consignee. It would have dawned on me the the other trucks were not smoking excessively. Anyway while at the consignee I decided to check the fluid levels again. Come to find out the coolant was almost empty. So I filled it with water (only thing I had available). Took off after I was empty (of course) and didn't see any smoke. Ok maybe problem solved maybe. The coolant was fine that morning but I sorta lied to myself. I was in Canada and wasn't sure of any other solution at this point anyway. I get to the Lewiston border checkpoint, shut the truck down while the do their thing and soon I was free to go. As soon as I fired up the truck it was like a white cloud descended onto my truck. Ok there is no deny it now there is definetely something wrong. Nearest TA is 40 miles away they are generally who fixes our truck if we not near a terminal. So off I go. I called a fellow driver with about 10 years of experience and describe the problem and he told me a couple of things it could be. Go to the TA and the tested it and said it was a head gasket and they dont do those. Alright now I'm told to go over to some place in Buffalo to get the truck looked at. It to late to do it tonight so off to the resturant to get a bite to eat and call it a night. I deal with it refreshed in the morning.

Have a good night

Bookerz out

10/06/2009

Was second in line at the consignee. First in line backed in at 11pm. So far, so good. Figured an hour and a half at best settled in and watch the new ABC program "Flash Forward". It was pretty good. At 2hrs and 15 minutes into the great wait. I'm fighting the nod off. Finally 30min later the Combined Transport driver pulls out. It can't possibly take that long unless the driver or the unload crew doesn't give a shit.

I start backing into the door at 1:45am. At 2:10am the load is uncovered and ready to unload. Thinking to myslef now it's up to them. At 2:42 I'm firing up the engine and pulling out the bay. So the bonehead vote goes tooooooo.... Combined Transport. I've seen them load/unload before so there is no great surprise there.

Anyhooo pull over to the drop yard grabbed me a nap and took off at 8:30. Plan is to be stopped by 2-3 pm and find a location in which to catch the Tiger/Twins game. After a successful traverse through the greater Chicagoland area the plan to be in Perry, MI for night is met. There's a sports bar across the way here so meandering over in a short to catch the game sounds like a plan.

Only 270mi to the consignee tomorrow. So 6am departure should leave plenty of leaway to get there an hour early and set up for a unload. Got a pre-plan today (starting to see alot of these) and I would have lost my bet. Thats two loses in a row. No lumber, No stone, it's off to Geneva, NY 190 DH out of Canada which was previously unheard of to leave Canada with a empty Flatbed. But I'll struggle to get over it. Taking a load of glass over to Fenton, MI. Only my second load with a destination of MI. and my first glass load to MI.. Looks like I'll finish with around 2800-2900mi for the week. I'll post the finally numbers tomorrow.

It's off to see the game have a good night.

Bookerz Out

10/05/2009

I stopped driving early yesterday in order to get more sleep so that I might fight this cold off. The extra sleep seems to have help some.

Took off from Royal Blue, TN bright and early this morning among some fog and occasional light drizzle, by the time the sun decided to put in an appearance most off it had burned off and made for a nice driving day. Got into Ottawa about 4pm and grabbed a bite to eat and kick back for a bit reading a book. My appointment wasn't until midnight.

Got a preplan for Etobicoke, ON for WED at 1pm. So once I get unloaded gonna creep over to the drop yard and grab at least enough sleep to make sure the greater Chicagoland traffic is done for the morning and then scoot through there. Only planning to put on about 300 mi tomorrow so still should be done about 3 or 4. Then finish off the other 250 on Wed morning so I don't get there too early. Fairly busy client so getting in early is generally not a good bet.

Running bet for the next load consist of Brantford, On for lumber or Cambridge, On for stone, but at this point the jury is still out. Hoping for lumber myself.

I'll be in Michigan tomorrow and The Tigers/Twins game is bound to be on somewhere so I plan to check it out.

Have a good day

Bookerz out

10/04/2009

Thursday night only made as far as Bishopville, SC before pulling into the Wilco Hess there and called it a day. Took some Nyquil and crawled into the bunk. And slept and slept.

Got moving about 6am and traveled the rest of the way home. After spending the weekend (fri-sat) generally going from feeling ok to feeling bad and otherwise sleeping and generally being so-so company it was time to put some miles on this morning.

Took off this morning and put 300 miles behind me that will leave a little more that 500 to cover tomorrow good enough.

On a positive note racked up 32500 miles last quarter the best quarter yet and the mpg came in at 7.15 good enough for a .02 pm bonus. Next quarter won't be so good with the Turkey bird and christmas holidaysbut I still should get a bit over 100k for the year. No complaints for my first calendar year in the business.

Have a good day

Bookerz out

10/01/2009

I got up fired up the coffee maker. While I waited for it I did my pretrip and as soon as the coffee maker was done I started rolling. They are redoing hwy35 through WV and with the fog adjusting to the new traffic pattern was a bit challenging. Once they get that area completed it will be a nice ride through there 4 lane and all that.

This cold is steadly kick my arse. So I made it to Brintle's in NC and pulled in to grab an hour nap. Woke up feeling slightly better and drove the rest of the way to Laurinburg NC. Had on one hand hoped for another load that would close this week but with this week being my home time and there being only 4 loads on the yard. I consider myself lucky to get a load at all.

At any rate I grabbed my load that is scheduled for Ottawa, IL Monday @ 11:59. Take it to the house and leave out on Sunday to make my way there.

Have a nice weekend

Bookerz out

09/30/2009

Day went well. Consignee signaled me to pull in at 3:50 am an hour and 45 mins later I was empty and headed down the road. Quick and easy pass through the border and on my way to Carleton, MI. On my way I got a qualcomm msg. I got to swap trailers at Carleton and bring this one down to Laurinburg, Nc so they replace some equipment. So no live load SWEET!!!. A light and easy haul 800 with an empty trailer very good for MPG. Topped the fuel tanks off in Monroe, MI and grabbed some grub at Arby's for the belly and away we go. HWY 23 through to hwy35 in Ohio in a nice drive 4 lane and not very busy except around Columbus, OH make for an easy drive. Only made it to Harrisburg, OH a cold seems to be nipping at my heels. So its off to bed with a Nyquil bracer hoping I feel better in the am.

Should pull into Laurinburg about noon and see whats available. Perhaps I get something that closes this week and perhaps not. Here's the results for the week so far.....

09/29/2009

Weellll. Last night there were 2 other trucks when I got there. Walk in talk to security. Security says "They'll take care of you on 3rd shift". OK my appointment wasn't until 1am no harm, no foul. Set my alarm for 11pm. Gotta use a "Screamin Meanie" no wimpy cell phone alarms for me. There's a DGL (takes about 2 hrs from start to finish) and a Step deck (2.5-2.75 hrs) in front of me. Set my alarm for 3:30. About 4:45 the step deck rolls out and I back into the bay. Not sure who was slow, but someone was. One of the dock worker walks by and ask me if I was their 1am load. I said "Yes and that I was a bit late". This would come back to haunt me. Why I said I was late is beyond me. Maybe I was trying to hard to be a nice guy or something. All I know is as soon as the truck in front of me pulled out I pulled in. The dock worker said it was no problem. I'm thinking I didn't have a choice in the matter, so it was a good thing it wasn't a problem.

Apparently some big cheese didn't get his latte served fast enough or the mocha wasn't creamy enough. He ask the dock worker why they were still unloading a truck at 6am in the morning. He (the dock worker) then proceeds to throw me under the bus because I said "I was late". Knowing full well that I pulled in as soon as the previous truck pulled out. Somehow there was overtime involved and the big cheese wasn't pleased and being a truck driver and not at that facility everyday I got a big red bullseye painted on my back. It perked through their system and then over to our system. And about noon I'm trying to explain to my boss why I was late. Which after explaining it all it was determined I wasn't late, but that I shouldn't have admitted fault.

Anyway it didn't effect my service record in the end. But it did serve to remind me that the ass I'm getting ready to kiss could actually be a big greyhound bus.

Enough with the negativity.

Grabbed my load from the drop yard about 11am. It weights in at a hefty 46600 which is very close to the upper limits of this trailer. So off to the scale I go. Over on the drives 260lbs and the rears are over 120lbs. Slide the fifth wheel time. This is only the second time I've every had to do this and the first time was over 10 months ago. It had to be funny at least to driver sitting in his cab watching me. It broke free easily enough it was trying to get the pins into the right set of holes that provided the comedic relief. Back and forth over and over again. Finally got them into the holes I wanted. Re-wiegh steer good, drives good, and the rears were upto 180 over but I was authorized that much so all is good and away I go.

Made it through Joilet and Chicagoland without a hiccup (sweet). And the rest of the journey proved just as painless. Entering Canada especially compared to getting back into the states was especially easy today. Pull into the consignee at 8pm and off to bed 3:30 am comes early

Have a nice day

Bookerz out