life of a truck driver

Truckerdoc finally waylaid me and got me on her radio program and contrary to my contrary opinion it was fun. We talked about a lot of things but it seemed that it was too short of a time because that hour flew by. That was the first time I have ever been on radio.

She called me tonight and told me that I could go onto her home page and hear the interview, I am not so sure I want to hear myself. I probably sound like an idiot, but who knows. It was fun and if she gives me another invitation I will probably do it again. She told me something recently and I am beginning to take it to heart. She said that if a person hung around her that they would be put to work. Darn she's a worse slave driver than my hard-nosed, outright mean wife.

I am sitting in the Flying J in Davenport, IA tonight relaxing before starting across to California and the glorious town of Sacramento. Does anyone think that I might actually be able to see the (in)famous Terminator while I am there? As if I actually want to see him.

Those people writing those anonymous comments should come right back and do it again. I'm not sure but I think I know who it is. later

Category: General

Seems like a stupid thing to say doesn't it? "my mind took a time out", well actually it did because I have been operating in a fog the last 3-4 days and can't find my way back. Everyone keeps insisting that truck driving is a lot of fun and that it is the last refuge of 'rugged' individualism. Well I am not sure about that right now, if this is rugged individualism then they can keep it for themselves.

Monday I got unloaded in Atlanta, around 10 a.m. or so, and then had to wait until around 3 to get a load. Usually don't have to wait I have a load waiting for me. O.k. I cut trails to Birmingham. Normally they don't give us a trailer number for this location, you have to open the doors on every preloaded trailer until you find your load. Of course, the heat and humidity down there will rival the netherworld. I am checking trailers when I realize that I don't have but a couple of trailers to go and I still have not found my load. Well, what do you know, my load wasn't there. Another driver helped me recheck every trailer, still no trailer.

I drive up to shipping and they have gone home for the day, so I called dispatch. They said,well sorry about that, you are just going to have to wait until tomorrow. I tell him that I am supposed to start delivering this load in Ohio tomorrow and in addition I had 7 other drops on the trailer. Now how was I going to pick up the trailer tomorrow, drive 600 miles and get the 8 drops off in the same day? Have you ever tried to talk to a brick wall? Nothing I said phased him so I just shrugged and said o.k. if that is the way you want it. The next day when shipping came back to work it was 3 in the afternoon when they finally got it loaded. My dispatcher said to just bring the load to Indianapolis and drop it, I am glad he said it.

Then I get to INdy and had put my clothes in the washing machine and was fixing to take a shower. They came up to me and said "oh, a driver didn't show up to pick this load up and get it to Chicago can you take it for us?". Now, I wanted a shower in the worst way and I says how about my clothes that are being washed. They volunteered to finish washing and drying my clothes. I stand there and look at them like they are crazy. O.k. says I but I am taking a shower like it or not. I got their load delivered and left the receiver in a good mood with us. My next load canceled and they changed me to a 10 drop load starting in Columbus, IN and finalling in Stevensville, MI. Now I am beginning to get a little frustrated.

They end up giving me a load out of Grand Rapids, MI going to Sacramento, CA that will pay me a lot more than the average load and since I absolutely LOVE California it will be alright. Of course there is a little sarcasm in that last sentence and I will let you figure out which part of the sentence I am talking about.

I am beginning to feel the pressure and the lack of home time right now and I need to get home. I have been out since mid-May and will not see my house until mid-August. I would like to see the house that I am making payments on every once in a while. This does get to be a strain every now and then. Some of the drivers live out here year around and I don't see how they do it. Everything they own is in the truck with them and they don't have to make house payments. Some of these really fancy rigs are in fact a combination truck and R.V. and they are fancy inside. Well, again if that is what they want more power to them, I like to spend some time at home away from this truck. I like to see how the other half lives every once in a while.

Later [/b]

Category: General

I bet everyone was saying, phew, he's gone and maybe he won't come back. Sorry to disappoint you but I can't let you relax too much.
My travel agent has certainly tried to live up to his title this past week and a half. I haven't been able to even check my mail at least a week and a half.

But, fear not, ye hapless souls I have returned with a vengance. From Indianapolis, my kind travel agent sent me up to Meriden,CT, then to Richmond, VA to pick up a load going to Denver that some misguided soul had forgotten to pick up in time to get it to there. I made the delivery this past Friday with a little time to spare. Then, a miracle happened, I actually got a load out of Denver on the same day I delivered (and guess what? the directions were right at every location. God does watch over fools). I have to be in Atlanta Monday morning to deliver three drops in the Atlanta area, of course I don't have directions to the first location and I don't have a phone number to call so we are right back to square one.

Oh well into each life a little rain must fall. I hope this doesn't turn into a thunderstorm as they want all three drops off Monday. What can an honest, hardworking, payment-making owner/operator do? I guess since they are handing me lemons I have to make a glass of lemonade (I make lousy lemonade).

I have to continue working hard as my wife will beat me if I don't.
I have a sign on the side of my truck that says:
SLAVE DRIVER:
My wife's name
SLAVE:
My name
I have to buy her a new whip every six months as she wears them out that often. Boy, there isn't a more conscientious slave driver around. I have to have an answer for her when she calls me or as they say "Katy, bar the door".

Well, guess I had better sign off as I need to get the government mandated ten hours of sleep that they haven't been able to get my body to accept. My mind listens to their foolishness but my body never seems to get the message and never, never gets more then 6-7 hours of sleep, foolish body. The government insists so we must do as our government mandates, right?

Category: General

well, faithful reader(s)(do you ever get the idea that possibly you are alone out here?), here i is agin. This has been an interesting month to say the least. In May here I was just going about my job blissfully ignorant of the real world and imagining that everyone out there didn't really give a darn. Now, in this merry, merry month of July I am convinced that most people don't give a darn (see I changed my perspective from everyone to most, that's progress isn't it?).

What happened was that I started this blog and then I met some interesting people through my meanderings with the written word. I am talking specifically about Truckerdoc. This lady (not a trucker but a full-fledged, certified doctor of insanity which fits us perfectly) really cares about us, our lifes and the various and sundry travails of our everyday lifes. How many people would take the time out of their busy, busy lifes to understand (this is how they perceive us)the dumb, uneducated, fat, inconsiderate, disrespectful, ungrateful, etc. road hogs that dare to be on the highway when they graciously grace us with their regal prescence? We are allowed to be on their highways if we stay out of the way and let them proceed at breakneck speeds to their final destination 100 miles down the road. And of course they have to maintain the highways through their hard labor because we never pay our fair share of highway maintenance.

Truckerdoc is a unique person that tries to understand us as human beings and not as a necessary impediment to the above mentioned drivers. She will sit down and talk to you, now she will ask a thousand questions but that is the nature of her education and her training. She uses these questions to gain more and more knowledge. She actually cares about us and our everyday problems and I want to tell her in front of the world thank you because that means so much to each and everyone of us. To find that people other than your family cares means so much to me. Heck, even my own family doesn't care as much as she does. My wife and I are usually each other's only support, you know the classic us against the world syndrome. Truckerdoc works so hard to understand us and she is even learning the jargon we use and she doesn't have to use a translator as much now. Ain't that right, Truckdoc?

I was talking to my wife yesterday and she reminded me about one of the other characters in our everyday life. You have read about my major adventures with my ferocious watch dog but she informed me that i had left someone out. Namely our guard cat, yep our guard cat. We have had this vicious, mean, uncontrollable bundle of feline fur for around 9 years now. When the wife travels with me this said cat comes along also. When we put him in the truck we open up his crate and let him do his thing. The first thing he does is head to the covers on the bunk or find a secluded spot and stay there the rest of the trip. Half of the time we can't even find him and hiding in the cab of a truck is not easy to do. Sometime he will venture up front and crawl up in my wife's lap until we pass someone or get passed then he shoots back to the bunk and hides his head. He won't even get out of the truck because he is afraid that we will leave him to fend for himself in this cold, cruel world. Some guard cat, eh? When someone comes around he hides until they leave.

Each of us handles this job differently. Some like Ken and Karen handle through their use of technology (Ken talks about things that make my head spin) which is good because obviously they love computers and technology. I try to use humor and the written word to get by (my wife says that I can talk the devil out of hades) o.k. I am good with words. Trucker Warren uses words to get past his fears of being a new driver in this cold, unforgiving world of truck driving. He doesn't want to make a mistake, but he will and some of the mistakes will be big. This young man will make it though because he is determined. One day after I am long gone he will be sitting here relating his past experiences to some new driver and trying to encourage them. Others use bluster and braggodocio to get by, they think that if they outshout the other person and dazzle them with B.S. every thing will be just fine. The concept that 'here I am world, don't listen to anyone else because they don't know what they are talking about and I do', how many times have we seen that? We are so different and diverse, that is what makes this profession if not fun then at least entertaining.

O.K. you have had enough of my ramblings this morning, so enjoy your day and week. Later

Category: General

Just sitting at a truck stop in Lamar, PA browsing thru the various blogs and trying to work up an interest in getting down the road but so far no luck. My wife keeps telling me that we need to make some money but I guess I am just being my lazy self as always. There are times when this job just underwhelms you and you have to try to self start and the starter goes out. I am glad to see people like Trucker Warren come into this business as we need more conscientious people like him out here. I could only wish that more were like him.

I spent several years training and you are amazed at the diversity of the people coming into the industry and how they face it. What really amazed me is some of the expectations that these new people have. When they told me that they expected to make $50,000 their first year I would shake my head and gently try to bring them back down to earth. Yes it is possible to make it that way if you are willing to run like a banshee from hell but it takes time to adjust to this lifestyle and it ain't easy. When you talk to a recruiter you always have to separate the wheat from the chaff. I had a recruiter friend tell me one time that "I will tell you anything that I think you want to hear to get you hired" and I turned around and asked him "you would lie?' he said "of course".

One thing that you will find here is there is no shortage of advice. Good, bad or indifferent and some of it is plain B.S. and of course a new driver has no way of telling if the advice is good or bad. Some people like to talk just to hear themselves talk and others like to impress with how much they know about everything. We have all kinds of people out here, much more diversity than in any other industry from Ph.d's down to ordinary slobs like me. I have known electrical engineers, doctors and many others that are doing this job.

One thing more, when a trainer takes on a new student he never knows what he is getting so naturally you are a bit wary and standoffish until such time as you either click with the person or you have to invite such student to leave the truck. Just because you are put with a certain person doesn't mean there will always be rapport and it is better that the student go with a different trainer, but you never know this unless you are told. Anyone reading this consider this side trainers are human also. I was plain petrified of some of the students when they drove and there were times that I had to get downright mean to get them to listen. Most of the time I kept a smile on my face and coaxed them to do something a little different. There are some students that will not listen to you no matter what you do and you are at your wit's end trying to impress on them that something will not work.

I also spent a year at a driving school teaching. Note that I said spent it didn't take me long to figure out that I really didn't like that job. Some of the students gave me the handle "sarge" because they said I acted like a Marine Corps Gunny Sgt.. Well, let's look at that. I told them that one day I might have to be on the same highway driving with them and I wanted to make sure that I was still alive after the encounter. I was not easy on the students and had no tolerance for idiocy. Mistakes and miscues are easy to handle but when you make the same screwups repeatedly without thinking about it, that's a different story. I always told the students that having your hands on the steering wheel of a truck is like having your fingers on the triggers of a double-barreled shotgun and when you pull the triggers you never knew who you would hit.

enough, Have to get to Indianapolis and get this load of soap unloaded so that they can get themselves clean finally.

Category: General

This week is a week that I think I would have been on the outside looking in rather than participating in it. It would have been a lot more fun watching because it really hasn't been much fun. But as the title of my blog goes this is the "life of a truck driver".

I made it to Youngsville, NC with plenty of time to spare, got there at 5 a.m. and wasn't supposed to be there until 8 a.m. They told me to back up to the dock. Hey this was going to be nice to get unloaded early one day. Uh-huh, the dock foreman comes out to me and says "Hey, you aren't supposed to be here until tomorrow, don't know if we can unload you today". I give him a fishy look and say "but my dispatcher told me to be here and the dispatch reflects that". he informed me that he didn't care what the dispatch said that I wasn't supposed to be here until tomorrow. I am having a little trouble keeping a smile on my face about this time.

I called dispatch and luckily they had come in early one day. They arranged for me to get unloaded today. I just stayed in the truck and kept my mouth shut but it was not easy. But, everything worked out in the long run and I was able to pick up my next load a couple of hours early.

Category: General

Normally it is fairly easy to write about a day that I have had. Thursday and Friday I had a day that almost defies description. First I unloaded in Frisco, TX. After I unloaded I received a dispatch that looked fairly normal and as always when I receive a normal looking dispatch I look at it with a suspicious eye. I wasn't disappointed either. This dispatch says that I have to bobtail into the next shipper. Hmmm, says I, now what am I going to do with this trailer that I have? I called my dispatcher and asked him. He says hold on a minute immediately I got this bad, bad feeling. He comes back on and says I will have to pay you for an equipment move.

There is no place for us to drop a trailer in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Now on this equipment move, it was a lulu. This was as 10 a.m. and I had to deadhead to El Campo, which is ONLY 338 miles to the south then bobtail 325 miles back to Arlington, TX. Now think about this I have to drive 664 miles to pick up a load that only goes 20 miles. I said O.K. but you have to pay me loaded miles to do this and he agreed (now let's see if it actually happens). I have to round trip 664 miles and still make my delivery at 8 a.m. the next morning. I ask what do I do about the little thing called sleep? He says I have confidence in you, right.

I made the round trip and make it to Arlington, TX by 4:30 the next morning. Now, I take the directions I have been given to find this location, big mistake, these directions were not only wrong but they were so far off they were totally useless. They tell to take a certain exit off I-30 there isn't even an exit there. Luckily I know a little about this area and I am able to find the location. Then I back under the trailer and look at the paperwork. My dispatch and some paperwork says that I am to deliver to Lowe's in North Dallas but another sheet says that this is a job site delivery to a retirement home. I don't know what to do so I go to Lowe's and wait until 8 a.m. I called a number on the paperwork and get the man to whom I am delivering.

We get this fiasco back on track. Then the sales manager of the dept. that sold this load to the retirement home comes and starts chewing on me. He tells me that he was supposed to be the first point of contact on this load. I show him the paperwork and guess what? His name is nowhere on it. I get him calmed down and we go over to the jobsite to unload. Luckily no more problems.

If I had not grossed over $900 on this little jaunt I would have told them to forget it (I am putting this more nicely than I feel) and get me another load. $900 is not bad for 22 hours but I could have felt a little better.

Then I had to deadhead back down to El Campo to pick up my next load. I am going to Youngsville, NC then deadhead to Chester, VA to pick up a load going to Woburn, MA. Hopefully things improve a little on the rest of this run.

Category: General

This I have to share with you. You know I have made some snide remarks about people that give directions. The usual complaints that they don't know east from west, they don't know the difference between their tail pipe and a hole in the ground.

Well, surprise, surprise someone did know what they were talking about and it was a person in the office at the location where I delivered. I followed their directions to the "T" and guess what? They led me right to the site. I mean exactly to the point where I was going to deliver. I walked around in total shock for about an hour this morning.

But of course there had to be a downer in all this. It took them over 7 hours to get me unloaded working constantly and I couldn't run the truck to keep cool as I was inside a building. But, getting good directions was such a pleasant surprise that I didn't worry about it. NOt only did she give me good directions in but she gave me excellent directions out where I didn't have to wander around downtown Atlanta. Hey, I didn't get lost once and that is a major miracle.

Picked up a load in Birmingham, AL and going to Frisco, TX to deliver some much needed new school desks Thursday. Later

Category: General

Right now I am busily sitting in a truck in Temple, Ga waiting for tuesday morning so I can rush to downtown Atlanta and then slowly get my load unloaded. I am so excited to be here I am shivering in anticipation. I will probably get lost again following the directions they gave me but that doesn't bother an old steering wheel holder like me I am supposed to be able to read their minds and get it right the first time. Sometime I wonder where they actually get these directions. Do they go to some old wino sitting on a corner and say "Do you think you can write down the directions to this location?" then send them to us to follow? I believe the old wino and the people who sent the directions will be sitting there laughing and saying "I knew he would get lost and those directions were so simple". They forget that we are driving trucks not go-carts or motorcycles.

At least I can sit here and be a rabble rouser. Maybe I can make up some outrageous lies and get some gullible people to believe them. That would make my day.

Category: General

Here we are starting a new month already, bring back the last month I wasn't through with it yet. It seems like the older you get the faster time passes. Is this a new law or something? Especially enacted by our vigorous and very active (sic) congress just to make we older persons feel right at home? Just like the latest version of the bankruptcy law that is supposed to strenthen the law and make sure none of the crooked people like me don't mistreat the poor, downtrodden credit card companies? Maybe our supreme leader and his faithful minions decided to do this just to make us feel better ( if you believe that, you wanna buy a bridge?)? enough of political nonsense let's get serious.

You know the company thought I was doing so well they asked me to be a recruiter. Now how's that for a capper? I wonder if they will let me wear a fancy uniform? I also wonder if my luck in recruiting is going to be similar to the luck of the military recruiters. The only difference is that I can tell them that they won't have to go to Iraq, you have to have as much dedication to this job as you do the military to be able to do it right. Now before someone jumps on me and tells me that I have no right to cut down the military, I served in the Army during the Vietnam period and I have pride in the fact that I served. I also have a son in Iraq right now and my other son served in Desert Storm. I have a lot of respect for those that put their life on the line for us.

This week has gone by in a blur, I picked my load up in San Antonio at 0200 on the 30th and delivered at Monroe LA at 1500 on the 30th and got my other two drops off in Jackson, MS before midnight. Then I kick my trusty steed in the tailpipe and head for the bustling city of Humboldt, TN to pick up a load to Tahlequah, OK thence to Tulsa, OK to pick up my next load going to Atlanta, GA for delivery on the 5th. Can you believe my luck? I'm actually going to get a day down and that is a strange feeling. What are you supposed to do when you have a day off? I can't really remember. Right now, I am sitting at a truck stop in Russellville, AR just enjoying myself.

Everyone please have a safe and happy 4th of July, emphasis on the safe. I wish I were home cooking B-B-Q, having a cold beer and listening to the wife tell me that she had "the house clean before I came home and now just look at the mess". and "don't you ever pick up your mess?".

Category: General