IN-OH HOME

Left Indy at 1500 Friday after no loads materialized to OH. Arrived around 1900 at the storage lot and 2000 at the house.

Haven't decided yet when to go back out. Probably Thursday or Friday depending on how fast I get things done. Truck and generator need serviced and I need to decide if I will actually move the International to another carrier.

Right now, I'm just kicking back and trying not to think about anything at all.

Sprinter #1 at home, in transit for a Monday delivery in NC

Sprinter #2 at home.

PA-IN

Left the truck stop in Danville, PA and drove 146 miles to another truck stop in DuBois, PA. for the first leg of my trip home. I had only been there for maybe 30 minutes when dispatch called with a load from Emporium, PA to Indianapolis, IN

I accepted the load and when I got to the pick up it was only one skid at 919 lbs. A van load. I wondered at the time if T/S was trying to appease me or if there actually weren't any vans in the area.

Drop was scheduled for 0700 on the 24th, and it was a 501 mile trip. I kept it legal by split logging so I didn't run out of hours until around 0900. I stopped in Sunbury, OH (about 25 miles from the house) to get something to eat and sleep a few hours. Left there around 0330 and arrived at the dock at 0657. Unloaded and arrived at the truck stop where I am now at 0845. Fifteen minutes to spare.

Now it gets weird. I sent a QC message advising dispatch that I was out of hours until 1800 Thursday, and that I planned to go home and to get me an OH run if available. Went into the diner and took advantage of the breakfast buffet, came back out to the truck made a couple of calls and laid down around 1030.

Dispatch woke me up at 1500 with a load offer to TEXAS. The spelling for OHIO must have changed while I was asleep. This load picked up today at 0600 for Monday delivery in Hildalgo, TX southeast of Laredo right on the Tex/Mex border. It paid well but when you consider that I would have to deadhead out of TX, probably into AR or MS, whatever profit I made would be dented by the fuel costs to deadhead, and the time involved to do that. Turned it down restating that I wanted a load to OHIO.

It wasn't five minutes later when another dispatcher called with a load from Cincinnati to WI. There we go with that pesky spelling of OHIO again. She said that it picked up at 1830 for direct delivery. I laughed and pointed out that my DOT break wasn't up until 1815 and that I was fresh out of rocket fuel so an 1830 pick up wasn't going to happen and that I wanted to go to OHIO not pick up from there.

So after sitting with no load for a week, they throw two at me in the space of five minutes. I'm sure it's a reaction to the conversation I had with them the other day, but come on, a loser load and one I couldn't do even if I wanted to.

It looks more and more like I'll have to change the signs on this truck.

Sprinter #1 got a great load from WI to NC that delivers Monday.

Sprinter #2 is at home.

Still in PA UGH!!!!!!!!!

Still sitting in Danville, PA.

I'm going to move tomorrow whether I get a load or not. I had planned to be home this weekend anyway, so I just might call it and come back out earlier than scheduled.

This week has been disturbing given what the fleet coordinator told me yesterday. I still get phone calls from recruiters and FedEx called again today. I plan on spending some time to evaluate what to do with the International. The Sprinters are ok, but T/S is not getting me enough work to cover expenses on the International much less make a profit. I may have to make a move with it.

Sprinter #1 No Load Still in Davenport, IA

Sprinter #2 Transfer load from Evansville, IN to Nitro, WV

MA-PA

Left Plainville, MA around 1500 Friday since it was obvious I wasn't getting a load. Deadheaded to Danville, PA to spend the weekend with my daughter. Parked the truck behind her vet clinic.

Got in the truck yesterday morning at 0800 and it was deader than a doornail. Put jumper cables from her truck to mine and got the generator running figuring it would charge up the batteries. Wrong.

Long story short, I had one battery that was shorted, and it took the other one with it. Had to call in for a service call and they showed up at 1115. The truck started immediately when he hooked up his cable, so I followed him back to his shop to get the batteries replaced.

Left there around 1300 and as luck would have it, I passed Dr.Zebra from PD.com as he was getting on I80. I stared at his truck looking for it's number, but couldn't see it. He called me on my cell before I had a chance to yell at him on the CB. We stopped at the Petro at the next exit and had breakfast and a really nice chat, and it salvaged a really bad day.

Left there and went back to Danville. Thankfully, this Monday ended without any further problems.

No load today, but I called the fleet coordinator at T/S and found out that business is really bad. So much so that other owners are parking their trucks or getting out all together. He also told me that T/S has laid off some office personnel as well. All this due to fuel costs. Not a promising picture overall. This repair bill is a kick in the shorts, but that's part of the game.

Sprinter #1 No load, bonused from Lincoln, NE to Davenport, IA

Sprinter #2 No load, bonused from Memphis, TN to Evansville, IN

MA Day 2

Made a corporate decision today. No more loads to New England unless there is a load back out waiting for me.

Woke up this morning and went inside the "truck stop" building. Emenities included one vending machine for candy, one for soda, and an ATM. The lot was a joke. I've seen firebases after a mortar attack that looked better.

Waited until 1500 without getting a load and decided to drive 50 miles southeast to a Citgo Travel Center in Plainville, MA. This one is fairly clean and at least has a store and diner. Had to pay $6.00 to park, and diesel is $4.60 a gallon. This is starting to become insane.

If I don't get a load out tomorrow, I'm biting the bullet and heading west to PA and visit my daughter. At least she won't charge me to park the truck.

Sprinter #1 didn't get a load either.

Sprinter #2 load from Peoria, IL to Iron Mountain, MI

PA-MA

Got a load from Bridgewater, NJ to Chelmsford, MA. Dropped it at 2355 yesterday. I can truthfully say that I do not like this part of the country.

When the dispatcher said that she was going to include $25 to cover the tolls, I figured I was in big trouble. Not to worry, my map program has this little button that says "Avoid Toll Roads". It doesn't always give me roads I would go on, but in this case it gave me interstates all the way. I thought all is good. Then I cross the Hudson river and have to pay $13.50 for the privilege.

Then I get up here and there is no place to park for the night. I mean no DECENT place to park. I wound up at a hole in the wall truck stop in Peabody, MA Couldn't even find a Wally World. Nope, you can have New England.

Sprinter #1 is doing a transfer load to IL

Sprinter #2 didn't get a load today.

Still in PA

Still stuck in PA hell. No load offers today, but both Sprinters moved.

Sprinter #1 got a Hazmat load from Columbus to Cleveland and another load from Ravenna, OH to Dayton, OH. Not huge, but it still made money.

Sprinter #2 loaded in Columbus to Champaign, IL. Decent paying one, and he's in a good area for today.

If nothing happens here for me by 1500, I'm going to shoot north 90 miles and visit my daughter.

OH-PA

Friday was a much better day as far as my relations with dispatch are concerned. They called about 0900 with a "Good morning, how are you today" Guess what my first reaction was. However, I repressed it and said fine, how are you?

They had a load picking up in Orrville, OH going to Mack Trucks in Macungie, PA for 0700 Monday delivery. Paid well and I figured this will give me a weekend at home as well. Made the pick at 1100 and headed home.

Left the house about 1900 Sunday and stopped at the J in Carlisle for chow and sack at 0100 Monday. Left there at 0500 and dropped at 0700. Headed to the truckstop in Kutztown, PA for my DOT break.

Dispatch called at 1430 with a load I could pick after I got off break that delivered today at 0900 in Glouchester, MA. That one got cancelled. They called back with another load that picked up at 0900 today dropping at 0900 tomorrow in Dover, NH. I lost that one since the shipper increased the size of the load to require a 24' truck.

Hopefully, they'll come up with a load today that will stick.

IL-OH

Yesterday had to be the strangest day I have had with Tri-State dispatch since I started with them.

Dispatch calls at 1630 with a load that they want me to transfer in Toledo. It was going from Mt.Zion, IL to Carlisle,PA for a 1300 delivery. I said why can't I take it the whole way. I can split log and make it legally. Nope, won't let me do it. So I get to the shipper and the clerk has no idea what I'm there for. After several calls, he finds the guy that knows. He loads it, some strange metal box that looks like an apartment dumpster, and I take off.

Still don't know where in Toledo I'm supposed to go. I'm about an hour into the drive when the QC beeps and then the phone rings. Seems that the driver in Toledo refused the load and I now have to take it to Garfield Heights, OH which is near Cleveland. No sweat, it pays me more that way.

I get to the transfer point at the arranged time of 0715. No transfer driver present. QC'd dispatch, answer: He's off on another load. We'll try and find another driver. Finally get the transfer completed at 0930, and I'm in violation of my 14 by a quarter hour. I shoot down here to the truck stop which was only 10 miles away and park.

I go into the Wendy's and get some biscuits and gravy and come back to the truck and start to eat. QC beeps and phone rings. It's dispatch with a load. Before she can say anything else I said that I have no hours to run anything until 2030. She goes off saying that I should have sent a message saying I was on break, that she is a dispatcher not a mind reader, and I was the fourth driver she had called so far. I returned the favor telling her that if I'm the fourth driver she called then she has a crap load that nobody wants and I would have turned it down as well. I'm not driving this truck to lose money for her or anyone else, and if she would take the time to read my dispatch screen she would have known that I just completed a load and was out of hours. I mentioned that it was a dispatcher's job to know the DOT regs and she would be breaking the law right along with me if I took the load. I also said that the break message was only required if you wanted to be unavailable for a period of time and had nothing to do with them knowing I was on a DOT required break. Hung up on her.

Finished breakfast and went to bed. Woke up about 1430. Sat here for a minute and got something to drink. Fired the engine to charge the batts since I wasn't running the generator as I didn't need it. The QC beeps. I read the message offering another really good paying load to Yorktown VA. that could be picked up after my break. Next message stated that I had been put on 8 hr. refusal because I had not replied within 10 minutes. I went off. I asked them why they didn't call. They said that they did and I didn't answer so they left a voicemail. I told them that the phone didn't ring and I had not gotten any voicemail, and even so they had always called again. She said that it wasn't her job to make more than one call. B O O M. Told her to get her supervisor NOW.

I'm reading the riot act to the supervisor that how can I respond if I don't know about the offer. The QC did not activate like it has in the past, and given the often time unreliability of cell phones why is a second call unrealistic? In the space of a few hours, they try and pass off a load that would have been illegal for me to run, and then don't make a decent attempt to contact me on a good load, and both times I get attitude from the dispatcher involved. I had also looked at the load more closely and it was too heavy for the truck. I pointed that out to her and asked why her dispatchers were not looking at my dispatch screen that has all the needed information on it in regards to HOS times, load capacity and dimensions of the truck on it. I told her to please have her dispatchers do their jobs so I can do mine.

She put me on hold and came back a few minutes later and apologized for the mixup. I said that since the one load was too heavy I couldn't have taken it anyway, but if it would not have been I would be very upset at the loss of revenue and am still upset about the constant attitude I get from the dispatchers and left it at that.

I figure that with the high cost of fuel, they are getting quite a bit more refusals than they are used to for runs that have low revenue due to contract deals that were made before and are taking it out on the drivers. Too bad. I'm not running this truck if it loses money. If they can't understand that, then they need to find another type of work.

Just another day in the life of an O/O.

IA-MO-IL

Dispatch called about 1000 Monday with a load from Lincoln, NE to St.Louis, MO delivery time 0900 Tuesday.

Picked up 8 crates of used industrial ink rollers going to a metalizing company in St.Louis. I assume they are going to rework them somehow.

Drove as far as Booneville, MO and shut down for the night. Headed out at 0600 Tuesday for the last 140 miles to delivery. Did my 10 in the sleeper so I would have the full 11/14 available.

Came in on I70 to 40 to 64 only to find 64 closed between 270 and 170. Had to go up 270 to 70 and back down 170 to 64. Still made the 0900 delivery time. Dock was one of those old block the street to back into it type. It was right under 64, so the building had been there for some time.

Went to the truckstop in East St.Louis, IL from there. Still had several hours left, but didn't get a load out. Hopefully today.

Sprinter #1 got a load from Columbus, OH to Champaign, IL that delivered direct.

Sprinter #2 didn't get anything from Cincinnati, OH and headed home to Columbus, OH as it is a more active board.

34 Hour Restart

I figured I'd be here in Council Bluffs for the weekend. At least it was a nice day (65 degrees) and I made the 34 hour restart time so I'll be starting with 70 hours available. For those of you not familiar with the DOT Hours of Service rules a restart is just that. You have a 8 day week, 70 hours available. Each day you can't drive more than 11 hours and be on duty more than 14 hours. You can split log to extend that, but it's too complicated to explain here. It would take all night and no one would understand it. I'm not sure all the time that I do either.

Anyway, the 34 hour restart means that you are off duty or in the sleeper berth for 34 straight hours. Then you start off with a new 70 hours available. It's like those that work a 5 day week with the weekend off. Since expedite freight is slow to non-existant on the weekends, it's easy most of the time to reset.

Turned cold after the sun went down and is presently in the 30's. I checked the boards and I'm the only straight truck in IA and NE so I should have a decent chance of getting a load today.

Haven't been here before, so I don't know how the Omaha board moves. I'd like to get out of the IA-IL rut though.

IL-IA

For once the Peoria board was slow during the early part of the day. Didn't get a real load offer until 1700 just when I figured I'd be sitting there for the weekend.

Picked up in south Chicago, times like these I wish I had a .50 cal mounted behind the grill, pick up time was 2000 and I got there about 1945. Clerk said the crew was on lunch. I sat in the truck doing my log watching some of the crew played soccer in a vacant lot and the rest of them made drug deals with the dealer that showed up shortly after I did. Loaded two skids of transmission gears weighing 4000 lbs. Took off to Shenandoah, IA and a 1000 delivery time.

Stopped outside of Des Moines, IA at the Flying J for some chow and sack.
After I got off of I80 onto US59 I drove through 30 miles of corn fields to get to Shenandoah. Arrived at Eaton at 0935 and unloaded without any problems. Shenandoah is a nice small town, big enough to have a Wally World and a McDonalds. Seemed strange to have a massive transmission plant in the middle of all those corn fields.

Drove north to a truck stop in Council Bluffs for the weekend.

IA-IL

Made my drop at CAT in Peoria at 1530. Drive was uneventful.

One Sprinter took a box of circuit boards from Rochester NY to Erie PA and the second Sprinter loaded up with 15 boxes of Bleu Cheese from a cheese factory in BFE WI to New Berlin WI. 290 mile trip from north to south WI. Wonder why they needed it so badly. Maybe they ran out of bleu cheese dressing at the salad bar.

Sitting at a truck stop in Bloomington, IL. Finally got my microwave working properly after it refused to work Wednesday. I had turned down the idle on my generator engine and it apparently lowered the generator's output enough that it wouldn't operate the microwave. Turned the idle back up and now the microwave works. Nice to have a hot meal again. I had turned the idle down to stop some of the vibration put out by the generator engine. The company that installed it didn't put any insulators on the engine, so it vibrates the sleeper a bit. I've got it to where I can live with the vibration until I can install some insulators.

And some people pay for a vibrating bed.

OH-IA

Got a load from Van Wert, OH to Dubuque, IA that delivered yesterday morning at 0600. Filled the tanks ($356.00) and kept the mileage computer readout on the whole way. Stayed between 58 and 60 MPH and averaged 8 to 10 MPG on the flats. On hills it dropped to 4 to 6 MPG. Completed the run (614 Miles) and the tanks show 1/4 left.

Found a little truckstop north of Davenport and pulled in there rather than stay around Dubuque. Dispatch called with a load from Joliet, IL to BFE WI that I turned down since the deadhead was 150 miles and the run was only 143 and chances of getting out from that far north in WI are slim. They called 5 minutes later with a load from Savanna, IL to CAT in Peoria that picks up at 1300 today. It pays less but will put me in better shape to get a load Friday, and hopefully something over the weekend.

Both Sprinters are moving and one got a strange load from Chicago this afternoon. A Hazmat load that turned out to be a canister of liquid Nitrogen that contained Bull Sperm. It had been shipped to Argentina, refused and returned. Guess the bull wanted it back.

Home Sweet Home NOT!!!!!!!

Well, here I still sit at home. Been here since 3/5. Boy, do I need to get out of here.

I thought February was bad but March sure beat it hands down. Three weeks of a bronchial infection that turned into pneumonia, and a bout with the flu that I got from being in the doctor's office around the other sicko's.

Went back on the board last Monday and didn't get a load, and then on Tuesday find out that my driver got in a pinch and T/S disqualified him. Dispatch called 10 minutes after with a load that I had to turn down since I had to go to IL to pick up the Sprinter.

Pulled a 1070 mile round trip marathon from OH to IL and back that my body apparently wasn't ready for, and I got the flu AGAIN!!!!

So now the friend that qualified with T/S in February is running one Sprinter and took his first load out this afternoon, his son runs the other Sprinter and is on his way to NH, and I'm back on the board and should get out today sometime.

Tired of the mountains, need some flat roads for awhile.