Chris, did you read the thread about Murphy's law? "If something can go wrong it will"? You had a Murphy's WEEK!
Chris, did you read the thread about Murphy's law? "If something can go wrong it will"? You had a Murphy's WEEK!
Bruce true enough! this week couldn't end quick enough for me. Good thing I took today off.
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Well I've had a bit of a rough week this past week. It's started out with what I thought would be an easy Monday morning pick up at North American Beverage in Rochester NY. I was supposed to do a drop and hook head out for a Tuesday morning delivery in Richmond VA. So I get to NAB drop my trailer and head over to the shipping office to get my paperwork and hook up the loaded trailer and head out. Easy right? Well I check in and the guy tells me that the order didn't get loaded because they (NAB) didn't have the product on hand so I have to be live loaded. I go into the que at 12:00 P.M. 10 hours later I get a door and backing a 53' attached to a sleeper tractor in the door sucks those of you who have had to pick up at NAB know what I'm talking about. I finally get loaded and head out at 12:30 A.M. I basically run hard to Richmond to make my 11:00 A.M appointment time I was late by 19 minutes but the warehouse guys got me in and unloaded. I was supposed to pick up that afternoon at AB in Williamsburg VA but because I burned up most of my drive time getting down to Richmond I had less than an hour on my drive clock I wouldn't be able to get down there hook up and get to safe haven before my time ran out. So a call to my DM explaining my situation and my plan shut down and pick up after my 10 was up. My DM concurred with my plan so I got to the Love's on 64 east and shut down. My plan was to get up at 22:30 and head out to AB. I overslept and woke up at 00:30 ugh!!! I headed out as quick as I could got to AB at 2:00 A.M. I dropped my empty trailer and hooked up to the loaded one I had to scale twice because the AB guys won't let you out until both your drives and tandems scale under 34,000 I got them dialed in and it was off to Penn Beer in Hatfield PA. So I ran 64 to 95 and headed straight up through Washington, Baltimore, and Philly. I've never driven to Penn Beer going South to North by the time I get to Hatfield I'm close to my 09:00 A.M. delivery time and the route that my GPS plotted had my going down Big Truck restricted roads so I had to re-route and the detour cost me time and I went into HOS violation a mile and a half from Penn Beer. I got lucky because when I got to Penn there was no other trucks waiting to unload so even though I was 20 minutes late they got me into a door. I sent a message to my safety explaining what happened with the HOS violation. After I got unloaded I headed to The Home Depot DC in Cranbury NJ for a load of Cardboard to bring back to Syracuse . I had Two hours left on my drive clock so my plan was to get up to either the Pilot or TA at exit 7 on 78. By the time I get up there both truck stops are pretty much full so I continue to head to the Penn Jersey Truck stop hopeing there are some spots but I miss a turn and head off into the Jersey country side I actually ended up turning around at a power generation station if I didn't come across that place I'd probably still be driving around the Jersey country side....lol. well because I got lost I went into HOS violation again! Twice in one day I figured my truck driving career was over. By the time I got myself un-F@#$ed and got to the last Truck stop I was originally heading to was also full so I had no choice but to get back on 78 and find a place to safe haven. When it was all said and done when I shut down I was 2:45 minutes over. That prompted message and a long phone call with Safety. It was more of a lesson learned call than a butt chewing. As they say hind sight is 20/20 the route we take the Turn pike from Cranbury and get off and take 287 north to 78 west. I should have stopped at the service plaza just north of Cranbury and ate the 2:00 hours of driving time this would have avoided the other problems.. Like I said lesson learned. I just got my assignment for next week beer going to Carlstadt NJ Oh WHAT Fun!!
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.Drop And Hook:
Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.
In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.
TWIC:
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.