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Michael's School & Road Journal Male, 36 years
Introduction
My name is Michael, and I want to drive a truck. That is really all I ever wanted to do for a career, although I got a little sidetracked. I am 36 years old. I joined the Army at 18 as a Motor Transport Operator. That is where I learned to drive. I know many drivers "pooh, pooh" Military training. But for at least 2 years I was in a Tractor Trailer everyday. When I got out I started searching for a job and a way to get my CDL. I got lucky and landed a job with a Hazardous Waste Disposal company that hired me to do general labor, and let me use one of their trucks to road test. Within months I was a full-time driver running all over the Eastern United States hauling Hazardous waste.
Then I met my Ex-wife. She wanted me off the road, so I took a sales job with her father's company. I did that for 12 years, and when my CDL ran out I never renewed it. (Big Mistake). Now I am divorced, and I am no longer in sales. I didn't enjoy it, and got burned out on it. So now I want to start driving again. I want to attend a school, since I got a rude start in trucking, and had to learn everything from how to fill out my log book, to handling scales myself. I have followed this site for at least a year, and am woefully aware of how much I don't know.
For example while reading Rachelle's wanderings last year I was surprised that she was driving more than 500 miles per day. I emailed her about this and found out that the regulations had changed, and she straightened me right out. This is such a great site and I thank our dear webmistress for providing it and keeping it up. (You are very much welcome...) So I began my pursuit by contacting trucking companies. I have ruled out schools, because I can't afford them and I can't seem to get financial assistance. So I hoped to find a company to train me. I have spoken with Schneider and CR England. I have passed the first hurdles with both of them. I have a phone interview with Schneider later this week. CR England requires you to have your permit before they will train you, so they instructed me to get my permit, then they can continue processing my application. I will get my physical next week (KY requires you to pass the physical before taking any tests), then I will test late next week. I am hopeful one of these two will pan out. I would love to start driving again. I will keep everyone posted.
So it begins.
Hello all, I thought an update was in order. The last 2 weeks have taken forever to creep by. I have had several conversations with the Schneider Intake person the was assigned to me. The recruiter said the I will get to know her well, and that I should plan at least 30 minutes for each phone call. I thought this was silly, I mean how much information can they need. He was right though, it has taken about 30 minutes per call. They go like this "Thank you for calling Schneider, this is Debbie, please hold", then elevator music for 15 or 20 or 25 minutes, then 5 minutes of conversation. Today is Tuesday, I had my physical yesterday (I passed). It worked out kind of nice. When I spoke to the recruiter he said not to have a physical done before coming to training, because they would make me have one with their doctors anyway. Well, I told him KY was one of those states where you needed your physical before you could get your permit, so in that case they went ahead and scheduled my physical with one of their doctors in the area, so I didn't have to pay for that.
Today I am going down on my lunch break and taking the written tests to get my permit. Then Thursday I have to call Schneider back because my drug screen should be back by then. I am assuming that will be my last call since I have to start training Monday morning. I went over the paperwork yesterday, and just about everything was in order. I used to have a CT drivers license, but couldn't remember the number (I surrendered it when I moved to KY). Well they have to have it. My current employer ran my MVR when I started working here since I drive a delivery van, and that was with my CT license, so I am going to see if I can get it from her. I will update you from Charlotte!
Despite rumours, I am still alive!
I am sorry this journal had fallen so inactive, but as you will see much has gone on in my life, and I have had no access to a computer on a regular basis, but now I have a laptop, so I will try to get this updated. I will do this in 3 "Chunks". So here goes......
How I got my CDL, became unemployed, etc ... At the end of August I was off to Indianapolis to Schneider school. This takes place at the A1 truck driving training school. I was very impressed with Schneider, and the quality of the instructors at the school. I was there for 3 1/2 days. We did straight line and 45 backs, and (depending on this instructor) began to hit the road. I personally never left the facility. The instructors spent the first day evaluating us, then we were split up in groups of 2. I was teamed up with my roommate under the head instructor. They quickly discovered I wasn't completely green, but my roommate was. So when we performed an exercise they would have him do it 20 times, and me 2. So I felt a little cheated as I was very rusty and looking forward to practicing and seeing if I still "had it". Don't get me wrong, I was very nervous. Probably more so then if I had no experience. I can be harder on myself than anyone else ever could be.
As it turns out it was like riding a bike. I was comfortable as soon as I sat behind the seat. Then came the bombshell. It was after lunch, and we were heading for the road the first time. I was literally sitting in the driver's seat waiting for my instructor when he came out and told me to go to the lounge to talk to the Schneider representative. She told me that word came from Green Bay that they could not verify my employment, so I was out. Just that simple. I never got another explanation, and she could not expand because she had nothing to do with the decision. I had told the recruiter that I had worked for a Swedish company that was later sold and broken up. He told me that my W2's would suffice for employment verification. I supplied them with my W2's going back to 1999. I can't imagine why there was a problem. I pointed out to her that it would have been nice for them to do this before I had quit my job. She said they were rushing to fill this class and placed me in it before they had completed my background check. Nice for them, shitty for me. So I left, and that was the end of Schneider (except for the $650 bill they keep sending me, and I keep throwing away).
So here I was, horribly depressed, unemployed, and with $320 to my name. So, I thought of calling CR England (who also accepted me), but was afraid of a repeat that would leave me completely broke. I went to the local community college and paid them $300 to take my test on their course. This paid for a 1 hour classroom refresher course, then the 3 test portions - Pre-trip, Maneuvers, Road test at $100 each. If I failed any section I could re-test for the $100 for each section. I was nervous as hell about this. The few days in the truck at A1 had built up my confidence a bit, but I still hadn't been on the road in 14 years, and I had to do both the Blind side and Sight side parallel park, which Schneider doesn't teach. So I had not been able to practice it.
With a little gear grinding (it was a 9 speed, the A1 trucks were 10 speeds, it's a little different) I passed. I whizzed right through all of the parking, and the pre-trip. I was thrilled. So I had to pay $40 for my CDL (I borrowed $20 from my Dad), and I was a truck driver again, albeit an unemployed one.
How I managed to find a job.
I had finally given up on finding an over the road position. I decided to take a local job and start driving and receiving a paycheck while I continued to look for an OTR position. I filled out several local applications (same response), then I got lucky. There is a sign outside a building I've passed about an hour from my house for a trucking company, and it says "now hiring drivers". Unfortunately, it is a well faded sign that stays up permanently, so I didn't hold out much hope.
I met with Wayne and his wife who own the company along with their son. At one time Wayne had 10 trucks on the road, and his son had 10. Now they had become disillusioned with trucking, and were slowly getting out of it. Wayne had 2 trucks left, and his son had 3, although he only uses them for local hauls. They haul dump trailers and transport bulk loads. He took me out to a big, yellow 1997 Volvo with a standup sleeper, 3406 Cat motor, and a 15 speed. Would you like to drive this truck? "I'd love to!" was my reply. Good, go home and get a change of clothes, you can get a load of coal at London, KY if you're there by 5:00, then deliver it to Dayton, OH. Just like that I was hired. Walked in the door at 11:00am, by 2:00pm I was driving down the road. I delivered my first load that night. The other driver chooses to come home every night but I stay our 2, 3, or 4 weeks. Whatever moves me. I drive a 39" frameless dump trailer, and get paid a percentage of whatever we make on the run. I like the arrangement. It's like we're partners.
November 02
I love my job, and I work for good people who treat me well and with respect. I am lucky to have found this job, and stay loyal to them for giving it to me. So it's better if I don't track miles and concentrate on staying under a load as much as possible. Deadheading is a problem, since there are not as many dump loads as are available for other types of trailers.
The month of November went like this. I started out with a load of Ore I picked up in E. Liverpool, OH going to Blytheville, AR. Very nasty stuff, fine as baby powder and brown. I had it on my clothes and it stained everything. I stopped in MO for the night then ran to Blytheville. Then I deadheaded to Dyersburg, TN to pick up a load of fertilizer to Mt Miers, AL. After delivering it I deadheaded to Clanton, AL to pick up a load of Ore going to a steel plant in Wabash, IN. Then I deadheaded to Peru, IN to pick up a load of feed going to a farm in Newberry, SC. It took a while to unload, and this was a Friday. By the time I was done I had lost too much time and missed my chance to load down by Columbia, SC. So she found me another load of mulch out of Lillesville, NC loading Saturday morning.
I had until Monday to deliver in OH. Mulch typically sticks pretty bad in the trailer. Not bad enough to make to trailer flip or anything, but it takes some shoveling and broom work to get it cleaned out. It's critical to clean out after every load. As you can see so far I rarely haul the same thing twice in a row, and the consignees don't like "mixing".
Now I picked up a weird load. It was in Sydney, OH. It was fine, cut stone. My delivery address was "Potomac mansion, Potomac MD". I was literally delivering to a mansion that was being built in Potomac. I questioned the stone yard about this and was told "don't worry, we've sent a bunch of trucks out there" (well, this turned out to not exactly be true). I got out there and as I turned on the street I found exactly what I expected. A narrow street, nice lawns, muddy driveway (it had rained for two days). No way I was getting in that driveway. Well, here is the whole story. They had received many trucks, but the stone broker who was in Potomac had received the loads, then shuttled the stone to the worksite in small dump trucks. I was an experiment and an attempt to save money. I ended up going up close to Baltimore to unload at the stone yard.
My next load was out of Baltimore. I ran up there around 3:30 with a 5:00pm deadline to get loaded. I pulled in, the guy looked at my bed and said "it's not clean enough. This is a special customer, the bed has to be pristine to haul for them". This meant a washout. Not a popular thing with my boss because of the cost, plus I would probably end up loading the next day. I didn't want to find a place to wash out and sleep around downtown Baltimore. So I asked if they could recommend a place, well what do you know, they had a place they used right around the corner (can you say scam boys and girls). I went there and paid $25 out of my own pocket so I could get loaded and out of Baltimore. I went back, and the guy opened my grain door (the little tiny door in the bottom of my big door), pulled out a white cotton glove, and ran his finger through a puddle of water in the bed. Then declared my bed was still too dirty. I had enough. I called my boss and told her to find me another load. I later talked to the broker and found out more of the story. He had sent a truck there and the driver had just hauled coal and had not swept out his bed (I told you that was important). He hauled a load of this fine, white powder, and when the consignee saw the black missed in, they refused to pay for the load. Ever since then this customer was an ass when the broker sent a truck over. I was glad I did not get involved in that mess.
She found me a load in Marrietta, PA. I went to the spot where I had to load and slept there, then in the morning loaded Ore going to E. Liverpool, OH. I delivered, and in a rare but welcome change, had no deadhead. I picked up a load out of the same facility at E. Liverpool, OH. It was yet another kind of Ore going to a steel mill in Ghent, KY. From there I deadheaded to Louisburg, KY and picked up a load of feed going to Wytheville, VA. I delivered that and Deadheaded to Elkhorn, KY to pick up a load of Railroad junk in Elkhorn, KY. This was where they had done some railroad construction and I picked up some short pieces of track, tie plate, spikes, etc... All the junk that was left over. This was a Friday and I had all weekend to get to Gadsen, AL. I went by my Dad's house in Kentucky and picked up my mail and spent the night. Monday after I unloaded I deadheaded to Pell City, AL to pick up a load of powdered clay going to Butler, PA. Tuesday, after unloading in Butler, I deadheaded to Industry, PA and picked up a load of Ore going to a steel mill in Petersburg, VA. We haul a lot of different ores for the steel and aluminum industries. Some of them look like regular rocks, but are as heavy and dense as lead.
After I unloaded in Petersburg I deadheaded down to Louisburg, NC to pick up a load of mulch. This went to Indianapolis, IN then I deadheaded to Pulaski, IN to pick up a load of Chicken litter. Yes, that's right. A genuine Chicken shit load. This was not to be, however. When I got up there the Mexicans the egg farm had hired to clean out the houses decided it was too cold to work and they all left. So I could not get loaded. Now, this was a Friday. The plan was for me to deliver this in Illinois, then deadhead to Davenport, IA Saturday morning to pick up a load going to Tennessee Monday morning. At this late hour it was impossible to find another load, so she told me to go ahead and deadhead to Davenport. So, I did, and picked up a load of Dross.
Now a word on Dross (pronounced like the male name Ross, with a D in front). You will hear me speak of hauling this a lot. It is the left over stuff after a lump of aluminum is melted into a mold in a foundry. It is a big, heavy lump of foundry sand, aluminum, chemicals, all melted into this lump. This is processed, and the good foundry sand is extracted and reused. It is a hazmat load. When wet it emits flammable Ammonia gas in large qty's. Nasty stuff, but it never sticks in the bed, and pays well. I would haul it everyday if I could. So, once again I have all weekend to loaf down to Mt Pleasant, TN. I stop and visit my sister in IL on the way down. After I unload Monday morning I deadhead to Jackson, TN to pick up a load of scrap aluminum to take to Friendly, WV to be melted down. I run that up there, then I am to load ore at a steel mill in Marrieta, OH. This is where my Thanksgiving got messed up (I wanted to go to my Aunt's in Dayton, OH). I got into Marrietta at 2:00pm, but they didn't have the ore ready to load until 10:00pm. So I laid down and tried to sleep, and watched a movie. I ran down to Huber, SC to deliver this ore to a steel mill there. Then I was to go to Sumter, SC and load cotton seed going to Shiloh, OH, where I had nothing else until Monday.
I was 1 hour late, they wouldn't load me, so I spend Thanksgiving in the TA truck stop in Manning, SC.
I then loaded cotton seed and headed out Friday morning. I am at a truck stop in Knoxville, TN as we speak. That brings us up to date, and gives you an idea of what the last 3 months have consisted of. I just bought my laptop computer so now I should be able to keep this journal much more up to date. Just as I intended to. Feel free to Email me with any questions or comments at pneumatics@usa.com I would love to hear from you.
December Update
December 19, 2002
I started out the day in Mineral Wells, WV where I had slept until 2:00am. That is a truckstop I stop at quite often, but I don't recall the load or why I was there. It obviously delivered around Detroit, MI, because that is where I went when I left, arriving around noon. They must not have had a load for me because I was off duty from noon until the next morning when I went to Coldwater, MI to load Dross. I was hauling this to Morgantown, KY. I didn't depart there until 8:00pm so it was a long day of waiting. I ran 2 hours to Anderson, IN where I stopped to sleep for 4.5 hours, starting out again at 2:30am. I ran all night to Morgantown arriving at 7:00am and unloading. They unload 24 hours down there, so I like that destination.
I then deadheaded to Boston, KY to the Jim Beam plant to load Distiller's grain which is used as cattle feed. I guess after they take all the good stuff out of it to make whiskey, they dry it out and sell it as feed. I left there around 1:30pm and went to our shop where I spent the night. My tarp had a large rip and the mechanics wanted to attempt to patch it. This attempt lasted less than a day. I left there at 10:30am on the 22 headed to a feed store in Crawfordsville, GA. After unloading the next morning I went across town to pick up a load of feed (cottonseed) going to Michigan. This was my Christmas load. I was to spend Christmas with my Sister in Peoria, IL. This load didn't deliver until the 26th. I headed to Peoria, with a quick stop by the shop so I could get paid and then I was off to Illinois.
February 1, 2003
I just had something nice happen to me, and I wanted to write about it. This will be a long one, but I guess you don't have to read it if you don't want to.
First, a little background about me. My handle is "smiley". The other drivers where I work gave it to me because I am always upbeat and happy when they see me. I try to be, I had a very rough couple of years, where I lost everything and went from making nearly 70K to the point where I could have been homeless if not for my family's help. I have a lot to be happy about now with a good career and a brighter future. I drive like I did in the 80's. I stop and help people. Once in a Memphis truckstop there was an older gentleman on the CB asking for help with his trailer wiring, and no one would even answer him. I was just lounging around, so I offered to help. He was a recovered drug addict who had gotten his life turned around, and at 60 was now embarking on a truck driving career. Due to his past he couldn't get a job with a big company, so he was driving for an owner. He had old equipment, and didn't maintain it. This guy had blown a trailer tire, and it ripped out the wiring on his trailer. His boss wouldn't pay to fix it, so this guy was stuck. We spent 2 hours completely rewiring. I felt good for having helped him. That is just me.
Well, I drive a 40' dump trailer, with a 10' spread on the rear axle. This thing turns like it is 80' long. It is a real piece of work to back. Some of these little truckstop parking spaces are very hard to get into. When the lot is full, and I am leaving, if I see another spread axle looking for a parking space, I will call him on the radio and give him mine. This morning I started out from Kentucky where I had spent the night. I had a load of feed to deliver to a farm by Murphysboro, TN then I had to pick up another load of feed in Loudon, TN to deliver Monday in Georgia (it's now Saturday). So I planned to run over and get loaded early in the afternoon, then hit the TA up the road. They have Park-N-View, and I wanted to play on the Internet. Well, it took me 7 hours to get loaded. So of course when I rolled into the truckstop at 9:30pm, it was packed. This TA has a particularly small parking lot anyway. There were several trucks circling the lot looking for a parking space, and the 2 I saw were very tight, and would have required a blind side back. They were far too tight for me to get into. Well, I was just about ready to leave, when over the CB I hear "Hey T&W (my company) are you looking for a parking space?" I replied that I was and he said he would turn on his 4-ways so I could find him, and to pull up behind him and he would pull out and I could slide right into his spot. I was very happy about this, as you could imagine. I thanked him and he said "Hey, we spread axles have to stick together, and I owe you anyway because you did the same for me once." Apparently I had, and my truck is bright yellow and kind of stands out, so I guess he remembered me. So I guess it is true that you reap what you sow. Anyway, I was pretty happy about the whole thing since I was tired and covered in grain dust and couldn't wait to shower, so I thought I would add this to my journal.
update (long overdue) Hello All, I have been woefully behind on this, and would like to try and update it. I quite working for the company pulling dump trailers and went to work for Martin Transport pulling a reefer. This lasted for 6 months, and I decided to go back to my old company pulling dump buckets. This lasted 8 months and I got approached with an opportunity to work at a sawmill a few miles down the road from me pulling a flatbed hauling lumber. We never went more than 300 miles from home, got home every night, no weekends. So I quit and went to work there. It was hit or miss with them. When there was lumber the truck broke down, when the truck was good to go, there was no lumber. I made about 1/4 as much money as I expected to and 6 months of that killed me. So two weeks ago I went back to the same old company pulling buckets again. OK, so now we are up to speed.! I am supposed to be on a regular haul going to Alabama hauling coal. It is a 18-19 hour round trip. I am expected to do 4 trips per week. Last week was my first week out, and I didn't leave until Tues Morning. I did one trip a day for tu, we, thu and went to stock load on Friday so I could head out Sunday night, but they didn't have coal. This is a real problem with coal hauls. It's feast or famine. So I sat home Monday and Tues. We then decided to do something else for the rest of the week. Wed I loaded a load of old catalytic converters out of Somerset KY and took them up to Mansfield, OH. This is an easy run, but I didn't get loaded until 10:30 Meaning I didn't get into Mansfield until around 5:30pm (they stop receiving at 3:30), so I had a long evening/night to kill. In the morning I dumped with no problems and headed up to Lorain, OH to pick up a load of salt going to Richmond, VA. The run wasn't bad, but I had a long deadhead through the woods to get up to Lorain and back down to where I started from. I didn't get back to the Mansfield area till 12:30 or so. It started snowing heavy on the way down. Ohio sucks due to the 55 MPH speed limit. I sat my cruise on 60 and cranked up my XM radio (my latest toy, I love it and don't think I could drive without it now). I hit West Virginia planning on cocking that hammer back and making up some time, but that wasn't to be. The roads started getting slick so I had to take it easy all the way down the turnpike. I hit Beckley about 7:00pm and made that turn to follow I64 into Virginia. This is about a 100 miles or so stretch over to I81 in VA where there is nothing in the way of truck stops to speak of. There is one little one I know of in WV, and no rest areas. Well I started across in the company of a lot of trucks, and the snow plows had not been out at all. The road was completely snow covered, and it was really coming down. I had to very gingerly pick my way across this mess. It was pretty bad. You have to go down Sandstone mountain which I am told is the largest grade East of the Mississippi. I believe it is %7 or %7.5 and 4.5 miles long. There was a bunch of us going down at <10mph. Everytime I attempted to break I would lock up my tractor brakes and start to jacknife. (I am still getting used to this truck, and I have self adjusting slack adjusters all the way around which I adjusted last week, but I later found out my trailer adjusters had all backed off more than the tractor, so that's why I kept locking my tractor up on the slick stuff. So, I have to adjust my trailer brakes every few days to keep everything balanced). I went 65 miles in 2 hours, but after I hit the VA line the plows had been working and it was much better. So I puched onto Raphine, VA and laid down for a few hours for a nap. I got up early and ran over to Richmond. I dumped at 8:00am friday, and reloaded a load of Dross going to Loudon, TN at the same location (I love it when you don't have a deadhead). I ran over to Loudon with no problems, dumped, and headed to the yard. I walked in my front door about 10:30pm friday night. I had a nice weekend at home, and Now it is Sunday AM, and I will leave here about 2:00pm. My boss's son took my truck over Sat Am and stock loaded it for me so I didn't have to come back in. So I hope we can have a good, productive week hauling coal with no interuptions.
Hello all, I'm back home for the week. My journal entry will actually start be backtracking to last week. Friday. My boss likes our trucks to be "stockloaded" over the weekend so we can start out Sunday night. I got in about midnite Friday, and I live 1.5 hours from our yard. She wanted me to go home, then come back Saturday morning to stock load. As I didn't want to do all that extra driving she said she would just have her son take my truck and load it for me. Well, he did. So I left out Sunday around 3:00pm on my way to Mt Meigs, AL. I ran down I75 from Kentucky through Tennessee, and into AL with no problems, arriving around 10:30pm (Eastern time. It was 9:30 there, but I put all times in Eastern). I raised up my bed and about 2/3 of the coal came out. The rest was frozen solid. We usually put something down in the bed such as antifreeze, salt, vegetable oil, diesel, etc... to keep loads from freezing to the bed in real cold weather. Everyone has their own preference as to what to use. My boss's son had not put anything down. Well the forcast for the next day was 50deg, so I just went to bed and had a good nights sleep. In the morning after the sun came up I pulled around to where we dump (I had slept in their parking lot), raised the bed up in the air and let the sun do it's thing. I finally got the last bit out around noon. They were out of coal back in KY, so instead of deadheading me back, my boss had me load Dross out of the same place I had dumped. This was going to Marrietta, OH. So I ran up to there all day with nothing of any significance to write about. Tuesday morning I was dumping out in Marrietta, which went without problems, till I discovered that one of my airbags on the trailer was blown. So I had to climb up under there and disconnect the line to that bag and block it off so I could air up the other three bags and run on them the rest of the week. After that I deadheaded to Uhricksville, OH for my next load to Morgantown, KY (Dross again). I had to wait 2 1/2 hours to load there because there was a line ahead of me, but I ran into 2 old boys from a town about 20 minutes from our yard. There are no jobs around here so we all end up either moving away or hitting the road to survive. So I passed the time chatting with them about people we knew commonly, different loads and dumpsites, etc... I got out of there at 4:30pm heading toward Morgantown. I sat my cruise at 64 due to the nazilike Ohio cops and their 55mph speed limit and cruised to Cincinatti and across the river. Then I cocked that hammer back and moved on. I got down below Louisville, and my eyesight was getting blurry, so I stopped at Boston, KY (Home of Jim Beam), and went to sleep. I got up early and went to dump with no problems. I was dumped out by 7:00am and I couldn't call in till 8:30 to see if I was deadheading home to start hauling coal again or not. If not I knew she could not find me a load out by Morgantown so I started back East towards civilization. As it turns out this was a good move. There was no coal, so she got me a load of ore off the river docks in Louisville, only 30 miles from my location. Sweet!!! So I ran up there and got loaded and was off bright and early. I was going to Industry, PA and rolled in there around 6:00pm thinking I was going to be in bed nice and early and getting a nice long rest break. Wrong! The trucks were wrapped around the building in line for the scale, then when I finally got weighed in it was lunch break so I sat for an hour. I finally got dumped put at 8:30 and hit the road. I was going back to Uhricksville for another load of Dross going to Morgantown. I was in bed by 10:00pm at a McDonalds with truck parking only 5 minutes from where I had to load. Uricksville's Dross is considered Hazmat, so they are really picky about your tarp being completely free of holes and your bed being clean. When I got up in the morning I had to climb up in my bed and put some duct tape over a few small holes in my tarp. It was 6:00am and 8 deg outside. So of course the tape wouldn't stick. So I had to use my lighter to heat up the area around the hole, then I held the piece of tape over the hole with one hand, and ran the lighter across the tape with my other hand, then holding the lighter in my teeth I would push the tape onto the tarp, then grab the lighter and go over the parts not sticking and the push the tape back up again. This took a lot longer than I wanted it to out in the cold. Then when I thought I was all done I found out my trailer brakes wouldn't release, Damn, Ice in the air lines had the lines blocked. In the winter I carry a couple of $1.00 bottles of rubbing alcohol from the Dollar store for just such a purpose. I undid my glad hand connection, lifted the coilhose up in the air, and pour it full of alcohol. Then I reattached it and charged my trailer brakes. After a couple of minutes of the alcohol working it's way through the system they released and I was on my way. I was the first truck in, and was loaded and on my way by 8:30am. I spend a great day rucking on down to Morgantown through Cincy, Louisville, and on into Western Ky. Now, I want to interupt this part of the journal with some info on scales. In the old days scales worked one of two different ways. They might have a small platform, and you approach them and stop before you get there and roll down your window so the scalemaster can talk to you through a loud speaker. You would pull your steer axle onto the platform which would be weighed, then they would tell you something like (pull up for the next set of axles) or something of that sort, then you pull up to put your drive axles, on the scale, then finally your trailer axles. To see a good example of how tis scale works watch the movie Black Dog, they have a segment in there that really shows this well. Or some of them would have multiple platform scales that you would approach, stop at the stop sign and roll down your window, then pull onto. They usually have a big yellow line painted on the ground and say (Split your drives here) meaning put one of your drivers on either side of that line. That would insure that your steer, drives, and trailer tandems were all on seperate platforms so they could weigh them all individually. Then they would either signal you with lights or the loudspeaker to move on, or pull around back and bring your paperwork in. Well, this stopping would cause huge backups at the scales, so in recent decades most scales have been converted to a little more modern "weigh in motion scale" or even a "supercoop" (although you still see some of the above two types on smaller back roads). A weigh in motion scale has you pull up close to the scale house, and you roll over a platform at 5 mph (or whatever speed they have posted). You don't stop, and after you cross the scale they either signal you with lights or loudspeaker to pull around back, if they don't just keep on moving. Lastly you have a "supercoop". You pull off into the scale and they usually have a ramp speed of 35 mph. As you come down the ramp you roll over a platform scale and they weigh you in motion. After you pass over this there will be a split. One fork is the "bypass" which takes you out by the highway on a lane that passes by the scale house and back onto the highway (this speed limit is variable, for instance 25mph in TN, 10 mph in KY). The other fork goes to the right and leads up to the old platform scale directly next to the scale house. As you approach the fork a sign overhead will flash either a left arrow reading "bypass", or the dreaded right arrow reading "scales" meaning they want to weigh you on the old platform scale to get a more accurate weight. I have found that if I am under 79,000 I always get the bypass, but the closer you are to 80,000 the more likely they will want to weigh you again. OK, bear with me, I told you all this for a point in my story I want to make. Back to the Journal.. As I went from Cincy to Louisville, I had to roll across a "supercoop" on I71. Note that this is the second trip this week from Uhricksville to Morgantown. The first load they had a hard time getting my weight right, and since they were so many trucks in there going aroind back, getting loaded, going back up front to scale, going back to get more on, was a long aggrevating process. Now I usually don't roll unless I have a minimum of 79,000 gross. After two trips around I came out at 78,600, and I said the heck with it I didn't want to go around a third time. Now I burned some fuel before I got down into KY, so when I hit the scale I was probably no more than 78,300 or so. Well when I hit the coop I was shocked to get the "scales" arrow. When I got there the scalemaster made me set there for several minutes while he made great pains to scrutinize his readouts (I could plainly see him in there going back and forth scanning the readouts with a pained look on his face), until he finally gave me the green light. Well, this trip down I left Uhricksville at 79,980. So I was ready to be pulled in, and low and behold, I get the "bypass" light. Don't let anyone tell you different kids. These you can have your shit as tight a can be, and these guys will pull you in and "F" with you for no better reason than they are constipated, didn't get laid last night, hungover, broke, whatever problem they are having that day it brightens there day to rip some trucker a new butthole. That is why I do now like cops at all, and respect them even less. Most I have seen are just in it for the power trip they get out of messing with people. That is what drew them to be cops to start with. So, off my soapbox and onto Morgantown. I got dumped out by 4:30 and called in. She told me to go ahead and deadhead home, and I could stockload Friday for next week. So I was home and in my Baby's arms by 11:00pm. Friday she went with me while I took the truck over to the mine to load, and back to the yard where I picked up my paycheck and we hit the Chinese buffet, then rented "Forgotten" and "Alien v/s Preditor" and locked our selves in for the weekend. I'll be off again around 3:00pm on Sunday, and will report back to you next week.
Greetings to All! Here's how my week unfolded. I left the yard Sunday around 4:00PM. I went down into Tennessee and arrived in the Knoxville area around 6:00PM and stopped for fuel. I noticed then that an airbag had sprung a leak. It wasn't leaking bad enough to keep my suspension from airing up, but it was something I would have to keep an eye on. I also adjusted my trailer brakes. The slack adjusters on my trailer are just about worn out and they are bad to back off on me. Since I am pulling such heavy loads in the mountains I have decided to adjust the trailer brakes daily. The tractor self adjusting slack adjusters seem to be working well, so I just check/adjust them weekly. I went on my way and ran down I75S to Chattanooga, took I24W across the tip of Georgia, connected with I 59S to Birmingham, then ran I65S into Montgomery arriving around midnight as my memory serves. I went ahead and dumped my load without incident, then went to bed in their parking lot. I got up early and hit the road. Late in the morning my boss called me and informed me that the tipple was low on coal and wanted to know what time I would arrive there. I told her it would be late afternoon, and she decided she didn't want me to run all the way up there and find out they had run out of coal. She called me back in a short while and routed me to Bridgeport, AL to pick up a load of ore going to a steel mill in Huntington, WV. I ran up to bridgeport and loaded. They loaded me on the scale, so I rolled out of there at exactly 80,000lbs (Sweet! As you should know by now I get paid by the ton, so they more I haul, the more I make). I ran up I75N to Lexington, then got on to I64E toward Huntington. She called me back later to inform me that my next load would be a deadhead to Cincinnati to pick up a load of road salt going to a coal mine about 45 minutes from our yard. I called the steel mill, and although they stop receiving in the afternoon, since I was a dumpbucket I could come in and dump anytime. So I rolled on in there around 8:00PM or so. This steel mill was located in a downtown area, and was very old, so this entailed a lot of maneuvering in tight quarters. I usually don't like doing this at night, but in this situation it was perfect because the traffic was so light I could use the whole street to make the turns, and I didn't have four wheelers buzzing around me like flies. I got into position without a tremendous amount of trouble, although I did have to straddle a set of train tracks while dumping. I rolled out of there and made it back across I64W to Ashland, KY. I thought about pushing it to Cincy, but chose to stop to sleep. My main reason was that I am allowed a certain amount on my fuel card daily. I had fueled up early in the morning, and didn't want to risk pushing it to Cincy without more fuel. The road I was going to take was the AA highway in KY, and I have never been on this road before. So I didn't know if I could find a fuel stop or not. So I laid down for a bit, and got up early, fueled up, and headed out (there were several fuel stops across it, but I am a cautious man by nature). I got there about an hour after they opened, so the early bids had been loaded already, so I only had 2 trucks ahead of me. I got loaded and was on my way in about an hour and a half. I ran on down I75S and into Bledsoe, KY to the mine. I was only about 20 minutes from my house, and I was dying to go home, but I had to make that turn and head south toward Gatliff, because my daily check in call revealed that they now had plenty of coal. So I headed down there, loaded, and headed toward Alabama. I stopped in Northern Alabama, Slept, then got up early in the morning and ran the rest of the way down, dumping in the morning to return to Gatliff, get another load, then do it all over again the next night. That is how my week went all week from Tuesday night on. So I delivered loads dumping Wed, Thu, and Fri morning. All very boring and uneventfull except for one incident I will talk about in a moment. Friday I deadheaded to Gatliff, stockloaded, then went to the yard and parked up around 5:00pm Friday. Now I am off till Sunday afternoon when I head out to Alabama. They had a lot of coal so I hope I can stay on it all week. There was a bad wreck on I75 North Early Wed morning (around 1:00am). A truck driver fell asleep and ran straight into the trees in the median. I saw the aftermath of this all week. You could see his tracks in the grass where he ran straight off the road and into the trees. As he entered the woods between trees his entire truck and trailer where in the woods, he hit a tree, and jacknifed, hitting all kinds of trees. His truck and trailer looked like they exploded. His load was scattered all over the woods, his trailer was in hundreds of pieces, the tractor was literally ripped in 2 pieces, they fuel tanks burned, and it was obvious he didn't survive. Horrible accident. There were wreckers they every time I passed it all week, pulling the truck and trailer out of the wood piece by piece. DON"T DRIVE SLEEPY FOLKS. I know I push hard, but believe me, when I get tired I stop and sleep. If I even think I am sleepy I stop. If you are tired and doing tricks like rolling down your window or drinking gallons of coffee to stay awake, get your ass off the road. Enough said. More changes in my life. Well, this will bring me up to date. In August of 05 I was still working for the same company hauling coal to Alabama from Kentucky. I was hauling a load down and was South of Birmingham when a U-joint broke on the truck right behind the transmission. The driveshaft did not fall out of the truck, it came loose from the transmission and starting whipping around like crazy as I was going 70MPH or somewhere thereabouts. Intantly the engine died, and I lost all air pressure so the brakes locked up, but since I was so heavy and going so fast, I went another half mile or so before I came to a stop. There was massive damage to the truck. All the air lines and wiring harness was ripped out, both fuel tanks ruptured, air tanks ruptured. This was early in the morning. I spent the entire day on the side of the road, then just before dark I finally got towed. It was hotter then hell, no air conditioning, I was miserable. Nothing within walking distance at all. TAKE THIS AS A LESSON!! Keep water, sodas, food etc... in your truck. You never know when this might happen to you. Anyway, I finally got towed into the Peterbilt dealer late at night after closing. I was filthy, sweaty, and grumpy. No hotels within miles, so I spent another hot night in the truck waiting for them to open. In the morning I got them to take me to the hotel, where I sat for the rest of the week (this happened Monday night, I sat there until Friday cooling my jets. They couldn't figure out what to do with me. Finally they decided to use one of their son's tractors to bob-tail down, pick up me and the trailer, take the trailer on to Montgomery to dump it, then bring the whole kit and caboodle back home. Well they couldn't get a driver, so I ended up getting my son to do it for them. He used to drive and still has his CDL. Well I got all that done, and was mad about losing an entire weeks pay. Well, they told me I could drive their son's truck until mine was fixed (a very old Kenworth that he had taken off the road and used for hauling coal locally). I took one load to NC, and was on my way home when the turbo went out on it. I had to drop my trailer on the side of the road and bobtail home with the turbo out, this means back roads, 40-50MPH, and with black smoke billowing out of the exhaust, and every truck I pass yelling and saying (somethings wrong with your truck, or You lost a turbo) as if I hadn't noticed. I get home and the son puts fixing his truck on the back burner, and I am told I would have to wait till the Peterbilt was fixed which would be several weeks. I got fed up and quit. So that brings me too today. I finally found a local job I can live with. I am driving a 10 wheel dump truck with a huge coal bed on it. It is an old Mack DM600. I pick up coal from a mine, go 1 mile down the blacktop highway, turn onto a mining road, go up and over a mountain, to the tipple where the coal is processed, turn around and go back to the mine, and repeat 12-16 times a day. It pays pretty good, and I am home every night. I like all the guys I work with, and my boss is the best. This is a family operation. There are 8 trucks, 3 of which are RD models from the 90's, the other 5 are DM models from the 80's. My bosses son and 2 son-in-laws drive for him, so they get the RD's. These are more like modern trucks. Nice interiors, insulated cabs, air shift tranmissions and 400 horse moters. I drove the 2nd DM, but the guy ahead of me quit this week, so I am #1 DM. So if any of the family leaves (which they have all done at some point in the past) or if my boss buys any new trucks (unlikely, but possible) I will get into an RD. The DM's are like you would picture trucks from the 40's, but they are well suited for what we do. All steel cabs, with no insulation. So all around you is a thin layer of steel which does nothing to block out sound. All steel dash, basic guages, no air condioning, radio, very basic seats. Very no nonsense, what the hell is driver comfort. They have 300 horsepower engines with Maxidyne transmissions. Since you are reading this I assume you would be interested in knowing about the Maxidyne. I knew nothing about how these worked, so maybe I will help someone else out. These are 2 stick transmissions. They main shifter (I will call it stick 1) has gear positions 1 thru 5, the second shifter(stick 2) has low, direct, and reverse. To pull out normally you put stick 2 in direct, and just shift 1-5. Then when you stop and want to back up you put stick 2 in reverse, and put stick 1 in which every gear range is appropriate (usually you back up in 3rd gear unless heavily load, steep incline, etc...). To pull out when heavily loaded you put stick 1 in 1rst, and stick 2 in low. This is called low-low, then after you are moving you shift stick 2 from low to direct, then you can shift stick one from gears 1-5 as you normally would.
It sounds simple enough, and for the most part it is. It's like anything else, once you get used to it, it becomes second nature. For the first week or so it drove me nuts having to shift both shifters everytime I had to back up. The other thing about these trucks is that they are not computerized. So this means several things, the most relevant is that they have I guess what you would call non-computerized Jake brakes. They work like you would expect. flip it on, either low or high, when you are driving it is off, when you let off the accelerator it comes on, and when you push in the clutch it shuts it off. The difference is that the computerized trucks are set up so when the engine drops down to idle speed the jake shuts off. That doesn't happen in these, so when you pull off the road and into the mine, then you back into the pit to load, set your brake, shift into neutral, then take your foot off the clutch, if you haven't shut your jake brake off, it will immediately kill the engine. I promise you, if you drive a more modern truck, then get into one of these, you will kill the motor at least once or twice a day for a while. Anyway, that is more boring little job I am doing now. I won't go into anymore detail, because everyday is pretty much just like the previous. I was ready for a little monotony though. I used to love travelling and being over the road, but now as I get a little older, I am thinking more of the comforts of home. If I were younger though, I would probably be out on that open road again. Who knows, like our webmistress Rachel said about her local job "who knows how long this will last".
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