Where'd You Learn to Load a Trailer?

Hello all! Woke up this morning around 7:30 and walked down to Hardee's for breakfast again. I'm still sitting at the Pilot truck stop in Atlanta on the southeast side of the loop.

My appointment time to pick up my load this morning was at 11:00, but sometimes they're ready early. So I drive over at 9:00 AM and the trailer is loaded and they were getting my paperwork together. It was a Con-Way Freight load consisting of misc smaller loads all put together on one trailer headed to Shreveport, LA to the Con-Way Freight location there. Con-Way Freight handles what's called LTL (lessthan-truck-load). You may have seen the smaller Con-Way trailers running single or doubles. I drive for Con-Way Truckload which handles full 53' trailer orders.

Anyway, so I get my paperwork and review the items. There's like a dozen different orders on here with the total weight of 41,000 lbs. I look at the last order loaded; 7 pallets with a combined weight of 20,000 lbs. I knew right then that this wasn't going to be legal!

I hook up to the trailer and take it around the building to their scales. (all C-W Freight terminals have scales on sight) The weight on the drive axles = 26,400 lbs. The weight on the tandem (trailer) axles = 35,800 lbs!! That's 1400 lbs overweight and about a $160 fine! And the axles are already slid all the way to the back! So I had to haul the trailer back around to the dock where they had to either re-load the trailer putting the heavier pallets in the middle or remove some off the tail end. They elected to just remove one of those 7 pallets off the back. DARN! That's what I'd figure they'd do because it's easier and quicker. But it also means that I have to drive with the tandems ALL the way to the rear. Which means EXTRA-WIDE turns! Oh well.

But first, I drive a couple miles in the opposite direction back to that Pilot to get a more accurate CAT scale weight. The Con-Way scales don't get calibrated as often and are not always correct. Plus going to the Pilot's CAT scales will give me a printed copy in case I get stuck at a weigh station.

So, now I'm off around the I-285 loop over to I-20 westbound. My first stop was in Flowood, MS for fuel. Back on I-20 westbound, I arrived in Shreveport, LA at 9:30 PM. I dropped the trailer at the Con-Way Freight there and hooked up to an empty. It's a mess inside and needs to be swept out, but I'm too hungry to do it tonight. A mile back to the I-20 exit where there was a Petro truck stop. Petro's restaurant is called the Iron Skillet because the use small iron skillets instead of plates. I order up a bacon cheese burger, fries, and a sweet tea.

Now it's time for bed. We're headed to San Antonio tomorrow, so I hope you can return to join me. Till then, see ya on the road...

Another Boring Day Spent Going Nowhere

Well I awoke this morning around 6:30 AM in the parking lot of the consignee in Norcross, GA. It wasn't until just after 7:00 that I noticed some activity inside the warehouse, so I went inside to check in. There seemed to be only 2 people there and they were towards the back of the warehouse. I looked for and found the restrooms and then just hung around by the front and waited for one of them to come up. After about 15 minutes, someone came up and said they don't actually start until 8:00, but that I can go ahead and back into the dock. I did and by about 8:30 I was unloaded and sent in my empty message.

Figuring it might be a while before I received my next load assignment, I drove down to the southeast Atlanta loop of I-285 to the Pilot truck stop. There I finally got a shower and then walked a block down the street to have breakfast at Hardee's. A sausage-egg-cheese biscuit, a biscuit & gravy, and a large sweet tea.

It was about another hour after that before I received my next load assignment. I pick up from the shipper a couple miles down the road here in Atlanta and I'm taking it to Shreveport, LA. The bad thing is that I don't pick up the load until Tuesday morning. So another day of sitting around. If I would have known ahead of time that this was going to be my load assignment, I would have went for a bike ride BEFORE taking a shower! Therefore, I just stayed in the truck all day.

Oh well... another boring day going nowhere. And of course going nowhere means not getting paid either.

See ya tomorrow.

Sitting Here in Norcross, GA

Not a whole lot happened today. Just sitting here in Norcross, GA (a few miles NE of Atlanta off I-85). I woke up this morning and read a few of the Psalms and then another chapter in the book "The Exemplary Husband" which I mentioned the other day.

Then my sister called me about 11AM. She and her husband live about 40 minutes away in Woodstock, GA. They had just gotten out of church and will drive over and meet me for lunch. A few blocks away was Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen and the food there was excellent! I had the Seared Blackened Alaskan Halibut in a garlic butter sauce with grilled green beans and a Caesar salad. Wow, that was good!

After lunch we just hung out and talked for about another hour and then went for Bruster's Ice Cream for a cool refreshing treat. They dropped my back off at the truck around 4PM.

Spent a few hours on the phone with my lovely this afternoon/evening and that about summed up my day. Another day of sitting and waiting. Tomorrow I'll get unloaded and back on the road to somewhere. Hopefully I'll have a better week with more miles.

Stay tuned...

From Biloxi to Atlanta

Woke up this morning around 7:00 AM. Had a really good nights sleep. Since I stayed overnight at the Flying J, I decided to go in and have their breakfast buffet. Hey that rhymed! Anyway, that lasted me all the way until dinner tonight.

Drove for a little more than an hour to Satsuma, AL where I stopped for fuel. Then it was non-stop for 5 hours all the way to Atlanta. I can't deliver until Monday morning because the consignee is closed, so I tried to find a truck stop there in Atlanta to park at. Wishful thinking actually! It was almost 4PM by the time I arrived and there wasn't any parking available.

So I continued on over to Norcross, just northeast a few miles up I-85 from Atlanta. That's where I'm delivering to on Monday. I've never been to this place before and was glad to see that their parking lot is open and I can stay here over the weekend. Looks like there's a few restaurants around here as well. The only down side is that I don't have a shower. I'll have to see how it goes. If I decide to go for a bike ride in the morning, I just might have to check into the hotel down the road. Then I could at least get a shower and watch the race on TV tomorrow afternoon also. You'll have to come back and read Sunday's post to find out.

For dinner I started walking down the street, but it looked a little farther than I wanted to walk. Probably a half mile one way and it was getting late, about 7:30 PM. So I decided to drop the trailer and just bobtail down to a restaurant. It turned out to be a good decision, because by the time I finished it had gotten dark. And it rained for a little bit! Although that would have taken care of my shower problem!

Anyway, that's it for today. Till next time...

Eastbound and Down

Woke up this morning at the rest area around 6:30 AM central time there in East Texas. I had to wait until 7:15 to drive in order to reset my daily clock, so I looked up online and sure enough there was a geocache there that I had not yet found. By the time I found it in the woods, signed the log and returned, it was time to go.

I drove just 40 miles down the road to my exit and there was a truck stop there so I stopped in for a quick shower. From there I headed down Hwy 146 to Baytown, TX. About an hour later they had me unloaded and I was headed to my next load.




Just a few miles down and across the water is La Porte, TX where Dow Chemical and my next load is coming from. Another hour later and I'm loaded up and good to go. Back up to the truck stop where I showered to roll across the CAT Scales and have the truck weighed. Another heavy load, 44,000 lbs of those small plastic BB's. I also grabbed a bite for lunch there at McDonald's since I already had to stop.

Now it's off to Georgia. I ran into a 10 mile traffic jam from about 4 miles west of Baton Rouge, LA all the way to I-12 eastbound. I finally decided to park for the night here at a Flying J near Gulfport, MS.

That's it for today. See ya on the road...

From Alabama to Texas

Another long day today. Like I said in yesterdays post, I didn't do much of anything. Sitting around in the truck all day except twice when it came time to eat. That also means I don't burn much energy, so I don't need much sleep. I awoke this morning around 3:00 AM, fully rested and not able to fall back to sleep. I hate when that happens.

Anyway, the crew from the Michael's store arrived about 5:00 AM and began to unload their half of the trailer. The Michael's loads half to be unloaded by hand for the most part. They only put 2 wrapped pallets at the tail end just to hold the rest of it in place. The rest of the 6000+ boxes are just stacked inside the trailer. They usually have a crew of 5-6 store employees who unload by hand. I normally help out too because it just makes things go faster and I can move on to the next stop.

After they started unloading here though, I went back to the truck to catch up my log book from yesterday and get my GPS software ready for the next stop. Then as soon as they're done, I can take off. However, they closed the little side door and I couldn't get inside to help out. Oh well. So I just continued in the truck and waited.

They finished up about 7:00 AM and I was off to Mandeville, LA which was 134 miles away to another Michael's store for the rest of the load. After a quick fuel stop and a run to McDonald's for breakfast, I arrived at the 2nd Michael's store at 10:00 AM. This one was tight backing into their loading dock. I just don't get some of these architects who design these buildings sometimes. What were they thinking?

Anyway, their crew wasn't due in until 10:30 so I had to wait a while yet. That's OK because I looked up online and there was a geocache in this shopping center parking lot. So I went and found it before they arrived. This time I was able to help also and that lasted until about 12:30 when we finally finished. Signed the paperwork, swept out the trailer, and off to pickup the next load.

I arrived in Baton Rouge, LA about 1:45 PM to pick up my next load going to Baytown, TX. They got me loaded pretty quick. They loaded 26 giant bags of Polypropylene weighing in at a total of 41,000 lbs! For you and me that's 26 giants bags of tiny plastic balls that look like BB's. I haul them off to Baytown where they get melted down and formed into something useful.

The problem I ran into today was scaling the load. In other words, going to a truck stop the have the truck/trailer combo weighed. On loads that heavy, I need to make sure that the weight of the drive tires (the eight wheels at the back of the tractor) and the weight of the tandems (the eight wheels at the back of the trailer) do not exceed 34,000 lbs per set. It can be a hefty fine if they do! I should know I've had to pay it TWICE!

Anyway, normally this isn't a problem. But the first truck stop I come to has a line at the scales. I'm 4th in line before everyone begins to realize that the guy who's sitting on the scale's is broken down. So that wasted about 15 minutes to get back on the interstate. At the next exit for truck stops, there were 2 located there. Neither had scales! But they did have a restaurant and by now I'm starving again.

So I ate at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, LA which is so named because they have a rather large cage off to the side of the fuel island with a real live tiger in it. Almost like a mini zoo, but just the one animal and it wasn't a petting zoo. At least I wasn't going to try and pet the tiger!

Speaking of eating, I had their special of the day; BBQ pork ribs and smoked sausage, BBQ beans, green beans, mashed potatoes and some really good corn bread all washed down with some good ole southern sweet tea. It was sooo good! And they also had some home made pies. Even though I was stuffed from the dinner, I got a slice of coconut cream and the chocolate cream pies to go. I'll probably eat them tomorrow. Can't wait!

So now I'm back driving down the highway several miles and come upon another exit with 3 truck stops. One even had a scale, but it was broken. More wasted time. Continuing on down the highway and I finally found a truck stop with a scale just 1 mile before the weigh station! Whew that was close. As it turned out, the trailer balanced out OK and I would've been alright. But you never know for sure and like I said I've been burnt twice before costing almost $200 EACH TIME!

Now I'm parked at a rest area in Texas near the town of Hamshire. I could have driven the remaining 40 miles or so to Baytown, but my 14 hour clock has expired. For those none truckers who don't know what the 11-14-70 hour clocks are, leave a question in the comments below and I'll explain them.

Anyway, the loads not due until 9:00 tomorrow so I have time in the morning to deliver. The downside for today, with all the time wasted looking for a scale I didn't get time to stop for a shower. I was hoping to stay the night at a truck stop further down the interstate at my exit, but I ran out of time.

The life of a truck driver. See ya tomorrow. Good night.

Just a Sittin' and Waitin'

Not much happening today. Just sitting here in Mobile, AL behind a shopping center where I'll be unloading tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM. Of course, just sitting here means that the wheels ain't rolling, which in turn means that I hadn't got paid a dime all day! So between the Waffle House for breakfast and the Super China Buffet for dinner, I actually lost money today.

And since I'm not anywhere I can shower I didn't go for a bike ride or do any geocaching either. Just sitting here in the truck doing a little reading and a few things on the computer. Although it did rain a couple times today, but that's not quite the same as a shower.

The book I'm reading now is called "The Exemplary Husband" by Stuart Scott. It's a biblical perspective on being a proper husband and spiritual leader. So far it has been really good.

From the book: "The overall purpose of The Exemplary Husband is to assist husbands toward purposeful and lasting Christlikeness for the glory of God. It was written to be a companion book for The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. Couples who commit to the biblical principles presented in these books will find a oneness in marriage that will give God glory and bring His blessing."

I have added a link here for the book if you would like more information on it.

That's all I got for now. I'll be rolling again tomorrow so I look forward to seeing you then.