And Away I Went...

I'm in North Carolina, near our terminal and enjoying some free wifi at a McDonald's. Iced coffee and free wifi... you can't beat that with a stick.

I finished my load from Montana to Pennsylvania, then took another load from there to South Carolina. I had another incident that is really embarrassing in retrospect. Did you know that some shippers actually anchor you to the dock when they load you? I didn't. There's a red/green light that tells you when you can go. I just thought it indicated when someone was still in the trailer. I had been called into the shipping office, given my Bill of Lading and a seal and told I was good to go.

So I went.

I thought the reason that the truck wasn't moving was because I had just been loaded with 44k lbs of cargo and there was an incline down to the loading dock. Not so. My bumper was anchored to the dock. The bumper itself is fine, but the part of the trailer where it is anchored is bent. It needs to be bent back and welded.

I called the main office and reported it to the Safety Department and then talked to the shop about when/where to fix it. I was told to continue to my consignee and then call them back to make arrangements to get it fixed. The bottom of the bumper was about a foot further out from the truck than it should be. Luckily, the design of the dock at the delivery place was such that it wasn't a problem.

I unloaded and then since I was almost out of hours, I drove 5 miles to a Flying J to park for the night and have dinner. There was a shop there, but the main office told me to talk to my dispatcher to see whether I should have it fixed there or drive the 3 hours to the North Carolina terminal and have them fix it. I was told to bring it to the terminal.

I arrived a little before noon yesterday (there isn't a shop at that terminal, but there is a local shop that does all the repair work). I had one of the shop guys (whom I passed coming in the gate) take a look and tell me whether I should bring the trailer to them or drop it in the terminal yard. He told me to drop it at the terminal. I called the shop to arrange for them to fix it.

It was such a dumb rookie mistake and now that I know that they anchor your bumper to the dock, I will not be making that mistake again.

And I'm still waiting for a load out. This is the longest I've had to sit waiting for a load. I think it's due to the fact that Thanksgiving is next week and a lot of drivers are taking home-time, so it makes dispatching more complicated because they're trying to make sure everyone ends up at home when they need to be. I didn't ask for time off at Thanksgiving, but I am going home at Christmas.

It's been a nice little break though. I bobtailed to Walmart to stock up on food. There's a skating rink about 2 miles from the terminal (I used to play roller derby and I've been dying to skate at a rink, but where do you park a giant truck?) I stopped in when they were closed yesterday just so that I could get their hours from the sign. The manager came out while I was taking a picture of their sign and I talked to her. She went into the office to get me a printed out schedule and told me that I was welcome to park my truck there anytime I wanted to skate. There's an empty gravel/grassy lot right next to their actual parking lot. She said I could park there even if I had a trailer (I wouldn't. This close to the terminal I'd just drop the trailer at the yard rather than try to maneuver it into that lot because there's not enough room to turn around, so I'd have to jack-knife back into it).

So I got to go skating and it was awesome. I've got outdoor skates and wheels (okay, but not as nice as my indoor skates. I don't want to wear my expensive skates outdoors), but skating in a parking lot is never as fun as skating on a rink floor in my derby skates. It was really great.

I just bought a window mount for my smart phone. I'm still using that not so much to navigate, but more to be able to see where my shippers/receivers are located. I can get to the general area, but I need the GPS to find the exact location. My receiver in South Carolina was a warehouse in a string of warehouses with no sign and no number on the building. That was fun. Stuck with just the phone GPS for a while longer because catching up on bills means I still haven't bought a trucking GPS. For those of you who are drivers, what kind of trucking GPS do you have and why did you choose that one? I'm trying to decide between Garmin and Rand McNally. Does the Rand McNally tell you which lane you need to be in ahead of time? I know that the Garmin does and that's an awesome feature.

I'm hoping to get a load going out west or to the southwest. I absolutely hated driving in Pennsylvania (so much road construction and I was routed on tiny highways with hills so steep I had to climb some of them in 3rd gear) or Maryland (where there are so few rest areas or truck stops that there was nowhere to park). You'd see like 80 trucks in a rest stop designed to hold like 30. Ridiculous.

I really like driving and I sincerely hope I don't have any more incidents. I like this company and I really want to keep working here.