My 4th Week Solo

So I'm at the end of my 4th week and I thought I'd post about how this week went for me, maybe some people will be interested in what it's like (assuming my experience is at all typical), or maybe you can just laugh at my misfortunes. In any case I get to vent a little.

Anyway, Monday I had a load from New England down to NJ, and the gps is sending me over the GW bridge. I thought about going 287 instead and finding a different route, then I thought I'd just go for it and see how bad it really is. Well, accident on the GW, 2 lanes closed, I spent 2 hours crawling along over a 2 mile stretch, was late for my delivery. When I got there I told them I was low on hours and did they know somewhere I could park for the night and they said yeah, just park in that lot over there. Great I thought, problem solved, so I back the trailer in, get out and unhook it, get in to pull away and I press the clutch in and it goes to the floor and stays there. Had to be towed to a company yard not too far away that had mechanics, but they only worked days.

Tuesday it took until about noon to get it fixed, then I get back in the truck to find out that my work had been reassigned, so I'm sitting, but finally I get an assignment and I head over and pick it up, then on the way to the receiver the gps sends me on an unnecessary detour and I miss a turn and end up in a wooded area with narrow roads. Oh, and it's dark and raining. While making a left turn I dinged the trailer overhang on a tree. Made the delivery but the next stop was supposed to be a live load and I lost that one because they wanted to check the trailer first.

So Wednesday I'm at the OC talking to the boss about the accident. They were actually pretty nice about it and decided it was "just one of those things that happens to rookie drivers". Of course they did say that if it happened again within a year I could be fired. No pressure or anything. They also decided that part of the reason for it was that I was late for my appointment and so I wasn't being as careful as I should, so they told me to build in extra time when trip planning. "Throw in an extra hour or two" the boss says. Then they proceeded to assign me loads where I had to drive every minute I had available on Thursday and Friday just to make the appointments.

On Thursday I find myself going north from NJ to New England, over the gw bridge again. I have about 3 1/2 hours of driving left, and it's 10 at night so I figure no problem, I can get north of NYC then figure out where to stop. Nope, accident on GW bridge, all lanes closed. I set the brakes and turned the truck off and went and sat on the bunk for an hour before traffic started to move. By the time I find a place to stop I'm over my 14 hour clock by 22 minutes. Also, when I got just past the GW bridge I was driving along in the traffic and at one point it came to a stop on a slight down grade I hit the brakes and start sliding. Turns out the road is covered with diesel fuel, I guess from the accident. Fortunately I had enough following distance. The truck in front of me went in to the breakdown lane to avoid rear-ending the truck in front of him.

Friday was pretty uneventful, except that I showed up to make a delivery and was supposed to pick up an empty but there wasn't any. So they change the assignment to come back the next morning, I guess figuring that one would have been unloaded by then. The next morning I'm ready to PT at the moment my 10 hours break is up. It's 0930 and I have an 1145 appointment for a live load so I need an empty trailer. I go back to where I was the night before, still no empties. I report it and tell them I'm going to miss my appointment, and I'm basically told to wait for an unloaded trailer. The support on Saturdays sucks, but I suppose I should just be happy that it's pretty good on weekdays. I wait 3 hours, then I go to the next assignment and since I missed my appointment, they make me wait. I wait another 3 hours there. Finally I'm ready to go, and I notice that the qualcomm is telling me I have 1 less hour to drive than I thought I should. After a little head scratching I figure out that my 70 hour clock is going to run out before I can make the delivery. So I report it and am told to drop it so someone else can pick it up. So bascially I waited all Saturday to get loaded so someone else can get paid for driving the 400 miles to deliver it. What really sucks is that since I'm in a job where I get weekly home time I never worried about the 70 hour clock before. I'm sure if I had put myself off duty every chance I got during the week I would have had the hours. I would have gone back and done it when I figured out it was a problem except that earlier that day I had approved my logs. Lesson learned, I should set myself off duty whenever possible even if I don't think it's going to make a difference.

Oh, and now I'm in the Newark NJ area and I have 1 1/2 hours driving time to figure out where to spend my 34 hour reset, since I'm now not getting home this week. Tried to drive to a motel but it turned out to be the most depressing place I ever saw. It was on side street next to a highway and across the street from a row of run-down houses. I decided I'd rather stay in the truck, even though I'm not prepared to stay out more than a week. I finally ended up at a N J Turnpike service area where I'm writing this now. At least there's a bathroom and food. Had a little more but I'm past my 5500 char limit...