My Day By Day Experience At Eastern Freightways Flatbed Division

Day 25

Dispatch rescheduled Mondays delivery for today. Up and on the road by 4:30. Nice easy ride to Cranston, RI. Got unloaded and had a pre-plan to go to Portsmouth, NH do a drop n hook and deliver in Auburn, ME. Easy Drop n Hook and the tarp job was actually pretty good. Get to Auburn figure out where they want me, unstrap n fold up the tarps. Waited about 45 minutes. The unload process took some time as well since most of the load was 14' sheetrock. Get unloaded and my pre-plan was to head back to Portsmouth, NH for a 2 stop delivery on the FAR east coast of Maine for Wednesday. Headed to Cherryfield and then on to Calias, ME. Left Portsmouth and headed for our Scarborough terminal. Got here with 15 minutes left on my clock. Found the shower and had some dinner. Definitely one of the cleanest terminal showers I've come across. Not a bad mileage day for the small runs and the crazy traffic coming back up I-95 during rush hour. Till tomorrow from the deep backwoods of Maine.

Day 26

Up and gone by 4:30. Headed for Cherryfield, ME. All in all a pretty good ride. Route 1 Cherryfield was rough as hell. Got to the 1st receiver and was a really quick unload. Retarped the remaining and headed up 193 to 9. If you ever go to ME avoid 193. Another rough road. I found out later that 199 was just paved and is a lot better. Reached Calais and another quick unload.

Something i've started doing in remote areas with no truck stops is scoping out future parking spots when my clock runs low. There was actually a lot of parking up there.

Got my Pre-plan picking up in Bradford, ME and dropping this load at the Concord terminal as it's going to Queens and I'm off on Friday.

The roads in that part of ME are crazy rough and tend to slope to the right. I spent half the time fighting the steering wheel to keep it on the road.

Made it back to the Portland terminal with about 15 minutes left on my 14. and logged 570 miles. Pretty uneventful day minus the race against my clock. That's always fun. But I'll take that over a breakdown any day .

I'm just getting caught up on the last week as I've had a few things going on after driving. I'll try to keep it short.

Day 27

Up early Thursday and headed towards Concord with my load that's going to be dropped. Noticed a coolant leak on the new truck so when I arrived in Concord they took a look and thought it was a small hose leading into the reservoir tank, They said they would fix it on Friday. I called dispatch to figure out what else they had for me for the day. They had to find something so I ran to the truckstop down the road, grabbed some breakfast and waited for 1 1/2 hours for a call. After all that there was a load sitting at the Concord terminal needing to be delivered in W. Leb, NH. Erg It was there 1 1/2 hours ago as well so back to the terminal I go. Grabbed the load and shot up 89N the 80 minutes it takes to get there. Basically drove by my house twice. Once on the way to W. Leb and once on the way back to the terminal.

Oh well this ended my week pretty early and it was going to be a min. pay week sooo. Off for a 3 day weekend

Day 28

I had called dispatch on Friday to figure out my plan for the start of the week. Picking up in Newington and needs to be delivered in Colonie, NY by 8am Monday. So after some quick planning my 3 day weekend turned into a 2 day weekend. Had to leave Sunday afternoon in order to make it work. Plus I was hoping to get a full week in with no breakdowns. Left around 14:00 to go get my truck and load my stuff in for the week. Newington was great to pick up at on a Sunday. Absolutely no one around. Did a drop n hook and headed to the Albany terminal which was 7 miles down the road from the receiver. Arrived at 21:30 and shutdown for the night

Made it to the receiver by 8:08 the next morning. Pulling in behind me was my trainer. We get checked in and had to turn around at a 3 way intersection so he watched traffic for me and helped me get backed in, and helped me fold the tarps. Quick unload and my pre-plan has me heading to Wallingford, CT to get some slinkies which are headed to New Salem, PA.

2 different accidents on 91s several miles before my exit and 45 minutes later I make it to the shipper. Was able to get right in and loaded. It takes longer to strap them down correctly then to get loaded. My trip planning had me going down 95s to 287 around 16:30 and shutting down at our Camp Hill, PA terminal for the night. NY traffic cost me about another 45 minutes . Pulled in with about 15 minutes left on my clock.

Day 29

About 4 hours to get to New Salem and unstrap the slinkies. I've learned that the receiver is on lunch at 12:00 so had to wait a little bit till they came back. But still got unloaded pretty quick once again. Pre-plan has me going to Proctor, WV to pick up a load. Was a good ride there until the GPS sent me down this narrow road that didn't even lead to the shipper. Got turned around and found the correct entrance. Load not ready yet. Find the yard dog and he messaged one of the lead loaders. 4 hours later it was ready. Complete downpour as I started fixing the tarp job. With my time clicking away I keep going. Completely soaked I get changed and head about 45 minutes down the road to a rest area to shut down for the night.

Day 30

This load is heading to Prince of Pursia, PA but I had found out the night before that they wanted it between 3:30 and 5:00. That was never going to happen as it was a good 5-5 1/2 drive. I originally showed up at the shipper at 15:00 so even shutting down at that point, taking a 10 hour and heading out at 1:00 It would still be 6-6:30 by the time I got there. So called dispatch and let them know where we stood.So we're heading to our Pennsauken, NJ terminal to drop it and grab an empty. Was still smelling coolant on the way so stopped into the shop to have them take a look. Cracked reservoir. They went out of their way to get one and replace it to get me on the road. a total of 2 hours of breakdown but I was impressed with them.

Took the empty and headed to Danville, PA to drop n hook. I wasn't really going to make it to far so I decided to shut down at the Penn 80, grab a shower and get an early start the next day.

Day 32

This load is headed to the first place I ever delivered Attleboro, MA. 6 hour drive. As I'm pulling in to the receiver it started raining. I asked them what they would like to do as it was sheetrock and had to be unloaded outside. It had plastic over it so they said pull the tarps and the plastic should be enough to cover it. That was until 1/2 way through untarping the clouds just let go. The plastic was blowing and it was raining sideways. We did what we could and got it unloaded.

Headed to Portsmouth, NH to do a drop and hook. #### early holiday traffic set me back about an hour. 95 and 495N were horrible. Stop n go traffic. Was hoping to shutdown in Reading, MA but had to shutdown in Portsmouth.

Day 33

Got an early start and headed to East Haddam, CT Had a good ride down. East Haddam has some tight roads and a bridge that causes you to stop at the end to make sure no one is coming before you can proceed. Arrived at the receiver and another fairly quick unload by 8:00 was hoping to get an early start headed back to the terminal as I know the traffic will be terrible again. Got a plan to drop my trailer and pick up a return going back to Portsmouth, NH Ehhh Up 95-84-495. It was early but it had already started. Crazy drivers, bumper to bumper, stop and go. Lost over an hour getting there. Check in drop the trailer and bobtail back to the terminal. 10 miles away and 93N is just as bad. Finally make it back safely with 2 hours left on my clock. 2500 miles driven for the week and I was ready for a drink or several.

Not sure where I'm going Monday yet as they didn't have a plan for me. Was told to call at 7am from my truck and get a plan.

Mike B, I love reading your posts. You are short, right to the details and so interesting that I read every word. I am so familiar with the areas you run it brings back memories. Keep up the good work and learning process and you will be one of the better drivers out there today.

Mike B, I love reading your posts. You are short, right to the details and so interesting that I read every word. I am so familiar with the areas you run it brings back memories. Keep up the good work and learning process and you will be one of the better drivers out there today.

Thank you Harry H. I'm glad you are enjoying reading my posts. You used to run up here? I'm aspiring to be a good, safe on time driver. It can be tough at times.

Day 34

So my sons car is still broke down. Something to do with the Electronic Throttle Control. They replaced it but can't seem to get it right. I don't know it's at the garage that he had bought it at. Probably time for a dealership to look into it. Anyways, He is still dropping me off and picking me up every week which is requiring a little more planning on my part.

Got to the terminal at 7:00 this morning like I was told. Loaded up the truck and called dispatch to figure out where I was going. "We're still working on that we'll call you back in 10 minutes" Yeaaaaa, I've learned what that means. Start pre-tripping and noticed that one of the hoses to the coolant reservoir was leaking. Assumed it was the clamp so Took it over to the shop and had them tighten it. Luckily that's what it was. Finish up Pre-tripping, fuel up and park off to the side of the terminal. After about an hour passed I called dispatch again. After being put on hold I get a plan. Going to the Scarborough terminal to pick up a loaded trailer and delivering it 8 miles down the road. Hmmmm Someone missed a delivery for some reason.

Get to the terminal, hook to the load and make sure everything is good to go. Drive the 8 miles up the road and get unloaded. Get an E-mail of where I'm headed next instead of the usual pre-plan. Down to Newington, NH. Well come to find out I was still locked into the return that I did on Friday and was unable to be dispatched the correct way. (Helpful information if I had had it sooner. LOL)

Get to Newington which is generally a drop and hook. 30 minutes tops. Nope, not this time. Live load it is. that 30 minutes just turned into 3 hours. Luckily it didn't affect me to much time wise. Planned on shutting down in Meriden, CT anyways since i'm headed to Valley Cottage, NY (just on the other side of the Tappan Z) in the morning to deliver. Parking between Meriden and there usually consists of on the side of the interstate and it was 18:00 when I got here so I assumed everything was going to be full.

Tomorrow will be a race against my clock I believe. 2 hours to Valley Cottage, should be there by 7:30 Get unloaded, drive to Avenel, NJ, Drop and hook , Then 6+ hours back to the Concord terminal so I can be Home for the 4th. I'm already having nightmares of traffic coming up 95...