Swift Orientation, Memphis, TN

Am I missing something? Because now I'm confused...Did you mean to say Wednesday?

Yes, I just checked my calendar - this is Wednesday, isn't it?

We dropped the trailer in Campti at 4am this morning (ahem: Wednesday) and got our next assignment: West Monroe to Houston, TX. Pick up 2pm today. Caught some Z's in the sleeper, then drove to W. Monroe by noon. Scheduled time is 2pm. At 4:30 we checked, the order is half done. More waiting. Besides a nap and cell-phone solitaire, we have a TV that only picks up TV shows from the 70's and 80's.

As soon as the order is ready, we head for Houston and a forecasted rainy Thursday.

To finish up Wednesday's business, we arrived close to our delivery time, 23:30. No one here. We noticed a duplicate message about delivery which says delivery is now 7am. I'm out of hours, so we'll just shut down in this industrial parking lot till 7, and Carlos (plenty of drive hours) can handle the delivery and go pick up our return load.

The warehouse did open as scheduled at 7. The trailer was unloaded, but our next pickup wasn't till 2pm in Houston. More waiting. The pickup point was very tight. Located on a dead-end 2-lane street (with a turn around at the end!). You had to go to the turn-around, come back to the entry drive, back in with a driver side 90°, then 90° blind side back into the dock. No other way would work. Sort of a giant left offset. We had to wait for two trucks ahead of us to manage getting in and out of the dock.

Ready, finally, to go to Monticello, MS, by 5pm. My 10 hour off didn't finish till 8:30 pm, then I finished the trip, arriving in Monticello at 2am. I had to drive most of the way on I-10 at night with constant rain. No fun.

Finished the unloading, and collected a trailer that needed to go to West Monroe, LA and left after 4am. Dropped at W. Monroe, then made a dash for the truck stop, with literally one minute left on our 14 hour day. Took a 10 hour break. Both Carlos and I caught up on sack time.

Am I missing something? Because now I'm confused...Did you mean to say Wednesday?

Yes, I just checked my calendar - this is Wednesday, isn't it?

Thanks for clarifying I can understand, you are running so much that it's easy to starting losing track of what day it is.

... then made a dash for the truck stop, with literally one minute left on our 14 hour day. Took a 10 hour break. Both Carlos and I caught up on sack time.

That 10 hour break meant we got to watch trucks in a Monroe, LA, Pilot truck stop from 10 am to 8pm. For those 10 hours we couldn't move our truck. So, at 8 that evening we finally were able to head for our next pickup, only 1 mile away. That was a T-call trailer sitting with some others in an unwatched parking area. Not even any street lights. [A T-call means another driver brought the trailer this far, now it's our turn to finish the trip: to North Little Rock.]

The drive from Monroe to NLR took four hours. At the destination I got to practice an offset-right docking. We needed to wait for the two man crew to unload us. That took from 1am to 4am!. An additional 3 hours that day of waiting.

Well, î was time for Carlos to get home. We stopped at Walmart so I could get groceries, then I got the room till Monday.

I can only imagine having had a Dedicated Mentor...I got to see how OTR runs work over a longer period.

I'm still working out exactly how I'll schedule stuff while training my dad.

I can only imagine having had a Dedicated Mentor...

Carlos's "dedication" gives him shorter runs of 150-350 miles centered on West Monroe, LA. Short trips = more backing/docking compared to longer OTR. Also fewer varieties of dock situations, since we go to a relatively limited set of destinations.

From a misunderstanding of our pre-plan we got a late start Sunday from Little Rock to get to West Monroe. Left at 8pm for the four hour drive. Our pickup deadline was 12 midnight. (8+4=12) I was able to sign the docs at 11:59! Then to Pensacola for an 8am delivery. For the drive I used all but a few minutes of my 14 hour duty time to get there. Carlos had to take over to dock the trailer. I went on 10 break.

Our next stop was for the regular service on our tractor. The assigned/nearest shop is 3 hours west on I-10 in Robert, LA. We got there around 2pm, and about half an hour later, they took us in. Besides oil change, the mechanic said we needed new brakes. We won't be out of here till after 8pm.

Well, we'll just move to a truck stop, and get started around 4 tomorrow morning. So much for getting those drive hours in. (Yes, I know I maxed out this morning, but no more driving today.

Woke up at that truck stop in Robert, pre-tripped and headed for Sumrall, MS for a load. Swapped empty for one loaded with 40,000 pounds of scrap cardboard and headed for the paper mill in Monticello, MS. Fortunately we were first in line at the mill. We could have others in front, then we could wait up to six hours.

Backing to the unloading dock at the mill involves making a 270° turn right in front of the dock (think noon to 9 o'clock on a clock dial) then backing straight in. It's the only way to get in. Dropped off the empty and picked up one holding eight rolls of paper weighing 43,000 pounds headed for West Monroe. Do the math: that's over 2-1/2 tons each roll.

There are two docking situations at the West Monroe location: unloading and dropping the empty one. To back into the unloading dock it's similar to a regular offset situation. You drive up to be next to the end of the building, the building is on your right side, the dock is at the end door right next to you. You simply pull forward, shift the trailer right, then back in. Except the turning area is too short, and ends in a drop off to a creek. I'm writing this on me cell phone or I'd post a map photo.

The empty drop is sort of a parallel parking job, only you start out with some big concrete blocks on your right, back past the blocks, crossing the alley and at the same time bend left to go around a fence on the left and change direction a bit.

If you had/have a hard time with parallel backing on the range, and these descriptions make you wonder about career choices, NOT TO WORRY! I was held over a week on Academic Probation because I could not make the parallel and 90°. But tonight, this time I parked an empty, I did it right, and in the dark!

My 14 hours is up, so Carlos got the load heading for Houston, and we're on our way.