Pre-planed already

The load i picked up in Wisconsin is for delivery on Annacis Island, 7 days after it was loaded. At 3200kms your looking at 3 to 3.5 days to do the trip, assuming youv'e got the hours to keep running. I don't have enough hours to get it there in that time, so i could either run the hours i've got available each day or take a reset. When i was about a day and half from the collection, i got a pre-plan for Calafornia to deliver tuesday morning. So that made my mind up, i ran my hours and got as far as the flying j in Ellensburg Washington. I'm taking a 36 hour reset here, then sunday morning i'll run into the Delta yard swap trailers and head back south for Calafornia. I'll be taking the I 5 south through Washington, Oregon and into Calafornia, it's a great drive, and very scenic. Last time i did the I 5 i was empty and had great fun passing trucks on the hills, something which we don't normally get to do!

Reload

So from Chicago i got a reload out of La Crosse Wisconsin. A 280 mile empty run. I managed to get there and get a really quick load, scale and park on site before i ran out of time. When i arrived at the collection, there was another H&R driver there that had just finished loading, so he pulled off a bay as i went on one. While i was in the shipping office, he went to the on site scale. As i came out of the office he pulled up and came trotting over. He was more than 3000lbs over on his drives, and that was with the trailer axles as far forward as they would go. So i suggested he should go ask them to rework the load ( take it all off and reload it with more single pallets to the front or rear depending how you want to shift the weight. If you have to do this, it can make you really unpopular with fork truck drivers!!!) Thats when he told me, that he'd told them how he wanted it loading, double/ single/ double/ single/ double all the rest, which is fine for 40x48 pallets, but these pallets were much smaller, so the load wasn't spread out enough to get weight off the drives. When mine was loaded, axles set and scaled the weights were perfect, but mine had 5 singles. When i went to bed, he was still on the bay waiting to be reworked. I saw him again the next day and he reckoned they'd kept him 4 hours for his mistake. So think carefully before you do something that could have you sat about for hours not getting paid. If he had let them load it like all the other trailers they load each day, then he would have never had a problem.

Chicago

So i got my load from Brooks after a bit of a wait for paper work, someone said the plant had changed brokers and the paper work was being delayed. Because of this, the meat plant had arranged for both the meat inspections to stay open until 7pm instead of the usual 4.30pm. I managed to get to inspection with 5 minutes to spare, so i was done and on my way again. Had a good run down to Chicago and parked up at my first drop. Did the first drop at 6am and had the other 3 off by noon. I have never been into Chicago before, only through it on the express way, which at the wrong time of day is really busy. So i wasn't sure what to expect. Chicago has an elevated rail system which runs in and out of the city, and some of the old bridges are very low. Standerd height for trailers over here is 13 foot 6 inch and some of the bridges are lower than this, some are not marked, some say '13 foot 6 inch EXCATLY'  then have street lights hanging under them. Is the measurement to the lights or bridge?  When you get your dispatch they give you the number for Chicago low underpass info. You ring this number, give the person your delivery address and they give you a route, its a good system that seems to work well. I rang the number and gave the women all my delivery addresses and the order i had to do them in, and she gave me the full route start to finish, she even told me on one underpass to drop my suspension! So if your going anywhere near downtown Chicago for the first time make sure youv'e got the number.

Back to work

I had a few great days at home, got lots of jobs done, did plenty of relaxing. A bit of snow shoveling! My dispatcher phoned me the day before i was due to return and asked me if i fancied going to Chicago and doing 4 drops. The truck was still shop coded, but would be out that evening. So i went in the next morning and there was no sign of the truck, it was still at Thermoking. We went up there to pick it up, and got talking to the guy in TK. They had managed to do the upgrade, great news. The guy told that the charging system had been fully re-wired, it now charges all 4 batteries, instead of just 1. The 60amp alternater was replaced with a 120 amp alternater. The bunk heater has been swaped for one that has twice the BTU's and is pshyicaly twice the size. The aircon and bunk heater now have their own air returns, which has made a huge difference to performance. The tripack engine shares its coolant with the truck engine, but it had been plumbed in to run coolant through the cab heater matrix only. This one now has a pump and circulates coolant right through the engine block. So some great upgrades, but i think all these things should have been done when the tripack was first fitted. Still better late than never.

Tripack problems

So after Edmonton, i ran down to Calgary and shut down for the night. I got up next morning and flicked the kettle on, and as usual, the tripack came straight on. Then after about a minute it stopped, unusual. So i looks at the controller and the apu ( auxillary power unit ) light is red and the display says ALT, anyway the kettle boiled, i made my cuppa, turned off the controller, turned it back on and the same thing happened again. So i figure ALT means there's something wrong with the alternater and fired up the truck. I ran round to the yard and went in to the workshop. After a bit of digging about, the guy in the shop found some corroded wires coming from the alternater and managed to do a temporary repair. While i was waiting, i got it booked in for the upgrade to be done while i'm off in may. So the repair was done and a few other little jobs aswell. I pulled the truck out of the shop and parked up. 2 minutes later the tripack stopped working again! AAAAAGH!!! So i gave up on it, i only had another day to do, then i had 3 days off booked, so i said stuff it i'll go home early, and let the Lethbridge shop have 4 days to play with the damn thing. So i rang in and got a trailer straight back, cleared the truck and went home. 

Arizona

At the moment i'm sat in the flying j in Ellensburg WA doing a reset. The trucks clean and tidy, i don't really need to do any washing yet so i've finally got an oppertunity to get caught up on here. After the short trip to Washington, i got a preplan for Calafornia, so i ran back into Lethbridge, dropped the trailer and had an afternoon and night at home. The next day i went in to the yard, and the trailer for Calafornia wasn't ready, so my preplan was changed to Nogales Arizona. Great result, i got another day and night at home before i needed to set off and a better run. The trip down was really good, in fact it was probably the best trip so far, and if i was ever given a choice of doing a regular run, i think it would be this one. Anyway i got down to Nogales mid afternoon the day before i'm due to tip, so there was still plenty of parking at the pilot t/s. So the next day i get tipped, but i was too late to get my reload same day. The day after i loaded a full load of melons  for Edmonton. So another great run back north. I dropped the melons in Edmonton and got a load back to Calgary.

Quick Update

Sorry for the lack of posts, but i have been so busy at work and home i just havn't had time. Everything went well with the house purchase, and we took possession on time. We had a few delays with the furniture deliveries so we didn't move in for 2 days. Next time i'm home i will try and remember to get some pics. Work wise, when my vacation finished i was given a San Diego CA. The shipper had made a cock up with bond docs and duplicated my bond and given it to another driver. So i couldn't cross the border until he went back to the border and fixed the problem. Luckily he had only driven 30 mins passed the the border, unluckily he needed a 10 hour break before he could return! I tipped the load right on the Mexican border then was given a reload in Yuma AZ, 21 pallets of lettuce (9500lbs), to go to Calgary. After i dropped that i picked one up for Lethbridge, ran back and reset at home. I'm back out on monday heading for Washington, a short one for a change. 

Back in town

Well thats me finished now for 8 days. We get the house on thursday, so we're going to be really busy shifting everything at the end of the week. Most of the furniture comes on saturday, so that'll be another busy day. I will try and get some photo's if i get time and post them.

Any closer and they nick your wheels!

Update at last

Where to begin. Last time i posted i was reseting in Calgary. So i finished the reset and headed for Laredo tx. As i had only been given 3 calander days to do the run, i had to push hard and get myself starting earlier each day, so i could run the last 700kms to the drop on monday morning. As soon as i dropped i got a preplan through to load in Mcallen that night, and be in Calgary friday morning. No chance, so i had to decline the load. Shame i would have loved to have gone down there. So i got a load the next day, and ran upto Casper wy. At Casper i had 1.5 hours left for 2 days, so i did another reset. From Casper i ran back into Lethbridge and had a night with Barbara. On sunday i ran to Calgary, dropped the trailer, picked up an m/t and went to Brooks. At Brooks i picked up a trailer for Monteal that was delivering the next day at 05.30! I guess someone forgot about it. From there i ran it to Winnipeg and did a switch with a team. The trailer i got off the team was for Edmonton. At Edmonton i dropped that and picked up the trailer that the team was supposed to get.Another Montreal with 2 days to get there. So i ran that to Saskatoon and dropped it in the yard. I've now got to pick up an m/t and take it to Brooks, then pick up a loaded trailer to deliver in Calgary tomorow night.  

WHY????

Why do people who say they dont like what i'm writing, visit this blog more than the ones that do like it. Perhaps these closet posters actualy like this blog, but dont want anybody to know.I wonder if these people ever picked up a copy of War and Peace, read the first 3 pages and decide what a load of bull, then go on to read the other 1222 pages, moaning about it all the time. Maybe someone will explain it to me in an anonamous comment, in between the slagging off of course.

What a day!!! One for the people who dont like to read this, but keep coming back

What a really bad day i've had, its been terrible.I ran from Saskatoon to Edmonton, that was hard. Then i had to drop my trailer in the yard at Edmonton, then pick another one up to go to Calgary, bummer. Then i had to drop it in Calgary, downer. Then to top it all they went and stitched me up by giving me a dam load to Laredo Texas!!! But seriosly now, i have experianced a really bad, down right appalling thing today, and it should'nt have to happen to anybody at H&R or any other company. Toilet rolls are a basic human need, sort it.

Negative Posts/Comments

Some people seem to be thinking that i'm deliberatly not publishing anything negative about H&R. For me, there has'nt been any negative incidents yet. I am not saying this is true for everybody, i think we all have different tolerances and expectations, a crisis for one driver is a minor hiccup to another.Yes, sometimes i've had to wait around to be loaded or tipped, but on every occasion thats been down to the shipper or reciever, not H&R. Only this week i had to wait overnight to be tipped, that was because the reciever had'nt been working for two days and his chiller was full. There was another driver ( from Michigan) who arrived about two hours after me, he was told he would be tipped at 5pm ( 7 hours after me) and he only had 4 pallets! Waiting about for someone else to get their act together is fairly common in this job wherever you are. So far i have only been parked up once due to lack of work and i was given layovers for it, without arguement.
           The reason i don't publish negative comments is because they are always anonamous, and to me an anonamous comment of this type dose'nt belong on here. Maybe it belongs on a forum, or create your own blog. Also i can't understand why someone who wants to be heard and goes to the trouble of writing a comment, won't put their name to it. To me that says i'm not happy at H&R, but i don't want them to know it. Why? Perhaps you should go in to the office and let them know how you feel. The only person to have ever put their name to a negative comment was Mick Flynn, and i deleted these comments because i didn't want to be associated with his campaign against H&R. I am a big believer in not biting the hand that feeds you, especially when you have so much to loose, as we did at the time. I have nothing against Mick, in fact we once spent an enjoyable evening together ( i think. the booze was flowing well), and would probably do it again if the opertunity arose. So to sum up, if or when something negative does happen, if it truly is worth writing about, then i will post it. The anon posters will get their moment if they put a name on it, after all you know my name and truck number, why can't i know yours.

Headingly

Well i made it to Headingly and i'm goosed. Tomorrow i'm going flat out again for Edmonton. If i make it, that will be 2180 miles in three days! I'm feeling really tired now just thinking about it so i'm off to bed.

Kapukasing

Nothing exciting to report today really. Picked my trailer up at 6.00am and cracked on. It started to snow really heavy just as it was starting to go dark, but i only had about 45 mins to do anyway. By the time i got into the flying j at Kapukasing, the road was completely covered. So i parked up, did my paperwork, got my gear together and went for a shower. When i came out my tire tracks had disappeared, and its still hammering down now.

5368 miles

Philly trip

Sat waiting to get into the street

Finally got in to unload

Downtown Philladelphia

Well i dont know where to start with this trip. I had -25 with blowing snow through North Dakota. Black ice from Fargo to Minniapolis. Snow and ice in Wisconsin. Slussy mucky stuff through Ohio, and snow right through Pennsylvania. Then just to top things off, Philladelphia had the biggest snow fall on record since the 1800's, the day before i was delivering! Where i had to deliver was a maze of one way streets, made narrow by the abandoned cars and snow banks. So i eventually gets to the drop and the fella says he cant tip me until the morning. Brilliant. So when everybody finished at the drop, i pulled around the corner and parked for the night, and i can say with all honesty, that was probably the roughest place i have ever parked in. Anyway i got tipped and set off for for my reload in West Virginia. Got that loaded with no troubles and set off back to Brampton. The run back up through Pennsylvania and New York state was really good, all back roads, but good all the same. On the way back i got a pre-plan for a load to go over to Edmonton, i could have set of with it this afternoon, but decided to finish early and have a decent rest instead.

Rural Pennsylvania

Township of Kane PA

Zippo Bradford PA

Latest trip

Quick update

Well i made it back into Lethbridge at about 6.00am, tipped, ran to the yard and dropped the trailer. When i went into the office i was told i'd been assigned truck 2132 to keep. So i am now in a cascadia. Shortly after starting to swap my gear over i got a message,  'reset in Lethbridge preplan to follow'. About 2 mins later the preplan came through. Philidelphia Pennsylvania. What a great plan. I have never been over that side of the U.S. so this will be a new experiance, with a fresh truck. Anyway, Barbara came and picked me up and we went back to our friends, got showered and fed. This afternoon we bought a christmas tree! because it had 75% of in the sales, and a bedroom suite.
     

I got a reload same day and only 5 miles from where i tipped, unfortunately i ran out of time 10 mins after i was loaded, so i just stayed there for the night. The next day i made it into Jerome ID, and the day after i got to Lethbridge, which meant i could see Barbara, have some proper food and a shower. The downside was that i had to reduce to 8 hours off to make the delivery in Edmonton. So after a bit of sleep, i rolled out of the yard at 2.30 am. When i was about 5 mins out of Lethbridge, i hit freezing fog. It was like that for about 4 hours, by the time i got to Edmonton i felt like my eye balls were going to fall out. Anyway i went to the delivery, dropped the trailer and bobtailed to the husky on the west side of town. I'll take 12 hours off here, then i'm picking up a trailer tonight to go back to Lethbridge, then i'll take a reset.

Ripon ca

I got into Ripon at 6.30pm and flew straight round to save on foods to stock up on a few goodies, 4 tins of heinz beans, 4 tins of spagetti and 2 tins of ambrosia custard. Then i dashed over to the flying j to get a parking spot before they all went, i was lucky as there was only 3 spaces left. So i got parked, did my paperwork, went over for a shower and something to eat. I'll run to my drop in the morning, it's only 15mins away, and hopefully i'll get a load tomorrow to get me back into Lethbridge.

Next trip

So thats the end of another week off. We've got lots done, seen lots of houses and done plenty of shopping. I found out yesterday that the truck was still in the shop and they we're only half way down the list, so i've been offered another truck. This trip i am going to Modesto Calafornia, and Barbara's staying in Lethbridge so she can keep some appointments she's got.

Update

We did the switch in Winnipeg, and the trailer we got was full of paper cups for a midnight delivery in Delta. After the Delta tip, we got a load from Richmond to Calgary with 3 drops on it. We did those then parked at the flying j in Calgary. The next morning, while doing my inspection, i noticed there was hardly any coolant in it, so i topped it up. Strange as it was ok the previous day. There was no sign of a leakage, so i carried on and did my walk around. Thats when i saw the nice red puddle under the tripack. So after a bit of digging about, i found that one of the hoses that runs coolant between the engine and the tripack, had rubbed through, and the fluid was running along the inside of the insulation to the lowest point and dripping. So i turned of the taps, and isolated the tripack. I mentioned it to dispatch, and said i was off to penske to get more coolant. While in penske, we got a message saying as your off tomorrow, and cant use your tripack, do you want to finish early. So we said yes, to right. We got a message straight back telling us to bobtail to High River and pick up a trailer to bring straight back to the yard. When we got into High River the trailer was actually ready, thats a first! So we got finished about 4pm saturday evening. Result. We are staying with our friends in Lethbridge for the week, and will no doubt be spending a couple days looking at houses.

Good news

Just had a message through saying we've been routed to Winnipeg to do a switch so we can get back for our time off. The only problem now is we're still waiting for this load to clear customs. Apparantly British Columbia is a bit funny about bringing in apples. I have just sent H&R a message and told them whats happening, so hopefully they might have more luck than me.

A few pics of Rogers Pass

Car port on Rogers

Avalanche tunnel after a controlled avalanche

Rest area

Barbara's view of the pass

Sorry for the lack of posts, when we've had time we've had no internet, and vice versa. So we set off with the load to Toronto and got as far as Nipigon when we got a message to do a change over in Long Lac. We did that and the load we got was for delivery in the Vancouver area, with not much spare time. So we ran hard to get there, then took a reset in Delta. The next load we got was for Edmonton, we got to Kamloops and stopped for a shower. When we got back in the truck we had a message to do a change over, but the driver wouldn't be there for another 6 hours! Anyway we got the trailer, tipped the load and picked up a loaded trailer for Calgary. After tipping Calgary we got a load for Oregon, which we've tipped. Then they sent us into Washington for apples, which we loaded this morning. These are for delivery in Toronto, but we've got days off booked in 7 days time, so hopefully we'll be dropping this trailer in Lethbridge and getting something a bit shorter.

Got up this morning and had a shower and breakfast then phoned the meat plant. The load is not ready yet. Turns out they have 150 domestic loads to do today, so it's a 50/50 chance wether we get ours or not. We have to check out of the room in an hour, so i think we'll have a drive down there and see whats happening.

New Years Day

Happy new year. We got our first dispatch of the year first thing this morning, a meat load with two drops on in Toronto. So we grabbed an m/t trailer from the Calgary yard and ran down to Brooks. We checked the m/t in, dropped it and went back into security to get the loaded one. The woman in the gaurd shack looked everywhere for the paperwork but there was no sign of it. Turns out that 50 domestic loads were shown as loaded by the meat plant, when they wern't. So the H&R skeleton staff thought the loads were ready to travel. No problem to me, i wasn't really fused about doing much today anyway, plus i got very well paid to pick an m/t up, run it two hours and drop it. So we ran to the shell garage in Brooks and parked up. I tuned the tv in and got 1 channel, put the computer on, no internet. We then decided to go to smitty's for some food. We missed them by five minutes. So i walked over to the travel lodge and checked us in for the night, we've got good internet now, a lovely warm room with comfy beds and 100's of channels of rubbish on the tv. When i've finished on here i'll be going to soak in the bath, then lay in bed and watch tv. Oh and i almost forgot, yesterday we went to see Avatar. What a brilliant film, if you get chance go see it.