Too much "rest" wears you out!

Well I've got a few weeks of O.T.R. driving in now after switching to a Regional position. I still don't mind the driving at all. Some customers are a pain in the ass to deal with though. One place I have to visit in Louisiana has a gal working there and her ONLY job is to harass drivers. Not sure if her job title is "Asshole" or "Pain-in-the-ass" or just plain "Jerk" but all three are apt descriptions. She's the kind of person you'd just like to blow away to make the world a better place. Sadly, society frowns on that sort of thing. No wonder there are so many like her left breathing.

My major bitch about driving is clocks. Many moons ago some guy devised a sheet whereby he could keep track of his time on the job to "prove" that his company was screwing him out of pay. Well.... as it turned out he was getting the best end of the deal..... BUT his little sheet fell into the hands of the government. Of course ANY time the government gets involved to "help" things always get screwed up royal and the truckers log (HOS or Hours of Service report) is a fine example of that practice.

Truck driving is simple enough. Go somewhere and pick up a load and take it somewhere else for delivery. If it's a long ways off... your need to plan to stop for fuel and food and bathroom breaks and sleep. Pretty darn simple and straight forward. Okay.... now let's have the government step in and "help" us out with that simple task. They got their heads together and figured that driving more than 11 hours a day wasn't a good idea so we have the 11 hour clock to keep track of your drive time. By the way..... it's not possible to drive for 11 hours a day because you need to do those things I mentioned above. This one rule also has the effect of putting a pay cap on every driver. We get paid by the mile so X number of miles an hour (50 is average) times 11 hours and that's all the money you are allowed to earn a day thanks to the government.

Not content with screwing us that way they also decided that perhaps we somethings do stuff around the truck not related to driving..... like loading and unloading or getting fuel or eating lunch..... going to the bathroom... etc. They decided that three more hours was all we could handle of that so we also have the 14 hour clock to keep up with. While you can start and stop the 11 hour clock once the 14 hour clock starts ticking nothing can stop it except for a 10 consecutive hour break. Okay... so now we can only drive for 11 total hours a day and work a combined 14 hours a day maximum. Are we done? NOPE!

Over more mind altering medication and bad coffee they further decided that working a combined total of more than 70 hours in 6 days was a bad thing..... so we also have the 70 hour clock to deal with. Never mind that there is a conflict already with their own rules. On the one hand they tell us we can work 14 hours a day.... then on the other hand they tell us we can only work 70 hours in 6 days. Last time I did math 6 x 14 was 84. See what happens when the government "helps" us with our lives!! The offshoot of all this help is that you find yourself in situations where you might have 4 hours of drive time left on your 11 hour clock..... but 0 hours on your 14.... so you can't go anywhere. Or there is time on your 11 and 14 clocks BUT your 70 is at 0 and you can't go anywhere. To reset the 11 and 14 clocks to have to take 10 straight hours off..... which is seriously boring. To reset the 70 hour clock you have to take 34 hours off straight. Move even one hour early and not a minute of those 33 hours you were off counts towards a reset. Pretty smart, huh? Yeah.... I didn't think so either. Case in point.... this weekend I got home and parked the truck at about 10pm Saturday night. I have a delivery at 8:30am Monday. As it works out that's about two hours before I would have had a full reset on my 70 hour clock..... so not one minute of all my time off counts. Pretty damn stupid.... but that's government for you.

What ends up happening is that it seems you spend more time off duty waiting to be able to work than you spend actually working. Just the other day I got within 3/4 mile of my destination when my 14 hour clock expired. I still had 2.5 hours of drive time left and about 28 hours on my 70 hour clock.... but had to stop the truck and sit there for 10 damn hours before I could legally move it 8 blocks. That is just plain beyond stupid..... which is to say it has to be a government policy or regulation. Hey Government!!! Want to really help us out? Butt out and stay the hell out of our lives! The best government is the least government. God help us if the freaking liberals get the White House in '08. It will be bend over and grab the ankles time for all of us.

Other than getting bored out of my skull with all the mandatory breaks I suppose the next biggest complaint is just missing Honey. Sort of goes with the O.T.R . driving but still when you are used to almost always being with someone.... NOT being with them is a real drag. Basically I make it home once a week.... unless I happen to be delivering something in the Dallas area and it's got a next day delivery.


Not much else in the way of news on the home front. Rampage keeps on getting bigger all the time. She still does a lot of crazy kitty stuff but she's also starting to do more regular cat stuff too. Sara is the regal queen of whatever area she happens to be in. They still don't get along all that well but at least there hasn't been any fur flying yet. Sara mostly stays out back and Rampage has the run of the big house. One of these days they are going to have to co-exist though. Perhaps that will be easier when Rampage calms down some.

And just a little parting request to y'all..... try showing a little courtesy to those guys driving the big trucks. Think about it..... if not for those big trucks you all curse so much..... you'd be standing stark naked in an open field. -=Everything=- you have and see around you got there because of some underpaid, government abused guy in a truck. Star Trek and the transporter don't really exist, folks. How do you think the shelves in the grocery store or your favorite shopping center stay stocked? It damn sure isn't magic. OH!!! Those blinking lights on the back and sides of a truck are turn signals..... something most of you never use. When they start blinking that means the big truck is going to turn or change lanes! It doesn't mean do your very best to cut us off or get in the damn way. As one driver put it SO very well...... "When you see my turn signal..... I'm NOT asking your permission!" Do the math..... 4000 pound car.... 80,000 pound truck. Do you really think you're going to win that match? Be nice.... it won't kill you. Not being nice could..... your call.

Changes....

Like the old saying goes.... some things change and some things never seem to change. That seems to be a rather viable summation of things lately. I'd been driving "NetOps" for my company since completing training last year. It wasn't a bad gig at all really. Usually the same route every day and home every night. The problem was pay which was averaging about $300 a week after deductions. So I changed to Southwest Regional last week.

Things started out predictably enough. Over 150 brand new Peterbilt's at the terminal BUT the lady in charge of truck assignments can't find anything to assign. (Perhaps I should show her around the place some day) So myself and two other guys get told we have to take a rental car and drive to Laredo Texas.... they have trucks there. (Again.... what does she call all those huge shiny things at our terminal?) Well The previous day I'd done stuff around the house all day.... then stayed up all night so as to be awake when Becky got home from working her new schedule. (OH! They changed her hours from 3pm till 11pm .... TO 11pm till 7am.... which sucks) So anyway I've been awake all day Tuesday and now it's Wednesday afternoon and they tell us to drive to Laredo to get trucks. So we drive all night to Laredo and time it to get there at 0800. The other two guys are told to take crap trucks... and rightly they declined to do so. Pissed off the guy in charge but then again... HE doesn't have to live in the damn thing either. So those two took the rental car and headed back to Dallas.

I got lucky (?) in that my truck was in great shape. New Kenworth T600 with fewer than 85K miles on it. What I requested was either a Peterbilt 387 OR a Freightliner Century Class. Both are wide cab units with plenty of room for storage. The KW T600 has a cab as narrow as the average car and very limited storage space. I'm 6'2" and 220. Not a small person. Sideways I have to fight to get between the seats to the back of the truck. (That ticks me off!) I tried to raise the bottom bunk to access the storage there.... only to discover it doesn't raise! Oh you can store stuff under the bunk. There is a little cubby that will perhaps hold the average suitcase accessible from inside the sleeper. Otherwise you have to climb out of the truck and access items through the side doors. (Probably a very handy feature in driving rain or snow storms) Anyway... since the truck is in pretty good shape (except for a missing splash guard) I agree to take it. This is now Thursday afternoon late.... been awake since Tuesday morning. I log onto the truck and POOF! I have a load message already!! I'm already out of hours on my 14 hour clock (because we had to keep a log of our drive time down from Dallas) so I have to wait until Midnight to hook and book. I decide for some sleep.... which is when I discover that the privacy (black out) curtain has no zipper slides. It's got teeth on both sides but no way of joining the sides. Also.... I have no bedding or pillows. As a matter of fact we were told to travel light so basically I had a toothbrush and an electric shaver. Needless to say I got no sleep before midnight rolled around.

So now we're working on day 3 with no sleep and I'm behind the wheel of 30 tons of truck heading north in the middle of the night. The load delivers in Coppell and I get there with an hour to spare on my appointment time. However... they are short handed and say I have to wait.... and oh by the way.... there are two trucks ahead of you. 7 hours later my 14 hour clock expires again just as they tell me I can take the truck to dock 3. Legally.... I can't TOUCH the controls of the truck for 10 hours.... but I keep the speed below 5 mph so as not to trigger the logging system. Two hours later they have finished unloading.... but I'm still out of hours.... so I creep across the street and stop the truck in an empty parking lot. This sucks because Coppell is basically 32 miles from my house.... and I have to try to sleep in this truck.... with no facilities and no food or water... while home is a half hour away. (Again... I'm NOT happy)

I get perhaps two hours of sleep total before my clocks reset and I'm good to drive again. Got a load message.... take the empty trailer to Hutchins... drop it, pick up a pre-loaded unit and haul that to Pineville Louisiana. We're on day 4 now and functioning on two hours sleep total at this point. I take the trailer to the local Pilot truck stop.... fuel it... park it... and go get my Trooper from the terminal. I head to the house for a quick shower and a change of clothes. Hour and a half later I'm back at the truck. What do I find there but a message wondering why I wasn't driving! So I rip someone a new ass via the qualcomm (so it's a matter of record) and line them out about rather than worrying about the damn load someone better start generating some concern over the driver who has had two hours sleep in the past 4.... going on 5 days! They shut up. So now we head into day 5 rolling east on I-20 to Louisiana for a delivery. Get to the destination and it's a simple drop and hook complicated as much as they could. Rather than a 20 minute procedure they manage to make it last nearly an hour and a half. Finally we're rolling back toward Dallas late on day 5 with my clocks ticking down. I find a truck stop and park with 15 minutes to spare. Again the damn curtains won't close and I can't get to sleep until after sunset. It finally gets dark and I manage about 6 hours sleep total. Compared to the previous 4 days that's a goldmine. Clocks reset and I'm rolling west again... back to my start point in Hutchins.

I drop that load, get an empty... and damn if they aren't trying to send me back out on the road again! Now I've been telling these folks for 5 freaking days that the truck needs a splash guard to be legal..... that it's 300 gallons past due for a full service.... (service is scheduled based on the number of gallons of diesel fuel through the engine)that I haven't been anywhere yet to pick up the basic issue supply of items that are suppose to be on every truck.... and that I have NOTHING with me because we were told to "travel light" when we drove out of Dallas the previous Wednesday night. I finally just took the truck and trailer to the Dallas Terminal where both were promptly tagged for various reasons. Dropped the trailer.... cleaned out the truck... and headed home. Becky was just getting off some weekend overtime so we headed back out for a nice early breakfast. That done we come back here... I take a shower and we hit the sack for some sleep.

Now I told them I'd be ready to drive again on noon Monday. However... I know the people at this terminal's maintenance shop.... and if the truck is ready three weeks from tomorrow at noon it will be a small wonder. So the basic plan.... is to go in Monday.... be really surprised that the truck isn't ready.... then see if they have a 387 Pete they can issue. If so.... load it up and hit the road with a smile on my face. Then it's just a matter of keeping that truck out of the terminals so it doesn't get tagged. Tricky.... but possible. That and I have to tell dispatch that my desire was Southwest Regional.... not 48 state..... so run me for 5 to 7 days then get my ass back to Dallas for a couple days off. If I wanted to be on the road all the damn time I'd have requested 48 state.

The other thing I need is either a partner or a student. (have to apply for trainer for the latter) It positively drives me nuts to spend so damn much time doing nothing because of stupid government rules and regulations. As usual... anytime the government gets involved they *uck everything up royal. If they want to have an 11 hour clock for driving..... okay. But their 14 hour clock does nothing but waste time. The other day when I was forced to park with only 15 minutes to spare.... I still had 5.5 hours of drive time left!!! Could have made it back to Dallas. But no.... had to sit by the side of the road and waste time to satisfy some jerk weed government agency. With a co-driver.... we can keep the truck moving pretty much around the clock.... which I prefer. Same thing with a student..... keep the wheels turning. But to have either I need the 387 or Century truck as they have sufficient room to accommodate two people easily and all their gear.

Meanwhile.... back at the house.... Rampage Kitty is growing like a weed! She's still living up to her name.... ripping and tearing all over the house at top speed and "helping" us with computer stuff and painting..... things Kitty's are more than qualified to handle. But now she also has spells when she is quite content to curl up on a handy lap and drop off to a deep sleep while being petted. I love a good lap cat. She is showing potential for being a darn good one!