07 September 2014

The final days to take us home

07 September 2014

Goooood morning!

            With nearly 3000 miles behind us, Scout and I arrived home late Thursday evening after our final load was delivered to a local distribution center near Gresham. I can say that I have never missed my own bed so much! Living with someone in that close of quarters for any amount of time can be quite the challenge and Scout was so incredibly nice and kind the whole time, always trying to make things easier. I was only on the truck for 9 days, I can't imagine that being my life. Just being allowed into it for a short amount of time makes me even more thankful to the men and women who choose this career.

            In the early morning, around 3:30 am, we were heading north on I -5 when a police car came rushing by, we estimated he was easily doing over 100 mph. It came as a shock when we finally caught up to him and the reason he had been going so fast, there was an overturned semi on the highway blocking one northbound lane. Talk about a scary site! Seeing that we had just missed seeing that happen first hand gave me pause to think about just how dangerous this job is. Scout was telling me that in order to get the roll over cleaned up that they would need 2 of the large tow trucks, a crane, another truck and empty trailer to get the items from the overturned truck into another truck and hopefully delivered as long as it was totally destroyed. The driver of the truck will likely lose his job, depending on the cause of the accident the driver could possibly lose his license too. It was extremely windy that morning, so much so that a few times I got a bit nervous with how much we were being blown around. This could possibly shut the freeway down for hours. I was so thankful that it wasn't us and that we missed the clean up and being stuck in the traffic that was sure to be backed up for hours on end.


This is the product that was damaged and had to be thrown away. I never
did get a picture of the trailer fully loaded. It was difficult because
after the trailer is loaded they put zip locks on them to assure that
there has been no tampering with the product. Also, I wasn't able to get
on the dock while they were loading.
            We had one load where we picked up a loaded trailer from the yard in Ontario to take to Oxnard. After the trailer was unloaded there were about 15 boxes of the product that were damaged. When this happens Scout puts a call in to Marten and is given instructions on whether to throw away the items, keep them to deliver to another warehouse (depending on how badly damaged they are), or he can keep the items for himself. This load happened to be boxes of egg product, the stuff the restaurants use to make omelets. The warehouse didn't want the damaged items and because it had to be kept refrigerated, we couldn't keep it. I felt awful throwing it away. What a waste! This got me to thinking that there has to be some way to manage damaged goods so that the food items to not go to waste and that they could be picked up and used by food banks/ homeless shelters.

The view of Lake Shasta

Mt. Shasta

            The  trip through Northern California was much prettier as we headed north than the trip down. On our way down the smoke from wild fires was so bad that it was actually burning my eyes and gave me a headache. This time however, there was no smoke and we could actually see Mt. Shasta. What pretty views we had! Oh and seeing Lake Shasta was shocking, the water levels were the lowest I've ever seen.





            Our final night's sleep was at a truck stop in Phoenix (just outside Medford). We had a nice dinner that wasn't at a fast food restaurant and a pretty good night's rest, the first one the whole trip that we didn't need the a/c on all night. In fact when we got up in the morning I had to put my little jacket on and turned on the heater for a bit. Quite the change from those hot Cali nights. It's good being back home and able to catch up, do laundry and actually relax. I know it sounds strange but it's hard work sitting in that truck! I thought I'd get more reading done, or blogging daily would be easier but time just went by so fast. Scout is back on the road today and while I'm going to miss him (as usual) I think I'm much better suited to life at home.





Some cool graffiti on a trailer



Someone has a sense of humor


This is what the sleeper looks like. The black on the sides is the privacy curtain. Only 1 person
can stand at a time, at least it is plenty tall!





The view from the bed. I would sit on the bed and write my blog  or surf the  internet while Scout would sit up front and use the steering wheel as his desk  for his laptop. 



This is the Qualcomm unit that Scout used to communicate with the office, update his log book, get information on his loads, and use the special GPS. The GPS unit in the trucks is used because it gives drivers routes to use that their trucks will fit on. They have to be mindful of bridges and underpasses that will be on their route so that the trucks/ trailers will fit. Normal GPS units will not give that information.
Our final destination



Hope you enjoyed my little blog about my experience on the road. Peace!




03 September 2014

A few days behind

Being on the road and without a lot of downtime and not always a stable wireless signal, I've fallen a bit behind. I'll get more posted in the next couple of days as we'll (hopefully) be home tomorrow.

01 September 2014

The HUGE distribution center for Wally World There were hundreds
of trucks either waiting to be unloaded, being loaded, or trailers sitting
empty or loaded and waiting to be picked up. 
            So far we've delivered 2 loads, 1 hazmat and 1 snack foods. We're now delivering a load of onions from Hollister, CA to east L.A. at a Wally World distribution center. Scout told me that it was a big place, I had NO idea just how big it was. There were easily several hundred trucks/ trailers in the process of being loaded or unloaded. I feel so enlightened about where our "stuff" comes from and how it gets to us. This trip has really shed a light on just how important a job being a truck driver is. Without them we wouldn't have food, clothes, our new iPhones, tvs, cars, etc.

The row of Marten trailers at Wally World DC waiting to be
picked up or unloaded.
            I am also continually amazed at what the drivers are put through and have to put up with. They typically don't get holidays off, in fact that is the busiest time of year for them. Trying to get home for a loved one's birthday doesn't always happen. Having a meal not from a fast food joint is rare.  Showing up to a 
client and then having them be closed for the day... now THAT is a pain.

Traffic through L.A. on a Sunday. If only every day was like this!
            Today has been one of those days that he was given the next couple of loads. Nothing big until Tuesday morning and it is going to send us home from Oxnard. So we have a lot of down time, or so we thought. After the delivery of Sunday's load we got another load to pick up in the yard and deliver early Monday morning. Monday was Labor Day... not all businesses are open on Labor Day. Guess which business wasn't open when we showed up for our 6 am delivery appointment? We weren't the only truck to show up with a delivery either, there were 3 others waiting there with us. The one good thing that came out of it is that after waiting on the customer for 1 hour, the drivers get what is called retention pay, an hourly rate depending on the company they work for.

Downtown L.A. on one of the more clear days
            The day wasn't a total loss as we were driving back to the yard we got another dispatch for a delivery in East L.A. We dropped off one trailer and picked up another and headed to the other side of town. When we arrived at the new customer, they had no idea what we were there to deliver and weren't going to take the load until someone at their home office called. As we sat and waited to hear from dispatch as to what we are doing with this load, another guy came in to deliver his load and we watched him try for about 35 minutes to back into the loading dock. It was more painful watching him trying to back up that truck than watching my mom try to back up the van and boat down at the boat ramp. Finally Scout, being the nice guy that he is, got out and went over to help him. With Scout's help he was backed into the loading dock in about  minutes. I am not saying I could have done it by any means, it is nice knowing that there are guys (and gals) out there too, that are nice and willing to help out a new driver. The customer finally got the ok to accept the load and we were finally in the loading dock and had an empty trailer to take back to the yard.


            All the running around from different customers, not knowing that one would be closed, the lack of communication would be very frustrating. I can see how easy it would be to burn out in this job. There is just so much that goes into the planning of one's time. I know it sounds like a long break, 10 hours, but in that time you have to sleep, call family/ loved ones, eat, possibly do laundry, and just get some peace and quiet. I know that I've been exhausted half the time and I am not even driving. I have been trying to be good and stay awake, I find it only fair that if Scout has to keep the crazy hours and lack of steady sleep schedule that I can do it too. I am not always so successful though! One thing is for sure, it is not so easy sleeping in the bed while the truck is rolling down the road. It is REALLY bouncy! Good thing I have gotten proficient in sleeping in the passenger chair :)



A little difficult to see, but this is a feedlot with thousands
of cows. Kind of a sad sight to see and very stinky.

Our second trip passing Six Flags and Scout STILL wouldn't drop me off!



Random mammoth on the side of the freeway