Hello everone
I'm kind of stressed out right now, but feeling better because I came home for the weekend.
My first solo week at Swift was a pretty trying experience overall, but I suppose there's little reason to expect it would have been otherwise. I had a windshield wiper break on me within half an hour of setting out on my first trip. I stopped three times on the roadside to try to fix it. Stopped at a town to get a new blade. . .
anyway I have broken three blades so far and the current one is held on with a scre and lots of electric tape.
Problem with truck driving, is that it is absolutely dependent on information, and expecially with a gigantic company like swift, the information that the company has tends to be inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.
Take you through a day
Make a delivery first thing in the morning. One of the roads I was sposta go on had a large sign " no trucks" but I sort of knew the area anyway so I got on the right road and made the delivery.
After unloading, I ask for directions to my next pickup, but my qualcomm, the satellite communicatiion system that lots of trucking companies use, isn't getting a signal. I phone Syracuse for directions and they give me a phone number for the pickup location.
Ring ring " joe schmoe is not here leave a message"
Ring ring " joe schnoe is not here leave a message"
ring ring " joe schmoe is not here leave a message"
but since the address is listed as 10 lego way in enfield connecticut and I've been to Lego i figure it must be on the same street, so I head up to lego. also, the qualcomm beeps five new messages at me when I'm on the highway up there but I cannot read it while the vehicle is moving, and my driver manager told me that he didn't have directions to that shipper anyway. I get to the exit for enfield ct and i'm at a stop llight and starf flipping madly thru the messages to find the directions. one of the messages was in fact the directions but it did not occur to me again to check to see if indeed one of those messages was the directions.
So I get to Lego. The guy at the desk tells me no, they're not right here but go down the road take a left the a right and you'll see them behind the public works building. So i head where he told me to go, I even find a public works building but apparently not the right one. I call the number for the pickup location.
"Hi, I'm a swift driver, and I'm looking for you guys, I'm on THIS street by THIS building, can you tell me how to get to you from here?"
" Well I'm not from around here and I don't know. The secretary could tell you but she's at lunch."
"Well could you ask somebody"
I'm on hold for a couple of minutes.
"I'm sorry, noone hereknows where you are"
"Well, is there ANYONE in your building who could possibly tell me how to get there?"
"I guess I could transfer you to recieving, they might know"
"Please"
"Cuno receiving"
" can you tell me"
discussion proceeds about how you go over the railroad tracks, one intersetion past Fermi High School and take a left. problem is that the directions only apply if you are on the side of the lego building that they guy in recieving thinks you are on. So I run around like a chicken with his head cut off until I randomly come across fermi high and orient from there and get to Cuno.
Guy In the Cuno parking lot says " whatta ya got?"
"nothing, i'm making a pickup"
" there's no pickups here, this is just recieving. Pickups are at lego way."
he then gives me better directions to the pickup location and I get there.
Then I head an hour down 91 to my second pickup, company on the Research parkway off exit 15 in Ct.
I get off exit 15, heading east on 68, and the technology parkway is a left turn that I don't make because It was not indicated on my directions, but I see it and just look for a place to turn around. I end up screwing around on rural backroads in ct for maybe an hour, finding a dearth of places to turn around, and by some fortune get back onto 68 then 91 and then make that left onto the Research parkway.
I stop and call the pickup location. " Hi, I'm a swift driver, and I'm on the the research parkway, by number 174, where are you guys?"
" We just moved, we're no longer on the research parkway."
"Well where are you?"
" On such and such a street, go three lights down on 68 from ramp and turn right" he also mentions that they go home at 5 pm and it was 4:55 pm at the time so I promise to get there as soon as humanly possible.
So I go down three lights and turn right. The street name was wrong but I thought maybe I'd come across the correct street some ways up. When that doesn't happen I call back and say I'm at the intersection of this and that streets and how do I get there from here.
"Well we just moved and I don't know those streets"
So I go back down to 68 and try again. Turn on xyz street thinking it will connect with Old xyz street like the guy said it would.
" Hey it's me again. I"m on xyz street and i'm next to a lake"
Idiot on phone then tells me that another driver has just found them and I needed to turn at the intersection with the fire station, and there is a problem with how I count street lights.
You see, people have different ways of counting street lights. The way this guy does it, two intersections right near one another count as one set of lights, where I regard them as two sets of lights, Two intersections, two sets of lights.
Anyway, I head down 68, turn at the fire station, turn again and get all the way into the industrial park until I run out of room, ran past the entrance, ran into the nearest building to ask where the hell 69 xyz street was, a couple of nice people point it out to me. I attempt to turn the rig around, but say fuckit and run through a disused unplowed parking lot and run over about 5 curbs to turn the rig around, get there get loaded and leave.
Down on 95 through NYC traffic is CRAWLING and I'm getting low on fuel. Get on the NJ turnpike and I start getting low fuel warnings. ( at swift you have to fuel where they tell you, not just anywhere) and the wiper blade that I had replaced to original broken one with breaks. But I still have to use the wipers and now my windshield has a semicircular scratch on it from the wiper stem rubbing on it. Get down to exit 7, fuel, put on a new blade which breaks when I'm putting it on. Fortunately I don't need the wipers as it's no longer raining. I make the delivery, pick up an empty trailer and return to the truck stop having run about an hour over the legal limit of hours I can work/drive in a day. So the next day I had to "adjust" my log book some.
So anyway
I had some pics on my digital camera but it expired halfway through downloading them and the batter charger is hours away on my truck.
Last night I was sitting in wilkes barre Pa with 4 hours left out of the 70 I can legally work in an 8 day period, and after having waited for the last possible moment before I ran out of hours, for a load to get me back up to syracuse, I took it upon myself to drive the bobtail tractor (with out a trailer attached) back up there without express permission to do so. I had asked if I could do that but my driver mangager hadn't directly answered me, just saying he would look for a load for me. I didn't want be stuck at a truck stop in PA over the seekend when I was within reach of home, so I headed back. My mentor from my training period is actually a good guy who does give a damn about other people and he advised me on how to handle the situation.
So, my zen training, or rather just study, has been put to the test. I a certain way I'd like to be more stressed an pissed off than I am but I guess maybe when you get older and have more dead brain cells you get mellower.
I haven't done as much with my down time as I would have liked, as I have generally been quite tired by end of my work day, and a lot of that is from wasting time on various bullshit like I described above. But I would imagine and I am told things will get better as I adjust and learn what the fuck I'm doing.
My neighbor hasn't been taking care of my cats like I'd asked him to and he'd agreed to, I have to confront him about it or make other arrangements. But at the very least I'm getting them redundant food and water dispensers.
I had really hoped to have gotten my federal income tax refund but it still hasn't come. I want to get a laptop computer so as to stay in contact with the world, but I don't know, god hates me or something. Maybe I'll get one anyway.
So right now I'm stressed, but I know well from having tried other new things that you gotta get through the difficult begginings before you manage things with aplomb. The devil on my shoulder is telling me to go find a laptop and get a cingular card for it, so I shall at least go out shopping. Then I'm heading up to Northampton to meet up with my family for a belated birthday party.
Love and kisses to all, I wish I could be here more often but the time's coming that it will be possible for me to do so.
I'm kind of stressed out right now, but feeling better because I came home for the weekend.
My first solo week at Swift was a pretty trying experience overall, but I suppose there's little reason to expect it would have been otherwise. I had a windshield wiper break on me within half an hour of setting out on my first trip. I stopped three times on the roadside to try to fix it. Stopped at a town to get a new blade. . .
anyway I have broken three blades so far and the current one is held on with a scre and lots of electric tape.
Problem with truck driving, is that it is absolutely dependent on information, and expecially with a gigantic company like swift, the information that the company has tends to be inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.
Take you through a day
Make a delivery first thing in the morning. One of the roads I was sposta go on had a large sign " no trucks" but I sort of knew the area anyway so I got on the right road and made the delivery.
After unloading, I ask for directions to my next pickup, but my qualcomm, the satellite communicatiion system that lots of trucking companies use, isn't getting a signal. I phone Syracuse for directions and they give me a phone number for the pickup location.
Ring ring " joe schmoe is not here leave a message"
Ring ring " joe schnoe is not here leave a message"
ring ring " joe schmoe is not here leave a message"
but since the address is listed as 10 lego way in enfield connecticut and I've been to Lego i figure it must be on the same street, so I head up to lego. also, the qualcomm beeps five new messages at me when I'm on the highway up there but I cannot read it while the vehicle is moving, and my driver manager told me that he didn't have directions to that shipper anyway. I get to the exit for enfield ct and i'm at a stop llight and starf flipping madly thru the messages to find the directions. one of the messages was in fact the directions but it did not occur to me again to check to see if indeed one of those messages was the directions.
So I get to Lego. The guy at the desk tells me no, they're not right here but go down the road take a left the a right and you'll see them behind the public works building. So i head where he told me to go, I even find a public works building but apparently not the right one. I call the number for the pickup location.
"Hi, I'm a swift driver, and I'm looking for you guys, I'm on THIS street by THIS building, can you tell me how to get to you from here?"
" Well I'm not from around here and I don't know. The secretary could tell you but she's at lunch."
"Well could you ask somebody"
I'm on hold for a couple of minutes.
"I'm sorry, noone hereknows where you are"
"Well, is there ANYONE in your building who could possibly tell me how to get there?"
"I guess I could transfer you to recieving, they might know"
"Please"
"Cuno receiving"
" can you tell me"
discussion proceeds about how you go over the railroad tracks, one intersetion past Fermi High School and take a left. problem is that the directions only apply if you are on the side of the lego building that they guy in recieving thinks you are on. So I run around like a chicken with his head cut off until I randomly come across fermi high and orient from there and get to Cuno.
Guy In the Cuno parking lot says " whatta ya got?"
"nothing, i'm making a pickup"
" there's no pickups here, this is just recieving. Pickups are at lego way."
he then gives me better directions to the pickup location and I get there.
Then I head an hour down 91 to my second pickup, company on the Research parkway off exit 15 in Ct.
I get off exit 15, heading east on 68, and the technology parkway is a left turn that I don't make because It was not indicated on my directions, but I see it and just look for a place to turn around. I end up screwing around on rural backroads in ct for maybe an hour, finding a dearth of places to turn around, and by some fortune get back onto 68 then 91 and then make that left onto the Research parkway.
I stop and call the pickup location. " Hi, I'm a swift driver, and I'm on the the research parkway, by number 174, where are you guys?"
" We just moved, we're no longer on the research parkway."
"Well where are you?"
" On such and such a street, go three lights down on 68 from ramp and turn right" he also mentions that they go home at 5 pm and it was 4:55 pm at the time so I promise to get there as soon as humanly possible.
So I go down three lights and turn right. The street name was wrong but I thought maybe I'd come across the correct street some ways up. When that doesn't happen I call back and say I'm at the intersection of this and that streets and how do I get there from here.
"Well we just moved and I don't know those streets"
So I go back down to 68 and try again. Turn on xyz street thinking it will connect with Old xyz street like the guy said it would.
" Hey it's me again. I"m on xyz street and i'm next to a lake"
Idiot on phone then tells me that another driver has just found them and I needed to turn at the intersection with the fire station, and there is a problem with how I count street lights.
You see, people have different ways of counting street lights. The way this guy does it, two intersections right near one another count as one set of lights, where I regard them as two sets of lights, Two intersections, two sets of lights.
Anyway, I head down 68, turn at the fire station, turn again and get all the way into the industrial park until I run out of room, ran past the entrance, ran into the nearest building to ask where the hell 69 xyz street was, a couple of nice people point it out to me. I attempt to turn the rig around, but say fuckit and run through a disused unplowed parking lot and run over about 5 curbs to turn the rig around, get there get loaded and leave.
Down on 95 through NYC traffic is CRAWLING and I'm getting low on fuel. Get on the NJ turnpike and I start getting low fuel warnings. ( at swift you have to fuel where they tell you, not just anywhere) and the wiper blade that I had replaced to original broken one with breaks. But I still have to use the wipers and now my windshield has a semicircular scratch on it from the wiper stem rubbing on it. Get down to exit 7, fuel, put on a new blade which breaks when I'm putting it on. Fortunately I don't need the wipers as it's no longer raining. I make the delivery, pick up an empty trailer and return to the truck stop having run about an hour over the legal limit of hours I can work/drive in a day. So the next day I had to "adjust" my log book some.
So anyway
I had some pics on my digital camera but it expired halfway through downloading them and the batter charger is hours away on my truck.
Last night I was sitting in wilkes barre Pa with 4 hours left out of the 70 I can legally work in an 8 day period, and after having waited for the last possible moment before I ran out of hours, for a load to get me back up to syracuse, I took it upon myself to drive the bobtail tractor (with out a trailer attached) back up there without express permission to do so. I had asked if I could do that but my driver mangager hadn't directly answered me, just saying he would look for a load for me. I didn't want be stuck at a truck stop in PA over the seekend when I was within reach of home, so I headed back. My mentor from my training period is actually a good guy who does give a damn about other people and he advised me on how to handle the situation.
So, my zen training, or rather just study, has been put to the test. I a certain way I'd like to be more stressed an pissed off than I am but I guess maybe when you get older and have more dead brain cells you get mellower.
I haven't done as much with my down time as I would have liked, as I have generally been quite tired by end of my work day, and a lot of that is from wasting time on various bullshit like I described above. But I would imagine and I am told things will get better as I adjust and learn what the fuck I'm doing.
My neighbor hasn't been taking care of my cats like I'd asked him to and he'd agreed to, I have to confront him about it or make other arrangements. But at the very least I'm getting them redundant food and water dispensers.
I had really hoped to have gotten my federal income tax refund but it still hasn't come. I want to get a laptop computer so as to stay in contact with the world, but I don't know, god hates me or something. Maybe I'll get one anyway.
So right now I'm stressed, but I know well from having tried other new things that you gotta get through the difficult begginings before you manage things with aplomb. The devil on my shoulder is telling me to go find a laptop and get a cingular card for it, so I shall at least go out shopping. Then I'm heading up to Northampton to meet up with my family for a belated birthday party.
Love and kisses to all, I wish I could be here more often but the time's coming that it will be possible for me to do so.
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
Sounds like you're doing something interesting, though at times quite stressful. Right now, I'm all over the place. I'll write a post about it. I'm leaving town and have to organize my life.