Short Miles, Snow & Overweight Fines.

Was given a dispatch on Friday 9th March for Westborough Massachusetts, live load Charlottetown with fries for a 2am delivery on Monday 12th. Seems straightforward enough eh?  It would have been, but its only 11 hours door to door, just a good days drive, what the hell was I going to do on the Saturday after loading?  Drop the trailer back at Cavendish and had an extra day at home with the family, tidy :-)

Left 7am Sunday, stopped at Walmart for supplies in Newport ME on the way down, a fairly uneventful run down, got to Westborough early evening.  Now normally its a slow tip but this new fella in the warehouse was very quick, a little careless but quick, he only damaged 9 boxes of fries! but I was out within 45 mins.

Sent my empty macro and went back to bed, satellite went off at 8.45am.  Load at Tropicana NJ for Robert Transport in Boucherville just outside Montreal for the following day.

Tipped the following morning and went to our Terminal in Dorval, arrived at midday and that's where I stayed. No dispatch all day so I went to bed at 21.30, I expected to get a pre-plan in the early hours, how wrong was I.  23.30 BEEP!  WTF?????  Sent them a message telling them I had only just gone to bed as I had been waiting all day for a dispatch, no problem so I left at 04.30.  trailer switch at the Drummondville Terminal.  Picked up a trailer bound for Dieppe, it felt heavy and its the spring thaw weight restrictions in Quebec, I had a bad feeling about the trailer but not knowing where there was a scale I had to go to the government scale at Montmagny, over a 100 mile away.  Put it on the bridge and then got directed to the scale master. Turns out I was right,  I was 2400kg over on the drive axles.  even given the maximum tolerance per axle I was still 1600kg over gross.  A few calls to dispatch and they sent a truck from Quebec City to rework my load and take some freight off me. 5.25 hours later and $494.00 I finally was allowed to leave.

With all the delays it meant I could not make Dieppe and arrangements were made to switch trailers with another driver at Murry's Truck stop in Woodstock. Stopped there the night and continued on to Moncton the following morning. The weather was terrible, a lot of snow had fallen overnight so the journey took a little longer than normal. After switching trailers again in Dieppe I finally got home Thursday midday.    Was so glad to be home, it was a rubbish trip, short miles, snow & overweight fines, a trip to forget.  

Ready Steady....... Stop!

Wednesday 29th Feb I get a call from my dispatcher, you have a load for Falconer in upstate NY delivery Friday March 2nd at 8am, it loads at 7pm tonight!   I need to point out that just because its booked to load at 7pm does not mean it will be loaded at 7pm, and true to Cavendish Farms tradition, a quick call to shipping confirms my load will not even be looked at until 10pm at the earliest.
A quick call to dispatch to advise them of the situation and I would now be leaving the following morning.  With this agreed I relaxed into my bed for a good nights sleep.

NOTE TO SELF;  Remember to warn the wife that you have set your alarm on the phone for 0430.

So with the upset wife trying to go back to sleep, I then fire the 15ltr engine up and head off to get my load, I later find out that did not go down too well either!

OK got the trailer, got the paperwork, sent all the info via my satellite, pre trip trailer and reefer unit, get back in the truck and have engine warning lights and message up on the display, great, that's all I need.  The delivery point is 1118miles away and I got this, so off we go to Freightliner in Dieppe via Penske, who the truck is leased from.  3 hours later I leave the Workshop after having a sensor re-calibrated and head off to Penske.

By now the delivery has been cancelled as I will not make it by 1300 Friday the last receiving appointment and they don't take deliveries on a Saturday.  So it was agreed I would leave on Saturday, I would take a trailer back to the Island and bring a loaded one back to Moncton on Saturday.

I called back to Penske to find I was 2 weeks overdue for a service and that I would also need the drivers side windshield replaced so they rolled up the door and in I went to loose another 4/5 hours of my life.

Old one out, just waiting for the new windshield to be fitted.

So with the service complete, I grab an empty and go home to try again Saturday.

I arrive at Falconer 1/2 hour late due to me forgetting my phone automatically switches to Eastern time zone, Doh!  After giving them a com check for $150.00 and waiting 2 hours to unload I wait for my next instruction.  Now I am only 45 Min's from the Canadian Border at Buffalo/Queenston and just over 2 hours from our Brampton terminal, BEEP, my pre-plan, load at Tropicana, New Jersey, 395 miles away!!!!!! 6.5 hours drive away, I'm not complaining easy miles.

View Larger Map

So after a very relaxed run down, I grab my load, park up for the night ready for a short run up to our Terminal in Dorval QC.  I arrive at 1430 and drop the trailer and am 4th in line for a load east, not sure what time to expect a dispatch I go to bed at 7pm fully expecting a load between 1am and 4am.

0615am BEEP, trl 856045 ready in Dorval for Dieppe, A full LTL load bound for Halifax Nova Scotia.  Oh well I slept well and fully refreshed set off for our Dieppe Terminal, arriving 12 hours later, a quick message to dispatch and get a full load going back to Cavendish Farms and eventually getting home at 9pm.  Turned out to be a nice run just a shame it was delayed for so long.

For those of you who wonder what upstate New York looks like, I took a few shots between Falconer and Bath on my way to New Jersey.

Southwest Airlines landing at Albany International Airport.

Winters not quite finished.

Seeing as its a leap year and today is the 29th February 2012, mother nature has no regard for things such as this.  She is not quite finished dumping the white stuff on us, although I can't really complain as its been a very mild winter here on the Island.

I have also been very lucky that the storms here on the east coast and across to Toronto, I have managed to avoid, this is more down to luck than judgement.

These are just a few photos of what we had Yesterday the 28th February 2012.

This was taken at 10am

See how the wind has shaped the snow on the car.

The drifts got a lot bigger as the day went on.

Our drive is under there somewhere

A Quiet February.

In general its been a very quiet month in terms of miles, and also nothing really noteworthy to write about.  A quick 3 day trip to Toronto and back both Ian Newman and myself, Tissue/diaper products up to Irving Tissue in North York then 2 LTL loads back to Dieppe. A nice quick 2000 miles.

Then last week I get a dispatch to Westborough Massachusetts, 2am delivery with a load of Burger King Fries.  Tipped that off and then run empty to Jersey City, New Jersey.  An hour after leaving Westborough and not long after crossing the state line into Connecticut I ran in to a real bad snow storm, now normally this would not bother me, however there were a few factors that I had to take into consideration,

1. I was empty
2. The rate and volume of snow falling
3. Lack of snow plows
4. The local natives who have as much skill in driving in snow as my Basset Hound!
5. My load did not have to be in Toronto until 14.30 the next day.

So next rest area I pulled off and had a very nice 3 hour snooze! 

Just as well for 10 miles down the road the I95 both directions had been closed due to a Semi which had lost control in the snow and had jack-knifed across the interstate.

Thanks to my exceptional navigation skills (I was talking to local drivers on the c.b.) I managed to avoid the delays by taking to the side roads and thus avoiding further delays.

From there it was business as usual, the weekly battle to cross the Bronx, into New Jersey, then a nice 500 mile drive to Toronto, stopping for the night at the Flying J at New Milford, Pennsylvania.

The following day:- 

A very rare thing in Midland circles for us loadhaul triangle drivers, within a few Min's of tipping, A PRE-PLAN!  Yes dear friends, there was a load ready to roll east sitting at Brampton Terminal with my name on it.  So within an hour of leaving my delivery point I was heading out of the gate towards home.  So instead of a Monday arrival I was home and in my own bed Sunday night after dropping a loaded trailer off to our Charlottetown Terminal.

An Englishman, Welshman & A German go to New Jersey.

Tuesday 8th February, I get a call to take a load of fries to a regular customer in Linden/Elizabeth, New Jersey.  I had been talking to my buddy Ian Newman (englishman) that day and he was also going to the same place and as it happens another one of our buddies Klaus (the German) was also going there as well. So we all meet at Cavendish Farms who produce potatoe products which are shipped all over the world.  So next time you tuck into your fries at Burger King or Wendy's you may be eating PEI spuds!  After a lot of mucking about trying to find our trailers we were ready for the off. Its about a 16 hour drive door to door.

Klaus had the first delivery appointment of 11.30 eastern time on Thursday night, Ian was booked for 6am the following morning and my appointment was for 9am.  We decided to all get there together and see if they would take it early. We decided to stop at Dysarts Truckstop in Bangor Maine for the night, then off to Walmart in Newport, Maine the following morning to stock up with groceries, we drove through to Milford City in Connecticut for Fuel and the final 2 hour push through New York and a very quiet Cross Bronx Expressway, on to the New Jersey Turnpike and eventually to Preferred Freezers at Linden NJ.

We arrived about 7.30pm and after parking the trucks we wandered to the receiving office gave them our bills and cell numbers and they said they would call when they wanted us and would TRY! to get us unloaded early. Well that turned out to be a dream as Klaus was kept to his appointment time as was Ian and so was I, gutted as these people at Preffered are not the quickest. I got on a door at 9am and pulled off at 1300!

Railroad runs through the middle of the delivery site.

After the delivery's, Klaus gets a reload out of Tropicana in Jersey City, 10 mins away, Ian gets a load of melons from Vineland NJ and I get a load of plums from The Port Of Wilmington in Delaware. All loads bound for the Greater Toronto Area. Ian's load is booked for midnight and mine for 1am, only one small problem, its about 8.5 hours drive to Toronto and we did ot finish loading until 7pm!!!!

So Ian and I arranged to meet at the Allentown Plaza north of Philidelphia and stayed there the night.  We set off about 06.30 the next morning and headed north, roads were quiet dry and empty.
We arrived at the border and I get a message to take my load to our terminal in Brampton as the customer does not want it until the following day - sweet, Ian however has to deliver his and gets messed about for over 3 hours. 

Well I stay in Brampton for 16 hours until Ian knocks on the door, "check your messages I just got a load", sure enough, BEEP, and there is a LTL to PEI, trailers ready and so is Ians,  We both have to call in to the Dieppe NB terminal and leave our trailers there and the following day we arrive drop trailers and are allocated an empty trailer each to take back to Cavendish Farms on PEI.

Build up of snow on one of the trailers at the Dieppe Terminal after the storm the day before.

Me on left & Ian's on the right after hooking on to empty trailers at our Brentwood Yard in Moncton, bound for PEI.

So after dropping our empty trailers at Cavendish Farms I headed the 11km home and Ian the slightly longer trek to Charlottetown.  2559 miles and 5.5days and a lot of needless wasted time, had things gone to plan would have been home after 4.5 days. Never mind eh?

   

California Continued Again

As we left off in the last post I was just about to cross the state line into New Mexico.

One of the things that stands out is the way the land changes from flat desert to hilly green areas so quickly. The other thing to remember is that unless you have the correct permits you will have to stop at the scale as you cross the state line and pay to cross the state. as I was going from one side to the other I had to pay $60.00.    So with that all out of the way it was onward to Arizona.

Day 6 and we finally reach California. Now when you think of California you think of Hollywood, LA and its beaches, movie stars, fruit, wine and Money.  Now as you have seen on entering each state the signs have been colourful and informative. So I would have expected something special and was greeted to California with this!

Whoop De Frikkin Do. What a total dissapointment.