The tougher side of North American Truck Driving.

I called the office on Wednesday 16th December to find out if I was being dispatched that day, I was asked if I could rescue a driver in Maine and take him and his truck through to its delivery point in Virginia, I agreed, but was not happy that I would not be in my truck as now all my kit was in it and i would have to live out of a bag for a week. Anyway I'm a flexible fella and agreed to meet up with my ride to Maine in the yard at 8.30 that evening.

Steve the other driver arrived and after stowing my gear in his truck we set off for Woodstock where we would spend the night, we left in quite bad weather with high winds snow flurries and -9 temperatures. The Confederation bridge that links PEI to mainland Canada was closed due to the high winds and after having our paperwork stamped at the potatoe inspection station at Bordon, we joined the ever growing que of trucks waiting to cross the bridge. After half an hour the shout came over the CB that the bridge was open and all hell broke loose with trucks wanting to get over the bridge before they closed it again, the scales were sending people around unless they had to get their papers stamped, so after getting ours stamped off we went. Now we were fully loaded crossing the bridge but the wind just shook us about like we were empty. We stopped at Sailsbury to fill up and by now the temperature had dropped to -20 and the wind chill made it feel like -30, I had never experienced temperatures like this before and my t-shirt and fleece did little to offer any resistence to the knife like winds, lesson # 1, get a winter coat!

So off we go to Woodstock a couple of hours up the road and parked up for the night last look at the temperature gague -21.

The following morning in near arctic conditions I grabbed a XL timmys and we headed for the border at Houlton, Maine.

We meet up with the other driver and after transfering my gear into Ben's truck and after a very large breakfast, with pancakes, we set off for Virginia, below is the route of our journey





I drove down through New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York City, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington DC, and finally into Virginia.
I got to realise a long time ambition of mine to see New York city, and this we did whilst crossing the George Washington Bridge, it was night time when we got there and NYC was all lit up, next time I go there it will be with Maxine & Elliott for a bit of sightseeing.
After tipping our load of Mussells we were told to load clementines out of Wilmington, Delaware for Cambridge Ontario. Then ran into the worst snow storm the Eastern Seaboard had seen for almost 80 years, it took me 7 hours to cover 276km thats an average speed of almost 40kmh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And below is part of the reason.

They are not used to this much snow in Virginia!!!!

Two trucks stuck on a slight hill, this was funny, they have no clue what to do in theses conditions.

We were empty but I showed them how to get going.

We eventually parked up about 50km from Wilmington and woke to find 2 feet of snow so I asked the nice man with the plough to cut me a path out.

What a nice man.

We collected our clementines eventually from the port in Wilmington after several hours delay then I headed for the border at Niagra running through the night, we were running with an Owner driver, Jason from New Brunswick who was heading for Toronto and chatting to him madethe time fly by, we arrived in Cambridge at 6am the following morning and were asked could we team run the load for Moncton back as they needed it ASAP although we had a booking time of 11am the following day. so ben jumped in the drivers seat as he could now drive again and at 10.30 am we set out for Moncton which is an 18 hour drive. I hit the bunk for some well deserved sleep.  After loads of coffee and a few McDonalds BLT bagels and long stints of team driving we got to Moncton at 6.30 the following morning, we were empty and after getting the trailer dissinfected at the potatoe inspection station  got back to the yard parked it up and headed home for a well deserved break and loads of sleep.

Christmas

I am heading out again Christmas Eve for New York as I have a delivery Boxing Morning, So I would like to wish all who are following this blog and your families the happiest of holidays, and please where ever you are and with whoever your with, stop, and spare a thought for all us who can not be with our loved ones this Christmas.

Please stay safe over the festive period and I look forward to bringing you my report from christmas on the road.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Steve.

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1st Solo Trip Completed.

Well i guess i'm now a fully fledged North American Truck Driver. Not long back from my first solo trip and boy what a trip. 7 days and 3100 miles.Here is the map of my journey.


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There were two of us loading out of Souris in PEI on Monday 7th Dec going to the same place, so with our loads on board we set out for Sacramento - Pennsylvania as our delivery time was 7 & 7.30 am on Wednesday 9th Dec. 

Yours truly behind the wheel at last.

As we did not load till late on Monday we crossed the border at Houlton, Maine the following morning, it was a pleasure driving through New Brunswick on such a lovely day

 

Thats Russell in front.

One of the many lakes in New Brunswick

Another view of the same lake.

So after crossing into the USA and having had our potato's inspected, we set off through Maine, clipped the corner of New Hampshire through Massachusetts and into Connecticut where we parked up for the night.

Woke early the following morning to this reading on the temperature gague

The wid chill made it feel even colder and not long after we set off it dropped to -11! Then the snow started, that made for really slow going, we crossed into New York State and finally into Pennsylvania. We arrived at our destination 5 hours late thanks to the snow and the crazy yanks who would fly by you at 50-60 mph then cause tailbacks because they spun off and had to be recovered.So while waiting to be unloaded in Sacramento we decided to take some photos,

Here is Russell posing infront of my truck.

My truck on the bay getting unloaded.

Man & Machine

We were then instructed to head for Wilmington in Delaware to load Clementines, mine going to Cambridge Ontario and Russells for Ajax Ontario, due to our late arrival and departure we had to load in the morning.

Now unless you have a TWIC card you are not allowed to enter any US port. So it had been arranged to have a escort company "baby sit us" as we loaded, now being the US nothing comes free so after parting with $99.00 each we were on our way. So finally loaded and cleared by the US Customs we said goodbye to our babysitters and headed off back towards Canada. I would be leaving Russ at Syracuse and crossing from Buffalo into Niagra. Took some more photos on the journey back.

  

Travelling back through Pennsylvania

See the mountain in the background, do we go over it or around it?

Nope, we go through it!

So on we travelled, stopped to fax the broker our paperwork, into New York State again and parted company at Syracuse. Then the weather turned nasty again with heavy snow on the I90 towards buffalo, top speed was 35mph and still the idiot yanks kept flying by and flying off the highway! I got tucked in behind a snow plough and had a safe ride to the Border at Niagra. After crossing back into Canada at 2am called it a day, only had another 70 miles to go but the weather was against me, better to be safe than sorry.

Next morning off I go skirting the shore of Lake Ontario and got within a half mile of my delivery point and then sat for 20 mins waiting for this to pass.

 

Finally reached the delivery point and was greeted with this

Well this was going to home for the next 24 hours whilst they tipped and reloaded me, in the meantime German Paul and Ian had crept in overnight.

 

Here's Ian loaded and ready to go, Paul and I would be ready soon too.

So after we had all cleared security we set off for Montreal for the night.

 

The express and collector roads make the M25 look like a country road!

So after a good nights sleep I left Ian and Paul sleeping and headed for my delivery point in Boucherville where I wasted another 8 hours of my life, then headed back across Montreal to collect a loaded trailer from Canadian Tire bound for Nova Scotia and PEI. Then the snow started again and brought Montreal to a virtual standstill, the snow by now had got much worse and once off the highway it was your best guess as to where the road was!

So with my loaded trailer behind me I set off to cross Montreal for the third time in 24 hours

Slow going through Montreal.

With time getting late called the office to advise on the problems and that I would not be in Nova Scotia for 6am I parked up and set the sat nav for Amherst, 10.25hrs to my destination. After having my hours off I could start at 3am which ment getting to Nova Scotia about 2.30-3pm.

So it was with a start the alarm went off at 2.45am. Pre-trip checks done an extra large coffee with double cream  from Timmys I set off for a 683 mile drive! Went via Riviera Du Loup where i stopped for Steak & Eggs for breakfast then down into New Brunswick and despite there being some snow left on the roads I was able to maintain 65mph nearly all the way to Amherst. Had a lovely sunrise too through New Brunswick

Here is a sign that made me laugh.

Do they mean the cars or the Moose, (sizes are to scale!)

After 10.30 hours driving eventually :-

I wonder what they do there?

Well after helping the guys at Canadian Tire unload their half of the trailer I got a message to take the trailer back to the yard as it would be delivered by another driver the following day so a quick 1.5hr drive back to the yard I sorted my paperwork out parked the unit up and headed for a well deserved cold Bud.

All in all a fairly good start to my North American Trucking Career, just waiting to find out when I am off again, looks like Thursday morning now, so stay tuned for my next trucking big report on life as NA truck driver in words and pictures, coming to a PC near you soon.

10-4 Good Buddies.

First real snow on the Island today.

Well I guess its the start of the winter now here on the Island, woke at 9.30am today looked out the window to this.

Yours truly on the balcony of the Motel.

At 3am it was raining steady and within a few hours we had had this. Its been a steady week so far getting the truck ready to ship out tomorrow, just waiting for work to confirm where I'm going.

Decided to take the camera out and take some photos this morning.

Looking out my bedroom window

Looking across the road

                                                There is a road over there somewhere

                                              A house across the street from the motel

Going off to wallmart and future shop looking for a cheap Microwave for the truck now, so will update this blog when I am out on the road.

First Mentor Trip Completed

Well its been a busy first trip, with my mentor coach Ian we left from the yard Sunday 22nd November after the pre trip checks and headed bobtail for Moncton, New Brunswick to pick up our trailer.

A quiet Confederation Bridge heading west towards New Brunswick.

On arrival at the cross dock we found our trailer did the checks, hooked up and set sail for Massachusetts, not before grabbing a coffee from Tim Hortons! We decided that breakfast would be had at Woodstock and on the approach to the truckstop came across this.

 Lesson number one, "don't come on and off the ramps (sliproads) too fast" Ian tells me, there are no long run off's like in the UK and the other thing is that there are no countdown markers, just the sign at the junction's. After breakfast we headed for the US border at Houlton, Maine. Now if you want to be made to feel like a criminal, the guards in the border gate are experts, I only went in for my I94 card which allows me to enter the USA (and must be renewed every 3 months @ $6 US), I came out feeling like I was on Parole!!

Anyway off we set for a fairly uneventful run through Maine, New Hampshire and into Massachusetts, we decided to call it a day about an hour from our first drop and parked up for the night.

Monday morning, up nice and early and remembering we were now on Eastern time headed for our first drop, Wallmart store to drop off 150 fresh christmas trees, Problem was no one at wallmart had advised they had closed the store down and moved it to the other side of town!!!!!

We were on to our second and Ian pointed out this place.

 

                            Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots NFL Team

After unloading all 800 trees we get the message to head for New Bedford to collect a load of Clementines for Toronto, so we reached our pick up point to be greeted with about 30 other trucks collecting for the same place. 10 hours after we arrived we finally get the call to go onto a bay! We ran for a few hours then parked it up for some sleep.

We headed for Toronto crossing at Buffalo and into Niagra Falls and up to Milton to tip the following morning, met up with two more drivers from Bulk who were also tipping the same place as us. Another early start and after a wait of a couple of hours we were empty and heading for Brampton to drop our trailer and wait for the call to collect a loaded trailer for Charlottetown, we arrived Brampton thursday morning

                                                      Time to relax and a bit of shopping

 and finally left 9pm Friday night. We ran for a few hours clearing Montreal and parked up for the night. We decided the following morning to team run back to the Island. The return trip took us through Ontario into Quebec and into things to come.

It was just a light dusting of snow then as the miles went by turned to rain and that was the story all the way through New Brunswick and back on to the Island. We eventually arrived back 10.30 Saturday night.

Went into the office today and was passed off training and was allocated my own truck so on Tuesday I get my Hiring pack and all my gear to go out on my own. I would like to thank my brother and his wife as my new GPS arrived today as well so thats saved me a few hundred bucks, cheers guys. Well i'm off to bed now as I have to have my Drug and Alcohol test tomorrow, then, well who knows? Stay tuned to find out where I end up on my first solo run.