Perfect Timing

I'm in Dandridge, Tennessee today. I slept here last night, and have decided to take a short break here today. Everything went very well for me in Connecticut, I made both my deliveries there, in the third winter storm in just as many weeks as I have been there in a row. When I was done and had sent in my message that I was empty my dispatcher called and said for me to start heading back to Delhi. I expected to be getting a back haul load out of Cressona, but he said they couldn't get one until Wednesday night at 10:30, and he thought that was unacceptable. Well, who am I to argue with him? I wouldn't have minded the wait, but he said they had three days notice to find him something for Tuesday night, and he felt they had dropped the ball. I like the way he works, he tries really hard to keep me busy, and he needs me in Louisiana to keep up the flow of the freight out of the plant that we are dedicated to serving, so I am rolling all the way back down there empty, or “dead-heading” in trucker talk. He was a little disappointed that I needed to stop at the terminal in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to get my truck serviced, but when I tried to apologize that the timing of it had snuck up on me unawares because I've been so busy, he only said he liked it because it shows that I have been getting a lot accomplished.

When I got to my second stop in Connecticut at the major customer (Stanley Access Technologies) that I go to all the time there, “Jorgo,” The Italian fork-lift operator with a strong New York “Bronx” accent, says to me, with his cigarette bobbing up and down in his lips, looking as if it would fall out any moment, “Hey buddy, we gonna have to call your boss and tell him to stop sending you up here.” I was a little surprised by this greeting since he is usually a little more cordial (if cordial can even be used for describing the interactions with these folks in the far North East). I asked, “What's the deal, is there a problem with what I'm doing?” “Oh yeah,” he says, “Every time you show up we have a major snow storm hit on the exact same day – it's like perfect timing. We're afraid if you keep showing up the whole state is going to be buried in snow – this never happens with any of the other guys – only you.”

While on the subject of timing, let me explain to you why I am taking this break here in Dandridge. Hopefully without boring you with all the confusing details of the Hours of Service rules that truck drivers have to abide by I'll just say I have already driven close to seventy hours this week, and we are not allowed to drive more than seventy hours in an eight day period. I have four hours and 51 minutes that I can drive today. At that point I have used up my seventy hours during my seventh day of working, yet I am supposed to be in Delhi, Louisiana tomorrow morning. So, how does one do that? Well, you have to be smarter than the average bear to be able to have the kind of perfect timing that Jorgo seems to think I have. At this point of the game I am running on what the regulators call re-cap hours. Which means that instead of me being allowed to drive 11 hours in a 14 hour period as I normally could, now I can only drive as many hours each day as I drove on the day that I was working eight days ago. Tomorrow my eighth day will come back to me at midnight tonight, and since I drove approximately ten hours on that day, then I will receive those hours back. So, at midnight tonight I will be given another ten hours that I can work with. Therefore, if I start my day of driving late into the day, say around 7:15 tonight, then just as I'm about to finish up my seventy hours of driving at midnight, I will magically receive back another ten hours of legal driving hours. So, I can drive all through the night and get to Delhi on time while still obeying these crazy rules. Now, if you think that would make a truck driver more tired and unsafe than just getting up this morning and driving during my regular waking hours, well you are much brighter than the intelligent elitists inside the Beltway over in D.C. - but, of course, we already knew that.

I have a friend who says you could have gotten a room full of drunk monkeys to come up with a set of guidelines that made more sense than the ones we are working under. But, I will be driving all night tonight so I can keep it legal. I don't mind the night driving so much, but being forced to do it for safety's sake when I would have much rather gotten up this morning and made my way to Delhi during the daylight makes a lot more sense. This will more than likely put me to driving on the night shift for much of this next week, but usually at some point I can flip the schedule around depending on the demands of the delivery times I'm having to deal with. I have done very well at dealing with the restrictions of the clock, and my dispatcher loves my approach to managing my time. He deals with so many drivers who refuse to do certain things like driving at night, or whatever the case may be. But he knows he can count on me to try and be keeping myself available to get the things accomplished that we need to do.

That is the reason that I get these really great jobs. I would much rather go to Connecticut and back – it's five days worth of driving with usually one or two stops at the most. We get paid for how many miles we drive, if you can maximize your driving time you will be making the most of your available earnings. While others are ending up with loads going to Texas from Louisiana with four or five stops on the load (lots of work with not very good pay) I am continually ending up with long runs. Good timing, and good management of your available working hours, makes a big difference in how this job works out for you. Also good communication is important with your dispatcher. If he knows ahead of time when you will be ready for another load then he can be working on finding you the best possible load at that time.

I really enjoy this work, and I'm glad to know that folks like “Jorgo” appreciate my “perfect timing.”