My First Stop is in the Bag

I traveled another 650 miles last night and parked my truck on my customer's property here in Riverdale, New Jersey.  I arrived here at 5:45 this morning.  The easiest way to get unloaded quickly at this particular place is to get here early in the morning, which is why I planned it out like this. They do not have a good place here for unloading flat-bed trucks.  They have five docks here for dry van loads, and the only place for you to get a flat-bed in here is to block off the other trucks access to those docks by parking across them so they can come out with a fork lift and unload you.  If you get here late in the day it is almost impossible to get in there because of all the other trucks coming and going, and if they see that you are sitting there waiting, then they just back out of the entrance and go in the exit and back up to their dock, which effectively keeps you blocked out.  Basically you need to be here when there are no dry van trucks here, and if you get here early in the morning you can block them out.  I've danced this dance here enough times to know how it all plays out.

Here's the problem with all that.  I got here early and I got unloaded, but because of the fact that I had to drive 650 miles to accomplish that, I am now required to take a ten hour break to get some rest.  Well, that puts me too late into the day to get to my next stop before they stop receiving for the day!  So I will have to take a ten hour break here, then drive over to my next stop in Bridgewater, New Jersey, which is only 40 miles from here.  I'll sleep in their parking lot tonight and get unloaded there first thing in the morning.  Seems kind of silly to drive forty miles and then take another ten hour break, but that's the way this one falls.

I pushed really hard to get to this first stop today, because after studying this whole load, I am quite sure that I can get the next five stops all unloaded tomorrow.  Had I taken my time at the beginning and got here tomorrow as my dispatch appointments were set up, I would not be able to accomplish my goal of getting myself emptied out first thing Friday morning.  Remember the whole point of this was to set myself up for another load early on Friday.  That is how you prove your worth in this business, in fact I got a call from my dispatcher yesterday saying, "I see what you are doing with this load, I really like the way you think!"

Okay, so what do you do when you are taking two ten hour breaks back to back?  Well, I like to walk for exercise, and Riverdale is a great place to do just that.  There is a city park right next door to my customer here which I can walk through and get into a nice little neighborhood that boasts sights like this...

You can also seek out a small diner where the locals go to eat and find yourself a bargain on a nice hot lunch plate such as this open faced roast beef sandwich served with mashed potatoes and real soup that they actually make on the premises.  This is a little place called Karen's Country Kitchen.  I eat here every time I make a delivery to this customer.  They are friendly and the food is always good and reasonably priced.

Karen's Country Kitchen is a small luncheonette counter with a feel of days gone by about it.  It is fun to discover these little tucked away places all across the country.  It is part of the simple pleasures of doing this job.  You can make this job enjoyable by embracing the whole lifestyle it offers, or you can sit in your truck and be miserable.  I have chosen to enjoy myself, all while proving that I can do this with the best of them.

Some new drivers really struggle with staying up all night driving, and the last thing I want for a driver to do is to be unsafely driving while trying to doze off.  Here's a tip on how you can assist yourself in that task of staying awake.  I like to snack on something if I am getting sleepy.  I'm not sure why it helps, but if my mouth can be active it seems to help me stay awake.  I think a lot of truck drivers do this, and is probably why so many of us are grossly overweight.  So, don't go for the chips and a soft drink, try getting yourself some fresh fruit instead.  I will set some fruit over on the passenger seat well within my reach so that I can snack on it at times to help me stay awake.  Fruit has natural sugars, and if you choose something crunchy, like an apple (or some celery or carrot sticks) it also helps.  This was my bowl of assistance last night...

Here's the tip about the tarp that I mentioned earlier.  If you remember I said that I had overlapped my second tarp section over the back one considerably more than usual.  Here's why I did that.  There were twelve bundles of freight on the very back of this load that all went to the first stop.  By overlapping that tarp like I did I was able to just completely remove that third section and roll it up to be stored.  That left my middle tarp section still covering what was left of my freight.  What that accomplished was a time saver for me.  Normally I might have to rearrange the tarps so that they would keep my freight that is left on the trailer protected from the elements.  This way I just pulled the back tarp off and bungeed the middle section back down and I'm ready to roll without a lot of extra work.  Here's a look at Julio, the fork lift operator unloading his material, and I think you can see what I mean about the middle tarp being in the proper position to cover the freight that was left after he removed his portion.

I know all these fork lift operators by name, and they are usually glad to see me.  It pays to be friendly and professional in this business.  If you establish yourself as an impatient loud mouthed jerk with the people you are delivering too you will suffer in this job.  Keep this in mind, that lowliest of employees, the fork lift operator, can often be your key to success.  He is far more important to you than the CEO of the whole company.  After all, you are a truck driver, and he has the power to make your day go really well, or really bad.  Treat him like he is worth something and he will pay you back ten fold.

Remember, this load has 1,882 miles on it.  I've done roughly 1300 so far, and gotten one stop unloaded.  I have got another 582 miles to go with six more stops total.  All the rest of it is up here in the Northeast, where it can be slow plodding at times.  It helps a lot that I am familiar with these customers and I know my way around up here.  Usually for most truck drivers the biggest problem in this area of the country is finding parking.  I am very fortunate in that so many of my customers allow me to park on their property, so I don't struggle with the parking issue so much.

I'll be back in here tomorrow evening with an update on how it's going.