Dealing With Fatique

I got back to Delhi yesterday morning at about eight a.m. (0800)  My next load was already loaded, so I began securing it and tarping it.  I will always put myself on the sleeper berth line when I pull into the plant so that I can get myself rolling again as soon as possible.  I had driven all night to get here, and then I began working on this next load.  There is nothing unusual about that for me, and I never need the ten hours of rest that is required by the D.O.T. rules.  If I can get six good hours of sleep I am rearing to go, in fact trying to sleep for ten hours only makes me exhausted.  That scenario works for me, although each individual needs to know his own limits so that he is not driving fatigued. Safety always trumps productivity in this business.  A safety failure can ruin your career.

After I got the load ready I pulled over into the nearby truck stop to sleep.  Just about the time I laid down my phone rang, it was my very emotionally distraught youngest daughter who had just rolled her little Subaru Forester in a one vehicle accident.  She was fine physically, but the car was destroyed.  Needless to say I just couldn't get to sleep at that point.  I was really tired, but my concerns about her welfare would not let me sleep.  I sent my dispatcher a message about what was going on, and told him that I would not be leaving that night, which had been the plan.  He sent back a very kind message in which he expressed his gratitude that she was okay, and he said to "get some sleep, that load will still be there when you wake up."  I always push myself to be productive, and that is very important in this business, but being safe while you are being productive is even more important.

Here's a look at this present load.  It has three stops on it in the Northeast.  First stop is Reisterstown, Maryland, second stop in Riverdale, New Jersey, and the consignee is in North Collins, New York.

I had an interesting conversation with one of our other drivers while at the plant.  He came up to me as I was tarping this load, and he says, "let me guess where you are going - up to the Northeast!" They all know that I do this every week from Louisiana, but for the life of them they don't understand it. They actually think that I have gotten myself on the list of troublesome drivers who get punished with the really bad loads! One of them even asked me last week, "What did you do to get yourself on the #*!*-list? They don't know it but my dispatcher and I talk every week about these Northeast loads and I always make sure that I am back in Louisiana to be available for the next one coming up. My dispatcher loves it because he says it is like pulling teeth to get the other drivers to take these loads. We are not force dispatched, and the reason I like that is totally different from why others like it. For me it creates opportunities that others don't recognize.

Now, let me explain one reason they don't like these loads. Of course there are problems with running in the Northeast, but they can be mitigated if you approach it right. The biggest problem that most of these drivers face is that when they get a Northeast load it will usually consist of close to 1700 miles. Now that sounds pretty good until you realize that most of them can't seem to get themselves back down to Louisiana on their back haul load in time to put all the miles on one pay period. So, they end up with a paycheck for approximately 1700 miles. Their back haul load is close to the same amount, but it goes on next weeks pay, and if they get another Northeast load they don't get it there in time to add it with that back haul load, and now they have gotten three pay periods with only about 1700 miles each - unacceptable by anyone's standards. They end up running for three weeks at 1700 miles per week - I wouldn't like that either.

You take an experienced driver who's got some street smarts, and he will do what I do. I am in communication with my customers up there and I move my appointments forward anytime it is possible. The customers love the special service, and some of them have even requested of my dispatcher to send me up there on these loads. I have to drive hard for eleven hours all night for two nights and then flip my schedule over to daytime for the actual deliveries so I can do this, but it works well and it allows me to get up there and get back each week with enough time to take a 34 hour reset in Delhi before I take off like a rocket on the next run. That nets me somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,400 miles per week, which every driver claims he would love, but very few are willing to make the sacrifices to accomplish. Is that running hard? I enjoy the results. I enjoy taking the break each week. Like I said some of these drivers think I'm crazy, but if they knew the results I was getting they would be jealous.

I was planning on leaving out with this load and running it on re-cap hours, but since I couldn't sleep, I will just put in the necessary 34 hour break to re-set my seventy hour clock.  That gives me a nice break, and I can still make it on time.

On a side note, there are some things that I see out here on the road that I can never get a picture of simply because I am driving.  One of those things that I have probably seen maybe four or five times in the past three years or so is the "Oscar Meyer Weinermobile."  I don't know how you land the job of driving around the country in a giant Hot Dog shaped vehicle, but man, when I get too old for this gig, I may have to look into that!  This past week he was in front of me on I-81 in Pennsylvania, and he got off at the same exit that I did.  We were waiting for a traffic light to change to green when I snapped this picture of him from behind.  You can't really get the whole effect of his unique shaped vehicle from the rear, but it gives you an idea of how crazy this thing looks!