I sincerely hope that many of you are off the road and home this holiday weekend. For many years driving OTR, I never got home on July 4th. It took heart and then knee surgery to get and keep me home to appreciate how good it is not to be stuck in a truck stop somewhere.
Two years ago today, I was one of the few trucks at NUCOR steel in South Carolina, waiting to pick-up a load. I had been dead headed 300+ miles to get there. As I had been home that May 31, Memorial Day, of course, I was at the bottom of the list to be able to spend another holiday weekend home. That is trucking.
I recall quite vividly the look on my face when the lift driver plopped the steel beams on the deck of my trailer, then drove away. I knew something was immediately wrong – the load extended 11 feet out from the rear of the trailer. I, we, that is the company I drive for, do not haul oversized loads. The long and the short of it was that someone screwed up royally. I ended up, once again, dead heading some 110 miles to, I believe, Florence SC off I-95, to spend the rest of the weekend at a Pilot. After hours and much distress the load was removed. I tried not to think about about how far Clearwater FL was from this dirty Pilot and the Subway I was forced to eat at for three days straight. It wasn’t until 10am Tuesday, that I received a new load assignment.
Ahh, memories of life on the road. As I go back in my blog at the time, I had a difference story for every prior year I had been away from home and family, on the road, during Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving or July 4th. It is said that in the world of a truck driver – the holiday is when you come home. Well, perhaps that’s true, but it seemed those holiday weekends on the road always seemed to also involve some sort of stupidity by dispatch or the shipper. If you are familiar with most trucking companies, it seems, the “sharpest tacks” are not always working the “weekend” shift to make good decisions. Of course, it is the driver, and no one else, but the driver, who suffers financially and is not home. Again, that’s life on the road.
Being home this weekend, I got to do what I haven’t done in many years – watch the women’s final at Wimbledon while having my morning coffee and bagel with more than a schmere – aka – “breakfast at Wimbledon”. I know many of you prefer auto racing, deer hunting or truck shows, but, for me, this is what I used to do before trucking. In fact, the last time I had the chance to actually watch Wimbledon* was when Johnny Carson flew over to attend the match. Tomorrow, is the men’s final, but then I have to prioritize watching the closing arguments of the Casey Anthony murder trial from Orlando. Closing arguments on Sunday? Can you imagine? What a sign of the times.
When I was growing up, because of what we referred to back then as “Blue Laws”, you couldn’t buy a pair of pants on Sunday. If there was a store that was open, and it usually was only open “short hours”, perhaps until noon – you had to buy what you needed before that time – everything was closed until Monday. There were no ATM’s. Like Chick-fil-A today, all fast food places were closed on Sunday. People actually had weekends off. What an amazing concept. Now, everything is open and we’re watching closing arguments of a murder case from a courtroom live in our living rooms – or smart phones. Isn’t it great? Not really.
Let’s discuss some trucking (and trucking related) news this Saturday.
1. My first item is from The New York Times – “The state of Minnesota screeched to a stop on Friday.” The rest areas are closed – even the zoo is closed! Monica Davey writes – “Right up to the midnight deadline on Thursday, Minnesotans, who have been known to boast of their professional, efficient government, had held out hope that the state’s divided leadership could reach a deal on how to solve a looming budget deficit. But in the end, the fundamentally different fiscal approaches of the Republicans and the Democrats here did not change, and Minnesota began its broadest shutdown of services in state history with no end in sight.” The link to the piece is here: MN Closed/Davey NYT/LOTR
2. Every wonder just how much the ATA – American Trucking Association – spends on lobbying Congress? The very well-paid PR guy from the ATA doesn’t comment much – he used to – on what we write here at Life On The Road – I could do a better job – but that’s another matter. This information was reported in Forbes - the figure is $291,597. That’s just for the 1st quarter of this year. That’s a lot of surf and turf in Washington trying to get politicians to get “us” to drive longer hours, work longer days without any overtime and increase the gross weight of our cargo so they’re less jobs available. That’s what the ATA and Forbes calls “reform legislation.” For the record, “That’s down from the $361.513 “it” – the ATA – spent in the same period a year ago and the $298,818 it spent in the fourth quarter of 2010.
3. My next item is from Bloomberg, “Walt Disney is among 62 companies getting a break from U.S. limits on truck-driver work hours that intended to help communities put on Independence Day fireworks shows. The waiver allows Disney and other operators of July 4th displays to keep drivers on duty more than the federal maximum of 14 hours a day. The FMCSA – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration – which grants the exemptions, gave them to 9 companies for the first time, Disney and 52 others had them renewed.”
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety are not pleased with the fireworks industry. “Research shows that the riskiest period for drivers is after they’ve been doing other work outside the truck and then return to the wheel at the end of the workday. You’re forcing these drivers to drive in high-risk situations when they’re tired at night, when they’re carrying hazardous materials. That’s a problem.”
Do you not find it amazing how the industry and to even a greater extent “our” government and the ATA, consider “working” – not driving? Hence, the ridiculous status of on duty-not driving. As I like to say,that’s another blog piece, but please, give me – give us all – a break and get real with how hard trucking is.
4. My last item – Loma, Colorado. This was reported by Dan Coleman of KJCT8.com – “A lack of money could lead to big backups at a Western Colorado highway interchange. And, if the decisions stick, it could mean a huge detour for truckers. The point of contention is the westbound port of entry in Loma off I-70 that could close because of the state budget. It’s a stalemate between Utah and Colorado that could have lasting effects for commercial trucking. The closure plan would send all commercial traffic to the eastbound port. That means that westbound truckers would have to take a 3 mile detour off of the freeway to the eastbound port before facing a longer wait time as well.” Can you say PrePass?
The photo credit is: Kerim Okten/European Pressphoto Agency
* Petra Kvitov upset Maria Sharapova to win at Wimbledon
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