#47

We made it to Maine! Maine and Vermont were the lone lower-48 states that we hadn't yet made it to in the truck, but now we're just down to Vermont!

We had received the pre-assignment plan from dispatch, and I read it too quick, thinking we were picking up our load in Auburn, Massachusetts. I couldn't figure out why the deadhead miles were over 150, when Auburn was just 20 miles from our last load's destination. Finally re-reading the pre-assign correctly helped me to realize that what I thought was MA was really ME!

We were routed around the I-95 toll road that would bring us up to our pick-up location (off all things to pick up, we hauled 36,000 pounds of tampons!), so up the Route 1 "Coastal Highway" we went. I felt as if we were driving through the scenery of the movie Dan in Real Life (even though that takes place in Rhode Island). Everything was weathered, quiet, quaint. Many (if not most) motels and resort locations were closed down for the season. Every other block had a restaurant featuring lobster and clam chowder. There was a biting chill in the air (but much warmer and less snowy than average at this time of year). Wooded trees are everywhere. Basically, we loved it. Ben especially. He's already considering when we could move. (!)

We did enjoy our little jaunt "off the beaten path" with the coastal highway, but it took us almost 3 times longer than it would have on the toll road, so we decided to just take that on the way back. It was dark by then anyhow (4:30 and it's DARK!), so we allowed the company to pay for our ease of travel on I-95. We stopped at a truck stop in Kittery, ME, and walked a mile to the Weathervane Restaurant. It was a tough menu decision, as lobster rolls are very popular, as is clam chowder, but Ben ended up going for a whole lobster and I had a broiled seafood plate, including salmon, haddock and scallops. Yum!

Back to the truck, and we were on our way to New Jersey. Ugh. At least Maine was enjoyable!



This is Portland, Maine.

Can you see that blue sign stuck behind the trees? That's the "Welcome to Maine" sign. After exit 2. They want you to come in a little before they give you the satisfaction of knowing you made it.

We had steamed mussels as an appetizer.


All of my broiled fish, with veggies and delicious slaw on the side!

Ben's crustacean meal.


He had to wear a bib. That told him how to eat the lobster. It was helpful.


Current location: Waynesboro, VA
Direction heading: to Salt Lake City, UT
Miles this week: 5800
Recent friendly encounters: we stopped in Stone Bluff to visit Ben's family as we were en route on I-74, and while working on a restart of hours, we rented a car from the Cincinnati area and drove home to Mercer County for a night to see my family. Good times were had by all!

32 Inches

I received a fine the other day: $25 for 32 inches.

We picked up the HEAVY load in Dallas, TX and grossed out at 79,900 (max is 80,000). Regulations state that we can have no more than 34,000 pounds on the trailer axles and the drive axles, and no more than 12,000 on the steer axle. Being as heavy as we were, we had to make sure each axle weight was appropriate so as not to receive an over-weight fine. We have the option of sliding our fifth wheel or sliding the trailer tandems to change the amount of weight on each axle, but not the weight over all. 79,900 pounds is 79,900 pounds, no matter how you move the freight.

Without having the list in front of me, I would wager to say that most states do not have regulations for length; length in this case being defined as the distance between the kingpin and the center of the rear axle on the trailer. California will slap you with a $100 fine if you measure over 40 feet. California in general will try to slap you with any fine they can, and an over-length violation seems to be common.

Since we weren't going through California, and we weighed out our axles to be accurate though we were "longer" than usual, we didn't bother to check if any other states on our route had over-length fines. Turns out Virginia did.

Their maximum length is 41 feet, and we measured out to be 43'8". Because they had pulled me in for weight, they knew I was close on my axles but still legal, they were able to measure the kingpin to rear axle length. Since I couldn't "scoot" any weight to abide by the length regulation, I got a $25 fine (and $50 processing fee and $10 for taxes, or something like that). They sent me on my way with paperwork proving I was already cited, lest I get pulled into another Virginia weigh station (I didn't).

Thankfully, in cases like this, our company will pay the fine, as we would have been overweight otherwise. And, thankfully, this violation will have no weight on my CSA score (the federal government assigns a point value to any violations received; my speeding ticket earned me 9 points. Once you hit a certain amount of points, they revoke your CDL).


Current location: the Freightliner shop in Salt Lake City, UT
Direction headed: the Northwest!
Mileage total this month: 18,000ish

A New Year: A New Incentive

As you may (or may not) be aware, many trucking companies look for ways to decrease fuel expenses, and two of the primary ways are through idling and accurate/efficient routing. With a company as large as ours, with as many trucks as there are, reduction of just one hour per day per truck in idling would save the company hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars each quarter. That's a lot of savings!

Idling one's truck for just one hour uses one gallon of fuel. For the company to heat/cool all of its trucks simultaneously for one hour, the company spends roughly $30,000 in fuel.

Many states have passed anti-idling laws, permitting truckers to idle for a maximum of 5 minutes (or 3 minutes, if you're in the wretched state of New Jersey). This is, of course, being done for emission purposes. However, by our estimation, 75% of truckers still idle their trucks, even in states where you could be fined thousands of dollars for doing so.

It's not hard to understand why a trucker would want to idle: non-truckers are not asked to turn off their heater or electricity when they're not in their homes. Being on the road, the truck is our home. But it comes down to common sense--there is no reason a trucker needs to idle his/her truck when the temperatures are between 40-70. Above 70, yes: if it gets too hot in the truck, the trucker cannot get adequate rest and therefore will not be able to perform to his/her duties in full capacity when his/her shift to drive comes up. Below 40, yes: for the same reasons.

The idling laws, however, are ridiculous in a sense that they are not enforced. We truckers have all been informed of them, however we have never seen an officer write a ticket to a trucker for having his truck on. We've seen some crazy instances of idling though--truckers idling their rigs between the temperatures of 40-70, or idling their truck with their windows open, or idling their truck and then leaving it idle as they head inside a truck stop for a bite to eat or a shower. Can you say wasteful?

Ben and I, since the beginning of this adventure of life on the road, have been very conscious of our idling practices. Thankfully, by being a team operation, most of our time on the road is spent as just that: on the road, moving loads from city to city. Keeping moving is one great way to keep idling costs down. But--when we are shut-down for a period of time due to poor weather or we are working on a restart of hours, we try to idle as little as possible. With our former company, CRST, unless the temperature dropped below 20 degrees, we didn't turn the truck on for the heater warmth. And generally, unless the heat outside was 75 degrees or above, we didn't turn the truck on for air conditioning cool.

Many of our present company's trucks are equipped with bunk heaters; these pull fuel directly out of your fuel tank through a pump and burns it through an ignitor. Both the pump and a fan are operated by the truck battery. Using the bunk heater continuously for 10 hours uses up only one gallon of fuel yet provides more than enough heat--enough that we often don't even need our blankets!

To the incentive portion of this post: our company is sponsoring a contest, if you will, to entice drivers to reduce their idling time. For the first quarter of 2011, the top 150 trucks with a bunk heater and the top 150 trucks without a bunk heater who have the lowest percentage of idle time will be entered into a drawing to win cash prizes, and the top prize winner will receive a company truck with 300,000-400,000 miles on it (most trucks are good at least to a million miles, sometimes more), and be enrolled in the lease-option program of the company. Typically this program entails that the driver/leaser pays the truck payment, upwards of $500/week, but can make an average of 89 cents per mile (of course, this 89cpm has to cover a range of expenses a company driver is not responsible for, like fuel, maintenance, permits, etc.). However, with the perks of this contest, the grand-prize-winner will get the truck and the company will pay the truck payment! That means that the driver/leaser has *only* to pay fuel, maintenance, permits, etc. costs. Considering that fuel and truck payments are your largest cost in owning your own truck, this is a significant savings! Furthermore, if you complete the lease-option program for two years after receiving the truck, the company will hand you the title for free. That is a whole lotta moolah to be made! Even if one were not to truck any longer after the two year lease-option program, reselling the truck could bring between $25-50,000.

Can you say "incentive"??? While Ben and I are not interested in trucking any longer than we have to to pay off our debt, the grand prize option sure is enticing! If the winner of that grand prize opts out of the truck option, they can instead receive $5000 cash. More money is certainly to be made with the lease-option, but it's nice that the $5000 is also offered.

We have lots of heavy blankets in our truck (and we like to cuddle for warmth anyhow ;-) )and plan to continue keeping our idling down, and hopefully in early April we'll find that we're in the top 150 drivers for the lowest idling percentage!


Present location: Santa Nella, CA (sitting out a winter storm that closed down a 40 mile section of the Grapevine)
Miles this week: 3700
Fun loads as of late: giant rolls of paper for newsprint

Theory Confirmed

Our last post detailed our theory that warm weather climates=aggressive drivers? Just last week that theory was confirmed in a way that could have led to a motorist's death.

I was driving on I-10 east of San Bernardino in California, on the way to Phoenix. The interstate was three lanes wide, and I was in the far right lane. The construction vehicle in front of me was driving slower than I, so I checked my mirrors and turned on my turn signal to merge into the center lane. In that center lane, about 4-5 car lengths behind me, was a motorcyclist. Because I had clearance and my turn signal had signaled at least six times, I began the merge.

Apparently this was extremely offensive to the motorcyclist, because he immediately sped up alongside my trailer leaving me straddling the dotted line shared between the center and far right lane. Obviously I could not now complete the merge as this ticked off biker was just a foot or two away from me (by the way, his bike was a crotch-rocket, not a Harley...from a generalization of what we've seen on the road, bikers on Harleys are laid-back and do not try circus stunts at a speed of 60 miles per hour. Crotch-rockets, on the other hand, are high-strung young males that need serious attitude adjustments and lessons in highway safety).

He continued along my tractor until he got in front of me, and then proceeded to “stare me down” and flip me off. What came next? He dropped his speed from 60mph down to 25mph in about 3 seconds, all while continuing to stare backwards and flip me off! His bike was so close to my bumper that I could not even see his rear tire. Had their been debris in the road ahead of him or had he simply lost his balance, his life would either be over or it would consist of eating food from a straw. Thankfully, we had a light load and I could slow “quickly”.

I think there are a few kickers to this entire incident:

1. The far left lane? It was completely open. This guy just didn't want me to get in front of him.

2. Traffic was not thick, but it was heavy enough that had someone behind me not been paying attention (in either the far right or the center lane), we could have had a rear-ending frenzy of vehicles.

3. What point did it serve for this young man to perform this circus act? He sure didn't get to his destination any sooner, although I could have sent him to his final destination.

After this biker had enough of speeding up and then slowing down, speeding up then slowing down, speeding up then slowing down in front of us, he finally sped up for good and was out of sight. I merged back into the far right lane with my four-way flashers on until I could resume the highway speed. I was visibly shaken, upset, mad, and ready to cry. Ben was on the phone with the state police to report this act of indecency and to give the biker's license plate number. They did not seem to care, unfortunately (would they change their tune had an accident occurred?).

We've seen some crazy feats of driving by crazy people out on the road, but this one takes the cake. I am not even sure it can be topped! Thank God no one was hurt—our guardian angels are certainly looking out for us!

Present location: Salt Lake City, UT
Where we're headed next: Portland, OR
Fun loads as of late: Nintendo, T-Mobile cell phones (Andrew V., this one's for you!), and Amazon