Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

I have noticed it is hard to make sure that when you run a house as well as run on the roads that all things work in order. This can get crazy, making sure payments are made for the truck as well as the house. If confusion happens bills can be forgotten, late payments stack up, family members end up having to give up to make sure things work out. This adds to the stress of being on the road and away from the home front.

Here is a small glimpse at my filing system and the way things are cared for with all the paper work involved in trucking. First of all make sure you keep all receipts this is where the driver needs to work with the family members at home. There are too many horror stories of the driver just tossing all papers into a sack and hoping for the best. And where an O/O can make serious mistakes that will bite them around tax time. Have a good filing system on the truck, label the tabs on it according to the months.  Place all receipts and paperwork into that before anything else is done. And when you get home,  the spouse should make sure to take those receipts and papers off the truck on a monthly basis.

I have a file system in which the receipts and the like for the trucking side of things has it’s own place. As well as I have everything listed in order, from the housing papers, to the electric bill. So if you glance into my desk it will be easy for anyone to find the needed paperwork. This will take time, and is something you need to revisit monthly.  As if you don’t it can go from neat and orderly into a paper monster. I have found you do not need to keep the monthly bills like the utility bills after they have been paid. But the paper work needed for taxes should have its own file and the past tax forms need to be kept for at least three years since the return was filed depending on your situation (see the IRS website for details about keeping records). As well as important car papers, housing agreements, medical papers and other important papers.

With all the filing systems I have spoken of there is one important thing that is always needed. And that is my main point in this, communication, none of this will work without it. Money in general is the single most stressful subject in a marriage over all. And with trucking it is even higher I would say. As you are not running one household, but in fact are more like running two. If you have the driver just go out without thinking and get the coolest chrome thing for the truck without talking to spouse. That driver could affect a bill that is still waiting to be cleared from the checking account. Also on the other side of the coin, the spouse shouldn’t let the driver eat nothing but hot dogs to make ends meet. I have seen both happen in other marriages.

Have a plan and talk things over as a couple. Know all the bills, when they are due and what are the payments. We have a spreadsheet we keep on both computers we have. This shows both of us when things are due, what money is coming in and how to pay things without pinching us. And weekly when my husband has time we go over the bills. This is where the communication is most important, as it can get stressful but is so needed. Don’t neglect this issue, as it can bite you in the end. But work together in this as then you will have one less stress which you will have to deal with on the road.

In case you haven’t seen, we’re now on Twitter at @lotrtnb (Life on the Road Trucking News Blog) Twitter is where I found this gem.

Any driver that has been trucking less then 15 years has had to go through some sort of trucking school, mine was 6weeks at the Vo-Tech. When my wife went it was a three week wonder and they knew she would be driving with me so they basically collected her money and ignored her.

It’s a bash schools and puppy mill companies piece. Dan acts like the new school grads are let loose out on the highways instead of another 4 – 6 week company training program. VP of Safety at ATA blames States for handing out CDLs, I’ll agree with that.

But it’s nothing we as drivers don’t know or haven’t heard already. The only thing I didn’t hear was a solution. So sad the industry is still like this. Good job Desiree and Tom Hansen.

There must be, if not hundreds at least several different choices when it comes to dispatching software and there must be one or two that work well with a smaller office. Our small office is actually spread throughout the country. The office has been using the same software choice for many years. We have one dispatcher in the main office and two others in “remote” locations. Plus the accountant and accounts payable  person is offsite and everyone has access to the server in the main office thanks to the Internet.

We have a four seat license for the dispatching program. The owner has the dispatchers use Remote Desktop to log into the server instead of running the program locally on each workstation. This allows people to log in and work from home, dispatch from their truck or wherever. We have never had more than four people use this program, a couple or three dispatchers and the owner. After paying for an annual license for several years, the developers were told how we use the program. That’s not the way they want their program to be used. Now when our license comes up for renewal they have to go into our server and change the licensing. We give them access and they do whatever they need to do with us watching what they’re doing.

Now that this transportation software company thinks we’re crooks and we’re cheating them out of more money, when we’re the ones that told them about this method, they go in our server and look around where they don’t need to be. After we told them we didn’t want the upgraded program, they upgraded the program telling us after the fact and the reason was they had to upgrade to do the licensing. Now they have to remote in and install their program on four workstations. This was not what we wanted and we told them so, but they did what they wanted.

We thought we bought this program and could use it how we wanted, but apparently we only rent the program and can only use it the way they want us to us it. Completely unacceptable for a business that may not conform to the standard big office server and everyone sitting in cubicles in the same building.

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I didn’t know where the holiday originated, so I looked it up on Wikipedia. It says that the first Labor Day here in the US was celebrated back on September 5th 1882 in NYC. After workers were killed by US Army soldiers and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike – the President at the time – Grover Cleveland – put reconciliation with labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation declaring Labor Day a national holiday was spearheaded through Congress – it passed unanimously – and was signed into law six days after the end of the strike. FYI – the Pullman strike involved violent disputes between the unions and the railroads.

So now you know where Labor Day began. Fast forward to 2009. I just drove the 600 miles from wherever I was to just West of Jacksonville. I’m tired. Including myself, there was a lot of trucks on the road. Obviously “we” didn’t have the day off like the stock market, Federal government employees and of course, the sales, safety and operations people who work for the carriers. They’re home, “we’re” not.

For the record, as of today, there are 15 million people unemployed in the US. The percentage is almost at 10%, the highest level in years. Last month, the economy bled 250,000 jobs. Foreclosures – not from the ranks of adjustable mortgages or where people got homes for no money down – but from conventional mortgage holders. Somehow, we – I should say – greedy businessmen are going to have to start hiring 125,000 folks a month in order to stop that percentage from rising higher. Listening to the Labor Secretary on the radio today, telling people to go back to school – take advantage of the “many” government programs available and get “other” jobs only caused my stomach to turn. After she added that Pell Grants are easily obtainable as I try – and I’m employed – to come up with $900 to pay my son’s college tuition because we can’t get a loan – well, I thought here’s another rich Obama “official” living in liberal fantasy land.

Also, one year ago today – Labor Day – the government took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Combined they hold over 5 1/2 trillion dollars in mortgages. They were given a $100 billion dollar bailout. One year later, credit is extremely tight whether you run a trucking company, an airline or small manufacturing concern. While the Obama Administration continues to oversee these two entities, they have offered no strategy as to how to successfully manage them. We’ll have to wait until February, when they say they will have some sort of plan. Meanwhile companies continue to go bankrupt and eliminate jobs because they cannot obtain credit.

Today, by the way, is the biggest home improvement day of the year. Yes, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, Target and the rest were open. Their employees celebrate the holiday by working. Today more people “dig-out” their Christmas lights than at any other time of the year. No I’m not kidding. And please permit me a senior moment – when I was a kid – nothing was open. Back then there was also talk of a 4 day work week someday. Computers were going to make our lives so much easier. The way things are going, I don’t think our kids will be celebrating this holiday – not so much a holiday – in future years. There is no talk of working less – just more – and for less money than you probably earned five years ago. If you lucky enough to have the day off, enjoy it.

Photo credit: http://www.oldcitypics.com/images/empire-state-workers-1930.jpg

I’ve seen your billboards. I’ve heard your commercials. You know the ones. How one freight train will take 250 trucks off the road and improve highway congestion. How your trains are so fuel efficient. How service via rail is so superior. How you protect the environment. How by using trains I can reduce my carbon footprint.

Railroads, I’d like to tell you just where I’d like to put my footprint. And it has nothing to do with carbon or the environment. You people have lost your minds. And I’m going to take a few minutes just to tell you how wrong you are and how your message to the American public is a bunch of hooey. Oh your slick, I’ve got to give you that. But I, for one, can see right through all your nonsense.

Let’s start with the most important point. America doesn’t care what you have to say. Trains are no longer sexy. Kids want to be truck drivers and jet pilots, not train engineers. What fun is it to just to go forward and occasionally in reverse? When America thinks of trains, they think smoke, loud ear piercing horns and having to wait at annoying rail road crossings while your cars jingle jangle across the tracks. And while folks are sitting in their cars waiting for your train to someday pass, they’re praying its doesn’t go off the tracks and spew ammonia or some other lethal chemical all through their neighborhoods.

America hates trains. In fact, the day you chose to get rid of the friendly red caboose at the back of your lineup of toxic clickety clackety noisy rusty railcars, America’s love affair with the train died. Trains are dangerous. They’re too big and too heavy. They scare people. When is the last time someone asked for a train set for Christmas? When is the last time you took a train somewhere? Have you ever shipped anything by rail?

Jim, my jibber-jammer is down. I need that part. Ok, I hear ya Bill, I’ll get my guys to get it on the next train out. You should have it in two or three weeks. Listen, nobody even knows how to ship anything by rail. Don’t you need to be right on the tracks? What if the material is oversized? How do you get it to the railroad? Where are the railroads? How would I get something from Charlotte to LA? Do I use the Burlington Northern or the Carolina Illinois Railroad which will transfer it to the Midwestern Union Pacific or Santa Fe or California Wyoming Express to yet some other train so it gets to LA somehow someday?

Can I tell you a little secret? Make sure nobody is looking. Ready? OK. There is NO railroad in the world that can do anything without trucks. All the switches, locomotives, rail yards, freight cars, engineers, lights and horns don’t make any difference without trucks and truck drivers. Because even if JB Hunt, Schneider, UPS and Swift intermodal their trailers anywhere, they still have to be picked up and delivered by truck. Ain’t no darn railcar going to drive into Wal-Mart and back up to a dock with the freight.

When America thinks freight transportation they think truck, not rail. When America thinks rail they think hazardous chemicals, hot molten tanks cars with white clouds of smelly smoke and yellow mucus liquid oozing from the top and freight cars with graffiti sprayed all over them with hobos, beggars, criminals and illegal immigrants riding inside or on top top of them.

Railroads, nice try, but trucks are the foundation of America’s movement of goods. If you eat it, drink it, sleep on it, sit on it or ride on it, mostly likely it was delivered by truck. In fact, the backbone of any rail system is the truck, not the train. And you know it. So good luck with your “campaign” but you’re not fooling anybody.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cemeteryrodeo/2049011904/

My original title for the post was “Carrie Underwood – Move Over” but being that this is a trucking blog I thought the Swift reference would be more apropos. A while ago I did a piece on Darius Rucker, who was new on the country scene, a definite comer, having a solid gold & platinum hit background as the founder and lead singer of the rock band Hootie and the Blowfish. In fact, their 1994 debut album, Cracked Rear View, went platinum sixteen times. Well, last week Rucker’s latest single was #1 on the charts – it has only come down one position to #2 with Taylor Swift taking the lead. Ms. Swift is the focus of this piece.

19 year old Ms Swift, from Wyomissing PA, in 2008 was the years biggest selling artist selling 4 million albums. She was the first artist in history to have 2 different albums in the top ten on the the year end best selling albums chart. In Jan. of this year, she was the first country artist to have sold 2 million downloads of three of her songs.

Her latest album, and the name of her current 52 date tour, Fearless, was the first album by a female artist to remain #1 for eight consecutive weeks and remained on top for 21 more weeks. The only other country artists this decade to achieve the number-one sales position for 20 weeks or more are The Dixie Chicks and one of our other favorites Idol winner Carrie Underwood. And if all that isn’t enough, according to Wikipedia – “Swift has surpassed the 200 million mark for music streams on MySpace. She is currently ranked in the Top 10 for the most MySpace visits for all genres of music, and is MySpace’s current top-ranking Country artist.

At the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards, Swift picked up Album of the Year honors as a performer and producer for Fearless. She is the youngest artist in history to win Album Of The Year award. Swift was also awarded the Academy’s Crystal Milestone Award, given for Outstanding Achievement in Country Music. So far, Swift has sold more than 14 million downloads, as well as three Gold Mobile Ringtones.Did I mention that she was 19? Her Fearless tour, with Kelly Pickler and Gloriana opening, is a smash. Back in February, tickets went on sale for the May 22 date at Los Angeles’ Staples Center and sold out in two minutes. Ticket for several dates and venues, including Madison Square Garden, went on sale the following week and sold out in one minute.

Swift made her primetime television acting debut on CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – the episode was watched by 20.8 million viewers. Swift made a cameo appearance in Kellie Pickler’s music video “Best Days of Your Life”. Swift also appeared in Hannah Montana: The Movie as “woman singing in the barn” You can easily say that Ms.Swift is a walking mega talented goldmine with an incredible highly desirable demographic among not only teenage females but men and women of all ages. She is the Michael Jordon of country music. Although rejected at an earlier age by most of Nashville, she has rocketed in a short time – without the help from platforms like American Idol – to become a superstar that will be around for a long time to come. And did I mention she was 19? Yes, this SWIFT, we really like!

Photo credit is: Kempin/Getty – http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/29921140/taylor_swift_fearless_at_new_yo/photo/3

I haven’t read much about what I’m about to talk about in the truly miserable trucking trade press. I picked up three “trucking” publications while I was up in Canada and along with what’s available here in the US, it’s pretty much all garbage. There are few sources, like this blog, that truly speaks the truth about the trucking industry. Everything else gets lots of advertising, but is generally useless and inept.  So with that said, let’s talk about the some enemies of the truck driver. We all despise the DOT & FMCSA and the once a year rag-tag pseudo safety cop fest group known as the CVSA, but let’s focus in on a few other groups that make our lives miserable.

Enemy #1 – The IRS – Internal Revenue Service. Horror stories abound about this out of control seemingly all powerful group of bureaucrats. I just received a letter from them questioning the deductions I claimed on my last return. The first return in a long time that I actually received a refund from. My taxes are prepared by AARP. The deductions were the same as I had claimed in every return for the past five years. The only exception was the approved change in the pier diem allowed by my being over the road trucker. The IRS seems to think my carrier reimburses me for things like gloves, bungee cords, hard hats and other PPE – personal protection equipment. Are they kidding? The only thing I get my money back on is scales, tolls and 1/2 the cost of parking my truck when I’m home. Everything else is out of pocket. So it seems some accountant in some IRS office somewhere sees the need to harass me and question what for the past five years was perfectly acceptable. Watch out drivers, we may the little guy, but they’re coming after us! Just what we need when we’re being hit on both sides from our employers wanted more for less pay and the economy that is going nowhere right now. I hear Rush Limbaugh is also having his returns questioned. Too bad I don’t have his resources.

Enemy #2 – the safety department. If operations and maintenance are the “regular army” of the trucking company, then the safety department is the Nazi SS. If you think about WW2 movies, you know that the SS wore black uniforms and used a skulls head as part of their insignia. They were the evil ones – the insane evil “criminals” to watch out for, stay away from and never have any involvement with. There you have a perfect description for every carrier safety department here in the US and Canada. Sure, they have a job to do, but I don’t like how they do it, they’re “we have all the answers” attitude and the smugness of everyone who works there. The safety department is the internal affairs (police reference) of your trucking company. As far as every safety department is concerned, whatever a driver does is wrong – that’s it. My only advice to drivers is to avoid these people at all costs – keep your log book extremely neat and very legal, NEVER get into an accident and be as professional as possible in everything you do while on the job. If someone from safety tries to be friendly with you, walk the other way. You’ll be glad you did. Drivers, think of the relationship this way, there is a nail and a hammer – guess which one you are.

*** by the way in a larger trucking company the fuel manager is usually part of the safety department. I’m going to address that function in a separate post in the near future. And yes, he (they) are definitely an enemy of the driver.

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I guess if I wanted to go back into management and make a heck of a lot more money than I do now – and speaking of a lot more of – have considerably more headaches and stress than driving a truck – then I should get a job as a general manager of a large truck stop, just like the ones that Flying J – now in bankruptcy and pending purchase by Pilot – operate. I would make the commitment to do it for let’s say five years, fix up and then pay off my house and then go back into trucking or try to make a living in my “golden years” writing.

I have spent many years observing and commenting on how Flying J (and all the other truck stops) operate. Other than on one occasion when I asked for and received my money back on a defective item I bought there, I have never received any response from the numerous comments, complaints and suggestions I have made to Flying J management in Utah. Not a thank you, sorry, thanks for thinking about, good or bad idea, we will do better in the future or please anything from them. And this from – with Pilot being a close second – what I consider the worst truck stop operation in the US and Canada.

I don’t want to bore you to tears with this post, but I want you to think about just what is wrong with these “places” and tell me what you would do to make the whole “truck stop” experience better for us. I don’t care about the RV’s or 4-wheelers – just like in old days, I wish they would be kept separate from us “professional drivers.” Pilot has attempted to “integrate” both “communities” – civilians and truckers and frankly that makes me sick. I much prefer my own “area” to get my cash advance, pay for my oil and eat, but I know that is hard when there is only an Arby’s or Subway to choose from and it’s more efficient to have one cashier trained and able to service diesel, gasoline and store purchases.

Did you ever stop at a QT – Quick Trip – in Oklahoma? What is it about them that makes their operation so much superior to a Flying J? I’ll tell you. The people that work there. They’re young, surprisingly motivated, smart and fast. They multi-task. They’re courteous. Are they paid better than Flying J employees? I doubt it. Are they offered a superior benefits package? Probably not. Is the management better? A definite yes.

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A while back, I did a bunch of truck stop reviews for another blog which, unfortunately, was deleted. A lot of great material was lost. What prompted me to do this post was yesterday’s visit to the T/A off I85 in Spartanburg SC. As I saw the terrible condition of the parking lot and the inefficiency inside the travel store and restaurant, I though it would be good to pass along my thoughts. I would invite all of you to please write about your experiences fueling, eating and shopping at the many truck stops across the country. Let’s pass the word about these places – good and bad.

In the past week, I have been a customer at three T/A’s from PA to OH moving West and then South to SC. You might say that the further South I drove, the worst the facilities and service got. It all culminated here in Spartanburg. Across the street is a Pilot, which has a Wendy’s, but I needed a real sit-down restaurant. A buffet would have been perfect, because all I wanted in the 100 degree heat was to serve myself a large fresh salad. Cucumbers, beets, chopped egg, celery and onions were dancing around in my mind. I had delivered my load a day early and that was going to be my reward. Topping it off with an icy diet Coke and my day would be complete.

I parked right across from the fuel pumps. Off to my left was a huge pothole. That a picture of it. This unsafe "encumbrance" right in front of two of the fuel islands is completely unacceptable. As I said in an earlier truck stop post, the manager should go right down the street to Lowe’s/Home Depot and buy some pre-mixed asphalt and fill this hole – now – today – immediately. There is just no excuse for this. It is just plain and simple – poor management. And willful and careless neglect. And T/A says they care about truckers. Right. And it typified the overall condition of the parking lot. Tom O’Brian, the President and CEO can afford to send his senior editor, Dave Kolman, of T/A’s company rag – Road King - to play UPS driver, but cannot repair his parking lots. I’d say his priorities are seriously misguided.

So I walk past, over and around all the holes and go inside. This place is old. I go back to where the restaurant is, and darn, no buffet. No salad bar. And drivers are sitting at tiny booths looking bored, not served and drink-less. This isn’t good. And then there is the sign" informing patrons that their credit card machine is not working. Huh? Get it fixed. Give customers a bill and have them go to the fuel desk where the "machines" are working. This is absurd. I walked out of the T/A and looked up and down the street at the myriad of choices I had for dinner. I took a nice walk to Bojangle’s for fried chicken and dirty rice. Love the biscuits! Their sweet tea – oooo! Dessert at McDonald’s. And I used plastic to pay for everything without a problem. After a nice walk, I went inside the T/A for a second look. My opinion was not changed. I needed a black fine tip gel pen – out of stock. Now I’ll have to go over to the Pilot. I noticed two folks that looked like managers riding around in a golf cart outside – they might have been Idle Air folks – but drove past me AROUND THE HUGE POTHOLES!

Despite T/A "remodeling" some of their locations, I have seen little or no change at many of their other locations – and certainly Spartanburg is no exception. In terms of repairing their awful parking lots, upgrading food quality and waitress (server) service – it’s just not happening. The other night at the Lodi OH T/A – the waitress service was terrible, what drivers call – hit and run. "To drink? The buffet?" And that’s the last I saw of her. She seemed completely disinterested in the patrons at her tables. No drink refills, brought the bill only when prompted to, no extra napkins – no "Is everything alright." This was one of those very rare occasion when I didn’t leave any tip. The food, by the way, was just ok. And once again, this all points to poor management. What T/A needs is STILL just a lot more, how shall I put it, "Country Pride."

PS/Next morning 10am – ALL 8 fuel islands are closed. Blocked off by trash cans. I walk over to one of the Comdata card readers. The sign says all pumps will be closed "for about an hour due to a systems upgrade." They should put a larger sign out on the street telling drivers not to waste their time coming into the T/A and fuel at Pilot. I thought systems upgrades are typically done at 2am when most people are asleep?

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aejonze/2341946944/

Passed through Knoxville, Nashville and will spend the night in Memphis. What miserable – boring looking places. Maybe it’s the 55/65 split truck/car mph thing? How stupid is that? I have put Tennessee in double secret probation along with Virginia. And one of these days, I’ll actually get off the interstate to see what all the hub-bub is about Nashville.

So, I’m driving along though dreary Knoxville. I’m listening to some Christian station. The Oakridge Boys are assuring me I have a reservation in heaven if I do this and that. OK – no problemo. I’m “giggy” with it. Then, all of a sudden, the skies open and the rain comes down in buckets. Heavy lighting. Did I say something wrong? Then, without any warning, my passenger side window “rolls” itself down. It’s a power window. I swear I never touched anything. Then both the left and right rear view mirrors start going up and down on their own, like birds flapping their wings.

Well, I gotta tell ya I was freaked out. And the water is pouring in. My log book now looks like a Salvador Dali etching. And I wonder just what the heck is going to happen next. Every 4-wheeler is sliding all over the place, braking and trying to pull over to wait out the sudden storm. Every second for a second I can see to my left and right as the mirrors do their dance. Then the window goes up. Good. But then it goes down again. And the rain water starts coming in everywhere. With the window open, in addition to the rain, hot 95 degree humid air is blowing in. And there is loud whistle like noise from all the air passing through something. Sounds like its coming from a retarded – sorry – mentally challenged – parrot. I’m getting one huge stress headache.

Friends, this is Kenworth engineering at its finest. I know that if I cannot “capture” this moment, when I pull into the dealer in Memphis tomorrow – yeah you guessed it – they will find NOTHING wrong. Just like three weeks ago when the bunk air blower went on and off and on by itself. Of course, it was working fine when I got to the dealer. They “checked” it out. Yeah right. They found nothing wrong. I told you. Waited 7 hours. Got the keys. 10:30 PM that night climbed in the bunk. NO AIR! I grabbed the night service manager before they closed and dragged him into the truck to show him that IT DID NOT WORK.

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