we have completed one round trip from seatac to lax. (ok actually hawthrone airport)
southbound we have one stop at pdx where they add stuff going to la. that route is fairly easy. mostly i5 for my driving time anyway.
the north bound route is more stressful. after dropping in la, we hang out and leave a couple hours later, with a different trailer. there are two stops north bound. one in hayward airport and again at pdx.
they are timed loads and the time from lax to hayward is very, very tight. it is only 370 miles, they do give us 6 hrs and 45 min. but that time line doesnt really allow for la traffic. (i dont think they sleep down there)
it was still bumper to bumper. add to that the road construction in veris areas. going down to one and two lanes on a 5 lane freeway makes for very slow going, even if it is only for a mile or two. the time also puts us in bayarea morning rush hour traffic. will did it with 15min to spear. but he did not stop at all. no bathroom breaks, no closing his eyes to rest breaks, no get out and walk around and wake up breaks. no vehicle checks.
when i contacted the customer service rep. he really didnt want to hear anything i had to say. i told him our info says we are picking up a preloaded trailer at 22:00 but it is a live load and we left at 23:30, so i felt like our delivery time should have been adjusted 1 1/2 hours to reflect the fact that we left 1 1/2 hr after our apt time. he says it is scheduled to leave at 23:30 etc. we went back and forth of course i lost because it is what it is. i also mentioned to him the new csa rules state we are suppose to stop after every 2 hours of driving. that would mean for 8 hour of driving we should be showing on our logs 4 breaks. his response was."who is csa and why do they say you have to stop thats a new one on me ". my response was, "csa is the new set of rules governing the trucking industry,"
then i contacted our dm and mentioned to her. who is this guy, is he new here. doesnt he look at the posters all around the office stating the new rules. every truck stop has those poster. every swift has those posters. new fines. new penalty's. how can someone in the trucking world not know about csa. maybe he needs an in service class to bring him up to speed.
im not saying we do stop every 2 hours. i stop about every 200 miles which is about 3 hours. that rule really cuts into our pocket. since we only get paid when the wheels are turning and we have to stop the wheels every 2 hours. in an 11 hour driving shift we would need to stop 5 times that totals 1 hour and 15 min. since we are allowed to work 14 hours a day, but can only drive 11 hours within that 14 hr window, it makes our work day longer. now it takes longer to reach my 11 hours driving point. its confusing. i was mostly trying to get an extra hour so will could stop and rest his eyes, and go to the bathroom. the csr did not care. he said this time has been set and it is the time schedule. so i told will next time do not drive over the speed limit. stop every 2 hours and do your in route vehicle safety check , stop to use rest room if you have too. and if its late, its late. but speeding and not stopping and showing up on time isnt going to fix anything. thats only going to get us a ticket for speeding, and log violations. and show the csr that it can be done. will is afraid that if we show up late they will take us off this route.
the finale delivery , back up in seattle is a little messy. we have a 7am appointment, but there are 3 trucks in front of us and the business isnt even open yet. its a live unload. seems like we wont get out of here until noon.
but the good news is, since we dont have to be back in seattle until monday at 6pm we will be able to go home for the weekends. YEA!! HIP~ HIP ~HOORAY!! YAHOO!! YIPPEE!!! HAZAA!! and so on and so on.
we should be able to be home late saturday afternoon until monday afternoon. we are going to pick up one of the cars to leave up here that way we dont have to drive the semi back and forth. that will save us some fuel cost and the oregon road tax, since even empty even just bobtail oregon wants that money.
im so excited. home on a regular schedule. church. kids. grandkids. family. friends. exercising. gardening. housework. hot tub. i almost dont care about the la and bay area traffic with all that to look forward too.
**see you soon**
love and miss you all
