Getting Tired of Canada

With the  air conditioners off our truck, we had no desire to stay in Canada any longer. The weather was miserable and so were we, so we deadheaded back into the US. We stopped at the first truck stop we came to inside the US border and enjoyed a nice hot meal and  then a nice long sleep.

We were in no hurry for another load which was a good thing because we didn't get one for 3 days. The next load picked up in Aberdeen, South Dakota. South we went and made the pickup We then continued south to Newton, Iowa with some supplies for a wind turbine factory.

A wind turbine on its way to its final destination

Our next load offer came quickly. We picked up in Chicago, Il with a destination of.....once again...back to Canada. Kinsley Falls, Ontario. After delivery, our next load offer took us back into the US. We exited Canada through Vermont on our way to Somersworth, NH. The weather had been nice while in Canada but as soon as I approached the boder snow flakes started flying.

An unwelcome sight!

Continuing on into the states the snow started flying harder and harder. I was driving up into the mountains through a national forest. Eventually the roads were completely snow covered and I had to reduce speed to 30 mph. I was gripping the steering wheel tightly and fighting the nerves. As I started down the mountain on the other side, the lower I got, the less snow there was and eventually I drove completely out of it.

I made it to the factory and found my way to the dock for the pick up. Then for the bad part. The load was going right back up into Quebec. This time to Montreal. I have found that we don't enjoy going to Canada anymore and especially into Quebec. Montreal has some horrible roads and it felt like our truck was going to be ripped apart by the potholes and uneven surfaces of the roads.

Pretty..if you like winter

We may need to reconsider doing Canada loads. We would really like to see more of the western United States.

Air Conditioners in a Blizzard

It's been a pretty busy week. We were waiting on a load in Quebec. The load we got was picking up in Ithaca, NY. So we had to leave Canada empty, pick up in New York and then return to Windsor, Ontario. I had no idea when we agreed to do Canada loads that we would be spending this much time in Canada. I would really love to see more of the United States.

We always feel out of place in Canada. It's definitely not home. I don't have anything against Canada, I would just prefer to be in my own country.

After delivering in Windsor, we again left Canada empty and picked up in Saint Clair Shores, Michigan. Back in the US! This load delivered in Ridgeville Corners, Ohio.  After that, our luck ran out and we were again asked to do a Canada load.

This time the load would be another swap with a driver who had a load going to Saskatchewan. This driver also does not go to Canada. The swap was set up to take place in Lake Station, Indiana at Waffco Towing. We arrived and the other driver was there waiting for us. He was in a tractor trailer. We both backed up to docks and the workers there began taking the pallets off of his truck. He had eight pallets of air conditioners. These were large units that were going to a hotel that was under construction. When the forklift driver brought the second pallet over to our truck and tried to sit it next to the first one, we ran into our first problem.

The pallets were wider than standard and would not fit side by side in our truck. Because the semi is 102 inches wide he was able to sit them that way, but our truck is 96 inches wide and they wouldn't fit. There was a lot of discussion about how to resolve the problem and someone came up with the idea of restacking the units on standard size pallets. A call was put in to dispatch and they had to get permission from the customer. Finally, we received approval to go ahead and the job got completed.

We had an interesting conversation with the tractor driver. He's been with our company for quite a few years. He enjoyed telling us stories of how it used to be. Apparently the pay used to be quite a bit higher than it is now. He also said he refuses to go to Canada. As a matter of fact, he doesn't go west of the Mississippi River or east of Ohio, or South of Georgia. As a solo driver, he said he's learned over the years to stay in that box and he does okay for himself.

After loading was completed, we headed out to Stoughton, Saskatchewan. This load had a lot of extra time on it since we were picking up on Wednesday and it wasn't delivering until Friday. We decided to use some of the time to stop off and eat a good meal together and get a shower.

We drove up to North Dakota and stopped off at a truck stop. We got our showers done and were sitting and enjoying our meal when dispatch called and said the customer had noticed that our truck hadn't moved for awhile and was getting concerned. Our truck is equipped with a satellite tracking system and customers are given tracking info and can actually track our truck during the delivery process. We told the dispatcher that we had stopped to eat and shower and nothing was wrong. We just had quite a bit of extra time on the load so we wanted to stop and kill some time while in the US and had internet available.

He said okay, he would pass it along to the customer and let them know that their freight would be there on time as planned. We hung up and went back to our meal. A few minutes later, dispatch called again and said for some reason, this customer was really uptight and worried about this load. Could we please go ahead and deliver direct. We were aggravated about the inconvenience, but agreed.

We took off driving and made our way up into Saskatchewan. This being our first time there, we were wondering what road conditions would be. Turned out, they were not so great. In addition to that, the weather turned really crappy. We started running into snow, we saw a lot of deer and we were hoping and praying they didn't decide to jump out in front of us. We worked our way to the consignee according to the directions we were given. We got there and immediately realized that something was wrong. We were in a residential neighborhood. This was at 2 AM. There was no sign of a business in this area. We called dispatch and informed them. They tried to call the customer and got an answering machine. Remember the customer who was so concerned about this shipment and wanted us there asap?

With no help from dispatch or the customers, we wandered around for a little bit and eventually we found a small gas station. We decided to park there and wait until morning for someone to tell us where to take this load. In the morning we made phone call after phone call and finally got ahold of the customer who advised us that we were given the wrong address to deliver to. No duh!

The funny thing was, the delivery location ended up being directly across the street from the gas station we were parked at. We drove across to the construction site, which had no docks and found a guy who was taking responsibility for the air conditioners. We told him about the request to deliver direct and the wrong address and he apologized and said he wasn't even ready for the air conditions yet. He was going to have to find a place to store them until he was ready to install them. While he was using a machine that I don't know the name of, it looked like a forklift on steroids with forks that extended,  the snow was flying, the wind was blowing and it just struck me as funny that we were delivering a load of air conditioners in a blizzard!

First Trip to Quebec

We made our delivery to Waterloo, Ontario. From there our next load was being picked up in Woodhaven, Mi. There is a crossdock there that our company uses to do swaps. Another driver had a load that needed to go to Canada, but that driver doesn't go to Canada, so he takes it to the dock and drops it off and someone else finishes getting it there. This time, that someone else was us.

We drove down to Woodhaven and let our company know we were there. They said the other driver should be there in a couple of hours. I set the alarm for two hours and we went to sleep. I woke up when the alarm went off and went inside and asked if the other driver had shown up yet. They said they hadn't seen him. I called dispatch and asked them when he was going to be there. They said he had to stop to have a light replaced and should be there anytime.

I continued to wait and watch but never saw him. After awile, I went back inside and asked if he had been there and I had somehow missed him. They again said no. Back out to the truck and more waiting. An hour later, dispatch sent a message and said the driver had sent a message saying he had arrive and departed. I went back inside and found out that he had indeed somehow gotten in and out of there without me seeing him. It was so nice that neither he or the guy that works inside bothered to let me know.

Near Niagra Falls

We finally got loaded and headed off to Pointe Claire, Quebec. This was our first trip to Quebec and we were unsure what to expect. The only thing I knew about Quebec is that they speak French. I was hoping we wouldn't have a communication problem.

For the most part, it went okay. Our gps had major problems though. I was ready to throw it out the window. Despite the gps issues, we got to the consignee and made the delivery. The road signs were a bit confusing because they were written in French, but most of them also had an English version. The people we dealt with all seemed to know enough English so that it wasn't a problem communicating.

We decided to go to a nearby truckstop and see if we could get a load out of Canada.

Uptight Chemical Plant in Mt. Vernon

I am forcing myself to retype this entire entry to the blog. I had the whole thing done but some glitch caused it to disappear. Grrr!

We sat several days in New York after the routine maintenance debacle. Finally we received an acceptable load offer that would pick up in Waterloo, Ny. The load was delivering in Garret, Indiana. We're originally from Indiana so it felt like a homecoming going back there.

We weren't there very long before our next load offer came in so we didn't get to do any visiting with family members. The next load picked up in Fremont, Indiana and delivered in Lebanon, Tn. Again, a routine pickup and delivery.

One of the cute little 1000 Islands in Canada

Not too long after delivery, we received another load offer that we accepted. This time we were picking up in Mt. Vernon, In and the load would be going to Waterloo, Ontario. I knew we wouldn't be able to stay out of Canda for long.

I was on the night shift on the drive to Mt. Vernon. I had a little bit of trouble finding the place but eventually I got us there. The shipper was a very large chemical plant. This was our first time picking up at a place like this. Apparently chemical plants run a pretty tight ship and security is heightened. I pulled up at the guard shack and was immediately made to feel like a criminal. There were two guards. The first one came up to the drivers window and started a rapid fire q&a session. Did we have any cameras, cell phones with cameras, drugs, weapons, pets, etc. While that was going on, the second guard was running a mirror all underneath our truck. I don't know what he was looking for, but apparently we checked out okay. We were directed to our dock with strict orders not to be outside the truck unneccessarily, and to wear our seat belts at all times while driving.

We got to the dock, backed in, and went inside to check in. The person on duty was very unfriendly and directed us to sit in the waiting room and wait until we were told our truck was loaded. We were not allowed to go back out to our truck until they said we were done. May not sound like a big deal, but when both the driver and the co-driver are forced to sit and wait inside, that means that no one is being allowed to get any rest. Why the government, who is supposed to be so concerned about the sleep that drivers get, allows this practice to go on, is beyond me. All I could think about was all the miles we were going to have to drive and how it was going to suck because we were going to be tired.

The loading took over two hours. Ridiculous, considering we were only picking up two pallets of freight. We were the only ones in the waiting room so I am assuming there were not a lot of other trucks being loaded, so I don't know what the hold up was. At long last, we were allowed back out to our truck and we headed back to the exit. We had to go through the two guards again and were given a pardon and allowed to leave.

Back to Canada we go.

Oil Pan Damaged During Oil Change

After the parking lot fiasco where we were backed into by another trucker who failed to see us in our parking spot and tried to park in the same spot, we got another load picking up in Sandston, Va delivering in Smiths Falls, Ontario. At this rate, we should qualify as dual citizens with the US and Canada.

We again made our way into and out of Canada with no major issues. Just the usual hassles by border patrol coming back into the US. Kind of getting used to it by now.

While in Smiths Falls, we received a load offer of about 2200 loaded miles for a load that would be delivering in Laredo Texas. We were excited about the load because we haven't had the pleasure of visiting that area yet and it would be a nice change from all the Canada runs we've been doing. However, I made the rookie mistake of asking dispatch if there would be enough time on the load for us to stop and get a pm (preventive maintenance) done on the truck. We were due for an oil change. The owner of the truck has stated and it is in our contract with her that maintenance will be done every 10,000 miles. We are at that point now and if we took the long run down to Laredo, we would be over that mileage quite a bit.

Dispatch informed me that they have a policy against trucks getting maintenance done while under a load. Therefore, they said they would offer the load to someone else. I called our owner and told her about it and asked her how I should have handled the situation. She said to never tell the carrier if you plan to stop and get maintenance done. They will not like it, but it's common practice to do it, just don't tell them. She said if there's time on the load, go ahead and take the load and get the maintenance done.

I felt bad about losing a good paying load, but I'm learning. Right after that, dispatch called with another load offer, this time picking up in North Syracuse, NY and delivering in Schenectady, NY. We decided to take it and the pickup and delivery all went routinely.

After the delivery, we knew we needed to get the maintenance done. This was our first time to do maintenance on the truck so we weren't sure what to expect. We asked the owner of the truck where she wanted it done, and she said she usually used Speedco, but there wasn't any in our area. She said we could also go to a TA. We headed off to the TA and went into the shop and got the work order set up.

We pulled the truck into the shop and while they were working on it, we went into the restaurant to eat a good hot meal. We were about halfway through our meal when John's cell phone rang. It was the shop saying that there was a problem and needed him to come back over.  John went to the shop and I stayed at the table and waited for him to come back so he could finish his meal. About 10 minutes later he returned and said that the mechanic said whoever did the last oil change had twisted off the drain plug on the oil pan.

Since I didn't know what a drain plug was, this meant nothing to me. Apparently, it's kind of a big deal. We had to call the owner of the truck and see how she wanted to handle the problem. She in turn called the shop and talked to the mechanic and the end result was that  they were going to wait until the next day when one of the more qualified mechanics came in to assess the situation.

Luckily, the TA we were at had a motel attached to it, so we ended up getting a room for the night. The next day, the "more qualified" mechanic came in and said he could provide a workaround solution to get us by until we could get the truck into a repair shop. He put on a petcock, which to me looks like an outdoor water faucet handle. He completed the maintenance and we were good to do.

The owner told us that this was the second time the oil plug had been twisted off of this oil pan so it had already been tapped out and a bigger oil plug put in, so it wasn't going to be able to be done again, this time it was going to require a new oil pan. The truck has a Mercedes motor and apparently the metal that they used for the oil pan is weaker than used by some other manufacturers. She had already replaced the oil pan before, so this seemed like an ongoing problem.

She contacted Speedco who had done the prior oil change and it became a he said she said finger pointing session between them and the TA. They both blamed the problem on each other and the end result was that Speedco sent her a gift card for $200 for her troubles.

Lesson learned from this situation is that John says from now on when we are getting the maintenance done, he will stand right there and supervise the whole process to try and prevent another incident. That's about all you can do, you're really at their mercy.

Backed into in the parking lot

Again we made it into and out of Canada safely. This time there was no load for us in Canada to bring out. Instead, our next load picked up in Millersburg, Oh. Another super fun place to drive thru. This load was being delivered to Fredricksburg, Virginia.

We got caught up in a major traffic jam when we were about 20 miles out from the consignee. I called into dispatch and let them know that we would probably not be able to make our delivery time and they were able to pull up the traffic report for our area and could see that we were not lying about the traffic situation. They called the customer and bumped our delivery time back.

We got our delivery completed routinely and proceeded to the nearest truckstop to wait for the next load. The truckstop was a zoo. Too many trucks and not enough parking spaces. We were lucky that our truck is so much smaller than a semi. We were able to  nose in to a parking space that the big trucks didn't have enough room to get into.

We ate, and headed back to the truck to get some rest. A few hours later, we were laying in the sleeper and felt the truck move. We knew it wasn't windy out, so we jumped up and looked outside to see what was going on. John opened the door and ran to the back of the truck just in time to see another truck pulling away.

Because of the size of our truck, we don't take up a full parking space. We usually pull in pretty far to try and keep ourselves out of the way of the trucks next to us so when they're pulling in or leaving they have a little more room to work with without having to worry about hitting our truck.

This time though, it worked against us because the truck driver didn't look closely enough to see our truck in the spot and assumed it was empty and he began backing in and actually hit our truck. At that point, he put it in gear and took off. Fortunately because we were nosed in he only hit the back dock bumper and scuffed it up a bit so no harm done.