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It actually started last week when I got told by my boss that due to a shortage of our regular drivers. (One has been out for a couple weeks with an injured back) I was given the joy of driving down to New Jersey to pick up some subrented gear for one of our clients. We actually go to this place, whose warehouse is just over the George Washington Bridge from NYC, often enough that we have figured out the optimum pattern. OUr driver leaves about 330-4am, and is ahead of all the heavy traffic times to get to there right as they open, then eat a leisurely breakfast to allow all the drivers from NJ going into NYC to get out of the way, and then drive back to Boston, mostly avoiding the traffic on the way back.
But, this drive is juuuuust far enough away to trigger Commercial Driver rules for keeping a logbook and rest periods and so on. So I have to fill out a 24 hour per day time sheet for today, and the previous seven days, and have it in the cab with me in case I get inspected at a weigh station or something. This is something I have never done before, so it steepens the learning curve.
The power outlet in the truck I'm using doesn't work, and since I want my GPS and cell phone charger powered when I'mn driving, I have to find a workaround to get power for them. I ended up buying a new socket and installing it just before I left this morning.
Yeahhhhhh.... So I overslept a bit, and didn't get to work until a few minutes after 4am, and was on the road with all my gack about 430am. Of course, while I was driving on the most potholed, misbegotten stretch of highway I have ever personally experienced, the cross-bronx expressway, my repair jolted out and the GPS shut off. Just when I actually needed it. The drive up to that point was easy, get on I95 and drive until I cross the George Washington Bridge. But I had directions from google maps, so I followed them through the twisty snarl of roads that explode from the GWbridge through Fort Lee, NJ.
OF course, I got lost. I also nearly lost my tires to an expansion joint on the bridge. You know those metal fingers that allow bridges to flex and stretch while cars drive over them. When they are pointing straight up, they do an amazing amount of damage to the undersides of cars. This further delayed me.
I finally found myself on the service road for Giant's Stadium, where I was able to pull over and stop. Fixed the power outlet and got the GPS going again, and it fairly easily guided me to the destination. Found the loading docks for outgoing rental orders and backed in, parked and went inside. Where they didn't have my order ready. As it turned out, the order confirmation had gotten lost in some electronic limbo. Sorting that out and then their warehouse guys scrambling around to pull the order turned what should have been fifteen minutes at the dock into a bit over two hours of waiting and assorted texts and phone calls back to my company.
My leisurely breakfast had ended up being a coke and some pastryish thing from the canteen truck that stopped at the warehouse while I was waiting for my order. So, off I go, tell the GPS to guide me back, and it does so pretty well. Except for the part it didn't know I was a truck and kept telling me to take various car only parkways. I stayed on I95 all the way back. The expansion joint on the GW bridge was in the process of being replaced. They had a small crane and lots of other vehicles blocking all four southbound lanes on the upper level working on that. SO I jounced along the cross-bronx expressway again, praying my back and kidneys would not sustain permanent damage, and marveling at the several miles long traffic jam heading south. The traffic jam actually extended to the other side of NYC.
Traffic jams did delay me in CT, as they did on the way south earlier. I finally made it back to the shop, backed it into the loading dock and shut it off. Final score, 12 hour workday, 9 and some hours driving, so I was legal, even though I never got looked at. Every weigh station and truck inspection place I drove past today was closed.
Now I'm home, had a nice dinner of cabbage and porkchops, showered and now lazing in bed venting my frustrations of the day here. I expect I'll be going to sleep soon. Tomorrow morning, I'm not sure what will happen, Wake up early, oversleep, or normal wakeup time. I have reset my alarm clock back to normal times.
But, this drive is juuuuust far enough away to trigger Commercial Driver rules for keeping a logbook and rest periods and so on. So I have to fill out a 24 hour per day time sheet for today, and the previous seven days, and have it in the cab with me in case I get inspected at a weigh station or something. This is something I have never done before, so it steepens the learning curve.
The power outlet in the truck I'm using doesn't work, and since I want my GPS and cell phone charger powered when I'mn driving, I have to find a workaround to get power for them. I ended up buying a new socket and installing it just before I left this morning.
Yeahhhhhh.... So I overslept a bit, and didn't get to work until a few minutes after 4am, and was on the road with all my gack about 430am. Of course, while I was driving on the most potholed, misbegotten stretch of highway I have ever personally experienced, the cross-bronx expressway, my repair jolted out and the GPS shut off. Just when I actually needed it. The drive up to that point was easy, get on I95 and drive until I cross the George Washington Bridge. But I had directions from google maps, so I followed them through the twisty snarl of roads that explode from the GWbridge through Fort Lee, NJ.
OF course, I got lost. I also nearly lost my tires to an expansion joint on the bridge. You know those metal fingers that allow bridges to flex and stretch while cars drive over them. When they are pointing straight up, they do an amazing amount of damage to the undersides of cars. This further delayed me.
I finally found myself on the service road for Giant's Stadium, where I was able to pull over and stop. Fixed the power outlet and got the GPS going again, and it fairly easily guided me to the destination. Found the loading docks for outgoing rental orders and backed in, parked and went inside. Where they didn't have my order ready. As it turned out, the order confirmation had gotten lost in some electronic limbo. Sorting that out and then their warehouse guys scrambling around to pull the order turned what should have been fifteen minutes at the dock into a bit over two hours of waiting and assorted texts and phone calls back to my company.
My leisurely breakfast had ended up being a coke and some pastryish thing from the canteen truck that stopped at the warehouse while I was waiting for my order. So, off I go, tell the GPS to guide me back, and it does so pretty well. Except for the part it didn't know I was a truck and kept telling me to take various car only parkways. I stayed on I95 all the way back. The expansion joint on the GW bridge was in the process of being replaced. They had a small crane and lots of other vehicles blocking all four southbound lanes on the upper level working on that. SO I jounced along the cross-bronx expressway again, praying my back and kidneys would not sustain permanent damage, and marveling at the several miles long traffic jam heading south. The traffic jam actually extended to the other side of NYC.
Traffic jams did delay me in CT, as they did on the way south earlier. I finally made it back to the shop, backed it into the loading dock and shut it off. Final score, 12 hour workday, 9 and some hours driving, so I was legal, even though I never got looked at. Every weigh station and truck inspection place I drove past today was closed.
Now I'm home, had a nice dinner of cabbage and porkchops, showered and now lazing in bed venting my frustrations of the day here. I expect I'll be going to sleep soon. Tomorrow morning, I'm not sure what will happen, Wake up early, oversleep, or normal wakeup time. I have reset my alarm clock back to normal times.
