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After realizing that I had been on the road for about 2 weeks, i decided it was a good time to take advantage of my situation and head home for a few days.

Once more trucking adventures occur, I will be posting again.

Breakdowns and tribulations

The better part of yesterday was spent in a nice cold room waiting for a repair to be done. The Qualcomm system was having rebooting and transmission issues that was making my job very difficult to do quickly as it is supposed to. So, going to the repair shop was the key point of my day, they fact that the repair took 11 hours to fix was kinda unacceptable.

This was what the back of my van looked like. Each one of those black boxes is a Qualcomm computer being used to figure out what is going on. Now, I come from a technical background so I would ask my questions as to what has been done, what will be done and how long it should take. When I ask them these questions, it is due to the fact that their answers will make sense to me and I can take that information and make some form of executive decision as to how my day is going to be.

After the first six hours there and I was getting looks of desperation from the technicians that were working on the issue, I kinda saw the writing on the wall that stated I would be a guest there for a long while. So that being said, I went and took myself out of service for the rest of the day.



The issue was finally resolved at 8pm. Turns out that the satellite/cellular/WiFi receiver unit had a crack in the housing that was letting water seep in and that caused a short circuit in the unit. That was the WHOLE problem. What screwed them up for the entire day was one "brand new" cable that they had replaced from their own stock. The cable was the connection between the receiver that was replaced and the Qualcomm unit. After speaking to the Tech, he stated that in the 5 years that he has been doing this type of work, he has NEVER seen a brand new, sealed cable be defective out of the package before. So all the troubleshooting that was being done was communication issues caused by the bad cable.

So in the end of the long day spent at the repair facility, there were two issues. The first issue was the receiver, which was replaced. The second issue was the cable, which was thrown out. The original cable that was being used was never replaced and is still in good working order. The fact of the matter is that there were 2 separate techs working on the truck, the first tech was the one that screwed up. The second tech was covering for the second shift Qualcomm tech and he told me that if he was there when the truck came in, I may have only been sitting around for about 2 hours and been on my way.

At the end of the day, I was able to finally crash of at family's house. Once I got into bed, I don't think I was conscious for more than 30 seconds after head hitting pillow. Got up roughly 9 hours later, showered and shaved and made sure that I was back in service and on duty. Now, the waiting game again.

I actually do enjoy this job. Driving with a purpose is kinda fun and being in a cargo van is a lot less stressful than an 18 wheeler. Not saying that I wouldn't hop back into that Captain's chair if I had the chance. I just think that getting there will be another up hill battle to overcome the trails and tribulations I went through while at Roehl. Til that day, I will put miles under my ass one day at a time and enjoy myself as much as I can.

Hangin in the Carolinas

Jobs are picking up. Was able to complete a total of 3. The last two were riding back and forth from North Carolina to South Carolina. I ended up back in Charlotte today and now waiting for the malfunctioning Qualcomm unit to be repaired.
I am enjoying this job a lot, I just gotta watch out where my time on the road is spent. I just pulled a 26 hour shift without realizing it. While at the repair facility I was able to grab a power nap for a couple hours, now I feel a lot better. Still need to sleep properly, but I will get there soon.

*Tap tap* Is this thing on?

Well I spent my first night at a truck stop.

To be fair, the mattress that is in the back of the van is quite comfortable. The problem, as it turns out, that keeping the van idling for power and a/c is not economical at all. I went from a half tank to a quarter tank in 6 hours. Aside from that, I slept well.

So it was another day of sitting around. I called my dispatch a couple of times to make sure that I was actually active in the system. Come to find out, it was just a slow day of sales. No sales, no trucking, makes a sad Obie. So when 6pm rolled around, I figured that I would not waste any more fuel and swapped my port of call from Canton Ohio to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Oh look, a bed I can borrow and shower I can use. The real threat of being stuck without a load for the weekend is a big one, so I might as well position myself in an area that I am comfortable and not waste fuel.

Its kind of depressing that I don't have anything to do yet but after talking to a few drivers, that actually happens but the month usually balances out and you will long for a day that you can just take a break. Which is something I am looking forward to.

So I am hanging at a friends house in PA and I am tired as hell. So I will just get some sleep while I can and hope I get some load offers tomorrow.

A day of rest

Sleep is such a wonderful sensation. Sometimes the act of sleeping is enough to make someone forget what is going on. Such is the way for me when I sleep. The difficult part is waking up suddenly to a sound, real or imagined, and having it jar me to wakefulness. That has happened the last couple of nights because I am taking a prescription every 8 hours. The alarm that is set goes off in the 3am time frame, which at its best, is a confusing time by its own right. Looking around and wondering where I am and what's going on is quite scary until I can realize where I am,

Today is a day of rest before going the last 2 hours to my training site. After sitting down and talking with my new "Boss", the job is actually looking better and better. There is still that hanging apprehension that I feel known as that "Other Shoe". Whether it exists and whether it will fall, I believe, is totally up to me and how *I* play this game. For it is a game now, one that has high stakes. If I don't play it right or well, I risk the well being of myself and my family, however if I am able to understand this game and bring it into a realm that I feel I can control and manipulate properly so i have the advantage, the possibility of making some good money is there.

For now, I will not think on it. Today is a day of rest and unwinding my brain. I had a few Guinness last night when I came in, which helped me relax a bit and absorb the ideas and happenings of the last few days. Today I will meet some new people that I will joke and laugh with. From there, who knows...