This week has been different than our past weeks on the road. I'm not sure if I shared earlier that our truck status changed. A couple of weeks ago, we decided to look into doing T-Val (Temperature Validated) loads which are loads that require temperature control but have much more stringent temperature regulations and much smaller range of temps. The sensors in the box have to be set precisely and it normally takes a couple days at FedEx running the tests and qualifying for these loads.
As Jim was checking on T-Val, the consultant said that we weren't even in their system as hauling reefer loads (which means refrigerated). Jim and I both figure that probably happened when our reefer went down and needed work done on it. I shared in an earlier blog that our reefer broke down in the middle of a load but we were fixed and finished the load. We didn't realize that there was a way we could check on our truck status, so we went and checked and then realized that we were not flagged with our lift gate either.Needless to say, once we figured that out, our load offers changed drastically, the week before we went home and this week. We've hauled probably at least 4 loads that were temp assured and now 2 or three that required a lift gate. Advice I would give to newbies is to check on your trucks' status ever so often because to us, nothing had changed about our truck but for some reason it had for FedEx.
Getting back to our loads from this last week. We left our house heading for Middletown, OH (the pickup was less than a mile from where Jim lived when he was little) about 4 in the morning. We were both definitely excited to get back on the road. There is an anticipation while we are on the road. Usually we have an idea about what we will be hauling but do not know details until we pick it up. This load was hazmat and we knew that we would have 6 dewars and three cylinders of helium. Jim enjoys hauling these loads because it reminds him of a job that he used to have at a welding supply business. The pickup was at a business very similar. Pickup was scheduled for 8 and we got there about 7:20, so we wound up waiting for them to get in. This gave me an opportunity to squeeze in a quick nap.
With dewars, we usually use load bars and straps to secure the load. We also use furniture pads where the metal part of the strap meets the dewar, just a little added protection. The dewars were filled with liquid helium and the cylinders with compressed helium.
Hazmat loads have different regulations than regular loads. Paperwork is required to list that the load is hazmat and the order in which the identification is done is very specific. The drivers are responsible for checking that the correct numbers are on the paperwork and that the numbers are also visable on the load itself. Dispatch does assist with this, because when you do the departure call they have you read off what is listed on the paperwork and then ask you if you checked the load. Dispatch also reviews the rules on carrying the hazmat load. Each driver also has a hazmat regulation and reponse book and that book must be marked to the appropriate page and all paperwork including the book has to be within arms reach and needs to be set on the drivers seat if the driver is out of the truck. The book gives specific instructions for what to do in case of a spill. In the case of helium, it is pretty safe unless you inhale an extreme amount of it. Our truck has the metal placard flip cards, if it wouldn't have those the customer would give us the placards to put on our truck. The pickup was easy and Jim was able to get to roll the cylinders which is evidently like riding a bike, once you know how to do it you don't forget.
Off to Indianapolis with our load of Helium (and no the truck did not float away, we kept all wheels on the ground, although the mental picture is kind of humorous). Jim likes to look up on Google Maps exactly where we are going so that we can get a road side peak at the building we will be looking for. I was concerned because it was a hospital and we were going to a larger city. My thought was that it was probably right downtown, not a favorite thing to do among truck drivers. He shared that it was on the outskirts and that it pretty much stood alone (I was relieved).
Once we arrived at our delivery we had to call and tell them that we were there. When Jim got off the phone, he knew exactly where we were going. The hospital has a portable MRI machine and the helium was for the machine. The machine was in a trailer and parked in a parking lot with a gate and the only way to get to it was to go past the parking lot and then back across two lanes of traffic and back into the parking lot. I was feeling pretty powerful so I told Jim, if he did the backing I would stop traffic. Lucky for us it was hospital visitor traffic and not really a through street and there was a light at one end and a stop sign at the other, so traffic was already moving slowly.
As I was taught in driving school, always have a plan, know where you are going and have an escape route so that you know how you are going to get out. Most people who drive truck can tell you, many times you can get a truck in somewhere but then you can not get it out. We had a good plan, back in and pull out. As safety goes, we really don't like to back up unless we have to (backing into docks is even dangerous because you are unable to see directly behind you), in this instance we had to. Thank goodness it was a beautiful fall day because we unloaded outside.
We were less than a mile from our delivery when we received our next load. The load was for the next day to pick up in Indiana and drop off in Ohio. We both thought...been there done that. I thank God every day that I have a husband with a memory. Since the load did not pick up until the next day, we knew that we were going to spend the night in Indiana. Jim, thankfully remembered that one of my cousins lived in the area. I texted her thinking she was probably still at work and also called and left her a voice mail. By 5, we figured she probably was doing something else and then we got a phone call from her. She shared that she had left her phone at home and just got our message and was wondering where we were.
Sarah was able to come to the truckstop and hang out with us for a couple of hours. It is so nice to be able to see family and friends while we are on the road. As we cousins got older we didn't see each other as often as we did when we were kids. Now it seems like we only see each other for weddings and funerals, so it was a blessing to just be able to stop and hang out catching up and talking. (talking in this day and age is becoming a lost art). If we would have been able to visit longer I'm sure a mean game of rummy or euchre would have entered the picture. We were glad to hear that everyone was doing ok and also to know to keep her sister and kids in prayer, as well as her mom as she travels back and forth to Ohio to be with one of my other aunts. Close families are so cool, although I don't know how it works not to be in a close family. We appreciate so much our family (all of it...extended and immediate), they are always there and Sarah was there for us that evening during a time that could have been a boring evening with just Jim and I. It turned out to be a fun night with a wonderful person! As we get more used to our schedules and driving, I'm sure we will have a chance to visit even more of our relatives and friends across the country.
The next morning we picked up our next load. This was another hazmat load, although it was a little different. This load was buckets of hazardous material. The load also had non hazardous materials. The total weight for the whole load was over 1000 lbs. The hazardous material made up only 1/2 the load and the non hazardous material made up the other half. This was a good thing because we did not have to placard for the hazardous material because it was less than 1,000 lbs. In our driving world, sometimes being placarded is like having a bulls-eye on you for inspection stations, so we are always happy when we don't have to be placarded. Hazmat is part of our job and loads pay well so it is worth the headache of possibly being stopped. An inspection isn't a bad thing and they are there to keep our roads safe. It is just the time it takes for the inspection and if you keep your truck in good working condition it is just a pain to have to stop and not to mention a little nerve racking when you are a newbie. This load was one pallet and an easy on load, secured with a load bars and straps. The delivery was even more simple, we pulled in and we really thing we broke some sort of record in time, I think we backed in and it was about 2 minutes and we were pulling out. We figured this was probably the easiest load we had so far.
On our way to the delivery, we received a load opportunity for our next load. I'm not sure if I've shared before, but this is considered being predispatched. Once we deliver then we receive the 12 messages (which is normal for all loads) for the next load. The 12 messages are the details of the trip and the freight and any notes about the shipper and the receiver as well as suggested routing for both. The next load picked up in New York and went to Canada. The load did not pick up until the next day, so we headed for New York and decided to stay in Pennsylvania for the night which was about 85 miles from our pickup. Jim brushed up on Canada since we hadn't been there in about a month.
Customs need certain information from our customer and from FedEx and require stickers on the paperwork and to have the Canandian permit. This load was temperature controlled pharmaceuticals but not considered hazmat. With a temp control load, we have to make sure that we turn on the reefer so that it reaches the correct temperature before we reach the shipper. The more drastic the temperature is on the outside, the longer the reefer needs to run to reach the correct temperature. The time from the truckstop to the delivery was plenty of time for the reefer to reach the temperature for the load.
The pickup was a business that had been bought out by a Canadian company and now they were closing their doors so the company was shipping their materials to the sister company in Canada, Texas and the Carolinas. The woman in charge of the shipment was a lot of fun to work with. At this facility they did a lot of testing of pharmaceuticals. She shared that the FDA was putting so many regulations on them, that companies were disappearing left and right. It appears that with so many regulations, the business was no longer productive because there were so many hoops that needed to be jumped through and then there still was no guarantees.
When she started there, she had started in the lab where she was responsible for testing materials which she really enjoyed. Like every great worker, her bosses, thought she would make a wonderful supervisor and that was what she was doing when they decided to close down. She has decided to go back to school to be a nurse which she is looking forward to. We had a discussion about how Jim and I decided to go into team driving. She loves the whole idea and can't wait until her daughter becomes of age because she thinks that is what she would like to do because she loves to drive and she really enjoys seeing the country. She shared that she had been talking to a lot of drivers these past few weeks and everyone seemed like they really enjoyed what they were doing. I told her that we always thought that we would retire and RV around the country and that life presented this opportunity which meant that we could do something similar and get paid for it.
Another part of our job that we like is meeting people like her. She had a bright and cheery smile and had such a great outlook on life and here she was about to lose her job. I strongly believe that attitude in life is everything and she had a good one and because of it, she is able to turn what others would see as lousy into something good.
This particular load consisted of 40 boxes and it required a lift-gate. The first part of the shipment, the shipper put on a cart the we took up on the lift-gate. While we were loading the truck, one of the guys who worked there came by and said, I have a better idea. Soon he came to the truck with a cart of boxes and had them on a forklift. This worked much better, as he just placed the cart on the edge of the truck and loading was much easier. We were all very thankful that he took his time to help and to offer his services to help others.
Once we had our paperwork done, the shipper faxed our paperwork to FedEx. She told us that usually the paperwork would take about an hour to clear customs and then we would be able to cross the border. We asked her if it would be all right if we stayed in their parking lot until we had been notified by dispatch that we had cleared customs. She said that was fine. So we waited until dispatch notified us that our paperwork cleared customs and then headed for the Peace Bridge. The trip through customs went fine. The only question he stumped me on was when was our last trip to Canada, I wasn't prepared for that one and I don't remember these things. I did the little, ummmmmm and then said about a month ago. He just smiled and asked how long we had been driving and I told him since August.
Phew, got through that, onto beautiful Canada and the lovely traffic of Toronto.
Every load we have had that went to Canada has been in Ontario and we've had to travel around Toronto on 401. Now we have an understanding that if we go to Canada, we know we will be sitting in a lot of traffic, this trip was no different. We were able to make it through the traffic and to the delivery on time. The delivery had a dock which in most cases would have made things easier but because these boxes were all separate, each of the 40 boxes had to be moved separately and put on a cart. It took some time to get unloaded but not a problem. The people at this delivery were Indian and for some reason I have a difficult time understanding their accents when they speak English. I tend to think it is probably more my hearing than their accent, I am getting a little older. They all were friendly and the paperwork was a breeze, so we were unloaded as quickly as we could be with the separate boxes.
After we were done, we called our fleet manager to see if it was smart to stay in Toronto or if we should head back to the states. She said to stay the night in Toronto and if we didn't get a load by tomorrow then, she would send us to the states. Since it was only about 1:00 in the afternoon, I said to Jim, why don't we see if we can find a mall and hang out for a while and maybe we could even stay over if they allowed truck parking. Since we didn't know Toronto very well, we looked up malls on the GPS and there was a mall called the Pacific mall, we thought we'd give it a shot. We set our GPS to no tolls, so it took us through what I would call suburbs of Toronto.
Jim was driving and he gets a little uptight when driving through the city and of course it was again crazy traffic. By the time we got to the mall we had made some observations about the neighborhoods we traveled through. It seemed that we were traveling through first a very predominately Indian neighborhood and then we felt like we had just travelled overseas to Eastern Asia. All signs were in symbols and we were unable to read any of them,. There weren't any McDonald's or any places that we recognized and then we found the mall that did have an English sign but all the other signs of the stores were not in English. It was like we were in the twilight zone. If we hadn't been so tired from fighting traffic, I think that we would probably have stopped just to see what it was like inside. I do have to admit, I think that I would have felt a little self conscious, everyone else would be speaking a different language and we obviously were not Asian. To put it mildly, we would have stuck out like a sore thumb. I wish we would have thought to just take a picture, it probably was the closest I would ever get to traveling overseas to an Asian country. There were signs in the lot that limited parking so we decided to head to a truck stop.
In the good ole USA, truck stops are easy to find, we have an app for them:) We used our app and found out that there was a Flying J's that wasn't too far but of course on the other side of town. So, through traffic we went to find the Flying J's. I was in the sleeper when I heard Jim, say (in a little louder than normal voice), "This is just a gas station, no truck parking, what in the world." Plan B we didn't have so we looked for another one and drove off to it. This time we knew we were on the right track because there were many trucks turning in that direction. The truck stop we stayed at was very small but it was all we needed. We spent the night and the next morning we decided to head to a service plaza that would be somewhat on our way to the USA in case we got a load. We found our way to the service plaza and went in and got some hot chocolate. As we sat I made some observations.
In Canada, they actually still have and use phone booths, not just at the service plaza but in town and believe it or not, people still actually use them. Another observation I made was that in the service plaza very few people were using cell phones. I have a few theories about the cell phone usage in the plaza. For example, maybe in their culture it is impolite to have the cell phones out in public. Another theory is that cell service is extremely expensive in Canada. Jim stated that the people we actually saw using cell phones were probably American. Our family in general tries to put the cells away when out eating somewhere. I think that even in the United States, people still respect time with family and cell phones are put away, like for instance while the family is eating together. Of course that will probably change as the generation who have always had cell phones will start having kids. Hopefully the cell phones will not take over so much so that we lose discussions and conversation. There is something to be said about face to face discussions. As a society, in my opinion, if we rely so much on communication through technology, we will no longer be able to read people and understand body language and non-verbals. (of course, that would also mean, you can't see someone's eyes roll, I could always do without that:).
After our hot chocolate, we headed back out to the truck and wound up being dispatched for the next day, so we started off to the states. We arrived at the border about 1:00 pm, which worked out great, we didn't have to wait in the staging yard, we were able to just go across the Peace Bridge. Customs always gives me a little anxiety, am always afraid I'm going to answer questions and wind up having them pull us over. Also, we have heard that coming back into the US is more stringent than going into Canada, of course most of those stories are from Detroit, but I still worry. I know the more we do it the less anxious it will be. Going through customs this time was surprising.
The first question we were asked was, "So you are buckeyes?' and then he went on to say, "I'm so sorry." That broke the tension I was feeling right then and there. He took our passports and continued to talk to us. We've only been across the border a few times and usually the people are all business, but this man made our day, was pleasant and really interested in us. We talked for a while about Ohio and the Buckeyes and that his name closely resembled my maiden name (his was Burke and mine was Burks). We gave him our ACE paperwork and then we were cleared to go. It was so nice to have someone that put you at ease right from the beginning. He sent us on our way by saying, "It was really nice talking to you." Wow!
Our next load picked up in New York and delivered in Connecticut. We spent the night in New York about 7 miles from our pickup. We left about 6:30 for our pickup at 8:00. When planning, we always take into consideration city traffic. If we leave too late we wind up in traffic which could make us late to our delivery, if we leave too early we risk having to sit and wait until the shipper is ready. We usually choose to arrive early and wait. The company did not come in until 8 so we waited for just a little while. There was actually another custom critical truck in front of us with a delivery. They told us that they had just come from Connecticut (exactly where we delivered) and had driven through lots of snow (in their words, a blizzard) and had arrived for their delivery at midnight. The business allowed them to stay overnight in the parking lot which we thought was awesome. It turns out that they were from Ohio too.
After they unloaded, we were able to pick up our load. I'm still not quite sure what our load was, but it was categorized as electronics. The men who helped load the equipment were really helpful and fun to talk to. As always the topic of weather comes up and we talked about the small snowfall the evening before and what the east coast we expecting for the weekend. One of the men shared that he enjoyed winter, that his family and he went camping in the winter in Canada and Pennsylvania. I just had to ask, "In a tent?", really thinking he would reply, are you kidding? Instead, he said, "Yes, in a tent." My next question was, "So, are you a scout or a scout leader.", considering I know that boy scouts have campouts in the winter. The other man chimed in, "No, he isn't a scout and the funny thing is, I am and I think he's crazy." We all talked a while longer about family and the outdoors then signed paperwork and we were off to Connecticut.
We traveled through New York and Massachusetts on the New York and Massachusetts Turnpikes. This is one of Jim's favorite drives, and the scenery was very beautiful. We were not expecting there to be as many leaves left on the trees as there was, but we were very glad to get to see a little "fall color". Another thing we were not expecting to see was SNOW! we started seeing some on the higher elevations, and then lower down. The picture below shows one area where it was Fall on one side of the road and Winter on the other! Very interesting. (And a little foreshadowing for the upcoming weekend!)
In Connecticut we pulled into the dock and one of the guys brought out a cart and loaded the containers on it. The conversation on the dock was about the coming storm. After the cart was loaded one of the other guys from the dock came onto the truck and said sarcastically to the other guy, "Here, let me help you with that, you know I do all the work around here and you never help." At that point he pulled the cart across where the dock met our truck and as he did, the handle of the cart slipped right out and the containers shifted backward. Nothing hurt, but the guys on the dock said, "And you, the head of safety. We probably should get someone to weld that together so that doesn't happen again." Everyone thought that was pretty humorous.
Once we were loaded, we decided to go to the TA and wait to see if we could get a another load. We knew that we probably would not get a load for the weekend but were hoping to get a load for Monday. We accepted about 4 loads before we were dispatched onto our load for Monday. It would be picking up in NJ, so we decided to spend the weekend in Connecticut. Paying special attention to the weather, we were glad that we weren't going anywhere until Monday. The snow was to hit on Saturday and Sunday and Monday were supposed to be in the 50s so we knew the snow would be melted by the time we needed to leave. For the area there was worry of downed trees and power outages because the trees all still had their leaves and were still weakened by the tropical storm they had earlier and because of the weight and amount of snow that they were expecting.
Pictures and stories about our winter storm October weekend in Connecticut will be updated in our next post.
Well, almost updated to present time. Still loving our job and loving the people we meet. One adventure right after another, one day at a time!
Happy Halloween everyone! Happy Reformation Day!
Peace and blessings,
Judy
As Jim was checking on T-Val, the consultant said that we weren't even in their system as hauling reefer loads (which means refrigerated). Jim and I both figure that probably happened when our reefer went down and needed work done on it. I shared in an earlier blog that our reefer broke down in the middle of a load but we were fixed and finished the load. We didn't realize that there was a way we could check on our truck status, so we went and checked and then realized that we were not flagged with our lift gate either.Needless to say, once we figured that out, our load offers changed drastically, the week before we went home and this week. We've hauled probably at least 4 loads that were temp assured and now 2 or three that required a lift gate. Advice I would give to newbies is to check on your trucks' status ever so often because to us, nothing had changed about our truck but for some reason it had for FedEx.
Getting back to our loads from this last week. We left our house heading for Middletown, OH (the pickup was less than a mile from where Jim lived when he was little) about 4 in the morning. We were both definitely excited to get back on the road. There is an anticipation while we are on the road. Usually we have an idea about what we will be hauling but do not know details until we pick it up. This load was hazmat and we knew that we would have 6 dewars and three cylinders of helium. Jim enjoys hauling these loads because it reminds him of a job that he used to have at a welding supply business. The pickup was at a business very similar. Pickup was scheduled for 8 and we got there about 7:20, so we wound up waiting for them to get in. This gave me an opportunity to squeeze in a quick nap.
With dewars, we usually use load bars and straps to secure the load. We also use furniture pads where the metal part of the strap meets the dewar, just a little added protection. The dewars were filled with liquid helium and the cylinders with compressed helium.
Hazmat loads have different regulations than regular loads. Paperwork is required to list that the load is hazmat and the order in which the identification is done is very specific. The drivers are responsible for checking that the correct numbers are on the paperwork and that the numbers are also visable on the load itself. Dispatch does assist with this, because when you do the departure call they have you read off what is listed on the paperwork and then ask you if you checked the load. Dispatch also reviews the rules on carrying the hazmat load. Each driver also has a hazmat regulation and reponse book and that book must be marked to the appropriate page and all paperwork including the book has to be within arms reach and needs to be set on the drivers seat if the driver is out of the truck. The book gives specific instructions for what to do in case of a spill. In the case of helium, it is pretty safe unless you inhale an extreme amount of it. Our truck has the metal placard flip cards, if it wouldn't have those the customer would give us the placards to put on our truck. The pickup was easy and Jim was able to get to roll the cylinders which is evidently like riding a bike, once you know how to do it you don't forget.
Off to Indianapolis with our load of Helium (and no the truck did not float away, we kept all wheels on the ground, although the mental picture is kind of humorous). Jim likes to look up on Google Maps exactly where we are going so that we can get a road side peak at the building we will be looking for. I was concerned because it was a hospital and we were going to a larger city. My thought was that it was probably right downtown, not a favorite thing to do among truck drivers. He shared that it was on the outskirts and that it pretty much stood alone (I was relieved).
Once we arrived at our delivery we had to call and tell them that we were there. When Jim got off the phone, he knew exactly where we were going. The hospital has a portable MRI machine and the helium was for the machine. The machine was in a trailer and parked in a parking lot with a gate and the only way to get to it was to go past the parking lot and then back across two lanes of traffic and back into the parking lot. I was feeling pretty powerful so I told Jim, if he did the backing I would stop traffic. Lucky for us it was hospital visitor traffic and not really a through street and there was a light at one end and a stop sign at the other, so traffic was already moving slowly.
As I was taught in driving school, always have a plan, know where you are going and have an escape route so that you know how you are going to get out. Most people who drive truck can tell you, many times you can get a truck in somewhere but then you can not get it out. We had a good plan, back in and pull out. As safety goes, we really don't like to back up unless we have to (backing into docks is even dangerous because you are unable to see directly behind you), in this instance we had to. Thank goodness it was a beautiful fall day because we unloaded outside.
We were less than a mile from our delivery when we received our next load. The load was for the next day to pick up in Indiana and drop off in Ohio. We both thought...been there done that. I thank God every day that I have a husband with a memory. Since the load did not pick up until the next day, we knew that we were going to spend the night in Indiana. Jim, thankfully remembered that one of my cousins lived in the area. I texted her thinking she was probably still at work and also called and left her a voice mail. By 5, we figured she probably was doing something else and then we got a phone call from her. She shared that she had left her phone at home and just got our message and was wondering where we were.
Sarah was able to come to the truckstop and hang out with us for a couple of hours. It is so nice to be able to see family and friends while we are on the road. As we cousins got older we didn't see each other as often as we did when we were kids. Now it seems like we only see each other for weddings and funerals, so it was a blessing to just be able to stop and hang out catching up and talking. (talking in this day and age is becoming a lost art). If we would have been able to visit longer I'm sure a mean game of rummy or euchre would have entered the picture. We were glad to hear that everyone was doing ok and also to know to keep her sister and kids in prayer, as well as her mom as she travels back and forth to Ohio to be with one of my other aunts. Close families are so cool, although I don't know how it works not to be in a close family. We appreciate so much our family (all of it...extended and immediate), they are always there and Sarah was there for us that evening during a time that could have been a boring evening with just Jim and I. It turned out to be a fun night with a wonderful person! As we get more used to our schedules and driving, I'm sure we will have a chance to visit even more of our relatives and friends across the country.
The next morning we picked up our next load. This was another hazmat load, although it was a little different. This load was buckets of hazardous material. The load also had non hazardous materials. The total weight for the whole load was over 1000 lbs. The hazardous material made up only 1/2 the load and the non hazardous material made up the other half. This was a good thing because we did not have to placard for the hazardous material because it was less than 1,000 lbs. In our driving world, sometimes being placarded is like having a bulls-eye on you for inspection stations, so we are always happy when we don't have to be placarded. Hazmat is part of our job and loads pay well so it is worth the headache of possibly being stopped. An inspection isn't a bad thing and they are there to keep our roads safe. It is just the time it takes for the inspection and if you keep your truck in good working condition it is just a pain to have to stop and not to mention a little nerve racking when you are a newbie. This load was one pallet and an easy on load, secured with a load bars and straps. The delivery was even more simple, we pulled in and we really thing we broke some sort of record in time, I think we backed in and it was about 2 minutes and we were pulling out. We figured this was probably the easiest load we had so far.
On our way to the delivery, we received a load opportunity for our next load. I'm not sure if I've shared before, but this is considered being predispatched. Once we deliver then we receive the 12 messages (which is normal for all loads) for the next load. The 12 messages are the details of the trip and the freight and any notes about the shipper and the receiver as well as suggested routing for both. The next load picked up in New York and went to Canada. The load did not pick up until the next day, so we headed for New York and decided to stay in Pennsylvania for the night which was about 85 miles from our pickup. Jim brushed up on Canada since we hadn't been there in about a month.
Customs need certain information from our customer and from FedEx and require stickers on the paperwork and to have the Canandian permit. This load was temperature controlled pharmaceuticals but not considered hazmat. With a temp control load, we have to make sure that we turn on the reefer so that it reaches the correct temperature before we reach the shipper. The more drastic the temperature is on the outside, the longer the reefer needs to run to reach the correct temperature. The time from the truckstop to the delivery was plenty of time for the reefer to reach the temperature for the load.
The pickup was a business that had been bought out by a Canadian company and now they were closing their doors so the company was shipping their materials to the sister company in Canada, Texas and the Carolinas. The woman in charge of the shipment was a lot of fun to work with. At this facility they did a lot of testing of pharmaceuticals. She shared that the FDA was putting so many regulations on them, that companies were disappearing left and right. It appears that with so many regulations, the business was no longer productive because there were so many hoops that needed to be jumped through and then there still was no guarantees.
When she started there, she had started in the lab where she was responsible for testing materials which she really enjoyed. Like every great worker, her bosses, thought she would make a wonderful supervisor and that was what she was doing when they decided to close down. She has decided to go back to school to be a nurse which she is looking forward to. We had a discussion about how Jim and I decided to go into team driving. She loves the whole idea and can't wait until her daughter becomes of age because she thinks that is what she would like to do because she loves to drive and she really enjoys seeing the country. She shared that she had been talking to a lot of drivers these past few weeks and everyone seemed like they really enjoyed what they were doing. I told her that we always thought that we would retire and RV around the country and that life presented this opportunity which meant that we could do something similar and get paid for it.
Another part of our job that we like is meeting people like her. She had a bright and cheery smile and had such a great outlook on life and here she was about to lose her job. I strongly believe that attitude in life is everything and she had a good one and because of it, she is able to turn what others would see as lousy into something good.
This particular load consisted of 40 boxes and it required a lift-gate. The first part of the shipment, the shipper put on a cart the we took up on the lift-gate. While we were loading the truck, one of the guys who worked there came by and said, I have a better idea. Soon he came to the truck with a cart of boxes and had them on a forklift. This worked much better, as he just placed the cart on the edge of the truck and loading was much easier. We were all very thankful that he took his time to help and to offer his services to help others.
Once we had our paperwork done, the shipper faxed our paperwork to FedEx. She told us that usually the paperwork would take about an hour to clear customs and then we would be able to cross the border. We asked her if it would be all right if we stayed in their parking lot until we had been notified by dispatch that we had cleared customs. She said that was fine. So we waited until dispatch notified us that our paperwork cleared customs and then headed for the Peace Bridge. The trip through customs went fine. The only question he stumped me on was when was our last trip to Canada, I wasn't prepared for that one and I don't remember these things. I did the little, ummmmmm and then said about a month ago. He just smiled and asked how long we had been driving and I told him since August.
Phew, got through that, onto beautiful Canada and the lovely traffic of Toronto.
Every load we have had that went to Canada has been in Ontario and we've had to travel around Toronto on 401. Now we have an understanding that if we go to Canada, we know we will be sitting in a lot of traffic, this trip was no different. We were able to make it through the traffic and to the delivery on time. The delivery had a dock which in most cases would have made things easier but because these boxes were all separate, each of the 40 boxes had to be moved separately and put on a cart. It took some time to get unloaded but not a problem. The people at this delivery were Indian and for some reason I have a difficult time understanding their accents when they speak English. I tend to think it is probably more my hearing than their accent, I am getting a little older. They all were friendly and the paperwork was a breeze, so we were unloaded as quickly as we could be with the separate boxes.
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| Toronto Traffic |
Jim was driving and he gets a little uptight when driving through the city and of course it was again crazy traffic. By the time we got to the mall we had made some observations about the neighborhoods we traveled through. It seemed that we were traveling through first a very predominately Indian neighborhood and then we felt like we had just travelled overseas to Eastern Asia. All signs were in symbols and we were unable to read any of them,. There weren't any McDonald's or any places that we recognized and then we found the mall that did have an English sign but all the other signs of the stores were not in English. It was like we were in the twilight zone. If we hadn't been so tired from fighting traffic, I think that we would probably have stopped just to see what it was like inside. I do have to admit, I think that I would have felt a little self conscious, everyone else would be speaking a different language and we obviously were not Asian. To put it mildly, we would have stuck out like a sore thumb. I wish we would have thought to just take a picture, it probably was the closest I would ever get to traveling overseas to an Asian country. There were signs in the lot that limited parking so we decided to head to a truck stop.
In the good ole USA, truck stops are easy to find, we have an app for them:) We used our app and found out that there was a Flying J's that wasn't too far but of course on the other side of town. So, through traffic we went to find the Flying J's. I was in the sleeper when I heard Jim, say (in a little louder than normal voice), "This is just a gas station, no truck parking, what in the world." Plan B we didn't have so we looked for another one and drove off to it. This time we knew we were on the right track because there were many trucks turning in that direction. The truck stop we stayed at was very small but it was all we needed. We spent the night and the next morning we decided to head to a service plaza that would be somewhat on our way to the USA in case we got a load. We found our way to the service plaza and went in and got some hot chocolate. As we sat I made some observations.
In Canada, they actually still have and use phone booths, not just at the service plaza but in town and believe it or not, people still actually use them. Another observation I made was that in the service plaza very few people were using cell phones. I have a few theories about the cell phone usage in the plaza. For example, maybe in their culture it is impolite to have the cell phones out in public. Another theory is that cell service is extremely expensive in Canada. Jim stated that the people we actually saw using cell phones were probably American. Our family in general tries to put the cells away when out eating somewhere. I think that even in the United States, people still respect time with family and cell phones are put away, like for instance while the family is eating together. Of course that will probably change as the generation who have always had cell phones will start having kids. Hopefully the cell phones will not take over so much so that we lose discussions and conversation. There is something to be said about face to face discussions. As a society, in my opinion, if we rely so much on communication through technology, we will no longer be able to read people and understand body language and non-verbals. (of course, that would also mean, you can't see someone's eyes roll, I could always do without that:).
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| Canadian Phone Booth (hard to see, but it's there!) |
After our hot chocolate, we headed back out to the truck and wound up being dispatched for the next day, so we started off to the states. We arrived at the border about 1:00 pm, which worked out great, we didn't have to wait in the staging yard, we were able to just go across the Peace Bridge. Customs always gives me a little anxiety, am always afraid I'm going to answer questions and wind up having them pull us over. Also, we have heard that coming back into the US is more stringent than going into Canada, of course most of those stories are from Detroit, but I still worry. I know the more we do it the less anxious it will be. Going through customs this time was surprising.
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| View from the Peace Bridge Entering the US |
The first question we were asked was, "So you are buckeyes?' and then he went on to say, "I'm so sorry." That broke the tension I was feeling right then and there. He took our passports and continued to talk to us. We've only been across the border a few times and usually the people are all business, but this man made our day, was pleasant and really interested in us. We talked for a while about Ohio and the Buckeyes and that his name closely resembled my maiden name (his was Burke and mine was Burks). We gave him our ACE paperwork and then we were cleared to go. It was so nice to have someone that put you at ease right from the beginning. He sent us on our way by saying, "It was really nice talking to you." Wow!
Our next load picked up in New York and delivered in Connecticut. We spent the night in New York about 7 miles from our pickup. We left about 6:30 for our pickup at 8:00. When planning, we always take into consideration city traffic. If we leave too late we wind up in traffic which could make us late to our delivery, if we leave too early we risk having to sit and wait until the shipper is ready. We usually choose to arrive early and wait. The company did not come in until 8 so we waited for just a little while. There was actually another custom critical truck in front of us with a delivery. They told us that they had just come from Connecticut (exactly where we delivered) and had driven through lots of snow (in their words, a blizzard) and had arrived for their delivery at midnight. The business allowed them to stay overnight in the parking lot which we thought was awesome. It turns out that they were from Ohio too.
After they unloaded, we were able to pick up our load. I'm still not quite sure what our load was, but it was categorized as electronics. The men who helped load the equipment were really helpful and fun to talk to. As always the topic of weather comes up and we talked about the small snowfall the evening before and what the east coast we expecting for the weekend. One of the men shared that he enjoyed winter, that his family and he went camping in the winter in Canada and Pennsylvania. I just had to ask, "In a tent?", really thinking he would reply, are you kidding? Instead, he said, "Yes, in a tent." My next question was, "So, are you a scout or a scout leader.", considering I know that boy scouts have campouts in the winter. The other man chimed in, "No, he isn't a scout and the funny thing is, I am and I think he's crazy." We all talked a while longer about family and the outdoors then signed paperwork and we were off to Connecticut.
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| A little snow on the Mass. Turnpike |
We traveled through New York and Massachusetts on the New York and Massachusetts Turnpikes. This is one of Jim's favorite drives, and the scenery was very beautiful. We were not expecting there to be as many leaves left on the trees as there was, but we were very glad to get to see a little "fall color". Another thing we were not expecting to see was SNOW! we started seeing some on the higher elevations, and then lower down. The picture below shows one area where it was Fall on one side of the road and Winter on the other! Very interesting. (And a little foreshadowing for the upcoming weekend!)
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| Fall / Winter at the same time! |
In Connecticut we pulled into the dock and one of the guys brought out a cart and loaded the containers on it. The conversation on the dock was about the coming storm. After the cart was loaded one of the other guys from the dock came onto the truck and said sarcastically to the other guy, "Here, let me help you with that, you know I do all the work around here and you never help." At that point he pulled the cart across where the dock met our truck and as he did, the handle of the cart slipped right out and the containers shifted backward. Nothing hurt, but the guys on the dock said, "And you, the head of safety. We probably should get someone to weld that together so that doesn't happen again." Everyone thought that was pretty humorous.
Once we were loaded, we decided to go to the TA and wait to see if we could get a another load. We knew that we probably would not get a load for the weekend but were hoping to get a load for Monday. We accepted about 4 loads before we were dispatched onto our load for Monday. It would be picking up in NJ, so we decided to spend the weekend in Connecticut. Paying special attention to the weather, we were glad that we weren't going anywhere until Monday. The snow was to hit on Saturday and Sunday and Monday were supposed to be in the 50s so we knew the snow would be melted by the time we needed to leave. For the area there was worry of downed trees and power outages because the trees all still had their leaves and were still weakened by the tropical storm they had earlier and because of the weight and amount of snow that they were expecting.
Pictures and stories about our winter storm October weekend in Connecticut will be updated in our next post.
Well, almost updated to present time. Still loving our job and loving the people we meet. One adventure right after another, one day at a time!
Happy Halloween everyone! Happy Reformation Day!
Peace and blessings,
Judy
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