Un-fuggin-believable

Read this shit....

http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2009/Sept09/083109/083109-03.htm

One thing that amazes me is that if you have a 14,000lb GVWR and no sleeper you are exempt. Ok, wouldn't your ass be in a hotel room than?

Here's an idea for all the jackass politicians out there.. Pull your heads outta your ass. What sense does it make that if you have a sleeper you aren't allowed to idle?

So here is another state that has no damn clue and wants to hug some trees.

I know I have went over this before, but truckers are federally mandated to take a 10hr break everyday. You ever sat in your car on a hot day with it off? How long did it take you to turn it on so you were comfortable? So now we are supposed to try and sleep like that or get fined 500 bucks.

The last time I talked about idling, Mikey replied and brought up a good point; What about all the police cars in these cities idling? What about all of the Air Force Security Forces vehicles that idle all the time so they stay cool or warm? I could go on and on...

I think I may need to pony up the $25 membership and become part of the OOIDA (Google that)..

Here's something to think about and apparently all of these tree huggin dumbasses don't. Do you really want people driving 80K lbs tractor trailers unrested? Or would you rather they get a good nights rest so they make their delivery safely and no one gets hurt? Seems like common sense to me, but than again when people get elected they apparently lose their fuckin mind.

So, this will be interesting....

Well, time to get out my truck stop book and bump it against the cities listed in the article and cross them off. Hopefully other truckers do the same. Than all of these city council pin heads will be wondering why they are losing revenue.

That is all...

Sent from my Sprint® BlackBerry®

File this under BULLSHIT

Read this first: http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2009/Aug09/081709/081909-01.htm

Here's the deal. The Gov. Finally signed the bill getting rid of split speeds a couple of days ago. So now trucks can finally go 65 just like cars in Illinois. But wait... It doesn't go into effect until 1 Jan 2010.

So now as you read in that article, he signs a bill to increase idling fines for trucks that goes into effect immediately. WTF???

Here's my beef. When we are on the road, the truck is our house. Federal law mandates we take a 10 hour break after driving 11hrs. Now, in order to get good sleep on hot summer nights/days we HAVE to idle so we don't cook in our sleep. Personally, I try to have a 0.00% over idle, but sometimes that isn't possible. If we are over a certain percentage, we get nasty messages from Swift over the Qualcomm and can get written up.

Anyway, I wonder if the governor turns off the power to his house at night to save electricity, which in turn, saves on pollution from power plants.

Today's trucks burn cleaner than most cars. Yet there isn't an idling law for cars. Hell, fire that baby up and let it run all night.

Ya wanna know what this bullshit law is really all about? It's easy ass money for the state because they are fuggin BROKE. So, target truckers since we can't get them for speeding as easily now.

Go to any truck stop in Chicago or East St Louis and just park there for an hour or so. Count how many cops roll through the truck parking in that hour. The assholes in East St Louis roll all the time. While your parked though, be sure to leave your car running so you stay cool cuz you can. :)

My final thought on the matter is kiss my ass and prove that I was idling more than the allotted time. Because I am pretty sure there are better things the cops in Chicago and East St Louis could be doing..





Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

People Piss Me Off

Yeah..Yeah.. I know it's better than being pissed on. Well, I guess it depends on what your into but that is a whole nother discussion.

Now, when you see construction zone signs and a big electronic board that says right lane closed 2 1/2 miles ahead what do you do?

Let me tell ya what most of the jackasses out there do... They see all the other traffic moving over, but they think they are special and stay in the right lane and race up to where it merges and than cut over. God forbid if they get stuck behind a truck and are forced to go the speed limit.

Today, there is an asshole in a green Honda Civic that is real lucky a truck weighing 76,840 lbs traveling 55 miles an hour can't accelerate easily. Oh, believe me, I tried too.

Here's what happened. There is a truck in front of me and nothing but cars behind. We are all in the left lane like the previous 5-7 signs told us to do. Now, I am following the truck in front of me fairly close. About a 4 second gap. I approached the barricades I see this car racing up beside me. This frickin genius wants to get in front of me.

I did all I could to accelerate and make him have to slam on his breaks, but just couldn't get enough steam quickly enough. Although it was close. ;)

Now, anyone wanna take a guess at what he did next? The nut sack proceeded to throw his arm out the window and flip me off. So now I'm the asshole, yet he was the only car in the right lane.

Moving on, since I am on a roll... Could ya'll do me a favor when you see a truck turn on their turn signal? Either shit or get off the pot. Do not sit there on the side and wonder what we wanna do. Let me give ya a little hint. Apply some pressure to that little pedal on the right. That will allow you to travel just a little faster and get around us.

Bottom line is pay attention to trucks.

Oh, and if you have to wear a helmet and can't multi-task how a bout ya get off the friggin phone and pay attention to what the hell is going on around you.

Finally, if you are behind a truck at a stop light and they are turning right, but you think you can squeeze between the truck and the curb, let me tell ya something. You my friend should not be allowed to reproduce. Do ya notice all the signs on trailers that say CAUTION THIS VEHICLE MAKES WIDE TURNS. Now, if you just wanna have your front end taken off, than that's the best way to do it.

Well, that's all for now. Gotta hit the head and close out the log book for today.

Sent from my Sprint® BlackBerry®

Seriously??

Take a gander at this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32318456/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa

I would think the Iraqi government would have more things to worry about than smoking in public places. Hell, two truck bombs just went of in Mosul and a couple other attacks happened in Baghdad.

Here's a thought Iraqi Government; How about you concern yourselves with who is doing the bombing. Oh wait, you will probably give me the same answer most of your employees I trained did. We can't find who is doing it because it's to dangerous.

How about ya get your pansy asses out there and do some real work and protect the people of your country instead of trying to pass stupid ass laws. Especially when you have car bombs still going off. I would think that is a greater risk to ones heath vs. Second hand smoke.

I guess they are just following what they learned from our government though. Let's just make up some stupid shit to make it look like we are working instead of handling the real issues at hand.

Personally, I could give two shits about Iraq and the Middle East. If they wanna blow each other up in the name of Allah, so be it. Get our asses out of there and let them go at it. Same with Afghanistan.

But wait.. We, the U.S.A., for some reason have to be the great protectors. For WHAT??

Let's take a look at how many Americans have lost their lives in this bullshit. Let's take a look at how much money we have spent. For WHAT? Not a damn thing, that's what. Is that area of the country any better than it was? Hell no. It's still just as screwed up because we don't make them help themselves.

Here's a novel idea.. How about we take care of our own country first! Imagine just for a moment what all of that money spent over the last 5-6 years on the war could have done if it was spent on fixing this country. Would we have the economic issues we have now?

That brings me to another point. When I call a customer service number, I want to speak to someone that speaks English. I don't want to speak to Aboo in the middle of India or wherever their at. How about we keep those jobs in America and pay Americans to do them. Oh, that's right.. If we move them overseas and pay those guys pennies on the dollar, I as a company will make more money. Well, it's BULLSHIT!!!!

Here's an idea.. How about we fix our own country before trying to fix others. We are just as screwed up, if not more so, than the others. So who the hell do we think we are that we can fix it?

I say we worry about us and fix us first. Only than can we help the rest of the world. Just a thought.

Well, not sure if any of that made sense or not. Just had to get it out after reading that article. I could continue on this rant, but it's not good for my blood pressure.

Let me leave you with this final thought. Now that the Commander-in-Chief is no longer my boss I can say this.... Obama is a jackass and just like every other politician.. Make all of these promises during the campaign and than do something completely different once elected. Notice how I said like every other politician.. Yes, even us Republicans aren't perfect and I agree that G.W. could screw up a wet dream, but that's besides the point.

Sent from my Sprint® BlackBerry®

Update

Angie reminded me tonight that I hadn't blogged in awhile. Not sure if she really likes reading them or if she would rather me get my frustrations out before talking on the phone. :)

Things are going good and I have been running my sphincter off. That's a good thing though. I think it was last week that I did 3K miles in 6 days. I really can't remember as the days fly by so fast.

Yesterday was extremely frustrating though. I unloaded in Haggerstown, MD at the Lowe's Flatbed DC. On the way there I e mailed Tonn to let her know about my hrs and if she could look for something that I could pick-up, but didn't deliver till Monday. That way I wouldn't get stuck in Maryland for 4 days doing a 34 and than not getting a load on the weekend.

Anywho... I was sent to York, PA to get a load of wood panels headed to Rochelle, IL with a Monday delivery. SWEET! The plan was to have me t-call it in Gary and than get a van load to take to the East St louis drop yard so I could do my home time. Notice I said WAS.

When I got my paperwork while getting loaded, they said I was getting 46,800 lbs. To which I asked how many people they have coming back that are overweight. I was told that no one comes back being overweight. Ok, whatever..

Well, York doesn't have a place to scale. I decided to scale where I was stopping for the night in Breesewood, PA 100 miles away. Let's just say it's a good thing I did. See, there are no scales on the turnpike in PA. They just count axles. However, I would have been shut down at the Ohio border. Ohio weighs you as you go thru the toll booth. If you're overweight, you get a red light and a nice visit from a uniformed office that is just itchin to give you a full rectal exam.

Here's the deal. I was legal on all axles, but my gross was 81,560. I can only be 80K.

This morning I headed back to York and had them remove 6 bundles off the front of the trailer. I had them take it off the front for two reasons. 1) I only had about 500lbs to play with on the drives and 2) I only had to undo and adjust one tarp and I am all about the KISS principal.

My theory worked though. I am now about 4,500 lbs lighter on the drives. Still have 37K on the trailer though, but that's fine. Pulls better that way and more importantly I am legal. Just under 78K.

Oh, the other day I passed a bus load of kids and of course they wanted me to blow the air horn. So, I reach up to pull the cord and not a damn thing happens. All I hear is a puff of air. What the hell?

As I was getting loaded yesterday I investigated a little deeper as to why the air horn wasn't working. I was surprised to find out that the back of the horn was melted. How the hell does that happen you ask? Well, on this truck the air horn is located under the driver just above the fuel tank. Directly behind the horn is the flexible exhaust hose that connects the DPF to the stacks. What I found was that hose was broke, thus meaning part of the exhaust was going right under the cab. Upon further investigation, the other side was broke to.

So, after I got the load fixed this morning I called On-Road and got authorization to stop at the Petro in Carlisle, PA to get it fixed. Carlise was the closest truck stop that did repairs about 25 miles away.

Needless to say what I thought was going to be a quick fix took about 4 hrs. The connections were rusted together and they had issues separating the pipes. However, the two connections are now replaced. But guess what? There is another pipe that is similar that comes off the straight pipe from the turbo and connects to the inlet of the DPF that is broken as well. This is a Freighliner specific part that they didn't have.

I messaged back to the Gary terminal though and gave them the part number. They sent the shop guy to head to Freightliner to get that part as well as the horn. So, I will get those fixed when I get to Gary on Sunday.

Once that was completed I got the truck washed again. She is all purdy again! Which means it will rain in western PA and eastern OH tomorrow. It never fails.

I am still T-calling this in Gary. I let them know I would be there first thing Sunday instead of Saturday and was told it was ok. I was also told I would be moved to vans when I got there. Sucks, but I will pull a wagon full of dog shit if it gets me home.

I think that's about it. Hopefully it all made sense. :)
Sent from my Sprint® BlackBerry®