Marooned! Our First Bad Week
by
Phil Madsen, Expediter
(Written October 25, 2003. Edited March 8, 2007 for publication on SuccessfulExpediters.com.)
Soon after I started posting my trucking industry questions, stories and views on the internet, a handful of hostile and vocal critics have taken great interest in my writings. They claim to be industry veterans and often offer advice to newbies. This grizzled bunch has been waiting for something bad to happen to us so we will know how right they were about the hazards, trials and stress of trucking. Well, something bad has happened. This story is for them.
As I write this, we are marooned in Tampa, Florida, due to a broke down truck, parts being out of stock and bad timing. We have not made any money since Wednesday and won't until at least Monday, probably Tuesday.
Today's view from the cab is limited to the inside of a Freightliner repair facility. It's a beautiful day in Tampa. I'm stuck in the shop. The view sucks. The shop air stinks.
Boo hoo, hoo, hoo! Poor me! What options do I have? I know! I'll get discouraged, blame others for the problems I'm having and quit trucking.
Not really.
I enjoy trucking as much this day as I have any day so far. That is because the trucking lifestyle we have today is way-better than the white-collar lifestyle we left behind. As we see it, a bad day in trucking is better than a good day in an office. We knew there would be times like this before we began. We are prepared to deal with them and will be back on the road soon enough.
That is the short story. The long story follows.
We arrived in Tampa Thursday morning, delivering a load from Connecticut. We were glad to get the Tampa run because our fleet owner has another team that lives in the area. That team is taking two months off to build a new house, and to move into a brand new Western Star truck our fleet owner ordered for them. The old truck they were driving was to become our new truck.
We were driving a 2000 Freightliner Century Class. We are now in a 2001 Freightliner Century Class. While the truck models and configurations are nearly the same, the difference between the two is like night and day.
The old truck was a repo acquired by our fleet owner. We never felt good driving it. There were a hundred little things that didn't work, or fit right, or rattled, or even fell apart in our hands. The truck was safe and got us from point A to B, but being in that worn out, beat up truck was no fun.
The 2001 truck was owned and operated by our fleet owners when they worked on the road. It is in like-new condition and everything works! The seats swivel like they should. You don't have to use a stick to keep the arm rests from sagging when in use. The sun visors stay up. The windshield is not pitted. The cigarette lighter does not blow fuses. The interior lighting is better. The sleeper even has windows!
I once worked as an auto mechanic. I like everything to work on a vehicle. It was no fun being in the old rattletrap. When we were interviewing fleet owners (about 20 in all), some offered us brand new trucks with 84 inch sleepers. We accepted the smaller sleeper, and unknowingly accepted a rattletrap, because the truck came with two great fleet owners (a husband and wife team) whose coaching has been invaluable.
That is a choice we would make again if we had to. When you are new in the business, it is better to have a good coach than a good truck. The good truck will come in time. Good coaches are not as easy to find.
Now we have both. A good truck and a good coach. The sleeper is still much smaller than what we eventually want, and the truck is still a Freightliner. But it is a major step up from the first truck we drove.
We continue to heed the advice offered by many. That is to drive someone else's truck for a while before buying one of your own. Having done so, I can say that is excellent advice, especially if you have great fleet owners as we do.
After delivering our Tampa load we went out of service to meet the other team and swap trucks. They would take the old truck home for the fleet owner to pick up later. The fleet owners lived about 130 miles away. We planned to go back in service after lunch with the team and hoped to be back in the freight lanes over the weekend.
The team delivered a sparkling truck to us. I did not ask, but it appears he hand washed and waxed the truck himself. He said he washed and waxed the wood floor in the box. It looks like a gym floor. The chrome was polished all around. The windows were clean. The cab was washed and shampooed.
We cleaned our truck as best we could in the truck stop parking lot and felt bad for giving back a truck that was clean but not detailed like the truck we received. Without a garden hose and steam vac, there is only so much you can do.
As sometimes happens, we spent more time visiting with this team than anticipated. It is always a pleasure to chat with people who understand your business. We exchanged ideas, shared road stories and compared notes about the fleet owners we have in common. The mid-afternoon Flying J buffet lunch was on us.
We went back in service late Thursday afternoon, not expecting a load offer until Friday. Another D-unit truck was in Tampa and ahead of us in line. Florida is known among expediters as a slow freight area. Waits for loads are generally longer here than in the busier freight lanes.
We showered at the Flying J and went to sleep in the truck. Sleep in a non-moving truck felt good after our long run from Connecticut.
The first order of business Friday morning was to cash about $2,000 in Comdata checks. The Comdata card the fleet owners provided with the old truck stayed with the old truck. We got the new card that came with the new truck. Our carrier pays some of our run money to the card. We use the card to buy fuel and access our funds. Before turning it in, we wrote checks against the old card to move our money from that account into our hands.
Flying J does not honor Comdata cards. A nearby gas station that accepts Comdata would not cash Comdata checks that large. A nearby bank that accepts Comdata checks will only help you if you have an account there. So, here we are, stuck with $2,000 we can't use. We will have to mail the Comdata checks to our home bank and access funds from there. That will take time.
I have listened to drivers talking on the CB at truck stops trying to raise money by peddling stuff out of their cabs. They need money for tolls so they can complete their run. They are broke or far away from their cash and need money for fuel. While waiting in line at fuel desks, I have seen drivers buy just $30 worth of fuel. Filling the tanks would cost $200 or more. They mismanaged their run money and were in dire straights.
We planned ahead. Being away from $2,000 for a few days is not a problem. We will use cash on hand, ATM withdrawals and credit cards if we need to. We probably won't need new cash. Our tanks are full. We have plenty of food in the truck. We can park for free at the nearby TA. We have shower credits built up on our Road King card so we won't have to spend $7.00 for a shower.
The first time I drove the new truck was a short drive to the local bank. When I stepped on the brakes, the truck pulled sharply to the left. If not for a firm grip on the steering wheel, it would have spun out of my hands and the truck would have jolted across the center line and into oncoming traffic.
That prompted us to do a thorough pre-trip/post-trip inspection of this very clean but now mechanically suspect truck. We normally do pre-trip/post-trip inspections every day and would have done one on the new truck that night and the next morning. But with the previous drivers reporting no problems, doing one in their presence seemed unnecessary and may have seemed rude.
The inspection revealed a defective brake valve. It would not pop out as it should when we used the brake pedal to pump the air out of the air brakes system.
I called the fleet owner about the brakes and valve. She told us to take the truck to a Freightliner dealer. She worried aloud that the defective brake valve might be discovered by an officer at a scale stop. That could mean the truck may be put out of service and would have to be towed. That is an expense she wished to avoid.
The nearest Freightliner dealer was in Tampa. We arrived Friday around noon and were told they could not get us in until Monday. Brakes are a safety issue so we were not going to take a load or drive far until they were fixed. We went to the Tampa TA to wait out the weekend. Later on Friday, our fleet owner called the dealer and got us scheduled for Saturday morning.
We arrived at the dealer early Saturday morning. A mechanic was quickly on the truck. He said the front brake drums and pads were bad, as was the brake valve. They could get to the brakes but not the valve. The valve was not in stock and would have to be ordered.
I am writing this as they work on the brakes. They are letting us stay in the truck as they work. That is a good thing. The driver's lounge is filthy. It is more comfortable in the truck and we are close to snacks and reading material. We hope they will get the brakes fixed so we can drive back to the truck stop tonight. If not, we will have to use the dealership's bathrooms (also filthy) and skip showers.
By the time they get the parts on Monday and complete the repairs, we will probably lose another full day off the road. Our carrier will give us no credit for the time we spend here. Because we cannot transport freight, our carrier shows us out of service. When we go back in service, we will be at the end of the line, behind any other trucks in the area that are in the area also waiting for freight.
So, being stuck here and making no money, what do we do to pass the time? We take naps, chat with friends back home on the free-weekend cell phones, take walks (the industrial-area scenery is poor, but the exercise is good), enjoy several hours of uninterrupted pleasure reading, write and surf the web (thank goodness for our ability to access the Internet with our Verizon wireless air card).
If we are lucky, the truck will be drivable by the end of the day. That will enable us to take in a local tourist attraction on Sunday. We are thinking about Busch Gardens or the beaches.
We would rather be running freight, but that ain't gonna happen. So, we make the best we can out of a bad situation, knowing a better day will come early next week. If we need to, we will deadhead to Atlanta to improve our chances of getting a load. By Tuesday, we will be more than ready to haul freight again.
Is this a bad week for us? You could say that. It is certainly the worst financial week we have had since entering the expedited freight business.
The good news is, we don't have to pay for the repairs. That all falls on the fleet owners. We also get to have some of the spare time we knew that expediting serves up every now and then.
Several hours of uninterrupted pleasure reading was hard to come by in our white-collar professions. Such spare time is part of the reason we became expediters in the first place. People who love to read will understand how wonderful such a break can be.
We're not making much money in this, our first "bad" week on the road. But we are enjoying ourselves just the same and are still glad to be truckers.
Advice for trucker wannabees: be financially and mentally prepared for the "bad" weeks every trucker has.