ROUTE: East Hanover, NJ to Aurora, IL: 896 miles (805 loaded + 91 deadhead)
A 900 mile assignment is considered a good one as we get paid per mile traveled. The longer assignments are more fun too as greater amount of time is spent driving and seeing the countryside instead of the hassles of pickups and deliveries. This assignment was the Monday after Christmas and since I was home it was a back-load job, i.e. my company had to source it in the market. All said I wasn’t up-and-running as soon as the day started, so I only started my day at 10:30. The pickup was in New Jersey and I was in Connecticut and those 90 miles took two-and-half hours to get there because of traffic.
I arrived at the shipper at 14:00 and it took to two hours to load but that was not the worse of it. Their docks are inside a building which are much harder to maneuver because the area is tighter and easy to knock a door off the trailer. Not only that but the shipment was being loaded in two separate buildings so I had to repeat the difficult maneuvers.
A couple of hours into the drive the weather conditions worsen with a snow storm. The highway speed went from 65mph to 35mph. I decided to shut down early instead of risking driving in bad conditions and since the delivery was scheduled for Wednesday 12/31 at 09:00, I had time to spare. I picked a McDonalds that has truck parking as I craved a Big Mac Meal.
The trip between the shipper and consignee was 805 miles so requiring around 13 drive hours and I only got two done on 12/29. There was no way to deliver early so an assignment that normally took a day-and-half to get done required the two full days of traveling, in other words though the total for the trip was 900 miles, it took as long as a trip entailing 1200 miles. Bottom line I lost 300 miles of income. That is how truckers do the math.
On 12/30 I also encountered bad weather at night but I managed to drive ten hours that day, refuel and was about to shut down for the night when the weather worsened. One of the things I enjoy working for AD Transport is that their evening dispatchers call the drivers during bad weather conditions to make sure we are OK.
I arrived at the consignee on time on 12/31 at 09:00 and was fortunate that the schedule was so broad otherwise the bad weather would have delayed the arrival.
BOOK REVIEW: The Irish Goodbye by Heather Aimee O’Neill (2025), FICTION – RATING (****)
Entertaining and well written.
A dysfunctional family with Irish roots and strong Catholic upbringing. Three sisters and a brother. They meet up on Thanksgiving thirteen years after a tragic event that rocked the family. Each sibling comes with an emotional toll from that event and their parents have a fair amount too.
There are many topics of modern life thrown into the mix: single parenthood, juggling a career with parenting obligations, elderly parent’s care, LGBTQ+ issues, guilt, grieve and the eternal discussion of Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice decisions.
Interesting ending. It can be interpreted as a Hollywood happy one or a bitter one. You can decide which after reading the book.
