Since there seems to be a little forum interest in what it's like to drive a big rig I thought I'd post a trip report on a typical day at the office for me. No real SMB Forum content other than driving 65-70,000 miles a year at work does let me spot a lot of nice vans on the road.
This is my day Tuesday 9-25-12
I start work at 1330 and am scheduled to get off work somewhere around 0100. I am scheduled to run 3 round trips. I usually run about 380 miles a day on this assignment. I run from the Portland Airport to the Corvallis FedEx building and back. Portland airport to the Troutdale FedEx Ground facility and back. Portland airport half way to Seattle where I meet a Seattle FedEx driver and swap trailers and head back to Portland. This is the easy and quicker way to move freight between Portland and Seattle.
I punched in at 1325 and hit the road southbound around 1350. I usually make it about 70 miles or just south of Salem Oregon before I pull over to do an enroute truck inspection. We are required to do a walk around to make sure all the tires are full and we aren't leaking any precious fluids. I have a favorite spot to pull over at the Ankeny Hill offramp. The nice thing about this spot is there is a killer view and lots of blackberries.
Wonder what these pesky signs mean?
The black berries are just about done for the season
I finish my inspection and head to my next stop. Lunch break at the Albany Oregon Costco.
More of those pesky signs. One of these days I'm going to google them to see what they mean
After filling up an extra ice chest with costco purchases I'm off to the Corvallis Oregon Fedex office. Having FedEx buy my gas for shopping during lunch is one of the perks of the job.
Normally the people at the Corvallis FedEx station load or help load my truck for me. Yesterday everyone was busy or missing so I had to load it myself. No big deal it takes less than 5 minutes to slide in a couple of J-cans worth of freight. Everything at FedEx is done with speed and effeciency in mind. All the decks are roller decks. I roll a can off the deck into my trailer and when I get back to our ramp facility the cans roll out of the back of my truck to either be sorted or rolled straight onto a A/C.
After loading the truck it's back to I-5 northbound. I have another favorite northbound (ERI) spot. The cool thing about this spot is the huge old cherry trees just off the side of the road. The trees were loaded this year and the birds actually left me some. I was getting a little burned out listening to the Smokin Joe Kubek radio channel on Pandora so I swithced to one of my favorite standard channels. The Joe Bomamassa channel. You can't go wrong driving to Joe Bomamassa music. Good Stuff!
More of those pesky signs
Killer view of the cherry trees, Christmas tree farm and Vinyard building at the top of the hill.
There are basically 2 different ways across town from I-5 to the Portland Airport. I can take the Columbia offramp which is a real truck friendly route or if traffic is hosed I can exit early and take some slightly skinner roads back to the ramp. Yesterday was one of those bail off I-5 early days. No big thing I've gone that way hundreds if not thousands of times. There is one kind of tricky manouver where you have to get off Lombard and loop around on 42nd street over a bridge to 47th street. I jump off Lombard to find the road is closed due to construction. It's off into the real skinny city street network to find a route back. From all the broken off mirrors on the cars parked on the side of the road I could tell I wasn't the first big truck to get caught in this construction trap. Being an experienced driver I didn't hit anything but I did have to back a few people up trying to make turns. It's allways fun to watch the face of someone driving a car when they look up and see a big rig who is forced to swing real wide into their lane to make a 90 degree turn. Tonnage rule comes into play again. I don't back out of their way they clear a path for me.
I make it back to the ramp after a short exciting jog through the big truck unfriendly city street network to find my next run had been cancelled. Not problem I have a sleeper cab to wait the almost 2 hours till my next departure time.
I kill some time with my I-pod in the sleeper while waiting for the next load and required paperwork. Nothing moves at FedEx without the required paperwork. Then it's off on my next leg. Basically I drive north on I-5 half way to Seattle and meet up with a Seattle FedEx driver and swap trailers. Due to the flight schedules and capacity of the airplanes we end up trucking a lot of freight between the Portland ramp and the Seattle ramp. Last night we moved 7 truck loads between the two cities. It's cheaper to truck the freight than it is to fly it. There were 6 of us doing a drop and swap and one more driver who runs all the way to seattle and back. We meet half way at a truck stop and pretty much take over the parking lot for a while swapping trailers.
More night shots
After waiting a while for the Seattle driver to show I swapped trailers and headed for home. When I got back I helped a couple of other drivers unload some heavy cookie sheets and J-cans then clocked out at 0100.
It's a very easy job once you get used to dealing with traffic.
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