This Week

Once unloaded in Paducah they deadheaded me 178 miles to St. Louis, MO to pick up a load of Budweiser going to Ft. Wayne, IN to deliver the next day, Thursday. They had the load ready to pick up by the time I got to St. Louis so I was able to drop and hook and be gone in 30 minutes. This was good because it was already 4pm and Budweiser sits on the Mississippi River near downtown. I was able to get out of there and back across the river before traffic got to bad. Got over to Brazil, IN by the time my hours ran out which got me within 3 1/2 hour drive of Ft. Wayne.

I delivered to Ft. Wayne and got a load from over near Gary, IN on the other side of Indiana going to Rock Island, IL. It was a load of doors from Masonite. I delivered this Friday morning at 8am. It came off real quick too. My next load was only 3 miles away from where I delivered. I picked it up and it is a HazMat (Hazardous Materials) load going to Laredo, TX. It delivers on Monday morning early. I don't get HazMat loads very often, maybe one per year. My company doesn't pull a lot of them.

The law now is that every driver has to have a FBI background check before they renew their CDL (Commercial Drivers License) if it has a HazMat endorsement. You have to have this endorsement on your CDL in order to pull a HazMat load. Each time you renew your CDL you have to take and pass a HazMat test to requalify. The FBI checks is a new law since 9/11. I had mine done this past time home and just got notification that I was cleared yesterday. They say it can take up to 60 days or more, but I had my notification back within 3 weeks.