Spring is Springing

Thank goodness. This has been a long winter with storm after storm blowing through. I have never been in so much snow during the winter. As long as I'm running up north it is not too much of a problem since they have the equipment and know how to keep the roads clean. You can go to bed in a bad blizzard, and if it blows on through over night, they will have the roads pretty well cleaned off by morning. Of course, this many storms in a year really blows their state budget. I'm glad they continue to clean them off even without money. States aren't like the federal government who just prints more paper to pay their bills.

I have been running hard for the last week. The last two weeks I have run out of hours in 6 days and had to shut down to rebuild my hours, that means 12 to 14 hour days every day. Of course the selection of runs don't help. I have had a lot of 200 to 400 mile runs, some of them pick up in the morning and have to be dropped that same day. Short loads eat up your hours burning up an extra hour per day off your logs. Hours you don't get paid for. If your not rolling your not making money. Spending time at each end of the trip making pick up and delivery you have to log, but you don't get paid for it. If you get delayed at shipper/consignee you don't get paid unless it is over a 2 hour wait. Then you get paid a few dollars for it, for the time over 2 hours not the first 2 hours.

You can set 2 hours at the shipper, then 2 hours at the consignee at the end of the trip and get paid nothing. You can only work 14 hours in a day, so that is 4 hours off your driving time. Add in time to stop and fuel, get a bite to eat or go to rest room and you suddenly have lost 100 to 200 miles off your day...less money. Small wonder you go all day long without stopping to eat, just munching, or holding your legs crossed and stopping at a rest area to use the rest room and out in a few minutes. This is getting harder to do with age, and the fact the states are closing all their rest areas.

Then there are more and more regulations coming down from the federal government spurred on by interest groups that want drivers to work less hours in a day. It is not bad enough that we have to stay gone from home 24 to 30 days in a month and only getting 4 days at home each month. Now they want us to stay out here on less pay and spend more time setting in truck stops, which are fewer since they are closing too. The end of my days driving are fast approaching and a lot of drivers feel the same. What will the country do when they regulate all of the drivers so much they force them to quit because they can't balance making a good pay check against justifying being away from home so much.

There is already a shortage of drivers and companies are needing more trucks and can't get them to move their product. How do you as a consumer get you food from Walmart, clothes? Everything else you buy at the store. No drivers to get them there so you can buy them. Learn to grow a garden and sew. The day is coming you will need the skill. All of the necessities will cost more than you make to buy.

Off my soapbox. Made it into Nashville, TN yesterday morning on the way to Atlanta, GA. I will stay here until Monday morning early and run down to deliver. Got to watch the final four basketball tournament last night which was fun. Tennessee is out so Go Butler!!! Break out my "Hoosiers" movie and get excited about them hopefully knocking off Duke tomorrow night.