So this week, like all other departures from home, started by leaving my park location, the designated place where the truck is left when I'm at home once a month. My company does not allow trucks to be parked in NYC, so my location is in South Kearney, NJ. This is a highly industrial wasteland near Jersey City, Newark and the Holland Tunnel. The park location is a company drop yard, a secure location where trailers, both loaded and empty are relayed, dropped and picked-up (italicised words denote trade terminology). A relay is when a load is transferred from one driver to another for whatever reason, most often to get a driver to the house. My Qualcom, the computer which communicates everything between the company and I, indicated that I was to pick up a pre-loaded box (loaded trailer, as opposed to a live load/unload which is when I pull into a loading dock and wait while a trailer is loaded or unloaded) in nearby Bayonne, NJ. The load was a, HV load (high value-- any load worth over $10,000). I've pulled loads valued at half a million dollars--that was 45,000 lbs. of plasma TV's from Mexico to NYC. The load was going from Bayonne, NJ to Beaver Dam, WI, 822 miles--a nice load. By the time I got to the O.C. (operating center--a company facility, like a huge truck stop) in Gary, IN the snow had begun.
That night I got to stay at a hotel because my truck was having an overnight P.M. (periodic maintenance). I can have P.M.'s done at any O.C. but I happen to really like the shop in Gary. Chicago is a very interesting urban area--it is made up of a whole bunch of different little cities in IN and IL. The locals call it Chicagoland. On the IN side are a bunch of towns, the biggest being Gary. Then in IN there is Hammond which borders Calumet City in IL. Both of these are East Chicagoland as you go west into Chicago proper you get all the towns of Chicagoland like Aurora. These continue around the lake North/North-Weston I90/94 all the way to the WI border. The traffic in Chicagoland is enough to make grown men cry--most of it, however, is due to massive construction projects on the I90/94 corridor. My ride from NJ to Gary, IN was very big. Almost 800 miles. I was completely wiped out from this push of 14 hours of driving. I am going to use this opportunity to briefly explain the seemingly complicated federal laws concerning driving times as established by the secretary of transportation and state D.O.T. agencies.
That night I got to stay at a hotel because my truck was having an overnight P.M. (periodic maintenance). I can have P.M.'s done at any O.C. but I happen to really like the shop in Gary. Chicago is a very interesting urban area--it is made up of a whole bunch of different little cities in IN and IL. The locals call it Chicagoland. On the IN side are a bunch of towns, the biggest being Gary. Then in IN there is Hammond which borders Calumet City in IL. Both of these are East Chicagoland as you go west into Chicago proper you get all the towns of Chicagoland like Aurora. These continue around the lake North/North-Weston I90/94 all the way to the WI border. The traffic in Chicagoland is enough to make grown men cry--most of it, however, is due to massive construction projects on the I90/94 corridor. My ride from NJ to Gary, IN was very big. Almost 800 miles. I was completely wiped out from this push of 14 hours of driving. I am going to use this opportunity to briefly explain the seemingly complicated federal laws concerning driving times as established by the secretary of transportation and state D.O.T. agencies.
