Testing the New UltraShift Plus by Eaton

While my truck is in the shop here at the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, International Dealer, I got the opportunity to take a new Prostar International Tractor out for a test drive.  It was equipped with the latest transmission by Eaton, the UltraShift Plus.  Once I got past the obvious differences between the trucks I have been driving and the luxury, space and quiet in this tractor, I was able to concentrate on how much nicer this version of automatic transmission is.  The ones I have been using are at least five years older than the current generation, but the difference in smoothness and responsiveness makes the changes enormous.

The first difference is how easily and smoothly it shifted gears, it seemed like we were between gears longer than we were in some of them, as the transmission just touched them on the way up.  It wasn't until we got on the highway and I commented on how nice it was that he even mentioned that we were grossing 70,000 pounds.  With the engine noise bing so quiet and the shifting so smooth, I never felt like we were heavy, until I checked my speed and saw that we weren't quiet up to highway speed yet.

Decelerating for an off ramp was just as smooth as climbing the gears.  It wasn't until we got back to the yard that I saw how it would downshift on its own as we coasted to a stop, rather than needing a foot on the accelerator to allow the transmission to shift.

Another nice feature was the hill holder, which allowed me to use only one foot to drive.  I no longer needed to put my left foot on the brake to keep the truck from rolling forward or back while I pressed the accelerator down to move away from a stop.  I am so used to needing two feet to drive an automatic that it was extremely difficult to not put my left foot on the brake.

The last item that I loved was backing, I didn't need to rev the engine up to get the truck to back up, it was able to take just a little power and back on its own after I took my foot off the accelerator.  Gone is the need to rev up to 800 or 1000 rpms just to get the transmission to engage, a real plus when trying to back up a hill into a dock.

So if you get the chance to try out one of these transmissions, I highly recommend it.  It certainly changed my mind about automatics, up until now I have really hated them.  I have gone a complete 180 on that and now would actually consider getting a truck equipped with this transmission, if I ever became insane enough to become an owner operator that is.

GM Assembly Plant in Arlington, Texas: An illusion of efficiency

To the casual and not so casual observer, the plant in Arlington, Texas, is an efficient user of Just In Time (JIT) freight.  There are a few trucks parked in a lot on the hill, but for the most part trucks simply run up to the gate and head to their door.  A majority of these trucks are day cabs, local drivers, bringing in items from staging warehouses nearby.  It is at these staging warehouses that the illusion is shattered.  The worst of them is located on Avenue E and is run by Penske Logistics.  There you see those day cabs backing in at the front of the building, unloading, reloading and back to the plant.  The back of the building is where the ugliness is.

Starting in the driveway for receiving the first thing you notice is the back of a truck, just barely past a yellow line with a sign stating no trucks past this point, so the driveway isn't blocked.  This truck is the first of almost 15 that you will find as you drive around the building.  They will be on either side of the drive with the small spaces between each truck revealing a red line with the words fire lane in white.  When you get to the docks there will be even more trucks on either side of that fire lane line.  The drivers stopping anywhere they can to get inside and drop their paperwork, each with a carefully written cell phone number at the top so when the dock is ready for them, they can be called from where ever they find a space to park.

Dropping off your paperwork is the last time you have any control over anything at this location.  The only restroom is at the front of the building where the fast moving day cab drivers can use them easily.  Half the time it is easier to find a parking spot somewhere on a street in this industrial area, than it is trying to squeeze another truck onto the property here.  Then it is just a waiting game, knowing sooner or later they will call and you can finally feel like you are doing something by getting your truck into a dock, only to wait again.  Today it took me only fourteen hours to get into a dock.

From a conversation that I had with one of the employees last week, they have had some drivers wait over a day to get in, and that they only bring a truck to the dock when GM requests it.  So all of these trucks are just little warehouses, idling the day away, wasting fuel and man hours day in and day out, just so GM can say they use Just In Time Freight.  The look on their faces when I requested a copy of the detention form that is posted on the wall outside the office was precious.  I don't think they have had that request for some time, I was told that they didn't have any and that they needed to take that down.  If they never get filled out, they can never be billed for detention, and they will only pay detention if that form is the one filled out, good plan.

I have now been in the dock for forty minutes, and nothing has happened yet.

Day 1 in Arlington

Today started out fairly good, after driving my eleven hours to get here for my first scheduled appointment time I got unloaded fairly quickly at the GM plant in Arlington.  I ended up going to two different docks at the plant but was still done within an hour and a half of getting there.  The problems started at my next stop.  This place is operated by Penske Logistics, and I can finally say that there is something worse than Ryder to go to.  The lot is small and cramped, and there are trucks everywhere in here.  So much so that it is actually difficult to maneuver.  Half of them are parked in fire lanes.

When I got here I had been awake for almost eighteen hours, so was a little cranky when they said to give them my cell number so they can call me when they are ready.  In hindsite my reaction wasn't diplomatic, I left and went to get some sleep.  After getting caught up somewhat on sleep I can back and checked in again and have been around here ever since.  I really needed that sleep though, sleep deprivation and driving are a really bad combination.  I will likely get some more before I take off out of the area.

I did actually get in a dock as I was typing this, not to bad, about eleven hours after my appointment time, which was actually within my ten hour break time.  When ever they get their stuff off of me, it will be off to the third stop then back towards the north.  I haven't slept enough so far today to drive far tonight, but I will get out of the Dallas area before morning if I can.

Cell Phone Ban for Commercial Truck Drivers

Feds weigh cell phone ban for bus, truck drivers


I am not too excited about the possibility of banning truck drivers from using cell phones.  Requiring a hands free device is one thing, but a complete ban is a bit extreme.  Being able to stay in contact with family, friends, and relatives is one of the ways a lot of drivers keep up with their lives.  It isn't like we have a whole lot of time when not driving to talk to people.  Especially if you are trying to do something during normal business hours.  While I was buying my house I can't count the number of calls to contractors, mortgage broker, real estate agent, and setting up the utilities, that I made.


A universal ban on hand held devices should be made though.  I can't count how many times I have watched someone merging with a cell phone glued to their head, apparently making it impossible to look over their shoulder to check traffic.  For some reason most of those people are surprised when they end up next to me and are running out of road to merge on.  Sometimes I am able to get over to avoid the possibility of an accident, but a lot of times there are no options for me, so surprise.


One thing is for certain, if they write the law too vaguely they may end up banning CBs as well.  A phrase that says communications device instead of cell phone will certainly turn a truck staple to an illicit item.

On the road again

After staying pretty close to home while I purchased a house, I am back driving over the road.  It is a dedicated route right now going from Romulus, Michigan, to Arlington, Texas.  Due to the schedule most of the driving is at night, and last night being the first night was a bit brutal.  The load was late leaving the shipper in Ontario, and it got delayed again crossing the border.  So I ended up being up a lot later than I had planned for yesterday.  I finally stopped in Mount Vernon, Illinois, at 6:30 AM because I just could not physically keep driving.  I still could have driven further with my hours, but it would not have been safe at all.  Tonight's bit of driving should be better, but I will have to use every driving hour I have just to get to the GM plant in Arlington.  Then I think I have three stops to go to, but the paperwork is so confused from customs sorting through it, that I have no idea what paperwork goes with what stop.  Just to make it more fun the directions that I have for the plant have nothing to do with the direction that I am coming from.  I have been there once before, so have some idea, but will have to look more closely at the route for the final bit of driving before I leave here.

Right now just relaxing in the truck waiting for my sleep timer to put me back to sleep.  I know I need more but my body woke me up for some reason a little over an hour ago.  At least I have time, I won't be leaving out of here until around 6 or 7 tonight.

Driving in Mexico

This article gives all the reasons a US or Canadian driver will never go to Mexico. It also gives plenty of reasons to doubt any Mexican driver coming north.

Mexico cartels go from drugs to full-scale mafias

I don't think I would even want to go to Mexico as an individual, at this point the country has way to many problems to risk my life there. This risk and the risk of it spilling over into the US brings to head the possibility of the US doing more than just assisting the Mexican Government with money and equipment. I wonder whether we are looking at a possible 31 more states, starting with the ones closest to the US. An ever expanding security zone that it would be hard to believe that the residents would fight against, given how many want to come here already.

Cash for Clunkers Boondoggle

Boondoggle is all I can call the $3 Billion spent on removing around 700,000 so called clunkers from the roads. With three stated purposes of reducing pollution, saving fuel, and stimulating the economy; this program fails in every respect. Actually I shouldn't say fails, it does accomplish all of those things, but at such a high cost it is mind blowing. More than a few articles can be found that back this up, and this isn't coming from crazy news outlets people have never heard of either.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/cash-for-clunkers-too-much-cash-for-cutting-emissions/

http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/11/cash-for-clunkers-autos-economy-opinions-columnists-shikha-dalmia.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/business/08clunker.html?hpw

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gBK8ygR_GgJVJ_9QEjvOcx4J8MxQD99SA4101

Now take that same $3 Billion and spend it on something that actually does have a true cost benefit to the environment, auxiliary power units for trucks, and all the sudden we are talking about some real savings. That amount of money could purchase 352,941 APUs at $8,500 a piece, which is the high end of APU pricing. Just purchasing those would have the possibility of cutting idling by at least 10 hours a day, 300 days a year (we do get home sometimes), for 3,000 hours of idling saved per truck. That is 1,058,823,000 hours of idling saved in a year for the same amount of money that is getting the common man a new car that may save him 3-5 miles per gallon.

Lets be generous and call it 15,000 miles driven in a year (I would call that high) divided by 5 miles per gallon saved times 700,000 new cars. That gives us 2.1 Billion gallons of fuel saved in a year. Which only is saved if everyone actually drives 15,000 miles a year, most people don't even come close to that.

An idling truck consumes an average of a gallon of fuel an hour. An APU typically uses around 2 tenths of a gallon an hour (again a bit high). Now if calculate the fuel used on those trucks idling all that time; 1,058,823,000 gallons of fuel are burned while idling in a year. Now those same 352,941 trucks using an APU would only burn 211,764,600 gallons, a savings of 847,058,400 gallons of fuel.

Now you are looking at that and saying what are you talking about, cash for clunkers is saving more in fuel than buying APUs for trucks. So rather than buying them outright, lets make it more like CARS and have a rebate of $4500 which would allow the purchase of 666,665 APUs. That generates a fuel savings of 1,599,996,000 or about 1.6 billion gallons of fuel in a year. Again a difference in fuel savings, but remember we used an average of 10 hours of idling a day for the trucks. This doesn't include the time idling at a shipper or receiver, or just waiting for a load (in this economy that could be over 24 hours).

Again there are no guarantees that the cars swapped will actually be driven as much as I calculated, but it is a real guarantee that the trucks will be idling to maintain driver comfort while in the sleeper.

Back to dedicated

It has been a while since I posted in here, mostly because I haven't been doing anything that interesting. Besides trying to close on a house, I have also been doing a regular loop between Parma, Ohio, and Lake Orion, Michigan. Basically running stamped parts from GM's Metal fabrication plant to their assembly plant. It isn't the best paying run, and only goes three times a week, but with my savings of eating at home and the extra time to deal with the house stuff it is perfect. It should also last just long enough to get everything done and us moved before I need to find another run. The assembly plan in Lake Orion currently is making the Pontiac G6, and since Pontiac is going away as a brand, so will the car. So at the end of September the plant will be shutting down for a year or so for retooling. Eventually it will reopen and assemble whatever small car GM ends up putting there. Apparently Michigan gave them a huge tax incentive to keep a plant there, beating out Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Janesville, Wisconsin. The odd part about that is the Spring Hill Plant was just redone to do the Chevrolet Traverse (which is moving up to be assembled in Michigan as well), so is a very up to date and versatile assembly line.

?? O{Y ???p:?? ??ay DG????[?N??,?? r???p v???? v?Aa :?6??az D ??y <=^??pP? ????? 2????;L/???$ ??Aav?=????w?? ???2?? ???? DO?? ?[ j?A

?? ?2;m/???? ? ????<?v?

Romulus, Michigan: Terminal

After a very poor week I find myself with a half way decent load, that seems to be so trouble prone that I am wondering why I even bothered. It sounded simple, pick up a relay in Romulus, Michigan and take it to Terra Haute, Indiana, of course for some reason they never are that simple. My plan was to drive up here from Toledo, Ohio, at around midnight, grab the trailer and head on to the delivery. Apparently the first truck had mechanical difficulties, so they had to have a second truck recover the load, which got moving out of Toronto, Ontario, at around when it should have been getting here to Romulus. Yes, this load is out of Canada, so that means it also has to clear customs, which can sometimes take a while.

After getting the load from dispatch, my next call from them was about how it might be a bit late, and to call in first to see if it is in Romulus, before I leave Toledo. My first call to dispatch was at 10:30PM last night, the load had just gotten moving and should make it to Romulus somewhere between 1 and 2AM. So I crawled back into bed and tried to get some more sleep. My next call to them was at around 1AM to check on if the truck had made it through Customs yet, it was about thirty minutes away from the border. So I get dressed and load up my car, head to the truck, pack it, and give them another call. This was at about 1:45AM, the truck wasn't through customs, so I tell them to call me once it is through, and fall asleep.

I woke up just before 4AM, first a bit bleary eyed, since I fell asleep with my contacts in, then I made another call to dispatch, the truck had cleared customs at around 3:30AM, thanks for calling me guys. I get to Romulus at 5AM, find the trailer fairly quickly, hook up and am ready to go, right? Wrong, during my pretrip I find a light out, no big deal, and a missing mud flap, around a $100 fine in Michigan. So I check the shop, the one mechanic that is on duty, just got in, and he can't do anything on trucks until he does a yard check. So I call breakdown, after they do some checking, they tell me to wait until the mechanic here can fix me. So now this load that was supposed to deliver at 8AM this morning will now get there sometime this afternoon.

Off to the shop..

Back at GM in Mansfield, now to get unloaded, and then who knows.

* ?p ????? 4G??, ]????2(???A?2? ??gP DO???{?? ?A?0? ???t

* I:(= 5?nr8? ??iv t.??i? ?~??e2(L ??? ? ???t?Mf????? ???y ?N ?A?7? J?Att D????? $ ??,Px ???lPx Z???u?} ??f ] ??nzY ">? v????@?+:?.??

Waterloo, New York: Petro

Yes, I am still here, still no loads, however I do get to finally move. They are letting me head over to our yard near West Middlesex, Pennsylvania. There I can grab a lighter trailer hopefully. Then I might actually get a load. I am fairly certain they are thinking I am happily heading to that hole in a wall they call a terminal to spend the night. Instead I will leave out of here early tomorrow morning to get there around 8ish. So I will use some of my driving hours and start my clock, at this point I could care less about having a full book for a load. At least there I will be 4 hours closer to home.

Waterloo, New York: Petro

It is now day three of sitting here at this truck stop. I am basically going stir crazy sitting here, I have wandered through the various sites I belong to just looking for interesting threads in forums to post to. Other than that, it has been playing games on Facebook, watching movies on Netflix, and staring at the walls. I did have a good conversation with the Roehl driver next to me, and I decided to fill out an application for them yesterday afternoon.

My Sprint connection is starting to drive me a bit nuts, it keeps disconnecting for no apparent reason. my guess is the most recent update added an activity timer, so if I am not actively browsing it cuts out. It just did in the middle of this post.

I sent another fun email to dispatch last night, and talked to my dispatcher this morning. He swears they will find me something today, but I will believe it when I see it. I am guessing it will be another load tonight and deliver tomorrow type load. After all I am on break and can instantly drive my eleven hours no mater when they dispatch me, and I have this nice property in Florida I can sell you for a deal.

Been on and off the phone all morning to both my mortgage broker and my fiance as we try to get the rest of the paperwork off to the underwriter. I just found out from my fiance that the appraiser hasn't gotten his report in yet, which is ridiculous since I paid for it at the beginning of the month and had the contract for repairs and changes in last week. There really is no reason that someone who gets $400 to look at a house and determine its worth can't do it in a timely manner.

Waterloo, New York: Petro

Yes, I am still here. So far today, I have slept in, showered, eaten a leisurely breakfast, and am now slowly getting caught up on entering my receipts into Quicken. Exciting I know, but it does need to get done. I also called dispatch twice and it doesn't sound like they have even found a load for me on Monday. So who knows when I will actually get out of here. The good news is that they have a shop here, so I plan on getting a bunch of things fixed. What the heck else do I have to do this weekend, so might as well try to cost the company as much money as possible. The trailer could use at least two hub oil seals, and there are a couple of minor things on the tractor that could be looked at as well. There is a small exhaust leak that I have been putting off getting looked at, I don't seem to be getting any in the cab from it at least, but since I seem to have the time, I might as well get the clamps replaced or tightened.

One thing I cannot believe is how little they seem to care about getting me moving, it isn't like either of us is making any money. I cannot wait until I close on this house, there has got to be a company out there doing better than this.

Waterloo, New York: Petro

Once again, the load planners failed to surprise me, I have no load right now, and doubt I will for the rest of the weekend. Which means I will be spending my weekend here in Waterloo. I saw an outlet mall a little way away that I could browse through, but definitely can not afford to shop there. At least the internet is coming in well, so I will be able to be entertained.

When I got here, I once again violated my fuel solution, well I didn't have one, but I did fuel without permission. This was so I could get my showers for the next two nights, and get a cash advance. I don't think the five dollars I had in my wallet would have covered me for the weekend. Especially since, if I am here until Monday, I will have to buy at least one shower. When you fuel and put at least fifty gallons in the tank, you get a shower. At a Petro, if you tell them you have a co-driver, they will give you a slip for a second driver. So I have two showers off of one fuel up. Now a shower typically costs $10.00 to purchase, which is just annoying for me, because Falcon currently reimburses for showers.

Dinner tonight will be the steak buffet, it just looks good, and they have plenty of other items to round out my planned lengthy meal. It isn't like I have anything else to do, other than sit here in my booth, eat and use my laptop. Adding to my blog, like I am now, or chatting with friends. I don't think I will go as far as watching some netflix, but who knows, I might.

Well off to start grazing, I mean try out the salad bar.

Douglas, Georgia: Walmart Distribution Center

This is the second Walmart DC that I have been to today, and the first was much more pleasant to deal with. While I am a bit early for my appointment time, They simply expect everyone to know what they are supposed to do, having been here before or not. It doesn't help that the rules seem to be either totally different than the last one, or are just enforced differently.

Either way after I empty out here, it seems likely I will be hunting for a spot to crash for the night in the area, rather than heading back to a real truck stop closer to the main highway. They just don't seem likely to get this empty quickly, even if it is seven pallets.

Horse Cave, Kentucky: Loves

It has been a while since I added to this, mostly I have been doing shorter updates on Facebook. Right now I am on a load that picked up in Jackson, Alabama, and is heading towards West Carrollton, Ohio. I think it is the messiest load I have carried to date, at least it should be fairly easy to clean out the trailer afterwards. My trailer is loaded with bales of scrap paper, so there are pieces of paper that have fallen out of the bales all over the place as they loaded it. I know there will be even more when they unload it. Hopefully they will have a leaf blower available to just blow out all the paper, but more likely it will be me and a push broom.

This week has been slightly better than than the last several weeks, I actually might clear two thousand miles for the first time in a while. I just don't know what it takes to get loads out of this company, it seems that after I have been sitting for a while, (this week it was about 35 hours after unloading, closer to 43 if you count when I actually got down there) if I send an email with just the right tone of insulting and questioning their intelligence, I get a load. This last one I asked if I should put in an application at the Loves in Loxley, Alabama, and put as my address the blue truck in the back row.

Currently I am going slightly crazy while trying to get to the closing of a house using a 203k FHA loan. We have made it past the first bunch of hurdles and are basically now at the contractors mercy as to getting estimates in. Once we know about how much everything will cost, we can move forward to signing some contracts and getting everything off to underwriting. The part that is driving me nuts is that I am having to do this all by cell phone and laptop. I would rather be there for each contractor to make certain we are on the same page. We also have to get a quote for appliances, and I haven't done any research at all about those yet. I have just been too busy working, looking up home improvement tax credits, how to claim my first time home buyers credit and half a dozen other things including trying to relax a bit here and there.

Now to find out if I can get rid of this load early or if I really need to get it there at midnight tonight.