Spring has sprung

I like every season as they all have really great qualities and I do not really care for the alternative of not getting to see the seasons.

Baby animals are another great sign of spring. Now what could be cuter then the above picture? I will admit that there are VERY few baby animals that are not just adorable but I have seen VERY few cute human babies. When someone has a cute baby animal I just cannot wait to get my hands on it but as for a human baby I cannot get far enough away from it. Odd I know but a yapping puppy is so much cuter then a screaming baby.

Being our here on the road and watching spring happen all over the country is very uplifting to me. One day you see a shadow of a leaf on a tree and the next time you come by you cannot even see the branches of the tree. While going down highway 152 in California on the way to Gilroy there are several pastures that have the coolest twisty turny branches on those trees. They are very interesting to see in the winter and then in the spring when they get their leaves they are just amazing. Nope do not know what kind of trees they are.

When I am out walking sometimes the breeze will come with the scent of flowers in bloom and all you can do is stop and smell the flowers! Sometimes other breezes come by and you just need to speed up a little to get out of that area.

One of the great things about spring is the rain and thunderstorms. Now I know some areas have to much rain but it is so cool to be in the truck when a great thunderstorm rolls through. The cracking of the lightening and the rolls of thunder are just awesome. The roof of the sleeper is just perfect for letting the noise come through. If I could have it perfect I would have a glass top sleeper just to be able to watch the light show! Maybe someday....

PrePass like the green light hate the red light!

PrePass can be a truckers dream or worst nightmare! What in the world is PrePass you ask?

PrePass is one of our transponders we have on our windshield. We have all kinds of gadgets on the windshield such as E-ZPass that allows us to go through approved toll booths and the toll is taken from our online account we save money and time with this one. We have Norpass that works similar to PrePass but works in different areas of the country. We also have our Lane Departure Warning System I have blogged about earlier. In the corner of the windshield is our antenna for our panic button also.

The following map shows you how many places in the United States that having a PrePass System can help you to keep from being weighed:

As a woman I hate to stand on a scale but as a truck driver I often get this privilege daily with a bunch of DOT officials checking my weight! As you can imagine I don’t much care for this and nor do I care to have to slow down and pull into a scale to get this privilege. One way to stay legal and keep this from happening is to have a PrePass and a NorPass transponder in the truck.
The PrePass system works in many ways to keep you from getting in line and lets you comply electronically with state weight, safety and credential requirements. I do not know how many of you non truckers have noticed the scale houses located in every state and they are often placed near the entry or exit to a state. About a mile before the scales that use Pre Pass a reader and a scale are built into the highway that you cross as a car and do not notice. As a truck you take the scale house ahead signs very serious. When you see the reader and the highway scales you want to be running at the legal posted speed or below and you want to cross the scales squarely without turning your tires at all. This will give the reader a correct reading of your weight.
When you cross the in-pavement scale, the computer reads your PrePass transponder which immediately identifies the owner, the truck number, who you are leased to, checks your safety rating and credentials and also if you are a legal weight (axle, gross and bridge formula!). Who you are leased to and their safety rating is very important as if you are leased to a company with a poor safety rating you more often will get a red light so the DOT officers can give your truck a visual inspection. When you get the green light on your PrePass or Norpass you are good to go and by pass the scale. Sometimes no matter how careful you are you get a red light and you get to be weighed – this is called a random inspection just to be sure every truck get reviewed once in a while. This at times is very stressful to us as we just do not have the time to have a level one inspection which can happen. You hear the dreaded words or you read the overhead screen driver pull around to the back and bring in your paperwork. When this happens you gather up your BOL and your truck paperwork and take them in. I do not bring in my log book unless it is requested. If you only have one copy of your HazMat paper work you also cannot bring that as legally it must be left in the door pocket or on the front seat. Once inside you show your paperwork, your license, your truck registration and insurance. Once all of this passes inspection the officer can tell you to have a good day or tell you another officer will meet you at the truck. The level one inspection can take over an hour if the officer is gabby or if he continues looking until he or she finds something wrong. Most officers though are easy to work with and professional and if it was just not for the time factor we would not dread this so much. When we are empty it is no big deal at all to have an inspection. So every time we all trucks in right lane scale house ahead we start watching our PrePass to find out how are day is going to proceed!

This is how the PrePass System works:

o

Unsung Heros

Brandy and her camper last year with her palm tree for shade this year she has REAL shade trees for her camper!

Best job ever! We were really lucky once again and were able to unload in California and head for Las Vegas to see our daughter who is stationed at Nellis AFB. Just to prove how lucky we really are we were pre dispatched on a load picking up on Friday so we had two free evenings. Our timing was impeccable is a couple ways as she has just taken her camping trailer out of storage and was getting it set up in Fam Camp. She has an awesome 5th wheel she calls home when she is not deployed. We were able to help get her belongings straightened out and Bob was able to help her with her connections and to apply a reflective paint to the roof of the camper. This year she has SHADE TREES located next to her area so the camper should stay cooler than last year. One of the great things about having a straight truck is we are often welcomed at campgrounds and we were able to park our truck in the overflow area in Fam Camp. That is always handy as we constantly have to run back to the truck for something we have forgotten we need.

Brandy had a social event to attend and families were invited but I believe we were the only parents in attendance. The event was being held at the Silverton Casino just across the street from the south Las Vegas TA. This Casino is pretty large with a huge Bass Pro Shop inside. Brandy had warned us that this event was really special but we were still overwhelmed. The owner of the Casino has a soft spot for the 820th RED HORSE Squadron stationed at Nellis AFB. He closed the Mexican Restaurant for a private party. We were welcomed with drinks and an awesome buffet line including fajitas, tamales, homemade guacamole, shrimp cocktail, and many choices of desserts and an open bar. He also had rooms available for the RED HORSE Squadron at a much reduced rate. There were over 200 Airmen and their families in attendance. She introduced us to many of her friends that she had been deployed with and through her letters and conversations we felt like we all ready knew. We were in awe of the man that would sponsor such a huge event. No money changed hands and you were not even permitted to tip the staff as they promptly told you that they were being compensated.

The Silverton also sponsored an Adopt an Airman program before the 820th RED HORSE squadron deployed that linked Airman with families in the Las Vegas area to receive emails, letters and care packages while deployed. This party included the Airman and their families and the local area families with buffet lines, drinks and entertainment.

Through Brandy we are amazed often at how much support our troops get that is never talked about. Often when in uniform and they are eating out someone will pick up their check and never say a word not expecting any thanks. School children write letters and send drawings. One of the first things Brandy did when she arrived back on the USA soil was give a talk at a school that had sent her many letters. This event at the Silverton is also another huge reminder of how far people will go to tell these guys thanks for what you do.

Why I like Gray!

I am by no means an interior decorator and go with colors that make me happy. We basically live in our truck and pretty much treat the house as a vacation get away. I now deocrate the truck with my winter warm colors and my summer cool colors. I really like the dark reds in the winter for the warmth they portray and the reds go good with the gray. I really enjoy Christmas so I often get a little carried away with decorating the truck but once again I enjoy that festive feeling of jingle bells and cold! I also as you can see in the picture really like the candle lights people have in their houses and I found this one at a Home Depotthat has a light sensor. Looks really neat at night. In the summer I like to change to to the lighter colors and I think the blue goes well with the GRAY! Molly of course looks good laying on either color which she spends a lot of time doing. In the summer time the lighter colors just make the truck feel cooler even if it is a figment of my imagination. The dark oak floors and the lighter wood of the cabinets I think really make our sleeper look like a home instead of a cave like many sleepers. After my mom passed away we squired her black Cocker Spaniel Boots who was in her own right OLD and she insisted on sleeping with her head on my pillow. I like dogs but I do not like hair and my pillow was always full of little black Cocker Spaniel hair so I fooled her and started using pillow shams. Now Boots has passed away and I still like the pillow shams. I like to make the bed up to look like a day bed and it also seems to give the sleeper the look of more room. Bob took out the upper bunk and installed these cabinets for more storage and they are awesome! You can not tell they were not put in here originally. The way he installed them gives me more room for books, movies and safe place for my computer and printer. Over all I think we have a very comfortable sleeper and it has served us well.

Molly's use of a computer!

I just thought this was to cute not to share. Bob and Molly like to sleep in. I usually set my computer on the steering wheel in the morning and have my coffee and my morning dose of the computer. When I leave for my walk I just set my computer in the back and Molly took advantage of the situation. Pretty darn good looking dog for 13!

George Washington Bridge

After you leave the toll booths (hard to imagine you have to PAY for the pleasure of this traffic) all of the lanes merge down into three lanes. This is pretty intimidating to us rural type people as the rule of thumb seems to be if I do not see you, you are not there. As you can guess being polite in not a virtue in this mess and so you just have to keep inching your way forward till the other guys gives up and lets you by! Believe it or not there are very few accidents that anyone stops for on this bridge. Often mirrors rub and often mirrors or broke on the bridge but it would take hours to get the police here so everyone just goes on to their destination while waving at the offending vehicle with usually one finger accompanied by honking and screams of who his mama is out the window.

This where you really start jockeying for you space on the road and once you the car is behind your vision it is not there and you continue on with your drive.

Once you have reached this point you are free to go until you get across the bridge and there is one overpass after another and you feel as if you are in a long tunnel! Very dark and very crowded and lots of mirrors get bumped in that area.

Our friend Randy calls me a wimp for letting this intimidate me but he is from Philly and that is enough said! This is just a day in the park for him and he can eat a sandwich, be on the phone and drive a truck through all this and be as happy as a bug in a rug! What a guy! It is funny though narrow dark two lane roads out in the country in the middle of no where bother him. I think I will take the lonely country roads any day of the week.

Down Time

As Expediters we seem to either run our butts off or sit and sit and then sit a little more. When we are parked Bob is often out shining the truck. He can spend as little time as an hour or he has spent up to two full days shining the truck. He uses his ladder and he also has a little rolly stool. I enjoy the heck out of the rolly stool as I can be watching in the mirrors and he will go to scoot and the wheels catch and throw him to the ground! It really is a funny site and I admit I usually laugh out loud. When Bob is in cleaning mode when I need to step out of the truck I have to watch as he often takes the steps off the truck

so he can shine the fuel tanks. He has a lot of cleaning products, shining products, buffers and

many other products he uses on the truck. He also keeps our tires lettered in Purple and Blue colors. He is not thrilled if I slide one of the tires along the curb. After lettering the tires both of us are very aware of how close we get to a curb. People ask us how much it costs to buy tires custom made to match our truck! One of the good things about Bob constantly shining our truck he will quickly pick up on any odd wear on the underside of the truck. He is constantly going over our truck with a fine tooth comb to make sure all is well. He gets a lot of great comments on how good our "new" truck looks. Most are amazed when he tells them we have over 600,000 miles on it. This has been a awesome truck and a huge confidence builder for me as Bob all ready did well in heavy traffic.

While Bob is cleaning the outside I work on the inside. We have a oak floor that looks just awesome when polished and has really worn well since Bob and Terry installed it. I also have curtains in the windows so the truck is really our home away from home. I spend way to much time on my addiction of this darn computer but when I can tear my self away I work on several projects. One of the ladies at the office gave me this blanket to make for her as she started it and got lost on the project. I was rather amazed at how much fun I had making this blanket which is crocheted. I usually like to cross stitch and have lots of animals and forest scenes I have done for the house. For some reason I just cannot get away from liking to cross stitch pictures of animals. Nicki and I have opposite tastes so she decorates downstairs at the house and I get the upstairs and the basement! For some reason my picture of a camel with a scarf on her head is something Nicki said I have to keep in the basement! I think she is cute.

FedEx is in the HOUSE!

Bob and I wear our uniforms just about 7 days a week when out here on the road. We are often harassed for this or some quick thinking driver will proclaim in a loud voice when we come walking into the truck stop "Step down everyone and back off FEDEX IS IN THE HOUSE!" all you can do is laugh and tell them you have everything under control the can relax now. The other drivers that harass us all I can say is they are cutting their nose of despite their face. When we walk into a customer often before we get to the shipping desk our paperwork is ready for us and we get loaded. The person in the dirty unmarked clothes are still often standing their arguing over when are THEY going to get loaded. We have found a smile, patience and a good attitude works the best. Running team gives us a lot of breaks as we are not fighting the clock and if we get loaded late so be it. We also have a backup in our corner with FedEx Custom Critical as we get paid very well for detention time and the only customer that can get away with holding us is the government. Even good old Wal-Mart will pay through the nose for making us wait.

We do many inside pickup and deliveries that are often to offices, upper end stores, doctors offices and also hospitals. When we come into a place of business we are dressed nice, shoes shined, and our equipment clean. We are prepared to build ramps, build board walks, blanket wrap and in general baby what ever freight the customer wants to ship. We have an large aluminum lift gate that can pick up 3500lbs with several built in features such as flashing orange lights built into the deck for visibility and the best one being the feet controls. This feature leaves both of our hands free to hold the 1/2 million dollar computer secure on the deck. We have had many customers comment on how awesome our lift gate is. We get paid a premium for this lift gate and it has paid us back ten fold.

Here are a couple pictures of our box and some of the equipment we carry. We have over 40 blankets and pads, we have every length of strap you can think of with most stored in a side box, we have corner protectors, we have our pallet jack, our dollies, our carts, plywood, and many other specialty freight handling controls.

We enjoy the challenge of the specialty freight be it explosives or that very expensive computer they all offer a challenge which is different then just loading a pallet and getting on down the road. With the additional risk of the freight the pay also changes.

The question is how high will the customer go?

Sleeping on the Outside!

One of the perks about driving team is who get to get up in the middle of the night and who gets to issue orders! Here are a few that get you up at night:



It starts to rain: get up close overhead vent get back in bed

New Question "Did you shut the front windows?" Get up shut the windows

Alarm goes off!!! Bolt up right realize it is cold out and the tires have lost air pressure and the Pressure Pro is reporting low tires so you unplug it. Back to bed now freezing

Knock Knock at the door 3 in the morning! Look out somebody is wanting money or wondering if you want company. Good grief go away you will get neither from me.

Alarm goes off! Bolt up right in bed and the RigMaster did not start for low voltage so you shut alarm off reset Rig Master and wait and watch to see that it starts automatically.

Truck starts rocking due to high wind so you get up and look to see if there is a tornado you see nothing go back to bed all is well.

Loud HORN you get up to see if accident is near you are to far away to see. Nothing to see go back to bed.

Load Opportunity Phone rings and you have a load offer which can mean immediate pickup or first thing in the morning. Have to be coherent enough to know what, when, why and how before you agree to the load. Look at clock to see if you accept the load who gets to drive the first shift..... Money talks on this one

Jelling UP Only time I have ever saw Bob leap out of bed clearing me was when it was about -30 out and the Rig Master started to jel and he knew dang well no way was I going to go outside and fix that one! He threw on his clothes and added 911 anti jel to the RigMaster and it took a bit but started purring away. Of course this whole time I was still snuggled in bed warm and toasty!



After you go through a few of these you either learn to go back to sleep or you just get up! I have often wondered why it is I do not sleep against the wall which is usually cooler in the summer and winter and then I remember why I hear the noises and Bob sleeps through them. I am also the type of person who is immediately awake and so I can understand what load is being offered, do the math and decide to take the load or turn it down.

Is this a big deal not really just more odd things that you take for granted living on the road. Team driving is awesome for both as I can handle the little noises in the truck and what happens around us but when we started to jell that one belonged to Bob. If I had to do it I could but ......

First Annual 20 Group Meeting

First Annual 20 Group Truckers Meeting May 1st Denver Colorado at Kevin Rutherford's house.

This is our adopted code of ethics:

A Code of Ethics Checklist
I drive to protect the motoring public and myself. I do my best to present a neat, clean appearance. I maintain and operate my vehicle in a safe, professional manner at all times. I comply with all safety rules, regulations, and laws. I treat shipper/receiver personnel with courtesy and respect. Despite what they do, I act professionally. I am courteous to all other drivers. I set a good example for less experienced large vehicle drivers. I am always professional when dealing with four-wheel vehicle drivers. I practice driving defensively every day, and I avoid: Speeding Deliberately tailgating other vehicles Driving aggressively “Getting back” at other drivers I work to improve highway safety by reporting: Crashes to traffic safety agencies Unsafe drivers Unsafe road conditions Situations that could cause a crash I do my best to deliver my load safely and on time. I take pride in my profession and encourage other drivers to do the same. I do my best to inform the motoring public about how to share the road safely with trucks.

We are a very diverse group with our one common thread we are all drivers and we buy diesel. When Kevin picked the core group he wanted representatives from each sector of trucking and he accomplished that. We are not yet at 20 drivers but we are making progress as we find Owner Operators and Drivers who will fill a niche that we need. We have a hour conference call every two weeks, our own web site is http://www.cdlofit20group.org/IM3/portal.php . Our web site is still in its infancy and we are constantly trying to add information that will be a benefit to other drivers. The first annual meeting was were many of us met face to face for the very first time which was awesome and we spent a lot of time together talking about everything with the main topic being trucks and how to better our business.

The highlight of this meeting was getting to see Kevin and Leesa's cabin and we were not disappointed. The view was amazing out of each window and I am not so sure if I lived there I would want to be on the road so much. I would think being snowed in at such an awesome place would just be a bonus! One thing about it you sure could not park your truck here.

We were also able to meet Leesa's pet fox Buddy! Leesa shared many stories with us about hiding Buddy around the house in odd places to scare Kevin. Leesa insists Kevin can scream like a girl when he throws open the shower curtain and Buddy is sitting there. Now Kevin tells a slightly different story but he does admit to Buddy starteling him often!

We had a really great time at this meeting and look forward to getting together once again

in a year!

Here is the mission statement of the 20 group:

Mission Statement

Our mission is to share information with each other and others within our industry, government and the motoring public. Our goals are to improve industry business practices, bring trucking related issues to the forefront and promote a new more positive image of the trucking industry.We should adhere to the highest ethical standards for the following reasons:

1. It is the right thing to do

2. Public trust in our performance is the basis of our legitimacy.

Certified Master Contractor Denver CO April 2009

Bob and I attended a four day trucking seminar (CMC) this past week in Denver. We had an awesome time with the first full day learning the Art of Negotiating. One of the oddest things we learned was to take notes on yellow paper with a red pen to retain about 48% more then you will using a black or blue pen on white paper. We learned that you need to interpret men and women's movements differently and also the tone of voice and to listen to what they are saying. He who speaks first has all ready set them self up in a weaker position. Never assume anything and let the other person speak their mind. We had a couple role playing skits that were a lot of fun to set up and then watch them play out. One skit was to negotiate a better rate from a broker and our table had a ace in the hole with Henry Albert who has been doing this for many years. He was able to get us a pretty darn good rate by letting the broker know we would take a discounted rate for two week to prove ourselves then we would come back to the table and talk. The next day we went over getting your own authority with Rex Evilsizor and in the afternoon we had Bruce Mallinson with Pittsburgh Power. I was a little side tracked as we really do not want more power and at this point I am not real interested in getting our own authority. (that idea scares me to death). The next day Kevin Rutherford started in on us! One of Kevin's favorite tricks is to make us move to another chair. That is very hard to do as once we sit in a chair at a seminar we now take ownership of that space. We went from the back row where our group sat to the front row! We made Kevin pay for this somewhat as we kept raising our hands. Kevin spent a lot of time going over spreadsheets on how to determine good or bad loads, how to improve our existing spread sheets, and how to improve our bottom line. Kevin is also a firm believe in reading and listening to books. He knows we have the best job to get a lot of books read and he had a pretty long list of books he suggested. Ya I know teachers pet but I had all ready read all of those books! The next day was one we had all ready been through on aerodynamics, sweet spots and rear end ratios. I missed most of that day as I was out playing on a computer learning a few new programs.

We were out every night for dinner with a great group of people who loved to talk trucks! We talked trucks from 6 in the morning till midnight

at the earliest. We talked on how to make our businesses better, how to improve our image, how to be leaders in our field. By the time Thursday was over we were almost brain dead! But what a great week with some very very smart people! We have a lot of new mentors in many areas and all we can do is to keep striving to become as awesome many in our group all ready are.

Some of the coolest parts of the CMC was getting to drive the new Cascadia of Henry Albert's. Thought Henry and I were going to die a few times as the truck does not take off as quickly as our M2 does due to not having an automatic transmission (Allison). Henry's truck has an automated transmission (AMT) and it takes

some getting used to and I do not want to even go into trying to back the truck up. I know Henry will be wanting to comment that I need a GPS to get around as I took us to the TA twice as I got lost! We were also able to spend time with Miguel from Detroit Diesel and he is just a brilliant sweat heart! If you want to know anything about specing a truck for your operation he is the guy to talk to. Getting to meet Lily in person was also an inspiration as she sure has a lot of drive and can inspire anyone!

Pictures are:

Linda and Kevin Rutherford

Rex Evilsizor

Henry Albert and Miguel Soetaert

Bob and Lily