Joey’s Crappy Day

I was contractually obligated not to discuss or divulge details about my former employer, Dell, as part of a severance package I took when I left the company at the end of July last year. However, I am no longer constrained by that contract so I feel like I can say whatever I want. Plus, the money is already spent, and they can sue me if they want, but you can’t get blood from a turnip as they say.

I bring this up after coming across an article about Dell wanting to sell its manufacturing plants. I saw this writing on the wall last year and was actually a bit relieved that I was offered a severance package. I’m not so sure many of my former coworkers will share that fate as they are unceremoniously dumped on the street after the sale.

This actually started about a year and a half after I was hired by Dell when they built a laptop factory in Malaysia. At first they insisted that only 10% of laptops would be produced there and the remainder would be produced in the US. I saw the writing on that wall too and immediately jumped at the chance to move to desktop manufacturing. Within a few months 100% of laptop manufacturing was moved to Malaysia and Ireland. It was a good business decision considering the 10 year tax holiday provided by the Malaysian government, but it showed me that Dell was no longer committed to US manufacturing.

So I spent the rest of my career at Dell in desktop and server manufacturing. At first things were going extremely well, but then the desktop market started to slide as laptops became cheaper. That slump then combined with a move to tech support in India. Customer outrage at the poor service level rose and the reputation of Dell took a big hit. Another big hit came when it was discovered that Dell was cooking its books.

Due to these things and other factors, my satisfaction with the company began to wane and I have to admit, my performance began to suffer. I began making big mistakes and was generally unhappy while I was at work despite the great group of people I worked with. It was not a good situation for me and I was unhappy to the point that it made me physically ill on occasion. I decided that if the chance arose, I would leave the company.

In Spring 2007 it was announced that Dell would start selling computers at Walmart and other retail locations. At that point I knew it was over and actually started working on my resume again. I actively cautioned my coworkers that this was just a prelude to the end of US manufacturing at Dell. The only reason Dell even manufactured in the US was due to its direct model, and if that model was going out the door, manufacturing couldn’t be far behind.

Shortly thereafter, my shift was eliminated and severance packages were offered. I took one and considered myself lucky to have been offered one. Since then, Dell has announced the closing of a whole factory which was the building next to mine in Austin. Last report has it closing towards the end of this year. It was one of four factories in the US producing desktops and the volumes just didn’t support that many facilities.

So the news that Dell plans to sell off its manufacturing isn’t really news at all to me. The clues have been there all along. I just thought I’d offer an insider’s view of the story behind the story. It feels good to get that off my chest and maybe I’ll tell more later.

Here’s an update on what is going on with my life for those of you who might be taking notes. I now work for Ozburn-Hessey Logistics. Currently I am working on their Starbucks account doing inventory control. So far it seems to be a good job and something I want to do for a while.

I also finally found a place to live in Antioch, TN. It’s a small one bedroom apartment. So far it seems like it is a nice place to live, but I’ve only been here about a week. I still don’t have anything put away, so I’m just living out of boxes right now. I’ll get it pulled together eventually.

Well, I’m no longer a truck driver. I decided that it was not what I was looking for at this time in my life. Driving consumes your entire life and there is little or no room for social interaction. You are merely driving the truck 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

So now I am sitting in a hotel room in Nashville. I am looking for work and hope to get a job nailed down in the next week or two. When that happens I’ll find a place to live here and go on from there.

For now I am just enjoying not being in the truck.

Most people are asking me if I have run into any snow in my job as a truck driver. The answer is yes… yes I have. My location is the Petro in Kingdom City, MO. I stopped here last night to get some rest and decided to stay here all day today since there’s about 5 inches of snow on the ground. My load does not deliver until Monday morning and it is only 280 miles away, so I figured I would just sit tight today and let the road improve.

Another advantage to this strategy is that I will get a 34 hour restart. You see, truckers have three clocks they must live by. The first two clocks are the 11 hour and 14 hour clocks. Each driver can drive 11 hours, but those hours must be contained within a period of 14 consecutive hours. And each 14 hour period must be separated by a 10 hour rest period. For example, if I were to get up at 6:00am and start driving, I would have until 8:00pm in which I could work. At 8:00pm I must stop for at least 10 hours whether I want to or not. Within that period I can only drive 11 of the hours and the rest of the hours are used for inspections and breaks. You do not have to drive for 11 hours or use up the whole 14 hours if you do not wish. But you do need the 10 hours rest period to reset the 14 hour clock.

The third clock is the 70 hour clock. Drivers cannot drive for more than 70 hours in 8 days. For example, if I took the total number of hours I had driven for the past 7 days and it came to 65 hours, then today I would only be able to drive 5 hours regardless of the 11 hour and 14 hour clocks. But the 70 hour clock can be reset to zero by going off duty for a period of 34 hours.

So the plan is to sit here until tomorrow morning and then my 70 hour clock will be zeroed. I’m using the time to work on my blog, watch some movies, and just generally not worry about anything. It is a well deserved break after 32 consecutive days of being on the road. As a comparison, imagine living at your place of employment for 32 days without being able to visit family or friends. Oh, and your place of work only has an outhouse for a bathroom.

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Today I’m in Breezewood, PA. I stopped at the Petro:2 Stopping Center for the evening. Actually it was like 1400 CST when I stopped, but I am running low on hours and thought I’d conserve some for tomorrow and Sunday in case I need some buffer.

I’ve been braving the snow and ice for a little over a week now and am headed to the Midwest for more of the same. I just hope they have things cleared up by the time I get there. I had a delivery up in Mass on Monday morning. The roads were okay going in, but an overnight ice storm gave everything a slick coat. I spent about 40 minutes at the consignee doing a tight three point turn and blind side backing combination on a solid layer of ice. The forklift driver was sympathetic to my situation and did what he could to assist me.

I was then dispatched to RI to drop off my empty at a Conway terminal and then I headed down to Newark, NJ bobtail to pick up an empty from a Fedex terminal. That’s a lot of miles with no freight. I spent the night in New Jersey last night across the river from NYC. It was about 2100 local as I came down from RI, so traffic had abated and the GW was flowing at above the speed limit. The city looked beautiful, but Jersey was a hell hole and of course there was no parking.

I was short on hours upon arrival in NJ, but managed to get my current load which is about 1250 miles. I needed this load because this pay period has been abysmal. I’ve been dispatched 3 times to cart empties around and 2 times to bobtail to pick up empties. I’m thinking that freight is a bit scarce and my fellow drivers at the Molly Pitcher service plaza on the Jersey turnpike thought so as well this morning.

Tomorrow I plan to get up early and get in a full day of driving and then drive as much as my hours will allow on Sunday. With any luck that will put me within spitting distance of my delivery point. If not then I’ll have to wait until after midnight when I pick up more hours and drive the rest of the way in early Monday morning. I could really use a 34 hour restart about right now because I’m burning up hours as fast as I gain them back.

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Here’s a post that may or may not be the first in a series of posts about where I am currently located. Turns out that I am in Bloomsburg, PA. I’m sitting at the TA truck stop here trying to decide if I want to get up early and try to outrun the ice or if I want to sleep in and wait until the temperature comes up. I’m probably going to sleep in since I don’t think my 10 hour break will be over before the weather gets here. Once I’m on the road I’ll be headed up to Leominster, MA which is thankfully not near Boston.

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Part of being a trucker is occasionally eating a full meal at a truck stop. Some are good and most are not. Tonight I had a decent meal at the Brintle Truck Stop in Mount Airy, NC. And now I’m sitting here watching football and drinking a glass of tea. I sure wish their WiFi made it all the way out to my truck in the parking lot.

Tonight I’m sitting here in Hammond, LA at the Pilot. I got here early and got the last parking spot which seems to be a theme in my life. I had planned to go up Meridian, MS, but with I-10 shut down and wrecks and backups all along the alternate route I decided to call it a night early. I figured by the time I got to Meridian there wouldn’t be any parking anyway.

So the plan is to get up early and get going the last 320 miles to the customer and see if they’ll take this load early.

Greetings from Luling, TX. I am on my way to Vance, AL to drop off some car parts. My appointment is for Tuesday morning, but I’m going to go up there on Monday morning and see if they will let me deliver early. If not I guess I’ll sit in a truckstop all day Monday. Anyway, I stopped here in Luling tonight because it was raining and I’m in no particular hurry. I got the last parking spot at this truck stop at about 6:30pm. It’s pretty small, but nice. It’s thundering and lightening here and I’m just glad to be off the road.

I had a chance to get a run up into New York which would have given me 1900 miles, but I decided against it. My feeling is that I’d rather have safe runs than long runs. The one to New York would have been tight on time and with winter approaching, a general lack of parking in the Northeast, and my total lack of experience, I decided this run to Alabama would be better for my nerves and the motoring public.

Well, It’s been about a month since I posted on this blog. I think it’s high time I gave everyone an update.

As I mentioned before, I spent most of the month of September at Central Tech learning to drive the Big Truck. I took some photos while I was there and I’ll post a link to those at the bottom of this post. My class was a good one and we had a good time and learned a lot. I graduated at the top of my class and I felt pretty good about that considering my utter lack of experience with driving manual transmission vehicles.

After a few days at home I was back out on the road headed to Joplin, MO via Greyhound bus. Except for the guy who slept on me from Memphis to Little Rock, it wasn’t a bad trip and was my first experience with interstate bus travel.

In Joplin I have been going through orientation at CFI, A Conway Company. CFI (aka Contract Freighters, Inc.) is a leading trucking company. I chose them because they had a good reputation in the industry and amongst the drivers. I also liked the terms of their student program. They liked me because I had a steady job history, a good driving record, and the willingness to drive a tractor-trailer all over this country.

My orientation consisted of a lot of paperwork, a few classes on the paperwork and other things I’ll be expected to do as a driver, Smith System training, an obstacle course, a backing test, and a road test on the mean streets of Joplin. Since I’ve been here I’ve been treated very well and the people who work here really seem to love it. All of the drivers I have talked to are very satisfied and glad to be working for this company and that really means a lot in the trucking industry.

Tomorrow I head out on the road with my finisher Eduardo. I talked to him on the phone and he seems like a good person so far. A guy at the terminal said he had 17 years at CFI so it’s obvious that he knows how to get things done. I’ll be with him for 7500 miles, then I’ll get my own truck should I prove to be worthy.

See you out there on the open road.

From Central Tech …