Still no news but I think its looking grim

Hi all, its the weekend so there is no chance on finding out if 3929 has been saved.
H&R seem to think its ok not to get me back to Lethbridge and even though I was expecting to do the run to Iowa in the piglet I am now shuttle running between BC and Alberta which is just crap. I hate coming this way at the best of times, never mind runing back and forwards.
Its 10.15 and I am at Golden enroute to the yard at Delta BC. Last night was a bitch coming over the mountains as the snow fell pretty hard and I didnt get finished until midnight.
I am getting pretty angry about not having my stuff with me and want to know whats happening. The lad who had the piglet before me must of looked after her as the floors are pretty clean but the windows at some time have been left open in the dusty yard and she is caked with muck inside. I cannot be bothered to clean up the mess until I know what is happening. Speaking of mess, I think some may hit the fan if I am not loaded and on my way to Lethbridge pretty soon.

No News is good news,isnt it ?

Hi. Not heard a peep about 3929 and couldnt get hold of either Steve or Dave today.
Anyway I loaded out of Ottumwa in Idaho which trkrjim will be not too pleased about as it would of saved him a trip.
The empty trailer I was initially given is the one in the picture, nobody had reported this little scrape and if I had not seen it then I would be held responsible for it. Got loaded finally at 2300hrs and went to bed, the delivery was for 48hrs time but with 2200miles to the customer there was no chance so I set off in the morning on my merry way. After a 1000km stint I called it a day, left the following morning and stopped for breakfast. It was there I met up with Nigel who I shared the driver training truck with back in September 07 and was pleased to hear he is still loving the job and going strong.
A lot of the trip has been driving through national forests which made a nice change and at the minute I am in Ellensburg Washington with about 240miles to go to the customer in Abbotsford BC so I should arrive about 12.30 which is the time I estimated.
The pic of TomTom shows the sort of mileage figures you can expect over here, bear in mind that I only bear left in 690miles as the road only forks. I have had bigger mileages on the screen but never thought of taking a picture.
Bye for now.

T'is a sad day for I have received news that I am to be evicted from 3929 and no doubt while i write this all my worldly goods are being pillaged from her and dumped into binbags.
It seems she has been bequithed to another man, a man who only drives in Alberta, no more shall she drink the nectar called American diesel unless she can be rescued by a brave knight.
This knight is Steve Whitaker who has taken upon himself the quest to barter with the Dark Lord Dave Fodder and to win her back for me, well until i get a new one.
I am gutted, I know 3929 and I had a love/hate relationship, she loved breaking down and I hated it but i want her back.
I now am driving 3120 who I have named "piglet" for no particular reason.
Thing is that piglet speaks with fork tongue and says she is trotting along at 67/68mph when infact Tomtom says she is only doing 64mph and no amount of coaxing will get the lazy sow to run at 65.
Not a problem you may think but piglet is trotting up more miles than she is doing, hence on paper I cannot drive so far,hence i have to drive for longer to get where I am going.
According to TomTom i have driven for 898km but piglet reckons she has done 1005km, big difference eh !!
It will have to be sorted.
Tune in soon to see if I end up buying Steve a pint of mead and piglet gets a rocket up her rear end.

Gridlock in Montana and look everyone, its Trkrjim.

Hi everybody. I arrived in waterloo about 2pm after a rather leisurely drive down to Iowa. As you can see Montana had the usual awful traffic but the skies were blue.
After my last post, Jim (see my fave sites list) got in touch and we met today for a late lunch. It made a nice change to get out of the truck and socialize properly so thanks to you and your wife for that Jim, I really enjoyed it.
The trailer was dropped at the customer and now its a sit and wait scenario to see wether an empty trailer becomes available or I have to wait for mine, tomorrow will tell.
I am parked next to kev and Lisa who also have a blog going so I will need to add them to the list. Whilst they were both showering at the Flying J the fire alarm sounded and they had to throw there clothes on, apparentley there was a fire in the kitchen which is the last thing you want on easter sunday.
Thats it for now, not much to say.
Till next time Nanoo Nanoo !

Did I mention I am off to Waterloo,Iowa.

Hi, think I forgot to say where I was going.
Have a load of beef for Iowa which is due for delivery on Monday morning and as I ran further than I wanted to today it means I have just over 800 miles to do and have 2 days to do it, lovely.
At the flying J at Beach which is on the stateline between Montana and North Dakota. I missed the buffet so ham and eggs with hash browns and toast with 3 coffees for the sum of $9 hit the spot nicely.
Happy Easter to everyone, dont eat too much choccy !!!

Some British Columbia pics.

I took these on my last BC trip when the route I took was Delta to kelowna via highway 3 and although the scenery is great, the road isnt. The lake is at a place called Penticton and I think it looks very mediteranean, especially as the weather was beautiful.

The new Freightliner Cascadia

Well, here she is sat outside H&R. Sadly she is not mine.
I have gone back to work in a different truck and am going to Waterloo in Iowa. 3929 was in a terrible state when I called at Freightliner to collect some essentials to see me over the next week or so.
Onto the Cascadia. Visibly from the outside she is more streamlined but is actually wider across the cab. The interior is very nice and the lockers now have doors on them rather than restraining nets. The dash is a bit dull but there have been improvements in storage and overall if all the hype is to be believed then its a good truck. We now have insulation around the cab but the floors have been neglected so if you get one of these trucks dont forget to buy some slippers for the winter months

6 Months since I landed in Canada.

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts and pictures but the truck is still in the workshops and I have been staying in the Sandman Hotel as I am not keen on the idea of taking another truck for a trip and possibly losing mine for god knows how long as it has everything I own in the world inside.
So, 6 months on since I came here and to be honest it has flown past. I started looking into coming to Canada about 2yrs ago and possibly my biggest regret is not coming sooner. That could of been a bad thing as now H&R have adapted to having European drivers and have changed there perspective on things which didnt happen in the early days. So how has it affected me?
I have never earned so much money.I now consider myself to be well off and discounting my healthcare contribution everything I earn is mine. I have never planned on saving for my old age as I wont be around that long, as soon as I cant wipe my own backside and some young girl has to do it its time for me to say "goodbye".
I have seen the most fantastic scenery, met incredible people and ate food that should of cost a weeks wages but its been given for free. Some of the lads I now call friends are the best I have ever had and hope that many more are to come,its the same sort of the friendship as being in the army where you would trust your mate with your life but not your wife.
I look forward to everyday and still get a buzz when the satellite beeps to tell me where I am going and to me as I enjoy driving its priceless.
To summarize the good points, I have money in the bank, can make good money if I have spent too much yet still can afford to blow cash in Vegas and not worry about it. I have seen roughly 60% of the States and still have a vast area of Canada to cover which in itself is something to look forward to.
The bad points have now fizzled out as they are really only the differences between UK/Europe and N.America and the way things are done. Sitting without pay is always going to be a problem, running bent without extra pay is going to grate the people who do it, I think you all know my answer to that, dont do it!
I cant really describe the being away from home bit as I left home at 17 to join the Army, then drove 13yrs european so I dont really get homesick. I do however miss human contact as some days you might drive all day, not go into a truckstop then go to bed,before long you realise its been a few days since you spoke to anyone. I have on occasion left the Interstate just so my satnav talks to me and tells me to drive straight on and join the motorway.
Am I glad I came? Without doubt!, Regrets? Not coming sooner!
As for people thinking of coming here, if you are single I think you are a fool for not giving it a try. It basically will cost you nothing, you will have traumatic times because its all new but there will be good times which outweigh the bad times 100/1.
I have the utmost respect for the families who come here, they must be under huge pressure and if I was still married I am not sure if I could make the decision to make the move. It seems that they all have a good life and the major plus point is that "troublesome" kids now excell at school and look forward to going. I would not hesitate to swap loads with a married man so he could get home, they deserve it and I would help in anyway.
As for the company itself, H&R Transport. Everything I was told would happen has happened. I earn more money than they quoted, I do the work I am expected to do. There has been nothing hidden and its a relief when you are really annoyed or stressed about something that a simple phone call results in a "We will sort it,dont worry about it" attitude.Personally I think they are a good company and as of yet have given me no cause for concern.
I have to say that tonight I have had a good drink, I dont know why but it just happened. I say this because H&R has a zero tolerance on alcohol while you are in charge of a vehicle and it could of been a lifesaver for me. I drank a huge amount whilst in the UK but literally overnight I stopped drinking. I respect the opportunity that has been given to me by H&R and that was enough to stop my drinking which I believe is a blessing.
I am relly glad I came over here and if I had to leave tomorrow it would be a sad day.

Mr and Mrs Carnwell, Hello.

Hi to you both, I hope you are well.
I have spent the last few days with your son and would like to let you know he has been behaving himself and has been a credit not only to your family name but to England in general. I must say that I cannot be held responsible for him once he is let loose on the North American public but I can say I am sure he will have the time of his life.
Thanks for reading my blog, I hope it continues to entertain you.
Best wishes, Phil

Blog layout.

Hi, after messing about for a while trying to find the best blog layout I am going to stick with this after I had changed certain parts of it.
The reason is that a lot of people still have small monitors and therefore have to scroll left and right to see the full screen if your blog fills the page. Just because it looks good on your pc doesnt mean it does on everyone elses so thats the reason.
I did experiment "blindly" trying to alter the Html so that I could fit 2 pics side by side but I had to admit defeat and say enough is enough.
So I hope you are happy with the layout, the comments box is free to use.
Cheers,Phil

The guest book

Many thanks to everyone who has signed my guestbook so far.
Could I add that if you would like me to try and answer a question could you post it on the comments link at the bottom of each post as I am not able to answer them in the guestbook unless I email you personally, this is not a problem but it stops other people from reading my response and possibly helping them out.
Thanks again,

3929 is broken so its Lyndon to the rescue.

Hi, I have had a bitch of a day. The truck has had a mysterious airleak for a while and because nobody can find it they cant fix it. So today the air pressure was taking forever to build up which kept throwing the automatic transmission into "System malfunction" and it stayed this way until the pressure built up and the engine was restarted.
I arrived at brooks to collect the load for Pennsylvania, backed under and hooked up. The axles needed sliding so into reverse she went, accelerator down and she stalled. the torque in the transmission was too great and it refused to slip into neutral and to top it all the low air pressure alarms were sounding. Nightmare !
A mechanic was with me within 30mins who proceded to check the system and thought he had found the leak but it was not to be. He also said the compressor has given up and as it was the weekend it would be Monday before it was fixed.
His phone rang and "Penske" who H&R lease the trucks from, told him the truck would be repaired in the States and I was to get on my way. No way !!
I informed despatch that I was not prepared to drive an unfit truck and would bring it to Lethbridge. I am pleased to say that H&R agreed to this and told me to drop the trailer in the yard without any question.
So I am in the drivers room and in waiks the elusive Lyndon who is taking my load to pennsylvania and I think quite happy about it as he will add 2 new states to his list.
Its the first time I have met him and to be honest I imagined him to be a little taller.

BC, lovely place but its a pain

Managed to drag a heavy load over the Rockies and around 9pm I had had enough so it was time to look for a parking spot and guess what, there was none. I tried the Husky truckstops, Petropass and any others I found but in the end I had to run to the yard at Delta arriving at 11pm.
Sent the dropped trailer in at 9 in the morning and waited. It wasnt long before a pre-plan came thru to which I agreed, then another then another. I got 6 in total and was informed the last one was the load I was doing. It was a load of pallets to Kelowna then a load from there to Calgary. The trailer should of been in the yard at 5pm but at 11pm I gave up hope and went to bed.
The load had arrived just after 11 and after a few messages back and forth to despatch about how I refuse to stay up all day and then start work at 11 I finally left Delta.
As I had been there for more than 12 I requested a Layover and have added it to the log on the left.
I always remember a load of pallets as being a light load but when you have 570 of them in a fridge it weighs a ton and it took some dragging up the mountains and into Kelowna. Got to the customer who didnt need the pallets so dropped the load and ran into the yard.
The reload was pretty quick and was soon on my way to Calgary with a load of fruit juice which is another heavy load.
Arrived and dropped that trailer and was pre-planned for a load to Pennsylvania and am still waiting for the load confirmation. Have received notice of an empty trailer to take to Brooks but without a load confrirmation either the load is not going to happen or its not ready and I dont fancy sitting for however long it takes in a place where there are no facilities and that reeks of cow muck.

Back in Canada.

Hi everyone. Well I am back in Canada after a great ride up, I have enjoyed this trip a lot.
Ran from Las Vegas to McCammon in Idaho and parked up for the night. When I woke two other H&R had just got up so we agreed to run north together. My co-pilots were Mark and Sean and off we set homeward bound.
Mark has been out here for a while and took us the scenic route which meant leaving the I-15 at Idaho falls and skirting around the edge of the Yellowstone National Park. The views were amazing and the roads were not too bad. We passed Steven Segals house which is quite a place and trundled north. The banter was good and the time flew, before I knew it we were at Shelby in Montana and called it a day there.
I tried to work it so I could drop my trailer in Lethbridge and spin back down into the States but was told I had to deliver it and I knew that there would be trouble as its never straight forward when you pull into Calgary.I was unloaded within an hour and waited for my reload.
Beep, I knew it, bloody British Columbia, and the yard at Delta to make things worse.
Oh well, never mind so I picked up the trailer and looked at the suspension pressure which was reading 75psi which is way too much so a trip to the scales confirmed my suspicions. I was 1000kg over on the drives but the trailer wheels could not be slid as they had been fixed into place. After a few phone calls it was sorted and I had to drop the trailer in the spot I got it from, yippee !
Beep, pick up the same load but on another trailer which was going to the same place, oh no !
So thats where I am up to in my travels, sitting in Calgary with a load I dont particularly want to take. Still, I suppose its money at the end of the day but I know that the load out of BC will be just as much of a faff on as this one.

So excited I give the Gorge a wrong name.

Cannot get this into the Google video bar so here it is

The Virgin River Valley Gorge part 2

3-929 to Yuma

Howdy. Unloaded at Vernon and got a reload which involed 3 collections. The first was just around the corner and was a real bitch of a place, the next 2 were in Yuma Arizona. I had a good drive down there which meant going through Palm Springs where they have most wind turbines I have ever seen and once on the I-8 running literally 30ft from Mexico for about 25 miles.
I got the second collection on last night which was citrus fruits but by the time I left I'd had enough so called it a night.
Had a sleep in this morning and found the last customer, got loaded pretty quickly then spent quite a while trying to juggle my axle weights. I originally had over 5000lb too much on the trailer but after sliding the axles back managed to balance it all out, well except for California which I had to transit to get back. The solution was to travel with the axles set back to California, then slide them forward to run the legal length but overweight through California then reset them again to make me totally legal once in Nevada, bit of a pain but it worked.
Anyway the run up from Yuma was full of new sights and I passed through a small town called Quartzsite. All the way along the highway were motorhomes littered a few 100yds off the road and small shanty villages which had flea markets set up and were basically selling junk. Must be a nice life if you can do it, living in the desert without a care in the world.
So now I am parked in the Flying J just north of Las Vegas, I was going to visit the strip again but I need a shower and cannot be bothered to sort myself out and run the 5 miles back to the Wild Wild West parking plus I have 2 quite heavy days driving in front of me.
I have really enjoyed this trip, Los Angeles is a pain in the arse but its a small price to pay.

Annoyed with Flying J internet

Stood in a foot of snow trying to beat the camera timer.

Had a good run down to Vernon california even though I had to put in two big days. None of that mattered as the sights on the way down are awesome.
The first real historical stop was just south of Idaho Falls where there is a huge Lava field. They say that 4000 years ago a crack in the earth surface allowed lava to travel up to 50 miles and flow over a 220 square mile area. Its pretty impressive to see.
Next on the agenda was the beautiful scenery at southern Utah and then the red rocks and arrid landscape of Arizona and Nevada.
The highlight again was having the pleasure of "doing" the Virgin River valley Gorge which is just south of Mesquite. It was a first for me as it was the first time I have actually driven south on the I-15 past Idaho falls so the Gorge was all new doing it southbound.
I parked at barstow in California and am now convinced that the Flying J truckstops are trying to con us into buying the $139 gadget to give you a better wifi signal. I had an excellent signal with 11mbps and was parked 50 feet from the antenna but lost the signal 3 times over a 4hr period, when refreshed the signal had gone but was instantly picked up again when I rebooted.
Left this morning and made a bit of a balls up as I thought my delivery time at Vernon was 0700 when it was actually 0600. it didnt matter as its my first time actually in LA and I underestimated the traffic. One hour to do the last 12 miles to the customer, nightmare.
So I am sat at Vernon writing this on the notepad and hoping I can paste it into my blog, I will be tipped in 1hr so will then find out what delights I have to come.

Load cleared but "Access Denied" for 5 boxes

Hooray, the load was finally cleared at 4.30pm this afternoon, but 5 boxes where denied due to ecoli tests.
So woke this morning and the tripak (generator) had quit and with running the night heater the truck was totally dead when I tried to start her. It was a bit of a panic as I had to get back to meat inspection and I didnt want a line of trucks in front of me. As it happened the tripak had just tripped a fuse and when reset started to charge the truck batteries, in 30mins I was mobile again.
Met a lad I did my training with at the inspection and was pleased to hear his family had joined him from spain and were very happy in Lethbridge, especially the kids who love school and are showing the Canadians how to play sports properly.
So the big question is Will I Be Paid A Layover ?
In theory yes, through no fault of my own I have sat for over 24hrs which should warrant $150 ($75 for 12hrs). This layover is virtually guaranteed but what happens when you sit for say 10.5hrs. Good question and to be honest it seems like a lottery if you get paid. I can understand waiting for a few hours but begrudge waiting all day to get unloaded,not getting paid for it then having to drive as on paper you have done nothing all day.
Steve whitaker has now taken over the role of monitoring layover requests, whether this means they will be assessed with a bit of understanding I dont know and time will tell.
Ideally the concept of layovers needs to be clarified as it seems literally hit and miss.
I have started a bit in the side bar which will monitor my layover requests and the timescale until I am paid,or not. I know that members of the H&R office staff read this blog so we will see what happens.

Its days like this when..............

Left the Sandman as the trailer had arrived from High River so picked it up and ran round to the scales, good job as the trailer was over by 400lbs but managed to slide the wheels back and still be legal for the 40ft length in California.
Got to the US customs, straight through and around to meat inspection to join a line of trucks. Luckily I got on a bay pretty quickly and went into the office. After an hour I was told that my load had been selected for a full inspection and I needed to report back at 12pm tomorrow. Marvellous
Today, in theory I have worked for nothing. Granted I have only driven for an hour or so but I faffed on with the trailer, pretripped everything and cleared customs. There is not a lot of things I could of done with the time but I would of found something better. Thing is, will I get paid a layover ? The dreaded layover has reared its ugly head and I should get a 24hr as it will be roughly time I have waited. Its this situation that a lot of english lads find hard to cope with but you have to grin and bare it and hope for the best.
I will keep you posted on wether the layover is authorised and when it is paid.
So, I am sat at Shelby Montana and have a lazy night in front of me. Think I will probably mess on the internet for a while, get some food then watch a movie.
Speak soon

Barstow CA to Lethbridge AB

Sleep here and wake up to this in the morning
Taken at Las Vegas Petro which is next door to the Speedway track.
Hi all, had a great ride up to Barstow in California and to be honest wished I had gone a little further as I had 2 really hard days driving to get into Lethbridge. Think the first day was about 1050km or maybe more which saw me spending the night at Ogden in Utah and the next was a big hit to get to the canadian border in 11hrs drive so I could make it to the yard.
The weather was good although not what I had been used to for the last few days but at least the snow on the ground made a pleasant change from dry arrid rocks.
Spent the night in the yard on friday and booked into the Sandman on saturday morning.
I bought a new laptop and spent most of the day setting that up but its all up and running so need to transfer my files across and then wipe the old laptop before it goes up for sale
Rang H&R a while back and have to wait for a trailer to come down to the yard then its off to california again with a load of meat I think, time is getting on and if it doesnt arrive soon then the meat inspection will be closed so I wont leave until the morning. I wouldnt of gone that far tonight anyway but it would of at least got the ball rolling.
Had my worst wage since I got here last week as I didnt get my trip envelopes into the office in time so on paper all I did was a trailer change in BC which earned me the wallet bursting sum of $300, next week will be a good one though as that covers the trip to Omaha, up to Montreal and across to calgary.
Thanks for all the comments left recentley.
Bye for now !