Jason S. Harry

Thinking About Friday.... Last Thursday I was heading back to the yard at an early hour, and anticipated having some time left to go out and run again when I got back. When I called for my next load, I learned I had 11 stops, starting in Beltsville, Maryland and finalizing in Baltimore. Shouldn’t be a problem and clearly I could leave Friday morning and be in good shape. Upon a closer look, once I got the paperwork, things looked a little more hairy then I initially thought. After Beltsville, I had a stop just North of Washington DC, and another one after that before I got back to Baltimore. I’m not a fan of certain cities like Philly, or Pittsburgh or anything too close to New York City. Baltimore, on the other hand is quite comfortable. I like the people, I like the layout of the city, I just am comfortable there. Give me 12 or more stops in Baltimore on a Friday and I’ll be happy for a relaxing day. The problem comes when you sprinkle in a few stops away from Baltimore, especially ...

A Perfect Start to the week! Monday didn’t start out so well. While doing my Pre-trip inspection around 6:30 in the morning I found a flat tire on my truck. Fiddlesticks. It’s a bad time for this to happen, no one is around. I have to resort to calling our breakdown number which is basically like calling Triple A. I call by 7 and hurry up and wait, but I can’t just sit idle. If you’re gonna have to wait around you may as well be productive. I begin to polish my wheels with the intention of finishing one side- they were not bad to begin with, just not up to my sparkly high standards. One of our mechanics showed up around 8 and he had me call road service again and see how much longer till help arrives. They said someone should be to me within an hour and I kindly replied to “cancel that.” Our guy called his guy and they said they would send a guy. This guy seemed to take awhile also, but finally showed up. I completed my goal of finishing one side of the wheels- actually I could have pr...

I haven’t been able to write for awhile and there are a few reasons for that. Summer is obviously in full swing, and all kinds of activities tend to get in the way of my free time. The other obstacle to writing is Connecticut. I know I wrote before about how it “Isn’t so bad” but I think it has been getting to me just a bit. I have spent a couple trips a week up there for several weeks in a row- it became unfunny after the third week or so to learn that’s where I would start my week. It would actually put me in a mood for an entire weekend when I found out that’s where I was starting the week. Not once did I ever ‘make a little noise’ or ‘do a little dance’ when I called in and found CT would be involved on my next trip. I can’t say for sure why I’m starting to dislike it, maybe it’s the traffic, or the grittiness that makes it feel like it’s neighbor, New York City. It has a few problem customers but for the most part the people are good and there are many customers I enjoy seeing. W...