It's a Team's Life
Day in the life...
We were a decent looking load was offered and accepted on Friday for a Monday pickup and would get us back in the freight lanes. When we looked at the route for our pickup we realized that we would be driving right by a friends house so we reached out to see if we could see them over the weekend.
Plans were made to spend possibly two nights and two days visiting and catching up with each other. Next we looked at the weather and realized an ice and snowstorm was headed right for our pickup so we regretfully cut the visit short. We needed to have the truck and us in position to have as little trouble as possible to pick up the load on time.
With no problems we picked up our 570-mile load at 10:00 a.m. in the morning with a next day deliver at 8:00 a.m. This gave us plenty of time to negotiate the anticipated bad roads and make an on time delivery. I started out driving and found the roads to be relatively clear and was able to drive our customary 58 mph for about 6 hours and then it was time to turn the driving over to Bob.
Bob continued on for a few miles before getting on I-55 and quickly ran into the anticipated ice on the roads. In a short period of time he was down to driving five miles an hour before coming to a halt after driving about 120 miles. The traffic was creeping forward slowly for several hours until finally coming to a complete stop after six miles. We were now in the midst of all the stopped vehicles on I-55 and Bob sat till it was my turn to sit and wait. Due to the type of load one of us had to be on duty at all times.
I sat for many hours before the traffic started moving to my joy and we were ready to finish the last 200 miles of our trip. We had missed our delivery appointment by this time and it was moved out till four in the afternoon. Once I started driving to my dismay the REGEN light on the dash lit up. This was the first time we had seen this light, as we have never had to do a parked REGEN. We had idled enough now we were going to learn about this new procedure.
I was on ice and on side roads as we had been routed off of the interstate. Trucks for as far as I could see forward and behind me with no place to pull over. I watched as the DEF light changed from solid to blinking which is another reminder that we needed to stop and complete a REGEN. I continued on at a snails pace wondering where I was ever going to find a safe place to stop.
Finally we were back to the I-55 and in 15 miles was Memphis and I planned to pull into a truck stop and do the REGEN. Traffic once again slowed down to a crawl and I knew we were not going it to make Memphis so I pulled off onto the access road, which was not being traveled to find the safest place to park. As I was making this maneuver the red engine light comes on and am I glad I was off of the interstate and pulled over. Bob read the procedure of how to do a parked REGEN and in eighteen
minutes the REGEN was complete. From the time the REGEN light came on till the red engine light came on was at least four hours so in normal conditions I could have stopped easily and completed the REGEN. If I had been able to get up to highway speeds I would have been able to have completed our normal passive REGEN.
Our next turn took us on I-40 west next and the interstate was in worse condition then I-55 and we stopped for many hours at a time. We were once again routed off of the interstate and onto side roads that were clearer. We arrived at our customer FINALLY to then be told we cannot take the load till in the morning. So our 570-mile load took almost 48 hours to deliver. We spent over 24 hours on the ice before the National Guard took charge and directed all of the trucks to state highways and we were finally able to slowly make our way to Little Rock, AR.
The key for us was patience as it was what it was and we
were very grateful we had a well-stocked truck and all of the comforts of
home.
We also learned how far we could
push a REGEN light and how quickly the truck performed the procedure.
We are ready for summer!
Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO
Expediters 9 years been out here on the road 14 years
Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle; 

Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;

Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;

Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.