After several demanding weeks, I left Martin on Monday morning for Prešov feeling that I needed to slow down. My dispatcher called to ask whether I would make the noon unloading slot, and I simply asked if she could give me something calmer this week. I had driven almost 9,000 kilometres over the previous month, and a few easier days would do me good.
In the end, it became probably the calmest week I have experienced in trucking so far. I was still working, but the difference in pace was huge.
When Work Finally Slowed Down
I arrived in Prešov around 11:15 and fifteen minutes later I was at the ramp. During unloading, I used a larger electric pallet truck for the first time and briefly struggled to make it lift.
After lunch, I moved to our warehouse in Široké and loaded twelve pallets for the next day. When I finished, it was only 3:30 p.m. and there was still plenty of daylight left, so I parked the truck and walked into the village.
In a small shop, I found an old, faded postcard of Široké. Of course I bought it, wrote a message to my parents and posted it. I have done this practically my whole life. Whenever I travel and find a local postcard, I like sending it home to my family.
Sending a postcard home from Široké, Slovakia.
I also bought a nonogram book for long waits.
On Monday I drove only 3 hours and 44 minutes. By pure coincidence, Tuesday was exactly the same. I returned to Prešov without an unloading slot and found out that trucks without one are normally taken after noon. After about an hour and a half, I asked whether anything could be done. A few minutes later, they called me to the ramp.
Then I returned to Široké, loaded 495 empty pallets and took them to Martin. I parked at four and was home by five, glad to spend another night at home during the week.
A Calm Day and an Unexpected Beer
On Wednesday morning, I unloaded the 495 pallets and continued to the central warehouse. I was supposed to load something else there, but when I arrived I met Joško and Jaro. After unloading, my dispatcher messaged me that the plan had changed and my next loading would not be until Thursday. So I parked the truck and said:
“Guys, let’s go for a beer.” We talked about trucks, work and life, and it turned into a completely unplanned but very pleasant evening.
I drove only three hours that day — the least since I joined this company.
No Two Workdays Are the Same
On Thursday, I woke up without an alarm, well rested. Later, I loaded 28 pallets of alcohol and waited around two hours. I ate, talked with other drivers and thought about how different the workload can be.
One driver may cover around 5,000 kilometres in a month and another almost 9,000, yet when you are paid by the day, the wage can be the same. I do not mean someone else should earn less. I simply think it would be fairer if actual working hours mattered more. This week showed me the opposite extreme — I drove very little and got exactly the calmer work I had asked for.
While delivering bottled water, I noticed something else. When warehouses are full, pallets of PET bottles are sometimes left outside, even in direct sunlight. Since I started seeing this regularly, I stopped buying bottled water and got a LifeStraw filter bottle, whose filter also removes microplastics.
That evening, with a loaded and sealed semi-trailer, I chose a paid, camera-monitored parking area and slept peacefully.
Slovakia’s Route 66 and Home by 1 PM on Friday
On Friday morning, I was almost the last truck left in the parking area. It had rained overnight, I slept well, and I made tea and rice porridge with fruit and nuts. The customer near Krupina was about 45 minutes away. The road from Zvolen to Krupina follows the I/66: Slovakia’s Route 66.
It was my second time there. The previous time, I had waited four hours to unload. This time, only one truck was ahead of me, driven by my friend Marek, a self-employed subcontractor I occasionally meet at the same warehouses.
During unloading, we found that one pallet contained goods the customer had not ordered. I called the dispatcher, the customer filled out a report, I attached it to the paperwork and the pallet stayed there. Another situation I will know how to handle next time.
On the way home, I loaded another 15 pallets for Monday. I got lucky again: I waited about fifteen minutes, while another four trucks arrived behind me. By 1 PM, I was parked in Martin. It was the first time I had finished so early on a Friday since joining this company. Compared with the previous week, with a broken gearbox and a trip to Budapest, the contrast was huge.
A week this calm will not be the norm, but every now and then it feels really good. There are more cars on the roads, the holiday season is ending, and I have noticed the first red leaves on some trees.
Summer is not over yet, but autumn is slowly starting to show itself.