Olyphant to Maine with Digis

I was sent up to Olyphant, Pennsylvania to pick up a trailer and move a truck. The driver who had picked up this load, as he was ready to depart, required the services of an ambulance and hospital. i found out later from the folks in shipping that he was complaining of chest pains. His truck, which I had taken a key for in order to move it was dusted like a fine snow with cigarette ash.
When I asked the shipping clerk what it was that was in this trailer He said "Scrap digis." in response to my quizical look he added "scrap plastic." Whatever.
I took these up to Biddeford, Maine to a tiny little factory tucked in the northern pines. Inside I found a nice young guy willing to give me a tour of what they do at Sagoma technologies.

What I had been carrying were empty unused "Digipacks" those things that hold the discs in a set of dvds, long pieces of cardboard with cd trays glued to them that can be folded up onto themselves. They were from a live aid set (like this picture) that must have been overprinted or discontinued.
What they do in maine is separate the trays from the cardboard and send the cardboard off somewhere to be recycled. Meanwhile they melt down the plastic and make new cd/dvd trays in various styles including new digipaks. When I was there they were assembling the trays for the third season of Weeds.
Once I was empty I headed over to a small gas station where I parked and headed across the street to a shaw's to get some comestibles. While there I saw this alluring sign:

mmmm.
I sat for a bit longer before being sent up the road 12 miles to Scarborough to pick up pallets headed to South Holland (near Chicago) Illinois.

Orientation

Orientation, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, went like most orientations do. Long and drawn out. I finished tests and assignments first and thus spent a lot of time sitting around waiting for the next thing to start. My roommate was a pleasant jovial fellow from Hazleton, PA. He had worked local/regional for many years trucking into NYC with mattresses and delivering auto parts throughout the midatlantic. He would be working the Northeast regional accounts and get home every weekend. As with many he had come to Schneider in search of better pay and more consistency. It's easy to sit back as someone in my position, to think "the economy's tanking? I don't feel a thing. But as I return to the trucking industry the signs are everywhere. Smaller companies are shutting down, bigger companies are cutting corners. Schneider, known in the industry for providing full training to drivers with no experience or CDL is now hiring almost exclusively experienced drivers and I think, at this point, has almost completely discontinued its training program (temporarily, I hope. I think it is one of the best in the industry for those that can handle its manic pace.)

Recruiters had told us all that We might get a truck by thursday afternoon and have a load by friday. Thursday came and went and then friday and it became clear that there were not enough trucks for everyone. I think the reason is this: Schneider hires drivers at a rate that more or less matches the rate at which drivers quit. If enough drivers don't quit in a given week then there are not enough trucks and given the current (potentially psychological) recession drivers are probably less inclined to leave a steady job than they might otherwise be.
They sent us away for the weekend.
I headed to NYC since getting home via public transport is impossible and the train from harrisburg to nyc costs only $45.
I had a fine time in New York, perhaps for the first time since I was a little boy, perhaps because I spent the majority of the time in Brooklyn.
On monday, as I was dining with an old friend at his office in columbus circle I got a call that i had a truck.
later that evening I got back into Carlisle and moved into my truck. Its a little old, with 600k+ miles on it but it'll do.
The next day I readied the truck and then got my first load, a pick up, a rescue of sorts, near Scranton.

On the Road again (again)

Back on the road and with the big orange, Schneider National.
(This is a wrecked trailer I saw while walking around the yard, I wasn't involved and the posting of this image is not meant as any sort of comment on Schneider National.)
I'm in Carlisle, Pennsylvania currently, attending a 4 day orientation which is painfully dull. I should be out of here by Friday, god willin and the creek don't rise.

Keep on coming out for wacky tales of this winter on the road.