I know a lot of guys refuse to go into the Peoples Republic of Kalifonia because of all the BS that ya have to put up with.. Try and enjoy your weekend anyway path'.

Everytime I come here I am impressed with how beautiful it is, then spmething happens to remind me why I hate Komifornia! Today I dropped the trailer and went around the corner to the Beacon, whooohooo! I really wish this company allowed(paid for) us to go more than once every three weeks! And then only to get the very basic wash. I guess when you dump the trucks after 3 years you dont care as much. Still, every other wouldnt kill them, they made 750 million last year! After the amazing Beacon trip I decided it was time to polish these wheels. May have been a mistake, I dont believe they have EVER been touched! Spent all day, they look 100% better, which is to say they still have pitts etc and need a REAL polish, you know, with power tools! ARRR ARRR TOOLS! I was going to try and adjust the breaks but its too late and im now tired and hungry. They felt a bit soft yesterday, maybe ill do it tom., hate to have a problem. Oh, and the screen on my driver tech is dead. At least it isnt working,at all. Unless a few vertical colored lines is now working. Im pretty sure its compleetely dead, tried all the tricks from previous times, nothing. Ill see if I can get routed back to Cloud, truck needs a few other things too. A/c isnt keeping up all the time, not always but enough to have me a bit worried. Also needs a oil change and new fuel filters, again! Man they must be happy at the filter plants! Its actually hard to believe I've been out here for 6 months! Too much has happend, in some ways, and not enough in others! Still cant believe how much I have learned, and how little I know! And i'm learning as fast as I can! Talk to you all later!

You may want to hold off on adjusting the brakes yourself... If you have an accident and it comes out that you adjusted the brakes you could open a whole new can of worms... You know that old saying, "time flies when you're hving fun", sound like that applies to your last six months. I hope your AC keeps working until you can get it fixed !

Thoroughly appreciate the Toolman Taylor reference, PathFinder. Haha. Keep up with the good post!

Yep, decided to skip the brakes, too hot and the blacktop is WAAAAYYY to hot! Got a bit burned polishing the wheels, suprise, suprise suprise( in my best Gohmer Pile)! Wonder what its like to be in the sun and not burn?LOL Still planning on being there VERY early, I hope to load and make SLC or so by nite. Must say, its kind of nice not having the DriverTech beep at me! Talk to you all tomorrow nite!

Ok, got the truck into the shop. They took all day, which I expected. Not a big deal, I was at home! So the next day I get a load, cool. Have the wife drive me over to Cloud to pick up the truck. Well, as I am loading thiings back up, truck dies. Start it up, idles for a few minutes, dies. Call my FM to tell her hold the load, something may still be wrong. Well it turns out ATS has installed anti-idling programs. The trucks are to shut down after 15 min., but we are supposed to be able to override them. I cant get mine to override. So I tell my wife not to go anywhere, if this is the new way things will be i'll just clean out the truck right now! Long story short, the program wasnt working right in my truck, or any of the Volvo's. It took 3 hours to un-install it. The program wouldnt let them remove it! So I finally get the truck right? Start heading to Lacrosse to grab a load of chillers going to CA. One problem, its an od load, and the permits arent in yet. This is at 430! Oh, its only OD because its 2" wide, hell of a lot of hassle for 2 D***". Well I get the first few permits(had to backtrack to corp.) and head to WI. When I finally get there you wouldnt believe the trailer I was to pull! (If I coould figure out how to post pics again Id be able to show you) There was a 5' section of the rub rail peeled off the trailer and sticking out about 4'. Three spools and 2 stake pockets were affected. One spool and stake pocket were gone coompletely! So I call in "what am I to do with this piece of #####?" Sorry road service left already, call in the am. Finally got some one out to cut off the rail around 10:00am. FINALLY! Lets roll. But the geniouses in WI sent me on such a crazy route it took me almost three hours to get to IA! Yeah, I know what your thinking, "just take 90 to 35", thats how they sent two other trucks! Anyway, I could only get to Council Bluffs, there is curfew in Omaha after noon on the weekend, same with Lincoln. I got up early and pushed hard all day, got to Rawlins, WY. No way I make the Mon or Tues delivery. But then I dont have the permits to get into NV or CA, so ...? The guy at the P.O.E. in Cheyenne was a bit of a jerk. Wanted to write me a $210 ticket because I didnt have flags ON the chiller. I had them on the trailer at the chillers widest part, keep in mind these things come from the plant in a shrink wrap stuff(like they use for boat storeage). He gave me a break, because I told him I did that oon purpose until I could get there and ask if that was ok. So I guess he wasnt a COMPLETE jerk, just made me sweat for a while! So far I think you can keep your OD ####! It would be nice if ATS would give soome trianing on handling permits etc before they threw you to the wolves! Well Ill try to keep you posted. Right now I am starting to think I should be looking for a new job, 2 full months of horrible luck! I was delivering early, now with the new FM I have been having a hard time even getting the load there! JEEEEZZZ. This cant look good to the suits!

Hang in there Path' .... Just remember sh** happens, and it happens no matter who's name is on the truck door ! Instead of jumping ship (truck?) maybe you could slide over into van sometime in the future, but the more you pull the OD stuff the better you'll get at it. As far as the suits go, they most likely have seen it all before ! Now and then you will run into LEs that are jerks and all you can do is bite your lip and be professional even though you want to call him/her every name in the book. Hope the rest of the trip is better for ya !!

Keep your head up, this will pass.Keep them wheels turning. The economy sucks right now so be sure you would have a good place to goto before you jump ship. The economy,gas prices and being taken advantage of as a swing driver sent me back to landscaping and re-interviewing with a bobtail tanker company around the corner from my home. If tankers is where I want to be then I need to get my foot in and work my ##### off from there. If all else fails I can continue to work landscaping until fall then deliver oil or goto my cousins job in august(reefer units) I'm already ok'd to start then. Best of Luck

Dont worry guys, IM not going anywhere. I like flatbedding, and I know the od will get better. But not today. Been sitting here on I80 just east of SLC, truck decided not to work anymore. I think its the EGR, caused the tuck to overheat. Been here about three hours now, waiting to get a tow into the Volvo dealer. Then it sounds like i'll sit til sometime the middle next week, maybe not til the end of the week. Just to get it in! Then however long to get it ready. Someone kill a chicken and do some Voodoo for me! Make this curse leave! Ill check back when I get settled or what ever.

Maybe you'll get all this out of the way and the rest of the year will breeze by ... Are they going to get you another tractor in the mean time ?