I'm not the type to refuse loads either, as a matter of fact I have never refused a load for any other reason than log book conflicts.

With that said, I will refuse loads to California this summer, and will do it respectfully. Hopefully it won't become an issue. I don't get many loads going out there anyway, most of them go to drivers trying to get home.

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

As for the routing miles, I have to say what has already been said. Most of the time they run much closer to actual miles than any other company I have worked for. The run that I was offered after I picked up my empty in Wilkes Barre, PA.,(see earlier post) was offered with 464 mi.(all loaded since they don't show us empty miles on offered loads) When I was dispatched on it, it was 500 mi., loaded, and 47 mi. empty. I guess instead of adding all the miles I was running to get the damaged trailer from previous delivery in Mtn Top, PA to Scranton, then bobtailing to Wilkes Barre in the empty miles, they added to the loaded miles. All without reminding them... WOW... Mark this on the calender! ......

I set up my Streets and Trips to follow pretty much the same routes that the company's suggested routing. On the whole, it's usually paid within a few percent of the miles S & T says the miles are, sometimes it actually pays more.

I have been getting more short runs lately though. For a while I was getting more multi-stop loads but those are getting fewer and fewer. I actually prefer the multi-stop loads over the overnight short runs. It doesn't really matter except it burns through a logbook a little faster having to drop-hook twice or load-unload each day. One funny thing has been happening though, on my fuel solutions, instead of being told to fill on these short runs, I have been told to get a lesser amount of fuel. Enough to get empty and back to another fuel stop on the next load. They use to have you 'fill' even on short runs. They would sometimes reduce the amount on long runs and have multiple fuel stops, usually to get you through a higher priced state into one with lower cost and probably to help cover road use expense as well in those higher priced states.

In my many frustrating trips around that loop I always wondered if there was a back way around it. How exactly do you avoid the loop and is it worth it?

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I love it when a plan comes together!!!

That varies greatly depending on your destination in that part of the country, but in my particular case, instead of running I-79 to I-68 in the SW corner of PA I took Hwy 40(this is one nasty hilly road and I would avoid it if you are heavy). Then instead of taking I-70 to I-270 into DC, I ran Hwy 522(ex 82 on I-68 in MD) south down to I-81 and onto I-66 to Manassas. If you are headed south and just trying to avoid DC you can take HWY 15 off of I-66. That will dump you off on I-95 south of DC.

If you're coming from the north, I've talked to drivers that take Hwy 301 that runs along the east side of DC.

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

422 east, 22 east, to I-99 is very hilly also. I'm not sure why they routed me this way--i guess to avoid the toll road-- but it was not fun driving those hills loaded with 46,300. Great thread!

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Never Limit Yourself To What Other People Perceive Your Limitations To Be…

Thanks! I'm gonna keep this information with me next time I head that way. I always hated this stretch of road! I don't mind I-95 so much, but DC is always bad. No matter the load, I always timed it right to where I hit DC in the middle of the night. At that time it wasn't so bad.

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I love it when a plan comes together!!!

I just checked my actual miles against my paid miles. I have 37800 hub miles. Paid miles are 36981. Thats less than 900 miles difference... not bad. a little over 2 % difference. Can't complain about that. Most of the other companies I use to work for before the 'practical miles' revolution you were lucky if you were close to 10% off.

It looks like I jumped the gun on my accusations, everthing seems to be back to normal.

Apparently I just got a string of peculiar runs. Over all I'm still under 2% out of route miles for the year.

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"I REJECT YOUR REALITY AND SUBSTITUTE MY OWN" Mythbusters

Hey,

I noticed that in Crete's latest newsletter that Scott Hartz wrote an article complaining about the increase in out of route miles. I guess they went from 3.38% to 4.2% for the same time period this year.

Does that play into what you were asking about in a previous post?

One last question for you. As a Crete driver, would Denver be a good place to live to get at least some home time?

Thanks again for the great thread...always look forward to reading it.

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Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

I didn't do as well this week although I feel like I did a lot more than last ...

4/10 - 4/12
Andover, MA to West Branch, IA
Empty - 73
Loaded - 1196
Delivered early

4/12 - 4/14
Davenport, IA to Mechanicsburg, PA
Empty - 48
Loaded - 807
Got detained 3.5 hours at the shipper who also added another stop for the pickup. Delivered early.

4/14 - 4/15
Hanover, PA to Canal Fulton, OH
Empty - 39
Loaded - 342
Nightmare run that pretty much killed the week. It seemed to be the most innocuous of three P.O.S. runs I was offered. The deadhead went through stoplight Hell and took an hour. Then, the loaded portion took 7.75 hours. Yes, folks ... You're reading that right. 43.5 mph average for the trip! I could tell there was gonna be no love along U.S. 30 through Western PA, so I went ahead and ate part of the PA Turnpike toll. It would've probably eaten up at least two more hours had I not. I'm really wishing I'd just stuck to the interstates the whole way and taken the hit on the out of route miles. It would have at least gotten the dang thing off the truck quicker and got me onto something profitable that I could actually complete. Oh, well ...

4/15 - 4/17
Obetz, OH to Uxbridge, MA
Empty - 127
Loaded - 744 (T-called 4/16 at 352 miles)
I didn't have the hours to make the whole thing and I needed a B Service anyway, so I t-called this one at the New Kingstown terminal. I'm sitting in The Hotel Carlisle - $35 per night at the company rate - taking my restart as I write.

That's 2,984 paid miles for burning 64.25 hours. Would've been 3,376 if I could have gotten that Hanover to Canal Fulton run off the truck sooner.

Hopefully, I'll get something that gets me away from the Northeast for awhile when I put in Friday morning. I'll see where it takes me and put in for hometime sometime next week. I'm bordering on cranky time ...