Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

I'm parcel. Let me read the rest of the conversation here. Just waking up. Lol

 

Lol we're strict, and we can be busy, and the package car drivers sometimes have a rough go of things. 150 stops could be someone's regular daily route, absolutely.

On the feeder side...we just do what we can with the hours we have. We do what's asked of us and get the job done.

I dunno. It's hectic, and there's pressure, but I'm a stress junkie as a driver. If I have 3:10 to do a 3-hour run, I'm EXCITED. Lol

 

150 stops a day, all in town, would so trip my anxiety issues... lol ... I think bumping 8-10 Publix Docks was bumping my limit.

one good thing came from running semi local for Publix... it wasn’t “hard work” at all but I did find a new appreciation for OTR.

give me the open road and get out of my way.

 

Avoiding surgery is normally a very good thing. Our collective thought and prayers are still with you... and yes, “hanging out” in hospitals is so boring.

 

Rumors and rumors of rumors... probably...

 

I don't think I explained it well. The guys in the package cars make 150 deliveries to houses. There's no way in hell a semi truck could do 150 stops per day. Haha

 

The shine of local, home every day, quickly wears off when the 20 mile commute home takes an hour due to traffic and after a 16 hour day (local had an exemption to extend working day to 16 hrs) you find that you barely have time to eat, shower and sleep before heading back into work.

Throw in cramped, bouncy, filthy, roach infested, slip-seat daycabs and truck stop living doesn't seem as bad as you first thought.

 

Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about the commute or slip seating, but yeah, local sucks big time, both for the sameness and the lack of money. I had a conversation with my DM yesterday and was not surprised by the answer. Most companies reward good employees individually. They also punish those individuals who don’t do their job. Not here. So, no raises means that those who ride the clock do so even more, those that screw up don’t get written up, and, more importantly, those that do a good job do not get raises. Everyone makes the same $. And the DM can’t do anything about that. The system is entirely broken. I haven’t had a raise in two years, my bonus has been taken away, and no Christmas bonuses were given to locals.
I miss OTR with dang near every fiber of my being; however, I cannot do that job at this time. I may never get back there. I’ve often thought about getting out of a truck altogether and going back into dispatch-BUT NOT HERE. No way in Hades. Maybe to refresh my addled brain, but not to stay.

 

Sure as hell won’t be mine... lol

Ya, I never did have a hankering to drive local for that very reason... Publix seem to have a good approach and implementation of local but ya... I’ve talked to others in local and got the same impression.

I used to drive 45 minute each way for a white collar job... I can honestly say that I rather like my 30 second stumble commute from the bunk to the seat... lol