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

When they started to audit for logbooks , cash became more prevelant as receipts ciuld disappear, along with pages of multiple logbooks

 

Back when I started in 79 we used COMDATA checks for fuel and JJ Keller paper logs. They were numbered so if you made a mistake and tore a page out you turned that in with your completed log. Plus we had tachographs to keep the speed at 55 mph. Fun times.

 

Yep, comcheks

 

At least it's sunny!

 

Dropping my trailer here at this Family Dollar DC in Odessa, TX. Lady at the gate mentions that there's another Abilene driver here who is "stuck".

"Literally stuck?" I ask? "Or just hanging out a long time?"

"No, he's literally stuck."

Sure enough, the dude got himself stuck in some soft dirt trying to pull an empty trailer from where they got it parked. Big piles of dirt and rocks in-between and behind his drives where he dug himself a set of craters trying to get out. He's currently waiting for a tow. And they'll have to tow out the empty he was trying to get as well.

I also have instructions to hook an empty, and there is only one other empty trailer here. Doing my usual pre-trip and:



Big flat spot on both right front tires. Belt showing through on both, so there was an extended period where the tires weren't rolling.

As if that weren't enough (and you'd certainly think it would be), the right rear inner tire is flat.

Called Breakdown, appraised them of the situation. Girl on the other end of the phone asks "Can you drive it to a shop?" I informed her that I wasn't going to be driving this thing anywhere with only one functional tire on the right side. So now I am also waiting for a repair truck, ETA 3 hours.

 

Put my truck in WM shop for check engine light yesterday and about an hour later they said was done. Check engine light came back on this morning....me thinks they just cleared it instead of replacing something that might have needed replaced or maybe Im wrong and it is some software thing they can't fix....got a Reno load for Tuesday. Thinking Ill be alright leaving this morning cuz only need three days to get there I decided to not take off yesterday. Lo and behold interstate 40 was shut down 3 hrs due to bad accident around MM206 due to icy spots on a bridge.....maybe I should have gotten myself a day ahead.....I checked the weather for the whole trip and said was supposed to be good....oh well, stuff happens. Ill still be on time, just gotta run it a different way than originally planned which means me getting up 0130 Tuesday morning in Tonopah to finish it out....

 

Don't be fooled by the 7:00am delivery time on that load assignment. As long as you get it there the day of, you're fine. I asked 'em, and they've confirmed that they're not sitting around waiting for it, and there's no late fee assessed if you're "late".