Magnum ltd - fargo, nd

Why are you leaving Magnum?

 

Any ideas what is up next for you?

 

Reason #1: Since I moved, I literally live out in the boondocks in relation to their freight lanes. They tried to deadhead me for hometime over 700 miles from Wyoming one time. They have a hard time both getting me home and back out.

Reason #2: I'm tired with all the stress and aggravation of pulling a reefer. Take my 16 hour fiasco in St. James for example. Yes I get compensated for all that but that's not the point. I'm a person who doesn't like sitting around at work for no good reason. 100k paid miles with 33 days of layover and who knows how much paid detention. Just doesn't cut it. I'm also always home a day or two early than requested. Nice from a personal standpoint but not a productive one. Lately I've been getting loads out of the house a day or two late as well, which hurts productivity further.

 

I applied to and got approved by Fremont Contract Carriers after reading half of that thread and talking to all the great people there. They're a dry van and flatbed outfit out of Nebraska. A lot more miles and majority DNH freight. They seem to have most of the good qualities that Magnum does minus the BS of running reefer, and they have customers in my state of residence (Kansas), and running lanes right by my house. No more deadheading from OKC or wherever for hometime.

 

Sitting at the travel plaza near Mt. Airy, NC. First time I've delivered into North Carolina in awhile. Delivering near Tar Heel this evening. From Winston-Salem I'm not sure which way to go to get to Fayetteville. The few times I've been there, I've came from the Charlotte area. Google maps wants me to take US-421 plus a couple state highways there, while common sense dictates to stick to interstates and run 40 all the way past the Raleigh area to 95 then south. Is 421 a good route? Or should I stick to 40/95?

 

421 is a freeway 87 has a few stop lights mostly freeway and 210 thru fort bragg has few stop lights but turns into freeway.

 

Got unloaded here in Tar Heel in decent time. I see a few other trucks plus a bunch of bobtails parked here so I'm gonna assume that overnight parking is a go, find a hole, and catch some sleep since there's literally nothing around here. My next load picks up 4 hours away in Virginia Beach but it's an open window. Probably gonna start at 6 to miss rush hour around Norfolk. Problem is my delivery is near Madison, WI on Friday morning and St. Louis to Indy to Toledo is supposed to get slammed the next couple days. I'll just play it by ear and update dispatch if necessary.

 

Pulling what is very likely my last load with Magnum, a line haul load from the Chicago yard to Fargo. And of course mother nature isn't making it easy. I-90 is completely shut down just inside the Wisconsin border from Illinois due to wrecks, and I-94 around the same border isn't much better. Gonna be taking I-88, I-80, I-380, US-218/18, and I-35 to Minneapolis then to Fargo to avoid all that crap. Probably gonna stop at the Iowa 80 for the night then get an early start to try and beat the storm that's supposed to roll through that area tomorrow.

Drive smart and stay safe.

Edit: just saw that I-94 has also been shut down just inside Wisconsin. So couldn't go that way either even if I tried.

 

Spotted a T680 day cab here in Fargo. Didn't know we had KW's. I just thought it was a mixture of Cascadia and 579 with some Volvo's.

 

Sorry for taking so long for an update. I came back here to do that and I just read that you are leaving Magnum! Best of luck at FCC. I see their trucks out there and they almost always look really clean and nice. I don't blame you for wanting to get away from the reefer scene.

As for myself, I'm actually not with Magnum now either. Nothing at all against the company, but on this second trip out with Mike (excellent trainer, by the way) I came to the decision that I've just gotten too old for the OTR/trucking life. It has been 8 years since I did it before, and I just kept noticing a lot of things that I used to take for granted before have started to become more of a challenge. Things like climbing into the back of the trailer, seeing the computer screen and the dashboard in the truck, my shaky fingers trying to type out messages for my loads, etc. Nothing that was a total game changer. I could have pushed through, but I just decided that physically it might not be the best thing to do, health-wise for my last 5-7 productive years.

On top of that, I had planned on having my dad set up in a really nice assisted living apartment. We found a great place, moved all of his stuff over there, brought him over there, and within the first couple of hours he said he didn't want to stay there and wanted to go home. We brought him home, but that means he will require a lot more of my time.

Overall, my experience with Magnum was very positive, and I would recommend them as a company to anyone who wants to drive reefer. The people there were all very nice to work with. As for myself, I think I'll try to find something to do out of my home office until I retire. Keeping my fingers crossed that I can find something.

Thanks to all of you in this thread, and particularly to you, cdavis188. Best of luck in the future! I hope to see you all around on this site from time to time.