Stevens Transport A year in review

Falling behind here, been busy, and home time.

July 5 to the 11
Miles ran 1993
Miles paid 0
Miles transfloed yet to be paid 734

July 12 to the 18
miles ran 2676
Miles paid 734
miles transfloed yet to be paid 2082

Came out of the house on the 7th. Get sent a message that they are sending a repower to me in Casper...I will believe that when it happens. one hour later, the repower is changed to Cheyenne. So I head down to cheyenne for the repower, and am told I will be repowered in the morning where ever I stop for the night. I run until 2am, and shut down in Grand Island NE. NO repower set up, and I have to argue with my relief dm about my time and the 14 hour rule, and being stuck at the receiver, still in the dock when my 14 runs out.

finally get a repower in Des Moines Ia, and I head up to Cedar Falls Target. Spend 9 hours in the dock door, to get unloaded. Gotta love the detention pay on that one.

Get sent to Tyson in waterloo, and my load is ready a day early, so I run down to Walcott Iowa 80 for the end of the trucking jamobree....was interesting, but all the vendors were already shutting down....some cool trucks though. Running early, I get asked to do a 2 drop in Mass. It will be tight, but I take it. Between the nascar race traffic around chicago, and then accidents and construction delays, the other truck was 2 hours late getting to gary IN. Eating into my 14, and making it impossible for me to make the deliveries. That is how tight this load was. I run to Seville OH, get up the next morning, notify stevens that I am late, and finally get repowered in Columbia NJ, to an empty.

Get sent to Richmond VA to pick up Nabisco, going to Chicago. From there to Davenport Ia, for Oscar Meyer to fort Worth...then to the yard. would have loved to stay in the Kraft loop, as I was planned to pickup in Fort Worth, to Ocheletta OK, then to fort Smith to Aurora IL.

But I was past 90 days on my safety talk and had to head to the yard.

Got a load off the yard on Sunday, headed to Aurora CO for a Tuesday morning delivery. another Nabisco load. Get 50 miles north of Dallas and the TK unit codes on me...low refrigerant...now this trailer had just went thru the safety lane, and the trailer inspection report has this problem noted on it. Clear the code, and run about 2 hours, codes again. I will stop in Amarillo, call road breakdown and get it fixed. Took 2 hours to get into the TK shop, and it has a leak, but the unit is old, so Stevens said to recharge it and send me on my way.

So tonight I am parked at the flying J, Aurora CO, just a 1/2 mile from the receiver, for a 4am delivery. And then.....

Lets all say it together now

THE MEAT PATCH

although there is Safeway Cottage cheese, Kodak, Cargill, all around metro Denver.

 

I actually drove 1993 miles this week, because I was at home the previous week, I recieved 0 miles paid...I drove 0 miles the previous week.

Stevens pays the miles transflowed in 2 business days after the scan at the truck stop. The 734 miles is all I had sent to stevens by Sunday night. I get paid for those miles on Tuesday. Scanned in on Friday.

Pay is always 1 week behind the end of the trip, if not more, depends on when I send the completed paperwork to Stevens.

 

July 19 to july 25

Miles ran 3275

Miles paid 1798

Miles transfloed yet to be paid 0 will send 2900 on monday

A productive week

Left the yard sunday with a load to Denver CO, nobody ever wants them as you almost always go to the meat patch afterwords. I take them, they get me off the yard and into the mix, making money.

Had troubles with the ThermoKing unit from the start of the day, although the shop says they had fixed it. Had to stop at TK in Amarillo and have the unit serviced, and fluids filled. Then headed up to Aurora CO for my early Tuesday appointment. Was unloaded by 6am, and fully expecting to be sent to the meat patch, just which one???

Low freight, will be awhile, want to go over the school for a few hours? Sure it is a quick $75, and will help offset a non productive day. Head up to the school, hang out, answer questions. Get dispatched to Dodge City KS...now this will be a good day. DLD is Wednesday 10am. Even better.
Get to national beef, drop my trailer, am told the trailer is being loaded, head over to Flying J for a good nights sleep.

Check back in at 0700, load is not ready...check in at 1000, load is not ready, export hold, check back in 4 hours...finally at 1830, the load is ready. Grab it, scale it, legal for Cally, and roll off...Stop in tucumcari NM for the night. Ask if meat wants to repower and make the appointment, or deliver late, since National was late getting the load ready....load gets rescheduled for 5pm on Friday. I can make that, I can be there by 3pm.

Spend Thursday night at the Petro, Kingman AZ. Roll into LA about 1pm local time, sure glad I am headed in, as 15 north is a parking lot, and so is 10 east, 60 east, 210 east...Pull into the reciever at 3pm, am assigned a door quickly, and by 4pm I am empty....

Have a preplan to head up to Arvin to pick up a one stop produce load, going to denver co. This will work good, as I am arriving after dark, on the day it is scheduled to ship, so the product should be in from the fields...

Call produce for my produce talk and dispatch, Picking up at grimway farms, and the dispatcher says, "lovely place, picking up ferries, leprechauns, and rainbows." Gives me a quick run down, and I am on my way north on I5 into a parking lot...a small brush fire where I5 and 215 combine...Stop, wait like so many others do, finally make it up to Arvin, check in, get a door, check with the loader, gonna be an hour or two before he gets it all put together. He will come and get me before he starts to load, after staging the load....good...catch a nap...
This guy knows how to load a trailer...21 pallets, 40,000 lbs of carrots, and when I scale in the 5th hole, 32,800 trailer, 33,100 drivers.

Catch another nap, then head out of cally on saturday...DM calls making sure I can make the load, since we are restricted from running i70 in Colorado Mountains. Yep, going to run 80 across WYoming, and I can make it. adds 180 miles all paid.

So here I am in Laramie WY tonight, 132 miles out, with an 8am appointment, and my 70 is up for the day....Early start in the morning, and all will be good.

So once again, I will be headed to the meat patch....