Stevens Transport aviary

Yep a bus ride sucks...Stevens would have reimbursed you for the gas so long as you kept receipts. Welcome to the wonderful Enjoyable world of trucking.

 

Speaking of the middle of Iowa...
Here I sit tonight in Fredricksburg, IA. I arrived at 1:45 for my 2:00 loading and it was done by 3:00.
However....it's now after 8pm and everyone's gone home.
No paperwork.
Seems they need some kind of lab test back since this is a food product for export.
Can I tell you how wonderful it is to be here in Fredricksburg?
I parked my truck off on a company lot (where they told me) and went for a walk around town. Stopped in at the only cafe that was open, had a burger, came back to this far side of town and WOW!
There was a SECOND Stevens truck parked next to mine!
When we're lonley, we breed!
They hope to have paperwork to me sometime tomorrow morning.
Then it's two days to cover 1300 miles to Laredo.
Maybe I can get lucky and get a repower down around the 40, then head over to the meat patch for a load to California.

 

I start orientation October 17th....yay. The main reason Stevens appealed to me from the get go is the almost Marine Corps like attitude about appearance, safety, and rules. Had it not been for some internal politics within my unit I probably would have stuck around for my 20, but I did 8 and got out a little over two years ago. I have been missing it ever since and find it hard to run across a civilian company that has that sort of discipline established. That and I hate laziness, so I figure driving solo, the only laziness I will have to endure will be mine and I can put up with that. I am still a little stressed out about a few things though. I do have my CDL in hand and graduate from school on Wednesday, but I need to go take my HAZMAT, get my passport, and figure out where to store my truck when I am on my hometime. The first two are no big deals obviously, but I have looked high and low for somewhere to park a truck that would be Stevens approved and NOT a truck stop.

Speaking of that, I know that they are firmly against taking the truck home, even if you have a fenced yard and plenty of room to park it, but aside from you taking pictures of where you plan on parking, how do they know where the truck is when you are at home? I know I won't NEED a place until December, but there aren't any storage facilities anywhere near me that are both gated and have the room for a truck, closest Kenworth or Thermoking is an hour and a half away, and I have plenty of places to park it, just not "secure" other than my house. I do have 4 truck stops, but as I have stated before in earlier posts, I do NOT want to leave it unattended there for 4 or 5 days even if it is only a mile or two from the house.

 

You do not need a HAZMAT immediately and in the end you may not want to deal with HAZMAT loads. You do not need a passport in the immediate future so you can put that on the back burner.

Stevens is very structured in how they go about their business. If you liked the corps you will like Stevens. Some other similarities between being on the road during orientation and being in the Marine Corps is that most of the time the food sucks, the hours are terrible and most of the time you are uncomfortable due to the weather, cramped living conditions and stress of driving one of these beasts through places and situations that new to you. I love this ####!

Anyway, we drive from Ottowa, IL to Washington DC. We drive hard and get close for a 0300 wake up to make the 0600 frist drop at Bolling AFB. No military secret, our guys and gals in the military like to eat meat. Not going into much detail for obvious reasons but you know when you are going into a military facility these days it is going to be a hassle.

After this first drop we go six miles into freaking downtown Washington DC. Note to Stevens. Some of those streets, are blocked off for security reasons, 2nd street in particular. The route to this customer has all the traffic, tight turns and low bridge scares to keep you focused. After running the gauntlet we arrive at the reciever. Let me put it this way, it took 10 minutes for us to take it all in and realize we had somehow been transported to 1939 Hong Kong. Unbelievable! I got out of the cab and guided my trainer into the place, inch by inch. The cold rainy weather just added to the surreal atmosphere. All we could do was laugh about the whole thing and enjoy spectacle.

We get done with that and are immediately dispatched to PA to pick up a load that must be delivered tomorrow in northern Indiana. Needless to say, it has been a very long day. I am in Ohio as I type, maybe an hour or so away from the reciever. Really am hoping to get sent west on our next run as we have been up and down the east coast twice already and the weather has been not so good. Oh forget to mention that I did Cumberland Gap couple days ago. Mountains are dangerous! No ####!

Be safe yall.

 

Yep they do!!! This is why I am flying. Got a ticket one way for 124 bucks out the door from Tampa to Dallas. plus I can leave saturday afternoon instead of Friday at 6am..... yuck....

 

You're stressing over nothing. It's Stevens' responsibility to find a place. They ask your help and you find possible places, but in the end, let the Gunny deal with it.

 

Wish I had the option. I checked. From Des Moines Iowa one way to Dallas, $385.00. The only other air options are all at least 4 hours off. Oh well, maybe we will meet up when we get there and trade travel stories.

 

Well another town, another dime.
Holed up tonight in Peculiar, MO at the J.
I love these different town names!
Like Orgasm, PA

 

Thanks, I was under the impression it was my responsibility unless I want to leave the truck several hours away from me at one of their pre-approved yards. That's the way they made it seem when they told me that there were no drop yards in my area.

 

sitting in new hampshire,been raining for days.god i hate it up here.then to get me and my student out of here,they give me a seven drop load.yove got to b kidding me.