Superior Carriers 2011

No doubt. This connection had a 2" pipe coming out of the ceiling of a small closet. They had about 6 feet of hose that is connected to the pipe that was stored in a U leaning up against a wall. I think it was plugged up and that's one reason it started so slow. The tank is also 4 stories above you.

I got turned around pretty fast in Louisville but with a short 350 mile load that has just enough time on it to prevent me from racking up any layover pay. Took a 14 hour break last night waiting for it and am looking at about 13 tonight delivering in Calhoun Ga in the AM.

Got a load out of Stepan in Winder tomorrow at 22:00 that delivers Friday at 2:00 AM in Cambridge Oh. Maybe I can get some on that one. At least there are some decent miles on that one.

 

4/27

Short day today. Got unloaded and headed down to Atlanta as fast as I could to stay ahead of the big weather front.

During my unload in Calhoun a storm blew up. It was severe enough that the sirens went off and power at the plant blinked on and off. Fortunately it pretty much blew over by the time I finished. This was a pretty good place to unload. 3 2 inch hoses if you put the trailer close to the wall on the left side of the dock. They also had 3 guys that helped with the hoses. They had my hoses capped and loaded on the trailers by the time I got the fittings broken down. That was nice in the rain.

Atlanta told me my load might be ready so I headed down to Winder only to find out it will be 23:00. I headed to the Pilot at exit 129 on I-85. I will probably wait until around 3 AM to go get it. There is no chance for layover pay on this load. I just want to get it up there in time to get 8-10 hours in before my 2 AM appointment.

They told me to get it close to the wall.

 

4/28-4/30

That big storm front was blowing through at 2:30 AM so I delayed my departure until 4:00 knowing I would probably need to split break and park at the customer to make my delivery appointment the next morning. I was there a few weeks ago and knew they have a big lot where you can park about 300 yards from the gate. No facilities though so I try to avoid it.

I arrived with about 15 minutes of driving time left 9 hours before my 2 AM appointment. I woke up at 1:45, scaled, backed into the rack, pulled a sample and was back in the bunk by 2:15. They finished unloading me at 3:45 and I was back in the bunk for another 2 hours 5 minutes later.

Headed out around 6:00 AM to Charleston WV where they had a loaded trailer waiting for me that was heading home. It turned out that they couldn't take delivery of the load Friday so I am delivering it Monday and then doing some local work the rest of the day.

Tuesday I head out on a Plaquemine La out and back run that should get me home Thursday. Lots of home time this week.

 

5/2-5/6

Pretty good week. I got in about 9 hours of local work on Monday and then ran from High Point to Plaquemine and back. Dropped the load at Brown Summit around 6:45 AM Friday and am off for the weekend.

Part of my 9 hours on Monday was training on the new EOBR logging system. This trip was my first one using it. It works well. I think I can live with it. Biggest problem now is we still have to keep paper logs and use the Qualcom. Doing both is a pita. I asked dispatch when we would not have to turn in paper logs anymore and was told "when we tell you to stop". I also got a little whining about how much more work it was for them.

As far as the actual electronic logging there are little tricks you can use to maximize line 3 time. The unit will automatically put you on line 4 after 3 minutes stopped. You cannot change the status sooner unless you pull the yellow parking brake button. It will then let you drive 1 mile on line 4 without subtracting drive time. As an experiment I pulled the yellow button at a stop sign off an exit ramp where I planned to fuel. I was immediately able to change the unit to line 4 by touching the screen 3 times. That saved me 5 minutes or so of drive time for that day. That could also come in handy in a back up on the interstate where you are stop and go.

The biggest thing I don't like about it is you can no longer take an 8 minute rest stop and pick up 7 minutes of driving time. The first day I ran 665 miles and pulled into the truck stop with 6 minutes left on the unit. I found myself pushing harder than I would have without the unit knowing 1 second over hours is a violation.