My Experience with Lone Star Transportation

Step 1: Get the FULL address of Shipper and Receiver (this is a customer we ship for ALL THE TIME and NO ONE has an address i cannot stand that, i will never understand why trucking companys do that (give me a F###in address!)

Step 2: I enter the Shippers Address into my GPS

Step 3: Review the Route to make sure its the shortest/quickest route

Step 4: Right down the Miles and Travel time from where i am to the shipper

Step 5: Set my location in the GPS as the shipper, then enter the receivers address

Step 6: Same as Step 3

Step 7: Same as step 4

Then I bring MY location back to where i really am, and do the route to the shipper, and head there (assumeing im going there to load right now and have more then enough hours to go elsewhere afterwards)

Then While getting loaded (or if i have time to kill before going to the shipper, I will set my location at the shipper and run the route to the receiver and find all the truck stops along the route, and figure out where i am going to shut down every night, and i always try to leave back ups. Like say there is a truck stop 10 hours away at exit 100, the 2 at the 103, then a rest area after that. I'll aim for the 100, if its full, i'll go to the 103, and if all else fails there is the rest area.

And since i always start as early in the morning as i can, and i dont stop for any unnessisary stops i usually dont have a problem finding a spot at 1pm-5pm.



And i ALWAYs over estamate my travel time. So if it says 1.5 hrs to the shipper then 15 to the receiver, im counting on 2 to the shipper, 2-3 hours to get loaded, and 16 hours to the receiver, and i fuel when/where i park so as not to waste my hours (since we log post trips here not pre trips)


So if im ever late its because hello froze over or something way above and beyond my control happend to cause me to be late.




I'd rather be 5 hours early then 1 minute late, I am almost always at least 15 minutes early.





American Trucker

 

Once we took this route there is no where to stop between here and rotan....and i wasnt going to go down there and not have a place to park. Cant go to the customer since i dont know where it is




American Trucker

 

Oh where in crosbyton



American trucker

 

Well i have a load.....doesnt pickup until tomorrow though lol. I'm at the TA in Sweetwater, TX since i had no food/drinks left dispach said no problem to come here. I'm only 30 min from the shipper.

Its a drop n hook. I have to drop my MT, 2 Big tarps, 8 straps, and 16 edge protectors. and then pickup my pre loaded, pre tarped, pre secured trailer and cross my fingers that it isnt over weight (ive been told these are famous for being overweight.

When my dispatcher called he says "i have a bunch of good loads going out in the morning, one to NJ, one to VA, one to Brooklyn, NY....which one do you want?"

Have i mentioned how much i like my dispacher?


I said I''l take the VA load so this will be my first North East Load and first above I-40 load with Lone Star. (note: i consider anything north of NC the North East)


The other two guys got stuck with the NJ and NY loads...i guess there dispacher didnt call them till after mine called me!



Anyway i deliver Monday 1/9 way over by DC (not within the DC area but the east part of VA) So i know exactly where i am planning on running to, to do a 34 this weekend.


Dispach also said freight should be back to normal next monday.


This load will be about 1850 miles or so so i wont complain.







Now cross your fingers and hope i dont have to go back and have some stuff taken off tomorrow lol. I wont be a happy camper (closest scale is sweetwater 30 min away) I hate shippers like this that abuse the weight limits and dont have a scale and arent anywhere near a scale!






American Trucker