Good night from...

My truck was one of those lol. And I think it's made right. It is a mess. It now says I got -2645 miles and a -310 on maintaince account and all kinds of crap. I guess it's right I hadn't had time to sit down and add everything up. The loads on the settlement they removed it so it says -490 miles the next line it says broker load pay. And it also says -490 miles

 

Don't worry about what the miles say ... just go to the compensation column. It should have backed out the mileage pay on one line and the FSC on another. Then there should be a line for the flat pay with your correct compensation ... the net is the difference you are owed after the pay from last week.

Like I said, this is the first in over a year on the program that there was a problem and Brian jumped on it pretty fast. Essentially instantaneously as far as making me whole for last week.

 

Yea Brian was quick to notify everyone. And yea he got it all fixed. Now if he could work on removing the pay cap on the broker. I have been told that swift limits them on what they can pay us. So we don't stop pulling swift freight I guess. If that's the case it isn't working because I have been pulling broker freight since the new year. I have been dragging the same old 533 numbered trailer lol. I don't care if the loads pays exactly the same as swift and are all live loads and unloads. I will choose the broker everytime. For the simple fact I have been running non stop with them instead of the sitting and waiting for a load crap. So far since I have started running nothing but broker loads once I'm unloaded I am on my way to the next shipper no bs. I'm loving it

 

There's no pay cap per se. We can expect to get about 70% of the total rate for a given lane, with some exceptions. The trick is getting an idea of what the lane rate is.

If you haven't done it subscribe to truckloadrate.com. It will run you about $30 a month. You can put in any lane and it will give the market rate. Now it isn't 100% accurate. But it gives you a basis for negotiating. The brokers are pretty straight up. But there are few that will try to sell you a rate simply because it's few bucks more than what Swift pays. Push for as much of the line rate you can get.

The exceptions are the Northeast and Florida. When they first rolled the program out, we figured out real quick that you could make a killing running the broker into those area and backhauling out on Swifts dime. I was getting $2.00 or more a mile. Problem was Swift was taking it in the shorts. Their margins become real thin on the inhaul and Swift was paying us more than they were making on the backhaul. Subsequently the rates into those areas are now down into the 55% to 65% range.

 

Traveling WB on I-94 earlier and it was closed at x12 in MI, with a couple more accidents between where I was and there, so I pulled in to the rest area at mile 40.
I sat there for nearly 2 hours until one of the accidents was cleared and rerouted down US 31 to I-80.

I just got on I-80 when everything turned white with a huge blizzard and traffic came to a halt.
I heard on the CB of several accidents up ahead, and I was only 1/2 mile from the service area in Rolling Prairie, IN.
Shut it down here for the duration.

I went in to get a bottle of water and heard of an accident involving 5 big rigs on I-80 just west of here and another involving 3 rigs up on I-94.
It's pretty bad out there. It's coming down at a rate of 1-3 inches per hour.

 

Here in Baytown, TX. Went to park at the T/A around 5pm and no go, so thought, go to the Loves, and more parking then I have ever seen available. Now just waiting until morning and see what this Ice Storm does. Not looking good when watching the weather. Luckily I have until 1700 to get to Port Arthur. The weather map is showing that it will be covering the whole area come 0500.

 

Bad weather all over.
I'll be a day late, at least, on this JIT load.

I guess a few people may have to put off installing that new engine in their car for a day or two.

 

I ran through the night LAST night from just west of Philadelphia across I-76 to the I-70 and made it just inside Indiana. At first everything was fine, with bare and dry roads. Around midnight in western PA it started to snow with temperatures just above zero, the kind of snow that is hard to see unless you put on the high beams and it was just little sparkles hovering in the air. I thought it might be just condensing fog, but visibility was good, so "Okay, this is snow".

By the time I crossed the top neck of West Virginia into Ohio it was coming down pretty good. Stopped to fuel up and there was already 2 inches on the ground. The fuel islands were packed and fortunately it was a good place to do a 30 minute break.

I feel fortunate to have been able to do a load/load drop and hook in Philadelphia last night, dropped a full trailer from Compton, CA and hooked to a full trailer headed straight back to Compton. Had we been routed down to New Jersey to get our come back load we would have been stuck in the snow for sure.

Right now just waking up in the sleeper berth somewhere in Kansas, about to take my night shift and try to make it to Santa Rosa, NM.

 

I saw an accident report in MI that involved like 15 big rigs, killed a couple and around 20 injured on the I94

http://www.weather.com/news/huge-pi...3?hootPostID=bcc50f34a27706292bff496bf9da1c20


Didnt do much today, got my siriusxm activated and tried it out in my car and it works great, I ended up going with the $15 plan since I do not need all the extra sports channels, it came with a magnetic antenna with 25 feet of wire, anyone use the magnetic on their truck and had good success with it? Im guessing it might be best to stick it near the front above the windshield. I do not have the mirrors to get the mirror mount antenna so if this works well I wont worry about upgrading it. I am just happy I finally put the money out after I have been talking about wanting one since going solo.

 

got the load offloaded pretty faast at the best buuy dc in tracy ca. noticed couple small holes on top of roof in front of trailer as i was closing the doors. ran back to lathrop terminal to get it red tagged and get another emty. found one and sat most of day. around 1430 got a preplan. deadheading me down to castaic ca for a reposition. made it to petro on laval rd since i only had 4hr20 mi when i started. got here with 10 min left. wind is really howling here