Swift Flatbed Division... ?!

Funny thing is that the load we tcalled in Lancaster was going to Memphis. We sat from last night with 3 hours on the clock, to tonight at 22:00 central. We could have delivered that load like 15 hours early(just a drop) and he could have burned a few personal conveyance hours to get us back in this direction and we could have bobtailed to pick up this load. Even spending diesel, he would have made a lot of money. He just doesn't like to run I guess. He also got pissed when I blew passed the Loves to fill up 20 miles from the terminal. I'm not crossing 3 lanes of traffic in someone else's expensive ### truck for just enough fuel to get a free shower, when it's 60 dollars cheaper to fuel at the terminal. Not sure what some people are thinking sometimes. Anyway. He's a cool guy. Let's see how this dedicated, multi stop, multi receiver, multiple opportunities for detention and screwup thing works out for us I guess.

 

Here is a pic of my gross pay for my second week, which I will be receiving on Tuesday at midnight, at the end of my third week(they hold a check in the hole). It represents $9.50 per hour for line 3, and $8.05 per hour for all line 4 activities. I tried to obscure or crop any identifying information and/or trip numbers. With those went my totals.

Line 3 pay(gross): 412.99
Line 4 pay(gross): 86.13



This is training pay. My previous check was 309 dollars and some change, gross, but I took an advance(because I had to living on the road making minimum wage, with a mentor who loves his home time...)

But not all is lost... I have enough pilot points to take a shower every day for the rest of my life...



Not a lot of bums or panhandlers here, only one really smelly guy asking people for a ride. Stuck here on a 34 and nothing better to do, I bought him some Subway and talked to him for an hour, asked for a team shower last night so he could wash the funk off, and threw his clothes in the wash.

10 hours later and I'm still sitting here, parked literally in the front row. Apparently nobody thought they could jackknife their trailer in here. Running these Target dedicated reefer loads(puke) has me doing at least 2-3 sketchy backs per day to hit these docks. I had no problem getting in here. So close to the building that I can use the free wifi. And the spot is deep enough that I could even back in further to let a woman who was about to get a violation back her bobtail into the front of the spot.

Not sure why more people aren't courteous. It costs nothing. But then again, I'm not super jaded yet. Still not hauling open deck like I asked for. Still have only hauled a few vans and then all reefer. Still with a mentor that only does regional dedicated. But despite all of that, I actually really love my job. I haven't worked a single day since I began.

Other than being bored on my 34, having an inability to sleep on demand(and as a result being really tired at the end of my 11), and the fact that I am often limited in how much I am able to make or how many miles I can run by government regulators who have never driven a truck... I have no complaints.

On this dedicated fleet, even the DM, load planners and dispatch are on point. The only issue I have ever had with them is that they pre planned and accepted a load for us that we couldn't pick up on time because neither myself of the mentor had the hours available until two hours after the appointment. And despite all that, we still made it to the appointment on time. With every subsequent stop, we were earlier and earlier. Last stop, we were 4 hours early.

Also, they are multiple stops which are all live unloads. But Target is always on point. We have only had one store make us wait to the appointed time to unload us. 2 hour wait. The only incident I have had was that a Ruan driver backed into my trailer on the dock yesterday and took off. Mentor has no dash cam. Not sure how that will play out. Target has like 20 camera angles back there so we will see.

And the other day in Louisiana, there was fog so thick that I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of the nose of my tractor. I used truckers path to try and find a place to pull over that wouldn't be the side of the road. GPS routed me down a service road to a mom and pop truck stop that didn't exist. No problem, GPS shows this road goes 3 miles to the next exit... Aaaaaand... It's a dead end with no place to turn around.

My mentor was thrilled to be standing outside holding a flashlight and walking along the edge of the road, while I backed 3 miles down a winding back road in a thick ### fog. It was like the beginning of a horror movie. I swear I heard banjos.