Finally got my own truck

Who said I was looking for sympathy?? I know what I got myself into.

I think maybe I'll change my policy of 8 weeks out 1 week off. Or just play it by ear.

Anyway TQL's customer screwed me over today.
Took this load 10mi deadhead, 550 mi to Joplin. $925 not bad took 5 hours to load. I get 150 miles up the road when they call me and tell me I need to come back to the shipper. Something about the stuff I have needs to be redirected or something. It's customer specific freight.

Telling me they can pay me $450 for today instead of the $925. I asked him if he expected me to take a loss because his customer screwed up?? The broker couldn't believe I would be taking a loss on that. I told him exactly what it would cost me and gave him a breakdown. $250 plus $140 fuel plus $250 for driver pay. Actually it should be like $500 for my pay but whatever, he said he wouldn't pay the full rate. Finally twisted his arm into accepting $640. Whatever.

They wanted me to go and have them unload me in the morning then reload me to Joplin. I'm like, wtf you really think I still want to go there?? I had myself set up for a decent weekend run. Bass turds. He said they have a load to IN but not sure on the rate yet, he said he'll see what he can do. Not holding my breath.

So so far for the week, I'm at $3815 gross on 1820 all miles. Pretty good on the rate but low on the revenue. Would have been $4100 on 2080 all miles if this screw up didn't happen.

I'm 220 mi from Memphis, 200 from BHam and Montgomery, 330 from Atlanta. Haven't yet really tested the Jackson, MS market yet, because this load I'm on was the first call I got after I posted my truck, and I took it before I had gotten unloaded. Probably stupid but hey. I knew what direction I wanted to go and the rate was right. Had actually wanted to go toward STL.

We'll see what happens in the morning. Maybe I'll talk to whoever is in charge of shipping at this place and get this load to IN.

Oh and white collar sport? Most of the guys at the club are not white collar. I've been playing since I was 22. State tournament is coming up. I won the 1400U event 2 years ago. I'm rated over 1400 now but I can still win the 1500U. Our state's best players are around 2100-2300 rating. I can't compete with those guys. But I can still have fun and get my exercise. And maybe win another trophy. And no this isn't your typical basement or bar ping pong. I spent $200 on my current paddle. Buy the blade and and rubber separate so I can get the kind of touch and action that I want, and glue it together. There are offensive blades and rubbers, defensive, soft, hard, spinny, anti spin, thin, thicker, balsa wood, carbon fiber, etc etc etc. Some of these guys put so much spin on the ball that when you go to block the attack, if your blade angle isn't just right, it will careen off into the air. Or go straight into the net. Ever watch these guys play during the Olympics?? Incredible.

 

I think it has to do with taxes. Places will buy a bunch of product and spend the money so that their profit for the quarter gets spent so that they push the taxes owed further toward the end of the year. Keeps a better cash flow maybe. And then in winter when it slows down they go through their inventory, then build it back up again when spring hits. Last week of March might get to be pretty busy.