ATS/school

As a company driver I dont know what it pays. But the L/O's are aware of what each load pays, at least the ones on % are. I agree that the % sounds better, part of the reason I havent done it yet. They(ATS) want you to run east of the Mississippi, and do short runs to maximize your pay. Like I told my wife, only someone who doesnt have to always run there or always be under the gun to get to the next load would think that was easy! To me it sounds tiring and stressful. But most imp., my cost per mile doesnt change for long or short loads! But to be fair, I have talked to several L/O's who say that ATS is right, it works. I have talked to several who were making great money, several more making good money. Only two who werent doing that well.

 

Nope, never felt I HAD to run hot. There have been times the load planners must be nuts, but I have only called in and said "not possible". They do sometimes run you tight on scheduling but wont make you go hot. In fact the safety dept. is pretty careful about all the logs that come in, they are all gone over.

 

Those are form the lease plan, I dont know for sure how an O/O would work. Im not crazy about the whole sliding scale thing either, thus the reason for me still driving a company truck!

 

Been TRYING to run hard, but just cant catch a break! Had totake a reset again this weekend, cause I couldnt deliver till Mon. am. Then I forgot to send in my empty call for a few hours, I know, stupidhead!LOL I got a short run again, from TN to IN, 519 miles. Its from a Nuke plant tho so it may take a while to get loaded and tarped with all the extra security steps. At least it pays an extra $200 for the trouble. And my FM is trying to get me more miles, so what more can I do? Still somehow managed to get over 11000 miles this month. Pretty good considering all the resets i've had! This made #4(or is it 5?). Gonna be home on or around the 16th for my sons b-day, then i'll run again, prob. till Christmass. I gotta get more $$$!

 

Sorry about the lag time! I delivered in Hobart,IN, just south of Gary. Got the next load pretty quick. Deadheaded up to our Manitowac yard for a load of cran parts going to a coal plant in ND. Info on the Drivertech said "jib rig". So I thought cool, nice quick load and i'm off tonight to make some ground. Well, the trailer is preloaded(always are at Manitowac), buuuutt.... I seem to have one of the loads from he77. There are two boom sections of the crane stacked on top of one another. Now for those who dont know, boom sections are actually pretty weak when on their sides. You CAN NOT strap over the top. And ABSOLUTELY no chains, you WILL be fired on the spot if caught chaining a boom section. ATS has bought enough boom sections from Manitowac over the years that they really have no tolerance any more. So anyway, the load also has what must be every single cable on the whole crane. Most of the cables are metal banded in a circle and then banded to a pallet. But the pallets are stacked on to of each other, well 4 are. The others were in big wooden boxes. So the whole load only weighs 6600 lbs, thats 2 straps for weight, but 3 for length right? Nope, told ya "one of those loads". Ended up with 21 straps to make it safe. And still wasnt crazy about the stacked pallets. Well I made it safe and with no problems. Ran with another driver out and half way back. Kinda weird but he had the exact same tuck, red Volvo condo, and was ONE number above mine. My truck number is 19661, his was 19662. Must have turned a few heads, two red trucks, identical, each pulling an RGN, with red Manitowac crane parts. I guess there were to be 8 more trucks for this crane. We saw 4 more on our way out. I then headed back to St. Cloud, the trailer was WAAAY overdue for its yearly insp., and my truck was due in ten days. As well as the truck needing a few repairs. Mainly the invertor! Dang expensive eating out everyday! So I got home for the weekend. Cool! Called yesterday to see if the truck was ready, got told 2x it was. Got over there and nope, no-one "knew" they were to fix the invertor or due the inspection! I think someone tried to make it a shorter work day! So here I am back at home. I just took today off too. By the time I would have gotten hold of someone to tell me the truck was ready(really ready) and gotten over there and gotten ready, the chances of getting a load for the day would have been slim. So the plan is to get over there and be ready to roll on Wednesday now. Nice to be home but kind of messes up with being home for my sons b-day in a week and a half. We'll have to see what happens. Oh, and I havent heard a thing on the fender bender. Nothin, zip, nada. Hope its a good sign! Still not worried tho. The more I think on it I did everything you are told/taught to do. I cant control the other guy trying to squeeze by when the trailer moves ahead. So anyway, stay safe and i'll update ya later!

 

You had to go and say somethin didnt ya Jym!? LOL. I got told yesterday that I "need" to be in Gary,IN on Nov 8th for a "special safety meeting". I have heard that Gary is where you turn in your truck when they no longer need your services, but we'll see. Still, im strangely not that worried about it. Just gonna keep runnin till I cant. Spent today helping a O/O re-wire the front end of his KW. Man what a mess! More broken wires, wires that just ended and so on. Took almost 3 hours and we still dont have the right blinker quite right! Gotta be somethin in the colum, but at least he now has both high and low beems, and a left turn signal, and a "strobing" right signal. Gonna go eat a free steak now! Take care!