COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Latest update.

Well, Team Redcoat WAS on a roll until yesterday. After they made their drop in Ohio, they were routed to Illinois to pick up a load headed for Denver.

BUT

The truck crapped out. It left them stranded on some interstate in Indiana and the company had to send another truck to get the trailer and then have their truck towed to the shop. Redcoat says it sounds as if the engine is starving for fuel (and yes they had put the anti-gelling stuff in the tank). The guy who gave them a lift to the hotel was driving one of the new Cascadias. He said it was very nice. Redcoat says this is the fifth time their truck has been in the shop since his teammate has had it and it only has 88,000 miles on it.

So now they are sitting in a Red Roof Inn that Redcoat says is the WORST hotel he's ever been in in his life. He said they sat in a tiny lobby for two hours tired and hungry waiting for the company to put enough money on the commdata card to pay for their room. Redcoat's teammate offered to pay cash for the room just so they could get in it to rest and then once the money came through on the commdata card they could get their cash back and put the room on the card but the desk person wouldn't do it. Last night he said they were thinking of walking down to the Super 8 that they could see further down the road as even it looked better than the one they were staying in. He says the room is grimy and who ever cleans it doesn't do a very good job. I asked him if he saw any hookers outside but he said no that he didn't see any.

At least they are warm and Redcoat was able to get some sleep last night. I haven't heard from him yet this morning so I imagine he'll have more complaints when I talk to him next.

ampmWayne I saw your post about expediting. Actually, I have already posted Redcoat's application on the expediting website to send his info to every company but I haven't heard anything from any of those recruiters yet. Not even a nibble. Guess it's still the same old thing. Not enough time in the US to have the 3-year work history and still not enough time on his license. He's only had his US license for 7 months and the insurance people won't insure him. They usually want at least a year to check for a clean MVR. Doesn't matter that he drove for 35 years in the UK with no accidents (and can prove it with his UK MVR). They don't want to know any of that.

So he's still stuck with Covenant.

Redcoat is wondering if there are any thread readers here who also work for Covenant that have gotten their $2500 bonus money since the company cut it back to $1000. He and his teammate suspect that they will get the shaft when it comes to the bonus money. It seems that if you are hired when the policy is $5000 bonus for teams at the end of six months that you would get the money as promised. But knowing the company like we all do, I'd lay odds that they will renege on that deal and say the new policy affects all current drivers, not just the ones hired after the policy change. Anybody willing to take that bet???

Stay tuned.

 

Truck Update.

Bad fuel injector. It was dumping fuel into the exhaust causing the truck to stall out. ETIC for repair = 2-3 days.

Team Redcoat is sitting in the hotel room watching it snow outside. The dog is laying on the bed and can't be bothered.

The company paid them for Texas to Arizona and for Washington to Chicago. They're missing the Arizona to Washington piece and that paperwork is in the truck. If they can get to it before the payroll cutoff next week, they'll have their layover pay plus the missing trip in next week's check. So this time the company screw up worked to their advantage.

 

I hope you are right about the expediting. It's been almost a week since I put in his info on the expediting site but still haven't heard anything.

I will find out where they are in Indiana in the morning and post it first thing. If they are close enough, maybe you can bring them a pizza! Redcoat likes veggie pizzas!

Currently I am sitting in the camping area of Suncoast RV in Calera, AL. Am scheduled to get the fireplace fixed in the rig as it burned a wire through a couple weeks ago. Winnebago has offered to fix it even though the rig is out of warranty. (Now THAT'S a good company that cares about it's people and customer's UNLIKE some others that shall remain nameless...). Either that or they don't want news of one of their Tour's burning up along with a woman and two dogs to hit the media.

Anyway, once that is fixed I am off to Huntsville. The ad selling was a terrible idea and I've gone back to picture selling. At least I can make a little bit of money even though sales are way down. A little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing which is what I made over the past week and a half. I went to 84 businesses and only sold three ads. Not a good percentage. On my worst week of selling pictures I can go to 95 houses and sell at least a dozen or so and make in the neighborhood of $700. So it's back to Air Photo for me, no question about it.

Team Redcoat is still in their hotel room so nothing new to report on that front.

2300 and all is well. 'Night y'all.

 

Team Redcoat is in Ft. Wayne at a Red Roof Inn somewhere.

Redcoat's old trainer is broke down in Gary. His heater went out.

I'm off to Mississippi this morning to visit my mom. She has a doctor's appointment this afternoon so I'm going to take her.

Y'all try to stay warm out there. It's still relatively warm here in Birmingham. 27 degrees this morning. Regular heat wave.