Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

But, I have so little entertainment...

Starts humming to the tune
“ive got friends in low places...”

but seriously, let them take out the trash as needed

 

Fun circus today....WINCO Foods left two pallets in the back of my trailer and didn't tell me. All they said was they were short 10 cases of one product. Was dark and I couldn't see the pallets til day light when I was sweeping my trailer out for next broker load. That load got taken off due to the two pallets of stuff left behind. 30 cases of granola bars, 60 cases of rice roni and two cases of lay's stax chips....the stuff is undamaged....had me take it to usf to drop off. USF dock worker said that seems to be the WINCO way, they always send stuff back that isn't damaged for no good reason. Get another broker load to pick up in Boise and drop in Colton and call broker and Abilene bounced off that load in the morning....third broker load of the day now, picking up in Jerome and dropping in Colton this weekend. Thankfully this one was good when I called the broker....

 

Delivered to the same military base again this morning,as last week,sittin in a door in Conyers,bringing it back to the yard.

 

A tale of my week this week. Not my usual tale of mirth and woe. Just a tale.

Picked up a load of hangars in Atlanta last Friday and with instructions to drop it at the West Memphis yard. Due to traffic and due to when I had started my day that day, I was not going to be able to drop the load at West Memphis by 10:30pm as stated on the load assignment. Called dispatch, discovered that the load was going to sit on the yard for at least a couple weeks before it delivered, so no problems rolling in and dropping it Saturday morning instead of Friday night.

En route to the yard, maybe an hour away, got my next load assignment: Pick up an empty from the yard and go to Jonesboro, AR to pick up a load heading to Sealy, TX. Unfortunately, the pick up was in the evening with an appointment time of 5:30pm, and Jonesboro is only an hour from the West Memphis yard. I motored up there, found a very convenient truck stop a half a mile away from the entrance to the shipper, and waited for several hours until the appointment time rolled around. Got loaded and went back to the same truck stop to park for the night.

Spent the next day driving from Jonesboro to a little truck stop in the middle of nowhere in Texas, 2 hours away from Sealy. Delivery time wasn't until 9:00am the next day (Monday), and I will always arrange my clock to let me start my driving day at 5:45am if the load allows. Delivered the load on time the following day.

Next load assignment was picking up a load of food-grade paper at a WestRock plant in Evadale, TX. Picked up Monday evening, again a late appointment, had less than an hour to find a parking spot for the night after I left. Load delivered Thursday morning in Downingtown, PA and I was going to have to put in two 11-hour days to make on-time delivery.

Tuesday I drove from Evadale to Rising Fawn, GA. Rising Fawn is on that little 12 mile stretch of I-59 that cuts through Georgia on the way from Birmingham to Chattanooga. There's a Pilot there and I shut down about 6:30pm.

Phone rings at 3:30am, waking me up out of a sound sleep. It's Andre from dispatch! He tells me there's a Boar's Head load that needs to be rescued and delivered to the Atlanta suburbs and I'm the closest guy who was actually answering his phone. (I was an hour and a half away from the load I needed to rescue. There was another driver who was only 15 minutes away from the load that needed to be rescued, but he'd turned his phone off and his Qualcomm down so nobody could actually reach him. So I was next in line.) I asked Andre when the load was supposed to be delivered. He told me "Thirty minutes ago." Welp.

Anyhow, I told 'em I'd take care of it, drove the hour-and-a-half to pick up the load from this other dude in a crowded rest area on I-75 north of Chattanooga, then drove it to Mableton, GA on the west side of Atlanta. Called the receiver as soon as I was on the road with an ETA. Wound up being seven hours late.

My day continued with a load from Schwans in Suwanee, GA. Hauling a load of frozen pie crusts. Two stop load, first stop at a WalMart DC in Pageland, SC. Only problem was, the delivery appointment time was well past the point where my 14 would run out.

Busted my hump to get to the WalMart DC and rolled the dice. Hit the guard shack almost three hours early for my appointment with only 30 minutes left on my 14. And miracle of miracles, they gave me a dock. An hour later, they started unloading me. Three minutes after that they were done unloading me because I only had like a 1/3rd of a trailer full of freight and only half of that was theirs.

Got my paperwork, hooked back up to the trailer, and rolled down the road to a convenience store with truck parking that was only 3/4th of a mile away. Got the last spot available and finally shut down at 8:30, 17 hours after my day had started.

Slept pretty good that night.

The rest of the freight was due in Gordonsville Thursday afternoon, but my instructions were to drop it on the yard for one of the local drivers.

And now I've got the weekend off with my kids.

Thus endeth my tale.

 

So the rumors are true, one can actually get a tale or two while OTR...

 

I managed 3 kids, 2 of them are adopted.

 

Well, trailer got rejected this shipper due to crack in the roof I missed while inspecting myself and floor being wet and can't load powder in that. Called breakdown and sent me to boss shop at flying j in Jerome ID down road from shipper. Got the crack fixed but floor still wet so waiting to see what planners come up with next.....two days kind of wasted so far.....

 

I hauled a load of peppermint oil years ago. Next shipper rejected the trailer because of that smell. I thought it was wonderful myself!