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

Got to Manassas Wed night and they said they had no available docks and had to park on the side of the road, hate that. They really need to be more efficient at scheduling and unloading. Didn’t get a call till 0330 Thurs. morning for a dock and out the gate at 0500. Watched a green Werner driver destroy a part of the fence at the gate with his trailer and bend the rim on the front outside wheel. Of course they gave him the dock next to me….I stopped him from trying to back in and moved out to make it easier on him. He got released on his own too soon. Got to the yard and dropped my empty and went to move back into my truck and discovered they didn’t fix my seat but fortunately they pulled it in when I talked to them and fixed it though they were short handed due to techs calling off. All they had was a Pa load to Lowes near Scranton, took it to get moving for live unload Friday at 11. Had been up for over 24 hrs so I parked it sooner than I wanted cuz I was fighting sleep and didn’t want to wreck. Only military experience as far as sleep deprivation kept me going. I crashed as soon I got parked.

 

Got quite,hopefully everybody busy.Dropped my Reno Monday,than was sent a Reno,and Sparks going to San Bernardino,dropped that Tuesday night and crashed on the knight yard.
On the way down they sent me a Santa Fe Springs to Kansas city,waiting to get unloaded now,talked to weekend,they don't have anything till Monday.

 

I had a family issue that required my immediate attention, so I've been home all week. Will be back on the road tomorrow.

 

Started hometime Wed. to get more dental work and work on my house little more to make it my own. Back out Wed. so will see what they come up with. Been lot of short miles lately for me, hopefully picks up soon, reminded my dm we gotta get miles up.

 

Picked up a load in Chesapeake, VA yesterday. Dropped in Smyrna, DE.

Hooked empty, spent the night at the Delaware House travel plaza near Wilmington, DE.

Got up early this morning to avoid traffic, drove to Breinigsville, PA. Dropped empty, hooked a pre-load.

Delivered pre-load to Pedrickstown, NJ.

Drove to the TA in Paulsboro for fuel, food, and a shower, in that order.

Load assignment waiting for me when I returned from the shower. Drive to Allentown, PA, about a mile down the road from where I picked up my previous load in Breinigsville, and get live-loaded at a Dr. Pepper plant.

Arrived at shipper, was told that the load I was looking for was "unscheduled". It's in the system, but no designated time or date for when it will be ready.

Currently at the Travel Plaza on 476 just a hair south of Allentown.

 

Dropped my Kentwood, Mi Sat and took a 34. Friday they put a West Rock load on me from Battle Creek to Omaha picking up today but not delivering til Wed night. Call my DM this morning and got switched to a Bissell load to Richmond from Grand Rapids. Couldn’t believe they thought it took two days to run 617 miles on that Omaha load, but then again there are lazy drivers that will only run 300 miles a day…Im not one of them though.

 

Ended up spending the whole day at this travel plaza. Finally got a load assignment circa 5:00pm, just as they were walking out the door. Picking up scrap paper bales tomorrow and hauling it to Ashland.

Put in for layover.

 

The joys of home ownership….neighbor texts me and says it looks like I got a water leak in front of my house. Sent me pics and looks like it is coming from the craw space access. Had the water company shut my water off til I can get home to look at it. Water company said I was losing about a gallon a minute. Hopefully not too bad of a repair needed being plumbers can be expensive. Deliver in Ar tomorrow, had an Ok load for Monday on me but asked if they could get me towards home. Will talk to weekend dispatch when empty. I just wanna make sure there is no damage other than pipe leaking.

 

Best of luck with all that. Hope it's something inexpensive.

 

Started off today in Richmond. My DM is off on vacation, so I had to pester some other folks for a load. Got sent to Wytheville, to pick up a loaded trailer off our Wytheville yard and take it to Millersville, PA. Due 10:00am tomorrow morning.

Had plenty of time to drive a few hours and stop for the night. Unfortunately, the trailer had other plans. Did a pre-trip on the trailer and discovered that one of the tires was very patchy, with several large areas of zero tread depth all around the tire. So I did what the last guy who had the trailer shoulda done and set up repairs.

They gave me a bay right away, and I foolishly thought I was going to get in and out in less than an hour. But no such luck. Truck ahead of me was having trouble getting payment authorized. Took 'em over 3 hours before the tire finally got replaced.

So now the only way I'm making on-time delivery tomorrow is to get up at Jarhead Time and hit the road at 3:30am. Had to tell 'em to take me off the follow-up load they'd put on me, because I wasn't going to be able to make those deliveries on time.