Indian River

The first three or four years that I worked here, I went home every four weeks. When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, everything was closed. There wasn’t much to do on home time as far as going out to eat and things like that. My wife at the time, along with the rest of the family had the mindset: “Don’t come around the house. You were just in New York last week, and there’s a body count on every news channel, etc.”

So, I started staying on the road for a few months at a time when that was going on. It was just personal choice and didn’t have anything to do with IRT. I’ve been staying out about six weeks here lately. Some of our drivers go home much more often. A lot of guys do a month, then go home. Personally, I just schedule it when I want a break.

 

X2 on what @DixonM said. They’ve reserved the hotels and Ubers for me in the past. I’ve also bypassed them and paid for my own room to ensure that I was staying somewhere within walking distance of a restaurant. I’ve also booked Ubers and rented cars myself to expedite the process and eliminate phone calls. In either case, as long as the expenses are legitimate and authorized, I scan the receipts in and have always been reimbursed on the following check. I’ve done the same thing for headlight bulbs a few times. I’ve had zero issues with payroll.

 

Winchester, KY was one of the cities I couldn’t think of yesterday.

 

I book my own hotels. It’s quicker and less hassle than to call someone in Florida, who probably has a few other people holding on other phone lines, and ask them to go online to find me a room. When I book it, I’m able to go through the list beforehand and zoom around on satellite view, making sure there’s a convenient store and food options nearby. Ordering pizza gets old and Uber Eats delivery starts to add up. Fortunately, I don’t experience overnight breakdowns very often.

 

I hope everyone on here is doing well. Yesterday was my 9 year anniversary with Indian River. Things are still going good for me. According to my stubs, November was 12,172 miles. So, it’s been steady on my end. I’ve bounced around from Wilmington, DE over to Spokane, WA down to McAllen, TX and back up to Carlisle, PA (where I’m currently at now) within the past 2 1/2 weeks. I’m scheduled to be off for the week of the holiday, so I will be getting a break soon.

I blew a steer tire on Saturday, December 6th on I-25 in Colorado. I was loaded and en route to Sulphur Springs, TX from Washington state. Fortunately, I was crawling around 25 mph in a traffic backup when it happened. I had just put my turn signal on to exit off at the Loves and eat at Taco John’s. No sooner than I began to take the ramp, it went kaboom and fell down on the passenger side. I hustled to get my triangles out since the shoulder was only wide enough for half the truck width. Afterward, I looked all over for the tire, scratching my head in confusion. I looked behind me, under the truck, under the trailer, etc. thinking to myself “Uh, ok. This is weird.” Once I was back in the truck and on the phone with dispatch to coordinate the service truck, I glanced out of the passenger window and saw it laying in a pasture 50 yards away. Apparently, it popped off the rim and did a skateboarder’s style ramp up the ditch and over a barbed wire fence, which I imagine would’ve been a sight to see as it happened. They had to replace the rim and tire, but it didn’t damage my hood or front end, thankfully.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and is able to make it home for the holiday.