Caledonia Haulers out of Minnesota

I guess I'm lucky that I've never been asked to recover a truck.

 

Things are really working out this week. It turns out that the delivery in NJ is a drop and hook so I went ahead and delivered it Wednesday night and shut down at the tank wash in Rahway, NJ. Then they had me deadhead to Syracuse, NY for a clean tank so I could pick up in Utica this morning going to Saint Clair, MO, which will get me home just about as soon as I could have asked for.

 

I thought things were still going good after my home time when I picked up in Sioux City, IA going to Weiser, ID. After getting another load from Jerome, ID to Norfolk, NE the BS short runs have returned. They had me pick up in Sergeant Bluff, IA going to Remington, IN. Roughly 600 miles. To make matters worse, I could have picked it up at 3pm Wednesday but the shipper refused to load me until the 9am appointment Thursday. After waiting all that time, I was rejected for "condensation in the trailer". I drove back up to Le Mars, IA where I picked up the tank and they dried it out again (yes, again, because it was already dried after it originally got washed but it's cold outside so condensation still formed). I was warned about this possible issue and they told me to run the in transit heat before loading to avoid being rejected. What they didn't tell me was that I needed to run it all night instead of 30 minutes before getting loaded like I did. Their exact words were "please run the intransit heat on trailer before loading". Maybe I'm stupid for assuming, but what's done is done. Finally got loaded close to 5pm.

Got to Remington, IN and they sent my next load info to the truck. Deadhead to Markham, IL for a clean tank then to Pleasant Prairie, WI to pick up going to Horse Cave, KY. About 400 miles.

The only reason a trucking company likes shorter runs like these is most likely because they pay so good. But I still get 65cpm. So what's my incentive to haul the shorter runs? More time wasted picking up and delivering means less money in my pocket and longer days. This ain't gonna work for me. I'm still not quitting just yet, but at this point it's not a matter of "if" but "when".

 

No driver facing camera. Outward facing camera and rear facing side cameras on the outside of the truck.

Depends on how you run. If you go above and beyond, sleeping at customers at every chance, use every single minute of your 70, and take a 34 every week you'll easily get over 3k a week consistently. But otherwise if you're not one of their favorites it varies. Some weeks I get 2k some weeks 3k. I've had as much as 3400-3500 some weeks when they're giving me back to back loads out west but getting loads out west seems to be pretty intermittent for me. It's hard for me to give an average. I'd have to look at all my checks for the last few months at the least.