Caledonia Haulers out of Minnesota

Also yes, the Janesville terminal is very nice. That's my favorite terminal by far. The showers are a bit small but they have always been very clean when I've had to use them. There's also tons of food options really close by for my fat self.

 

The owner seems like a great guy. Most everyone in the office is friendly. I only have problems with dispatch. I think the problem is they don't like the way I run sometimes, even if I'm making my deliveries on time. They see me taking more than a 10 hour break and assume I'm lazy I guess. I can run 3700 miles in a week running recaps and taking more than a 10hr break every single night if the loads allowed it. I think they just don't understand how running recaps works. Doesn't matter if I get up at 1am or 8am. I'm still gonna have the hours I'm gonna have for the day. If I was running late all the time I would understand if they have an issue but that's not the case.

 

They might give you 72mph at the most since you have worked here before but usually only the seasoned Caledonia drivers get their trucks turned up to 72.

 

After delivering in Horse Cave they had me deadhead up to Sidney, Ohio to drop my trailer. Originally I was going to head around the block to Cargill to pick up a preloaded one there going to Mendota Heights, MN, but that load fell through. While they tried to work out something else for me they had me bobtail to Van Wert to pick up a trailer and take it to Cargill for them to preload it later. I got a DPF light on the way which should just mean I need a parked regen however it wouldn't let me do it after over a dozen tries. The shop told me they'll hope for a load going somewhere near a terminal so we can get it looked at. After I waited about 30 minutes in Sydney they got me a load at Cargill going somewhere in Minnesota and I was instructed to take it straight to Janesville and drop it there.

Just got the DPF issue taken care of along with some other fiddly issues and I'm heading to Cameron, WI to pick up a preloaded trailer going to Twin Falls, ID.

By the way, speaking of the owner, I saw him at the Janesville terminal today. He struck up conversation just as if he was a fellow driver. Makes sense because he is technically a fellow driver still. You will often see him driving when the need arises.

 

Scratch that. I got a couple hours away from Cameron and my DPF light came back on. Again I tried to do a manual regen and it would not. I called the shop and they communicated with dispatch. After a few dispatch called me and told me to head to Caledonia. I checked in with the shop and they said they might not get to look at it until tomorrow. That didn't surprise me because the late shift always prioritizes the milk trucks since they have to be ready to go in the morning. On the bright side, I got to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant and it was as good as ever. I still can't believe a small town like Caledonia has such a good Mexican restaurant. It's always a must visit for me when I'm in Caledonia.

 

Yep, it's not just a Dougie MacLean song.

I saw the owner in Caledonia again today. This man really stays busy. It's nice to know he doesn't want to just sit in an office and collect a check. We talked about the Freightliners they just got in. They got 5 of them to test out and see how they do. They're all automatics and have the battery powered APU. We still got one sitting here in Caledonia without a driver so I asked him about it. He said it's not ready yet. They gotta get a license plate for it. I expressed interest in driving it and he didn't say no. Didn't give me a yes either lol but I guess we'll see.

My truck didn't make it into the shop until the afternoon. They're still looking at it as I type this. They don't expect to be able to fix it tonight. The guy working on it told me it might need a part that they don't have on hand but he's gonna try an easier fix first.