Caledonia Haulers out of Minnesota

If they give me that Freightliner I might stay a while longer. I spend a lot of time in the truck so having a better living space would improve my quality of life significantly.

Alternatively, I might just find out that I still don't like tanker and I still don't like short runs. Who knows

 

Technically in this case the Freightliner has more space since our Peterbilts are 72" sleepers and the Freightliners are also 72" sleepers with a little more head room up front. That part of it is almost negligible, but the amount of storage you get in a Freightliner is definitely way better. You can get a Peterbilt with an 80" sleeper which I think is what you have at Bynum but I could be wrong. I know that's what Indian River has though. Slightly bigger bed and storage compartments. Unless you have a top bunk instead of storage compartments. Another advantage of the Freightliner is a bigger fridge. Even if you opt for the factory fridge it's still bigger than a Peterbilt. If you don't, you get a huge space where you can put a pretty good sized dorm fridge.

 

My truck actually got done last night. Basically the "7th injector" wasn't working (the one that sprays diesel into the DPF during a regen to heat it up) and he tried to clean it out but there was something really good and stuck in it so he looked in their spare parts and there happened to be one in stock. He put it on and started a regen. It lasted about 30-45 minutes and seemed happy. No more lights on the dash. I guess we'll see how it goes as I head to Blooming Prairie, MN to get loaded for Calhoun, GA.

 

Well I got my hopes up when my dispatcher told me to drop my load in Louisville, KY and pick up a different one going to St Clair, MO because I absolutely despise taking loads to Georgia more than any other state. I did as instructed and delivered in St Clair, MO Monday. That's when my dispatcher said "alright head back to Louisville and pick up this loaded trailer". I asked, "is it the trailer I just dropped there?" He paused for a second and said, "oh, yeah, it is actually". What do you know. So I still had to go down to Calhoun and deliver that load. I find this part interesting: when I originally picked up the load, there was no delivery appointment set. After I dropped it, delivered the Missouri load, and picked it back up again, it had an appointment time that I couldn't make. I told them I'd be there later in the afternoon and after a few hours I got the response "delivery is set for 7am tomorrow now ". So I had to shut down a bit early to wait and deliver it the next day, but I told myself, "hey, at least you don't have to go through Atlanta!". Well guess what happened after I got empty in Calhoun. I had to hop back up to Chattanooga for a clean trailer and... You guessed it, drive through Atlanta in order to pick up my next load. Picked up in Gainesville, GA going to Pewaukee, WI. I was a little behind thanks to a slight delay in Calhoun and a bit of traffic going through Atlanta (who would have guessed??) so dispatch had me meet with another driver in Owensboro, KY so he could run the load to Pewaukee overnight to make the 6am appointment for tomorrow. Now I'm gonna head to Louisville tomorrow and pick up a loaded trailer going to Reserve, LA. I haven't been to Louisiana in a while so I'll take it. Anything but Georgia at this point.

On a lighter note, I'll be getting a sign on bonus payment on my check tomorrow for $1000 and a $100 "seniority bonus". Not to mention they decided to give me $600 breakdown pay for all the issues my truck was having last week. I was really surprised at that because I was barely down for like 2 days, if that. But I'll take it.

 

I forgot to mention that I'm getting those bonuses because I've been with Caledonia for a year now. Which also means I have 2 weeks of vacation that I will definitely be using very soon.