Time to start Houffing -- new gig at Houff Transfer

ExtremeUnction · May 2, 2026 at 7:09 PM

MACK E-6 said: ↑

I’ll be interested to see how they’ll mess with you over log violations from trying to get somewhere safe after dealing with that.
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The 14-hour clock is still in effect even with only six hours of recap. I started the day at 5:55am, and had until 7:55pm to spread out those six hours of recap. I made it to the Delaware Travel Plaza with a little bit of time to spare.

RebelChick · May 2, 2026 at 11:05 PM

ExtremeUnction said: ↑

The 14-hour clock is still in effect even with only six hours of recap. I started the day at 5:55am, and had until 7:55pm to spread out those six hours of recap. I made it to the Delaware Travel Plaza with a little bit of time to spare.
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Things like that are why I’m glad I get paid hourly. No 14 hour day when I don’t have the hours. It’s nice to only work 4 1/2 days per week and make good money. Leave home Monday around noon and get home Friday by 6 pm most weeks. Only thing that would make it even better would be if I could get home every night. But, I get layover pay Monday - Thursday nights, so not so bad. I don’t make JB money, but I make a heck of a lot more than I made at Abilene and working less.

Old_n_gray · May 4, 2026 at 6:12 AM

ExtremeUnction said: ↑

Today was supposed to be a short day. Started the day with only 6 hours left on my 70. Had my butt in the seat at 5:55am as usual, figuring that I'd be done for the day and parked by 1:00pm. Drove 2 hours from the Pine Grove Diner to Middle River, MD, and my first delivery kept me there the full 2 hours. Just long enough to completely waste my time, but not long enough to get detention out of the deal. They also gave my paperwork to another driver. Hopefully that won't cause problems down the road.

Next stop was to pick up a pre-loaded trailer at Penn Warehousing in Philly. This is in an obnoxious spot down on the river near downtown. I've been there before. Heck, I went there a time or two with Abilene. Was supposed to be a simple drop-and-hook. Except that the trailer I was picking up had a flat.

With Abilene, flat tires are usually resolved with the tire inflation system. Hook up the gladhands, release the trailer brakes, and let the air generator do the rest. Houff trailers have no such fancy equipment, so the only option available was for me to call our shop office and for them to call a repair truck. ETA: 60-90 minutes. That was at 1:30pm.

Long term readers of the old Abilene thread will know that I am certainly no stranger to spending lots of time twiddling my thumbs waiting for a truck to arrive. So I didn't think anything of it when two hours went by and no sign of the repair truck. Then suddenly, my phone rings. It's the shop manager, checking to see if the repair truck has arrived yet.

I replied in the negative. He got off the phone and called the repair service. Called me back and told me "They say he's almost there. Call me back if he's not there in 30 minutes."

27 minutes go by, then the phone rings again. It's the shop manager, wanting to know if the repair truck has arrived. "Nope!" I said. More phone calls were made, and to make a long story slightly less long, the repair truck finally arrived at 5:00pm. Wish I had a dollar for evetime I went to that place. First time there was 1999. It sucked back then, I can only imagine what it is like now.

Firstly, I am much more accustomed to the Abilene way of doing things. And even before Abilene got bought by Knight-Swift, back when they were their own independent company, calling breakdown was "fire and forget". They set you up with a truck or a repair shop, and then they were done. So this whole business of being checked on by someone else is new to me.

He also checked with dispatch before calling anybody, just to see if there was something in the area that would get me rolling so I wouldn't have to sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting on a repair truck. Sadly, the load I was on was all they had in the area. He also apologized profusely, like it was his fault the repair truck took so long to get there. He took it personally that these guys didn't get there when they said they would be there.

Finally the repairs were done, just in time for me to hit Philly rush hour traffic. Made it to the Delaware Travel Plaza with my 14 and my 70 on fumes. Will have about 9 hours of recap available for tomorrow.
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