Time to start Houffing -- new gig at Houff Transfer

Lessee...

Yesterday morning I started in Richmond.

Richmond --> Manassas, VA
Manassas --> someplace else in Manassas
Manassas --> Back to Richmond
Richmond --> someplace else in Richmond
Richmond --> Winchester, VA

This morning I started in Winchester.

Winchester --> someplace else in Winchester
Winchester --> Nazareth, PA
Nazareth --> Scranton, PA
Scranton --> Baltimore

Spending the night in Baltimore, heading to Ashland, VA tomorrow morning.

 

So what's the latest? You go through orientation yet? Done a ride-along? Got your truck?

Inquiring minds wanna know.

 

Another 4-trailer day.

Left Baltimore with a loaded trailer, which I dropped at the paper plant in Ashland.

Hooked an empty, which I took a few miles down the road to a pallet plant in Ruther Glen. Dropped the empty there and hooked a loaded trailer.

Took the trailer full of pallets to Hershey, PA. Dropped it at the Hershey's Kisses factory and picked up an empty.

Took the empty to Reading, PA. Dropped it at a plant that makes cardboard boxes and hooked a pre-load.

Brought the pre-load to Phoenixville, PA. Currently spending the night on the warehouse yard for an early delivery in the AM.

I guess that's 5 trailers, actually.

Arrived at my current location with less than an hour on my 14.

 

Haven't been keeping track of my miles the past month or so due to swapping trucks so often (and thus losing track of my odometer). But before that I was getting around 2800 a week. I am told that their top drivers put in around 3100 per week.

And yes, they like to keep their drivers running. They pre-plan a load or two (or three) in advance. You won't see all of your pre-planned follow-up loads on your tablet, but they're in the system and will show up generally when you're close to your next destination. It is very rare that I complete a delivery and am ready to roll and don't have my next assignment. In those instances, it usually takes less than 5 minutes before the next one shows up.

 

Also, they don't do that thing Abilene used to do where it would be 8AM and you had a fresh reset and they'd give you a load that delivered 5 hours away but wasn't due until 10AM the next day. It occurred to me earlier that this is probably more in line with what you were actually wondering with respect to "tight schedules".

Houff very much does not want you to sit around burning your 14 any more than absolutely necessary. They want to use your full 11 every day, or as close to it as possible.

 

Where do they have you running?