Eagle Transport (Gas Haulers)

Yeah Phantom, those profile sheets are pretty good ... and in most cases the directions are great because they are filled out by drivers. It's not like when I was doing coast to coast and you get someone that can't speak english on the phone and they run you all over _ell's half acre trying to get you into the place. Generally the profiles are exceptionally good, it remains to be seen wether they can place that kind of information and sketches on the handhelds in the future ... but I'm sure they'll try.

But I'm sure you'll do well with Eagle ... it's all about attention to detail ... getting it right the first time and every time. It can be a very frustrating experience at times and at other times it can go as smooth as butter. Frustrating ... just wait until the next hurricane comes to visit the gulf coast or worse than that ... another Hugo as in 89 ... everything else are minor inconveniencies compared to situations like that. After Katrina I played around a week jumping through the hoops and finally figured out that it was merely and exercise in frustration ... no allocations ... no gas ... no fuel ... and the press running all over the terminal area trying to get drivers to say something bad about the oil companies or the common carriers so they could run it on the evening news ... just anything that they could use to point fingers at anybody they could find to ... seems like it makes people feel good to be able to blame their misfortune on somebody else ... heck, I always thought it was an act of God.

Anyway, after a week of that ... think I hauled 6 loads in 5 days ... I talked to the TM and said I was going to take a week of vacation, they didn't need me anyway ... too many drivers chasing too little available gas. He said fine, no problem, there's nothing to haul anyway. I came back a week later and it's still the same situation. They had every truck Eagle, KAG, PTC, Reliable, Pope, etc, had sitting outside the Chevron terminals at midnight cause they were gonna give us our daily allocation ... so they cut the load racks on for 30 minutes ... about enough time to get 2 trucks done on each load lane ... then it was back to no allocation again for 24 hours. The drivers who couldn't get under the racks went home with nothing ... eventually the lines at the terminals started forming at about 2100 hours for a 30 minute stint at midnight. After about 3 weeks of this, they got the pipelines fixed and the water pumped out and it returned to normal again.

 

Yep ... same here ... had a pretty decent week ... nothing to write home about but steady ... had some comedy incidents along the way ... could have pulled some more loads cause I had the time, but I was kinda grateful for a slow week ... gave me a chance to work on my stock portfolio a bit and re-position some assets for reduced exposure to the Euro zone. Stock market has been brutal this month .... there's blood running on Wall Street!

 

Got a look at the oil spill in the Gulf, last night on NBC news..And OMG! When I'm OTR,TV
never comes to mind except for The Weather Channel in a T.A or Pilot..just been hearing about it on Sirius radio news channels..Has the spill effected business in anyway? I know there were reports that people may boycott BP..But station owners said,business has been up or remained steady as before the spill..just wondering if you all have noticed any difference in volume..

 

I am starting with Eagle the second week of June. I did not want burn any bridges at my current employer so I am honoring my word with them. I am really excited about working at eagle. Wish me luck with the change.

 

Best of Luck to you Mikey ... you can do it ... try not to get rattled by all the new stuff that will be coming your way and you'll be just fine. Methinks you will find it all alot more interresting than you ever thought it would be ... that was the attitude I brought with me when I started. Seriously though, when I started, I was just fascinated by the proceedures ... and getting to run all that machinery all by myself. The hardest thing that will be facing you initially is getting carded at all the terminals ... look for the comonality ... the things that they all have in common ... they all have a grounding system (Scully System) ... they all have a vapor recovery system (VRU) to pull the gas fumes out of your tank as it is being loaded ... they all have load arms to hook up to your load heads ... and they all have a computer system activated by a load card. They are all similar, but all just a little bit different. In this business you will learn best by doing it yourself. Tell your trainer after the first day that you want to do it all by yourself with him standing beside you incase you make a mistake ... just have him check everything before you push the start button and you will do fine. It's better to be a little slow at first than too fast some of this stuff may be a little bit complicated to get your mind around at first and we are just starting the 9.0/7.8 RVP season so you'll need to be VERY careful about that ... don't worry, it will all become clear as you progress ... just take it one step at a time and you will do well. Again, best of luck and hang in there!

 

Hey smoke do you know anything about milan express? I am trying to decide between milan and dillon. I just dont like the idea of hauling hot asphalt.thanks in advance.

 

I will be working out of Nashville