Company Driver with American Central Transport

I just finished orientation with ACT. I'm on the road now so I figured I would start an update of my trips. Today, I picked up in Kansas City, MO going to Lawton, OK for delivery in the morning. Then, I have to pick up in Lawton going to Dekalb, IL for Monday...but I don't think that one will be ready until the afternoon. The first day went OK to OK.

 

Thanks, BlackLions! It's great to be back at work after about 5 months off! (Of course, it was great to be on vacation for 5 months, too.) I'm still trying to get used to the 13 speed. I've never driven one before this. This load is heavy and QC says I only got 5.7mpg...but the dash said 7.3 the whole time I was driving. I'm trying to get used to the e-logs, too. I'll have to figure out how to log the next load as I start early but I can't pick up until 4pm (as of now). I didn't run anything over and nothing got broken on me or the truck so no complaints thus far.

 

ACT actually called me this morning and said it was ready at 8am so I just picked it up across the street and cruised. I had one of those trailers that the tandems were frozen no matter what we tried and I couldn't slide them to the rear...but the Lawton consignee unloaded me anyway. I'm headed to De Kalb, IL now. They gave me a choice of 3 and I picked that one yesterday. One choice was shorter in length and the other one was longer. The fuel stops were bogus though. It wanted me to go to the Pilot on the west side of OKC, get 50 gallons, drive like 2 hours and then fill up in Muskogee. If you drove that way, that is so much out of route it's not even funny. You would burn up like three hours instead of just going the direct route...and a whole lot of fuel, too. That didn't happen! I just stopped in Muskogee. It sucked but I needed fuel. I made it there with about 8 drops left.

 

Today was a piece of cake. I delivered my second load which went to De Kalb, IL. I drove 576 miles from Joplin, MO. There was a problem with the list at the consignee and the guard didn't have my load number on the sheet. I was told I would have to go back at 8am...but I sent a message to ACT. They got it fixed and ten minutes later I was dropping and hooking. My QC said I only got 5.7 mpg for the first day...6.0 mpg for the first two days...and 6.6 mpg after the first three days. It was really windy the first two days across Kansas and Oklahoma. I was loaded pretty heavily. This load was only about 36k. So far, I have done two loads for 1295 paid miles since orientation. It will be a short pay week because I did orientation. I didn't start running until Friday so that is ok.

 

Yes, they used that Fuel Solutions with another company I worked for...it can be dicey at times. It just made no sense that it said don't get fuel the first day...but it wanted me to get fuel twice (in less than 3 hours and drive like 60 miles extra to hit both stops) the second day. Of course, with e-logs it's no problem (if I had 15, 20 and 100 hour clocks).

 

Good deal! Hope you are rolling and making some money. I'm in Rochelle, IL at the Petro. I'm about to take off to pick up in Harvard, IL. That is going back to Kansas City, MO. It's a drop and hook on both ends. It can deliver 24/7, too. It just has to be there by midnight tomorrow night. I figured if I leave later, I won't have to worry about finding a parking spot.