Good night from...

I'm sure they do.
They would not want you getting more than you paid for, after all.

Just like they calculate loaded miles so that you never drive less than, but always more than.

Calculated, and calibrated, to always err on Swift's side.
(did I say that outloud? Oops)


I just finished with helping out here at Swift/Walmart.
Sure was nice being able to go through the Walmart line and bypassing the line of OTR trucks.
Nice part of the country, too. Decent roads, nice scenery, lots of lakes, nice people.

Now I'm taking a 34 because I have a couple days coming up with only 5 or 6 hours coming back in on my 70, and I don't want to spend 5 days getting to Denver for my home time.
Plus I need to call my DM Monday morning to have me reassigned to my correct division, so I'll be sitting for over a day anyways. It seems when I agreed to help out here, they changed my division as well.

Can't wait to see that next paycheck.
I'll only have 4 days on it since I probably won't complete another load before Wednesday night, unless they hop-scotch me to Denver.
I'm really curious to see how the pay is in this Walmart account - if the stop pay and higher cpm for shorter runs outweighs the lower miles, etc.

In some ways I've really enjoyed doing it, and wouldn't mind doing it some more.
The hardest part is adjusting to the hours, but in some ways it is less stressful that OTR.

One of the ways is pick up and delivery times.
The pplan has times, but the times are fluid.
They call you when the load is ready to be picked up, and it may be earlier or later than the pplan time.

(My first night here I had yelled at Rob when he called me, because it was 3 hours before the pick up time and 2.5 hours before my 10 ended, and I had only been asleep for a few hours and...(etc in an earlier post) and I simply didn't understand how they did things. As I was leaving this morning I apologized to Rob for my outburst that first night, but he understood and there were no hard feelings - even at the time it happened.)

So you just pick it up whenever it is ready, or whenever you come off your break, whichever occurs last. Then just drive to the stops and head back.
You are not actually dispatched on the load until you get there to pick it up, and they do the Mac 1, 2 and 6 for you.
All in all, a very streamlined system.

A couple other things as well, which I won't go in to except to say - it is because the people here are easy going and easy to work with.

 

The first trailer was due to finding some mulch residue on the roof and walls, the second one, lower kickboard out about 1 inch in a few places.

 

Here in Indy, as far as my hours would let me travel.

 

Seattle WA
Word on the street, Canada freight is slowing down. Plus it was the weekend so shippers and receivers were closed, the main planner was on hometime so other planners were seeing my truck and throwing oddball loads at it. Load offers for Louisiana and California, but I took this shorty to Seattle from Spokane to stay in the 'Canada Cloud' but now I think I will just go where the wind blows me.

 

still in austin on hometime playing in new car leave in the morning

 

Sitting in Sumner, Waiting on a load to get me outta here...

 

Fred made it to Washington. He has not stopped bragging about how pretty it is there, and as a result, he's making me pretty jealous. He was supposed to get to drive down US 97 to San Francisco today, but when he pulled in to the shipper, he got a QC message that the load had been removed. This will make the 3rd day he's been sitting with no miles and no layover pay.

 

Finally sitting at the home. Lots do to until head back out again. Next time out alone. Wife staying home for 3 weeks. She needs to adapt some more. From China and right onto the truck for almost 8 weeks wore her out.

 

Finally got the computer working again. I just couldn't force myself to use the phone instead.

Got my truck to the SLC terminal shop and, after 2 hours in the "quick" lane line, got everything fixed. In 45 minutes they fixed three air leaks, replaced the brakes on the front drive axle and replaced the drive tire with the bolt stuck in it. SLC shop rocks!!!

Got a Costco load to a store in Lone Tree, CO, a south suburb of Denver. Ran out of hours but they let me park overnight even though there were no overnight parking signs everywhere. My sister and bil picked me up to go have dinner at a local steak house and it was awesome good. When I was near Laramie, WY I had the opportunity to once again live up to, "Why be normal?" when I squished a Pronghorn Antelope. He was grazing in the median and suddenly decided to see if the grass really was greener over there. I thought he was going to cross behind me but was a lot faster and managed to run between the cab and the drives where the last thing through his little mind was the Michelin Man. The back of the sleeper looked like something out of a slasher movie.

Picked up 44,049 pounds of beer can tops at Coors in Golden and delivered this morning in Elkton, VA at the Miller-Coors brewery. The load was 1.6 million pieces which used to be about a six month supply for me. It was dispatched as a JIT load that actually wasn't; the BOL showed a delivery date and time 18 hours after the dispatch. There were the usual notes in the dispatch including the unbelievable info that if the load was late it could cause the plant to shut down. It defies logic to think a multi-billion dollar beverage corporation would hinge their entire daily production, probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, on the delivery of a trailer load of can tops. I asked the guys at S&R how much material they have on hand and was told at least six weeks at all times.

I started out with 7.9mpg the first day out of Denver and ended up with 6.2 this morning. Crossing West Virginia and Kentucky east-west through the Appalachian Mountains is jack-the-bear in a 9 speed truck. There were numerous times I was in 4th gear up to 7th and had the rpm/mph to upshift but not the speed to sustain it. This fuel route is the perfect argument of how the 13 speed conversion would pay for itself in fuel economy and efficiency. This is the first time I've had to downshift to 3rd to keep climbing and very sloooowly passed another truck at 8mph somewhere in WV.

I'm at a Petro on I-81, exit 205, in Raphine, VA shut down for a 34 reset. Seems like I did this a few days ago.

Frank

 

Wilma,
Did Fred get the DOT violations fixed? He cannot be dispatched again until that's done. Also, have him send a Mac34 with the remarks, "Update: Why am I sitting? Don't we have any customers to make happy?", and list his remaining hours on his 70. It will go to the CSRs and planners and his DM but it also updates/confirms his PTA and, if he was under a load, his actual ETA.

BTW, the entire Northwet is awesome beautiful. If I get two shorties in a row here in the east after my 34 reset I'm putting in for hometime somewhere in WA or nearby.

Frank