DoubleYellow's Covenant Thrival Guide

I've been drooling over the new Covenant trailers for a while now, but had always seemed to just miss finding one empty. Today was my lucky day, and I have to say these things are nice! The lights are all bright leds so even in direct sunlight you can tell they're working (no more running to the cab and flicking lights on/off to try to perceive a difference when PTIing). And of course they're bright & shiny with no dings and scrapes (not to mention new everything).

Going to give the tractor a thorough look over this afternoon and then hope for open scales this evening. I actually want to he pulled in for inspection!

 

Of course all the scales were closed tonight so no clean inspection for me... I did cross off 3 states from my bucket list (MA, CT, & DE). I also drove through NYC for the first (& hopefully last) time. Tons of traffic (at midnight), low bridges, warning signs, alternate truck routes, etc -- very stressful and unfortunate because I would have loved to take in the nighttime skyline. But as it was, I've never in my life been so happy to cross into New Jersey

 

First week solo felt slow, but the actual miles were 2749 (half of my team average). Pay will be about 35% less than running 5500 as a team ($750 vs $1150). On the plus side, I actually read a book without getting motion sickness and have never slept better when out on the road.

Still, as nice as the solo perks are, I'm here to make money so I'm starting to look forward to teaming again. Tim should be back in 3 ish weeks, but I am also considering temporary codrivers for the meantime. I'm actually starting to think about training (apparently need 3+ more months for my year -- wish there was a test instead).

In other news, I should get my FAST card in July so I'm looking forward to doing some international runs. I've had my passport the whole time, but I guess that isn't enough for companies these days. I also need to talk to someone next time in Chatt to be become double/triple approved. I have the endorsement (and my school taught on sets), but apparently there is a Covenant training program before they let you pull estes & conway sets.


That reminds me: Word on the street is that if you don't have a tanker endorsement, you may not be able to pull some dry-van loads starting in 2013 (liquid chemical bins like what often comes out of Laredo).

 

Funny thing: My mother (who has the cellphone I had until december), just got a recruitment call from US Xpress. I never applied to them making me wonder from whom they bought my old info (I applied only to Covenant, Schneider, & Con-Way)

 

They are nice - I held on to that one as long as I could... My only minor concern is that they may be a bit more of a handful when empty in gusty crosswinds...


Reached another dubious milestone today -- sitting in construction, it was first time I really wished I was on paper logs:



(still going to be almost 24hours early, but that's a missed opportunity for another load...)

 

week 2 solo miles: 2951 (5 trips) Felt quite a bit more busy than last week, probably because they were mostly live load/unload and the longest trip was only 900 miles. I know it is the busy season so these #s may not be sustainable. I talked with four different Covenant solo otr drivers, and they pretty much universally said to expect 1800-2200 miles/week. However, they also seemed to have quite a different idea of 'running hard' than I: one told me, "They track us, they know I run hard. They see me moving for a solid 3-4 hours and then only stopping for 45 minutes." (running hard to me means knocking out 650+ miles in one straight 12hour period - then doing it again after 10). Then again, I'm told july is very slow so I may get a taste of humble pie just before Tim comes back to codrive with me...