DoubleYellow's Covenant Thrival Guide

No solo miles to report yet -- I spent the last two weeks playing Covenant team shuttle driver -- temporarily teamed with two people in order to help them cross the country and get where they needed to be. Last week the truck spent 4 days in the chat shop with bad headlight wiring & blown cab air bags (the later caused by friction with my now offloaded tire collection). Like twice before, this breakdown meant renting a car to ensure I would meet my prior obligation/scheduled "hometime." This time it wasn't a dentist, but an appointment with the humourless folks at US Customs & Canadian Border Partol in Detroit for a FAST card. Due to slim pickins, I had to upgrade from my usual economy class to a prius (somehow midsized?) but the difference in fuel mileage (52mpg vs 33 for the Versa) was well worth the extra $10:




1 day unlimited mile car rental: $45
25 gallons of gas: $80
Seeing the look on the sales associate's face when they discovered I put 1300 miles on their brand new car in under 24 hours: priceless

Why didn't I just cancel my appointment? Aside from my paranoid fears of winding up on a no-fly list, I really want to make a run to Canada this year because it'll make a significant difference in taxable income. You see, a domestic truck driver can claim $59/day per diem, but an international truck driver gets to claim $65/day (for me, that'll be equivalent to an additional $2000 deduction)

I also got a chance to do the safety blitz (learned a few hazmat things and got a free shirt -- yay) & even ate lunch with Joey Hogan (though I didnt actually know who he was until about halfway through the meal). Felt kinda bad for the guy, everyone seemed to be hounding him with requests on how he could make their individual lives better -- none seemed interested in ways to improve the company.

 

For the FAST card, you'll start out with an online application here: https://goes-app.cbp.dhs.gov/main/goes. There is a fee, but Joey's most recent voicemail address indicated Covenant will pay for it. That process is a 3-6 week background check leading to a conditional approval contingent on an in-person interview with customs officials. There are 10-15 locations where you can schedule that interview, but since Covenant has a yard in Detroit that'll probably be your best bet. I believe there are some walk-in centers too, but they were on the Canadian side... If you'd like more info, get ahold of Jerry Smith in dispatch

For the safety blitz, I got the new 2012 ERG and learned things like when UN numbers are required on placards (when the load is entirely comprised of just that one hazmat #) and when you can have logos near placards (OK if colors don't cause confusion -- a green nonflammable gas #2 is ok on the Covenant blue&red stripe, but a red flammable gas #2 is not). You also cannot have placards within 3" of those vertical latch poles on the rear trailer doors -- meaning you'll have to use the upper side of the left door most of the time (time to buy a folding step ladder... I'm also on the lookout for white tape to create my own 3" border when otherwise necessary.)

But mostly I went for the free shirt & lunch

 

Thanks, I don't know much about the reefer division, except that is was one of the more profitable ones (from the investor's conference call).

Solo has been terrible lately - at least for me (400 miles this week - sat 3 days in olive branch last weekend, 1 day in chat, & now 2 days so far in nashville)...

Scheduled to get to Pomona Monday (obviously going to be late), but I'm looking forward to getting rid of my former codriver's increasingly foul smelling laundry, TV, and general crap he collected on the road. Covenant bought him a greyhound ticket when they fired him, but apprently he could only take 1 duffle...

On the upside, Tim finally tied up all his loose ends and is going back to orientation Monday in Pomona. If I get there by Thursday we should be ready to roll and start making money again... While I'm there I'm going to try & get us both covenant certified for doubles -- just so we can be available for any load at any time...

 

Had another first today:

...first time I've used my TWIC card. I got it maybe 6 months ago and was beginning to think it wouldn't be useful at Covenant, but today it really came in handy. I was delivering to a military base and if you hadn't delivered to this particular base already this year, you had to wait about 90 minutes (after already waiting in line for 60) while they ran a background check on you. The only exception was for those with TWIC cards... Since my preplanned load to Pomona - where I needed to offload that fired codriver's stuff & pick up returning codriver Tim - was picking up 2 hours away in 3 hours' time, I was extremely glad I had it on me.

Ryan, my dispatcher, then worked his magic so I could take a 34 at my parents house instead of at the terminal 400 miles away. My sister was even able to come down from my hometown and brought my mail -- chief amongst the impressive pile was my FAST card which had just arrived this afternoon. I'm always so amazed (& grateful) when life hands you these brief serendipitous moments.

 

Yeah, great employees like Ryan really make a big difference...

I got more bad news today: Tim failed his drug test. What an idiot!!! :disgust::disgust::disgust:

Forever more he'll have to report to potential trucking employers his having failed a DOT drug test -- almost might as well tear up his cdl. Stupid stupid stupid... I guess he'll be off to rehab, and I wish him well. I never would have guessed he had a drug problem but I guess you'd have to in order to jeopordize your career like that. Makes me wonder if he ever used while we were teamed before! Kudos to Covenant for testing him with some quality methods -- I guess Tim fully expected to pass because it had been x-amount of days and the internet said UA would show clean by then (I'm guessing amphetamines? scarey...)

Ah - the joys of teaming... Thankfully the FAST card came in, so I put in for the engineered international solo division. Until then, its more team surveys...

Also I can't become doubles certified until I hit my 1 year (about 7 weeks) Wish I was told that while be bounced from department to department in Chat (But I guess we're rarely pulling sets these days so few know the current requirements).

On the up side, I finally got rid of that other fired codriver's stuff. Now I can really get things organized.

...big sigh...