EPES TRANSPORT-Greensboro, NC

Know anything about the local?

 

I feel your pain. after clocking in at right over 2700 for last week, my check looks kinda weak! Oh well, guess I was expecting more. Gotta sweet 611 run from Valdosta up to the Chester yard today...dunno why all my live loads and unloads take, at the most so far, 2 hours. Most of the time I'm in and out of there pretty quick...but I know I'll have some dumb loooooooooong waits...happened to me all the time at USA. Well, sittin' here at Porky's time for sleep and then free shower in the morning, YEAY!

 

yeah it's been 2 suck ### weeks in a row....but next week will be better.....

so i get up to kentucky and got there on time.....then have to run 205 to the pickup and get there and find out it's 3 stops, not 2 and 1.5hrs later i'm out of hours in the dock and they STILL haven't even put the dock plate in yet......at least they had a place to park....and already off duty which was good because i had JUST enough time to make stop one once i got my hours back....absolutely ridiculous place....no dock space....had to pull close and alongside the building and do a 90 hook into the dock to keep from sticking WAY out into the road and rush hour at that.....no way to come in off the road due to the lack of space, and because of the slope and hump in the entrance the gear would hang up and complicated by the fact i had an old scales trailer and the gear on it hang even a few inches below where our regular trailers do.....and top heavy and sloped on both sides and into the hole.....very uncomfortable the way the trailer was leaning both on the setup and getting in there.....finally got in there....got the one pallet off and then can't go out the same way i came in due to the way the entrance is setup the gear would hang if i tried to hook the right turn out of there......and the only way out is up a huge hill through a nieghborhood to get back to the main street.....first time i was ever sweating with the air on.....absolutely soaked....i had to work for that one all the way in and out.....

next stop was pretty easy been there before and then got to run up to gallatin and drop so someone else can run it on to memphis for final tomorrow afternoon......

get my empty and he forgets about me lol.....had to send him a get with it i'm running out of time message and the load assignment comes immediately.....back through nashville to la vergne for a load of tires....get in there and shipper says this load won't be ready till saturday morning at the earliest go away and come back saturday......almost out of time again so send in the message and go to the t/a and park with about an hour left. get a load loading in the morning delivering in asheboro monday morning so i'll get in for the weekend but the planner really had his head up his ### this week.....was not a productive week and i wasn't planned very well or utilized to my potential and made sure my displeasure was known....i'lll only have 2000 when i deliver monday morning......2 bad weeks in a row.....means it's time to knock down a good one next week....

so, i get to be lazy around the t/a in nashville for about 12 hours and then be there first thing in the morning to pickup and be to the house by tomorrow evening

 

yeah...I'm having a REAL xxxxxx (great) week here! lemme see by the time I drop tomorrow(Friday) I'll have a whole 1600! and I drop in Winston-Salem. I'm sure I'll be home tomorrow...think I can make it back out sun...but had family plans so hopefully I can get something off the yard EARLY monday morning and drop for at least 500 more miles, then I'll be happy for next weeks check! The place I went to today was INSANE! I LITERALLY went into the middle of a cornfield in MD/DE and delivered a load of boxes for IP. You wanna talk about sweating? I had no choice but to use my interaxle and drive down one way dirt roads! There was one time I almost, ALMOST, tipped the truck! This place was NOT meant for a sleeper truck, more or less a daycab could get in there. I called DM and told 'em how in the h ell did I do this run when it was only 175 from Roanoke, when I dropped in Chester....they need to put local guys on this run....the roads are waaaaaaaaaay too narrow for sleepers, and not to mention the turns...ugggggggggggghhhhhhhh. Then they told me that one other driver did it.....oh ok...when I asked consignee about it they said there was another guy that delivered but his truck wasn't "big like mine". Meaning, he had a daycab! I knew something was fishy when they just throw loads on me, without a preplan for me to turn down. Tell ya what, if you get a load to Denton, MD that says briskwood farms on it...TURN IT DOWN! That is for local guys ONLY! Even the guy was amazed at how I even got by big a ss truck in there....s hit, I was too!!! haha

 

Sounds like the watermelon patch I delivered to in Delaware lol IP too literally to a watermelon field with a small open dock. Some hot Mexican chicks boxing stuff up while the guys were working the fields. They love wearing those pigtails and I'm such a sucker for a chick in pigtails lol i didn't say that did I? lol anyway, about the same thing, tight ### road marked no trucks and some pretty tight turns getting in and out.

 

so home for the weekend as planned...and only 1984 when i deliver monday....one of the worst weeks in a long while....too much sitting and not nearly enough running.

strange load back on friday.....assignment came while i was sleeping after being turned away from the tire place on the previous load.....broker load a CH Rob bunch of BS it's always something with their loads......get the load info.....weigh before going in weigh coming out.....3rd party customer and blind load information so knew it was going to be a pain to start with....0800-1200 load window.....get there 0745 and need a pickup number....of course they didn't provide one....send in the message and get one back a little later says ref this customer.....supervisor says that's not acceptable he knows what the load is but no number, no load....send in the message.....broker calls supervisor, gets told the same thing......so a game of phone tag between supervisor, c/s, broker and dispatch ensues that goes on until noon when i finally get the #### pickup number. clock is running of course even though off duty and no way i'm getting home friday now even with a split....and the 2 trucks ahead of me had thier numbers and already in the only two docks....

finally get in the dock at 1230 and oh, did we tell you that you have to have 2 load straps? well no you didn't.....usually the load assignment will specify but since it was a blind order i had no information other than who and what time. not even any directions had to figure that one out on my own too...thank god for google maps.... drop the trailer in the dock and down to the pilot i go to get the straps. get back and finally he starts loading once i show him the straps. at least it was close enough the log didn't kick on. canvas bags full of chipped up recycle paper and heavy and in no way stable. 4 singles and then double stacked and strap the front set of doubles in front then 8 doubles and strap the back set of doubles from the rear to snug them in so they don't shift or fall over. absolutely nasty dirty and 105 degrees had paper chips all over me by the time i got done with securement and waiting for him to stack the doubles then securment to the rear of the double stack. then singles to the back door. thankfully was light on fuel because they stuffed it to 46,850.....strange load all the way around...final customer is in indiana but i'm taking it from nashville area to a place in asheboro....then it gets on another truck and goes to indiana....makes no sense....

finally out of there at 1700.....up to the pilot to wait out the last 45 or so before i could roll. at this point up all day, now going to be up all night rolling toward home. get the reweigh and a spot and of course dozed off. woke up to all kinds of excitement at around 2000.....some dummy on the back row trying to blindside in creamed one and #### near took his hood off.....and another one made his own spot and backed into the power company access road and shut down there....then left his truck.....of course, the power company guys were back up in there working and went to leave and couldn't get out because he didn't pick from any of the 20 or so spots available just decided to be lazy and park where it clearly said access road no ####### parking lol.....power company was having his truck towed. bet he got a big surprise when he came back looking for his truck.

while i had dozed off 3 recruiters came by lol woke up with 3 cards tucked into my window from 3 bottom feeders.....as was every truck in the row.....really? lol i'm in an epes truck and these bottom feeders actually think i'm going to be interested? decided to have a little fun with it and sent them all 3 an email the gist of which was.......thanks for your interest in me as a driver and what i can offer to your company. I am very happy with my current employer and situation, but I do keep my options open and would consider any employer who can offer the following: 55k+ first year salary, home a minimum of 3 days a week and weekends off, a brand new truck with apu and no elogs, a northeast bonus structure, an acceptable benefits package, rider program and pet policy. As a professional driver with a clean record and outstanding background and customer service skills, I demand only the best from my employer/partner and if you feel you can meet my requirements, I would love to discuss joining your team.....hehehehe would loved to have been there to see them read that one lol

I really wish I had been awake when one of those bozos came up to the truck handing out their cards.....just so I could look at them and laugh.....I'm working for epes and you want me to go where? hahahahahaha yeah, right....but I did get a kick out of turning the tables on the recruiters and being the one to bs the bs'ers for a change lol......at least in the time it took them to read my email they didn't bother some other wannabe with their spiel.....

so, sitting at home now being lazy on the couch with momma and the dogs..... waiting for the sun to go down enough to go out and fire up the grill......will be sitting at the gate in asheboro at 8am monday to deliver and sure hope i get at least 500 out of asheboro monday need to get at least that much by cutoff to call it a decent week......

 

Hope next week you get back on track with the miles!! For now enjoy the family time.

 

yeah the bad weeks are the exception not the rule and we all get our turn...seems like they come in two's though.....usually if you get a bad one then you get another one then it rolls again.....the issue this week was too many and too long with the live loads/unloads and VERY poor planning on the planner's part.....

 

Hate it ya'll were having bad weeks too. I left last Sunday, worked my butt off all week, didn't say anything - took what they were giving me and finally drew the line when Thursday afternoon they gave me a 500 something run to Hartfort, CT to deliver at 0700 on Saturday. At the time that run would have given me about 1200 for the week?? I wanted to head back home to SC and said no. The idiot planners response was to take an IP load to a farm in Preston, MD (thank goodness it wasn't as bad as the ones ya'll had). It was a whopping 176 miles but took me most of the day to get in there, unloaded and back out to the big road. They deadheaded me out 196 miles to Williamsburg, VA pick up a load of beer headed to Greensboro, 230 miles, that delivered Saturday before 1500. Then had to pu load at yard to get me headed toward home. Got home last night at 2000 and load delivers Monday at 1000.
All that probably doesn't make any sense I'm sure. Bottom line, I had 4 hours left on my 70, will barely get 34 at home (most of it at night which makes it hard to get the grass cut, groceries bought, bills paid etc) and after delivery on Monday may have 2100 miles for the week. And they never give me anything good starting out for the week. The load planning this week was absolutely horrible. I can't understand how they can be so incompetent every other week and still keep their jobs. I have no tolerance for it at all. Oh well, I too, hope for a better week this week. I still think we drive for one of the best companies out there but this makes it extremely frustrating.

 

yeah not sure what's up with the inconsistency in planning.....whoever plans me does an outstanding job 6-8 weeks in a row and runs the #### out of me with short empty miles and good runs then for whatever reason he couldn't get it right if he was driving the truck himself for a week or 2 and then he wakes up and back on his game.....

agreed if this is the only complaints we have it's still alot better than most places but just wish they could get the kinks worked out in planning....i'm sure alot of it is some of them have still been planning for the trucks on paper logs but as the last of those are now leaving the fleet everyone has to get with the program planning the trips for the elogs and some of them still just haven't gotten it yet....i'm sure it's alot easier and much less effort to plan someone on a short one you know they can make intead of having to actually use what's between your ears and crunch the numbers and determine if there's enough time for the guy on the elog to make it on time....

but i'm also the natural born skeptic and hopeless cynic as well so it may not even be anything like that at all lol...could be just the regular planner is on vacation who knows? seems like there's alot of folks been with the company for a long time and have alot of vacation days...and that in itself would be a good sign....that would make sense not knowing who is who and who runs hard and gets the job done and who doesn't and just planning the first thing that comes up with the first truck in line....

i can see the argument that sitting is sitting no matter what but i'd still rather be sitting getting loaded knowing i'll run when they finally decide now might be a good time to get it loaded than to be sitting waiting for a load to run as i see alot of other people in the other forums doing.

still, i wouldn't trade this company for any out there......