Superior Carriers 2012

7/16-7/19

I had an uneventful run down to Plaquemine and back. This product delivered in Greensboro instead of the Brown Summit plant so I wasn't allowed to drop it in early Wednesday afternoon. I took about a 13 hour break Thursday and watched a bunch of TV show video files since I didn't have to get up at 2 AM. Headed out about dawn and Got back to the yard around 5 PM. Thursday I delivered mine and a couple of other loads to P&G for about 8 hours of local work. I am off today and am taking a week of vacation next week.

I will be spending the week in Salt Lick Ky with my wife, son and about 60 kids from my church. My son has done this trip every year since middle school. We are going with him this year since it will be his last before going off to college. They grow up fast.

 

7/19-8/2

Spent a great week in Kentucky with my family. I worked with a group of late High School-early college guys from another youth group from Alexandria Va. We ripped out, braced and replaced the back deck and steps on a really cool 80 year old mans house. This guy had lived in the area all his life. He has had numerous heart surgeries. He had a 4th grade education and couldn't read but learned to drive bulldozers and actually owned a company with a few before hurting his back and losing everything. The man worked side by side with us all week and was quite an inspiration.

The first day he sat us down and gave us his testimony. 10-15 years ago he was diagnosed with an aneurism in his legs that was going to require amputation of his feet. He told a story of God healing him as he stood at the back steps we were replacing. Numerous people in the community corroborated his story. He had X rays before and after showing blood vessels that had been restored overnight. We gave him an audio bible as a gift when we left since he mentioned not being able to read and study the bible. He wept when we put it on his head. This will be an annual trip for me in the future even if its just to go visit this man. Even though it was very hard and hot work it's the most fun I have had on a vacation in many years.

Monday I headed out with a 500 mile load to Phenix City Al delivering Tuesday. They ran me straight down to Sandersville Ga where I live loaded Wednesday morning. This was a whopping 200 mile load scheduled for delivery Thursday in Catawba SC. I ran it on up there and was able to deliver it Wednesday afternoon. I was hoping that would set me up for another load this week. That wasn't the case. I was tankwashed back to High Point arriving around 9AM Thursday and am off today. Dispatch says the system is slow right now so this looks to be the worst week of my year money wise.

Next week I take my son up to college so I guess its a blessing to be able to spend a few more days at home with him. Scott mentioned a system snot load up to Syracuse NY delivering Monday but since I need to be home Wednesday I am sort of hoping to get something dedicated out and back from P&G at this point.

 

8/4

Heading out today with a dedicated liquid Zag load. I load at 6AM Monday morning and will drop it at P&G Tuesday anytime before 14:00. I could wait until Sunday morning to leave but that would require starting around 3AM every day to make the schedule. If I leave late this afternoon I can be 20 minutes from the plant after my break and only have one day start before 5:30 AM and I will have a much shorter run Tuesday. My son is working all day today anyway and my wife will be taking care of her parents grocery shopping. This is probably all I will do next week so my check will suffer but your son only goes off to college for the first time once and I will get an extra day to spend with him. That is worth much more than a few hundred bucks.

Also I am having my best year to date. I could make 0 money for the next 3 weeks before my gross YTD income would decrease to last years at this point. I will probably make myself available for dispatch Friday afternoon so I might be able to salvage next week and don't have a day off scheduled for about 5 weeks after that. Hope to get out west again.

 

8/12-8/19

Got the boy all settled and headed out for Racine Wi with a compartment load of 2 different kings of snot on Sunday afternoon. It delivered Tuesday in a window so I only ran about 150 miles Sunday. Even though it was a system load they will usually send the 3 compartment tanks back where they came from. Both products unloaded in the same spot into different tanks. After a quick stop at the Mars Cheese Castle I was on my way back home by noon Tuesday. Got home Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday they had me run a short dedicated load to Cooper River in Charleston SC delivering Friday. It was late loading and I screwed up not running all the way. I figured I had plenty of time to get home Friday but wasn't counting on 6.5 hours to unload it. I wound up with about 1.5 hours left on my 14 in Rock Hill SC at 5:00 PM. Rather than risk running out my clock I just parked it and ran home Saturday morning. Fortunately I was able to catch the Panther preseason game with a good signal. Ended up being an average week.

I am heading out this afternoon after resetting my 34 to add a little more to that check and hopefully get a jump on next week. Delivering a preloaded trailer Monday morning at the paper mill in Cottondale Ga about 450 miles away. Hopefully Atlanta will have something better for me than last time. I am ready to run until Sept 20 or so.

 

8/21

Delivered in Alabama with no problem. Even got an unsolicited compliment from the unloader at the plant. He told me Superior Carriers had the best drivers that come in there. Told a couple of horror stories about Schneider and QC.

About 1600 I called Atlanta for a tankwash and got a bit of a run around. Dispatch told me they didn't have anything but another driver was "dragging his feet" on a load out of Charlotte. Finally got a message to head to Charlotte. Then I got another message from Charlotte to call them. Charlotte dispatch told me they had a load going to Cincinnati that loaded at 11PM Tuesday, delivering Wed AM and asked me if I wanted it. It was scheduled to another driver. I have never had an exchange with dispatch quite like this one. It was sort of like "we have it covered but if you want it you can have it"

I told them I would call them back and gave Scott a call in High Point. He assured me that He could get me out Wednesday. I wasn't crazy about sitting 15 hours at the Charlotte terminal 90 miles from the house to run 400 miles overnight. I told Charlotte I would gladly take it if I could run with it Tuesday morning. That wouldn't work so they tankwashed me to High Point. Got back around noon, shagged a few trailers and picked up a couple of local work hours.

I have a snot run to Myrtle Beach Wed AM and was told to pack my bags because I will probably grab another load as soon as I get back.

 

Good to see you came to your senses. Don't you know tanker drivers are crazy? You are right back where you belong. Looking forward to a new tanker thread if you start one. You pulling on percentage now?

 

8/22-8/24

Made it to Myrtle Beach and back to High Point on Wednesday. It was sort of strange making that round trip in the same day. I have been there many times but it was always for vacation when I got to stay a while. Even though it was a 2 tank unload on 2 sides of the plant I still got it off in a little over 2 hours. The had me loading in Charleston WV at 10:00 on Thursday so I grabbed my empty and made it to Winston Salem with about 15 minutes left on my 14. My wife came and got me and we had a nice dinner. I needed to head out early so I slept in the truck rather than make her get up to drive me to it early in the morning.

It took them about 5 hours to load me so I didn't make it all the way back Thursday but the load didn't deliver until Friday. I stopped short in Wytheville Va, and delivered it to Brown Summit on time this morning.

I am home now grabbing a 34 hr reset. Sunday after church I am heading out to Valencia Ca with a preloaded snot trailer that delivers Thursday. Going to get some college tuition paid these next couple of weeks.

So who are you running with Carlo?