Have to start somewhere

Maverick gives you 7 safety points. That cost me 2.I wouldn't call it an agility test it seemed to me to be more of them getting a baseline of where your mobility is at.I ran a lot of miles this week so it should make up for that 300 check I got last week(ouch)I knew it would be weak check.I spent 8 hours at a shipper in Louisiana waiting to get loaded so I put in for my first detention pay will let you know how that one works out.

The inverter in my truck took a dump on me so none of the conveniences I am use too. Now it getting sent back to the place I bought it. I have a nice 600 mile run sitting in my trailer right now to Iowa.This week will be interesting will let you know how the holiday works out they say they get everyone home for thanksgiving we shall see.

I ran into a guy I was in training with in maverick in Mississippi at a lumber yard. He has left the company already and is with another company.That is to bad he was a good guy and a hard worker he had 5 years driving experience he wasn't happy with his fleet manager so he voted with his feet.Just goes to show you maverick isn't for everybody and there is no way of telling who will stay and who wont. I surely would of thought he would of been a big success there oh well.

Vicki is still torturing me with the Christmas decorations so I better get going with it this weekend I promised her they would be up by thanksgiving.There just isn't enough hours in the brief time you are home to catch up on things.Ya ll be safe out there will keep you informed. later

 

The truth about being home for thanksgiving here goes because when I was in orientation they made kind of a big deal about the only holidays you would be home for is Thanksgiving and Christmas.So let the story begin.

Tuesday I am empty an in Ohio it is 1300 and I am thinking they will give me a nice run headed south. They give me a 1900 hr pickup in Columbus(shame on me for thinking) they give me a little 350 mile run to Nashville. No big deal I will hurry up beat the crowd to Nashville. So I boogie down to Nashville get there by 0900 am and sit behind 25 trucks waiting to be unloaded. We wait and wait and at 1500 Wen. I am empty. Thinking they will give me a run headed thru little rock because I am still six hours from home then the other shoe falls.

They send me to rainwater Alabama 146 miles in the wrong direction to pick up a preloaded trailer headed to Wichita Kansas due on Monday.I call my dispatcher because the qualcomm is incomplete and has no pickup number.He complains to me that I am delaying his holiday weekend and why I am aggravating him with these details. I say I just want to make sure they are open as the place I left that was normally open till eleven is closing at three because of the holiday.

I get stuck in the traffic jam of my life in Chattanooga Tennessee. I get to Rainwater Alabama at 2000 my preloaded trailer is buried behind two empty trailers and the only guy there says he not allowed to move trailers at night. I am thinking I might block his car in with these two empty trailers and see if he can move them now but no sense in making a bad situation worse.I am in the electrical storm of my life it is pouring down rain and I am throwing chains to secure steel in a lighting storm(Mavericks says you must have chains on steel no straps) I am a human lightning rod oh boy.They left this off the brochure.

My phone falls out of my pocket and in a puddle and it is toast.So I cant call Vicki to tell her I will be late for dinner and she is still mad at me for not getting her a card for her birthday.Sometimes I am a real dumb ###. When you do this for a living you don't have allot of time to go shopping but I digress back to my tale of woe.

I am out of hours to work at 2200.it is 2300 by the time I secure my load and swap my equipment and I am facing a seven hour drive to little rock and legally the soonest I can touch the wheel is is 0900 which should get me home in time to do the dishes from thanksgiving. I will let you decide how I got home for thanksgiving and that is how they get away with saying you will get home for thanksgiving.You will get there it is all part of the "it is all in how you say it game" of driving the big truck. Happy Thanksgiving

 

OK Now I need some advice because the more I think about this the madder I get. I went down to the yard Friday to finish up things in my truck. ( I was in a hurry to go eat thanksgiving dinner with my family)and to put in a work order for my inverter that still isn't working right. I am on my second inverter and this is getting expensive.

The yard is as empty as most of the trucks in the yard. There are 63 trucks in the yard. There are only about 14 trucks with loads on them the rest are all empty. Which means most people were home for thanksgiving.I don't want to be a hard case but doggone does everybody get a four day weekend but me. I got to head out tomorrow afternoon with no inverter in my truck. Is it to much to ask for to have one mechanic on duty. There was a guy there who truck needed a jump and the dispatcher had to call fleet net to get him going that cracks me up in your own yard and nobody is home.How sad is that.

Are we a 24/7 365 day a year operation or are just some of us and the drivers can go eat dirt.The more I think about it the more I am convinced my fleet manager threw me under the bus so he could look good. He knew what he was doing and he could care less.OK I am done ranting I am still mad and I want a new dispatcher I don't want to work for this chuckle-head who complains to me that I am ruining the start to his weekend by asking for information on the load.Is this what I should expect driving for maverick or is this just standard operating procedure for company drivers.

 

Yeah I have been running the new one wish I could get an old one liked them better.Hey where do you get more of those little notebooks that you fill out the pro number information on I have used mine up thanks.