Superior Carriers 2012

11/5-11/09

Busy week with a bunch of 300-400 mile loads. I did 4 loads this week and all but the last drop was live load and unload. Headed out early after loading glue in Kernersville and had that off in Austel Ga by 13:00. Dropped that trailer on the yard, grabbed an empty and headed over to the Loves on I-75 before you get to Macon Ga for the night.

Tuesday I loaded in Milledgeville Ga heading to Greenville NC delivering the next day at 8 AM. Took about 1.25 hours both times.

Wednesday I was bounced down to Wilmington making my first visit to that terminal. I was only there about 45 minutes before loading at Sasol with Acetone heading back to Greensboro. It took less than an hour to load there. I ran into rush hour traffic in Raleigh and decided to stop in Mebane at the Petro rather than pushing on to the yard and risking my 14. I also calculated that I could pick up a couple of hour of layover pay that way as well with my 11 AM delivery appointment. I cleaned out the inside of my truck real good and mopped down my floors before heading out the next morning.

I figured I would be home after delivery and needed to renew my medical card so I called dispatch to see if they could get me an appointment with the company doc. Delivery took about an hour, DOT physical took about 2.

They had me on a dedicated out and back to the Trimac terminal in Fairburn Ga for Friday. Its about 330 miles and a tight turn in 1 day with Atlanta and Charlotte traffic so I grabbed the trailer and ran down to the loves in Fair Play SC. I am real glad I did since there were so many wrecks coming back that I used all but 30 minutes of my 14 to run 471 miles.

This will be a below average week but better than the last 2.

9 hours of layover, traffic, tankwash, etc pay, combined with $160 in load/unload pay helps the paycheck this week.

Heading to Raleigh to take my son to the State Wake game in a few minutes, then will see what Peyton Manning and John Fox have in store for the Panthers on Sunday.

I have a delivery/top load of glue on tap for Monday at 11AM heading to Trenton IL just east of St Louis. This one should be fun. Pump unload 5 3 inch hoses. Hopefully that is wrong. We usually air off glue.

 

11/12-11/20

Not the best week. I picked up a a load of glue on the yard around 10 AM Monday to deliver 20 miles away. The plan was for me to deliver the load then get top loaded from the same rack. Problem was my appointment to deliver was 11:00 and my load appointment was 3 PM. You guessed it, another truck showed up at 1 PM and they wouldn't top load me until he was unloaded to avoid demurage. This load also was only 700 miles delivering Wednesday. Not the best way to use half the week.

Sure enough it was a pump unload that took about 3.5 hours to get off. Plant staff insisted that I pump it saying one driver refused and it took 8 hours. They weren't paying for that. They even had a little section on the paperwork they fillout on "driver attitude"

I was tankwashed back to Derby City Tank Wash in Louisville to drop the dirty trailer and grab a clean one to load in Cincy Thursday. I had the tankwash clean my pump. They washed it out a while, hooked up a 3 inch hose to the inlet and told me to turn on my pump. As soon as it engaged the shaft on the pump snapped. That glue was rock solid. only way to clean would have been to disassemble the pump. Fortunately the PTO shaft rested on a frame rail higher than the bottom of the pump. There was also a U bold to keep it from sliding back and forth. I bungied it to keep it from bouncing around. The shop replaced my pump with one off another truck on Friday when I got back

Thursday I loaded antifreeze in Cincinnati that delivered to the Volvo Truck plant in Dublin Va. After uneventful load and unload I was home by noon Friday with a whopping 1600 mile 2 load week.

Monday I got a 380 mile coal mine pump load to Waynesburg Pa delivering Tuesday. Dispatch told me that company policy is to get all drivers home for Thanksgiving but if I wanted to stay out they could put my name in the computer to not come home. I envisioned loading some 700 mile load on Wednesday that delivered Monday and declined. I asked him if he had anything going West for next week and was told not yet but you never know.

I headed out to grab my load 20 miles away and got a call on the way. Dispatch in Karns City called Scott to see if I wanted a load going to Casa Grande Az delivering Monday 11/26. I am loading in the morning in Niagra Falls NY. I hate to miss Thanksgiving with my family but this money was too good to turn down. My guess is none of the Karns City drivers wanted to be out over the holidays or one of them would have gotten it.

I also got lucky and the chemical company rep who met me at the coal mine this morning wanted to air off the load. One 2 inch hose and because the plant requires a harness to climb up on the tank he hooked up my air hoses. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

11/21-11/24

Been a good 4 days running. I made it up to Niagra falls NY to load about 1.5 hours early. I was a little worried about running through Buffalo at rush hour so I left early giving myself 3 hours to go 100 miles. It turned out to be a non issue. Other than some patchy fog that made it real hard to find the off site scale I had no issues. I was real glad I looked at the google map view the night before and knew it was the first left after the light because I could not see it. It was a short lived fog and only covered a small area fortunately.

It took about 3.5 hours to load 45K lbs of resin. I was making good time until I hit 271 south outside of Cleveland. After spending 2.5 hours to go about 20 miles I decided to shut down once I got to I-71 to avoid the worst of the holiday traffic. Ran 665 miles Thursday and 620 miles Friday shutting down at the Loves in Amarillo Tx. Caught the Limo over to Big Texas and had a nice steak dinner. Ran on down to Demming today and grabbed a hotel to reset my 70 since I don't deliver until Monday.

I am about 250 miles away from my delivery Monday at 8:30. It will be an early start but 3:30 AM in this time zone is the same as 5:30 AM EST. This way I avoid the holiday traffic Sunday and get to watch some football. A fresh 70, 2000 miles from home should guarantee a decent week.

 

11/26

Killing time here in Casa Grande Az unloading this tank of resin. The product is thick and about 38 F. Tank is underground and orders are to gravity drop. Been here 5 hours and have about half of it off.

Heading to LA tank wash in Vernon, Ca after this, then up to Stockton for passivisation and on to Sacramento. They are loading me back to Brown Summit NC Wed or Thurs.

 

12/2

My Wed or Thursday Sacramento load turned into Friday. It took 10 hours to gravity drop that resin and another 6.5 for LA Tankwash to clean out my tank. By then I missed the Wednesday load opportunity and they must load rail cars on Thursday at the plant since that wasn't available. Got a Friday 7 AM appointment. Finally got out around 2PM with a Friday delivery this week. I could have run it hard and hit the yard by Tuesday night.

I decided to smell the roses and stopped at Little America in Flagstaff last night. Hit the Big Texan in Amarillo this afternoon for a limo ride, some football watching, good food, and cute waitresses.

I should get home Wednesday morning. I plan to take my Thanksgiving holiday then and go out again Monday if they can deliver my load for me Friday or let me drop it in Wednesday. That could change if they have another good load out west for me next week. Otherwise i am ready for some time off.

 

12/5-12/7

Got in Wednesday and dropped my trailer for steaming by 2PM. They had a local guy deliver it today. Dispatch tells me its real slow in the system right now and if we didn't have the dedicated loads lots of drivers would be sitting. I will be off Monday and am doing a dry bulk out and back to N Chicago Tues, Wed and Thursday. I am real glad I grabbed that Thanksgiving Holiday load now. It sucked not being home for Turkey day but at least I will have some money for Christmas shopping. My sons pickup truck had to have a new starter installed so I got to drive it to Raleigh, pick him up and spend a day with him at home. He is in between exams and headed back this afternoon.

I think I will head down to the grocery store and pick up a Turkey and a Boston Butt for the smoker tomorrow.

 

It will after the holidays. I guess if you have to have extra home time this is a good time of year to get it.

 

12/11-12/13

Uneventful out and back dedicated run to N Chicago. I worked Tues, Wed and Thursday. Combined with 1 personal day my check grossed $876. Not bad for 3 days work.

12/17-12/20

Got a preloaded trailer on Monday from Riedsville NC that delivered down to Calhoun Ga Tuesday at 7AM. I got tankwashed to the Morrow terminal where I sat for 24 hours picking up 10 hours of layover pay. I then pulled an empty up to Chattanooga where the live load took 3.5 hours on Wednesday. That delivered back in Reidsville at 9 AM Thursday where they drummed it off taking another 3.5 hours. I then did some shagging and spotting trailers until around 5:30 picking up another 5 hours of hourly pay.

I am off until Wednesday after Christmas. Dispatch tells me we will be pretty busy that week. I told him I didn't mind running over the New Year holiday since I have had so much home time lately. By Christmas day I will have slept in my own bed 16 of the last 21 days and been totally off 13 of those. That's better than a local job.

 

12/26

Looks like telling Dispatch I didn't mind running over the New Year holiday has paid off. I will be covering a snot load to a paper mill in Bennetsville SC tomorrow. Preloaded trailer sitting on the yard that delivers in a 7-3 window. 30 ft 3 inch hose, truck air. Should be a piece of cake.

Friday I will be heading out with a snot load that delivers in San Bernardino Ca on Jan 2. I just got a PM from another SPCR driver who is loading in Sacramento for Browns Summit NC so it sounds like the back haul is still in place.