From Day One - Abilene Motor Express (Richmond, Wytheville, VA)

Sorry folks..... I have been SO WIDE OPEN with work and personal life that I havent even had time to get on here. Plus, my phone's hotspot was acting flaky and I was having MAJOR issues with staying on line long enough to post anything.

Max (my dog) and I have been racking it up, kicking miles and making the most of the HOS rules.

Dude in Mebane.... call Rebecca in the Wytheville office. She will get you set up.

Basically, I figured out the tricks with getting good dispatches, killer miles, VERY LITTLE downtime, and great loads. Here's how I do it:

Get a load (reefer or dry, doesn't matter) to Florida. If you can get one from Wytheville, you'll most likely go to Plant City carrying rolls of plastic to Highland. They give you more than enough time to get there. Run to Brunswick, fuel and shutdown. You are 4 hours from Plant City. Then make your delivery. AS SOON AS YOU START your morning for the delivery, shoot a Qualcomm to the Florida dispatcher, telling them your expected delivery time and how many hours you will have left when you get there. Highland usually takes 1-1.5 hours to unload. Now, if you dont get something immediately, go 20 miles up the road to the Love's in Polk City (on I-4), if you DO get your dispatch when you END TRIP, go like hell to get there. You will either be heading up 75 or 95. If 75, stop in Lake Park GA to fuel. If 95, stop back in Brunswick to refuel.

If you play your cards right, and develop a good relationship with dispatch, you can pretty much tailor your dispatches. I for one, run like a raped ape, getting as much out of my clock as I can. Basically, I worked it out where I would run to FL, then back to either NW VA or NC, then I would get my dispatch out of Wytheville to go back to FL, then back to either VA, OH, or PA. Then I would run back to Wytheville, grab a load, stop by the house (in NC), and then start all over again.

Abilene is a great company to work for, their trucks and trailers are very well taken care of (even though we know that it really comes down to the driver), and if you keep your nose clean, don't refuse loads, and make sure you don't piss off dispatch, you will do very well for yourself.

At least that works for me.....

 

That is definately not the norm.

 

i was taking 6-8 days a month at home. Its all about timing. )

Notice I said WAS.

I actually just took a job with a local company hauling steel. Home almost every night, home on the weekends. Equal to or maybe just a little more $$$ per week.

I kinda hated leaving Abilene, because everyone there was really good to me and MORE THAN willing to work with me on getting loads and getting me home, but the total package offer I got hauling steel was too good to ignore. Didnt go looking for it.... just sorta stumbled on to it. Gonna miss Abilene. Ya'll can't go wrong working for them.... unless youare a jerk

arf