The start of my first year with Swift.

I made it to Lewiston yesterday and there were about a dozen drivers in the lounge. The working DL said there were no loads going out of Lewiston yesterday. I got up and delivered my load early and put my truck in the shop. I had the repairs done that Mira Loma wouldn't do and the put in a new windshield. At 1730 I got a load that was labeled "hot". The bad thing is I didn't have enough time on my clock to get anywhere tonight as I still needed to weight the load. I have about 8.5 hours to make 400 miles with a weigh and a fuel stop in there. It's a T call to be repowered by a team as soon as I get there. After that...I'm dead in the water again. I'll have a total of 700 miles for the week.

I had a misspent youth and perhaps this is my punishment. Maybe some payback for some wickedness in my adult years....I'm starting to wonder.

 

My updates haven't been as timely as in the past. I'm going to work on that.

After dropping the load in GF I headed to the Pilot thinking I wouldn't get another load. I was there just a few minutes when I got a deadhead to Tremonton, UT with an empty trailer. I didn't have much time left so I stayed the night at a rest area near Wolf Creek, MT. Very pretty drive down I15 if you ever get the chance. I had sent in my eta as 1330 and I got a response that I needed to be there by 1130. I sent another msg and everything worked out.

When I got to Tremonton I got a load back to Boise. The time line is really tight and I knew I had to at least get a few hours driven off or I wouldn't make it and that is if everything went right. What was I thinking, who am I dealing with here. My luck is never that good. I got to the shipper and picked up the load. I sent in my loaded macro and got a msg back to contact my DL because the trailer I had was scheduled for another load. I called and was told the loaded trailer was actually supposed to have gone to Salt Lake for repairs and not been loaded. The DL couldn't tell me what the problem was and I didn't see anything obvious other than it was a POS trailer. He got it cleared to go and I got out to move the tandems and found out what was wrong. The tandems wouldn't lock into place. After gently adjusting things with my hammer I got the pins in place. It was actually just one that was bad. By now I'm out of time and have to send in a running late macro.

I'm now shut down for the night and it's only 1600. I'll be up early and going as fast as my little Swift truck will go.

In other news, I got stopped by the Idaho State Police. The trooper asked me why my truck was shaking all over the place. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. All of my tires were up. I could only think that the sides on the trailer were shaking because it was empty. He quickly told me it was another Swift truck and they had it stopped down the road. WHEW...that's all I need.

My miles don't seem to be adding up to much, but it's better than nothing I guess. I am about breaking even right now. I hope the slow time ends soon so I can see if this is going to pay off.

Good to see you back Palace. Hope all goes well with your new gig.

 

Here I sit broken hearted...oh wait, I guess I'm not in the outhouse.

Here I sit on the side of the road. I ran out of time before I ran out of miles which is a good thing. A bit noisy but it works.

I made my deliveries this morning, both early..YES!! I had to get up at 0100 and drive as fast as my little Swift Racer would carry me. I had good roads all the way in to Boise. I was hoping I wouldn't get another load right way so I could go home, shower, and do a little laundry. As it was I caught a load headed to CA. Not the best as I hate going there and I always get stuck there for several days. At least it's a load and I can't complain. It's supposed to be recycle paper/stuff, but I think it's a bunch of compressed garbage. I saw mashed soup can in with all paper. I'm sure this trailer is smell real nice. The one I dropped off smelled like someone had been running moonshine and spilled a batch. The best part of all of this is that I was able to call my wife and have her meet me at Mac and Don's Ground Steak Emporium for breakfast. Not all that romantic, but it did the trick.

When I picked up this load the instructions said I had to weigh it asap and inter the weights in to the loaded call. They had a scale at the shipper and I asked if it was certified. The guy told me it was. I was suspicious so I weighed again at a truck stop. The shippers scale showed me lighter by nearly 500 pounds on both the drives and the tandems. When I went over the State scales I was even heavier yet, but still legal.

My truck is having an issue with the fuel gauge. The needle won't move a lot of the time. I can see how much fuel I've used in gallons with the digital readout, but not how much is in the tank. The only common things that's happened is when I've removed the filler caps and put them back on the gauge starts to work again. Not sure what's going on. Any ideas?

I think I got a raise. I noticed a difference in pay for my trips. I believe they bumped me 1cpm. If you figure 50 miles per hour, that's 50 cents an hour. Not a bad raise.

I'm starting to get loads one right after the other. Nothing very long, they are averaging about 400 miles.