LinkAmerica/Arnold Merger

Sitting at the house for my.break since the load was coming thru here. Delivering to Arcadia in the morning. Have a preplan back to Jax so I can get my truck serviced. Hair over 2500 miles for the week. I'm happy as long as its consistent.

 

Currently on a load again to Arcadia. At home for the night. I will deliver whenever tomorrow in Arcadia (drop & hook all day) then come back home for rest of weekend. Have a preplan lined up Monday from Groveland, FL to Dallas, TX. Nice 1100+ mile run to start the week.

Things have been going pretty smooth since my talk with operations when I was in Jax. Hopefully they continue. Steadily averaging 2500+ miles. I don't keep a detailed recorded with averages like I did at LinkAmerica. I'll get bored one of these days and start a record sheet to compare.

 

12 hours in and I'm still waiting on the TA to change a tire. I guess the 8,000 smoke breaks slow things down

 

14 hours later they finished it.

This was the TA in Wildwood, FL

 

Yeah, heading to Atlanta. Been pretty busy. I'll do a full update later along with weekly mileage since the merger.

 

On my 10 hour break. Deliver in AM. Since I left off, I didn't go to Texas. Shipper dropped the ball and decided they didn't know what product they wanted to ship. About 30 mins later had a new preplan. I was supposed to go to Atlanta. I got to the pickup in Jacksonville, preloaded trailer, however there was a damaged brake chamber. About 45 mins later I got a new load. I headed up to Savannah, GA and picked up a preloaded trailer bound for Adairsville, GA. Delivered that early next morning. Got another preplan from Atlanta to Lake Park, GA. Now in Atlanta, the customer had a HUGE backup on product, but I was one of those lucky ones who's was already ready. I hauled tail to Lake Park and got there late that night with 7 minutes left on my clock. I did 592 Miles that day and didn't leave the state of Georgia. Headed to the truckstop and went to bed (right down the street). Woke up to a preplan from the same customer in Lake Park bound for Dublin, GA. I fueled up, headed to the shipper, drop & hooked and was Rollin about 30 minutes later. Drove straight thru to the delivery, drop & hooked there and rolled on to my next pickup in Augusta, GA. Got to Augusta about 2 hours later, drop & hooked and then hauled tail to Jacksonville Yard and dropped the load there. Next morning I picked up a load from the yard heading for Arcadia, FL. Took my time and got to Arcadia early the next morning. We rarely have live unload appts at walmarts (atleast here in the southeast side of the company) but apparently this was a hot load. Got there 1 hr before my appt, got a door and was done and gone in walmarts typical 2 hour window. I headed home after that, got home Friday about 2pm and was off till Sunday afternoon. Got my preplan early Friday morning while at walmart. Picked up Sunday afternoon in Groveland, FL bound for Austell, GA. This customer in Groveland is always on the ball. I was in and out in 30 mins. Rolled straight thru to Austell, GA, got there about 10 pm, drop & hooked and took off. Rolled on to my next pickup in Covington, GA. I got there about midnightish with 45 minutes on my clock. Load was supposed to go to Plant City, FL but it seems the shipper canceled and didn't pass along the memo. I informed dispatch, took my break at the customer and woke up to a preplan from Forest Park, GA to Ocala, FL. Got to the pickup, drop and hooked, and rolled straight thru to Ocala. Got there about 6pm last night, drop & hooked and left. Headed down to Wildwood, FL for a trailer tire repair and that's where I began the slow dreaded process of TA's supposed technicians. 14 hours later it was done (I needed a 10 hour break anyway). On my way to Ocala I received my new preplan from Groveland, FL to Austell, GA. I picked up that up at 1030 this morning and now I sit waiting for my morning unload appt. Been staying fairly busy and no complaints at the moment.

For any current Arnold drivers reading this, I encourage you to help your fellow driver and the company and do lot checks at the customers. 2 times last week I found damaged and missing trailers (customer put damaged trailers in weeds and didn't report them to company). While it seems like your doing extra, which you are, it's very helpful in keeping our trailer pool current. I'm annoyed like everyone else when I have to search for empties or picking up a preloaded trailer that has defects from previous drivers. If you are one of those drivers who likes to drop damaged trailers, atleast take 2 minutes and fill out the breakdown macro so they can send someone to the customer and fix the trailer.

My other thoughts: while things are currently going smooth, there are quite a few things I would like to see.

I would like to see the company tighten up on their hiring standards. Basically focusing on more experienced drivers than students. I'm not saying to quit taking students, but a lesser amount of them. With more real experienced drivers comes better treatment of equipment, better service to the customers and a level of respect they can give to operations.

I'd also like to see better enforcement of dress codes. We look awful as a company when drivers are going into these customers smelling to high hell, and nasty corns bulging from their flip flops. It would be nice to adopt a slight uniform policy (like a company polo or shirt) and some I'D badges.


Well, done rambling.