Good night from...

looked like he was going a bit fast too but I dont know

be careful all of you driving in that stuff, the news was saying these are the lowest temps we have had in years in some parts, I know my wife said at home it was even 14 degrees and Tehachapi will see some snow tonight.

Picked up a load in Long beach then took it to Target, took over 1.5 hours on the 405 with it being all jammed up, tomorrow im supposed to report at 8am, cant start my pre trip until 7:18 so will have to keep it a little short then head out at 7:30 to get there in time.

 

The good news is I have 4 hours until my next pick up a mile away. The bad news is I can't get there....

Left my delivery about a mile away, sitting in traffic waiting for a light, then I noticed a puff of steam coming from under my hood and the distinct smell of coolant.... DOH! I pulled over on the next available side street and found a secure place to park on the curb, left the engine running and popped the hood, and saw a spray of water coming from a 1/4" gash on the top coolant hose. Immediately shut down with normal operating temperature (thankfully) and contacted On Road. I now have a 90 minute wait for the Memphis shop to get here. If all goes smoothly I should still make my appointed drop and hook with no problem.

At this point makes me rather glad I'm not an O/O, with the Air Dryer replacement and now this hose replacement I'm sure that would eat well into my maintenance account. Would be a good idea to keep a full set of replacement hoses in the truck if you are an O/O.

 

If you were an O/O you would be running your own maintenance schedule and probably would have picked up those things before they became issues. Plus a Swift shop would rarely touch your truck.

 

Still at same location. Turns out that not until mid day tomorrow will my truck be ready. Found out that when I called to check the status, I was informed that they also received a call from Swift letting them know that some one was picking up the trailer. I did not know. My DM did not know. Glad that I checked so that the driver could call me and get the paperwork out of my truck and the pad lock key. Now watching the weather. Sikeston is supposed to get a ice storm tomorrow. Could be hairy.

Well now just hope that it is done. Command called, and they have me a load out of Blytheville going to Dallas, and then one from Carrolton to Phoenix if the rate is good. Arkansas to Dallas is a good rate, about $1.75/mi. Hope that the driver left me a mt.

 

What a crap day. Got up a little after midnight and headed for P&G in Albany, GA. Got there in good time but they refused my empty because the tandems wouldn't slide. Had to run to the drop yard down the road and switch it out. Took that to Monroe and fought traffic the entire way. Dropped that and got my second dispatch picking up in McDonough with a 06:00 delivery in Fort Worth on Friday. There was no drop time on the preplan when I accepted it. I have 14 hours left on my 70 and there is no way I am going to make it. Sent in all the macros and waiting to hear back since apparently there is not a window on this. Gave them where I am now, where I can get to tomorrow.

What am I doing wrong here? I have managed my hours best I can with the loads they have given me. Not screwing around at all. Being super careful with how long it is taking me to do stuff. Even been running at night so I don't have to fight with traffic. But some of this stuff is just not doable. Now I am looking at a second service failure within my first month. Getting a little frustrated.

 

RightCoast, best thing to do with your current load is to talk with your DM during the daytime and ask what the delivery window is on the load. If you haven't heard anything back by QC with your updated times on Mac-22 then likely it already is acceptable. If your Mac-22 is outside the window the customer wants then usually it should kick out an automated message that there is a problem and you need to contact your DM. To be safe, just call your DM tomorrow and ask.

 

RC, today was an example of how the automated system versus real time windows work. I picked up a load just south of Memphis with one stop before final. The first stop was in a small town 78 miles away in Arkansas. Pick up time was 11:30 and first stop appointment time was 13:00. Giving me 30 minutes for a drop and hook that only leaves 60 minutes to drive 78 miles...

... through lot's of traffic lights and a few small towns along the way.

This is for Sears and as soon as I made my loaded call I noted I would arrive at 14:00 and sent a Mac-22. Got a message from the Sears CSR saying it was cool, stay safe, etc. I was delivering to a really small Sears location that basically handles special orders, so they had to know when to have the crew ready to unload the truck and have straight truck drivers ready to get those appliances to customers.

Tomorrow I have a live unload at final in a small town in southern Kansas, but I'll be at least 3 hours late due to hours of service. I sent in another Mac-22 this evening after I calculated the miles, and added that my new time will LIKELY be much later due to the oncoming ice storm. Unfortunately I ran out of hours and I'm bedded down in Russelville, AR... basically ice storm central.

So far no squeak regarding my new Mac-22 times.

The important thing is to use the Mac-22 whenever you might be late, maybe add a freeform message to clarify it so your DM can forward that message to CSR. That way the CSR can keep the customer advised. If you are proactive communicating your times and talking with your DM about the real shipping windows then it will help the entire team keep the customer happy.

 

I have been sending the MAC 22 and freeform both. Did on the one I got a service failure for too. My PTA even got updated for it, so I thought it was good to go. Night crew got back to me saying they were working with planner and CSR to repower this load but haven't heard anything since.

 

Dunno what to say then. What is your home terminal?

On another note I just watched the updated videos at weather.com (The Weather Channel online)... OY! Looks like I'll be in the worst possible place, with a couple hundred miles of ice storm to run tomorrow if I can run at all. Just bought another bottle of RainX to sparkle my windows tomorrow morning.

 

At the J in Frazier Park, CA. It's cold (for CA), low of 21 tonight.

Headed for UPS in Oakland, CA with another Amazon load. Between the crappy trailer and the wind I've only managed 7 MPG so far. 2 days ago with a new trailer and no wind I got 9.7.