Good night from...

I sleep fine in cold temps, got lot's of blankets, a killer down comforter, beanie cap that's been with me on many a mountain, and a hot bowl of soup. I usually run the bunk heater for 1/2 an hour before getting out of bed on cold mornings, but I think I just might run it on low tonight...

 

made it to the pilot at i40 ex9 lake havesu az with 280 miles to go. have to be? at final b4 1045 tomorrow

 

When I idle all night because of low temps I never send a message.
If my idle time comes in question I just mention the cold temps I have had to deal with, along with Swift policy on the matter, and it is dropped.

 

After I last posted I set the Webasto on low... now I'm HOT! Gotta turn that sucker off to sleep now... nighty night...

 

In my Volvo the bunk heater has a very narrow range.
Like 3-4 clicks above zero.

The trick is to lower it one click at a time until you no longer hear it clunk.
At that point it is at the desired temp setting.

 

.37 is the lowest rate, im averaging about 44cpm overall which is the fleet average as well the DM told me but the Target is more work than walmart, I have done walmart too for a little bit up in Hermiston Oregon.

Today took a load to Woodland Hills out not too far from Van Nuys, was a nice fun target with a semi blind back, just good it had a decent amount of space. I am not looking forward to being sent to 1 of the targets in LA which is a tricky blind back, the guy showing me the ropes showed the place to me and it doesnt seem fun...

After dropping that load I shot over to Long beach to pick up a load at Yussen then took it to the DC, then grabbed another load and delivered to a local Target in Bakersfield which had a beautiful dock with plenty of room.

Dispatcher told me tonight they are going to start doubling me up and give me some of the longer runs since I have a sleeper and they will let the daycabs do more of the local stuff, sounds good to me since its more money plus their "long" runs are 200 miles....

This dedicated gig is definitely more work but so far its not too bad, I have to drop my trailer somewhere in the area, pull the empty or "sweep" trailer out of the dock and drop it over somewhere and then grab the load and put it into the dock, stick a kingpin lock on, drop paperwork in a box and then hook back up to the other trailer and take off. Yesterdays runs averaged me about 30 minutes to do this whole process, today I did the blind one in about 20 minutes and I did the nice easy bakersfield location in about 15. At least im not doing OTR and sitting at a dock for 5 hours on a live load/unload.


Its even cold here in bakersfield, supposed to be 26 tonight, i woke up to 31 this morning, pulled off my blanket and said "heck no" turned on my bunk heater and waited for it to warm up before getting out of bed, will run my webasto on the lowest setting tonight.

 

this is our payscale for target, I get stop pay if the mt turns into a "sweep" which just means they are returning a loaded trailer with products back to the dc, I then get an extra $10 plus the dispatch is split for the higher payscale for the same trailer I was going to be hauling back anyway lol. There also is no extra pay for a double drop and hook at each store, they told me the higher cpm covers this as well.



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Just got my plans for later today, load to Granada Hills then over to Yussen in Long beach back to Shafter then load to Porterville and take a sweep back to DC

 

Winfield, KS only got a dusting of snow last night and the temperature "only" dropped to 11 degrees. I got up once during the night to run the truck up to about 120 degrees to keep the diesel from gelling, and ran the Webasto bunk heater on low for the 2nd shift of sleep. Very nice sleep it was.

I got a call from the customer at 5:00 am that my trailer was loaded and ready, went and hooked to it, and started driving north to the I-135 then east to the I-35 and onward toward St. Louis. By the time I hit the I-135 the roads were bare, but the temperature has been consistently between 10-18 degrees.

I see that St. Louis is getting snow right now, but I'll only be in that a while then on toward Chicago where it looks like it will be warmer (in the 20's) and bare.

Stay safe out there.

 

wolfy...if you liked that woodland hill target, you'll like the sherman oaks one on sepulveda blvd. have to drive in alley way to back of store and blindside into dock. want to come from the south so you can make a left into alley.i've done both when i worked for coke

 

Owensboro, KY.

It was just starting to ice up as I was getting into town to pick up my load.
It was getting pretty bad by the time I was loaded so I headed for the Walmart a mile away to sit it out.
No sense taking chances on ice covered roads when I have some extra time on this load. It delivers in Littleton, CO Monday morning.
Then I am taking home time to see my girls, do some Christmas shopping and other fun stuff with them.