Good night from...

If your off I17 and what McDowell or Thomas? it is a Phx institution, and has been there since I was a child. It makes me smile, but then I have never delivered there and I guess any central in town delivery can be a pain. Most of the big areas for distribution are south or west of the I10. I am just hoping that whatever they are building next to the Phx terminal fixes 75th ave and adds not only the lane that dissappears but gives them their own right turn lane.

 

It's a winco foods, I believe. Maybe it will bring a nice contract to swift and some dedicated positions.

 

Did you take the 40 to the 17 or use the 87?

 

I-4 EB two hours into sitting and waiting while a wreck is cleared up. Was sent back to the same customer I dropped my empty at to pick it up and DH to Savannah for a preloaded trailer to Texas. Trying to get it Tcalled in Atlanta so I can put my truck in the shop for an air leak from somewhere under the hood. Still passes the pre-trip test but I can hear it so DOT can hear too if I get inspected. Hoping to maybe hear back on a dedicated account today.

 

Can somebody clear something up for me? I've had several "veteran" drivers insist that if they don't want to run a load they'll pick it up and just tcall it to the nearest terminal. How can they just make the decision to tcall a load? That seems like it wouldn't fly with the planners.

 

thats a new one on me!

 

It doesn't fly with the planners most of the time. In your case right now, you can get a t-call to put your truck into the shop to look into your air leak.

 

I've t-called loads at my initiative, but that is only after contacting my DM and he/she in turn contacting the planner. I've done it when I have a load with an appointment that can't be early but I can arrive a day or two early. Then it becomes an issue for the planner to decide which terminal to t-call the load. They would rather t-call it in a terminal that will leave a couple hundred miles on the load instead of t-calling at a terminal that leaves only 10 miles on the load. Few drivers want to deliver a load for only 10 miles, unless they need the empty trailer after the live unload. A few times in this situation they've told me it can't be t-called, then I'm stuck with a load that sometimes forces me into a 34 hour reset at my place of choosing (hellooooo Las Vegas!)....

Regarding the Shamrock delivery this morning, yes it is just off I-17 on the Thomas exit. I felt sorry for all those residences across the street from all the idling trucks on the street, lined up to play "Mother May I?" with the guard shack. I ran I-40 to the I-17, pretty simple to get there. But be aware you don't just drive into the obvious entrance, you have to park on the street and walk in to the guard shack. There are numerous warehouses they manage from that shack and today they had me go around the huge block to the back side "R" (refrigerated) warehouse.

I really felt sorry for the young lady trying to dock into R5, I had that dock last time and it really sucks. The landscape curb extends right into the area you need to jack into to get your trailer straight. To her credit she did get out and look several times, but it was apparent she didn't know how to reposition her trailer tandems vis a vis her tractor... after a while one of the other drivers that was getting stacked up behind me waiting for her went over and lent assistance. I would have done that but it does seem a tender subject to offer assistance to another driver, especially a woman, in a dock. I've witnessed more than one "scene" develop from such offers...

 

Update on my hate/hate relationship with this KW...

... shopped it again in Phx, they say nothing wrong with it. They did reset the governor to 62 to protect me from getting overspeed. I'm not trusting this newfangled computer stuff. Check engine and fan lights keeping popping on intermittently, but they said the diagnostics is clean.

Bottom line..... I gotta keep the truck...

 

Flying J, Grand Rapids, WI. I was going to get a load from here down to TX, a nice 27k one, and it went bye bye yesterday. My DM was off, so instead, I get a crappy 890 mile load from Spearfish to Chilton, WI. Nice 44k load of wood pellets. Now it is going to put me in a position for lousy miles before home time on Monday. I can already see it, P&G out of Green Bay to Kroger in Deleware, OH for Monday. All of 600 miles. Now of course planners excuse, keep you close to the home for home time. I do not buy it.

As far as Shamrock, know that place well, and know that one dock.