Good night from...

Alexandria, MN.

On the way to the final, after 2 stops, when I got a pplan picking up about an hour away going to Costco in Morris, IL on 1/12.
Well, my home time request was set for the 12th here in MN.
I responded that I didn't have the hours on my 70 to do the pick up, and mentioned the home request.

If my final would have gone without a hitch I might have been able to pick it up, though it didn't go that way.
I was delivering to a small Sears in Fergus Falls, MN, and it requires pulling into an alley way/parking lot behind the store. Well, there was a car parked where I needed to turn in blocking my path (unless I wanted to 'move' the car with my trailer). It took nearly an hour to find the owner to move it.
So it turned out that I didn't have the hours after all.
When hours are that short I always short-time what I think I might have by an hour or two - just to be safe.

My next pplan was to Northfield, MN at the Malt-O-Meal to swap a trailer.
I guess they have an mt they don't like, so I'm swapping my (hopefully) clean enough one for it.
Then I'll head to the Inver Grove terminal to drop it and get on with my home time.

Finally! An on-time home time!

 

well. the final took a while to unload the haybales. there were 2 other swift truck in front and warehouse guy came over and said it be awhile b4 i get unloaded. did a mac 22 for thee preplan i had and got taken off me. was going to loveland co. today i just did 2 local runs. didnt get the first one till noon

 

Finally headed back to California. I gave them 7 days lead time to start heading me back west and friendly reminders since Monday (today is Friday). When I was in Houston, they had stacked offers working me over to Atlanta GA and back to El Paso, about a 2000 mile turn, which was tempting but this is one of those critically important hometimes. then they worked me up into Dallas then on into Topeka KS. More friendly reminders and the response was 'all Cali loads go on the shuttle out of KC'. Wonderful. Load offers to KY and CO followed and I prepared for the possibility of deadheading home. Finally got a load from Springfield MO to Los Angeles but I have to go full speed the whole way with heavy load, racing my 70 to get there on time. 5.5 miles per gallon so far into a headwind and more uphill to go climbing the continental divide.

Stopped at the buffet tonight in Amarillo, when the girl brought my ticket, a roach crawled across the table and she told me the meal was free. Still gave her the tip though, not her fault.

 

Awww, roaches don't eat much....

I'm enjoying driving team with my new teammate on the TJ Maxx dedicated. He knows his stuff, having been on the account going on 3 years, is clean, and is easy to get along with. His eyesight is poor for night driving and since I don't mind driving at night (rather enjoy it) we are working out well as a team.

Last night I took over halfway across Pennsylvania and drove through Ohio and Indiana, hoping to get to Effingham or maybe St. Louis on my shift...

... but then ran into about a 45 minute delay with a very bad accident blocking WB I-76 somewhere about MP 70. I can't quite figure out how it happened by there was a tractor-trailer involved with the trailer broken in half and cargo strewn all over blocking the right lane. Multiple wreckers were there clearing out the mess, so I'm not sure how many vehicles were involved. Friday evening, 50 degrees, and misting.

After clearing the accident it was smooth sailing until western Ohio and all of Illinois, intermittent heavy fog. At times I had to slow to about 40 mph to maintain safe visual, and sometimes would get passed by truckers going well over a safe speed. Several Fedex or UPS doubles and lots of "off brand" trucks blasting away in the fog without a clue what is ahead. I had a mental image of multivehicle pile ups from fog with the aftermath showing Fedex and UPS trucks in the middle of it.

I stopped at the Columbus terminal for a fuel stop, but after four attempts to get the pump activated (and the screen showed it was activated) the pump wouldn't pump any fuel. I finally gave up, took a 30, and went on into Indiana to a Flying J and asked for a fuel reopt. Not sure if they were out of fuel or if there is a problem with the pumps, but I wasn't about to waste more time trying all the pumps to see which one worked. I was at pump 3 if anyone else is going in there, avoid pump 3.

 

ups and fedex dont seem to get bothered by weather....


was a long night, finally shut down close to 5am, went to Turlok then picked a heavy load up at General mills in Stockton to bring back. Today will be a good busy day, going to Grenada Hills with a sweep back then up to Riverbank Modesto. Over 600 miles so will probably have to stop not too far from the dc on the way back so I scouted places to stop along the way this past night. I will probably make it into Tulare but that loves normally gets full as soon as it gets dark, I had hell trying to find spots in the past there so I might just go park behind the Target there in Tulare, its only about 1.5 miles off the 99. I was surprised to get this many miles since Saturday is our slowest day, im fortunate I made friends with the 2 planners and have a sleeper since im getting some of the stuff the day cabs cant get done and get back in time. One of the planners also told me if I ever have a slow day and get back to the dc with hours on the clock to check if there are any loads to be done since often we get add ons and sometimes hard to get someone to cover them. Thats how I got the Porterville load a few days ago, they offered it to one other driver but he refused since he wanted to go home, if I got the hours I will be glad to run them out. One driver went to the yard saying he wasnt making enough money, I said I cant complain my checks have been great, when the driver wasnt around the planner told me thats because im willing to work unlike some.

I stopped and got fuel at the Loves in Ripon, had a Swift driver coming up bugging me asking questions about the target dedicated, he said he was an owner op and not making enough money so wanted to try and get a dedicated gig. I have no idea what the pay scale is for o/o on dedicated but it seems Swift likes to use mostly company drivers, we have 2 o/o left on our fleet and I think we have 27 drivers total.

 

Looks like here until late Monday or Tuesday. Cummins has told KW to take out EGR and test. That is the first thing. Then as soon as the truck is out of the shop, going to work on getting the new one.

 

Burnsville, MN on home time.
I parked my truck across the street at the Cub Food. I'm just hoping it starts on Tuesday after an 11 degree low the night before.
I used the battery cut-off switch, so at least I'll have battery power. Just hoping the fuel doesn't gel.

 

got a load from mira loma term to pheonix az. had a 2100 del time. went to fuel at pheonix term and get trailer a much needed bath (lol) and got to final around 1630 and they let me drop early. went to flying j to watch rest of the game. didnt want to go back to terminal with this mt. this way i can keep it for next load. hopefully i can watch the niners game in the morning

 

did you add any of the anti gel stuff moose?

long night, I managed 630 miles and made it back to the dc with 1 min left on my 14, did post trip and dropped the trailer then bobtailed out off duty to my little corner on the side street. Tomorrow got the fun central Fresno and North Van Nuys

 

No.
The last time I tried it my fuel filters needed to be replaced the next day.