From School to Superior Carriers

Monday 4/28-Friday 5/2

Very nice day. Got to the consignee 30 minutes early and customer unloading was done in less than 2 hours. I got back in time to take my wife and son out to eat before seeing The Boss. It was a great show and I was dispatched to Iowa 900+ miles loading at 15:00 Tuesday 4/29 delivering in an 8-12 window 5/1. Life was great.

Then about 9:30 Tues morning I get a call saying they are taking me off the Iowa load and putting me on a paint load to Michigan. Only problem is they don't know when it will be ready. Probably 15:30-17:30. I was a bit pissed. this is a dedicated load. I have been to the plant many times and written about it in earlier posts. Whenever the load is ready I have 24 hours to get it to Michigan. That means I need to go at least 250miles before a 10 hour break. Get another call that afternoon saying it won't be ready until 20:30. I get to the plant at 19:00 and they are still filling the first compartment of a 3 compartment tank. Basically I am screwed. The load was finally ready at 1:30 that morning. The only way to run this load legally in 24 hours is to only take 1 10 hour break. That meant It would all be night driving. I decided to stop in Nitro Wva at one of our terminals and got there at 7:00 AM. Left at 5:00 the next morning and made good time. I would only be about 15 minutes late for my 1:30 AM appointment time. Then I took a wrong turn that took me 60 miles out of the way. I was driving back roads to try and save time. Finally got to the consignee about 1.5 hours late at 3:00. It wasn't a big deal to them and they immediately backed me into the rack and began unloading. I crawled into the sleeper.

I woke up about 6:30 and the sun was just starting to come up. I got up and got out of the cab only to notice coolant under my truck. I then noticed that there was a stream of it where I had backed in. I popped the hood and you could see a stead leak from the bottom of the engine. They finally finished unloading me. I got a bunch of water and topped off my radiator. It took over 5 gallons of water. Thats how bad the leak was. Then I drove to the truck stop 1 mile away where i had weighed heavy, weighed light and backed it into a parking space. There was a shop next door so I had them fix my hose. By then it was 16:00 in the afternoon. I settled into the bunk, Got up at 2:00 AM and drove to Beckley Wva. Took a break and drove back to High Point. I got home about 4:30 this morning.

I had asked to stay out through the weekend so I have a load back up to Michigan that delivers 8-10 Monday 5/6. I will leave this afternoon. I look forward to getting back into a daylight driving and night time sleeping schedule. Fortunately this load is spotted on our yard so its hook and go this afternoon.

 

Carry is indeed a part of Superior Logistics. If you are interested in food grade do a google search of .... cyanide superior carriers.... You will find a number of threads on other boards. Cyanide drove food grade for several of the companies you listed and is also from Florida. Best of luck.

 

To Date through 5/14

My second load to Grand Rapids Michigan went without a hitch. I was sent a message to pull my empty to Louisville Ky to the terminal. I was then dispatched towards home with a load that delivered in Gastonia NC. From there I was sent to Charlotte with a load going to High Point my home terminal. My only complaint with these loads was they had too much time built in before the delivery was scheduled. Were it not for my companies policy of layover pay after 15 hours I would have made very little money from Monday to Friday. I got 10 hours of layover pay on the Gastonia load between waiting for it in Louisville and sitting at a truck stop waiting for my delivery appointment.

The Charlotte to High Point load sucked money wise as well since it was only 76 miles and delivered the next morning at 6:00 AM. I had a discussion with dispatch about about layover when under dispatch to a home terminal. I could have made 8 hours of layover had I stayed in Charlotte and left early the next morning to make my delivery. I was told that that wasn't the "right" thing to do. The way I look at is that layover policy is there to protect a drivers wage against this type of dispatch. I basically only made about $70 for those 2 days because you can't get layover pay when at your home terminal. The 8 hours would have put it up around $200. The their credit they did give me some local work the next day that made up about half of that. I was off at noon on Friday.

Left out with a Polymer load to Cincinnati Sunday afternoon. It delivered Monday. I then dropped the tank at a tank wash, bobtailed to the terminal and grabbed a clean tank to spot in Richmond Ky Tues. Spotted it and grabbed a preloaded paint resin tank bound for Greensboro NC. Spent Tues night at home, delivered my load Wed 8:00 AM and am off until sometime Wednesday afternoon. I have another one of those Holland Michigan dedicated loads. I will have 24 hours to get it there from when they finish loading it and will pull the empty back. Its around 1500 miles round trip with some demurage pay as well since this plant is always slow to load and unload.

I hope next week I can go some place other than Michigan.

 

5/14-5/18

Got my load to Michigan around 8:30 PM Thursday after a short 3 hour wait. Uneventful trip except for a couple of traffic incidents. Had a guy in a small pickup come around me at about 65 mph with his left rear tire flat. I looked at it and thought it must be one of those run flat tires. He passed me, cut me off then cut around two other cars. Then I saw a puff of white smoke and that tire was history. How can you not tell you have a flat at 70 Mph?

The other incident I was almost home. I merged onto I85 right behind 12 motorcycles. These were all middle aged guys all wearing black leather pants and jackets. The pack takes an exit ramp onto NC 311 and the leader decides to stop on the shoulder. Well there wasn't enough room on the shoulder for all of them and about half end up stopping in the middle of the road. It was a 65 mph exit. Fortunately I was empty and it was a 2 lane exit. There were 2 cars next to me so I had to get on the brakes pretty hard.

Leaving out tomorrow for Kentucky with another snot load. It delivers Tuesday so I should be able to get a system load in before they route me back home.