Good Night From II

troutdale or at the t/a. delivered the load ontime. got a message from troutdale terminal saying for me to drop the mt back to terminal when i get unloaded . dl said they were short on mt's. asked him if i'll have a problem bobtailing out to get to truckstop. he said no. have the rest of day off due to only 1.75 hrs left on 70. set pta for 09/04 0700. walmart blitz is starting down imn so calif., so i'll get a load down there

 

At Port To Plains in Lamar, CO. On my way to Denver with a 45,000 lb Command load that delivers tomorrow. Been doing split sleeper breaks since I picked up yesterday in Ennis, TX. Out of time so it's 8 hrs here then I'll move to either Limon for a 10 or all the way to Denver and park on the street at final.

 

Does command pay you enough to take that heavy of a load with out u thinking too much about it?

 

Right now PFJ is giving swift O/O 10x rewards points so they'll have a tough time convincing me not to fuel there for now.

 

Sometimes they do pay more, sometimes just a little bit more, others well it is so much better then the crap Swift is offering, you take it at the Swift rate, because rolling is better then sitting esp with the holiday weekend.

That said he stopped and didn't call me and I need his Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward info so I can buy plane tickets. I'll give him a break though because he did drive on and off all night. Hopefully it is cooler in CO then it was in TX, we won't talk about how hot it is here in AZ.

Have a Good Day Guys!

 

A couple of nights ago my trainee and I had a situation that makes me rethink running without a CB, although in this case a CB may not have helped. We were running on I-30 in the wee hours from Dallas toward Little Rock, when we were passed by a truck without any big logos going about 65 mph. As the trailer tandems went by us we saw the outside rear tire on the right side was almost gone, with sparks flying off the remnants of the wires in the rubber. The refrigerated trailer had a pronounced lean to the right.

We tried signaling him our lights, 4-ways, turn signals, etc. and also tried signaling other drivers coming through at a faster clip, all to no avail. We followed the reefer truck for close to an hour before he finally pulled over when the inside tire blew and the trailer sagged down onto the top of his right tires. By that time he was stuck in a bad spot on the shoulder.

With all the sparks flying at night he couldn't but help noticing if he just looked in his right side rear view mirror.

Looking at all the rubber scraps and recaps flung all over the highway is a good lesson for my trainee, reinforcing the idea that you pretrip by actually putting an air gauge on the tires and again at each stop to monitor your air pressure. Learning how to add air with the 40' hose and keeping your tire pressure within tolerance and balanced across your tandems is essential. Far too many times we have watched "pretrip inspections" in truck stops that involve the scientific method of kicking the outside tires.

Do you know what your air pressure is in all 18 tires before you start and what pressure they get up to after running in this hot weather? Stay on top of it folks.

We've already run into two trailers we've hooked to in customer yards that had at least one or two tires as low as 60 psi. The hammer test doesn't let you know that, especially if you have a mismatched set of tires. Spending a few minutes measuring actual tire pressure and inflating low tires is essential. Spending a few minutes now saves hours sitting on the side of the road waiting for OnRoad.

 

Greencastle, PA at the TA.

Got back late last night with no pplan for today, and still none.
I guess things are very slow after the holiday weekend, so I have a day off. Maybe 2? Who knows.
I'm not complaining since I've made very good money in the past couple weeks.
Several other Swift trucks are sitting it out today as well.

 

Command paid me $100 over the Swift rate PLUS I was able to fill up on $3.50 a gallon fuel. Besides I'm getting 7 mpg so far and I'm almost there.

 

portland or at the jublitz truckstop. sent me to freightliner for an mt. p/u load tomorrow at 0700 and goes to riverside ca 07/07 2200

 

That's the way to do it...u get that 3.50 fuel in Texas ?