Trans Am Still

.honeybadger I hope things are getting better for you, it look like you have a rough week.

 

Thanks Voodoo Man! I think it's just that my curse is back. My first couple months something crazy or bad would happen every single day. I used to wake up and try to figure out what the disaster of the day would be LOL. Right now I just wish I had a bag of gummy bears to throw out the window at the turds who refuse to move over despite the fact this is a 3 lane stretch. I understand CANT move over. But just WONT is different. I actually swung one of my triangles at a guy as I was getting them out because he was the only car near me and was holding the granny lane and this is not a wide shoulder. I was getting the triangles out of the dog box and he's just driving along without a care despite me standing on the edge of the road. So I swung that triangle at him and he jerks to the left. Idiot. He could have possibly clipped me and there was NOTHING preventing him from moving over a lane. Every other vehicle did while I was trying to get out and grab my triangles. It's not like I enjoy the danger of standing next to fast moving traffic.

 

Guess thats one nice thing about Florida then with the move over or slow down law we have here

 

I would have scaled it for you

 

Because you're one of the nice people I would have given trailer weights to had I been loaded.

I just can't win right now. At least life is keeping things interesting!! I would prefer for things to settle down though so I could just run.

 

I think Jaso and the Queen gave some good answers, as we have discussed before on this and the old thread about company vrs lease. I am curious who "they" are that you refer to. IMHO we are ALL company drivers at TransAm. I don't think a lease driver has any kind of real freedom with a one sided lease hanging over their head, a lease that TransAm writes, interprets and executes. One way or the other, we all march to the TransAm drum.

Company drivers must take swaps and they can suck. A lot of time it is just a disappointment if you have a long trip planned, where you will shower, eat, do laundry, etc and have it interrupted. If you start to get a series of bad swaps and you complain, you will get some relief (you may have to get a bit nutty, to get proper attention in how you complain). Swaps are more often negative than not. That said, one of my top 3 mileage weeks, done in June was done with 100% swaps.

In the end, to me, it is all about the paycheck. It does not matter if I am doing a long or short haul, swap or picking up at a receiver, etc. If they call me a company or lease driver. My only question is, figured as an average, what will give me a better days pay for every day I am in the truck. IMHO at TransAm if you can average over 2,850 or so miles per week, you are better off as a lease driver. Less and better off as a company driver. Keep in mind you are making only a little bit more when you get over that 2,900 average. Fairly small reward for a bigger risk.

If you can figure out a way (take on students) to average 3,200 or over, you probably should go lease.

 

I am up momentarily. APU cut off and ####### Betty, aka The Treq unit went off twice. Aquarius, generally I am around 2500 miles a week, though the last two were 1218, and 1932 respectively. The 1218 involved hometime and babysitting the rejected beef load over 24 hours before being relieved to start hometime. This week involved babysitting a swapped load that was six hours late and thus rescheduled for next day and truck being down at Olathe for 30 hours. Sometimes poo poo happens. Got to visit with office crew which is always nice. Took care of permits, a new crash camera, EFS checks, trip sheets. Very nice people here in Kansas especially Dorothy and Toto. Would be nice to get down to Rockwall and visit those folks but I haven't seen that place since I left orientation Memorial Day Weekend. You could do a lot worse than working here, Aquarius. It would seem to me that dispatch would have to give lease drivers longer runs to make the lease program work for TA. Why would you give company drivers the better runs, and your lease program fail? Not a good business model if you ask me. Wouldn't it be incentive for us CD's to maybe want to switch to leasing after gaining experience and drying off the ears a little. Doesn't it make sense? When the freight is running good, we can all get a taste of the gig. When its not, I would think the lease drivers would get preferential runs over us CDs. I have dug out Coca Cola Runs in Auburndale FL to take up to Jasper FL and give it up to a lease driver to take it to Denver Colorado for his empty. I would be later given a Florida to Minnesota later that week. I roll with the flow and get taken care of anyway, even it is a little later. I think thats the way you have to approach this. When it gets slow, you brace yourself and pray it gets better. I still love my job, and I like being with TA. Its not perfect, but still the best job I ever had. Deuces. Back to sleep. Night run to Birmingham tonite.

 

Morning, everyone! honeybadger, we will NOT allow the curse to come back! For whatever reason, you are where you need to be. Timing is everything in this industry. You would have been going across Louisiana, right? There is another bad accident there, with a hazmat spill.....it's going to take a while to clean up. Who knows where you would have been without the bad tires? You will get the tires fixed and continue on your way, get to spend some time with your family and this mess with your bank will be straightened out. We are going to think positive here! Hang in there, you are made of pure stubbornness, you are the badger!

 

What does the Badger say?? Grrrrrrrrrr. Grrrrrrrrrr. Grrrrrrrr.