I'm baaaaaack!!!!!!!!

First, thanks for reading. I really appreciate you taking a few minutes to get some context.

I haven't physically left yet; my start date at the other job is the first Monday in February. My wife and I are in agreement that it would take something drastic to change (like what you described) to get me to stick around.

The fleet manager at Indy is a middle aged woman with the appearance and apparent personality of a fire plug. Dealing with her on three occasions has let me with the impression that she thought she was doing me a major, undeserved favor by taking any action on my behalf, with a bit of minor character assassination and dominance posturing thrown in for good measure. I know the species of political animal after my time as a sales trainer. I have addressed the miles issue with her once and do not care to do so again as my ocean of patience has nearly run dry. In short, somebody is going to have to notice that a System driver is being jerked around and take action on my behalf (which I admittedly don't see happening). Churlish? Maybe a little--but if you had witnessed my wife's anxiety when we didn't think we could afford her (EXPENSIVE!) medication...let's just say I have in fact been a little influenced by my own anger. A little. It's like being invited to a buffet and told you can only eat an appetizer off the menu while everybody else fills their plates in front of you.

I could probably fix it the way you just described--but I'm not really interested in putting forth the effort.

 

475 miles done today. Tomorrow morning the truck goes to the shop for a service and if it goes smoothly I pick up here in Pontoon Beach for delivery near Carlisle PA by Friday night.

Sent a message earlier telling dispatch I was skipping the fuel stop because the next load picks up right here and I still had half capacity fuel (the system figures your fuel yadda yadda, no need to fuel tonight since as soon as I got dispatched on ppn it told me to fuel at the same spot). The reply: "Okay just tell us what city you need." ... What I need is for you to start reading my messages (I'm only verbose here; on the QC I'm quite terse because of the short attention span of average dispatcher)!

On the plus side this is the second run in a row over 300 miles. Although they're sending me northeast. I'm not afraid of the northeast; I just really don't like it up there. I reckon they want to keep me nearby so I make it home on the 30th so that isn't a mark against them in my book.

In spite of everything I still don't think they are a bad company, only that I am a bad fit. I want to again make that clear. If you live in the Midwest (as I do) and you want to get home frequently (as I don't), you could do worse than these guys. The money's pretty good. So's the equipment, if a little slow. My truck is geared kind of short so even though it's turned down it still pulls pretty well--all the way to a positively giddy sixty miles per hour (but that doesn't bother me much). I say this to avoid coming across as bashing Gordon. Like I said, I'm fairly sure it just isn't for me.

Welp, it's past my bedtime. Time for this middle aged raconteur to strip down to his Fruit of the Looms and get horizontal (and good luck getting THAT picture outta your little heads).

I am Captain Zoom.
I have spoken.

 

Your progression of logic is obvious but flawed. Your assumption of a mathematical inversion of factual validity of posted content is in error, and I apologize for the obscurity of my inference. What I actually meant was that 99% of what truckers say is BS, period. In the context of the aggregate of this thread I assumed that would be obvious, and again I apologize.

I am not a trucker. I am a man who earns his living by driving a truck. There is an enormous difference, and never the twain shall meet. The same is true of the chasm between critical thought and a critical spirit.

 

Morning came early today. The Hot Chick wants to stab me with her knitting needles, I think. Welp, time to get to the shop!

Are you more of a "Good morning Lord," or a "Good Lord! Morning!" kinda guy (/gal)?

 

Sitting in the lounge waiting for the shop to finish my service. I'm a schmuck, so I logged out of the truck not remembering how to log back on to it. Had to call the driver manager to find out how to log back in. Not a big deal, but embarrassing nonetheless.

Okay, rant over. Return to your lives.

 

Aaaaackkkkk--justifiable homicide. I remember having a similar problem at Celadon; my driver manager approved me for nightly hotels til the shop got the no idle a/c fixed. It only took a couple of nights before I got a call from a service manager. It helped that before my DM approved the hotels I spoke with safety and asked them who was going to take the heat if I drifted off to sleep and put it into an oncoming vehicle or a building....

Safety department can be good leverage if used properly.