Good Night From II

I thought I was being pretty smart when I took the spare headlamp bulbs with me when I moved into my new (beater) truck. Turns out I'm not that smart as this Freightliner uses a different bulb than my T680 did.

Eastbound text/rest area along I90 in NY. Stopped at the service plaza to try and fix the light. Plaza didn't have the correct bulb either. Plaza didn't have any parking left, so chanced just a couple of more miles to a rest area where I had an easy parallel parking space to fit into. Passed by a bunch of cops most likely due to the snow. Not that many accidents though. Think my bulb had been out for about an hour; I did notice when it went out, just no place to stop/attempt to fix it.

I'm sure I've messed up somewhere.

 

haha yeah freights use a lot of different stuff, if you ever get the chance get a flasher relay and keep the spare on you at all times, took me several truck stops to finally find one during a trip to Vegas one day.

Lepton I dont know how you can even handle training, I would be bald by now if I put up with what you have.

Been slow for the dc lately, today only had a Pacoima and Yussen in Long Beach, tomorrow heading to Dublin though, they requested the load after 1800 and the planner 2nd guessed giving it to me but I said I can sleep in some and take it later, normally I could start tomorrow at 7:45 but will start around 1400, not losing one of our best loads just because they want it later.

 

At ta Erie PA. 2nd time now in 3 weeks here when it was snowin. East side of Cleveland had a 4 wheeler pass me, whip it back in right in front of me and then go sidewayme with me feet away from me tboning him in the drivers door. Last second heyes catches traction and slams into the jersey barrier to the left and I miss him completely. What part of snow covered roads did he not understand?? OK to buffalo tomorrow for live unload at 1900, 100 miles away then live load to go to Arizona/Mex border. Going to have to find a better trailer four that long trip.

 

what got me laugh is liptons trainee saying his pay was insulting lol. maybe if he drove more, he make more. but training pay is low anyways and he should of known that b4 starting. be interesting to see how he does solo.

 

Lewiston Idaho at the terminal. I met with my DL today, and went over my performance and what I need to work on in the future. He's happy, I'm happy, and he planned me to Vegas so I can run in the sun a little. The only negative part of the meeting was when we went over my declined loads, and I had declined one last week. When he pulled up my dashboard it shows what my reason for declining it was. "Two stops, 177 total miles, 3 days. LOL NO." He laughed, and bought me a soda, and told me that if a planner ever tries to drop that BS on me again to call him immediately. Then we set up for when I start on his dedicated account, got permits/IFTA, and talked football. It's nice to have a DL who treats you like a human. As long as I run and am safe, he backs me 100%. Swift has really improved in this aspect, at least as far as I'm concerned. Although I have been to a couple terminals in the south where something as simple as a T-call seemed to upset the staff, as if the drivers aren't the ones who fund the whole company, and provide the income all of the office staff.

 

I'm wondering now. He was supposed to take his tests this morning, but hasn't responded to my texts or voice messages to find out how he did. Might be that he is waiting for another trainer to do another 50 hours? Now THAT's insulting (if true).

I'm in a cozy little rest area just off US-26 just east of Guernsey, WY. Didn't quite have enough hours to make it to Casper tonight and my load doesn't deliver until tomorrow night, so I holed up just after dark and will get underway at daybreak. That way I'll get to Casper with plenty of time to take a full 10, then start my clock when I put it in the dock. Hopefully I'll be able to snag a load tomorrow night and run vampire.

No matter what I'm planning on being parked to watch the Super Bowl. Should be somewhere around Little America if they get me routed toward home. I wouldn't mind running down to Denver, but MyRadar is showing a massive amount of snow and rain from the Colorado Rockies east into Kansas. Hopefully I won't get hit with it before making it to Casper tomorrow morning.

There's an ungodly number of Canadian Geese wintering in Nebraska. I saw tens of thousands filling the skies and walking on frozen ponds and lakes. I even saw a bald eagle roosting in an oak tree today, which is pretty cool.

 

I really can't recall my last real performance evaluation with my DM.
I think I have been given up as a lost cause.

Over 4 years my good has remained good, and the bad (like idle time and declined loads) has stayed on the high side.
(My DM doesn't have to remind me of these things. I know EXACTLY how much and how often... and, I try to do my part to 'give back' to the company a small portion of the cost of the errors of my ways. My DM also knows this, which might be the reason I am not raked over the coals more often.)

I don't actually turn down that many loads, except to adjust the times. But I think that counts as a decline when I do it.
When I really don't want a load I put in pu or del times that I know won't fly. But that is fairly rare.

I turned down 2 loads just before my current load.
The first didn't give me the time between loads that I needed and I adjusted the times. The live load time didn't match and it was taken off me.
The second was for home time. They wanted to send me to MA to deliver 1 day before my requested home time date in MN. Sorry, but I take my home time requests seriously.
I seldom use the response lines except for home time, I just adjust the times.


My considered opinion is that certain things are more important than others.
Being on time, being a safe driver, getting decent fuel mileage, running good miles per week... those things trump lesser things like idle time or declining a few loads.
Out of everything, being on time and a high safety score are probably the most important.

I was written up once for my idle time, 3 years ago.
I basically ignored it, and so far it has not come back to bite me.
I've ignored it for the most part, and they've put up with it.


The thing is, I seem to do fine with how I do things.
I never seem to get garbage loads because I've declined a load (or two). I've declines 2 in a row, only to be given a perfect 2k mile light load to a nice area.
If I refuse a load or two because of a home time request they seem to get in gear and get me home within a day or so of my requested date. Not always, but most times.
And I think they probably rag on every driver about idle time (no matter how low) and other such things.


And, I might add, you are planned from your local area. It has NOTHING to do with your DM unless you get the DM involved in the process.
I seldom do.

As far as I can determine everything is mostly run by computers.
If you put in times that don't match the computer simply sends a message to a planner that this driver can't do it, then the planner finds another solution.
But there is nothing 'personal' involved in the process, unless the planner somehow knows your truck number for some reason.
At any rate, I've never felt singled out for any reason.

 

The nice thing about the dedicated account I'm going on is that my DL is my planner.

He stated that declining loads that go the wrong way when you are going home is fine with him. (While OTR.)

It scores you on loads you don't respond to as well. I had a bunch that came in and were taken off during the night. He didn't care about that either. What mattered to him was that I accepted the loads I could safely and legally do. (It does show your reasoning, which benefits us if we ever have a performance evaluation like I did lol.)

Basically what they don't want to see is declining loads coming off home time, or refusing to drive on weekends or refusing to go to say, California. (I won't go NYC ever ever again, I don't care what they say lol.)

The main things they looked at was safety, Miles, and on time. I was 100% on time, averaged 3200 miles a week, and have a safety score of -25.

My idle time was tolerable lol.

 

I once held a safety score of -13. I can't imaging what it would take for a -25. But the good stuff falls off and it goes up again.


And I've never averaged a weekly mileage of 3200. That's nearly 460 miles per day - not including home times, live loads and unloads, waiting for a load...
Maybe I'm just too lazy.
I'm happy with around 2600.

 

i dont have any problems going to california lol. now nyc or northeast...different story lol