Beep Beep Roadrunner

OK to catch up-- did a 34 over in Pendleton OR. Craps table crew weren't too happy with my play action. I got up Sunday morning and headed west for Portland, got a shower and sit down breakie at the TA Troutdale then moved over to the customer to deliver in the early afternoon when they opened. Ended up doing a full 10 hour break there then delivered to final at Sumner WA terminal Monday morning.

No word on outbound freight so just bummed around town doing my own thing. Saw my trailer over in the empty lot and checked it out, a wet spot from the hole in the roof reported several months ago. Evidently the temporary fix which was just sticky sided aluminum tape was wearing out. So I went to a local shop who said to bring it round in the afternoon that they would goop it up with mobile home sealant. So on my way back to get the trailer, I stopped at the Freightliner dealer, they said they were booked up for 2 weeks. OK if you don't want my money just say so lol. So I talk to this other guy working on trailers in a lease yard next to the Mustard Seed, he points me down to road to 2 other trailer shops.

So's I go into the shop and tell them what I have, a hole in the roof blah blah, and I have an appointment at this other shop this afternoon, any possible way you can get me sooner? I guess they thought it was the shop across the street that they are in full tilt competition with because they said bring the trailer right now. The bonus was the tech who wrote up the work order said he knows what Xtralease expects in a repair like that so when comes time to turn it in they will sign off on it. So they got me in and out in less than 2 hours for $157 bucks. I thought it was going to be 10 times that amount. Shocked and pleased at the same time.

Alright so we got loaded last night out of Sumner WA bound for Nashville TN. We're gonna go a different way this time-- instead of dropping down into Oregon over Cabbage down and thru Utah and Wyoming -- we are staying on I90 all the way thru ID MT and ND to pick up I29S and down thru that way. Delivery time set for 99:99 again which means just get it there in one piece. They are closed Sunday so no need to hustle so hard just to sit down there doing nothing for a day.

 

The Motor Carriers Road Atlas is the best source for that. Shows highlighted roads that are commercial vehicle legal. Aside from that when you get off the Interstate you typically have 2 miles of legal commercial access unless otherwise posted. Lots of signs showing No Trucks beyond.

I have been to a 4 way stop once that showed No Trucks in all 4 directions lol. How do they figure trucks got to that point?

Still meandering my way across Montana and Wyoming, just about to cross into South Dakota soon. East bound and down babe.

 

The route from Seattle terminal to Nashville terminal took me through Council Bluffs Iowa. Been through there many many times over the years and my usual stop for fuel or breaks is always the T/A. This time when rolling through decided to see what all that Horseshoe casino was all about. Got a ride over and pleasantly discovered they have several Craps tables. Ended up doing most of my 10 hour break standing at the Craps table lol. Did Ok, was up a few bucks most of the time but ended up leaving $100 bucks down, not bad. I normally wouldn't leave unless I was broke or had pockets full of cash but it was time to get back to the truck for 4 hours of sleep then hit the road for ontime delivery.

Here at the Nashville terminal now getting reloaded for Los Angeles. Will be hustling over to Albuquerque to play the craps table at the Route 66 casino there during my 10 then moving along to LA.

Got a call from corporate safety, uhoh what did I do wrong now? Have been invited to the IC roundtable coming up.

Well that's about all to report for tonight talk again in a few days.

 

I think it would be possible. Using the basis of 2750 miles a week @6.5 mpg and $1.4 a mile conservatively puts income at the low end toward $1300 a week. Hustling around and being super efficient, running the right terminals that pay better, getting a good truck that gets closer to 7mpgs along with a generous fuel discount could get an owner toward the upper end of $1700 yes.

And it is true, the new contract disallows us from booking our own backhauls but we do have the option of using Roadrunner agents to book those backhauls for us. Some of the lanes got a $0.05 cent per mile bump up March 1st. We are still getting a healthy fuel discount I figure about $0.07 cents per mile to our favor. when using the RR EFS card in network.

I have been invited to the Independent Contractor Roundtable next week so will find out more about what RR's goals for us are, plus be able to express my goals and see if we can meet in the middle.

 

Yes, I know it is hamster wheel pay. I love the job though-- running T2T is exactly my cup of tea.

I'm on a lazy Sunday drive this trip-- Sunday is a Easter so the customer is closed all weekend, could have delivered Saturday. The guy called me yesterday from Los Angeles asking where I was, I replied New Mexico. He said 'good we'll see you tomorrow morning then?' lol.

So coming westbound into NM from TX is a big climb. Full headwind and 78,000 pounds. Engine seemed to be derating. Oil pressure dropping from 30 to 20 on the steep climbs, speed dropping from 38 to 28, felt like no power in the throttle.

Made it over to the casino and threw the dice around lots of fun. Get up this AM and truck is running fine til we hit some more hills. Pull over in Milan for shower/breakfast and decide to do an oil change fuel filter change and see if that doesn't cure it. Did get fuel at Flying Suckhole and Love's on this trip so possible problems with the biopoison they use.

Oil pressure back to 40 at idle. Still some hesitation and sluggishness climbing hills. Wondering if it is due to the liquid totes sloshing around back there push/pulling having an effect on the engine thinking easy/hard/easy/hard with the computer fuel injection.

Thinking it was just a dose of bad fuel because by the end of the day the truck is back to her old self pulling a lot better. Will know for sure on the next load sans sloshing totes.

 

Had to be a bad dose of fuel because the truck is back to its old self pulling full power in the hills, no hesitation and good oil pressure. Thinking back, maybe when split down shifting, maybe I didn't catch the split down as I thought I had and was really running up in the high side of the gears is why it lugged down so bad too. Caught myself doing that later the next day in Arizona then wondered if I had done it back coming into NM climbing those steep grades heavy and into a strong headwind.

Got to Kingman AZ on Saturday morning (Easter weekend) shower/breakfast and couldn't deliver til Monday in Los Angeles so shot up out of route to Laughlin NV to go throw the dice at Harrah's casino. Been through there many times on the way to Las Vegas but never down Casino Drive. As I made the turn quickly started to freak out, here I am bulk hazmat going down this road full of casinos and not seeing one single truck. Went all the way to the the end and found a 'trailer only lot' lol don't think they meant 53 foot trailer but parked up in there and was not harrassed.

Played craps for hours, went to a nap then played some more into the wee hours of Sunday morning. My fellow players were getting rich off my dice shooting, often when it was their turn to shoot they all passed on the opportunity and the dice came right back to me. They were even throwing red chips to the center telling the dealers to place C and E bets for the shooter (me) a couple of which won. Lots of fun and a lot of tanned up girls coming in from the river speed boating from the weekend.

Made it down to LA got my 2 stops done and chilling at Petro Ontario. Mondays being the slowest freight day, doing a 34 and getting reloaded for Dallas terminal tonight. Will run out 10,20, to 30 this time to expound on a theory that though it is a little more miles, it is all freeway so should actually be faster than going down US287 through TX with all those small 45, 35, 25 mph towns.