Good Night From II

Ottawa, KS at the Love's.

Delivered the load to the Walmart DC right on time just before 1600, when the stupid 'Suggested Trip Plan' program didn't think I could get it here today.
I got a pplan right after I got to the DC.
It wanted me to pick up a load at 0300 tomorrow morning that delivered at 2000 about 525 miles way the next day.
I took the load after adjusting the pick up time, even though there is way too much time on it.
I would have liked more than 2k for the week, but a bird in hand might be worth more than two in the bush.

The paid mt miles are 95, but the actual distance is less than 60, even backtracking 5 miles to the Love's.
Sometimes it works to my advantage.
Let's see how the loaded miles go.

I would try to deliver it early, but it is a live unload at a Dollar General DC. Those appointments seem to be written in stone.
I seem to be getting nothing but the heaviest of loads these days. Everything for the past couple weeks have been over 40k.

And I think I liked the layout of the old forum better. This new format requires more navigation, and provides less information in an easy to read fashion.

 

I'm somewhere in MO at a Pilot, on MO 13.
This load has way too much time on it, but with things being slow for everyone I guess I'm lucky to have that much.
Even Landstar is seeing lower than normal freight for this time of year. I was talking to one of their drivers here.

Just after I pulled in a state trooper pulled to the back of my trailer.
I finished my call with my DM and went in to scan my trips, and the trooper pulled up to talk with me.
He had checked the plate number of my trailer, and I was not who he was looking for.
Who he was looking for was a Swift driver with damage to the back of the trailer, last seen in a group of 5 Swifties running north on MO 13.
I was going south. And I never run in a pack.
I didn't ask for details, but it seems like a Swift backed into something/someone and then left the scene.
The Landstar guy mentioned that group of trucks leaving shortly before I got there when I told him why the trooper had spoken to me.

He also mentioned that one of them had locked themselves out of the truck at the fuel island.
How smart is it to lock yourself out of your own truck?

Or to leave the scene of an accident that caused damage to the back of your trailer, because that kind of hit is not easy to miss.
A preventable backing accident is far better than a hit and run.
One will get you in a little trouble, but the other can land you in jail!

 

Here at the Petro in York, NE. After all of the great mpg I have been getting, it is taking a large bite on this load. Was having 20-30mph head winds the whole way across IA and when crossed into NE the direction shifted to 25mph WNW. Tomorrow is supposed to be some of the same. Maybe drop to about 15mph. Watched my fuel drop to 6.2mpg. Maybe when stop pulling all of these nice little hills it will improved, until get into CO. What was going to be a nice little profit now is gone. Losing about .10/mi on this load now.

 

Hopefully the snow storm in CO will be over and melted when you get there.

 

Loves in Eagleville, MO on I-35. Made my d&h at John Deere in Ankeny then up to Ames for a load of pasta. Cross winds on I-35 are hurting me even with 20k in the box. T-call in OKC tomorrow.

For the last two weeks I've been ending my day with excruciating pain in the arch of my left foot, today it's burning on top of that. Time to take some Alleve and pass out.

 

In York ne at petro killing time. Have twice as much time as I need on this load so IMA go shopping in north Platte tomorrow.

 

The Loves in Hudson, CO. Thought about the Tomahawk but not sure if still open since not coming up in my Fuel book app. Mac 30 all day has been crap. Sears to SLC, 525 miles for 2 days, Muskogee, OK, 750 miles for 2 days, dh to Syndey, NE to pu and take to SLC, just to name a few. Had one I almost jumped on, Denver to Las Lunas for delivery tomorrow but after a phone call it was recommended not. As of this afternoon there are only 2 loads booked for the area on Thursday. There are about 30 can loads waiting but no release numbers yet. Ohhh, another day of winds. Left out of York and it was nice. Did not last long. Ran into 20mph winds from the SSE with gusts up to 35. I can never catch a break up here. Trying to hard to get back South. Sent me another pplan. Pick up on the 13th, preloaded and del 660 miles at noon on the 15th. These short loads are getting old real fast. Denver and their games.

Found out today that I did not receive the raise and was not paid short haul pay on my last load. Payroll tells me that even when I signed my new contract April 3, I was still listed as being on the Target Account. So my DM has to submit something and turns out that I will be getting retro pay all the way back to March when I left the account plus the raise, retro to May 1. Was not really paying that much attention since the majority of my loads have all been over 500 miles for the last 7 weeks. When I called in to talk to my DM about this my TM answered the phone ad he could not believe why so long to catch it. Just told him that when I signed the new contract in April that it would be automatic. Was told that a PAF needed to be filled out when I left Target. Proceeded to tell him, what is a PAF and is that not the job of my DM and knowing and he said yes. So we where both at fault. He was just upset because it creates some more work. Ohhh well.

 

At the Petro in Rochelle IL. D/H in Rockford with a morning delivery in Kansas City MO. Mac30s have been crap just about everywhere I've been east of the Mississippi River the past couple months. Don't know why but it's slowly becoming useless to me. Did manage to get one decent load through out of eastern PA to Indianapolis just to escape the NE but the Manteno planners jammed me back into Chicago again right after. 5th time in 2 weeks. Doing regional delivery boy work for big box stores and I'm fairly tired of it. Short hauls and too much time and it's killing my miles.

I spoke with my DM about how lame the last two months have been and that I don't leave TX running OTR just so planners can turn me into a GLR delivery boy. This has been going on for a while now. Nothing is changing. I'm not bringing it up to her again as it doesn't seem to do any good.

I'll be leaving Swift in the next couple months for sure now. Have a couple more outfits I want to talk too first plus I want my next performance bonus before I walk.

 

T-call at OKC, found a shock with a busted bushing this morning. will get that fixed early and hopefully get out of here.