My new, final resting place

I'm somewhere on I90 waiting for the Day Crew to change my appointment today. When I get there, I will be on the north side of the same Finger Lake my daughter is on the south side at Cornell. It's as close as we've been in years; pity I won't be able to visit...

 

Oh, there's nothing sinister about it. It really was a reference to this being the end of the driving road for me. If this WE thing doesn't start becoming more stable, it might be sooner than later.

 

I wish there was a company out there that agreed with you.

 

Since I am looking at yet another weekend to drive 500 miles in four days - holiday weekends like this make things even worse - I've given some thought to this and come to some understandings.

1. This company is basically a Monday-Friday company. Since we don't pickup or deliver to grocery stores, there really aren't any JIT loads. There really aren't any consequences for being "late," other than rescheduling headaches.
2. The large majority of our customers are Monday-Friday sites. Yes, we do deliver to some of the box stores, but in my two months, I've only delivered to Home Depot once. But steel plants and international shippers only work five days a week.
3. I guess I should have realized the Monday-Friday thing early on; each Friday, we get a QC message about getting written clearance to go home on the weekend or suffer the consequences.
4. This puts a crimp in my money-making opportunities, of course. Instead of giving me a long-distance haul on Thursday or Friday and letting me use "down" time to get there for a Monday or Tuesday delivery, I get short-haul loads and can take my bloody time and drive 150 miles a day. When combined with faulty or missing equipment or unacceptable trailers, I've been hurt to the tune of about 1500-1800 miles per week. Ouch.

 

They want a maximum of 4 DMV points. I have more because of Wyoming. Bummer.

 

If my posts of late have sounded glum and negative, it's because they are. And there is this.

When I pulled vans, I would back into a door and either get something loaded or removed, then pull out, close the door, get paperwork, and be on my way. Usually, there was very little wasted time doing unpaid work. I realized this week that one of the reasons the mileage deck is stacked against me is all the after-pickup/delivery, unpaid work that takes place here.

Life is very different now. No more just closing a door, getting paperwork and being on my way. Doing all the flatbed-specific duties all take time - depending on the circumstances, it can be many hours - time that is totally unpaid and very effectively eats into my 14 each and every time. Thus, I have less time to drive.