System Transport - Spokane, WA

OK, so I promised that I would be honest in this thread and here is some time for honesty.

I picked up a load of girders. 1370 mile run. The load when I picked it up looked so funky I actually called safety and asked for advice.

Wound up with 2 belly wraps, 4 gut wraps, 4 across the top and two across both front and back on a 16k load.

600 miles up the road and some REALLY rough road and I hear something move on the trailer. Pull over and sure as heck, one of the girders (bottom middle) slipped back 18 inches and is now protruding from the back of my trailer by 8 inches or so.

Go to call dispatch, no cell service. Look at the load carefully, turns out the dunnage on the load was pretty crappy. 2x2s stacked on top of each other and sure as heck, that was the failure point.

So I'm sitting there by the side of the road and having basically a meltdown, convinced this is somehow my fault. Looked at it again, decided "rules" or no rules, that back piece is getting chained. Chained it, had to stop every 50 miles for the next 700+ miles to tighten binders.

Got it there on time.

In Wyoming I was fortunate enough to meet a very experienced flatbedder who looked at the load, listened to my tale of woe and told me:
"Stop feeling stupid and take some pride. That's a hard situation, you made a plan, got it done, you're safe, the load is safe. You did really good."

That guy made my month. He'd had similar situations. And he took time out of his day to help me out and gave me some good feedback on what to do different next time.

I keep running into these people on the road. Great folks who will gladly help you out, lend their experience, and buck you up when you're feeling down. BTW, load was tight-scheduled, but on time, safe, unharmed, undamaged.

 

Oh, for those of you wondering, I made $1060 my first week, looking at 1200+ my second week. GROSS.

Considering how many hours I've lost to just being slow loading/unloading as a noob, I have no complaints. I expect the weeklies to hit around 1300-1500 as I get better/faster.

I live in the truck. I have $400 a month in bills. I live as cheaply as I can. My goal is to have $18k in the bank in a year. At that point, I can buy my own truck or take other options. But give me another trade where you can save $18k in a year.

 

450 Pole fleet. I'm the skinny 50-year-old looking guy. (Me and 20 other guys). PM me, i'll give you my truck#

 

Wow. One month now in my own truck.
I have learned so much I can't do it justice, so I won't try.

 

Last 2 weeks have sucked for income. Roughly 1100 per week gross as I got slammed with the holiday and some truck in the shop downtime I mistakenly didn't get paid for.
Got into a time crunch with a trap d load and had them unloading 14 minutes after I set my parking brake. They were happy. So was I. I tarped a load in 49 minutes, which is a record for me.

The rest is just truckin. You don't really know it til you do it.
There are a hundred little things here I could write: USE your road atlas.
Watch out for sharp turns over uneven surfaces, they can make the trailer dent your catwalk. (ask how I know.
Never believe a shipper on weight.
Be nice to DOT inspectors..
More than I'm gonna write.

If you're a new driver or a wannabe, PM me with questions. Systems still seems about as good as I could ask for in all depts.

 

Interesting experience:
I was in Lacey, WA on a 34-hour reset at a hotel with a Monday AM delivery in Everett. Woke up Sunday with some pretty bad back pain on my left side. Blew it off, figured I slept wrong. Monday AM it's worse, but I get to the appointment and unload. Rolling up the 2nd tarp, I about pass out from the pain in my right lower back. Talk to urgent care, but there is no place to park the truck.

I get my dispatcher to find me a no-tarp strap load, go get it. I can barely ratchet straps.

Tuesday AM I get up and start my pre-trip and it's apparent that I need to get to a doctor STAT. No way in Heck am I driving farther than the `150 miles or so to Spokane.

Turns out it's a kidney infection. Potentially very serious. Doc put me on Anti-biotics and I'm sitting in a hotel room til I'm well enough to either go home or go to work. Can hardly get out of bed at the moment.

From the time I woke up Tuesday it was scary. Obvious something was VERY wrong. Strange town, no friends or family anywhere, in incredible pain. (about as bad as anything I've ever felt).

BUT... I got my load to the yard, safe, dropped it, got the paperwork where it needed to go etc. before I went to the doc. Kinda proud of toughing it out. And while the run from Auburn to Spokane isn't exactly big bucks, it's going to help offset at least a small part of the bills I'm going to have for this. X-rays and ultrasounds aint cheap and 5-7 days off work in a motel is gonna hurt.