Good Night From II

New Braunfels, TX at the TA. a severe storms from north of Austin to Buda, I thought there was a tornado. Load is scheduled for 0900 at HEB in Weslaco, running four hours behind due the shipper. After eight hours there is still no reply from them or our CSR about rescheduling the appt.

 

Call the CSR directly.

 

You are wondering? Driver, say it isn't so, or say what you mean as in "I think leasing isn't better than company."

Leasing the right way is to get your loads through anyone but the company you've leased to. That's the only way to do it. You can lease a truck through Swift or bring in your paid off truck, the fact is a person will face the same struggle with revenue goals and interrupted sleep. With that being said, and in response to your bid on leasing which seemed generalized (we are in a swift forum?), I still believe a guy booking his own loads can do well in the leasing game. The bad rap...maybe because 90% or more lease drivers got that truck from the same company they worked for in the first place, and we rarely hear about the other ones.

 

By the way...I am very curious about this "call the planners" thing. Have any of you tried, and were the planners happy to oblidge with load options?

 

I too wonder about this. Without a map showing the planning areas and phone numbers telling me to "call the planner" is basically worthless.

 

Works great ... In some ways it's like working with Command ... all the planner let them know where you're willing to go and they book a load. Right then sometimes, others I've gotten a preplan within 20 minutes of calling.\

Mac 34 has a new field. Put in your origination or destination and it will kick back the t/n for the planner that covers the area you want to talk to a planner for. ... basically it's the 800# for the terminal the planner is in. The call tree will lead you to the planner.

 

You can also use the Mac34 option when you are between loads and it is especially helpful when you have questions about a pplan. I have accepted loads that have gone through the Plus One gibberish generator after talking to the planner on that load . Its made a huge difference over times past where we were blocked from talking to planners like they were gods we miserable humans were forbidden from knowing about .

BTW , you can access the planner extension by calling any terminal 800 number but Mac34 will get you the terminal the planners work out of for the area you're in or will be in .

 

South Walmart, Salem Or. Yesterday I made a three stop run down the Oregon coast. Parked on the side of highway 101 and spent a few hours on the beach, finaled in Newport, had steak and salmon for dinner over looking the ocean and headed back inland.

Pretty rough day. Oh, and 3400 miles for this week I'll start my 34 tomorrow AM.

 

El Paso at the La Quinta. Truck is in the shop and was put in the shop before I even left the property. The 90 day is due plus some other write ups. They are going to take a look at them but already told me that if they are not really a safety issue just yet that they will have me take the truck to KW. They told me not to take it to the KW here. Power steering noise coming out of the column, the wind leak, a water leak in the upper molding, brakes rubbing and a hard break it veers real hard to the right. With the winds still today from the SSW and all of the nice little hills between San Antonio and here, a whopping 6.1mpg. Now I also remember why I stopped pulling beer loads.

 

Also if you have MAC 9 on your phone when you get a pplan you can also look up the planners name and phone number that sent it to you. The only time that it does not work is if it is a system generated pplan. The ones that come across on your phone with the initials MCBCS.