From the conference room back to the driver's seat

I don't miss the stress. I started over there as a driver, and when the terminal manager was shot by one of the drivers in '08 they asked me to step in. Fast forward to 2010 they sold our branch to a new company and I eventually became the fleet manager....24 trucks and 18 drivers at 5 plant across the country. Now all I have to worry about is me and my truck. I am on the road a lot more but I am actually home a lot more than I was before. At least now when I am home nobody is calling me at 2am and I am not constantly on email or the phone. It was the right choice.

I will say I miss the consistent salary and the health insurance. But that's about all I miss. I still get calls from the guy who took my place once in a while with questions or him seeking advice. He is a great guy but really had no clue what he was doing. Like the Killer said "He's walking in my tracks, but he can't fill my shoes". But it's not really any different than when I started there. "Hey, you're still alive, you want a management job?" I had no clue what I was doing but I had to put on a good show. He's picking it up fast and . It helps him that the oilfield crashed and they have almost nothing going on, gives him time to learn. Some of the stories he tells me just confirms that I made the right choice, so the phone calls help both of us.

 

Nice ride yesterday between Bozeman and West Yellowstone.

20160229_094431 by sawmill posted Mar 1, 2016 at 7:43 AM

 

Well I unloaded steel beams in ID. Got a load of hay this morning going to CO. Can't unload it until Monday though so I get to spend a few days at the house. I will do an oil change and grease. Probably fix the tangled mess that I have for CB coax too. And probably a deep cleaning. Finally a trip home with no multi-day repairs to do.

 

No tarp and I probably wouldn't have booked it if that was a requirement. I kinda hate hauling hay. Not that it's a lot of work, but to me it's junk freight. It's heavy and doesn't pay worth a crap...most of the time it's break even money or maybe if I'm lucky a few cents over break even. But it got me out of where I was and through the house for a few days and then close to Denver to hopefully see our oldest son.

Normally hay pays by the ton. I think this one is $68/ton. Loaded 24 of the 4x4x8 bales at 1850 lbs. each. For tarping I would have needed more money. I haven't done a load of hay in about 6 months. I think last time I hauled it was to get near Ft.Worth so I could attend the CABS class that LS requires.

I have learned the hard way that with hay it makes sense to measure the bales before they start loading. Some of these farmers bale them at 7' long and call it 8'. Bet their wives feel cheated too. First time I hauled hay I didn't think of it and ended up light with a little room to spare on the upper deck. With the use of one of my ramps as a bridge the next time I was able to get 26 bales on. But those ones only weighed 1700 lbs. That's the other thing...you have to find out the weight. Seems a farmer's concept of weight is usually as accurate as his judgment of how long 8' is too.

 

Yep, that was me. Feel free to come say hello next time.