Good Night From II

Augusta or Osseo, WI. You decide. Picked up my load 1 day early but can not drop until Sunday so just take my time and leave out in the morning. Planner wanted me to do a 34 here so I asked, anything that I can pick up on the 4th, and nope, so I will just take my 34 there in Tulia, TX. I just knew that I was going to get shafted on this load. Of course not a company truck, not good utilization over the holiday plus might have to pay layover.

 

And that's why I no longer run over holidays. It's always been that way. Sit or a long and slow load. Sometimes it works out. But, less than half the time.

It's field day on my truck this morning, then to the dealer for some work and home for at least 8 days.

 

I lucked out. Changed my PTA until Sunday and take a 34 here, and then drop this load in Plainview on Sunday and pick up there also a 2 stop Wal-Mart for Monday in El Paso and I know that no problem getting out of there. First they tried to send me a pplan for pu on Tuesday going 950 miles to KY for Thursday. Then my DM got involved with the planner. I know that from EL Paso I can get back up into my Bush's area and it will be some good miles before home time on the 11th. Pretty sure that I can get a IL load out of Paso and then can get a WI back to TN and from there a Wal-Mart home

What is nice about this Wal-Mart one is that it does not pull until 1900 but I have until 1300 to get to the first stop and the final up to 1900 and then to the yard. I have this feeling that I might be pulling a Wal-Mart trailer which will get dropped in the yard there. So I guess that I get to sleep in tomorrow and Sunday. Glad that it is the holiday so that I can find parking tomorrow night late

 

Duncan puts ZERO pressure (on their drivers) to do what I described. It comes down to what I want to accomplish.

Example: By going over my 14 I picked up my container on time, took my 10, and made it home the next day on the early side (2-3:00 PM). Had I elected not to pick up the container (at night) it would have taken Duncan until 7-8:00 am the next morning to find a load home for me. That would have put me home around 6:00 PM or later.

A container scheduled for a night gate (after 6:00 PM) pickup CANNOT be dropped or picked up during day gate operations. I do over 90% of my weekday port ops at night. The ports close at 4:30 PM Friday so I do everything on Saturday EARLY.

 

So bored. Never again do a 34 starting in the morning. Means that have to push tomorrow and then sleep in Sunday so not get to Wal-Mart too early. Then received a pplan already out of El Paso, the yard and going to Mount Juliet of the 7th at 1100, Nice 1300 mile load which means more night driving on the 4th so that not need to push on the 5th and 6th that hard. Worst part is that it is coming from across the border so no weight on the pplan. These always scare me when coming across the border.

 

Billings, MT.

Trying to get to my delivery this morning was fun. All of Swift's directions were wrong, and there are a lot of one way streets to get around. I was still on time, unlike the unloader who was 20 minutes late.

After that I hit a Walmart and sent a message to my DM asking how the bubble map looked.
He sent a 1 word reply... Ugly.
A couple hours later he had contacted a planner to see about repositioning me to a better area.
A bit later I got a load. Picking up here at the drop yard and delivering on the 5th in IL.
It's a lot of down time for the weekend, but at least it's a 1200 mile load. Could have been worse.

And it hopefully sets me up nicely for my home time in MN on the 6th (or 7th).

 

I'm in Lodi.

Saw the bubble map 3 days ago in Jurupa,,, it was ugly at the time, the whole map was red except the southeast. The Northwest was the worst.

Things may have improved on the reefer side. Last time out was kinda slow (even in "good" areas.) But since I came back from home I've been stacked, and tight.

So far the forecast is Reno-Hermiston-Portland-SLC.

 

San Antonio at El Rodeo de Jalisco across from the Petro having pozole, guacamole, and tacos with nopales. Go to Houston tonight, swap out for one to Corinth, MS and grab another one from Booneville back to Waco.

 

If that's CAT in Corinth, just FYI, that's an appointment drop. They won't take you more than an hour early.