ATS/school

I know what you mean about the "fatter bottom line"!LOL I seem to be on course for around $40,000 too. Problem is it hasnt been all that consistent. Couple good weeks then some slow ones. Just enough to get caught up, then it slows down! As to the I-Pass, I have just eaten the tolls( till tax time) for now, but I can download the info from the I-Pass site, print it off, and send it in with my paperwork. At least thats what i've been told. Cant answer about the CT yard, never been there, but as far as I know our only real "yard" out East is in NJ. About miles, well, like I said they were ok, not as consistent as i'd like but ok. I blame myself for some of the mileage issues, new to this whole thing, not sure how hard I can push or where to cut corners etc..
I ended up sitting at the J in PA till 1130cst on Wed, finally got them to let me start for home. I got a load at 5pm. Loaded the next day in IN, headed out to SD. I took a communications tower to Chamberlain. Then headed home, had ANOTHER trailer past due for inspection, and was having ECU codes coming up agian. I actually got in to Cloud around 6pm on Friday. Cool, home w/time to spare for my kids b-day! Then my wifes car blows a tire on the way home, about half way there. No problem right? Oh, thats right, the spare is ALREADY on the car! Had to call a friend to come get us, take me to my house to get my truck, head over to HIS house to get my skid steer trailer( he'd been borrowing it) then back to the car to load it and secure(could have used some of those neet car hauler chains!LOL), head home, back the trailer in and unhook it, just in time for my wife to go and deliver papers in my truck. I finally got to bed about 130am, having now been up for 23 1/2 hours! Saturday was a pretty laid back day, too tired and sickly to do much! Sunday just had movies and pizza( that's what the boy wanted) and some football. Today, I AM FEELING MY AGE! Never thought i'd be this stiff from just throwing around a football! Oh, and i'm still sitting at home. When I called to make sure my truck was eady THIS time( see above posts), no-one knows! The regular shop foreman is on vacation and the guy filling in WAS on vacation. So now its after noon, no word. Im thinking im home for the day again. Not a bad thing, but hard to relax when you dont know for sure. I'll give them a bit longer and then call and tell em to wait for tomm. now. I did use this morning to go and apply for a county job, entry level but I think it leads into snowplow driving eventually. Anyway, they expect over 100 apps so who knows. Also put in an app. for a regional driver position. It is with KLLM, sounds good but we'll see. I'll update ya when I actually get a load!

 

Hunter, havent had the "safety meeting" yet, but I think it will be just like Ktea says. Ktea, I should have been more specific on the tolls. You obviously know about "making the logs work", so ya, sometimes. I ate the first few on accident. I was waiting for a statement from I-Pass showing when, what, where etc.. Found out too late that we had to download the info, then send it in with the trip paperwork. I havent had to do it since. Those that I did eat(or will still have to) I will take as expences on my taxes. Ok, well they finally found my truck. Yes, you read that right. I called in on Monday to see if my truck was ready. Well the normal shop foreman was on vacation, and the guy filling in WAS on vacation. So no-one knew if it had been brought to the dealer or not. So that day was shot. Tues. wasnt any better. Finally on Wed. I got the truck back from the dealer. Seems the rebuilt EGR had gone bad. That means that this truck is on its 3rd EGR in less than 300k! I know that Volvo doesnt use the same manufacturer for the new EGR's, but they still use the one with the problems for the rebuilds. Kinda strange to me. So anyways, I head off to Brooklyn Park(a northern suburb) to load Bobcats. Ive been hear once before. And I forgot what a bear it was to back a spread axle up to a dock, blind side. But before that I got a taste of what reefer drivers go through. I got to the place at 230pm, and sat, along with 15 other flatbeds, and about 8 vans, till 8pm! I didnt leave until 11pm. So much for driving much that night! Today I got up after my nap and made the first two deliveries. I should easily make the two remaining in the morning and hopefully be off to a weekend load. I'll let ya know tomorrow!

 

Well I made the last two deliveries, the first wasnt very easy. My derections were right on, take the exit, its right on your right. Yep, there it is. But..... you need to make a right, go a block or so, make a right and then down a couple blocks. Now I say blocks but the area was actually pretty much open field. Now the fun, you ned to turn right, between a Mikey D's and a gas station. There are big signs saying "no trucks" for Mikey D's and the street going past them. Think a big U turn, right at Mikey D's, 1/4 block, right turn onto street, down the road to the dealer. Not a problem right? Oh yea forgot to mention, the whole right side of the street has cars parked along it. They used it as a park and ride. Still was possible, except that there was one car WAAAAYYYY too far back. Its bumper was parallel to the curb on the intersecting street. Blocking the side walk everything. Yes it should have been ticketed and towed. And to top it off there was another flatbed parked on the other side of the street. Now there was no way to get through, even if I could make the turn. So here I sit, trying not to block the driveways of either the gas station or Mikey D's. I was all the way over to the left so I could make the turn, backed to the stop sign for the street. After looking things over for what felt like forever, I decided that there was no good way to handle this. I set the brakes( 4 ways are already on) and walked down to the dealer to ask what the Helzz they wanted me to do. Oh, did I mention that I have no phone number for these folks? No one has been ableto get me one, not the shipper or our customer service. Of course ATS's customer service didnt have a chance if the shipper couldnt get one! Turns out the driver of the flatbed had been there all nite, on a no trucks street. Once he was gone I was able to make the turn( had to use a bit of the lawn cause of the car), made it down the street to the dealer. I thought it was easy now, WRONG! They had another truck delivering some stone to their landscape side of the business. So I couldnt just swing around their loop. They had to move a few things for me to be able to swing around and get out the way I had come in. The last drop was pretty easy, only problem was that the tailer was a good 9" taller than the loading ramp. Now im sitting in a Road Ranger waiting for something else for the weekend.

 

Well shortly after my last post I got a load. Was told to pick up in Joliet for a run out to Los Angleles. Not bad, nice long run for the weekend. Well I got ta thinking that maybe if I was there early they would get tired of me and get me out early. So I called the shipper, to find out that they weren't open on Sat. and if I wasnt there before 10pm, i'd have to wait till Monday. Now it doesnt take a math wizz to figure out I wasnt going to make it from IN to CA in two days, legally. So off I head for the 3 hour drive. I made it and was able to drop my trailer and get the other secured by 11pm. In the rain of course! Anyway I pushed a bit that night and then pulled the plug in IA. It was an uneventful trip out. I tried to deliver on Mon. afternoon, but they werent ready for me yet. So I spent the night in our Fontana yard and left early(430am) to go to UCLA. Traffic wasnt too bad yet and I made it ok. Now I admit, I was hoping to see some young college hotties walking around, but they dress like its winter here or something! GEESH!LOL The unload was a bit of a cluster at first, the guy giving me directions failed to tell me I was going to go PAST the job site to the "laydown" yard. So I spent a good half and hour walking around trying to find someone who would admit to speaking english to tell me where they wanted me. Finally got the contact on the phone to tell me to keep coming into the campus a bit furhter. Then I had to back down an alley, off a very busy main drive, it took a few pull ups to get it in just the way they needed to unload me. You see, they had to use a telescoping lift to lift the pipe off the trailer, then over a fence into the "yard". I use quotes because these poor guys had a space of no more than 50' x 150' to use as a yard. And there was a lot of pulling forward so they could get the pipe hooked, then backing up so they could drive the lift out of the yard and turn around and drive back in to put the pipe where they needed,and then back and repeat. Oh, did I mention the big trees in their way? It took close to 8 hours to get unloaded. But the guys were really cool and did the best they could. And I knew I wasnt going anywhere that day so I told them to take their time and not worry about it. After the unload I came back to Fontana, where I still am, along with 12 other trucks. Some have been here since Friday! Now this isnt all ATS's fault, some of the L/O and O/O's have refused loads. Today 5 trucks got to get loads, 3 on one load and 2 on another. I called in and told my FM to just hold off on me till tomorrow, that way I can get a reset in and not have to deal with hours etc.. I already had been off since 2pm yeaterday anyway, seemed crazy to not just wait another day. Besides that allowed me to just relax today and not wait on pins and needles to see if I got anything. Which probably wouldnt have happened with all the trucks here anyway.