USA TRUCK

good to hear bro!! haven't seen CJOE here in awhile, wonder if he got on at arnold?

 

I'm not sure I havn't heard anything either. I thought cjoe was a girl.........

 

really? i didn't know LOL

 

Well if u read this cjoe straighten us out,lol....so how's arnold treatin u pat?

 

the miles aren't as good as USA. but i like it more here.
my FM/DM is great (as was at USA) they take better care of equip. here i can actually BUY oil and washer fluid with my fuel card!
if parked at a terminal overnight, the mech's go around each AM thumping and inspecting tires ETC was woken up by mech with an "out of service" sticker on my window asking if i wanted my drive tire replaced now or in a little while. (seems it had a chunk of tread missing)
quarterly truck washes
MANDATORY not to drive when icy.
we use trip pack about to go to "pay for paperwork (which will suck)
i have 2 DM's that split the week in half each works 7-7,
so no "night dispatch"

 

Sounds like all in all it's working out pretty good for you, that's good to hear, I would really like the same 2 DM's all the time.

 

if he quits/gets fired before the year is up he will get bills and phone calls from the school wanting thear money.. and that $$ being held by U.S.A out of every pay to go to pay school will dissapear.. it wont be payed to him or the school... (happened to me when i was fired for having to come home for an absessed tooth)

 

Who is He? Try quoting who you're speaking of.

Would you not want your money?

 

Heya Panhandle! I remember meeting you, I think in Van Buren, a couple years ago. I left USA Truck at the end of June, and am driving for Crete now. I lucked out and got on the General Mills dedicated fleet. 2800-3500 miles every week, depending on how hard I feel like driving. Most of my loads have pickup and delivery windows anywhere from 12 to 24 hours long, pretty much all drop/hook at both ends. And I'm almost always preplanned for my next load before I deliver my current load, and I'm always preplanned by Friday afternoon for the loads that'll get me through to Monday, so I never deal with night or weekend dispatchers.

It's not like a dedicated run between 3-4 places, more just dedicated to one customer - General Mills. I haul cereal boxes from where they're printed to where they're filled, cereal from the factories to the General Mills warehouses, spices to where they make Progresso soup (a General Mills brand), soup out to the General Mills warehouses, and so forth. There's about 40-50 places I go on the account, and rarely pickup or deliver at the same place twice in one week except Yoder, IN (near Fort Wayne); Galesburg, IL; Covington, GA; and Chattanooga (15 miles from home). Since I've been to most of the places on the account a few times each, I don't get lost looking for a shipper or receiver anymore.

Oh, none of the places on the account are in the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, or Massachusetts. The farthest north I go in New Jersey is Vineland. That and Palmyra, PA are as close to NYC as I get. I do have to go to Buffalo on occasion, and to Brampton, Ontario rarely. But that's it as far as the Northeast is concerned. The only real downside is that about 5 of the places I go are in the Chicago area. Geneva, Woodridge, West Chicago, Joliet, etc. but nothing inside the 294 loop.

I stay out 24 days and go home 4, but frequently find myself delivering in Chattanooga and about out of hours, or going right by the house on my way to or from Covington or Rome or Kennesaw, so I get to spend more nights at home than just the 4 regular home-time nights. Like tonight, for example

The fleet I'm on has 2 dispatchers for the whole fleet. One dispatches loads out of the east coast, the other dispatches the rest. So I know who I'll be dealing with all the time.

We get truck washes every 45 days at the Streakin' Beacon, and any repairs under $100 we can just pay for with cash, Transflo the receipt, and get reimbursed. No need to get with Breakdown for a PO or anything like that. Also, we carry a spare tire - so if I pick up a trailer with a flat, I just find a tire shop, go there, pay them cash to mount the spare, and stop at the next terminal for a new spare. If I'm not sure where the nearest tire shop is, I can send off a message to breakdown and within minutes I get the name, address, and phone number of the nearest shop that can handle big truck tires.

We do have to have our paperwork scanned in or faxed by Friday night at midnight to get paid for that load on the following Thursday's paycheck, but it's not usually a problem. Worst case scenario is I have to pay a couple bucks to fax it in if I can't get to a Pilot or Love's by midnight Friday night. That is, unless I deliver late at night on a Friday at the Progresso Soup plant in Vineland, NJ and find myself almost out of hours, since the only place to park around there is a fuel-and-scale-only stop on Main Street in Vineland, which closes at I think 11pm and has no fax machine. Not that that's ever happened, of course

I also don't get bugged over the Qualcomm much. As long as the loads get delivered within the time allotted, I run legal, I log it as I do it, and I don't hit anything, they leave me pretty much alone and let me do my thing. There's a lot to be said for that

So, how's things over at Arnold?

 

very possible redbeard! i flapped gums alot with drivers at the terminals
arnold likes to take care of their trucks. like i said miles are less but OK
they dont keep tabs on your hours really, so when they give you a "preplan" you answer "yes i can do" or say NO i cant do it. preplans are VERY common here.
USA was good to me, but i fell into the "politics of trucking" i guess.
live in FL........
but i can definately say arnold is better than USA even though wholely owned by USX