A&R Logistics Charlotte Terminal

That sucks. I was told a lot of companies are doing that same thing. I am on my wifes insurance so that doesn't affect me. I don't blame you at all for going back to your old job. I would have done the same thing. Also sucks about the loads. I'm steady doing 2 loads a day average. Today I got my first pre-plan. 2 loads to Newton NC. Sorry things didn't work out for you here but that's what I love about this industry. You can find a company the will fit your lifestyle or start your own.

 

I had to make a post. The last week has been my worst week at A&R. I loaded in the rail yard and why over gross by about 460lbs. and had to blow back. It was my fault because I was fighting with the value on the rail car trying to close it while still loading. By the time I got it closed I was over. Oh well. Now I'm offloading my 2nd load for the day on Wednesday and one of the flanges on the bottom line blew apart. Yeah blew the F apart. Of course it made a mess. Good thing it was on the high side and I was on the last hopper on the low side. So only a small amount of product came out. SMH. After inspecting I noticed that the flang had on the wrong type of clamp. I really didn't notice that when I inspected the trailer. After a long fight. I got the flange back together and proceeded with off loading at a low PSI. To not repeat. After i got offload I got a load going to Kingston NC. I was like great. That's the longest load I have gotten. 276 loaded miles. Well I was thinking Thursday was going to go great since I got a good load that pays over $300. Got to the rail yard and loaded no problems. Hit the road for Kingston. About 45 minutes into the trip my phone rings. It's the TM. He says you know that load don't deliver until tomorrow right. I was like wait what? Yeah I sent it to you so you can preload it today for tomorrow since it's a long run. Didn't you look at the date. Ahhhhh no. I said ok I'll head back to the yard. Oh also I ain't got no load for you to run but can you preload one for me. Sure. I got back to the yard dropped my trailer and hooked to the one to be loaded. Got to the rail yard. Lucky me a split load. Got to the first rail car emptied it no problem. I'm like so far so good cause all the other splits I have done, i had to pull product from 2-3 compartments to empty the rail car. Went and scaled and I grossed 65000. Was told I'm good I emptied the 1st car. Got to the 2nd rail car started loading. This is one of those loads where you have to gross a minimum of 78k. Since I was 65k I was like cool no problem. I only need 13k more and in good. Ok let me say this. Usually it loads at a rate of about a 1,000 lbs per minute. I set my timer for 10 minutes thinking that would put me in the ballpark. Let me say this the day I over loaded by 460lbs. and had to blow back. They wanted me to put back 1klbs. Why 1k? Thats what the rail yard manager told me to do. Fine no problem got it done and was good to go. Now back to Thursday. I set my timer for 10 minutes so I don't come close to being over gross. Usually the scale on the trailer reads about 31,500lbs and I'm good. That usually gets me to about 79k. The trailer scale read 29k when my 10 minutes was up. So I decided to let it run for 1 more minute to get to 30k on the trailer scale. FYI, their is a scale on the truck that tells you the weight on the drives and 1 on the trailer for your tandem weight. So I'm thinking I'm close but let me go and scale to check my gross. Holy Sugar Honey Iced Tea. I grossed 81,560. I was like how could that have happened. I'm supposed to by under gross. So now I have to sign the paperwork to blow back into the rail car again. You know I'm pissed and puzzled at the same #### time. Before I made it back to the rail car my TM called. He said I really needs to be careful with my weight. The terminal manager at the railyard is tripping and wants to write me up for having to blow back twice in one week. I was I really don't know what happened but I will do my best to not let it happen again. He said I know you been loading good up to this point but just be careful. So now I'm at the rail car waiting for the guy so I can blow 1500lbs back. I checked my weights. I was like how the hell is the trailer scale reading 31,680 I stoped it at 30k. Usually it would level off with about 2-300lbs more. But 1,680? That means I was loading much faster than usual and the scale was responding slowly to the weight. What can I say? I learned something new. Stop loading a little early and wait to see what the scale reads. Tomorrow is another day. Friday went great. Started around 3:30 am for Kingston NC. Got there about 4.5 hours later. Offloaded and back to the yard. On the way back I got ask to preload a load that delivers on Saturday. I was like sure I had time. Then got a next message say disregard that load and load one for Mooresville that delivers on Sunday and deliver it. I was like or hell no. It's the same load the screwed me the last time. Got to the yard and went to the TM and told him I can't do that load. He asked if I can load it and he will get someone else to deliver. I hesitantly agreed. I got to the rail yard and guess what? it's another split where I have to gross a minimum of 78k. I was like God really has a sense of humor. I loaded with no problems thank God and dropped it in the yard and went home.
Update: My gross for my 2nd week on my own was $1425.91. Not bad for my 2nd week. I know my third will not be as good.

 

Things in Charlotte are going well. I can say 60k is very doable. A lot rides on the individual. Most of the drivers I have spoken too make 80k plus. How hard you are willing to work ect. I started on October 1st. My gross for the year was $16,461.94. That's Monday to Friday home every night. And that's with me doing 2 weeks of training and orientation. Having to learn a lot as I go. Plus being on the bottom of the barrel. Being new and all. Things are always slow around the holidays so take that into account. I can say that I'm definitely getting better paying loads and my times are getting much faster. Being here for just over 3 months I can say I really like it. This job is not for everyone but it has it's rewards. I don't have their insurance but if your spouse works and their company has insurance they have to take it. They will not be covered under A&R policy.