Where is everyone #5

As you may or may not know aside from being a driver here I have also worked on the other side of the desk in the operations department so.................

There are MANY factors that play into how a load is handled. In the case of seemingly small freight going across the country by itself it could be one or more of many factors. First off I can assure you that SPD is getting paid for a full truck load otherwise you would have only been given an "M" number for the trip and waiting on additional freight. Even at that it could still be paying full truckload. As for the other reasons, the customer may have designated the load as "exclusive use", the "due on dock" may not allow time for adding pickups/drops, SPD may need you at the other end for something else............. The list is long. If you have the time and want to make the effort call ahead to Wichita and Toledo and try to add freight to it, just don't miss your delivery appointment.

Also, you commented about buying a 53' connie and loading it to the gills, well how do you think those guys with the rolling mansions you keep seeing pay for those $400,000.00 tractors? The catch is they mostly run team because of due on dock dates and need to run around the clock to make the pickup and delivery appointments work.

@TripleSix had commented about "get it while the getting is good". So a little story time. This isn't my first or even second rodeo with SPD and the aircraft industry. I started off in the aerospace transportation line almost 30 years ago hauling 737 Thrust Reverser's from Boeing in Wichita to Boeing in Renton, WA, 747 engine struts from Wichita to Kent and I hauled the VERY FIRST manufactured piece of the then brand new model 777 from Boeing Wichita to Boeing Power Pack and Strut in Kent, WA. Now, the 777 was the first commercial aircraft designed from the ground up on computers. This part was the first full sub assembly manufactured and was a big day for the Boeing propaganda machine. The piece had so many "pickup tags" that in the end I brought it back to Wichita to be scrapped but it had to ship because all the media was expecting this piece on this date and all the camera's were there to capture the arrival. All the "important" people were there in their Sunday best giving speeches, waving at the camera's and pressing the flesh with all the airline executives. I pulled around the block, waited for the festivities to end, pulled in under the cover of darkness, silently slid the part back into the trailer and slipped away in the middle of the night returning the piece to Wichita where it was "de-manufactured" and scrapped. More often than not I would have 2 pieces taking up 10' of trailer and on items shipped on reusable tooling, we got paid round trip even though only 1 out of about every 5 trips we would have tooling coming back to Wichita. Some of us more "enterprising" folks would drive up to Mission, BC and purchase a truck load of cedar shake shingles, take them back to Wichita and sell them to a roofing distributor there for a nice little profit. Boeing was already paying the truck to go back, we were getting our driver pay and the terminal manager in Wichita didn't care as long as we gave him a small cut. Mind you, this wasn't SPD and that company no longer does aerospace either.

We were awarded a contract 28 years ago for a specific sub assembly that needed a double drop for height and even at that it was still going to be 14-4 when loaded. Due to delays in final design etc we never moved the first piece before the contract came up for renewal. The company from Omaha with the blue trucks cut the rate and got the contract renewal. On the VERY FIRST load the driver showed up with a step deck, loaded the part and proceeded to knock it off the trailer 300 miles up the road. Turns out he had also hit at least 2 other overpasses before getting to one low enough to completely remove the load from the tooling and destroying it. To the best of my knowledge that was their first and last aerospace load for Boeing.

A few things have changed, Boeing sold the Wichita operations to Spirit and they no longer book the loads as round trips. Other than that, everything has stayed the same for the 28 years I've been involved. I've hauled a box that fit in my side box under the bunk from Wichita to Stuart, FL, paid full truckload, air on air, exclusive use. That's what the customer want's, that's what they pay for, that's what they get.

 

The price ×$$$

 

Mission completed, back home and "might" go back to my regularly scheduled job sometime this this week. I will try and keep up with this thread, missed a couple thousand posts over the past many days but got to see the best of the west here in the US and managed to miss all the weather. Buying my lottery ticket shortly.............

 

Wait until the economy takes a downturn, it’ll get real bad

 

In that boring stretch of I40 between Flagstaff and OKC...

Snooze button is on. Leaving Moriarty.

Y’all gave a good morning!

 

Buy two when you get to the auto parts store
I used to have to replace the dimmer about once a year on my 96 9200
I also put a second one in for my driving lights and fog lights for Bush driving.

 

Delivering near Madison, WI.

 

I have light weight sides. Its not bad, just have to have a system. 15 min. Idk I have beat inexperience hands chaining and tarping. They had a conostoga.

 

Bert has had more than coffee. Your Co-driver needs a wizz quiz!

 

Don’t buy a side kit unless you will be haulin mostly specific loads that require it. When your just starting out in general freight they are a horable idea.