Asking for suggestions

We didn't for 10 years. We still don't, really, since I'm in the truck 330 days a year.

 

A lot of things can happen in 30+ years. If you stick around long enough, by the time you're in your mid-50s, honestly reflecting on your marriage will reveal every flaw in yourself that you had no clue about before you got married. Add raising children to that, and you will have a magnifying glass to show you the consequences of your mistakes.

I can't decide if I regret it or not, looking back. On the one hand, I didn't really want to find out most of this stuff about myself. On the other hand, I know I'm a better person for it, since I had to confront myself and change my behavior and attitudes.

Plus I have a family, which is nice. Some people don't have a family, and many of those people are sadder for it. If you know any of them, try to find the time to befriend them.

 

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply. I turned in my truck to QC at the terminal yesterday. I decided to take a job with Crete Carriers running Walmart dedicated out of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It serves all the Walmarts in Wyoming and Colorado, and some of them in Montana, Utah, and New Mexico. Pay is good, benefits are good and less expensive, average miles are said to be 2400 per week, 10 - 15 stops per week. Six days out, one day off (Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday). I can stay out and go home less often, but this way I know I can always get home each week if I need to. We'll see how it all works out.

There's a terminal at the DC in Cheyenne. Pickups are preloaded trailers, deliveries are all no-touch, so it sounds pretty easy. I'll figure out how to bump docks, I'm sure. Hard part will be the winter driving and running hard, especially during the busy season coming up. Good part will be steadier and better pay, never going east, and as close to recession-proof as it gets in trucking. People always buy food, Walmart is at the top of the Fortune 500, and Crete is a mega with lots of cash. I'm not against working for a mega just because it's a mega. I've talked to a few Crete drivers at truck stops and they were all pretty happy (but maybe not everyone on this board lol.)

Here's the pay scale. There's also $30 per stop beyond the first and last stop. You can definitely get from Cheyenne to Denver and back in under 300 miles even with multiple stops, and that's where many of the stores are.




Pretty soon I expect I'll be on here talking about how I put $1000 a week in the bank and making two or three times that by day trading tech stocks with an app on my phone, which will be my real job.

 

I was on a sliding scale with System Transport when I ran out of Denver with them. I didn't mind it. I remember one week I needed to get home every night so they kept me close. I did nine loads in the Denver area that week and made more than I usually did running regional or OTR. Nine flatbed loads in a week is a lot of work, though, especially those Lowe's loads and steel building loads from Armstrong. Top of their scale was 69 cpm, so doing that at a higher rate with no-touch freight wouldn't be bad -- except for Denver traffic. And snow.

The wind is terrible in Wyoming. It's always blowing. Looks like they're getting snow tonight, too. I think I moved winter up for myself by a couple of months by taking this job.