Rookie loads and dealing with dispatch

My last time in the Produce Market in south Central LA we had some shooting that I could hear. It was about 9 at night and appt for shipping was 4 am. So... I took off and ran to Ontario and stayed until morning and came back in to get loaded inside the market compound of green food stuff whatever it was. Hired three felons to put it into the trailer for 70 dollars total plus two packs of smokes and a meal for the third. Two provided body gaurd service to me when I walked from there to a small store to get last minute needed items. Ran into several interesting characters to and from. One in particular a hooker, she was using a form of foundation or a base so thick to cover her needle tracks and various small injuries (Sores and bleeds etc) to the point of looking pretty bad in the day light. That one took a minute to teach me a knife process that is pretty nifty if you had trouble getting clear of mr mad mad for whatever reason.

As far as the security McKesson usually does not let us inside the warehouse, It's a chance to stay in the cab, bills brought back out to us signed etc when ready to run back with bales. Best of all worlds.

 

That's the down side.

The up side is there are some OUTSTANDING barbeque joints in Compton. You just need to lower your pants to half assed and you will fit right in.

 

I took Cali off my list several years before I left the lower 48, one of the best perks of running under your own authority. lol.

 

Fluff that.

 

I know I’m late on this one but as a fellow rookie I’d like to share an opposite experience. The company I work for is small. I deal directly with the owner and his dispatcher. Every load im given is 2000+ miles with only about 3-4 days each. I’d gladly take your situation over mine while I’m still in the early stages of my career. So far I’ve been late once. I had a load going from Modesto, Ca to Cairo, GA and three days to deliver 2100 miles. I made it in four days. Ultimately these late loads will catch up to me and I’ll probably be terminated. As a new driver I’d consider myself lucky to be getting lots of time on my loads. It would give me more time to learn the other stuff like backing, trip planning, proper pre tripping, log books etc without having to feel like I’m being rushed. I’ve only been doing this for a month after a long hiatus and I’ve barely had time to re learn anytime because I have to drive 10-11 hours a day just to be on time. But that’s just my two cents...

 

Sounds like your pulling a reefer ? I hated freymillers ######## with that same situation drive till there's a minute left on your 11 then take exactly 10 hours up and running, average trip is 1500 miles no time for resets or to breath. I stopped pulling a reefer and my problems went away and my pay went up

 

Just watch out for the Doofus from Dumas! (private joke won't elaborate!)

 

no we run e logs. I’ve had to run on PC almost every load I’ve had since I’ve been here to be on time. On top of that the freight brokers harass me with phone calls everyday sometimes even super early when I’m sleeping. I feel like there’s some sort of violation going on here but I don’t want to be that guy so I’m sucking it up until I get my experience and can move on.