6/21/16 Is the beginning of my Schneider career!!!

I'm kinda an analytics guy. I'm all about finding the most efficient and effective way to do things. I wasn't sure it would translate here buy I guess I was wrong. I'll be keeping closer track of my stuff from now on. Good stuff.

 

I see what you're saying now. My issue isn't that I'm noticed or called by name. Just some simple courtesy is all. Especially when I extend it first. But then again one of my biggest pet peeves is when you ask someone "how are you doing"? And their response is "how are you doing?" Lol I personally did it once and called myself a douchebag.....

 

I thought about asking but was too lazy to go anywhere. The only reason I returned to shower was because I left my shower stuff on a table inside lol. I was so tired.

 

Ahhhhh home.... the sweet, no, nasty smell of West Memphis Arkansas. No other place I've been to has smelled this bad. Well maybe a Peelot (Pilot) parking lot here and there. I've been coming up with some clever nicknames as you can see for places. Nashville is Crashville. Always hit a couple accidents when I go through. Going through yesterday kept me from getting home on time. I was pushing it to get there on time anyway. It would have been close. But I had to crash 70 miles away. The load I was given had the wrong date on it. It was due on appt the day before I picked it up. I had put my ETA further out because of an incident or two. So I was good. But they had to have someone come get it from me. So at midnight I recapped some hours got up and bobtailed the rest home.
I calculated my miles paid. 2363 in 6 days. Mon-Sat It was done in about 55 hours. Probably less, just an estimate on the hours. But close enough. I'm at .32cpm but a couple short haul paid me more. The CPM jumps over the course of the year to .42. Without considering the short haul pay it would have been 1k before taxes. Even considering the hours the it's not breaking the bank. Then consider the time at home. Depending on the type of person you are you could get a better paying job at home. I've had a number of them throughout life. For me though the money wasn't the key motivator. Not having a boss over my back and the gain of independence was. I'm not trying to knock driving. Honestly I had a thought about this the other day as I was driving. Don't ask where it came from. If you're a decent chess player, or even just enjoy it for the strategy game it is, you'll be a good driver. Your ETA and NAT and route planning is all chess. Your opponent is traffic and the clock. The moves are route planning around congestion in cities during high work travel hours and getting to your truck stops in time before it's full. Start early and shut down early if you have to. I've pretty much given up on truck stops near big cities. I'm am attack style chess player. So I run out of ours. My theory is to use all my hours then TAH with seconds left. Not a good idea lol. Where it's burned me is having to sit the majority of a day an hour away from home. Then I get 10 hrs on recap only use 2 of them then restart. I'm actually losing more that way then I would if I were more conservative and left 4 hrs at the end of the week. I'll figure it out though. But that's the best advice I can give to new drivers. To find out if this is for you. If you don't mind being away from home and making possibly the same amount of money. For me I think my family has grown from this. There's a bigger appreciation for time together when I'm home. Quality time is more valuable.
I notice I keep forgetting to log my trailer in my HOS. Need to find a way to remind myself to do this till it becomes habit.

I go back in today at 2pm. 34 hour restart sucks. It's basically 14 minus the sleep time lol.

 

This may be (or really is) completely off topic. But I had some thoughts after listening to some podcasts that you wouldn't think would be the motivating type. This guy said that "what if" is the most negative 2 words you could say ever. And he's right. No one ever ends a "what if" positively. What if I fail. What if I mess up. What if I can't do it. Horrible way to begin a sentence. But I'll add in "why". Why me. Why did it happen. Why am I so unlucky. And so on. Neither of those hardly ever end positively. What if I succeed? What if I learn something? Or why am I so successful? Lol no one says those things. I don't know why I'm writing this. Just felt led to do so. Maybe someone reading this will decide to jump and do what they've wanted to do but were scared to do so. Henry Ford has a great quote about failure. Actually a lot of good quotes. But this comes to mind most. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

Either way, you'll never know if you "what if".

 

So yesterday I reported to work an hour early because I had been checking crossroads all morning and no preassignment was there. I waited 4 hours back and forth to my truck to the DBL office. Out to smoke and back to DBL office. Just one mess up after another that I guess was strung along with my last assignment that they messed up. Something to do with my SAW being posted wrong? No idea what that was. I just gave up asking questions. So they finally get me a load to go out this morning instead of starting at 5pm. More family time. No biggie. Took them out to an arcade place. Good time. Fast forward to now. I arrive and drop my trailer. There were 3 empties when I left this morning. Only one left had 3 defects. Brakes, inspection out of date by 6 months (huh?) And another listed I don't remember but I went and looked at it and even saw that the tandem release handle was broken for one of the lock pins. I go back to the truck to hear my Qualcomm go off saying my assignment was changed. I look and it says to go next door and pick up an empty. Sweet. So I pull it up on the Nav. Drive. And no such place found. I Google it. Same thing. Gives same address. So I call the number listed. It's a different company in Jacksonville FL. I'm in Joplin MO. Finally!!!! Schneider got something right. The J in Joplin matches the J in Jacksonville. I Google the number for the new stop and call it. No BS it's the same company. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. I call up and explain the situation to the douchebag that answered the phone. I say that because of I meet this dude face to face there may be a black eye involved. Probably even handcuffs and the search for a new job. I won't blast the dude by name but Lance is the snottiest person I've dealt with here. I'm about over it. I tell him my story. He gets rude. Of course. I offered to leave here to pick up the relay from a guy waiting at a Petro for me. He says he can't make that decision he'll talk to the planner. I wait. He comes back. Tells me to wait 45 min. I asked if he asked about me going to the Petro instead. He said no just wait and hung up. Dude.....

Ha. Just got the update that in going to bobtail to the Petro as I'm typing. I'm off. But pissed off too....