A month in at Messer

The boss called yesterday...you know that feeling when you see who is on the caller ID.

I said I'm sure he heard what is going on, he said yes and they're going to scale back my schedule a bit. Also to not get discouraged. I'll be going on a layover trip up north Friday into Saturday, which is a relief because it's just a long drive up, deliver, do a 10 in a hotel and drive back down. Those trips are generally available when they pop up because a number of guys won't do them. I'll gladly take a break from multi-stop trips into the city at this point.

Nothing to do but keep plugging away. I feel like I've been good with rules and procedures (PPE, cones, seatbelt, phone etc) and I have yet to come away from a customer without delivering the product. I'm concerned about being the "problem child" as far as not meeting time expectations, but of course I'm not going to try to take any shortcuts or compromise safety.

As always I appreciate all the feedback and advice, folks. We'll see how this week goes.

 

Another week down. This week only about half of the customers have been new rather than all of them, which helps some. The routine is starting to settle in as far as the paperwork and tablet. Also hooking up and delivering, minus troubleshooting when there is a problem...that still requires a call for help on occasion.

I haven't busted any more clocks...a few days that have gone to 13. I'd be ok with less but at least I figured out how to call and tell them I won't be making the last stop because I'm out of hours. For whatever reason a 12-14 hour day has seemed more tiring than it did OTR, but I guess I'm still getting used to this.

 

I had planned on staying and working here in Maine for at least another year, but my folks are starting to go downhill and I realized I should get back to the midwest sooner than later. I'm going there later this week to deal with a few things and then will be back to start getting the house ready to put on the market.

I don't feel good about leaving this job only two months after starting...not a fun conversation with the trans supervisor. I told him I'd be more than happy to do two more weeks but he said don't worry about it. I know it would have only improved over time...but I honestly found myself missing the reefer life pretty often and wanting to go back.

Once again I want to thank everybody for the advice on this board, and especially @lual for alerting me to the job in the first place. It's definitely a great local opportunity that a lot of folks just aren't aware of.

-Dave