Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Joe in the shop got a new work truck. I thought they just gave it to him when they figured out no drivers would meet the criteria for winning.

 

Question.... I have seen Abilene purchase new Volvo's, Freightliner's and Kenworth's; but no Mack's. Why is that?

 

I don't think they are popular with drivers due to limited interior room. When I started Bill told me right off that bat that he wouldn't assign me a Mack due to my height and the Macks low headroom.

Those new Cascadias are sweet. I hope we are around and we get some of those in.

 

I understand that; but the new Mack's that the company is making are great,... They made improvements.

 

All the OTR Macks look like daycabs with a sleeper conversion. The Volvos, Freightliners, and KWs all look like they were built as sleepers from the ground up.

 

It will probably come down to who the company can get the best deal from.

 

We don't do Internationals at all. So there'd have to be a substantial shift in truck-purchasing policy. Or the local International dealer would have to cut us a deal to beat whatever Colonial is doing for us for the Volvos.

I confess to being very curious about the interior of those Cascadias, though. I've been half tempted to waste some salesman's time by going down to the dealership and asking to look in one.

 

Well I dunno about YOU guys, but I'M sitting here at the new-ish Easy E Express stop in Okemah, OK. It's got truck parking, and the spots are nice and wide.

I am not 100% sure what it is I'm hauling, but I think it's cheese. Picked it up at a big dairy plant in Lemoore, CA. If you haven't been there, the shipping office is up five flights of stairs. I've seen truckers I don't think could even make it to the 2nd landing, much less the shipping office itself.

Load is due in Richmond on Wednesday. And whoever assigned me the load had to have turned off whatever process they use to estimate delivery time. I am on recap, and I have just barely enough time to make it to the receiver on Wednesday before I run out of time again. My 70-hour clock will be running on fumes by the time I bump their dock.

Fortunately, my load assignment doesn't specify an actual time. Just a date. So apparently any time on Wednesday is fine. Takes some of the pressure off.

 

Cascadia is a Freightliner. There is a new one already in the fleet, but its a lease operator's truck.

 

I've been running up against my 70 also. Makes for long days. Drive for 6 or 7 hours then park for 16 hours until midnight. This load I'm on had plenty of time on it and the appointment time accommodated my recap hours so I would imagine they are taking that into consideration.

That extra time came in handy yesterday morning as I had to get a windshield replaced.

Huge rock flew off a passing truck and bounced up hitting the windshield square in front of my face. I ducked when I saw it coming, but I doubt I would have avoided it had it come through the glass. Probably the most scared I've have been of getting hurt or killed since I've been here.