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

It’s great for a solo driver spending extended amounts of time on the road, but no real use for a team truck where you need 2 beds.. You’re right in that sleeping on cushions is terrible

 

Wow! Separate cushions! I hate does things!

 

Welp, after 2.5 years of driving a truck, I finally caved in and bought a microwave. I've held off this long due to the superstitious belief that as soon as I bought one, I'd get fired or have a wreck or something. So if I get fired or have a wreck, you'll know why.

The little buckle that you use to strap the thing down broke as soon as I tried to secure it. So I've had to try and jury-rig some kinda knot to keep it from going all over the truck when I drive. Gotta figure out what to do with the little pyrex plate in there to keep it from flying around inside the microwave while I'm driving.

 

Wrap it in a kitchen size towel and leave it inside the microwave. Also, make sure the truck is running when you use it.

 

According to Bill, the 860s are just the old 780s with a new name. Volvo used to make 760s and 780s (and a couple of other models not relevant to this discussion). All our Volvos up to 2018 were 780s.

This year, Volvo changed their numbering and they now make 860s instead of 780s. But it's the same truck. So if you go from a 2018 (or older) Volvo 780 to a 2019 860, you won't notice much difference.

However, the 860s are now exclusively for team ops. If you're a solo driver, you get the 760. It's smaller inside, the fridge is smaller, the storage compartments are smaller, etc. That's one of the reasons I turned 'em down when they offered to move me out of this 2016 780 and into a 2019 760. I'll roll with this one until they sell it out from under me.

 

I secure mine with a Bungee using the slats the strap would normally go through

 

Got a fresh set of hours after taking a day off to go to the doctor. Got a Hill-Phoenix load going to San Antonio. Nice!

Except that the load assignment doesn't have a trailer number. And my experience so far is that whenever I have gone to Hill-Phoenix to pick up a trailer when the assignment doesn't have a trailer number, I usually end up starting my clock, driving the 10 minutes to HP, then sitting there for three hours while my 14 ticks down.

So I went back to the dispatch window to make further inquiries. And was told to wait until I got an updated load assignment with the trailer number.

So instead of going somewhere with my fresh set of hours, I'm sitting here waiting for an updated load assignment.

 

Why not just call the shipper yourself?

 

Because no matter what happens with this load, it's got nearly a full driving day of extra time on it. So either I sit here for the day waiting on it to be ready or I sit most of the day Sunday at a truck stop.

I would prefer to leave today and spend my Sunday watching football, but it's not going to kill me or make me late if I don't.