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

Did our drop and hook yesterday morning in La Vergne Tn. Had a 9am appointmend and was out of there by 10am. Our next reload was murray ky, 128 miles away. We got there about 4pm, drop and hooked and was rolling to Houston by 5pm. I got it down to Jackson Tn fueled and gave the truck to Kellan. Next thing I remember was pulling into the loves just north of Houston on 59, at 5am. I took the truck back, got a cup to go and was drop and hooked by 6:30 this morning. I cannot, in good conscience keep Kellan any longer then the rest of this round. He's a driver, pure and simple. I recommended to safety he tests out and get into his own truck.

I did show Kellan how not to plan fuel stops. I miscalculated a stop and wound up 90 miles from my fuel stop and the gauge sitting on "E" with the red light on. Good job John. Instead of going thru all the hassle of finding a fuel stop off network, calling in and going round for round with whoever answers the phone, then getting my fuel card turned on, I put $50 worth of fuel in out of my pocket. I called into Tim this morning and already got the PO # for it. I'm sure Kellan now knows, after listening to me biotching and moaning about my mistake, he won't ever do what I did.

I must give a shout out to my highway hero, Brian, "bman20", doing a great job there concrete cowboy...10-4? Inside joke folks.
I'm waiting on my reload. I hate getting empty before the load planners get in and have there first cup of coffee.

 

Not a happy camper right now. We were empty at 6am and went to the Loves 2 miles from our delivery. We sat there from 6:30 until 12:45 in the afternoon. I get a phone call from another driver saying we need to do a swap. News to me but no problem, I'm a team player, I have absolutely no problem doing my job. Unless I add up everything I have done since leaving the house Sunday night, then I realize that all but one of my loads have been solo loads. My swap had 2 drops on it, McAllen Tx and Paris Texas, a total of 975 miles. Good if I could get the first one off today, then the last one off tomorrow. I sent Tim an email voicing my displeasure with the way things have been going since leaving the house. He agreed, but it was out of his hands. I explained to him that if I wasn't able to do this load as planned, I would put in for hometime, go home and start it again when I came back out. As it turned out, this load is not coming off as planned and I put in for hometime, now the planners will have a true team truck idle while I'm at home and hopefully it will change when I come back out. I refuse to come out here as a team truck and run solo. If I'm going to sit out here and not make what I'm accustomed to making, I might as well go home and enjoy my wife and home. This isn't an ongoing problem, in fact it's just the first time it's happened, I just rather be home and not make money, not out here and not make money.

Just a note to anyone questioning my rant. This is not just about money, it's about time management on dispatches end. Tomorrow is payday so we got our pay sheets emailed to us. Money is there, through ten full months here I have already made 54k. Have had nothing but quality hometime. Because the holidays and vacation is coming up, my earning will slow down a little. I should gross 64k this year. I just feel if nothing is said then the same issue will continue.

 

I'm very curious to see how this turns out, I'm subscribed, count me in.