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

Yup, supply chain or Putin or whatever, ya, delays…

 

Bh for Alabama in the wee hours.

Than dh to drop in Forrest City,oh yeah I have hometime for Friday in NC .

 

That 5 days home time went too fast....bobtail to Wytheville for a family dollar load to Ashley, IN. At least the eye doctor said I didn't need bifocals yet, lol!

 

Lucky Dog.....

 

Picked up Boars Head in Groveport to deliver to one of those distributors in Greenville, SC. The ones that are right next to each other. Sometimes you deliver to the first one, sometimes you deliver to the second one next door. When I first started driving for Abilene, it was very common to deliver to both. Park in the dock for the first delivery, then when they finished unloading their stuff, PC one building down to make the second delivery and rack up that $25 "extra stop" pay. Haven't done the double-delivery since they changed the ELD regs a couple years back, though.

Anyways, delivery was this morning in the small hours. As usual, I arrived here yesterday afternoon and parked in the dock. On the way in, got my next load assignment: Haul my empty reefer to the outskirts of Atlanta, drop it there, grab a pre-loaded trailer, and take it back to the Richmond yard.

I have hometime starting tomorrow. Kids have spring break this week so I'm getting in some extra days with 'em. And the trip from Greenville to Atlanta to Richmond is a little tight. Especially with all the construction on I-85 in South Carolina. But the place where I was picking up the loaded trailer is on the east side of Atlanta. So driving from here to there doesn't require driving around Atlanta on 285, and I figured I'd be able to squeak it in and hit the Richmond yard with my HOS running on fumes.

Made my delivery this morning, took a short nap afterwards, then got up ready to drive to Atlanta. At which point I discovered that I didn't have my full 11.

I'm running on recap, but I thought I was getting enough back to have a full 11 hours on my HOS today. Turns out I didn't. And I didn't have enough to make it to Atlanta and then to Richmond.

I called my DM and explained the situation. Was told to sit tight, and to make a long story slightly less long, they gave me a swap. Swap trailers with a dude who was bringing a load to...Greenville, SC. And then deliver the load myself.

Well that didn't make a whole lot of sense, because after some investigation it transpired that the closest, most convenient place for me to swap trailers with the other driver was the receiver where he was supposed to make delivery. And I'd be taking $25 out of his pocket to do so. So we contacted our respective DMs and told 'em that he could make the delivery and get the $25 extra stop fee. He'd drop it in the door, I'd drop the empty reefer, and hook to his dry van. Then we'd see what they could do to get me back to Richmond thereafter.

By the time the other driver finally arrived at the receiver, they'd stopped receiving. He had two pallets left on his trailer, but the receiver flat out refused to unload them since all their lumpers had gone home. Which left us in something of a bind.

They asked if I would be willing to sit on the loaded trailer tonight and deliver it in the morning when the receiver opens, and they'd pay me layover to do it. So I made a phone call to my ex-wife and my kids, and now I'm sitting here in Greenville with a mostly empty trailer. Will pick the kids up Saturday morning and will get an additional extra day with 'em on the other side of my hometime.

And while it may sound like a fustercluck of epic proportions, the fact of the matter is that they were doing what they could to get me home tonight. I guess other companies would just shrug and say "tough cookies", but my DM tried to do right by me. Which I appreciate. And since they were willing to scratch my back, I don't mind scratching theirs by staying on this load until tomorrow. Especially since they're making it worth my while.

 

Dropped my family dollar load then got sent to Toledo to hook a Volvo load that ended up dropping on the yard instead of live unloading at Volvo, good thing too because I got blocked in my spot last night at the Pilot off exit 86 on I65 in Kentucky. I parked in the back row facing the exit because I thought Id be able to get up 0300 and pull straight out and into the fuel island. Nope....few idiots decided to pull in late last night and park right in the middle of the drive way to get into and out of the back row....couldn't go left and out of that exit cuz of the parking spots being angled to the right....eventually got ppl to move and an idiot with a travel trailer pulls right in front of me and parks it....finally got to the yard and dropped and had a nail pulled out of one of my tires and patched then off to New Castle. Get the Pflugerville Tx BH run after dropping in New Castle tomorrow morning. Nice to know way ahead of time what Im doing for the next few days.

 

Hometime tommorrow,sitting up in Front Royal.

Something that burns me up,last 2 times scheduled for hometome,they send me to West Memphis,any other time during my 3 weeks,I can't get past Oh.

When I put in for hometime,I want to be home,not driving around moving you're freight.