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

Only thing I liked about BH was the early appointment times being I prefer to start 0300 in the morning. I will admit a lot them were a MFer to get into and out of, probably another reason new leadership decided to get rid of the account since a lot of the reefers are damaged from said places from ppl not stopping and getting out to look.

 

Well I just talked to a driver still at Abilene, he said mysteriously he went into a Boars head plant to pull an empty Abilene reefer out of there, and suddenly there are a lot more Knight and Swift refers in there now. Things that make you go hmmm.

 

Jarratt to Groveport was easy miles, and you always had a place to park afterwards.

 

The reason we dropped them is because the Jarratt plant closed.

There was enough freight going to Groveport from Jarratt and Petersburg that we could keep Groveport (their main plant) supplied with reefers. We brought them loaded trailers, Abilene got paid for the trip, Boar's Head emptied the trailers, loaded 'em back up with product to be delivered elsewhere, and Abilene made money off of those, too.

Once the Jarratt plant closed, that stopped being true. The Petersburg plant does not generate enough freight heading to Groveport to allow Abilene to keep Groveport supplied with all the trailers it needs. If we wanted to keep Groveport supplied with reefers, we would have to either deadhead them from somewhere, or try to find loads that we could load in a reefer, that we could deliver somewhere near Groveport. The former obviously costs Abilene money, while the latter was deemed too inconsistent for Boar's Head's needs..

Whereas Knight and Swift both have terminals 10 miles or so from Groveport. Which makes it easy and cheap for them to keep Groveport stocked with reefers.

 

Reset in Scranton,Pa been running great this week.Have a preload for a short hopper to Nj for Monday.

 

Weekend was shaping up to be lucrative. Picked up a load of metal coils in Canton, OH yesterday. Due in Memphis Monday at 11:00am. That's an awful lot of dead time, and so I mentioned it to my DM. Asked if I could drop it on the West Memphis yard and pick up something else and keep rolling. Was given a load that delivers in Atlanta at 6:00am Monday. Not a lot of extra miles, but extra miles nonetheless.

Arrived at the WM yard a bit ago, and couldn't find the trailer. Turns out, the driver who picked up the trailer had a family emergency somewhere in South Carolina. So they had him drive the load to the Knight yard on the east side of Atlanta and drop it there on his way to his emergency situation.

And they ain't got any other loads off the WM yard in the system. They should be adding some Volvo loads come Monday, so I may be able to get one of those. But in the meantime it looks like I'll be getting paid layover to watch football tomorrow.

Geaux Saints.

 

Sat at in sidney for 5.5 hrs friday waiting for them to unload me. Normally they aren’t that slow unloading. Didn’t get to the Knight shop until 1400 yesterday so the part won’t get here until Monday. They don’t keep the leveling valves in stock because Knight Volvos have spring ride front axles. They red tagged the trailer I had being it was extremely difficult to crank and needed new legs ordered. No female driver would have been able to crank the landing gear on that trailer and a bigger hefty person might have had a heart attack trying to crank it up and down. Grease didn’t work either. 34 up Sunday so should get breakdown Sunday to Monday. Couple other Abilene trucks down here too for repairs. I swear they do more repairs on our equipment at this shop than theirs.

 

It is with a heavy heart I write this now. My Michelle passed away in her sleep Friday night. We hoped the surgery would buy us some more years and knew it was risky and a last ditch effort but in the end it only bought one more week. Thanks again for the prayers my brothers behind the wheel. She is going to be cremated and spread over her son’s grave as she wished. At least she is at peace now with the Lord and no more tears, pain or suffering. The good Lord needed you sooner and I’ll see you when I get there.

 

Sorry for your loss! You were good to her, I'm sure she appreciated that! Stay strong!

 

Ain't much I can say other than you have my sincerest condolences and you will be in my thoughts.