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

Yeah, heat will definitely affect retreads. I hate those and super singles. One always gets what they pay for, better off using virgin tires.

 

After dropping that York they gave me the Wegman’s load which dropped Monday morning. I had to look three times cuz I was shocked I was preplanned at 745 that morning to grab an empty ten years old or newer then head to West Point for a paper load to Bumfukt, WI, lol! Was supposed to deliver Tuesday but Chicagoland killed my 70 and drive time, only had 11 hrs to work with til today. Ended up doing a 34 at the TA in Deforest, WI. FCFS at West Rock in Adams, WI then bounced me to Quaker in Cedar Rapids, IA for a live load to Kroger in Memphis tomorrow at 1800. Hoping it was like last time at that Kroger and only there two hrs but I won’t hold my breath, lol!

 

Was given an assignment to pick up a half a trailer of mattresses in Columbus, to be delivered to a hotel being remodeled in Petersburg. Lots of time on the load, so I was planning on swinging by the yard to see if I could drop it and get something else.

Did not get that far, though. Shortly after I left the shipper, I got a call from my DM telling me they'd put me on an emergency rescue. Drop my loaded trailer at the Swift yard, and then bobtail over to the Petsmart warehouse in Groveport, where I was to pick up a pre-load that delivers tomorrow at 7:00am in Oak Ridge, TN.

These Petsmart loads are always (in my experience, at any rate) 3-stop deliveries. Have yet to haul one that didn't have stuff on it for three different stores. Hooked the trailer and was looking at the paperwork to figure how how much the freight weighed so I'd know where to put the tandems. There was no master BOL listing the combined weight, but when I added up the weight listed on the three individual BOLs, it came out to around 48k.

Told 'em at the guard shack when I checked out that they would likely be seeing me again Real Soon. Made my way down to the Loves a mile or so away, and sure enough: 80,660 gross, and 34,600 each on the axles.

So I hauled the trailer back to the shipper, scale ticket in hand. Was informed that the two dudes at the guard shack were literally the only people there at the facility. No chance of the trailer getting reworked until tomorrow, and no ETA for when tomorrow it might be. I said "That's fine. I'll just drop this trailer back where I got it and y'all can sort it out in the morning. Company will probably put me on another load."

The security guy made it VERY clear that he REALLY did not want to do this. He didn't actually refuse me, but he made it known that it would be kind of a pain in the keister for them if I dropped it back on their yard. And then he just stood there in silence, giving me plenty of time to change my mind.

I pointed at the numbers on the scale ticket and said "All three of these are illegal." Which, of course, we all know that I'm unlikely to get bagged for it just driving around the local industrial area. But parking is at a premium around here, and it's a lot easier to find a place to park bobtail. And it's not like they're not going to have to rework the trailer anyways. So I stood my ground, and he relented with poor grace.

And now I am bobtail and parked at the convenience store across the street from the casino. We'll see if they keep me on this load or give me something else in the morning.

 

Wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up losing them Petsmart loads.

 

Quaker is slow as all get out loading….

 

Picking up a multi stop trailer off yard,going to MD.No paperwork or seal with the trailer and nobody in office.

How do you run a multi million dollar trucking company, and have nobody here to answer phones. I'd takeoff,and the could fax it,problem is this company breaks seal when you get there.

 

They kept me on the Petsmart load. The shipper had to rework it 3 times before they finally got it legal.

They also rescheduled the Petsmart load, but in typical Abilene fashion, nobody bothered to tell me. I found out when I called the receiver to let them know they didn't need to wait around for me because I wasn't gonna be there anywhere close to the scheduled time. They let me know that they'd already been notified by the shipper that I would be arriving the following day.

I have this crazy notion that I shouldn't have to contact the receiver to find out I've been rescheduled. Seems like the sort of mission-critical information I should be getting from Abilene.

 

Trucking reminds me constantly of my military service in that the office ppl are similar to officers that know jack all and that is why they have an enlisted counterpart to advise them in which case the office ppl counterpart would be us experienced seasoned drivers and just like the military officers, they refuse to listen. Was in the dock at Kroger’s for 4 hrs then parked in the truck parking area outside the gate to finish my ten and get some solid sleep. Probably won’t get detention being I was an hour late due to the shipper taking three hrs to load me, which isn’t my fault but they won’t care. Ended up deadheading me to West Rock in Hodge, La to grab a preloaded trailer dropping on the Knight yard in Indy tomorrow. My first time to this West Rock and I saw the sign with a bunch of phone numbers but drove to the guard shack to be sure. They decided to have a bit of fun with me, handed me a slip with a phone number to call and told me to do a U-turn and park. Of course the number goes to the guard shack and I get told to walk up to get my paperwork since the trailer was loaded and in the drop lot. Good thing I have a sense of humor. CB antenna stud broke in the driver side mirror while going down the road and surprisingly my K40 antenna didn’t fall off onto the road way, bent back and stayed there til I stopped. Too tall and stiff, second one I had break. Bought a new bracket and coax and a heavy spring so it flexes. Whip antenna’s seem to work better with my Connex than stick ones. Might have to go online and try to find a good antenna that doesn’t have a long shaft if this fails. I gotta have a radio, saved me lots of times.