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

Geez
You guys play nice

 

I did John Thanks ... as I said best time to educate yourself in trucking as to your next move is before you need it. Poly gets me home like Abilene does you John , and I'm up in the Boondocks 14miles west of Portsmouth OH, in KY. A lot claim not in Hiring area as Calex did among many others. Poly pays me the hub miles to the house as needed. And I can work 3 to 4 weeks and take 6 to 10 days off no questions asked. They do want to see you're on pace for 96000 miles a year. Basically April. through November you should bang out 80000 easy. I do and I love my home time.
But as it goes good things go bad sometimes so I'm always educating myself just in case. It help to eliminate bad decisions.

 

We are, sometimes I take offense to snide remarks. I still love George. I just have a need to answer all remarks with the truth.

 

A place for some laughs too ...whatttaya know

 

Left out Wednesday morning.
Bobtailed to Naples and picked up an empty reefer at a Publix store. From there I went up to Punta Gorda and picked up Jason. On my way to pick him up our load info came over the QC. Deadhead up to Ochlocknee Ga and load that night going Mt Crawford Va.

I had a reefer, I've loaded here about 6 times with a dry van and was barely legal when done. This time I was over gross by 1000lbs. After getting it adjusted we left. Thursday morning I was told to drop the load at our Wytheville yard and hook to a trailer going to Riverside.

After spending 3 hours in Knoxville at the TA last night to get my fuel filters changed, we went to bed there. I was up and rolling at 4am. My 710 mile day ended in Webbers Falls Ok this afternoon. Right now we are about an hour out of Amariilo. I'm in the bedroom trying to sleep.....urghhhh.

We are dropping this load at our Colton yard tomorrow night, then load Sunday going back east.
Good night all, God Bless and be safe!

 

Finally. Vacation is less than 72 hours away!!!

 

I'm baaaacck!!!! Dropped our load in Colton Saturday night, went right over to the produce center and hooked one going to London Ky. Dropped that Tuesday at 8am. We got dispatched to rescue a load sitting with a driver 60 miles north of us with no hours. Got that and delivered in Pennsacola Fl yesterday at 5am. Then got dispatched to swap empties with another driver in Atlanta, go to a customer in Braselton for a drop and hook going to Memphis. Got out of there at 10 last night and delivered at 8 this morning. We then got dispatched to pick up a load at our West Memphis yard going to Reno. We were told to run it to Colton and drop it at our yard and hook one going to Seattle for Monday.

Part of our training is the NW, this will take care of that for Jason.

 

I'm home. Left Richmond yesterday after dropping in Elkridge Md 1am yesterday morning. We dropped our London Ky load in the W. Memphis yard Sunday night about midnight. The load was set up for delivery 4am Tuesday, so we had time on it and I wanted to keep rolling so it was set up to drop at the Yard.

We were caught up in that fire on Cajon Pass. In fact, I had no idea about it until my wife called me from the house to question me on the route into California I was taking Friday. When she told me why I was in Bellemont Az getting fuel. The pass was closed until Saturday morning so I decided to cut through Parker Az and work my way down to 10. That was a wrong decision. Halfway down my phone started to blow up with heavy rain and flash flood warnings. By the time I got to Parker the road was closed and parts were washed out, they turned us around and I had to go back to Needles. 100 miles round trip for absolutely nothing. We got back to Needles and went to bed with about 500 of our closest friends. I was suppose to get my load in Colton Friday but wound up getting it Saturday about noon after the roads were finally opened back up.

Poor California, with everything they got going on in there lives, I just wonder when the Locusts will be arriving to finish off that state.

After dropping the load in W Memphis Sunday night they sent us to Byhalia Ms for a drop and hook going to Elkridge Md. We got done there about 4am Monday and went to bed. After a 3 hour nap it was time to roll on. We got our Florida load sent to us Monday afternoon. After we drooped it we deadheaded to Richmond and went to sleep. My truck had a recall issue that had to be addressed and we were final rolling out at 2pm yesterday. The load had 2 drops, one in Cape Coral near Jasons house and the final in West Palm Beach 6 miles from my house. I took the truck over at 1am this morning in Ocala, dropped Jason off at his house at 4am, then got to my 6am drop at 4:45 and was done at 5am. I ran over to the Loves, got fuel and a quick shower, then headed to my last drop. Got there at 9am and was done at 9:15 and home at 9:45 this morning.

I'm coming back out on Friday, Jason will be cut loose after this next round. He's done very well, I mean he's had to put up with me these last two months, that's got to account for something. The reason for the short home time is because my wife and I are going on a 10 day cruise August 9th and I had to get home now to get my clothes situation taken care of and start getting ready around the house for vacation. This cruise can't get here fast enough.

Someone mentioned a few posts back about our raise (George) here's the scoop, I don't talk money here on a public forum, if someone wants to know the pay scale, call into Abilene, or PM me like a few folks have, my raise I got is completely different for me as a trainer because I train. We have Mark in charge of the training program, he's sat down with a few of us prior to the raise being announced and got our input about certain things. I knew about this raise we got a month before it happened. For training, it has completely changed, both in how trainees are paid, how I'm paid and a few bonuses put into place based on merit and my ability to train. It's turned out to be a complete win win for all 3 parties, the company, the trainer and the trainee. Minimally I went from a 62K job and training a little bit to an 85K job and training about 70% of the time. My miles have dropped from running 12-14 thousand per pay period to 9500-11000k per pay period, and my earnings have skyrocketed. The old pay scale had me making .30 for all miles run, that was ok, but we decided there needed to be an incentive based goal for the trainee, coming right out of school and making $1000 per week made for issues in the program.
now I get my whole mileage pay for all miles run, plus a $200 bonus twice per month if the trainee passes two tests on the first try in a month. They are now on a salary based on what stage they are in. Either $500, $600 or $700 per week. It's now cut the training down from 6 months to 2 months. Jason fit perfectly into this new program, although his salary was kept on the old scale. I trained, he learned, he passed and now he will be going solo in two weeks. I will take him back with me in December for 2 weeks for winter training. This new program in the way Mark has set it up cuts out the ability to use a trainee as a second long book, I never did, but it has been done. Jason is a prime example on how this program is suppose to be run, I'm proud of how it turned out for him, and feel good about being involved with putting a new driver on the road with all the knowledge and skills available to him.

I will take the rest of the summer off from training and start back up in September.. Right now my thinking is to train once more before the snow starts flying, take another month off then do some winter training with new drivers like Jason for a week or two.

 

I like the thinking on the training program. And not only will it weed out the trainees that can't do, it will weed out the trainers who can't either. It takes a special kind of person to let someone be in the drivers seat right out of school, keep their cool, and actually teach them what they need to know. My trainer with USX was the bomb. If it hadn't been for her, I'd be back working in a warehouse. My hat is off to those of you that can do that. Heck, I can't even ride in a car with someone else without being nervous!

Thanks again for your help on this load I'm on. This will be the first time in 4 years I've been out this way, so the input was greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to going through Montana most of all. I love it there.(Except in the winter!)

I didn't know we could fuel at Loves again? Did I miss a message on that? You're the 3rd person who said they fuel there. I really miss the points!

 

Nice to see you Tanya. Let's see how this training plays out, so far so good. The fueling at Loves is on an emergency basis. We didn't have time to stop for fuel on the way down so I fueled at the one in Fort Myers in order to have enough to get back out up to Georgia. I've fueled at Loves about 4 times since that memo came out, I've never heard anything about it. My thinking is if you want me to run this truck 905 miles overnight without having time to stop, then my fueling location should be a nonissue.

Enjoy your trip up to Sumner. It's the best time of year to run up through the Dakota's and Montana. Be safe!