An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

Roads east finally opened around noon. I knew this because there was a mass exodus from the truckstop all of a sudden. However, that late of a start means no delivery at my 1st stop by 14:00 on Friday. The roads were pretty decent except some areas before Gilette. All of SD on the eastbound side were either totally clear and dry, or just wet from the plowed areas melting. The temps managed to hit the freezing point off and on. I removed as much ice as I could before dark last night, which got replaced by the crap before Gilette. Tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer, so hopefully I will lose a bunch of it. I only pushed it to Vivian SD today. No real rush since they're moving my 1st stop's appointment to Monday.

For some reason it feels weird being restricted to only using Love's now. I normally only use Love's, but the option of Flying Peelot as a backup was nice in case I hit one of those windy trips that kills my mileage and can't make the Love's I planned... but now we have to ask permission to use them... what's next, fuel solutions and forced fueling like E.W. You Know Who?

 

Just to clarify, we weren't bought out....our parent company, Daseke, decided to partner us with a different sister company, Wylie, instead of with the Roadmaster group. We're still owned by the same company we were. Things are slowly changing, but for now I took the advice of a person in management who's opinion I trusted (the wife of the director of operations who was the recruiting manager and driver advocate) and I am on a wait and see trial basis (this person in management has since left the company when Wylie/SPD terminated her husband for reasons not made public). Things are slowly changing here, but as for now, I am still here. I do believe, contrary to what SPD management is saying, Wylie will be in full control of this company before it's all said and done. Kinda like a marinette is being controlled by a puppet master who is pulling the strings. The reason I say that is, something was mentioned on a recent driver forum video that leads me to believe they're calling the shots from Fargo. It has something to do with us not having a high enough miles per day that Wylie expects...if SPD's management is supposedly calling the shots and running their own show, why would we have to live up to Wylie's expectations? In fact, when I was in Arlington a while back, there were people wearing Wylie logo'd shirts in the office. My belief in a total takeover by Wylie is based on experience, not just an emotional response. The company I was with before (Moore) isn't the only company merged with Wylie that totally disappeared from existence. Ever heard of a company called J Grady Randolph? They were a small company who hauled precast concrete structural components out of SC...they were 'partnered' with Wylie, and now their company has been assimilated into Wylie 100%. Their trucks have Wylie stickers, their customer's freight is being hauled by Wylie trucks, and there is no sign of JGR on planet earth. That is the Daseke way. Many companies within their ownership have been 'partnered' with other companies and then their name just disappeared. Remember Builder's Transport? Schilli? (There are more but I forget all of the companies that use to be independent that were eliminated by the new Daseke). They invested 3x more capital in SPD this year so we can upgrade to lighter equipment to be more compatible with Wylie's freight base...they wouldn't do that unless they intended to make some major changes.

As for now, I am here...until things change to the point where I see a total Wylie conversion in Arlington, I have no issues...when I see that I will be flying the friendly skies home. I still believe that will be the inevitable outcome, but for now, I am enjoying having the living dog crap run out of me turning as many miles as I can squeeze into a 70 logbook.

 

Saw several Wylies pulling these today...