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

I thought it was all but forbidden to fuel in OR unless you had no other option.

And I hear we may be losing our tarp guy in Arlington (or he may already be gone). A couple drivers I spoke to said that he is planning on moving to the Spokane area. If it's true, that's gonna mean we go back to having to go on a tarp hunt when we need replacement tarps(which is similar to a snipe hunt, with similar results)

 

That's one advantage of being on the OD fleet. The rest of us mere mortals have to ask special permission to fuel anywhere but Love's. At least they haven't started assigning fuel stops (yet) like some of the our sister companies do.

 

And Mega wannabes...

 

Headed to N. Charleston to pick up big racks again going to Tulsa. I used reverse psychology...put my PTA down for tomorrow instead of today, then did my posttrip time after I got empty and in a parking spot (a free spot no less, in this dinky Pilot outside Charleston). Just after I started my post trip time, dispatch calls. Load says it doesn't load until tomorrow, but I called the shipper to see if they were available today and only got voicemail...we shall see...either way, I know what I am picking up and know where and when I am delivering.

 

Never heard back from the POC on picking up yesterday, so I picked it up first thing this morning. Still managed to run 650 miles after getting loaded, which included a bypass around a wreck that closed I-20 on the east side of Atlanta. The load was available yesterday, but fortunately for SPD I didn't pick it up. Before supper, Toledo messaged me and asked if I could drop my trailer at the Pilot where I was parked and bobtail to our Ravenel yard. A driver had dropped an RGN trailer in another customers assigned location and the drop yard management insisted it be moved or they would move it with a wrecker to an impound lot, so I helped out. Loading went as expected and I stopped for the night 30 miles from Memphis. The load will be delivered a little after noon tomorrow and I will have enough time to get to a truckstop...not sure what my next load will be, but they're already working on it. I already spoke to my dispatcher shortly after picking this load up because the planner needed an accurate ETA/PTA.

 

10 hours off duty is entirely too much time for a break!!!!! I had dinner, I chilled in front of the boob-tube for a bit, I got adequate sleep I got up and did my morning routine, made coffee and yet I am sitting here waiting for the ##### box to hit 10 hours....I need a 2nd log in name on the thing.

 

Bend over Rover!!!! Deadhead to the Wichita yard and wait for an elevator load that is coming back from Colorado. I guess the driver showed up at the appointment time and they said we can't unload you this week, you have to come back next week. So they're bringing it all the way back to the dump here in Wichita, and I get to have a 600 mile run for 3 days...and I will be lucky to hit 4000 by the end of the pay period. And the worst part is, this is the paycheck that I am going home on, and have to pay deductibles for my eyes and physical. And no ####ing way I will afford to get my teeth replaced. So just as I get myself almost back to even with last year (by staying out 3 months straight) they start short loading me.


Oh, and the reason I call this #### hole of a terminal here in Wichita a dump. They never refill the soap dispenser and the stall never has toilet paper, plus the place is disgusting, inside and out...but I bet "His Arrogance" has all the supplies he needs in the executive toilet. Knowing that ####### he probably locks it so it can be his own private sanctuary. So much for driver appreciation here at SPD....


And I have determined that SPD has an alternate meaning. Seat of the Pants Delivery. I brought the carts from N. Charleston to Tulsa. The receiver comes out and asked if I have any 4x4 dunnage to load the carts on? I say politely that they shipped them from SC on the floor, so that's all. He says no, for the loaded carts...I say, these are empty, not loaded. He says no, for the loaded carts we are loading on your trailer, I say, I am not supposed to pick up loaded carts, I deliver these and head to Wichita. So, here at Seat of the Pants Delivery, they didn't think ahead and plan on the driver that is delivering to also pick up at the same place, without moving an inch...0 deadhead...but nooooooo, they route me 190 miles to the yard, and route and empty truck from the yard to pick up there....all that wasted deadhead...but in order to save money, they have to castrate our trucks and put timers on our APU's....I think TFI needs to clean house and start over.