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

I think it looks something like this

 

When I worked for McElroy, we would haul Lowe’s distribution loads predominantly. I can attest to your theory. They would stack a pallet of rolled roofing on top of a bundle of lumber beside a cube of bricks with no way to belly strap or truly secure anything. We used to joke that tarp is what kept most things on.

 

Some of our elevator places load like that (mostly Joliet and the place around Cincinnati). They stack spools that are on their sides banded to pallets, or light boxes of crushable components on top of the rails. The only thing keeping the rails from moving is careful driving, wishful thinking and the driver's vivid imagination.

 

I had apparently underestimated my earnings a little this year. If you calculate my gross pay based on the CPM plan they forced us onto late last year, and don't count the sick pay (that wasn't originally available when they switched it over), I basically broke even with last year. Part of the 'comeback' from the 1st half of the year was achieved by my staying out 12-13 weeks at a time. Now add in the sick pay, which was mandated by the WA state government not by company management, I have topped last year by a couple thousand. And with this switch to weekly pay, we have one more single week check coming on the 31st. Had I not stayed out like I did the last half of the year and not had the sick pay option, I wouldn't have made it back to the break even point, and I honestly don't think I would survive staying out like that all year in 2025.

I have also decided to head back out a little earlier than I had originally planned. When I set up my hometime earlier this month, I had planned to stay home until after New Years. However, with this switch to weekly pay, I decided to leave back out on the 30th and try to turn some miles by the end of the week, that is assuming any of our usual customers (or brokers) have anything moving between the holidays.

Here is to the hope that 2025 turns out to be a smoother year as far as freight and the trucking world.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

 

As a cpm company driver, I prefer the easier the better. From the company's perspective, the better paying is what we end up with.

 

The nice part about the elevator loads is they are never very heavy. The bad part is everything else. Mainly how long it usually takes to deliver, I have never once reloaded the same day after delivering an elevator load.

 

Merry Christmas, Snackbar, and all!!

 

Me either, and I usually end up being the #2 driver, so that pin point appointment means absolutely nothing.

 

Thankfully I don’t do hardly any of them. Only one was I the only truck there and it went nice and smooth. But that delivered in Kc on a Monday after loading in Dallas on Thursday.

I know one time there were three trucks scheduled for 8,9, and 10am. It took roughly 3 hours to unload each truck.