Andrew's Trucking Journey Continues

Go in anyway. They aren't going to do anything about it.

 

Well, I’m on my last load for Ashley (APNW). A nice run from Memphis to Compton,CA. After that I’m headed to the Colton yard so they can take the stickers off and equipment out, and she’s comin home with me to AZ. Negotiated a heck of a deal on the truck with the sales department.

 

Well good luck with your new O.O. adventure. Let us know how it goes! Congrats.

 

Found a small outfit to lease onto near my home in AZ, they run power only loads, 10 trucks, been in business 20 years. Talked to the dispatcher and a couple of drivers, seems legit. The only thing worrying me is this #### market. Dry Van rates have slipped to about a $1.85/mile average, reefer not much better and flatbed a little above that. Luckily they do have some contract work as well where I’m going. Thanks for the well wishes, I’ll report back how it’s going!

 

Friday, March 7th was my last day with Ashley. I had originally started with Wilson Logistics in April of 2021. Several months later, Ashley purchased the 10 western state division of Wilson. Slowly, over a couple of years we lost pretty much all of our west coast contract customers. It was around the Spring of 2023, they got me out of the west coast and I was running 48 state OTR loads. January of 2024, I was pretty much exclusively running furniture loads to/from four of their terminals (Leesport/Mesquite/Arcadia/Ecru/Advance) along with a couple of affiliate terminals- Philadelphia, Illinois and Michigan. It was really good money and miles, drops and hooks on both ends.

I was at Spanaway WA when I found out the Portland OR yard was closed-- the tech guy who works Spanaway was telling me about how they gave very little notice and almost everyone was let go. The tech hadn't been paid in two weeks, he thought he had slipped through the cracks as in he was laid off but someone forgot to inform him. He had a job lined up and was going to take it after that weekend.

My driver manager out of Missoula MT was let go around September 2024, and soon after they closed the terminal down. This represents the final demise of the vestiges of Jim Palmer. I kept on working, making great money. Around mid January 2025 I was informed that March 7 would be the last day for all the OTR division which we former Wilson drivers (Ashley Pacific Northwest) had been assigned to. In the scheme of things, this was very short notice! There was very little communication leading up to the end. In fact it wasn't til March 6 that I got the email that confirmed my Lyft ride from Sacramento Airport to home in Stockton. I was like "how do I get from Ecru MS to Sac?" A while later I got the flight info and was set up with a ride from Ecru to Memphis to catch my flight. Everything worked out perfectly, though I was worried about the Lyft since the authorization was to expire at midnight and my arrival in SAC was about 2300 local time by the time I got my baggage from claims and had to walk about a quarter mile to find the Lyft pickup point.

Anyway, I'm home and looking for a new trucking job. @Chinatown : - )

@JReding