Beep Beep Roadrunner

I'm hanging in there still. Got a call from a planner type, real nice guy. Hooked me up with a load from St Louis to Orlando, drop hook and bring a load from Orlando to Atlanta terminal. Drop hook into another one going west, not sure which destination- Oakland CA or Seattle WA. See if I can't turn 4000 miles in 6.5 days.

I should go back and explain a little-- While back in St Louis last weekish, got a call from Mira Loma CA asking when I'd be there. St Louis had overloaded the trailer so had to wait a break for them to come back overnight and fix it. Talked to ML about their outbound stuff and was able to score a preload trailer right straight back to St Louis for me. Problem was they were closed Saturday July 4th. No matter my 70 was going to run out in the middle of the California desert but instead of sitting out there doing nothing I went up to Laughlin NV to play in the casinos and watch the tanned up bikini girls on the river and enjoy the fireworks show. Took pocket fulls of cash out of the casino too.


Anyway the score is 6 different terminals so far have taken 2-4 days for reloads lately. Not RR's fault, I'm guessing it is the economy and too many trucks for too few loads out there. Also maybe I was oblivious to it before or maybe it is true there is more freight moving by rail but I am seeing miles and miles of trains going east west north south double stacked with intermodals.

The bonus of being idle at various terminals allows me to go exploring around. Found several casinos within St Louis and vicinity, stayed at the Alton IL Argosy this last trip. Unfortunately they are not a 24 hour operation so when the dice ebbed and flowed, I was down when they decided to shut the table down and didn't have a chance to flow back into flush chips. Think I'm going to have to make a special trip into Vegas soon and knock em dead.

 

So the destination from Atlanta was to Oakland CA. Came out west to Laughlin NV to throw dem bones. Walked down to the casino in 109 degree desert afternoon heat. Came out around 0100 and it was dumping rain. This was the same storm that washed out I-10 half a state several hundred miles away. Next morning streets around Laughlin were covered in desert sand and rocks. Trippy 'After Man' stuff.

Got up to Santa Nella CA Petro on Sunday to stage for the 0400 delivery Monday in Oakland. Truck caught on fire about 0100 Monday morning so got that put out and put in shop. Took em all day to get a new A/C compressor ordered and delivered and installed.

Need a shower stat, but since I'm going home today will just wait since the Petro here has only 1 working shower and it is backed up for hours all day all night.

 

I read your private message a few times. Mostly it just made my head hurt. I don't know how to answer that for you. I don't see how any answer I could give would be helpful in any way.

OK so last left off where the truck almost burned down from a worn out A/C compressor clutch. Got it replaced along with new serpentine belts, job took all day which put me one day behind on delivery.

Got up to the customer about 0300 Tuesday, for a 0500 dock assignment. They come knocking like they do and tell me which dock to put it in. I have been to this place a few times before so I know the drill. I always walk in after docking and use their restrooms zero dark thirty, no one says or notices me. However this time I went back in around 0800 to use them again and was dressed down for it. "We don't allow drivers to use those restrooms, you don't just walk through our offices like that...." etc. Not a very nice man. I didn't say anything, just returned back to my truck. Next thing I know it has been 12 hour up on the dock before they have me empty. Meanwhile many other RR trucks and come and gone all day long.

Got a hold of my planner who offers me a couple loads out of Livermore that night, pick one going to PA. Drop trailer in Livermore on my way to Stockton to see family and check the mail. Discover that I have been summoned for Jury Duty. Scramble to get off the PA load and hope the courts have not put out a warrant for my arrest for not calling in on the Friday before the jury duty week.
It was all good in the end, all I had to do was call in every day after 1700, could have taken that load to PA afterall. My concern was they might activate me any day to come down to the courthouse to sit on jury duty which has happened in the past. Actually it was a Grand Jury I sat on which was pretty cool.

So they hooked me up with another load now, Livermore /Phoenix/Houston. Normally loads out of the terminals and especially Livermore are ready to roll around midnight. This load wasn't ready til late morning Saturday and they want it in Phx Sunday morning. It seems like my whole life is rush rush hurry hurry go go go . So sick of it. I will arrive first thing Monday morning to get unloaded at their stop then hustle on to Houston for Wednesday. The4e is a movie theatre down the road at the mall, going to go see Southpaw.

 

Not sure what your asking, no flatbedding at RR. Also on the used trucks trick, you never know, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes the dice are hot and other times they are cold.

OK so after the Houston load, waited about 3 days for an outbound which took me to Atlanta first stop then Orlando FL final. Drop hook and brought the empty back to Atlanta and hooked into a quick run up to Grinnell Iowa. Guy on the dock squished his finger really bad so took them about 12 hours to unload me. No biggie, spent the night there and went down to the TA and got a shower/breakfast. Called St Paul MN terminal for outbound, no answer so called Chicago and they got me a Fresno CA run for the weekend.

About 5 weeks ago I dropped my trailer in Mira Loma CA and have been running trailer pool thinking it was the way to score more miles and loads as their selling point is the ability to drop and hook rather than wait for live unloads and live reloads at terminals. In the last 5 weeks there were only a couple of quick turnarounds, the rest of the loads were 2 - 4 days waiting for outbound loads. So I think when I get back to Fresno I will deadhead back into ML and pick my trailer back up providing it is still there. For all I know they may have loaded it and some other IC took it to a different terminal by now.

 

I don't know if there is a division like that. I run terminal freight and truckload plus agents call me every day trying to load me.

 

Yes they sign independent contractors with their own equipment. Terminal right there in Decatur. I run terminal to terminal mostly with occasional agent 'backhaul' which is a broker load getting me back to a terminal city if I delivered to an agent terminal that doesn't have reloads for us.

For example, I go into Phoenix or Grinnell Iowa agent terminals, they only unload us not reload. Usually these are 'first stop' terminals then we make our final out in a RR terminal making it easy for a reload. Grinnell the other day took all day and stayed there all night. RR agent wanted to book a load with me but I wasn't in the mood to run for $1.2x so just deadheaded to Chicago for a Fresno CA run.