Bestway Express Vincennes, IN

left on Monday with 70 hours, came home Friday with 25. Grrrr...

Got to Evansville and the load had shifted (no drivers allowed on dock, shipper forgot to block the front of the double stacked portion). So a 1300 pound gaylord of plastic pellets was precariously balanced at a 45 degree angle four feet off the floor. Receiver refused to touch it. Sat most of the day while the office and he broker figured out what to do. Finally got approval to run it back to Vincennes. Left 2 of the 3 straps that came with the truck with the load in hopes of avoiding a spill.

Finally got to pick up my 2nd load (to Detroit)but my hours were shot so I had to pass it off in indy.

Tuesday got a multi pick up and drop time suck. 537 miles, 7 stops, scheduled over 3 days. Got it cleared Midday Wednesday. And then I sat. Finally at 4:45 got a message over the q-com "go to a truck stop where you feel comfortable and we'll try to find something in the morning".

Thursday waited till 9 to start calling. Got a 270 mile broker load with an appointment delivery for Friday morning. Spoke to FM and he agreed I need more miles. Must have spilled some invisibility potion on the truck because I had people trying to bump into me all day long.

Friday picked up a preloaded in Lexington, KY for a live unload in Evansville, IN then snagged a preloaded for Sunday night/Monday morning delivery, Have a preassignment for Port Huron, MI to Madisonville, KY. So in theory I should be off to a good start for next week.

 

Busy week. Bunk HVAC blower has a bad connection or ground and is only working part time. Between the spotty heat and the very tired mattress I had a heckuva time sleeping this week. At least they kept me busy.

Left sunday afternoon for Southgate, MI. The driver for the second leg wasn't sure if he wanted to come in so he was over an hour late Monday morning. Night dispatch asked me Sunday Night to run the second leg (hand unload over 5 stops) after the driver called off but he "called on" again about 5 am Monday.

Monday after I got empty I headed to Port Huron live loaded then came back to the house Monday night.

Tuesday morning headed to Madisonville, KY live unloaded then grabbed a preloaded in evansville and went back to Southgate.

This driver didn't bring an MT for the meet and swap so I got to visit our new drop lot to round up an empty. Headed to Fayette, OH live loaded with brake rotors and headed to Dry Ridge, KY. Trailer was the first I've had that couldn't be persuaded to slide with a little rocking. Wasted about an hour on it over 3 slides. Live unloaded then grabbed a preloaded in Georgetown Ky and dropped it in Vincennes, IN and then bobtailed home. Made it home 7 am this morning. 13-1400 miles in 48 hours in godawful traffic and rain/sleet. I like keeping busy but that was a bit much. (100 miles of that was my choice to spend the night in my own bed Monday).

Tomorrow afternoon I snag a loaded in Evansville and then take it to Jackson, MI for a Saturday morning meet and swap. Saturday night I load in Battle Creek, MI and then run to Lebanon, TN for a Monday AM delivery. Just shy of 2500 miles for the week and will start next week with 400 miles on the meter.

 

Delivered to Lebanon, TN early Monday. The company had accidentally sent twice as many loads as they were supposed to so the receiving fork lift driver was totally buried. Got empty then found someplace to park and waited for another load. After an hour or so the quallcom beeped with a load from western KY to Eastern TN. I punched the addresses in the GPS and set off. Barely made it a mile and the cell rang. They had to pull me off that load to rescue a load sitting in Pulaski TN that was already late for delivery in Cullman, AL. Knocked that out monday afternoon.

Next load was an 1100 to 1300 pickup window tuesday in Scottsboro, AL for 8AM Wed delivery in Hopkinsville, KY (ie long time, low miles). I had ambitions of getting the load done in 1 day so I set out early. Bad idea. They were still making the product when I got there about 0900 local. So I chilled for a couple of hours burning my 14. But then the q-com beeped, they needed a load moved from Princeton, KY to Ohio and wanted to know if I could do it. So when I got finished loading at 12:30 I was able to drop the load in Hopkinsville and snagged an empty and bombed over to Princeton, only to discover the preloaded that was supposed to be ready by noon was still in the door "waiting for product" 6 hours later. They got it done reasonably quickly though so I beat feet toward WCH.

Got up early Wed and made delivery. While I was headed to a truckstop to wait for a load the q-com beeped in a surprise. A load from just south of Indianapolis to San Antonio, TX. First over 1k miles load I've had with these folks. Loaded that night then spent Thursday and Friday running it down for a Friday evening delivery and then loaded empty racks going back. Spent Saturday and Sunday getting back home and then I deliver Tuesday night.

Didn't get a reset when I was home for Thanksgiving to I came back with nothing left on the log (and that took some doing).

So 2600 miles for the week and about 1100 in the hopper for next week. Not bad.

 

Another pretty awful week. FM wanted to me to leave the house early to cover a load. The truck's batteries had gone flat and so I spent a good hour jumping it. It was cold but it wasn't artic.

Headed out and delivered my load from last week then started toward Portland, IN. Spent about an hour tuck in traffic waiting for a truck fire to be cleared. Finally got to the shipper, loaded relatively quickly and ran over to Mendon, MI and ran out of my 14 on the way back. Had the same run again on Wednesday (for those keeping score at home that's appx a 250 mile round trip). Sent a q-com message midday thursday that I was going to finish the load by 20:30. About 16:00 I called and asked what the plan was after I got empty. My FM sadi he'd get on that. Got a message after 5 that he couldn't find anything and would get started on it first thing in the morning.

Just before noon on Thursday the q-com finally beeped with a load from Indianapolis to Louisville with a 6 PM pickup and 9PM dropoff appointment. Headed toward Indy, washed and fueled the truck, called the FM again because there was still no preassignment for when I got this load off. I got two options which is a first. One was to take a load early in the AM in Georgetown,KY to deliver in Saginaw, MI by 10 am. 14/10 made that a non-starter. So I took door #2, doing a meet and swap in Vincennes, IN for a Friday AM delivery in Henderson, KY and then picking up in Evansville, IN for a Tuesday AM delivery in Oklahoma City.

No miles, lots of sitting. Not happy.

 

Evansville, IN->Moore, OK
Lawton, OK->Walton,KY
Shelbyville, KY->Brownstown Twp, MI (drop and hook)
Brownstown Twp, MI->Shelbyville, KY (drop and hook)

2579 paid miles for the week. Lots of bad weather. delayed a couple hours by traffic in Cincinatti Friday night. FM forgot to put a load on me before leaving friday (called and nagged 4pm friday when nothing had yet appeared). Weekend dispatch approved me to deadhead home from shelbyville, ky since they didn't have anything for me. Only other egregious waste of time was my load back from OK which required me to take another DOT break after running all of two hours and then flip to running hard overnights. Grades for the week: Miles B, planning C. Goal is 6 months OTR experience. At this point don't think I'll hang on much longer than that.

 

Got a a Christmas card from the company with a $100 gift card in it Monday. That was a nice surprise.

First run of the week was a Evansville, IN to Jackson, MI run I've done a couple times before. It was supposed to be ready at noon but I didn't arrive until a little after 5 PM (like I said, I've dealt with these folks before). The load was still not ready. Wound up waiting till about 8PM, turned out I had been given the wrong trailer number. That's trucking. Beat feet to Jackson and just made the meet and swap before my 14 ran out. I had a preplan for Tuesday AM but that was blown by the delay. Took my 10 at the next rest area. Quallcom beeped with a load leaving out Wednesday morning from South Bend IN to Greenville, SC and then another message with a code for layover pay ($75). Didn't have to ask which was nice.

The empty I had gotten at the meet and swap had a top marker light that worked intermittently so I had to stop at a TA on the way to SC and get it fixed. Turned out to be a bad ground. Took two guys and about an hour to chase down the issue and then they forgot to crimp one of their connections where they cut some wires on the other side of the trailer while trying to narrow down the problem.

Dropped the empty racks going back north in Vincennes (customer closed 12/24 to 1/2/10) and snagged a broker load headed to Decatur, IL for Monday delivery and got home about 2 PM Christmas eve. Decent week all in. Now if only the weekend was a few hours longer. Truck is about due for an oil change and has a few small problems I'd like to get squared away so I'm going to try to get it to Vincennes this week.

 

$7200 is the YTD net pay on the 12/31 pay stub (paying for the week ending 12/25). First load I pulled for them was 10/14.

Didn't have anything for me to do after I got empty in Decatur so I got another paid layover. Got a broker load from Hoopeston, IL to Cleveland, TN. The load had an appointment pickup Tuesday afternoon and appointment delivery thursday morning, so I bopped to Vincennes after loading, dropped my trailer and left my tractor at the shop for a PM.

Called Wed morning and they said they were going to need to put me in a loaner. Got there and apparently the oil leak I asked them to look at was dire and was going to take some time to repair. They gave me the keys to a 2006 Volvo VNL630 and told me it was going to be a couple of days. My trainer at Schneider always said to move everything over if you were given a loaner in case you didn't get the old truck back. I ignored that advice because I didn't want to move all my crap twice. So you can guess what the shop called to tell me about 2 hours after I left for Tennessee. They said it was going to take a while and I could keep the newer truck if I wanted.

So my new ride is a 2006 VNL630 with a 430 horse Volvo D12 and a 10 speed. Just shy of 480k on the ticker. It has some "toys". The truck has a bull bar, super singles, a Tire Pressure monitoring system (presumably to avoid getting stranded with said super singles), and a VORAD with "Smartcruise". The dash has a few more gauges than I'm used to (pyrometer, boost, oil temp, and application pressure). definitely less storage space than in the FLD (60" mid roof vs 70" condo). Truck goes a little faster on the flat but doesn't have as much acceleration or climbing power (once again not as much a brand thing as a spec difference, 12L vs pre EPA 14L). The VORAD screams "we're all gonna die" every third underpass but I appreciate what it's trying to do.

So anywho, got to Cleveland and got unloaded. Next load was broker load from Cookeville, TN to Chicago, IL. snagged that and overnighted in Lebanon,TN and then swung by Vincennes on the way home to finish cleaning out the old ride. Made ihome Friday afternoon and will be leaving early in the morning for an 0700 delivery appointment.

 

Cookeville,TN->Chicago, IL
Dolton, IL->Lousiville, KY
Louisville, KY->Portland,IN
Ft Wayne, IN->Dry Ridge Ky
Florence,Ky<->Sterling Heights,MI (round trip)
Lockbourne,OH->Seymour, IN

Reasonably productive but rough week. 2400 miles. Got home yesterday am leaving this afternoon. Slept 12 hours straight last night and could use more.

 

Monday night-Tuesday
Vincennes, IN to Clinton, IA and back again.
shag move in Vincennes, IN
Wednesday
Evansville, IN to Portage, MI
Driver I was relaying to overslept so I "got" to hand unload the first stop. My back is still hurting. I've really gotten out of shape. Hand loaded and unloaded every day for 6 years and now I'm a marshmellow
Thursday
Ravenna, MI to Portland, TN
Friday went to Cadiz, Ky did a meet and swap and then headed home.

1789 miles by my figuring. With shag pay should be about $600 gross for the week

Deliver in KC MO Tuesday morning and then in Tennessee Wednesday morning. Will have over 1100 miles when I empty out Wednesday morning. Now if they can actually keep me busy the rest of the week. Good news is I've had full weekends at home the last few weeks.