Calex Express....My New Home!

Hey there dude, where are you?

 

We use Petros and T/A's with the Access card. We also have Comdata cards to fuel at Loves and off network places when we need emergency fuel somewhere not near one of our fuelstops.

 

Called into Jason this morning to get my next tour of duty. He said he had loads but that he wasn't sure who was getting what. About 2 hours later he called back to tell me I have a 4pm load at the brewery in Jacksonville tomorrow going to Fletcher NC for Wednesday morning, then it probably will be a deadhead to Piedmont SC for a drop and hook going to Mountain Top Pa.

I'm sure I'll be heading west again when I get back to Pittston. I do need a new windshield though, a service and my new mattress which is waiting for me.

 

Good luck. I'll be back in Pittston wednesday also.

All I can say, and I have always stressed this, this job works great for me. I too answered an ad on Craigslist almost three years ago. I showed up here and immediately did the job I was hired to do. I started this blog just to let people know what goes on in my everyday life, good and bad. I have always said and believe, you get out what you put in.

Any questions just ask and one of us will help out.

 

I'm sitting at our shipper in Mountain Top waiting on my load to be finished. I left the house around 10:30 Tuesday morning, got to the brewery at 3:30, backed right in and sat there until 7pm waiting on product. My plans on making it to Fletcher NC by midnight were shot right in the backside. After getting loaded, scaling out and adjusting my tandems to get the 46,200lbs of beer legal I made to the SC welcome center and called it a night.

I got up at 7am yesterday and drove nonstop the 315 miles to Fletcher and was empty in 45 minutes. I bypassed my fuel stop on the way up so I needed fuel, badly. I looked at the map and saw where I needed to go to reload and decided to stop at the T/A in Canton NC for fuel. As I was leaving Fletcher it started raining and I mean raining. I heard on the radio about a big truck that overturned on eastbound 40 just past the T/A. After fueling I left. It was raing so hard I couldn't see the front of my truck.

As I got to the accident they had 2 westbound lanes closed also. Now here's my opinion about this accident, it never should have happened. Period. The driver was ok, in fact he was in the police car going over all his paperwork. This was a Western Express flatbed that had 2 coils of aluminum that used to be on his trailer, now they were unrolled on both eastbound and westbound sides, and his totaled truck and trailer was sitting on it's side on top of the Jersey barrier. Where he came in for a landing was at the bottom of the hill, right in the middle of the S-curves. I'm not an accident recreator, but something told me he was going a tad too fast through the curves and layed it over on it's side. I'm just thankful no one was hurt, all I lost was a little time and I'm quite sure the driver lost his job.

I looked at the map and decided to take Rte 321 north of 40 to Greeneville Tn. I now am going to own up to something that happened to me when I followed my GPS just south of Greeneville, it took me on a road that I double checked on my Motor Carrier Atlas. The only problem was the road that my pick up was on at this end of town had no truck signs posted on it. So instead of turning on the road I was suppose to I stayed on the road I was on that was a designated truck route, 25 miles out of my way, 20 mile S curves that I had to stop every time a car was approaching from the other side so my trailer wouldn't drive over the top of the car. It was pretty countryside, but man was I pissed. I finally worked my way onto 81, stopped on the on ramp and called the shipper. The recorded directions were spot on and I made there right on time instead of being an hour early.

I checked in and was loaded in less than an hour. Here's the dumbest thing I've done in a very long time. I decided not to go back the 11 miles south to 81, I decide to go north, my thinking being north to go north, not south to go north. What a mistake, I followed yet another legal road that was ok as per the Motor Carrier Atlas. This road must have been related to the one I was on earlier. It cost me an extra hour going through the same crap as earlier just to save 11 miles. I finally got onto 81 made it to the Petro in Glade Spring Va and called it a night at 7pm. I felt like I drove a thousand miles.

I woke up at 4am, showered, fueled and was on the road at 5am. I had 515 miles to my drop, stopped once for coffee and to use the boys room, then got to Pittston at 1:15 this afternoon. I was back at the terminal at 2:30. Louie sent me my reload info earlier in the day. I need to be in Miami Monday morning at 9am. I'll be home Saturday around 3pm. I am reloading Monday after I get empty. I was told that it will definitely be west coast next week. I'm glad, I get to spend mothers day with my mom, and my wife.

All the issues I ever had with our shop was completely turned around for the good today. After getting to the yard and fueling I went in and handed in my truck report. I asked ray if the shop could change my windshield and he said absolutely, to put in to the bay. In 45 minute i had a new windshield. Thanks Ray, and Kevin, probably one of the best mechanics we have. My truck will get serviced next week when I get back, at least I don't have to look at a 2 foot crack anymore.