Calex Express....My New Home!

Big Bucks? I wish. Being in a comfort zone? Absolutely. The vacation was great, thanks. My dedicated run works like this. Pick up a reefer at our yard late Tuesday night. Run 7 miles up to the same shipper every Wednesday morning at 6am to pick up 2 pallets of cream cheese. Run down to our warehouse 12 miles south to put on my 2 stops of NY Times. Am done right at 9am. First drop midnight Wednesday night in Wilmington NC Home at 6pm Thursday evening in Lake Worth Fl. Leave the house at 5am Friday and drive 8 miles to drop my 2 pallets of cream cheese in West Palm Beach. My final drop is 32 miles to Deerfield Beach. Empty at 8am, trucked parked at 8:45 home at 9am. Home until Monday morning then load something to go back north with, either deadhead to our customer in Greenville SC or get a load here in Fl. In any event, I bring it back to our yard for Tuesday night then start the same thing all over again. It's been this way since I was given this run back in July. The O/O that had it before me was on it for 2 years, so my thinking is I'll be on it for a while.

 

That's why it's very important to get a dedicated run, you don't have the issues of slow freight this time of year, especially with the freight like the NY Times that needs to be at the newspaper every week at the same time.

 

I'm home. Got here about 5pm. Right now I'm not a happy camper. I will leave about 6am to get my last drop off then come home and continue on with my dental work. I had a root canal 4 hours after I got off the cruise ship last week. Tomorrow I have a crown put on then the next 4 weeks is deep cleaning time.

When I'm done at the dentist I will head over to Belle Glade to load lettuce for a Sunday delivery in Florence, NJ. The not happy camper part? I worked out with dispatch before I left on vacation to load this lettuce on Saturday's, in fact, as my wife and I were leaving the port heading out to sea Jason called me to go over the day I would be back, when I would be ready to load and then we discussed the Saturday loading. Everything was worked out, right? Wrong. I got up to Pittston through a snow storm at 2am yesterday morning. At 7am I was told they forgot to schedule the load for Saturday so I needed to load it Friday after I empty out.

Now look, I am not one to complain, but can someone tell me why would I want to get empty on a Sunday and then spend the next 3 nights in cold snowy Pittston, in my truck waiting on my run to leave on Wednesday morning when I can spend an extra day in my home, which is on a lake, with a swimming pool, 2 Labs to give me unconditional love, a motorcycle to use as mental health therapy and a wife that waits on me hand and foot? I do my part, in fact I personally get a kick out of the saying, "Take one for the team". Right, if I take anymore for the team you will be able to sick a grapefruit up there with room to spare. Rant over, time to go enjoy my 12 hours at the house.

 

Thanks Steve. It is just a one week glitch. I'll be back home Thursday then leave out Saturday to deliver Monday in Jersey. I just needed to vent. I was going past the Tamaqua exit about 1am Wednesday morning and couldn't even see the exit sign it was snowing so hard.

I'm just about empty. Then I'm off to the dentist. Maybe it's a good thing I am leaving today, my wife came down with the flu. That's all I need, the flu this weekend to go along with my mouth in pain while I'm sitting in Pittston for 3 days. Talk about being totally miserable.

 

I got over to the shipper in Belle Glade Friday after leaving the Dentist. For all the Dentist's that follow this blog, you all must love your job, that's all I can say. I have going to the dentist in the same category as having your arm amputated.

I got to the shipper at 2pm, checked in then went right into sleeper berth. At 12:30 am I was finally loaded and pulling out of the gate. I had to deliver between 7am and 11am Sunday morning. Based on my calculations I could do it if I did the night shift 2 nights in a row. I got to the Petro in Kingsland just as it was getting daylight, fueled, took a shower then ended my day in Florence SC. I got up at 11pm, showered then drove all night to Florence NJ. I pulled into the receiver at 9am then waited my turn to unload. Tom was just pulling away from the dock when I got there and went to sleep. They backed me in at noon and sat me there until 9pm last night. I was finally out the gate and headed back to Pittston at 9:30.

Sometimes this produce can really suck. If you look at Google maps my house is exactly 28 miles due east of the shipper and I got to spend the whole day in that rat hole. Then I get to do 2 all nighters in a row to sit for 12 hours. After waking up this morning I called into Jason to let him know what happened on both ends. He told me he would take care of me with some detention pay. I've always said you can take detention pay and shove it, just load the truck when YOU schedule it, not 12 hours later. In any event, if you offer it to me, I will hound you for it until I get it, but in almost 4 years here I have never once had to chase after it, I've always gotten a message over the computer with a P.O. Anyway, I'm at the Petro spending my free time doing nothing. Be safe all, God Bless.

 

I'm home, got here around 6pm. I'll leave the house about 5am to finish my last 2 drops and be home around 10am, then it's off to the dentist to get fitted for 2 crowns to cover the 2 root canals I've had recently. I load my lettuce in Belle Glade on Saturday for a Monday delivery in Jersey.

My number one priority the short time I'm home is to find health insurance for my wife and myself. The program we have at work has now gone up to 216.72 per week for me and the wife, times that by 4.3 weeks per month and it comes out to 931 dollars per month, then add on 73.74 per month for dental and my total outlay per month is 1005 dollars. Completely unacceptable. I found a better program for half the price through Cigna. It's very unsettling to me that a company can't get a group plan with better rates then what we are being offered. I'm going to take the high road and leave my opinion about this whole insurance issue to myself, suffice to say, I'm quite disappointed in the company pertaining to this.