Calex Express....My New Home!

I feel like I'm in one of those old karate movies from the 70's where the master calls the student grasshopper.....

 

Pete, Calex is a good company. I've been tempted to jump ship and head on over, but I've been over at my company for so long it's hard to leave. Lol. Calex is a good company to run for.

 

I'm beginning to see that. Thanks man. I'm ok where I am, but I'm always looking for better. Plus this winter has really beaten me up running around with a flatbed trailer. I'm not getting any younger....

 

It is relevant, after almost 4 years I'm still here. My everyday adventures change, but the industry is still the same. Without going into details, I'm not here because I have to be, I'm here because I want to be, and I might add, on my terms. I have a job to do here, I do it and I've reaped the rewards of what I bring to the table in the form of a dedicated run that starts in Pittston, and ends 8 miles from my house.

I made 56K last year at this job, home more than gone, have medical coverage and get to sleep in my bed at the house 4 nights a week and in my truck 3 nights a week. Oh, and the people I work for treat me with the same respect and professionalism as I treat them.

 

I agree with what you are trying to do. Education and knowledge is the best way to go to make a decision. The weather thing? Boy you ain't lying.

 

I'm outta here. Jason called as I was having coffee with my wife. I drop and hook in Greenville tonight for a load back to Mountain Top. Me's thinking the lettuce has run it's course and now I'll be back on my regular deal of leaving the house on Monday, getting back home on Thursday then home until Monday.
Be safe all, God Bless.

 

I thought I saw you this morning rolling north on 95 in va but I guess it wasn't you. It was a calex w9 pulling a reefer. Anyway have a safe week I don't post much but I enjoy your thread.

 

it was my buddy Tom. He was on his way to Jersey to get his lettuce off. Be safe also.

 

That's about what I made and home just about every weekend. I think I got stuck out twice. I think I'll investigate more, maybe send an email to them. But I live in Maine so I'm thinking that's not going to work. Thanks for the input. Looks like a really good deal for you guys.

 

All right, who Chinese cursed me?

Was it you John?

I had a great annual time off. (I live in an odd spot for working out 11 or 34, our nearest delivery customer makes a 256 mile deadhead home, and I am a home improvement nut so projects take weeks.) When freight dies down and Louie is buried in trucks with no where to send them, I go home. This year I enjoyed 3 weeks.

****Warning NON-trucking section of post, skip to next set of stars as needed.
Accomplished a lot...
1 Replaced roof and sidewall of porch, 5 supports of the carport, and walled off one side for tools. (did get clocked by a 4x6x10'. It hit me straight on but the guy I hired to help me caught it before it fell any further. Just a bruise on my cheek bone the size of a half dollar and a slightly sore rump.) Finally getting my tools out of dressing room is priceless. There is something deeply wrong about picking drill bits out of boxes holding dressy spike heels.

2 Made about 4k at my micro organizing business. Think families with 3 to 6 kids and way too much stuff chaos. I get them all straightened up and organized in a way that flows for them and is easy to keep tidy.

3 Finished my 2012 taxes but can not file as IRS is still pondering depreciation. I'll get about 5k back and talked to payroll about adding an extra day of per diem each week. It is hard not to pay too much payroll taxes on a nut job who is out 331 days a year. Yeah really. I love the view out the window, am slightly agoraphobic, and do not understand people very well (Think handing a 5 year old an opened package of razor blades.)

4 Completed my mutual assistance pact marriage and dissolved it. (Think marriage of convenience with specific goals and an expiration date.) He knew construction, I knew budgeting and organizing; we both feel like we made out like bandits.

****back to trucking
So I am all recharged and happy to roll when Louie says times up. I look at the load and plot my usual camp overnight for my 10. That way the customer can take whatever time they need to figure out which box the stuff goes in without disrupting my clock. I did not think anything of it when they did not have the order for the next day. I did think it was a little odd to be picking up asparagus in the middle of citrus country but greenhouses sprout up anywhere. Next morning, the company still does not recognize the order number and is certain they have no asparagus for me. ET phone home. Upshot, the shipper is in YUMA, AZ. Ok, that's gonna crimp things a bit. Jason changes that pick up to the next day. I plot driving down and loading the Melissa's part, then driving to Yuma, and taking my 10 while they figure out which asparagus box. Humm... Got it. Call Mel's and claim to be running late (not really...I just do not want to wait there while they finish putting the pick-a-mix together.) I arrive just as they have the last pallet assembled and ready to load... I am pretty sure in and out of Mel's in 2 hours is a record. Scamper down to Yuma and nap. Get up the next morning and try to check in with the ATM of shipping clerks (as in one more wrong number and he is going keep my check in card and make me wait another day to load.) To be fair I could see his point. I had the wrong case count, box size, buyer (I wrote crows instead of crowns,) delivery address (they had Weg's main office not the DC we deliver to,) and was missing a zero at the beginning of the order number. That clerk finally went to lunch and my pathetic look worked the next one. She pointed out the buyer and 0 mistakes and gave me a door. I start plotting the trip across and realize I am going to meet a moderately nasty storm in Columbus, OH. Let's see.... The worst winter drivers in America (What other state consistently has more cars than semis in the median?) Narrow construction lanes and a seemingly cursed trip. Humm...I send a message asking to move the appt from 6 am to 3pm. I know Jason thought I was crazy (I was on track to be there Sunday night) but he did not say a word. Bless him, he just convinced Weg to pry the delivery window to 9 hours wide. The storm got in a hurry and produced a 6 hour tie up 7 hours before I got there. Literally, the freeway reopened 45 mins before I needed to use it.

Del went great, I get back to the yard, and see the new/old payroll inten weirdness. Instant headache, 3 heartbeats, instant solution. Turn in vacation pay request so my envelopes are a week behind and I can avoid figuring out the new/old system for awhile.

Truck goes in the shop for a vac leak (wheeze/whistle) coming from the regen and is done the same day (even greased.)

Louie is gone Wed so Jason and Billy hatch a plot to keep me busy. Run 2 mt trlrs up to Fabri, spend the night (my idea as the have gorgeous sunsets,) then yogurt cups to New Berlin, NY. Cross the RR tracks with the first MT and hear something break loose. No check engine lights but the wheeze/whistle is back. Great the flex pipe popped off, sigh. I get back to the yard for the 2nd trlr and write it up with details that I will be back from New Berlin, NY in 24 hours for reattachment.

I get back at 13:45 the next day and my repair request has vanished. Heather says she will track it down and get it Ray. I wait patiently in the lounge until everyone but the last two mechanics has left. Humm.. time to be proactive. I see Tommy and Brian talking and ask if they have seen Ray. When they say he has left, I ask if the regen flex pipe is something TA can fix. I explain the vac leak causes the filter to be damaged beyond repair, a new one is a couple grand, the RR track broke it, the boogieman ate me repair request, and Louie said the load I was to pick up in stages starting at 8am was critical. HELP. Bless him, Tommy asked my truck #, cornered the first mech he saw (JT,) and told him to get it in the shop because he needed it. Of course the flex pipe popped of because of a bigger problem. So earnest is our JT; I think he would have repaired it to like new had I not intervened at 19:30. I kept repeating "Tommy just said he needed it, as in to make a circle to CA and back. He did not say it had to be perfect. If the regen filter and everything else will survive the circle, then you can go home." till he and Bob released us back into the wild.

Off to camp at the Plains whse. Supposed to pick up a preloaded trlr at 8ish, take it to Bloomsburg, del the raw product and load finished product for del in Sparks Tue. I get up the next morning and adventures in loading phase two begins. Upshot...Most of the raw product is in a whse in Mtn Top a couple blocks from FabriKal, I get to haul my own loader person because no actually works there, and the mt trlr I snag from FabriKal has no brakes (think pull the trlr brake for tug test and nothing happens.) It is the only available mt at FabriKal and I have taken brake-less trlrs down mountains 3 or 4 times. So we plod down at the speed the engine brake will hold at and get back to Plains. I am loaded and rolling to Bloomsburg about the time I was supposed to del there, sigh. Of course the raw product and finished are on opposite sides of the building.

I roll out with 7 hours of my 14 left. I called the customer in Sparks to check unloading hours and got a shock. He was excited! As in voice went up an octave, he would stay late if I needed him too, really thrilled by the possibility of getting his stuff a day early. That has never happened to me before. I have gotten a variety of responses over the years, but never little kid in a candy store excited. In plotting I see meeting a storm head on in Cheyenne so I warn him it is only a possibility. He says it dumped a bunch of snow on Donner and to call him Monday either way. The storm decided to pick on Veil instead of WY so I called. He was even more excited about skipping lunch to unload me. He did not seem crazy when I got there so I guess he had a customer in a hurry for something I brought.

So, who Chinese cursed me with an adventurous loading life? The driving and deliveries are going scary smooth but getting the junk in the trunk has been rough.