Calex Express....My New Home!

Thanks runningman, are you still with Keen?....... I just saw your post about leaving Keen. It's never a happy time when you leave a company that's good to you, but I truly understand your reasoning. I would leave Calex in a New York minute if my home time changed. After all these years of driving and missing so much over the years, I refuse to miss anything else. It's me, the wife and the 2 Labs at home and I sure am thankful to be able to see them every week. Good luck to you, I for one will be looking for your new thread.

 

Here's an update. I woke up yesterday at the 2nd service plaza on the Indiana Turnpike with 575 miles to go to finish my trip. It was an easy ride across Indiana and Ohio. Calex doesn't want us to run the turnpikes going west, but when we come back east with produce we are allowed to. I felt like a big shot running the turnpikes instead of Rte. 30. The difference between the 2 routes is 30 miles and about 2 hours. I remember when I drove for CRE in the 80's that we had to run Rte 30. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. But at least now I'm able to run it one way and I have Easy-Pass which surely helps.

This whole trip I never had to put my windshield wipers on. But I sure had a lot of construction to deal with, mainly in PA. Going out I had to deal with the I-80 Donner Pass reconstruction that's been ongoing for a couple of years in Ca. It wasn't too bad, but PA is a whole different story, what a mess!

To make a long story short, if you ever get off 80 in PA, make sure you are comfortable with mountainous back roads. PA has some amazing skinny roads. Exit 42 was my first detour to avoid a construction zone. One mile off 80 is rte 38, with a 9% grade that bottoms out in the middle of a small town. I'm glad it was daylight, at least if I fell off this particular mountain I would be able to see where I would land, most likely in the river that ran alongside this road.

6000 mile round trip and I spent most of my lost time in construction zones in PA.

I got to Lamar Pa around 5pm, put some reefer fuel in the trailer, took a shower and left to get over to the 215 mm in Milton. Weis Markets allows trucks onto their property at 4am, Gary was about 3 hours behind me so we agreed to leave the T/S at 4am and head over to check in. We are the house carriers for Weis and our contract calls for a guarantee of 25 trucks per week. It's truly an amazing sight to see 8 or 9 of your fellow company drivers all backed in with all sorts of produce from California and Washington. One by one we all got unloaded. Gary left first and I left about an hour later.

I called into Eddie to get a comchek for the unloading, which to me is a little archaic. Why don't you just take the unloading fee off the freight bill? No, everyone of us has to call Eddie for a comchek, $125 each. I know when I go to Wegmans in Pottsville or Rochester you back in, they unload, sign your bills and your on your way, they take the unloading fee off the freight bill. Very sooth and efficient, but what do I know, I just drive this truck that's all.

Eddie told me to drop my trailer at Mountaintop on my way to the yard, which is no big thing. But after unloading and seeing the inside of the trailer I called Louie and told him about the condition of the trailer, he told me to just bring it to the yard and to write it up for a washout.

I had one write up for my truck after this round, my brake pedal had gotten real low on my way back, probably because of all the mountains I had to go over with the 80,000 pounds I took out to Concord. I thought it was a simple adjustment but it wasn't. They had to replace the valve that went bad that controls the pressure that is applied to the pedal. So after it was replaced and the truck serviced, as I was leaving the yard, I came to the stop sign at the end of the driveway and applied my brakes, you would have thought I was in an emergency stop mode, I didn't realize how bad the pedal was until they put the new valve in, I thought I was going through the windshield. What a difference.

I was dispatched with a load going to Orlando that is a drop and hook after 7am tomorrow. It delivers 5am Thursday and I'll be home around noon time for a much needed rest, Louie said that he would reload me Monday, so I'll have a nice long weekend home. Gary drop and hooked this afternoon going to the same place I am but for Wednesday. This works out nice, I'll be out of hours just as I get unloaded, then head home. Not a bad place to reset.

One last thing, I have been at Calex for just over a year and guess what? I am entitled to a weeks vacation. I put in for the week off of October 31st. My wife and I are going on a cruise for a week. This isn't really earth shattering news, we've been on probably 10 cruises since we got married, my amazement is the fact that it's been a year since I started work at Calex. I can't believe it's been 14 months since I answered that ad on Craigslist about a need for a driver in Central/South Florida. Amazing.

 

Got home at noon today after unloading this morning in Orlando. I can't say this was an uneventful trip, not when I was broke down in a rest area in North Carolina with a sheared serpentine belt and frozen idler pulley. I had to call the after hours emergency number for the on duty mechanic at 3am yesterday morning. I was up and running around 11:30 after road service came and rescued me with a new belt and pulley. I got to Orlando around 11pm last night, backed into our door that is pre-assigned for us and went to bed. The lumper knocked on my door at 4am for the paper work and was done around 9am. Louie called and said to enjoy my weekend home, but make sure I call him tomorrow for my load info for Monday. Talk soon.

 

Boy, now that's a great compliment. I can honestly say I would love to do some trucking down under. Thanks for reading this.

 

I figure that by now people should know how I feel about working for Calex. I write it as I experience it. I figure writing about my everyday life behind the wheel will be somewhat entertaining to some. I try to be very truthful about what I go through on a daily basis.