Central Oregon Truck Co...the fun begins

Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. No company is perfect and if it were, well, there would only be one and we'd all be working there. I hope you do find a good fit for you and I'm glad you at least gave them a fair shake and not bounce after a couple of weeks.

It's too early to tell for me whether they're a good fit or not. The goal for me is to get on the Quad fleet living in Portland. From the drivers I've spoken to, that is a great area to be for them. I've been told by drivers and non drivers that Quads have a full weekend off if they want it. I can't confirm that myself as I'm not yet on the fleet.

As far as tarping, I knew there would be a lot of it. So far, only half of my loads have needed tarps. I would have liked all of them to be so I could get more practice, but it is what it is. I know I'll get my fair share of it with the Quads. As far as tarp pay, once you become efficient with it, it's $30/hr if it takes you an hour. I don't think that's terrible.

If I take my bonus criteria so far and convert them into what they would be over a month I would be borderline .02 mileage bonus, so far so good with the .02 safety bonus, and I'm at 6.9 MPG for another .025 cpm. That is running Western 11.

I'm gonna give them at least three months. Any shorter than that I don't think you've really given anything, at any job, a fair shake. So far I have no complaints but I'll have no problem posting them if I do. Once I get on the Quad fleet will be the real test because that's why I signed on. And the free insurance because I'm single. And if I don't like it after 3 months, well, they aren't the only company out there.

 

Sitting in Battle Mountain, NV for the night. I'll be up dark and early to make my delivery in Sac-Town. It's a broker load and we haven't delivered there so I need to call receiver for directions. I'm pretty sure it's going to a jobsite but who knows. Called in to dispatch to see if they had an idea of what I was going to do after delivery. They said we know you need to be home Friday so you'll be going north. Well that's good to know.

 

Delivered in Sacramento around 1130 this morning. There were a bunch of trucks there so it took about 2 hours to get unloaded. Then I went down to Antioch to pick up. Got here with about 3 hours left on my clock and by the time I got loaded, secured, and tarped I didn't have enough time to go anywhere. So I'm taking my 10 outside of the shipper. Load is supposed to deliver in Portland tomorrow but I'm gonna be about a half hour short. Even if I had tarping down pretty well, it would have been tight to make it to a truck stop with the time I had left on my 14. Especially at rush hour.

Each time I've tarped it has been quicker. I'm still killing myself figuring it out but I know with time it will all click.

 

Delivered my load of sheetrock last night as I ran out of hours. Had to roll my tarps up in the dark which was a little tricky until I remembered that I had my headlamp.

Now I'm sitting in a dirt lot waiting to see if they want me to pick up a load going out to the Redmond area so I can switch over to the Quad fleet. They do a lot of tarping, which I know how to do, but I just need to do it more to become more efficient and get a system down.

 

No luck on a load which was fine by me because I had to get to the DMV to switch my license from Maine to Oregon to the tune of $140. Good Lord.

Will be picking up first thing Tuesday morning because I forgot that it's a holiday weekend. Time to finish up this week's honey do list. Have a great weekend everyone.

 

No loads going to the yard so I loaded in Brownsville, OR going to Sonora, CA for the 4th. Spent an hour waiting to tarp because I didn't have the right pick up number so I couldn't receive my paperwork until I did. I secured the load and everything but I wasn't going to tarp it in case it was the wrong product. Turned out it was, and the tarp job took a little over an hour and is my best job so far, very tight. Definitely pleased with it, this was a big confidence builder, and hopefully tomorrow I can continue building upon this. It's definitely an art and I'm used to picking things up right away, which is why it was so frustrating for me that I didn't right away.

Anyhow, I can't remember where I'll be reloading but it will be going to Madras, OR for Thursday where I'll hopefully finally be getting my quad truck and going home for the weekend.

 

I'll put pictures up once I move into my quad truck. I'll be getting it at the end of this week. I'm picking up tomorrow morning in Sonora going up to Madras so after I get that off the deck I'll be moving into it.