COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Latest update.

Team Redcoat has gone coast to coast. After getting their windshield fixed in Cali., they got a load going to Georgia. However, by the time they got to Oklahoma, they were told to take the load to Jackson, MS for a repower. That kind of sucked because I was hoping they would go through Alabama so I could get Redcoat some of his mail, his new phone and a couple other things.

Redcoat had a bad day in Jackson. It started out with the company giving him the wrong address for the repower. He was on I-55 and the dispatcher told him to turn around - said he was going the wrong way. So he got off the interstate and had to make a right turn at some point and when he did, the right two tires on the trailer tandem blew out. So that really rattled him. He managed to pull over and took lots of pictures of the damage and of the ground where he had made the right turn. There was no curb there - only gravel. So he's certain he didn't hit anything. He said there was something on the tandem that had been replaced and he was thinking that it had gotten repositioned which caused the tires to rub together (or something). He tried explaining it to me but since I'm not familiar with all the bits of the trailer I wasn't getting most of what he was telling me. Anyway, apparently the inside tire blew out first at the sidewall and that took out the outside tire. Or so he thinks.

So now he had to bet the rig to a TA to get it fixed. They were really heavy with a load of dog biscuits. Redcoat said they were maxed out on each axle. They ended up having to transfer the load to the other driver's trailer so that took a while. The other driver had a look at the tire damage and he agreed that there was something amiss with the trailer itself that caused the tires to blow. After all that, come to find out that originally he was only two miles of where he should have been before he got off the interstate. I said it was lucky he did because it could have been really nasty if those tires had blown at 60 mph.

The get to the TA and I think they ended up leaving the trailer because they headed up to Olive Branch from there so I'm guessing they had to get another trailer. Then they got a dispatch to pick up a load in Jackson, TN headed up to Maine which is where they are now.

On the way, they dropped off the two damaged tires at a yard somewhere in Pennsylvania. Redcoat says he understands why the company wants the damaged tires back but he says it takes forever and a day to do all the paperwork that goes along with it.

When I talked to him this morning, he had just woken up from his sleep. He's at a truck stop somewhere and will find out where when he goes in to clean up.

He's worried that the tire deal will end up on his DAC for whatever reason so that's something we're going to keep an eye on.

He had a fairly decent check last week where he cleared $750. But he still wasn't happy with that because he said they ran non-stop so he figured it should have been more. I reminded him that if he were driving for any other company that paid better it definitely would have been more but to take heart in that he's only got 2 1/2 more months to go to hit his six months experience.

At least they are rolling and not sitting.

Stay tuned.