CRETE - A Year in Review

I've been down that road being over my minutes. Trust me when I say that you don't want to answer the phone when my wife calls with an unexpected bill that is totally my fault. I'm just saying sometimes you gotta call. I would harass them and try to get something. Then I'd call back several hours later and try the nice guy approach.It doesn't hurt to try.
As far as the trip planning..... It seems like every trucking company only hires 20 year olds to plan trips. Thank the LORD I have a local job now. If it can't be done I just deadhead back and try again tomorrow.

 

I am on one of my shortest and most unproductive loads I've had in a while. Pick up in Roanoke, TX going 127 miles north to Duncan, OK for Sunday night...and it's exactly what my logbook needed other than another reset. Since last weekend, I have had mostly 8.5-12 hour days, so this little 2.75 hour day is fine. It'll leave me with 10+ hours to run Monday, then I start getting those big days back at midnites. I wanted to get home around the holiday weekend sometime, but holiday hometimes, especially headed to FL aren't always easy. When I messaged my A/M about getting home by Saturday or Sunday...the words 'overbooked on hometime drivers to FL' was used. I guess we all want to get home at once, so it may be a day or two after the holiday before I get some home time. Since I don't have any time criticle plans, I won't be too upset about it, unless I suddenly turn unproductive...then my attitude might change. We shall see.

 

Dancin' across the lower Ohio Valley from TX to NC on a 4 stopper. 10 minutes on the 70. Tomorrow have about 10 back. At least have a nice view of a green forest out the front for the evening. Not extra happy about what's been happening. Staying busy, but every day is pushing the 14 without pushing the 11. Lots of p/u today...deliver & p/u tomorrow...get as far as you can, and then deliver the next AM. Repeat.:-[

 

After I got done w/Duncan, OK's delivery they sent me a load, pick up in Edmond, OK headed to B.B.King's hometown of Indianola, MS for anytime Tuesday. It will put me at 1125 for the week, but more importantly, I regain some hours on my 70 so that I'm not playing the Jeopardy theme as I push it as far as I can before my e-log nag starts her annoying chant "you're outa hours....you're outa hours...you're outa hours". Plus it'll put me at 11,300 for the month. I haven't put the numbers in the laptop, but I think if I crack 12,000, it just might get my monthly average over 10,000 for the 1st time since February.

A weird thing happend to my truck the other day.(sounds like the start of a bad joke). While I was on my break in Rhome, TX, the usual 'middle of the night wake up beeper', aka the low battery alarm went off. It was 1:30 am, so I did what I usually do, get up, start truck, then jump back in bed...when the idle timer shuts off the truck, it always shakes me awake. Then I get up, turn off the key and restart the 'no idle' system and try to go back to sleep again. Only this time, it didn't wake me up, because it didn't shut off. At 6:15 (almost 5 hours later, 3.5 hours over the new idle limit) I woke up freezing.(because the trucks main a/c works great, and I had set it a liiitttle bit too high on fan speed). Plus my 'no idle' hvac fan is going coo-coo. While I'm on 'no-idle' it's blower speed varies some. Not like it is being turned up or down, but enough that you can hear the change in the sound of the air coming out of the vents. I hope this isn't a precursor to a system failure...although the batteries are approaching 1 year old...maybe they're wearing out and the DC voltage is varying a bit.

 

you can override the idle limiter by turning on the cruise control. Hit the acc/res button (idle will jump up to over 1000), then bump the idle down with the Dec/set button. The truck will run all night.

 

that is the way we use to do it, but the new trucks can't do it that way once they reprogram it, or at least none of the recent trucks I've had wouldn't. The only way I could get my last truck (with a thermoking apu) to idle more than 3 minutes was to set the trailer brakes, but release the tractor brakes, then you had 15 minutes. This one is the opposite...sit for long in line at a fuel stop or in traffic, you have to set the truck brakes or it shuts off. I still don't know why this thing idled that long unless I have a battery going bad and it wants to keep trying to charge it.

 

Just tell your DM that you want one of those pretty new tribute to the troops trucks.

 

There are only a few, and they're for drivers that have served our nation in the military. While I applaud the appreciation that the trucks represent, I think they have gone overboard with all the decals and stickers. There has got to be a more tastefull and honorable way to do it.

 

After a hometime-shortened week of right at 1000 miles last week, I'll submit right at 3k this week, and even get to New Kingstown for my "A" service within 100 miles of its "due-mileage". All my loads this week have been in the 700-800 mile range...except the first three were all pet food. Must be a lot of hungry dogs out there....

 

Glad to see your truck held together for a full week...makes a driver feel pretty good when that happens.