Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

Well after attempting to hack TruckersReport to try to scam ya'll into sending me money, I don't think I will be quitting my day job as a truck driver.

In all seriousness though, pretty much since I left out after talking to my DBL I have been fricking KILLIN IT.

First week out was a little over 3000 miles driven.

Just finished up the second 7 days running completely on recap hours, with 2800 miles.

I'm not sure if it was our talk, or maybe the Schneider gods finally smiled down upon my truck, but man... this is great. Trying to save up as much as possible right until the moment when I'm ready to purchase a truck, so this is what I need... and more of it!!!

Since I started running on recap hours I've been aiming for 400 miles every day and its been fricking perfect. Great customers, great loads, no Northeast (trying to find something wooden to knock on in this Cascadia so I don't jinx myself... oh well knock on plastic then). Running on recap hours I'm not running myself ragged, got plenty of time to stop and take a break when I need to, and still pulling of 2800+ miles a week... sure wish the previous 8 months of driving had been like this LOL.

I ran down to NC yesterday, got a load out of there headed up to Ohio today. Got stopped tonight and updated my NAT, not 5 minutes later a new preassignment shows up, 400 miles of deadhead (LOL) and then a 570 mile run to delivery. AWWWW YEAHHHH. Gonna call in tomorrow after delivering this one just to make sure the 400 mile deadhead is correct. I'm sure it is, I've had it happen before with this same shipper. But, better just double check to make sure.

I called Schneider Finance a couple days ago to get some information about seeing the truck inventory, they told me to send in the application and then they will get in touch with me and at that point we can talk about what I'm interested in, share pictures, etc. Whatever works I guess. I've been putting off the finance application because honestly I hate filling out crap like that at the end of the day, BUT, gotta do it some point so it might as well be tonight.

 

Just finished my application, need a couple addresses for nearest relative and personal reference that I can't remember offhand, so that will wait until tomorrow.

After its submitted SFI tells me it will take 3-5 business days and then they will get back to me.

I've got a hometime request in at the beginning of October, so hopefully between now and the end of the hometime I will have everything worked out. I plan to check out SelecTrucks in Charlotte too, I had a Choice driver I was talking to recommend them to me, saying he was able to get a truck through them even with pretty bad credit. Either way, whether I go through someone like them or Schneider I will be in good shape I think. I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself here, but I am pretty excited about what could be in my near future.

 

Another good day, little slow with a heavy load through the WV turnpike and US-35, but got to the delivery and they had my rolls from Domtar in SC unloaded in, I'm not kidding, 8 minutes.

After that headed the 100 miles into the Indy OC and will be here for the night. 400.8 miles for the day. Tomorrow and the next day I'll be running a little harder, but not much, 330 miles down to MO for the pickup and then around 530 miles from there up to IA for the delivery, gotta have it there by the AM on the 29th. 960ish miles total, can't complain!

Dropped my crap empty at the shop here because it had questionable tires, the doors were near impossible to open, and one of the tail lights has a bad wire running to it for the signal lamp. Found an almost brand new trailer... was a little skeptical because it looked too good to be true in a line of other crappy empties, but ran into the shop and asked the guy at the desk if he could check if I could clear the gate with it, LOL. Apparently it was my lucky day, its all good to go.

Hope Indy has a good cheeseburger. I'm starving.