Driving OTR with US Xpress

Hey Sammycat,


I was just hanging out with Perpetual.

 

You and I must me passing each other like crazy.....lol. I've been doing a lot of NY, NJ, PA, and MD.

I've only been to Cali once and that was before Christmas. Other than the "once in a blue moon run", it's mid-west and east for us solo guys.

Don't worry, the silly season is fast approaching. You may luck out once the FMs go into holiday panic mode.

 

Perpetual, it was a pleasure to meet you.

Too bad our schedules were not in sync so we could have at least had a chance to sit for a while.

Next time, buddy. I'll buy the first cup of coffee.

 

Hello There.

I should have bought stock in Kimberly Clark. I'm sure it's value has incresased from all the tissues I've been using since the onset of this cold.

Ok. Last week settlement sheet: 1485 miles.

Reason: Coming back from home-time.

I always start my home-time the day after the cut-off for submitting in trips, and of course, I take the next 3 days off. So, no rolling for me on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. I lose the benefit of 3 driving days and it's reflected in lower miles.

This is the main reason I stay out as long as I do (4-5 weeks), to make up for those 3 days.


Another thing that happens which you don't hear too much about is what happens when there's a delay at a shipper.


I was dispatched to pick up a bottled water load heading to a Walgreens DC. Nice run, just over 600 miles. I showed up right on-time, and waited 6 hours to be loaded.

Now we have detention pay for the delay, but the problem is sometimes a delay of that length will put you out of hours, as it did me. By the time I was loaded and rolling, I had just over an hour left, and the load needed to be scaled out (43,600) on top of it. I stopped about 20 minutes down the road at a Wilco Hess, scaled her out, and parked for the night. Dispatch was setting up a re-power to ensure the load arrived at the receiver on-time.

I hated losing that load because it would have made this weeks miles pretty good.

As it stands, not counting that run, I have over 2200 miles this week. I'm not sure how much I'll net out of that run. 6 hours detention pay, dead head miles and the re-power.


That's trucking. Things like this happen from time to time. It's all part of the job, so you can't let it get to you.


Food.

How I existed with out the microwave oven in the truck I'll never know. I can even re-heat my coffee. Tonight I had Ziti with meat sauce, just 310 calories. This is a micowave meal you can buy in the grocery store. Just need to add water to cook the pasta. Even comes with a strainer.......what won't they think of next.




And tonight, I'm going to make popcorn!!!!




What to watch...........I know. "The Last Samurai". Good popcorn flick.






Thanks for reading.
-Wedge