E & H Transport Network

They are setting me up to pick up a trailer in Tulsa, OK and once everything clears with load planning they will let me know. In the mean time I was just slapped by Murphy's law. I have one of those resin fillings in my tooth and it now picks today to fall out. And my dentist is swamped. Well I was able to find that tooth repair stuff. The filling was intact and fit back in perfectly. I brought some 98% isopropyl alcohol and soaked the filling in that while I brushed my teeth and then held a small amount of listerine in my mouth focusing on the tooth with the missing filling for about five minutes and spat it out. Afterwards I took the filling out of the isopropyl alcohol let dry and placed a small dab of filling repair on the the inside of the filling and placed the filling back on the tooth. It took about five minutes to get it to fit right. Now I have to remember not to chew on that side. I'm planning on either coming back home after a week and a half to let my dentist fix my tooth or trying to get a load to go through an area with one of those huge truck stops that had a dental office inside. I'll post again once I'm actually on my way.

 

I went to pick up the trailer in Tulsa. The trailer was dropped off by a driver that was fired and unsurprising they left the inside in deplorable conditions. By the time I picked up the trailer it was too dark to fix everything so I'm going to do it today when I get in Des Miones. I'm doing a 3 stop load ending in CA. Which I'm going to get paid $3700ish. I'll post more to follow.

 

The driver who last had the trailer was fired so he didn't give a rat's tail of the condition he left it in. So I spent part of this afternoon folding blankets and getting the trailer ready. I knew I wasn't going to finish before it got dark so I got at least half of everything done and I'll finish tomorrow morning. A good part of the loads are furniture, casino machines, electronics which most often have to be pad wrapped. You don't do any of the loading or wrapping but you do have to fold the blankets up neatly mostly in the nose of the trailer. Here is the equipment that is in the trailer.
100-200 blankets
2 furniture dollies
Around 30 load bars
A milk crate with around 20 ratcheting straps
13 plywood boards for decking.
And 2 load Ramps that are stored outside and underneath the trailer.
The hardest part you'll do is folding all of those blankets! Half of the time the customers don't need the blankets and you can ask them to remove them neatly for you with a fork lift which is why you don't want to stack them up too high. You can use the plywood to help secure the blankets so that they won't fall over in the trailer when it is empty. You also going to need to buy a lock clipper and a set of two double keyed locks for the load ramps. This is because when you pick up your first trailer the last driver who had it might of took the keys with him and instead of going through all of that you'll already have everything. Just save the receipts and let dispatch know. You most likely will have the same trailer for weeks which is a good thing. When you get your first load I'd advise dispatch to give you an extra day to deliver because if the last driver left the trailer messed up you don't want to have to rush through everything especially just getting started. If your trailer is messed up take pictures and send it to dispatch and they should pay you for your time because your trailer is supposed to be ready to go.

 

I'm just curious, not looking for a job. Are y'all percentage or mileage pay?

 

Mileage pay. It's the same empty unloaded and deadhead. You don't get paid for the first 60 miles though. Also they don't nickel and dime you to death. They take out 2,500for the escrow. Then they take out in deductions for the plates and insurance if you get it through them. Then 3% is taken out on cash advances. The fuel surcharge is pretty crappy right now probably because of the low fuel prices.

 

Oh ok. Thank you. Be safe!

 

I completed my first load today. It was a glass display case and kitchen stuff from Iowa. Total weight was like 3,000 pounds and took less than 15 minutes to unload. I'm now at the Lodi truck stop in California waiting for them to give me another load. My 2017 Volvo had a fuel economy of 7.6 at the end of the trip. I'm estimating my net will be around 2294 and that's counting fuel and the deductions for the plates and for the escrow. My gross was 3289.65. Part of the load was canceled which is why this number is lower from the first one I posted. I had already sent the copy of my BOL's via email. You can use email or scan at the truck stop. I use a PDF generator app on my phone called CamScanner. You take pictures of your documents and the program scans them. You can pick to scan in B&W, color copy, greyscale, ect. Then you save the documents as an PDF in the app and email to dispatch. This comes in handy when you are far from the truck stop and need to beat the deadline to get paid by Tuesday.

 

It's really hard getting a load from California going to Texas and every time they would find something and by the time they go back and confirm the load it's already gone. So they gave me a load picking up from Las Vegas going to New Mexico and from there I just going to go home. They are giving me fuel money to cover the miles. Hopefully I should be home by Saturday. When I go back to work Monday or Tuesday depending on when I get my load, I'm going to stay out for 3 and a half to four weeks.

 

I got a load Monday for Tuesday. Picked
Up in Laredo going to Winchester VA. There is a down side to having all of those blankets, some loads require more trailer space then others. If you put everything in the nose of the trailer usually you'll still have enough room to do standard loads. But sometimes the shipper needs almost all the space and then you have to be creative to shift those blankets around. If the load isn't tall another option is to use the load bars and the plywood to make a second "deck" and put the blankets on top. I use the suppied load straps to tie the blankets in a bundle. If the second deck is too high to put the blanket bundle up there you can have the fork lift person put them up there for you or get a ladder if they have one. I'd advise you to buy your own straps (about 7-10) to put to the side just in case you fall short in the straps because you used some of them to make the bundle.
Once you get your load if possible call the shipper to find out how much trailer space they need and advise them that you have extra equipment and if it'll be a problem. If you stack everything in the nose of the trailer high, tight, and neat usually there's no problem. If stored correctly everything takes up 3-5 feet of room. But if the worst happens and the shipper rejects the trailer because of all the extra equipment and you lose the load you'll get paid for it if you had to deadhead like 100 miles for example.
Folding blankets is a whole lot easier than trying to tarp a flatbed load in -20 degrees.

 

I had a two stop load last week for that Thursday and friday at a construction site. Total weight for each stop was about 10,000 pounds each. The second stop took like five hours to unload and on my way to the truck stop in Coburg OR Volvo contact me and let me know that my truck was part of a recall for the steering column. Just my luck. They were finished with the repair that same day but now I stuck here over the weekend. This is one of the downsides of working for a company this small. If they can't find you a load on Friday you are stuck over the weekend. But this an Easter weekend and this is the first time this happened to me. so I don't know if this is a normal thing or not.