EPES TRANSPORT-Greensboro, NC

no APU's....and i'm not really seeing the need for one so far...summertime they don't give you any grief about idle time.....i spent most of last summer running down south and idled 4 or 5 out of 5 days with the a/c on and nobody ever said a word to me about it.......wintertime they do watch the idle time but the bunk heaters are outstanding.....that thing is worth it's weight in gold lol.....it can be 10 degrees outside and it will get so hot in here so quick it will run you out of the truck until you get your sweet spot figured out where you're comfortable and get it set there.....no matter how cold it is outside i still can live in the truck in shorts and a tshirt and sleep like a baby in winter......

inverters are allowed you buy your own and some 4ga cables to wire it up and the shop installs it for you.

 

Does the size of the inverter matter? I have a chance to purchase an 1800watt. Just enough for the microwave/tv/refrigerator

 

I was spoiled at my last companies. All had apu and inverter installed

 

yeah but everything in life is a tradeoff.....were you home every weekend and drive equipment that was relatively new and anally maintained? if you were then yeah you had it pretty good...... sure an apu would be nice but if they aren't going to ding me for staying cool in the summer i'm not really missing it......

some of the other guys can chime in here if i'm wrong but i think 1800 is the max on the inverters....i've got a 1500 in mine but that's just because i already had it from a previous application.....

what is it with these volvos being so heavy on the drives? i've asked this before and nobody really has an answer......another heavy heavy one....paper rolls out of chester to my favorite place.....new jersey....NOT lol.....first weigh and had them set about midway gets me 36,400 on the drives with half tanks.....all the way forward with half tanks gets me 33,900....best i'm going to get on this run.....i guess it's just something in the suspension geometry on the volvo but it always runs heavy on the drives....the one i brought down here was like that too but i got it a little more even than what this one is but still with half tanks 33,200 was the best i could get on that one with 33,600 on the trailer. anything over 42k is a balancing act between axle position and fuel weight and a pretty good bet it's going to be one hole one way or the other to be legal or not legal....and i never fuel until after i've loaded.....saved my ### on quite a few occasions especially out of baldwinsville.....good thing i did alot of weight and balance and measuring fuel vs. payload in my previous life flying lol...it sure has come in handy running this volvo making sure it's going to be legal when i cross the scales.....

 

With the VN670 the wheelbase, I think plays a major roll in the WAY the truck feels. Is your truck the 670 Midroof? Like you said its a trade off for a comfy ride. My last truck was a 2010 Kw T660 and before that 2008 T2000, very stiff suspension, but I loved them. Plus my 5th wheel was fixed in one place so it made scaling a whole lot easier.
I left my last company for military reasons. Now that Im finished I want to get back in the game. I was looking to buy my own, but didn't turn out that way. As a lease operator I was paying over $3K a month in truck, so needless to say I was driving 28 out of 30 days per month. Found EPES through misfortune and now just waiting to see if I will be part of the team. Thanks for all the info, give me an idea of what I'm up against.

 

Well another day on waiting for the recruiter to call me back, it has been two days. I left voice mail and email. nothing. Is this a sign of what to come!!!!!

 

Okay, got in touch with the recruiter and had to fax more paperwork to them. So we will see if tomarrow will bring a brighter day. Not in a rush, I will not be in orientation until 13 FEB, but not knowing how thing will turn out sucks. So "Wax on Wax off" and keep the patience level up

 

I have to wonder who the bright brain was that decided it was a good idea to have that weigh station at the split at the 27 just above DC? or who the even bigger dummy is that thinks it's useful to have it open at 730am or 530pm......sometimes i think they just do things just to see how hard they can make life.....been through there 5 times this week and had to go round the circle there 3 times out of it either morning or evening......i almost always get lucky enough to plan my trips through there late at night or middle of the day to avoid the traffic but this week was unlucky enough to have appt times that just didn't make that possible.....

got bitten by the electronic babysitter yesterday.......chester to vineland, nj.....vineland to bellmawr, nj back down to richmond.....live unload followed by a d/h to a d/h at the end.....a full day but doable with about 1.5 hours to the good by the time i get back to chester to shut down for the day......no problems up and got through dc early enough to miss most of the morning rush.....

didn't take too long getting unloaded at vineland bounced over to the pickup and put the empty in the dock and grabbed the loaded one back....even got lucky and it was light so no wories there either.....

2 miles out from the shipper traffic stops......for miles......pothole repair......really? they can't do this #### at night like most other places down south do? just another reason i don't belong up north.....30 minutes blown creeping along to get past that.....15 miles later......more pothole repair.....sit and creep along again lost another 30 minutes......sweating the clock a little now since i know it's going to be pushing 430 when i hit 495 and that's not a good time to be getting there........blow through baltimore with no problems then get to 495 and traffic is thick along the beltway but moving albeit slow.....at least it isn't stopped the way it usually is that time of day......and of course around we go throught the coop.....still looking okay at this point but really tight will have to be quick in and quick out in richmond to make it to the yard.......

30 miles north of richmond.....you guessed it.....traffic stops. and moves 5 feet. and stops. and moves 10 feet. then creep along in 2nd gear for a couple of miles. then stop again.....somebody went off the right side and out into the woods and they have a big cleanup going on.....the big orange sign miles back clearly said right lane closed and of course all the idiots are running up the right lane so they can try to push their way in at the front of the line and making things take much longer than they should have.......finally moving again with 28 to go and 38 minutes on the clock and know it's already a done deal......go ahead and advise dm i'm going to go over.......

get to the consignee with 14 minutes left. of course, most of that was eaten up checking in at the gaurdhouse, going back and getting the paperwork taken care of and getting the trailer in the door. hook up to the empty at 4 minutes over. explain the situation to the guy inside and he just looks up and say "don't even think you're parking here".... #######..... alot of the places we go will let us park overnight or to take our break if we need to......some of them won't or don't have room.....sometimes if they're having a good day and you have a good attitude and nicely explain the situation to them they will relent and let you if you're out of hours......not this one......this guy clearly didn't like his job and wasn't having a good day and was even a real #### about it.....

finally get back to chester 30 minutes over when i log off duty.......days like this that ####### babysitter just was not somebody's better idea.......and before the supertruckers yell "poor trip planning"....."you should have stopped and taken 10".....i had plenty of time leaving the shipper.....even for one unforseen occurance and would have still been good but 3 all in the same trip?.....there really should be some allowance on that thing for these types of days rather than an unflinching and cold "you are in violation of hours of service"......

oh and did i mention this load had a firm appt time for yesterday and that it was supposed to be picked up the day before? otherwise i would have just stopped and taken 10 but it's a big account and we know how those things go.....

some days are like that. at least today will be somebody else's day lol....

 

At stevens transport I was stuck at the dock min Medesto,CA picking up dropping off fruit and my clock ran out. Property manager said after your two hour allowable timeframe we will charge your company $100.00 per hour after. Hell they sent over a driver with a 2nd weeke trainee to drive my truck to a TS 30mins away. Will EPES do that or you just have to take the bullet and have them write you up for safety violation???? Its challenging here in the northeast with traffic and firm appointments.

 

I don't really know what the policy would be a situation like that but all i know to say is trip planning takes on a whole new importance......especially running as much northeast as we do

you have to get creative with parking sometimes....i've got quite a few gems marked in the gps as i find them.....a dirt lot beside a mcdonalds in ustate new york.....an abandoned mall parking lot in new jersey.....a burger king with truck parking in new hampshire....any place like that i can find i immediately mark it.....sometimes you have to do what you have to do though with the electronic babysitter pissing and whining because your time is up......to date i've run it over 3 times....the first time was trying to follow the company routing and ending up on US50 in eastern WV not knowing the road and never having been that way before......started the trip with 5 1/2 hours and closest and best parking 170 miles away......on paper planning it was more than enough....if you know that road i don't have to explain further.....if not let's just say narrow gauge two lane mountain goat path hell and took 5 hours to go 145 miles then the rest of the way to parking.....the other two were weather/traffic issues like i experienced thursday......the first time after i was over 35 minutes my phone was ringing and it was safety wanting to know why......the other two times i called them ahead of time to advise and it went over much better than when they didn't know beforehand lol....

certainly changed the way i look at the company route "suggestion".....i use it as just that now....as suggestion.....generally it works out okay but from now on, if the road they suggest looks like a coiled up snake on the map, i find another way lol.....

but sometimes you just have to get creative and do whatever it takes....i posted back a few months ago about a grocery warehouse in newark i picked up at.....got there with 6 hours left.....3 hours to get to a door and then at the 6 hour mark they were just getting started.....and this place has NO room......not for staging to wait on the dock, much less if you run out of hours and need to park.....and we all know there isn't a place to park for miles and miles in and around newark unless someone has a private little spot marked like the few i have lol......so i get loaded, already 2 hours over......and the guy looks at me like i'm stupid when i tell him i'm out of hours.....so i pull out of the dock and to the side of this tiny dock area to put on my seal and set the axles and pull up the sat map on the laptop to get the lay of the land and see if there's anywhere close that looks promising....not like anywhere in newark is going to be promising enough i'll feel safe there for 10 hours lol.....so i see the warehouse has a back side with alot of trailers parked and another small lot.....so i creep out of the gate, around the block and pull into the back lot of the warehouse where there are assorted trailers, daycabs and a few trucks back there.......had to wait on one truck unloading....he was pulling a 48 and it was so tight he had to back in with the tractor at a 45 to the trailer just to get straight on the door.....anyway......after he pulled out i pulled on in there and backed in between two trucks that were already there like i belonged there, pulled the curtain and went to bed......10hrs later, pulled on out of the back gate and went on my way.....

i don't really mind the elog so much now that i've learned how to use it effectively..... as far as not having to worry about keeping up with drawing the lines or being current to my last status and never been pulled in at a scale when they see that sticker on the side.....and my miles really haven't suffered.....i run hard and run it down under an hour most days and alot less than that most days.....but when it comes down to times like that or being 30 minutes from home on friday and having to park for 10 just to get home.....it really is a pain.....