FedEx Freight Diary (ala Russian Rabbit)

This previous week managed to be a success. My barn is receiving a lot of new city tractors from a hub, so one day was spent cushioning one way with a double turn driver and returning with a tractor twice that night. I had the genius idea (using that term loosely) to bring a handheld with me and ask for a trailer at the hub instead of bobtailing on my hourly rate. It paid off, both tractors I came back with turned into linehaul runs on top of the hourly rate while cushioning. This in turn caused what would have been a roughly $325 night while on 100% hourly into a $405 night when combined with my regular linehaul pay.

Also good is that from this point on, if I can manage 2220 miles each week from this point on through the end of the year, I can still salvage the ebbs and flows of freight into $92k for my first year on linehaul (taking into account my rise to top out in September, since my barn tops people out after 1 year).

 

Well my bid tractor finally came back from the shop. Yesterday was the first day I’ve been in it since the new bid a couple weeks ago. It was out because the previous driver had no ac, which wouldn’t normally get prioritized, but the window wouldn’t roll down either. So, needless to say, I’m happy to have a fresh AC system.

However, after starting the tractor, the Bendix system has a coronary and throws out several fault codes. I’d normally not care but whatever is causing the issues causes the instrument cluster to light up like a Christmas tree... abs light, traction control light, hill assist, you name it. I’m inclined to think these systems are still functioning, because the hill assist is definitely active while accelerating from a stop on an incline.

But the weekend is still a success. I picked up a shuttle run on Saturday with a via on it, which makes up for taking Tuesday night after having to use a 16 hour exception resulting in my reset ending after my start time (which would have put me on the extra board and likely not have gotten a run anyway).

Once I got back, spent 4 hours totally cleaning the truck and moving my cb into it and squaring stuff away. I don’t think the previous driver ever cleaned it or maintained anything. Things like gladhand seals rotting away, needing 9qts of oil, out of date permit book etc. truck has 190k on it in 2 1/2 years of use, should still have been in good shape. I’ll have it until next June so it will get a year of showroom level maintenance ahead of it. Because of where I fall in seniority, I’ll be last or near last in any lane for quite some time. As a result I hit a scale on my return trip daily. Tmc ingrained into me that a truck that looks squared away more than likely is when dot is looking at you, so that’s the source of my ocd of truck cleanliness.

Also happy to be back into a Peterbilt again as I prefer the layout of controls.

Upside to all the new city tractors coming in is that my chance of slipseating with someone continue to drop.

 

Yep. One of the hubs I went to last night had at least new 15-20 city tractors by the shop with OOS tags on them (until the shop sets them up on the ELD system and internal dispatch network).

From what I can tell, areas like the Northeast seem to get corporate love over other regions of the country for fresh city units due to the abortion of our roads, low bridges and infrastructure designed without large trucks in mind.

Joke is on them, those little Peterbilt city units have a worse turning radius than road tractors, they should have stuck with the smaller Kenworth units that turn like a yard horse.

 

I flat out wouldn’t. The weak little engine brake on those wouldn’t be fun in the downgrade of NY on 84

 

Yeah, I get that, I just don’t quite have faith in those trucks for it and I don’t quite understand how the “manual” setting on this automated shift trucks work in those scenarios.

 

Made a total dumba** move this morning coming back from NY. Got into the yard, parked the set and got out to break the set.

Another driver that I'm friends with was there at the same time and made the comment "hey, don't forget to disconnect your airlines" referring to a top guy in the barn that ripped his airlines off the dolly a week ago.

This was my cardinal mistake, stopping to bulls*it with someone in the process of breaking my set. I ended up ripping the lines of the dolly from the kite because I wasn't paying attention since I had stopped to talk to him after I disconnected the dolly air from my lead trailer, but not disconnecting the lines from the dolly to the kite.

Super embarrassing and absolutely infuriating because while I thought I was better than that, it proved that I'm not.

When hooking, follow PAL (Pin, Air, Landing Gear), when breaking, follow LAP (Landing Gear, Air, Pin) and don't deviate so you don't look like a miscreant like I did this morning.

Haven't been able to sleep all day because of this. I know it won't get me fired or suspended because I have a clean record with the company, but I can't help it festering in my head. That's one mistake I'll be sure to never make again as long as I live.

Even worse? That was a good #### dolly too. Who knows when it will be fixed.