FedEx Ground Linehaul with JohnBoy

To all my brethren.

 

Gokd….,.,

 

Left the house Monday morning and drove up to Port Saint Lucie with my wife to load the truck up and get rolling. First stop was the Blue Beacon to get the truck a bath. Next stop was Southern Tire in Ocala to get 4 new drive tires put on. Then I called in to find out what was on the agenda. Was told to bobtail to Savannah. Got here at midnight Monday night and took my 10. Woke up early Tuesday morning and went in to grab a shower. On my way back to the truck my contractor called and told me I had a tight run going to Hagerstown MD. 655 miles. Checked my app and it was a set of doubles. Got them put together and was leaving the gate exactly at 10:30. The run was uneventful, but I did use up all but 26 minutes of my drive time. Took my 10 up in Hagerstown and woke up to a text from my contractor. My return trip was on my app. Checked it out and it was a return set of empty doubles going back to Savannah. Got back last night at 8pm. On my way back I stopped off at the Petro in Kenly and picked up a set of removable mudflap brackets along with a set of reflective tape. I needed a QVI (quarterly vehicle inspection) when I got back and the old, bent ones on my truck wouldn’t pass inspection.

Woke up this morning early and put the new brackets on, went in and took a shower, then waited for my next trip, and waited and waited. No trip today. I sat here all day watching outside carriers come in pulling FedEx trailers and leaving with FedEx trailers. And I sat. The best part? I got paid to sit here and watch the show. I’m on a guaranteed salary, I get paid to watch a show, or run a load. All I know is if I was a contractor watching these outside carriers come and go while my equipment was sitting, I’d be extremely pissed.

My pay was up this afternoon on the ADP app. I worked 2 days last week, so that was there, then I got a text from a friend of mine that I work with here that said the Christmas bonus was on this weeks pay. Mine showed nothing. To say I was a little pissed would be an understatement. Then she told me it’s on a second page. I found it and was floored. Last year I got $750. This year I got $1000. And I was off work for 3 months over the summer for my surgery. I have a lot to be thankful for, you all know why. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t thank God for holding my hand while my wife and I went through what we did. But this job I have is truly a blessing. It’s a shame I didn’t find it sooner. I did my yearly numbers today. Just going on my guaranteed salary the last 2 weeks of this month, I ran 82,550 miles and made $83,375 dollars not including my Christmas bonus. If you add in my 12 weeks of disability at 60% of my salary, that was $15,850 that I collected which came out to a total of $99,225. So if my math is correct, I made $1.01 for all miles run. I don’t think I’d want to go through surgery and disability again, but if I deduct the disability money from that total, it’s still a good earning year. I went back over all my earnings and miles since I started here 2 years ago. I run right at 95,000 miles a year and make a little over $1.00 per mile. Say what you will about FedEx, but the money is here, especially if you work for a good contractor. I see it first hand, not to put anyone down or walk around with an attitude, but you can definitely see which ones are sweatshops on wheels, and which ones are run professionally. I’ll say it again, I’m the most grateful truck driver you’ll ever meet.

 

Shawn is still there? Unreal.