Good Night From II

Here in big Springs, TX. Snagged a nice 1400 mile run this morning from MAC 30. A 17K load to Rockport, IL by Weds. It can drop later, but I am going to do my best to get it there before cutoff on Wednesday, and if I figure my hours correct and no serious delays, I can get it there with out 3 hours to spare, and that is averaging 60. If I would have taken the actual GPS route and Swifts, it would not happen. they had me going back up us-54 to 40 and back on 54 again to 35. Looked at Mapquest, and going 100 miles OOR, 10-20 to 277 to 44. It did start out as a bad day, woke up and the truck stop was not open. Then got to my fuel place in Tularosa, the girl at the fuel desk kept having a problem trying to get me approved. She wrote down my truck number and every time she tried to key it in she would forget a 0, and then tried to say that I did not give it to her. She looked at the paper and there it was. Then I grab a 44 oz tea, walk out to my truck, and just as sitting it on the floor, the bottom falls out. Get to Cardinal Health, do my D&H, head to Electrolux and they reject the trailer, license plate bulb, so now to the terminal. Tried to leave with the same trailer that was assigned to me, and they had to put it back on me, re-pplan, accept and then dispatch me. All in all, about a 2 hour delay. Nice thing, my little favorite one was on the window in a nice short dress. OhhLALA

 

rejected over just a bulb? wow.... might be something to get a spare of and keep in your parts kit.

Woke up early to go try and do my sim and im told they cant do sims until late in the afternoon around 1500 the earliest because everyone is busy with orientation and road test. I got a little bit mad but tried to keep calm and told the lady I cant stay since I have 2 loads to go take care of, "come in tomorrow morning" ummm cant do that either...I explained if I did not do it today I go on safety hold so then she goes off about me waiting the last minute, I told her I do not get to the terminals very often and its when planners get me planned for it. Anyway safety coordinator added 18 days to my time to get it done and im supposed to get a load back up there for Friday. It just irritates me since now I will be giving up half a 2nd day of making money to do this stupid sim class that takes just a few minutes and they dont really teach much in my opinion. at least the few I have done didnt.

Got back to the dc then took a load to Grenada Hills then picked up a Purina in Maricopa, that road is a little more scary during daylight since you cannot see headlights coming around those sharp corners. The wind there was crazy and was fun trying to back in with all the dust flying everywhere, I also think I am going to pick up a pair of safety glasses for really windy days. The wind was strong enough to blow around my 45k trailer.

 

I don't know about in California, but Lancaster will not give you spare bulbs since they are going to LED bulbs on the trailers. Some of the newer trailers you can't even get to the bulb for the license plate and the others are riveted in place. It isn't like it used to be where you just pull the old one off and plug in the new one and go.

 

seems like a dumb move to me, ends up costing more time and money in the long run in my opinion.
Im just happy Target takes good care of their trailers and if something happens to be wrong they fix it in minutes before you leave the dc plus the do pm services on them regularly.

 

I had a 11 series trailers. They went to 2 other trailers and see about a swap, and they were 13 series. No go. This place really checks trailers before going to Mexico. Marvin was telling me in El Paso that before any mt go to Electrolux they might start having you bring your to the yard for an inspection.

 

Last 2 or 3 Electrolux loads I picked up in El Paso had it in the comments that you were to have your MT inspected at the yard before you picked up. When I realized that the Electrolux inspector could care less about a Swift inspection I quit going by the yard. If the MT will pass my pre-trip it will pass an Electrolux inspection. Why spend an extra half hour (or more) doing something that isn't needed and that you're not getting paid for.

 

At the TA in Tooele, UT. Dropped this morning at the Costco DC. Bobtailed towards the terminal but stopped in one of the dirt lots west of the terminal and grabbed an MT. Kinda nice not having to deal with the new Salt Lake terminal if you don't have to. Since I pick up tonight in Tooele I stopped here to get my 90 day DOT inspection done and take a 10 hour break before I pickup. Then I'm headed home for a Thursday morning delivery then 10 days off.

 

Here in Mt. Vernon, IL. Nice drive today. Hardly any traffic. Nice tailwind until crossed into OK and got around OKC, then it all changed. Dropped from 9.6 to 9.3. Waaaa. Now all of 543 miles for tomorrow and will arrive with about 3 hours left on my 70 and pu 8. New DM came back today, I think. Was supposed to, but no messages from her.

 

salinas ks at the pilot. tcalled the load in edwardsville terminal after getting the 3 id light on trailer fixed. got done pretty quick. p/u a tcall load going to loveland co . deliver at any time tomorrow. only had about 3.5 hrs left when i departed edwardsville, so made it here. take shower and eat dinner

 

Montgomery, AL on the way to Laredo with no A/C. My charge air cooler got dinged a while back and finally decided to leak out all of my refrigerant.