Good Night From II

Here at the T/A in Stafford, MO. Busted my hump to get to receiver for a 1300 live unload, pulled in and was told to drop. French's Mustard, and she said that Swift knows that all of our in bounds are a drop. CSR again. Was sent 2 pplans, actually the same one twice, pu in the caves here and take to IL. Nope, this truck does not go in the caves. Then another one, 267 mt for a 480 ldd, nope and then one, pu at French's at noon tomorrow and drop tomorrow night in Morris. My DM knows that I am fit to be tied and she says that she can get me out of Morris with a decent run. Doubt it. I talked to her for some time this morning, and after 3 years here, I know what it is like when I get close to home time and in the area, and especially when in GLR area. Bend over. Command has lots of loads going to TX from IL, but since no empty trailer when I drop this one can not commit to a load.

Now on a side note, after 3 years in this truck, finally figured out why my CB hardly ever works. I always have the truck speakers set up as external out put. Changed it today to internal and the CB works just fine now. Now at night just have to remember to change back to external for the alarm and back to internal in the morning. This is mostly when using the GPS on the QC. The CB and the QC were fighting over the speaker.

 

Shippers finally showed up and got me loaded. Lost a lot of drive time waiting. Had planned on reaching Columbus today but only had time on my 14 to make it to a Love's on I-65N just before Louisville. Had to do a Mac22 for delivery but will not have hours left on my 11 when I drop in PA having to do the bulk of the run tomorrow. Thanks CSRs, appreciate that!!

 

Taking a 14 at Flying J off the 435 east of Kansas City. Worked all of 4 hours off my 14 early this morning for a 22 mile live unload t-call from Edwardsville, this after sitting for 36 hours in the terminal this weekend.

My next load was scheduled for a 17:00 pick up and deliver in Lincoln, NE at 04:00. Kind of a silly schedule for a 222 mile run. I called the customer to confirm I can pick up any time, so I'll start early enough to not be late on the delivery (which CAN'T be early) and still have time on my 14 to pick up the next load at 07:00 60 miles away.

At least that last load is headed back to the LA area. Edwardsville sure screwed me over. I'll end up with barely 1500 miles on next week's check.

By the way, for those drivers here that hate the Plus One system, the DM's hate it just as much or more. My DM had to struggle with the software for about 15 minutes this morning trying to figure out how to let it know I could actually take the KC to Lincoln run legally. For some reason it didn't consider I could pick up later that 17:00 on a D&P and wouldn't allow him to over ride it without running through all kinds of shenanigans. He said it is a huge waste of time for DM's, Planners, etc. because the software is hard to over ride.

 

I can understand a slower speed when workers are present, but this has been happening in inactive work zones.
There won't be any workers but a couple trucks will hog both lanes and crawl at 10-15 mpg, holding up everyone behind them. Or a single truck if it one lane.

 

By the way, for those drivers here that hate the Plus One system, the DM's hate it just as much or more. My DM had to struggle with the software for about 15 minutes this morning trying to figure out how to let it know I could actually take the KC to Lincoln run legally. For some reason it didn't consider I could pick up later that 17:00 on a D&P and wouldn't allow him to over ride it without running through all kinds of shenanigans. He said it is a huge waste of time for DM's, Planners, etc. because the software is hard to over ride.[/QUOTE]

And this is the new upgraded Plus 1 system. My DM talked to a planner about something that I said one day to her and it was confirmed. Many times there are loads sitting in a yard ready to go or at a customer and because Plus 1 says that it can pu at a certain time and still get delivered on time, they will not put it into the system. Example, maybe I have been running hard and I get to lets say PHX on Friday and already have about 1500 miles for the week. I want a relaxing weekend run, lets say 1200 for Monday. There might be one sitting on the yard that is ready to go, but Plus 1 says that it can be dispatched on Saturday, late morning, so it sits. They then say that they need to cover the ones that they have for Friday. Well my argument is, if they are covered and drivers are sitting around, then let them have it. Their argument, not good utilization of the equipment. Hey, it is my truck. Let me decide. Well, if it is not in the system, how are they going to know that it is there.

 

When I arrived in Edwardsville I t-called a load with a delivery in Flagstaff on 8/19. That's another 1100 miles I could have moseyed over the weekend, maybe t-call it in Albuquerque with plenty of miles left on it, and made a decent paycheck.

However, at Edwardsville they seem to favor their relay fleet for loads headed west like that, so OTR folks like myself don't get that shot.

 

Chambersburg, PA.

I've been drafted to help on the Target surge, again. Well see how it goes this time.
But it's supposed to pay $230 per day, so...

 

In my case I guess "good utilization of equipment" meant idling for three days covering a 22 mile load and a 222 mile load instead of running 1100 miles in the same time frame.

 

Not in my boyfriend's arms. Had a local delivery in Jersey with a Pplan after for a load going to Charlotte, NC. I should've conveniently ran out my 70 in the Raleigh area around 5-6pm. The Charlotte load doesn't need to be delivered until the 20th. I could've squeezed in a 34hr reset.

Nope! Even though I got to my local receiver early, it still took them 5+ hours for them to come tell me that there was incorrect product and they were doing a partial refusal (18 itty bitty cases were chocolate chip instead of oatmeal). Took swift another 3 hours to tell me what the hell to do with it.

Guess I get to experience my first time of running of recaps. Oh well, my boyfriend is sick too. Maybe this is all for the best.

 

I assume that you're a L/O for that rate.

We're still a bit short handed on this account. We lost about a third of our dedicated drivers when we had a significant change in office staff earlier this year. The "shenanigans" that a small group of drivers pulled didn't help things.

Me: taking a 34 at the TA in Greencastle, PA. About an hour left on my 70...