Good Night From II

The MyDAT app can find the best current fuel prices. Other apps and I think some GPS units can do the same, optimizing your fuel route.

 

At the Cash Magic Casino in LA just east of the TX border on I-10. Ran my tail off from Union City GA to stay here tonight on my way to Laredo. I LOVE their chicken and sausage gumbo. Being a New Orleans native I find it hard to get authentic gumbo on the road.

Got here with only 7 mins left on my 70 with just enough coming back tonight to reach the Laredo terminal for the trailer inspection. Then I can relax a little as the broker drop is Friday morning at 9am. Going to head out very early in the morning so I can slip through Houston before our notorious traffic builds. Should be smooth sailing after that.

 

I'm using Fuelbook and it saves me a substantial amount of money. I use it to trip plan fuel stops and routes as well as whether I accept a load. Unlike a lot of owner operators I have no problem "tankering" cheap fuel at the end of the pay week even if its a hit on that week's settlement. That decision is made based on what Fuelbook shows both for my route there and the likely route out based on the freight patterns.

On a slightly related note, Swift publishes fuel prices at the terminals for owner operators daily and on Friday for the weekend and Monday. Due to the number of times I have gotten to a terminal to find there is no fuel, I delete those as soon as they arrive. It costs an average of $7.38 to bring my truck from highway speed to a full stop and accelerate back to highway speed plus the out of route costs.

I have made a few suggestions for a really simple fix. However, Swift is populated by corporate drones, top to bottom, who are really good with the "not my job" response to suggestions to fix problems while expending prodigious energy shirking doing their jobs and, in effect, stealing part of their paychecks.

 

I really like that place and the cheap fuel across the street.

 

At a Love's near the NC/SC border.

After 2 attempts with mac 30 and zero results I was sent 2 pplans.
The first was picking up a Xtra lease trailer at a Walmart store to bring it 20 miles back to an Xtra yard.
The second was picking up not too far away and has me going to LA. (state, not city)
I needed to find an mt for the second, but that was sent to me pretty quickly.

I stopped much sooner than I would have liked, but I was up against my 30 minute break at my fuel stop. Rush hour was just kicking in.
So instead of fueling and taking a 30 and then heading back out at 1730 into heavy traffic I decided to just take my 10 here. Well, actually 12.
I can fuel in the morning during my pre-trip and save the 30 minute break for later. So even though I'll start much earlier tomorrow morning I'll save a bit of time overall.
At least I'll get through the area with little traffic.

Hopefully I don't get another load back east from LA - or to Laredo or someplace just as bad.


On a side note... I recently started some new blood pressure meds. The pressure has been going up for a few years, but until now I was able to skate by the physicals.
Not this time, and I only got a 3 month card last time.
Anyway, this stuff works pretty well. I'm holding steady at around 130/90 after a few weeks on it, so a little adjustment should get me in the very good range.

I have experienced zero side effects, with one exception. (The last one I tried (nearly 2 years ago) made me want to close my eyes and go to sleep, after being awake for only a couple hours. The doc couldn't figure out why the first doc put me on that med. I stopped taking it before a week was out.)

My night vision has cleared up considerably.

My vision started to get worse around 8 years ago, so I got glasses. It was a very mild prescription, mainly for near and far.
Over several years it got a bit better, and good enough that I could pass with 20/20 during a physical so I don't have a restriction on my CDL.
While I was fine driving with no glasses during the day, I still really needed them at night.

About 2 weeks after beginning the bp meds I noticed that I no longer needed glasses at night.
Now I see nearly as well at night as I do in daylight.
And that has been OH SO GOOD!!!
I dreaded driving at night, mainly because I had to wear the glasses. They change my perspective, so nothing seems just right. Reflections, lens scratches and such just compounded the problem. (I'm still using those 8 year old original glasses, but now I only need them for reading.)
And just having them on for a few hours caused discomfort in a few places.

90% of my night driving stress has just been removed.
The other still comes from crappy low-beam headlights on the Volvo. But seeing with 'my own eyes' even helps with that.

 

jurupa terminal. was sent a message saying the good news on the 34 hr reset. going back to the old way. said it update should be done by 6pm tomorrow. though, the current reset never bothered me due to the way i run and do my resets. falls in line with the rule rule anyways. but at least it will help the solo's who drive at night.

 

wow Moose just high blood pressure effects the eyes? At least the new meds are getting you regulated, I have always been lucky to have perfect blood pressure but im also still considered young so who knows in 20 years....

side note if anyone has to run the 58 heading through Tehachapi the loves dropped the fuel price to $3.14 today.

 

dang..wish my bp meds would help my eyes lol. had catarac surgery in both eyes and last surgery was for a detach retina in the left eye.

 

I decided to give my trainee plenty of leeway today to see how he would run with NO need to deal with customers, just drive. The result is a whopping 388 miles for a full 13 hour shift running LA to Ellyn. Interstate the whole way except the 85 Phoenix bypass. Four rest breaks averaging 23 minutes per break and a 30 minute break that extended into a 3 hour nap.

When I reviewed these facts his response was, "I'm just warming up".

The other issue is his tendency to get off the throttle and coast. If I don't remind him to speed up he'd be crawling at 35 mph on the freeway.

Either there is some remarkable progress or I'll need to ask driver development to remove him from my truck. No sense of work ethic or hustle.

 

Lepton1 sounds rough. Some medical issues or juzt a putz? Might suggest bus driving ?