Good Night From II

Need to catch a few z's. Drove from Odessa to OKC starting at midnight. No backhaul and the DAT load board looked pretty dry for flatbed loads except for a load picking up in Houston headed to Williston. Interesting thing about ACME is that even as a company driver you can book loads with approved brokers if ACME doesn't have anything.

The owner and I talked it over and decided to deadhead back to OKC. He's cleaning out all his stuff from the truck and this afternoon I move in and go solo. I'll go on the board at midnight. Pretty excited about hauling my first solo load.

This afternoon will be shopping for groceries and fire resistant clothes.

 

Good idea ... wouldn't want to go down in flames ..

 

Still sitting here with nothing being offered. Not liking the weather map for he SW today and not liking what I am seeing for this area later tonight and tomorrow. Also have to say with switching DM's, GLR and Denver the middle of the week, and my home time request, not a very happy camper. Right now for 8 days, 2200 miles. It is not looking good.

Well was finally sent a pplan around 1600 and wanted me to pick up John Deere and t-call in IGH. Multiple stop load with first stop being 250 miles from the terminal on Monday. Asked if could pick up in morning and still get to IGH in the afternoon. Nope. Due do to many drivers getting these loads and getting svc failure they needed it picked up today and get there. Then a back up there on Monday going to Hurricane on Wednesday. Will worry about getting to PHX later, like 1 day before home time. After up already about 9 hours could not safely take this load so removed. Now possibly a trailer move in the morning to IGH and load out on Monday or sit here until Monday since there is nothing else here until then. Looking at the weather map not really sure if want to be in IGH tomorrow anyway or for that matter a mt trailer move all the way.

 

Ranger, TX at Love's.
And uneventful day of 320 miles, with 375 tomorrow to get me into Roswell, NM.
Then a 0600 live unload on Monday.

Hopefully I can get a decent load or two to make a decent week.

 

At the Edwardsville terminal. Whopping 55 miles in the past 24 hours but they have me picking up this tcall here tomorrow morning going back out to Chesapeake, VA.

 

At a T/A in Wytheville VA on wonderful I-81.

Wrapped up a few loads from MO to GA, SC to KY, KY to AL and now towing some baked beans from you know who in Drandridge TN up to NJ. Despise NJ but it's better than sitting.

This load drops Monday at 04:30 but I'll be there by lunch Sunday. Waiting to see if CSR will let me dump it early so I can adjust my PTA and get the heck out of there. Hoping to find something on Mac30 heading west.

 

True that.

Every vendor and rig we deal with require hard hats, FRC, steel toed boots, safety goggles, and some will require annual safety training before letting you on site. Wouldn't do to get a service failure for failing to have proper clothing.

A pair of lightweight summer coveralls cost $100. Picked up a nice pair of steel toed tall rubber boots for $50, a lesson I learned when delivering to a rig in the mud in Kenedy , TX earlier this week.

Finally got myself in the truck and settled in for the night, watching the weather closely as the storm raced through OKC. I put myself on the ready list for 6:00 am, but not sure what number I am in the line yet. With this company you get a dispatch with a phone call. If you don't answer the phone you go to the bottom of the list. Once dispatched you have an hour to get to the customer to start getting loaded.

Navigation is frequently a challenge, as a given rig moves. You're usually given GPS coordinates and turn by turn directions from the nearest town or junction of paved roads. Many of the rigs will require more than an hour traveling on dirt roads. After tonight's rain I'm expecting the tall rubber boots will play a role tomorrow.

 

About ready to roll out after spending nearly two days at home. This week's paycheck is going to suck, with one short driving day and two days off. Fortunately, tomorrow is going to be decent. I'm hoping that we can get back onto the open road on Monday; my co-driver needs to swing by her place in Texas to pick up a few things that she forgot last week.

Has anyone heard when the team pay raise will be going into effect?

 

Well, still here. Nothing. I guess that the new plan is try and get me a short one to IGH, then from there a load to either OKC or Dallas. Just hope for something that I am able to get at least 1200 miles. That will at least get me 2200 miles for the week. The only problem going to Dallas, as far as I remember, most if almost not all loads to PHX go on the shuttle. Now I am just hoping that I can get there by Friday so can get my truck into KW so it will hopefully be one by Saturday. If not then get to sit the weekend since KW is closed on Sunday. Now watching the weather. Supposed to be some nice storms coming in tonight. Was hoping that maybe walk across the street to KFC for the buffet, or Perkins, but looks like either truck food or Subway.

 

At a Petro on the Jersey Turnpike. Tried to drop this load this afternoon as soon as I arrived but CSR said I had to wait until after 00:01 Monday.

Just as well as I received a ppln enroute today to go to Allentown Pa right after I drop in Jersey and pull another heavy back to a WM DC back in TN. Oh joy, I get to run I-81 at 79,000lbs again.

On the upside though it gets me the hell out of the NE quicklike and brings this weeks miles up to 2850ish by Tuesday morning. If I can snag a short 500 miler next that empties Wednesday I'll have a decent week again.

The Houston "fleet" weekly per truck goal is a pathetic average of 1900 miles!! Some drivers have much lower actual. Reflects the struggles that many of the new drivers are having out of my terminal. I've told my DM many times that MY weekly goal is 3000!! Since my truck consistently can attain those miles to balance the very low mile drivers I expect her to be proactive in making sure I don't get "abused" too much with garbage from planning areas like Manteno, Edwardsville and Memphis. Her time though is often preoccupied with dealing with all the issues her new drivers are having, especially accidents. Accident rates are VERY high for these folks!!

Speaking of new drivers, had a couple come up to me while fueling in PA crying about the Navigo system on their QC not working and they couldn't figure out how to get to their finals in PA and NY. Seriously?!? Told both of them to use their MAPS and mac23..what's the problem!?! Nicely told them with proper pretrip planning they should've already known EXACTLY how to get to their 90 the minute they did their Lcall. Turns out neither knew what a mac23 was nor did either one of them have a road atlas. I did what I could to help them but they were having a hard time digesting the info quickly and I had to roll.

Training for these poor new guys really, really needs to improve.