Good Night From II

(Chuckle) This is TX oilfield country. They don't mess with trucks down here as long as you're not running folks off the road. There were cops everywhere and not stopping anyone. I passed them, they passed me and I went through a scale too. The tire was on the inside and pretty much out of sight. No one blinked an eye and I knew they wouldn't.

Had I been up north or out west...I would've drove it to Loves, T/A or Petro and had them put my spare on it.

 

Running now for three weeks to the rigs I concur. I've seen some frightening rigs on the dirt roads and truck stops.

Glad I've got an ex-Swift owner of my truck, he takes care of this horse and no questions asked about needing repairs or new (used) tires. Had a trailer tire get chewed up by the winches after running 30+ miles of washboard out of Mentone. Now I've bungied the winches so they won't move into position over the tires.

 

Love's in Deer Park, TX after finishing a 2stopnP&G for Sam's. They tried to send me to Evadale so I declined then get one from Pasadena to Laredo. Maybe I can finally get some good miles in this week.

 

At home, been off for a bit over 2 weeks. I REALLY needed the time off.

Back in the truck tomorrow. I had the starter replaced, hopefully that will cure the hotstart issues I've been having.

 

I just left Laredo, well Cotulla rather, and the yard is FULL of loads waiting to go everywhere. I turned down at least 6 very sweet high miles runs due to home time in Houston tomorrow.

I wouldn't think you'd have a problem getting a good one. They didn't have enough drivers to pull them all.

 

They sent me a preplan for Cheyenne, I'm afraid of getting up there and not being able to get a good load out.

 

Sitting here in the dock at Home Depot. Been here now almost 6 hours now. Now I worry if not finished before midnight will I still get paid for it this weeks check. Looked at my hours and they are crap. All of 13 for the next almost 3 days. All that getting offered is cans to Waco for Monday, beer to Longmont for Saturday and one dh 116 and del 145 miles.

 

Sitting on the side of a small gas station, next to a swamp, in Evadale TX. If nothing else it's quiet.

All went fine coming up to Houston with a load out of Laredo to tcall at the terminal. Once I dropped the load then the usual BS starts up and the rest of my day was like stepping into the Swift Twilight Zone.

I was asked to go up to the paper mill in Evadale to pickup a rejected trailer, bring it back to the terminal and get it washed out along the way. Sounded simple enough. This paper mill has very strict standards on mty trailers and will reject for just about anything. After waiting a couple hours I get sent to a customer on the south side of the city to get a trailer to take up there, can't bobtail. Go get it and it's got a large hole punched into the top front corner. ####!!

Drag it back to the terminal and go through the motions of getting it put aside for repairs and wait for another solution. More wasted time and get sent to another place on the north side of town and score a good trailer. Sweat my ### off sweeping it out and then headed to Evadale, but now don't have enough on my 14 to make it back to Houston. BTW, I can't stand this paper mill nor most of the people there that have to be dealt with. If you've been there you know why.

After arriving and getting inspected they tell me Swift had sent someone two days prior to wash the trailer and it was now loaded!! They said I could take a different reject out and leave the one I brought. Told them to call Swift for their issues, I'm leaving with the good trailer I brought. Barely had enough time time to make it into the woods and park.

While all that was going on planners sent me a note to "please, please, please" take a tcall to the west side of Houston for a live unload at 07:30. If I didn't have home time for today it would've been an instant No! No! No! But I took it to finish my week and go home for four days but now have to fight morning traffic and construction. It's 22 miles to the unload but because of our zip codes Swift pays ONE mile!! My DM always adds hourly pay to these trips. HHG is nothing but a ####ing SCAM to steal money and time from drivers.

If I hadn't had home time I'd be heading to the Pacific Northwest with a light load in a new trailer.

 

I'm not crazy about very early mornings, and I sure seem to have a lot of them lately.

I deliver tomorrow morning by 0800 in Mesquite, TX and I'll have to be driving at 0330.
Then I head over to Lancaster terminal to pick up a tire load that delivers '42' miles away. At least I'll get max cpm and short haul pay out of it.

I shut down here in Prescott, AR with 39 minutes left on my 70.

My pick up this morning could not have been easier.
No one to check in with. It was just drop and hook, grab the paperwork out of the trailer and go. It took all of 15 minutes.

Both this load and the next are drops, so very nice again. I won't even have to worry about an mt for the next load.

 

Well here in Wheatridge. Finally finished with the Home Depot load at 0300. Found out that they were actually done unloading at 2300 and just forgot me in the door. It is okay. Kept getting those detention messages and replying and the person signed the paperwork for arrival at 1745 and depart at 0300. Now just trying to get a load. Offered me one, BT 200 miles and pick up in Goodland, TX after first drop my mt at the yard and get the paperwork from them and then to Laredo. So tired of these games. DM pulled it off me and said that it was on its way to Edwardsville anyway. Someone dropped the ball somewhere. Now my DM is getting me a load to MN with a t-call somewhere, forgetting home time for El Paso on Tuesday. Told him to forget my home time and just change it to my home in Ohio. After these last 2 months I need to go home and assess the situation and my future. Also was looking at my settlement and was missing the last 2 loads so did eligibility macro and found out missing BOL. It was the one that I sent in from Lathrop. So I guess that next week I will now have 2 loads on it for about 1400 miles.

Now one load keeps coming up on MAC 30 and for those that have pulled will know why I will not touch it. King Soupers scrap paper to Prewitt, NM