Good Night From II

A bit south of Kansas City.

I've got a load going to Sumner, WA. It doesn't deliver until the 10th with a firm appointment.
Could be worse, considering.

I couldn't find an mt this morning at the terminal so I went inside. The lady tells me that one just came in and gives me the number. When I find it I find damage to the DOT bumper. The right corner is bent badly and broken.
I sent a message that I didn't want that trailer and to find me something else.
Half an hour goes by and then they dispatch me with the damaged trailer.

I ended up taking it to the shop and waiting 2 hours for them to fix it. They got me right in though.
After the repair I had to sweep it out. Boy what a mess. It filled 2 Walmart bags with sand and dirt and wood chips.
As I was leaving the trailer I looked up and saw a split in the roof. I had to bring it back to the shop to get that fixed as well. Even though they were working on a different trailer and had another waiting they got right to me. That one only took about 20 minutes.

I go get the load and then came here to scale.
I had just gotten back in the truck when a truck was backing into the spot next to me. Blind side.
He had a person in the passenger seat watching that side, but it didn't help. He just kept getting closer and closer to my left front as the trailer was still swinging towards me.
I laid on the air horn a few times and he stopped and corrected his line.

That would have been a real shame, with less than 4,000 miles on my new truck.
I'm glad I was here (and awake) to see, and honk.

 

Woke up to 22 degrees here in Amite City, LA where a normal cold winter day is the 50's. I run the I-10 corridor in the winter so I won't have to deal with this crap. Brakes are frozen and I'm frozen to the ground. There's a guy here with a propane heater charging $60 to thaw things out and I'm happy to see him.

Otoh, I'm thrilled I finally got to fire my DM yesterday. I had to wait over a month until the new hires were trained. My new, 8th, DM is a guy I've been friendly with since he started at Laredo a few years ago.

Frank

 

Headed out to Sumner, WA.
I checked the NOAA site yesterday and saw all the snow storms along I-84 for when I would be going through there and decided to take the northern route through Montana because it looked clear.

Not today.
Same thing all the way in to Washington.

No such thing as an accurate 7 day forecast anymore, I guess.
Or even 3 days.

 

The weather up here has been nuts. I stayed in a holiday inn express in Nampa the last two nights while freightliner was replacing wires.

Apparently this is like the most snow Boise has had in 30 years or so. According to the shuttle driver for the hotel. Then Thursday morning while I was still in Ontario OR. It dipped to a balmy -15. And every day more snow. Till sunday when midday it started raining. All the surface streets were solid snow and ice pack. Went from like 12-40 today according to thermometer.

Got stuck twice trying to get out of freightliner. With 4 chains on (snow was softening.) 2nd time they pushed me under my trailer with a heavy duty 4wheel drive forklift.

Most truck stops were full. I found one with spots but they had 4 drivers stuck blocking the parking. So I went with the rest area outside Boise to wait for a load in the morning. Friday I get to find out if they were telling the truth about that breakdown pay. Said they'd pay me like I was running. (We will see.)

And I know one of my former students and his partner decided to shut it down somewhere in Washington.

Either way, it's a bit of a mess up here right now.

 

I had it pretty good until I was almost out of Montana. Conditions started getting worse around Missoula but I kept going hoping for the best. That didn't happen.
I stopped at the 50,000 Silver Dollar place as a final break and to check road conditions.
I spoke with a state trooper and was told that chains were required at mile 4, so I shut down here.
He said there were already several vehicles in the ditch.

It looks like I'll be stuck here until at least Wednesday, but hopefully I can leave on Wednesday sometime. I need this load in this pay period because it is the only load for the week.

 

Sumner, WA.

Well it was smooth driving this morning and I got my load delivered.
Now I'll be backtracking a bit with a load from the terminal to Spokane Valley that delivers tomorrow.

It was strange in Montana that I had a T-Mobile 4G LTE connection with my internet device but zero signal on my phone. Not even a roaming signal.

My DOT physical is due by 02/10, and every load now has a message attached that says that the load is intended to get me to a terminal for my physical. Then it lists a few terminals to do it at.
My current load had the message but I won't be anywhere close to any of those terminals.
But I plan my home time in MN to get the physical. That way I can get to the DMV personally to self-certify and let them scan in my card. I don't trust faxing it in.

I do like that Swift is taking a more active part in directing us somewhere that we can get it done. Before it was a message that it was due, and then we were left to find our way on our own.

Another change that just happened I also like.
When I sent a counter offer on a mac 9 it didn't send back a new pplan with my times for me to commit to.
It sent the message that my counter was accepted and I was committed to the load with those times.
That saves me a step with a new mac 9.

Good job to Swift, on both counts.

 

Wouldn't it be 42 times easier if they just trusted the driver and sent the load pickup and delivery window right in the preplan?[/QUOTE]
Yeah but then the drivers take their time ln that load. They do it this way so drivers can get more loads is how my dm Explained when j asked why

 

Still, it isn't difficult to adjust the times on most loads.