Good night from...

here in Lake havasau now. Glad that I waited. PU live in the morning here, 12K and del in Plainview b4 Monday at 1300. You can tell that it is a definate plus 1 load, right down to the time difference, and figuring in 47MPH. But they are off about 1 hours. At 47mph, it would take actually 28 hours, and they are giving 27, and that is if it only takes about 30 mins to load. Forget fueling and stopping for anything.

Saw somthing strange the other day, pulled into PHX, and ther was a brand new reefer, with Swift on the back and rear of the trailer, and up front, NavajoPride in decals. Also grabbed my trailer out of PHX to take to Costco, and they refused it, and the reason, I did not notice the red stickers on the front of the trailer, WalMart Dedicated. Take it back to the yard, pull out a razor, scrape them off, white spray paint, all okay.

As far as fuel lately, one thing that I have been doing lately, never topping off when out west here. Just stop in every state and top one tank. Last month my whole tax fuel payment, $1.61.

 

At the Edwardsville terminal for a semi-unplanned overnight. The weather is beautiful and I even like the place.

I stopped here enroute to Flagstaff to get 2 of my 8 trailer tires replaced. Since that and a PM/inspection of my trailer put me into my 14 I decided to spend the night rather than hope I could find a place to park on the 2-lane west of Wichita.

Now I'll have more than 14 hours on my 70 for tomorrow (first time in 10 days) and enough coming off on Monday to get me to Flag. After I drop in Flag I'm gonna bobtail home and take a much needed reset and put my truck in the shop. First stop Freightliner in Tolleson (to fix my balky clutch) then Swift to fix my crappy Qualcom.

 

Mark,

If you're picking up at Sterilite it's not a live load. They'll give you the paperwork then direct you to their drop yard for a drop-n-hook. You can show up an hour early, BTDT-twice.

 

inkeper???? u saying there is alot of bs at lancaster?? nooooooo,lol.....I posted about that somewhere awhile ago...haha

 

...yeah..I just park my truck in mira loma coz its close to where i want to spend my time....and u should get 7-8 in a prostar consistently....but even better mpgs in good weather....

 

Yep Steve, pu in Sterilite. Was just looking at the comments, and was showing a live load, and do not show up earlier than the appt time. That is when they will load it. I am parked in a nice spot, so will just stay here until morning.

 

Oak Grove Petro on I 70.

And good news for me - NASCAR is on ABC with a night race at Richmond, VA.

JJ is currently 4th, Jr. is second behind Hamlin.

 

I would except for a few important points:
1. I've been to one Swift shop that understood the concept of being timely as it relates to a driver's HOS.
2. I have been to no Swift shops where they understand their role is to actually repair things.
3. Although my basic truck payment, $525, is waived for the first 23 days, all of the other weekly costs are not.
4. Like all drivers, I am only earning money when the door's closed and the wheels are turning.
5. I don't get breakdown pay.

Frank

 

All very good reasons to have several thousand dollars saved before leasing a truck.

 

Crossville, TN on I-40 at another crappy Pilot. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to have to stop at a Petro/TA shop and pay to get the clutch/linkage problem diagnosed and, unless its simple and cheap to fix, stop at the Memphis shop. I'm at #77k and not being able to smoothly downshift when needed is a bit hairy. However, running the humps on I-81, I-40 from Rapphine, VA to here at 7.1mpg doesn't suck.
Frank