Good night from...

flying j in ft stockton tx. lucky i saw the sign before the stop i was going to. flying j wasn't in my t/s booklet. anyways, have about 330 miles to go tomorrow for a 1330 appt.

 

I did get the electrical charging system and batteries test last October. The guy of course showed me a printout of 3 batteries in the low range and 1 in the critical low range. He quoted me about $800 for new ones, but I figured the truck had been off for about an hour and there were all sorts of accessories still running inside (this was in the shop getting an oil change) like the fridge, Abby's fan, satellite radio, GPS, etc all drawing juice off. Plus the fact the engine started up strong every time I turned the key I figured the batteries were still good for a bit longer.

The batteries I took out were installed Sept 2010. Turns out they were Deep Cycle 700 CCA's. I think that explains why they lasted so long. Standard batteries don't like to be drawn down too much over and over as would be the case of DCI under 30%.

OK so accepted a classic load I normally turn down. Live load live unload with 40 mt and 400 loaded, add more stress to that, JIT. Took em 1.5 hours to load, I already knew I was in trouble. Sent Mac22, no response. Next pee break asked for delivery window, none, did you see my mac22?, nope. Resent, cool drive we msgd csr. Do 30 minute break and see I have already broken off 400 miles and about 85 or so to go 1:48 left on the clock, not going to make it today. Sent a new mac22, they repower, not sure if they are going to terminate my contract now. There were also many work zones, 55 and 45 speed limits which slowed things way down.

 

sometimes, my wife wishes I cooked all the time
I used to be an executive chef

 

Everywhere we go these days there are construction zones that slow us down.
That is a given.

Whenever I get a pplan I adjust the times to allow for them - as well as 12 hour sleep breaks, at least an hour for breaks on a full 600 mile day, and an extra couple hours for traffic and anything else that might come up.

I don't usually accept a plan that is too tight on time.
If they want to plan me too slim on time, I can simply play the rule game and give myself all the time I want before responding with the Mac9.

My next to last load I failed to do that.
I figured that I could just make it, if the route was right.
Well, they sent a route that avoided all the toll roads and put me on U.S., state and county roads - which made me over an hour late.
Mac22 was sent, and I was told that I had the hours to get it there on time.
I got there as soon as possible (no 12 hour breaks on this one - it was flat out run as hard as I could while staying legal), about an hour late.
No window on that one, either.
And, no service failure.


I've been burned with service failures before, through no fault of my own. (well, one)
But I find that they usually give some slack.

JIT loads don't stress me. It just means that the load has to be there within a certain time.
But they usually have more time, not less, to get it there.
JIT's usually have a delivery window that allows plenty of time.
If it is a JIT with no window of time and I can't do it solo, they can always get a team to do it.

The only problem I have had is when I get one on a weekend, and I have to rely on weekend people.
(Not the night people, though. I am shifted to Fontana after hours, and they are great!)
I call and ask about the window and they tell me that they are not allowed to tell me.
'Just do the Mac9 with the times you can do it.'
I might be off by a single minute to lose the load, when if they had simply told me I could have taken it.
And then the planners have to find another driver for the load.
A lot of wasted time and effort.
Pure B.S.
We are supposed to be a team operation - helping each other to get the freight there within the time limits.

 

Got woken up by a load offer, 150 mt, 800 some odd loaded about 0500 local. They need the load delivered in the morning by 0830. Would love to help but I can't turn 1000 miles in 14 hours.

So accepted the next load, a dreaded No Delivery Appointment Yet lol. The hits just keep on coming this week.

 

delivered the ashley load in new braunfel tx. picking up a local here in san antonio tx to deliver at 0645 tomorrow about 5 miles away

 

decided to skip fuel stop since i already have a little over half tank. stopped at petro due to more food options. i fueled before and filled- up as told and got a preplan heavy load. now i try to get into shipper with half tank if possible

 

also, picked this trailer up and seal was missing. so called fontana and told him what happened and put a swift seal on it. also sent it over qc

 

hurricane UT down the street from walmart at the chevron station with a dairy queen inside.....6 others swiftys here....no wonder I cant get a plan!.....guess just wait now..sleep,eat....chat girls on the internet,nice life,lol....

 

Richmond, VA, at the terminal.

I was deadheading to PA with a fuel stop here, and I decided it was a good time to put in to the shop.
My front end has been bouncing, wobbling, and such.
From the various symptoms I think there might be more than one thing wrong up there.
I have a day to wait until I get in the shop, and that is short compared to some locations.
And the people here seem like they are pretty good.

I was hoping for a good week, but I need to get this fixed.
Hopefully it won't take too long.