Good night from...

Moses Lake, WA.

Headed to Island City, OR in the morning for a 'high val' pickup, t-calling in Reno.
And I messed up.
I was too worried about my available hours during the next 2 days, and the need for a b-service. This load is t-calling at Swift in Sparks so I can get it done there.
And I totally didn't figure the fact that I would be out of hours tomorrow when I got loaded, so I couldn't do the 200 miles for the hi-val load.

I called the shipper to see if I could park there until I had more hours come in, he said no. They are not a 24 hour operation.
But he said the load is only particle-board, and not really hi-value. He said he would call Swift and let them know that I could park it at the truck stop once I was loaded.

My DM told me there were 2 types of hi-val loads - those that were simply important and those that you HAD to run 200 miles with once loaded.
Mine is the former, as the load assignment and QC message didn't say that I had to run 200 miles.
Good to know for future loads, as I have gotten both types of messages. I had always assumed that hi-val meant that I HAD to go the 200.

Now, I'm just hoping the weather doesn't mess me up.
I am running on recap, my hours (and minutes) are very tight. I shut down today with 1 minute left on my 70.

 

Big Spring, TX. Woke this morning in El Paso, 26 degrees. On my way to Southaven, MS. Now just have to worry about getting a weekend load out of Memphis. My luck there is not normally very good

 

At present, my truck looks like it has had a mud bath.

 

the on site manager called me up and said he was able to call in some favors, im going to Mira Loma to help with the WalMart fleet and then I might do some rite aid dedicated while waiting, he said he wants to keep me close and he knows I was not happy otr. He said he wants to pull me back to the fleet as soon as possible and he didnt want to let me go but it wasnt fair to his several year veterans and he had to let all the sleepers go for now, the vegas stores got pushed back by a couple months and the new stores that were just built were given to JB Hunt instead of us.

I at least know some of the process with Walmart since I did the dedicated a little in Hermiston, Or. Only difference im sure some of the stores in So Cal are probably a little tighter to get into and more fun with traffic. Dont know if I will make nearly as much with the Walmart since im assuming I will be back to normal Swift rates on mileage. Anyone know what the pay is like for the rite aid? I assume with rite aid you get stop pay plus unload pay and unloading with a pallet jack is easy work.

 

I ran on the Rite-Aid fleet out of woodland,ca and I usually ran out to Denver and would deliver 2-6 stores each trip... usually lots of angry and annoying managers of the stores to deal with that have no idea how trucking works or even how to turn one on for that matter... lots of tight little alleys and docks to get into but idk about the so-cal guys where all they run too. The one bad thing about rite aid was that since I was in a sleeper There were lots of days I would have to do local runs to sacramento or just south by a few miles and didn't get short haul pay just normal cpm so that sucked. some days I would only work a few hours and it was easy but not a lot of money involved.... Also for the Denver guys they always cut the loads at night so you'll be used to that... some runs you would have to leave at like midnight or 0100 though and those sucked big time. would also make runs down to the Lancaster DC and that was an easy run. I think you would probably make runs to Vegas and I've seen the trucks in AZ also

 

If whatever you buy for the truck is over $20 then you'll have to contact your DM for a PO# then write the PO# Trip# Truck# and your driver code on the receipt and scan it. Always seems to work for me.

 

it would be the Lancaster DC I would be running out of if they put me on it, going from Woodland to Denver seems like a pretty long run, I figured it was pretty much local like Walmart and Target and stuff.

 

We would do lots of like Sacramento to Sonoma and the bay area and over on the coast and up north but also serviced stores all over Colorado... I believe the DC in Wilsonville,OR does the stores in Utah but Lancaster might have southern Utah... Since I was new I had the Denver run which wasn't terrible I just hated dealing with all the morons that worked at the Rite Aids... basically you show up unload that stores freight then would load their returns onto the truck and repeat that at every drop and in Denver there was one store that we would end up at and drop off all of the returns . I guess in the past you would just take all the returns as a backhaul back to Woodland which would be awesome but not anymore..