Greater omaha express ..thread 2.

I don't know them steaks looked pretty good, I imagine a lot of us TTR members will be headed to bzingers house!

 

No

 

After a 13 hour loadout ordeal in Covington, TN I finally got out of there and up to the nearest scale. Not only do they take forever apparently they load all out of whack also. After reaching out to my Greater O mentor @bzinger and sliding some stuff around I got it. They pushed my Battle Creek appointment back from 5 to 10 am Wednesday morning so I set off to get as close as I could. 638 miles later I rolled in with just under an hour left on my clock. Traffic was good and I've been to this consignee before many times with a previous company years back so I knew the drill. Let em know I was here and parked out of the way amidst all of their deadline trailers and hanging out til morning to see what tomorrow brings. With starting last Friday and then repowering a load Sunday afternoon and yesterday's disaster and some decent sized runs I'm kinda gettin tight on hours. We shall see. Little bits and the chick are out of town this weekend, maybe I can get back to omaha, reset and snag one of the Portland or Florida runs

 

Wasn't here the last weeks and didn't want to post cause I was just mad. Mad about inbound planning, lot of struggle to get home on time, then after I left again same problem last Friday, couldn't be in Omaha on time for a Cali run. Had a chat with Brent and one with dispatch and hope things will be better soon...
There will be a change for me, will get a load on Tuesdays here to deliver in Albuquerque on a Thursday.
Then I'm taking a week off and leave on a Friday. As we get daily Oregon runs I hope it doesn't matter when I'm back in Omaha, if there's a Cali available I go there, if not I hope I go to Oregon.
I already have an annual OR permit in my truck, time to use it.
I can go occasionally East, but I don't like it, I prefer the West.
If this all doesn't work out for me, I would have to look for another job. I definitely like it here, but problems have to be solved.

Another problem is my truck, since I got these recap tires I have a vibration in the whole truck that makes me crazy. I'm on the yard now and tomorrow a tire engineer will make a test ride.
And if he tells me it's just the bad roads then I know how easy it seems to be to become an engineer

Will see tomorrow...

Was reading about the sleep apnea a driver mentioned and Jerrod our recruiter told me how it's handled:

Unless a driver volunteers that they have had Sleep Apnea before, our clinic does not require Sleep Studies. If they are already diagnosed though, they will have to show CPAP compliance.

And did I mention that we all got rid of our bonus system? No more bonus, but all drivers got a .02 cents pay raise.
Had posted our starting pay chart a while ago, this has changed too, here's the new starting pay:



Minimum starting pay is now .42 cpm and if you're lucky, you can start with .47 cpm.

This explains why some drivers start with more than other drivers who are already here for a while.


And btw, when I arrived at the yard today, I was grabbed for a random drug and alcohol test.

First time in my life that I had to blow in a breathalyzer

 

Wow. You gotta lot goin on. Thanks for the updates and the info and for clearing the air about the sleep apnea testing and the pay scale. We had been wondering where you were lately, we were missing your posts. And your cuisine pictures. Hopefully everything works out for you here at Greater O. Keep us posted please. And hopefully on your drug test you got to test out some good ones!

 

I got my Battle Creek kicked off in a timely fashion and reloaded in Stanwood MI for Harrisonville MO. Another heavy load. It didn't take as long as I thought to get it either. Traffic thru Grand Rapids was a PITA so I only got there only 20 minutes early. my appointment was at 19:00 and got bills 45 minutes later. Got as close as I could which was only just outside of St. Louis. I drop early morning Friday and have 8 hours left on my 70 and don't get hours back til Saturday morning @ midnight. Should be interesting. But can't complain about the miles this week.

 

After review of my hours i was offered to swap loads with a driver from KC who had a load for East St. Louis. Met up with him and motored on to the Illinois side. Camping out here for the night with the hockey game on for an early morning appointment then the 15 mile trek to my house for the weekend. I'd say the first week at Greater Omaha has been a success. Not going thru to harrisonville I won't hit 3,000 miles for the week but I'm over 2,500 so no complaints on that

 

My alcohol test was negative and the drug test will be too

Great that you made it thru your first week and enjoyed it!

Got a new windshield today, had a crack since Sunday, one tire was replaced (why not months ago???) and it seems to be better now, made a test drive with Brent but the roads were not so good to say it's all perfect.
Will see on a longer trip.
Was at Simply Well for a health screening, blood pressure and they sucked some blood.
As usual my blood pressure was a bit high, 128 to 84, so I told the lady, same procedure as last year, let me relax a few minutes and it will be down. About 5 minutes later 118 to 70, all perfect.

Met Jerrod today and he said he's bored. All trucks filled at the moment, but we will stock up and will need 30 more drivers in the next months He will be busy again.
No preplan for me for tomorrow, but that's the usual thing, had planned to reset and loads coming in tomorrow.
Will miss the great BBQ at bzinger on the weekend

 

Thank you sir! And actually I did my math wrong cuz I'm an idiot. I'll have 3,065 miles for the week. That's great news about the health screening going well. Hopefully the tire issue is fixed. That's what they were telling me also in my orientation I guess there's a chicken plant going up and it's gonna be mostly (maybe all?) Costco. And Greater O already has stake in dedicating 30 drivers to it. Whether those 30 ONLY do that or if we will see some of it as they just need any 30 will be interesting. They also said Seaboard in St Joe Missouri is gonna start pumping out stuff soon that we're getting our mitts on. I don't want to tell you the wrong thing but I thought Brent said it's gonna open up lanes to Texas and Albuquerque. Are you still doing your 4 weeks out 1 week off?

 

Was usually out 24 days and had 4 days off, just my first trip with 4 weeks out now, exactly 30 days out to adapt to the new delivery on Thursday in Albuquerque. And then I will have two weeks off, need a vacation. After that 4 weeks on and one week off, that's the plan.

Will see how it works, need more home time, 4 days after more than 3 weeks was too short to relax, the honey do list is always so long