H.O. Wolding is a GREAT company!

Dropped and hooked last night in Eau Claire and now I'm delivering in Milwaukee. I don't mind if they drag their feet a little bit as I don't want to deal with Chicago rush hour after I pick up myPA load in Stoughton.

As I was going through the lights getting to Menard's, I saw a truck in front of me had the same seal as me and I know it's first come, first serve. Well, the next 2.5 miles of lights was game of timing and drag racing and I got him at the last light. Earnhardt would have been proud.

 

Haha, that's awesome.

I'm on a multi-stop load to New York. Aside from one of the stops not being able to get to me until Wednesday morning, I'm pretty happy that I'll be getting some unload assist pay on each of them.

 

I would have had to wait another 2 hours and I might not have been able to make this load to PA on time of he had beat me.

In Rolling Prairie, IN tonight and then I only get 7 back tomorrow but 12 the next day. Gonna be going home for a reset to take care of a few things.

 

Getting unloaded in Nazareth, PA. Still waiting on a ppln, was told they are working on it.

On a good note, first week after vacation and I hit 3400 miles. Good thing, I'm gonna have to keep moving to hit the bonus. Probably no extended time off until the 4th.

 

The kind of miles you get don't seem to be a regular thing for drivers at Wolding. Especially new ones. In general those west-bound runs seem extremely rare for solo drivers.

 

Shawn said west is real dry right now. He said he has a team doing 600 mile runs right now. If I were in Wisconsin right now, there is a good ole Beaver Dam to Fontana. I love that run. Sometimes you don't even deal with LA if your lucky. I only run the miles that are given to me, and I'm very thankful to have the dispatcher that I do. Once you get into a west coast groove, it's pretty easy to stay there unless you need to go home. For me, home is California, so I'm able to get my reset in out there just like everyone else, except I'm not at the truck stop. Rinse and repeat. Getting into the west coast groove, that's a whole different critter.

But I'm going home. Picking up in Delaware Water Gap, PA going to Scarborough, ME. Called the shipper, said it should be ready by 0200. If so, the receiver said they'll take me same day if I get there before noon. Originally, this load picks up at 1300 tomorrow and delivers at 0900 on Friday morning. Amazing how far a little initiative goes.

That is, of course, the load is actually ready around 0200. If so, I'll probably just leave out Sunday and keep running till the 4th.

 

My last load delivered in northern New York, and when I say northern New York, I mean far up there as you can get. Where the border patrol guys hover at every intersection. Getting up there means 3.5 hours on state highways that slow down for townships, on average, every 10-20 miles or so. Then I picked up a bit south, around the north side of the Aderondacts right across the river from Vermont. It delivers in Indiana, so back around the north side of New York. Stopped in Syracuse to scale the load... 80,000 pounds. I was about 150 pounds heavy on my trailer, so I moved it one hole. Then I was 150 pounds heavy on my drives. I did this 4 times and wasted 45 minutes because this truck stop, even though its the only major one in the area, has maybe 40 parking spaces and was full as if it were midnight.

So basically I just kept driving because there aren't any scales in the area (I haven't even seen any in this state...?) and I would burn the weight off my drives in fuel after a few hours or so.

but yeah... After this trip, I do not want to return to the east for a while. The truck stops and rest areas fill up a couple hours earlier than ones I've found elsewhere. They also seem smaller... Which feels wrong. A long trip south would feel like a breath of fresh air after this.

 

Oh yeah, almost forgot about nearly running out of fuel. I'd refueld just before picking up on Battle Creek Michigan and didn't get any more until two days later after driving that entire trip and getting to Syracuse. I was on empty when I rolled in.. I mean at 0. The last 30 or so miles were pretty wrenching. There are NO truck stops with fuel north of Syracuse.

 

Timecook, what are you averaging for miles with Wolding? You run midwest, south and northeast according to your posts. I was wondering what you get doing that and if it's worth it or just go regional and be home on the weekends. Can you pick to run the midwest and south regions and stay out of the northeast? I doubt a newer driver has much of a chance running west with Wolding even though I'm from WI. I didn't know they had reefers until Weeble started posting about it.

Thanks

 

Yeah they've got a collection of drivers that do west. They either have connections out there like Weeble and have that excuse to be sent there or they're teams or they've been with the company a while. I ran that route with my trainer on a real tight delivery window almost as if we were a team because he would end up driving four or five hours a day on top of my 11.

My highest number for one pay period was 4200 paid miles. However, that was with a 900 mile trip I scanned in on a Saturday and then reset over the road before heading out for another full week. I think a fair number per-week with a reset over the road is 3200. If you want to be home every weekend, be happy with 2500. I am doing that 5 days out 2 days home deal right now. I left on Monday and will likely get to roughly 1700 miles for the week by the end of my day tomorrow (Thursday). Depending on what I'm given for Friday (if anything since this load delivers fairly close to home) It's unlikely I'll hit 2500 for the week. But like I described a couple posts ago, these two trips have not been easy miles at all. Lots of slow moving roads.

But in the end the amount of miles you get hinges 100% on two things: your work ethic, and who you get as a dispatcher. A couple of the guys I went through orientation with didn't get as lucky as I did with their dispatcher assignment and have been complaining to me about their miles. I don't know how they assign dispatchers... I've heard it's by the region you are from or whether you elect to go OTR or regional. Perhaps there are other factors taken into account... Like who your trainer was or how well you did on tests.

I can't speak verbatim about what it's like here with another dispatcher, but mine has been extremely flexible with me on my schedule. When I asked to be kept on the road for a couple weeks at a time, I got it. When I asked to get home, I got it.