I Start With Averitt in January 2012

Fewe, I am glad the thread helped. Like you, I have no ought against Swift. It was a good start and matter of fact until Averitt hired me I was planning on going back with Swift. I knew I could have done worse than that but Averitt is MUCH better with a lot of promise for the future.

The only way I would leave is if I found a job that had me home each day and weekends off. If I am going to be working truck load Averitt is THE place as far as I am concerned.

I will be glad to hear YOUR story when they hire you.

So I had a nice start to the week. I get to my truck today and see that the shop replaced my exhaust stack after I customized it on a tree limb last week. I start my pretrip and I notice there is a large crack/gash in the fiberglass roof on the drivers side of my tractor. NICE. They had me stop at the Knoxville yard to have them take pictures and document it. I am guessing one of the mechanics high fived something when they took it in to do the repair. I had to fill out an accident report and call our toll free accident number. Again, they were amazingly nice. It pissed me off though. My fleet manager told me not to sweat it and it would get taken care of but I want miles not break down pay.

Now I will have to be routed to Nashville after I deliver in Hebron KY tomorrow so the body shop can fix my truck. UGH. I can only guess that will take a day or two. I may end up in a hotel for a bit unless they have a truck there I can use for a couple of days.

So it goes.

 

Yeah, that is the part that really frosted my flakes. Just leaving it and letting me take the blame if I didn't catch it. That is potentially playing with someones job. I thought that just MAYBE they didn't know they did the damage but I doubt you could have NOT known by the amount of damage done.

I delivered to my customer in Hebron KY this morning at 0800. Got to start my day with a 90 degree blindside with cars parked on the drivers side of the tractor. An SRT driver saw what I was about to undertake and got out and spotted for me. I got in no problem but those tight blindsides are never on my list of fun things to do.

Got unloaded and my next load assignment shows up. 47 miles empty to Middletown, OH with a 1700 pick up. Deliver near Nashville tomorrow between 1000 and 1400. 300 miles loaded. No early delivery. So here I sit at a rest area near the customer. I'll go fetch it at 1700 and drive a couple hours before I do my 10. I am not gonna complain though. Another Averitt driver who is a buddy of mine told me he got a qcomm message saying that they were 200 loads short for the available drivers today. At least I am moving even if it is tiny miles. Maybe this isn't such a bad week to have Clifford in the body shop to get fixed up if freight is that slow.

Got a nice message from my FM cheering me on and letting me know he felt bad for what happened to my truck. Little things like that are what separate Averitt from so many other companies in my opinion. The thought that he reached out to me and just wanted me to know all was good. Very nice.

 

Well today has been one LONG day. Delivered in Gordonsville, TN around 11 AM then was deadheaded to our Nashville body shop to see how long it would take to fix my Volvo up. They said they need it for 3-4 days and then it goes to the Volvo dealer to address a recall issue. They found me a loaner on the yard. A 2011 Cascadia with less miles on it than my Volvo. It took four hours to move all my stuff from the Volvo to the Cascadia. Much more room in the Freightshaker for sure. My fleet manager told me to drive it while the Volvo is getting fixed up and he will tell me when it is ready...then it's my decision which truck I want. I like that. I think the Cascadia just may win out. It's like going from a studio to a 1 bedroom apartment. If it drives okay I think I'll keep it. Tomorrow morning I am headed over to the shop to have them run it's service history. I also have to take the Volvo back over to the body shop in the morning then I am ready to roll on a load. I backed the Cascadia up under an empty trailer tonight so I won't have to fight for one tomorrow.

Hope all is good in your world. Many miles to ya.