Indian River

I don't anymore. I retired several years back from a major LTL carrier and started messing with milk about 10 years ago. The only good thing that I found with the milk hauler that I was driving for, is that after we got unloaded, we didn't call in, we didn't look for a backhaul, we just pointed the truck towards the house and came home. Once in a great way, we hooked to a load going elsewhere, not too many times. It is different with IRT, you are not going home after each load, I have seen IRT drivers who have been out for weeks and even months before they saw home.

I got fed up with the whole situation a week or so ago. I was at a dairy with a cream load with a 7 am appointment. I arrived around 12:30am, went to bed, they woke me up at 4am, scaled me in, and then told me that that the load was not on their schedule for that day. It took all morning before the mess was straightened out. I finally got out of there around noon. What happened was the lady in the office there, went home the day before and did not post the revised schedule. Things like this happen all the time and I just gave it up, being 81 years old with almost 54 years out here, I figured it was time.

 

Sounds like you had some rough days that's for sure. I'm glad that never happened to me during my time at IRT. I waited around at a lot of places, but it never affected my ability to still run 3000 miles a week. I would drop and hook in McAllen, TX deliver in Ontario, CA wash out in Talare, reload in Visalia,CA and deliver 2600 miles away in Bradenton, FL.
Load in Coopersville, MI, deliver in Lowville,NY reload in NY deliver in LaMars, IA and dead head to Great Falls, Montana to pick up vegetable oil for Atlanta Georgia. Good miles all the time.

 

That's just a few examples on my experience at IRT.

 

Sat in Lowville one trip for 8 hours because Pet in Richmond failed to cross all the "Ts" and dot all the "Is" on the paper work. When going to any Kraft plant, everything and I mean everything better be "up to snuff".

 

Doesn't sound too bad. I do like that you can straight idle your truck right? Since they don't run Apus. I'm qualified to join, lady said if I was ever interested to re apply. From the CA terminal

 

Yes on the idling. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I always liked it. I left 2 years ago for a local gig and have been at that same local gig ever since. There were few loads that I ran under 800 miles. Some I can recall are Fair Oaks, Indiana to Coopersville, Michigan, there to Lowville, NY. Coopersville to Wisconsin. They usually stretched me out. Memphis to Bakersfield, California to Nebraska, New Mexico to Wisconsin, dead heads from Alabama to McAllen, New York loads to Iowa, Colorado loads to Indiana, etc.. I have waited at Coopersville, MI for 7-10 hours but then it would be 4 or 5 days later before I had to wait anywhere after that. Might spend 7 hours washing out and loading, but then be on the road driving for the following 4 days before having to wait 4 hours somewhere unloading it. I feel for the guys who post on here that it happened daily to them, but that wasn't the case for me. 5 hour wait maybe 3 times a week is what I encountered. The rest of my weeks were spent rolling on the highway.

 

Sounds like what I'm going through. I've had the weekends off for the past 2 weeks.. and not at home... Might consider irt later on, maybe if I can get 43cpm or so..

 

That sucks about the weekends down but not at home. IRT has a new pay package since I left. I made .37 cents loaded and empty before. Now it's percentage under 250, .46 loaded .41 empty under 450, and.41 loaded and empty over 450 miles. I think it'll average.43 all miles considering some will be short some long.

 

Just thought I would give everyone an update. I started back with IRT last Tuesday. Signed all the paperwork and got my truck by noon that day. I hauled 2 loads from Texas to New Mexico that day and had over 500 miles. Took a 10 at the yard and ran a 1,347 mile load to South Carolina, then one from Jacksonville, FL to Winter Haven. Had 2,500 in 5 days. Everything was drop and hook except 1 live unload in Spartanburg where I was in and out in a mere 3 hours. Left Winter Haven in a big nice Pete 48 hours ago and am currently sitting in Chicago taking a 10 at a place where I will be doing a drop and hook in the morning with this orange juice. This was a nice 1,200 miles to start the week out with. It's been just like old times for me so far. Mostly drop and hook and lots of miles in a bad ### truck. For those who don't know, at the Winter Haven yard there is a nice drivers lounge with food and drink machines, showers, front loader washer and dryer, furniture and tv. They even had a Christmas tree in there too. It seemed like I read somewhere on here that Tony left dispatch. That's not true. He's still there and still easy to work for. When I got to WH with that Jacksonville load it was setup as a live unload, but when they told me it would be that night before they could unload me I called Tony and his response was "drop it and get out of there man".
Things don't get much easier than that. Anyway, I'll try to update from time to time but for the ones who read all the horror stories about IRT, know that there are happy drivers here who do well and don't have many bad experiences. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

 

Awesome man! I'm tuned in so keep them coming. Glad is going well for you. And yes those Pete's are nice. I drove one before and they're well done. I love the more spacious interior, specially the roof on the cab, I can stand up fully (5'10")