Kivi Bro's Open Deck done Right

Cool thanks, I have enjoyed helping out and would have liked it more if I lived in say MN where many of our drivers end the week back home, for me I’d be out for say 3 weeks at a time at least and during that time I likely would not be able to stop at the house.

With the fleet I’m with I frequently get by the house to do a 10 which is pretty cool and they don’t mind me taking off two weeks in the summer. With heavy haul the summer’s their busy time and having a truck out of rotation for a couple of weeks would not go well - sometimes you just have to recognize when you have a good thing and roll with it and smile .

 

Thanks for asking,

Things are going fairly well here, freight this year has been consistent though the broker rates are low compared to last year, when I track year over year I’m on a similar pace ( I drove 111,000 miles last year and did in the $80’s for gross) so I’m hopeful that as the spring and summer come on strong and the rates will improve. Fortunately some of our customer contract freight rates are higher now so that’s helping offset some of the crappy broker stuff.

I’ve done a bit more port work so far that I like lol, but its been to haul equipment which is easy other than finding it and loading it, I don’t mind that as much as some so its not the end of the world it just takes a bit more time. A few weeks ago I spent 4 hours in Baltimore and walked 4.1 miles to find my machines - and then still had to deal with a driver who tried to cut in front of me on the loading ramp smh.

The T680 has been treating me well overall, the Paccar engines are having injector issues and we are now adding injector cleaner with each filling, it’s a pain but necessary if you want to avoid serious knocking. Our crazy 75K maintenance intervals don’t help but that’s the Paccar program we agreed to. I’ve adjusted to the lower horsepower and learned when to push and when to just cruise the right lane - I still do 700 plus mile days when needed so it’s not stopping me from making money which in the end is what counts.

Still getting 10’s at the house and in Feb I managed to do 12,000 miles with two resets at home so the flexibility Kivi gives me continues to be one of the bright spots for me. I know others mileage may vary, but I’m a happy driver who’s getting what he needs in hometime and pay so no complaints. All the best and I hope things are going well for you.

 

Yeah it’s a bit crazy…but that’s the fleet sales team at Paccar trying to stay ahead in the industry. Still miss my Cummins lol.