May trucking

BigRay....Headed out today with Armstrong St Helens shuttle. They are going to repower with a Team so I hope I get a good load. See ya on the road.

 

Just sticking my oar in, for the heck of it:

Just finished 2 weeks of training with May. Trainer needed some time off, so we're back in Denver until Thursday.

I didn't bother to add up the miles - but we went:
Denver to Atlanta 44300lbs
Atlanta to Macon (DH)
Macon to Fargo 34000lbs
Fargo to Silver Cloud MN (?) (need to check my logs) DH
Silver Cloud to Macon 37000lbs
Macon to Pennington AL (600 miles DH)
Pennington to Kansas City, KS 28000lbs
Kansas City to Salt Lake City 34000lbs
SLC to Denver (just got back last night) 44000lbs
(all weights approximate, of course)

Only two places took longer than 2 hours to unload. The drop in KC and the drop in SLC - 5 hours and 7 hours, respectively.

MPG averaged 6.8, even with me driving - until yesterday. Hwy 6 in UT and I-70 in CO killed it. I think we ended up with an overall average of close to 6.4

Dispatch goofed only once - set us for a fuel stop in Laramie WY yesterday. Only 350 miles round-trip out of our way. Quickly fixed.

Washed the truck twice in that two weeks (once on our dime and a one of those neighborhood wash bays). no biggie.

Trainer is good so far..watching me and making suggestions when I have issues (mostly down-shifting. seems to be a mental block or something there. but it's improving)

Only complaint I have at this point is relatively minor, and likely to be found in just about any other company without APUs: restrictive idling time. In GA, when it's 90+ degrees and 90+ humidity at 23:00, idling is not an option.

Well, ok, I kinda wish the trainee got a hunk of the detention pay.. but that's just me whining - it's not a reasonable desire.

I learned that
If it's not a straight back, it's gonna be a blind side back of some sort.
The road / lane / alley you need to back on is never wide enough.
No two company *SITES* handle lumpers the same way.
Hills suck. Big hills suck worse. Mountains suck worst of all.
Trucks can burn. All the way to the ground. (I hope that OD driver outside SLC on I=80 is ok. When we passed his rig yesterday morning, the fire was out, fire department was gone.. but the scene was still a mess. PD was still on scene investigating or whatever, and making sure we didn't kill ourselves on the ice left over from the fire department)
Deer are stupid (ok, I knew that already)
Georgia drivers - and those around Atlanta in particular, are insane.
A good sense of humor can make your day.
There is no good food on the road (grapes - not just for breakfast any more)
Reefer noise? what reefer noise?
The same people who design loading docks design at least half the truck stops.
I'm willing to commit bodily harm to get a shower.
There are no smooth roads.
Load-locks do not respond well to harsh language.
Your mirrors can never be too clean - except at night.

There are others, but I'll close with:

4-wheelers, in general, are TSTL.*


*Too Stupid To Live

 

BigRay....thanx for dinner. By the way Im sitting at Johnsons corner. Ill be knee deep in a Blueberry Muffin in the am