My journey with Orange starts

What account did you start on

 

Already headed to Kentucky...nice little 2300 miler.

 

Can teams go on the I80 toll road? Being a solo company driver I have to take US 30. Well I could take the toll road but it would be taken out of my paycheck so I just suck it up and deal with all of the traffic lights on 30.

 

We took state hwy 30 to Visalia Illinois and then cut up to 80/90. I took why 30 through Chicago Heights once and won't do that again Can't ride toll roads across Ohio and Indiana but a little bit in Chi town shouldn't tick them off too bad.

What bothers me about this is you don't get paid for the extra miles required to go there route and you lose time going through small towns and reduced speeds. Just saying!!

 

stop and go traffic kills your MPG and burns time on your clock.. less time = less money.
how do you weigh when tolls are worth it?

 

The first couple of months we ran whatever they sent us on small towns or not. That changed in August when I received an assignment that sent us I direction I knew would take us forever. It was an area in Texas I grew up in and we took the quicker route versus little town after little town in the middle of no where. No one said anything so here's what we do now.

Once we get a pre assignment I check it on Mapquest to check potential routes and mileage and weight of load. Next I check weather on the route and major cities we will be going through and at what time we will be going through them. Then and only then can I make a good trip plan.

Once we activate the route I can see where the NAVIGO has us going and decide if I want to follow the first route or the one NAVIGO has us going.

This works well for us except in Southern California and the Northeast. We've had bumper to bumper traffic at 1 in the morning in Southern California so you just don't know what to expect out there.

 

US 30 isn't that bad in Indiana until you hit Valparaiso. Then there's a 15 mile stretch from there to I65 that sucks but isn't horrible. Never take US30 past I65, that's just retarded that navigo even gives those directions. Hop on I65 and cut up to I80 and take that across. Or before you hit Valparaiso you can hop on SR 49 up to I94 to avoid that area if you want.

It sucks that they don't pay you the extra miles, but it is what it is. One things for certain though if you are going to take the toll road the entire way through Ohio and Indiana do you really want to pay $60 out of your own pocket? I'd rather drive 20 extra miles personally.

 

I know most of the routes now without looking, but I still pull out the atlas on loads I'm not familiar with. I plan out the route on the atlas first, then I pull up the navigo directions. Most of the time Navigo comes up with the same route OR I look at navigo directions and ask Jill "are you fricking stupid?". On rare occasions Jill will come up with a route that makes you go "Huh?". Then you look at the atlas and are surprised you never thought of going that way before.

One thing is for certain, and is my mantra. A road never traveled is an unknown road. You'll never know if a road is a good or bad road until you drive on it. Once you drive on a piece of crap route you know never to go that way again. And if you find a good road you wouldn't have found it if you didn't try.

 

8081 miles last week and we never ran out of hours and should have enough for the next 5 days at least. Best week we have had so far. This week is starting strong also. As soon as I think we have it all figured out than we end up getting a curve ball thrown our way.

On a bad note....we actually drove 320 miles more than we are getting paid. On one of the assignments we got on the interstate and drove 400 miles to get off the same interstate. No shorter way to go yet the difference was 80 miles. I called my DBL and got the whole HHMG spiel again. Got it...it's the industry standard....still doesn't make it right. If I told someone at corporate they would work 44 hours a week but only get paid for forty they would lose their mind yet that is what is expected of us every week. The difference has averaged out to 7% since we started. It adds up quickly!