My move to Bruce Oakley (Oakley trucking inc)

Ok, lets catch this thread up to date. After delivering a 2nd load of baseball dirt in Mississippi I bounced home, and the wife and I drove to Texas to watch my granddaughters dance recital. After 5 days off it was back to work.

I loaded alloys in Alabama, and took that out to Seguin, Texas. I reloaded big sheet of scrap Aluminum in San Antonio at the Toyota plant (that place is massive) going to Houston. As I was dumping some of these big sheets of Aluminum got wedged under my bows. I lowered the trailer and climbed in to knock my bows out, as I was getting the last bow out I slipped, landed on my right side (ribs) on a folded up section of Aluminum. It knocked the wind out of me, and hurt like a MOFO. (More on this later)

This was the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, so another driver that lives in Houston loaded a load for me on his trailer going to Jackson, Tn. So he could be home, I planned on staying out since I had just taken 5 days off. So we swapped trailers, and I ran hard to get to Jackson before close of business on Friday.

If I didn’t get there Friday, I would be sitting in Jackson until Tuesday. I pulled into the receiver with two minutes of drive time left. Then PCd over to the nearest truck stop.

After talking to dispatch he couldn’t find anything loading on Saturday on a holiday weekend, so he offered to pay me the miles to deadhead home. Which I did, it turned out to be a blessing, because by the time I got home Saturday my ribs were killing me, I was struggling to breathe. The wife forced me to go to the ER, they took X-rays and a CT scan to check for internal injuries. Both came back clean, just a severe case of bruised ribs. Got prescribed, pain meds, muscle relaxers, and an anti inflammatory. After a few days of taking it easy I went back to work Wednesday, as of today I’m still sore, but feeling better each day.

 

So I left the house Wednesday and loaded in Mobile with a load of carbon Ferro manganese going to Columbus, Ms. for a same delivery. I reloaded right around the other side of the mill with a load of mill scale.

That was going to a concrete plant in Branford, Florida. From there I bounced to an OJ plant in Aurburndale, and picked up a load of citrus pulp pellets (animal feed) going to a Farm in North Carolina.

Yesterday morning I loaded roofing granules in Moncure, NC going to Kearney, NJ, delivered those this morning. Tomorrow I get the distinct pleasure of loading at a scrap yard in the heart of Brooklyn. Got it all mapped out, going to get up and beat the morning BS, be there just after sunrise, and hopefully get loaded and rolling back towards Pennsylvania before mid morning.

 

First time in years, I got backed into at the Petro in Florence, SC last night. Laying in the bunk, here the dreadful crunch, jump up, blow the horn. The lady says “oh did I hit you?” Uh yes you did, she starts cussing me out. WTF lady you backed into me. After we calmed down, I gave her two options, give me your insurance information, or go to the ATM. She chose to go get some cash.

Cracked and bent my drivers side quarter fender, and scuffed up my tank fairing. Definitely could have been worse. Luckily there’s an International dealer right across the interstate, so I went and picked up a new quarter fender, and a set of minimizer floor mats.

 

I own my truck, their trailer wasn’t involved, so it’s none of their business. If my cab had been damaged in any way we would have gone the insurance route.

I’m not trying to screw some driver over with her company over what I consider minor damage. We came to a mutual agreed upon amount, and went on with our lives.

 

The Brooklyn, NY load was pretty uneventful, got in there early to beat the morning craziness. Glad I was there early, because quickly after opening time that scrap yard turned into a zoo. Was back in NJ buy 1100, and delivered the same day in Pennsylvania.

From there I picked up a load of roofing granules going to Florence SC. Delivered that and loaded perlite in Brunswick, Ga, going to Macon , Ga. Paid me to bounce home from there.

The next week I loaded in Loxley, Alabama (aluminum shred) going to St. Augustine, Florida. Bounced from there to Port Caneveral, Florida and loaded (potassium nitrate) hazmat load. Going to Lake Park, Ga.

Bounced to Opelika, Alabama and picked up Aluminum scrap going to Bessemer, Alabama. Then Ran over to Graysville, Alabama and picked up warning track dirt, for a new athletic complex in Covington, Tn.

I then raced over to Memphis to load Ferro manganese before the shipper closed. Took that down to Houston for a Friday afternoon delivery. I loaded Saturday in Hockley, Texas going to Theodore, Alabama for a midday delivery today. Instead of taking a 34 in Alabama over the weekend, I got home Saturday night, and rolled out this morning for delivery.

I wasn’t expecting to get through the house, but it’s always a nice surprise when things work out.

I swapped trailers around Memorial Day weekend with another driver, his trailer had some issues, I’m finally at our Reserve, Louisiana terminal getting those issues addressed. Last week, I got a 90 day email from Oakley checking on how things are going. My only complaint was the issues with this trailer, they deadhead ed me today from Alabama to get these issues resolved.