My new, final resting place

It was.

 

They have both. If you live near a terminal, you can ask for regional. There is one in Winter Haven, but I don't know if they have a southern regional or not. Call and ask.

And they're a true 48-state OTR company...except in winter. You won't be going where chains are required much, even if you carry them (I don't); it's too risky and not enough value for the company so they usually broker those loads.

Once you get your CDL, they'll send you out with a local trainer for one week then OTR with a trainer for 4 weeks. Then you take the "final" test and get assigned your own truck. This is my second time here and in my orientation class, there were several retreads, so it must be good enough.

 

Funny you should ask how this is going.

I stopped in Albert Lea, MN, again, thinking my fuel was gelling up (even though I use a LOT of Howe's) because of the caution lights and slight loss of power. The TA techs did their thing and kicked me out the door and the truck hummed along.

For 2 miles.

Then the lights and power loss returned, so my guess is they replaced good fuel filters and didn't do much other checking. But that 2-hour delay put me too far behind to make my delivery and pick today, so now I'm in Hudson, Wisconsin, taking a break before making the last 2-hour leg to my rescheduled drop at 0700 tomorrow.

And I hope I don't lose the next run, which is 1,100+ miles down to Orlando...

 

I worked for them, too, for a while. My experience with that company wasn't bad, but after a couple of incidents, I learned that flatbedding is not an old-man's job to start.

 

And I'm ready for temperatures that don't have a minus sign in front. Unfortunately, I won't have them tonight. The one bad thing about WEL is they don't allow idling longer than 3 minutes, no matter what the temp is. And the APU keeps the coolant warm but does nothing for engine oil or, more critically, the fuel.

So after the temp drops to -15 or so tonight, I'll have to contend with that tomorrow. And I already have slight reduced power...

 

You're right. I did notice that it's a Petro. I was there earlier for a real gel problem and they did a good job fixing it. Not so much this time; but they were very, very busy hauling broken trucks in using a local heavy-haul wrecker company.