My Time With Swift

Well, first week with the new truck is over and so far i'm liking it. I think it rides better than the Volvo's, it definately looks better, and I think it even pulls better. The storage issue is really nothing more than just trying to fit your stuff into a new home and trying to cope with not having a space where you used to have one. If I had started with a Freightliner then went with a Volvo, I'm sure I would still be having similar issues. Actually, the only problem I've had with it was a hard starting problem. Since I'm currently sitting in Columbus getting a 34, I reluctantly decided to put it in the shop to get that fixed. I say reluctantly because the last couple times I put a truck in the shop, it cost me a lot of down time which cost me a lot of money.And I just got this truck and I like it, I don't want to lose it already. But it turned out to be a non-issue anyway, it was driver error. No body told me that with the Freightliners, you have to wait until the gauges complete their sweep before it will start. Now that I know that, I haven't had a problem.

As far as runs this week, my loads have been averaging between 400 and 500 miles. Ok I guess. Would like to see a few more miles, but I'll take what I get. I don't know what is going on out there, but #### people, pull your heads out of your azzes!! There was one day I got stuck in 4 different traffic jams. How can you run like that? My load delivered the next day, so I did make that on time, but I didn't get to where I wanted to spend the night. And that wasn't the only traffic jam I hit this week. It's been a rough week, let me tell you! I hope this next week turns out better. I guess it really can't be any worse, can it.

 

Wow...what a long strange trip it's been! Normally, I will try to stay out for the two weeks required before coming home. This time out, I needed to stay out for three weeks for two reasons. I needed to change my home time schedule to get home on a certain date later this month, and 2nd, I picked up my son from my ex-wife who lives in Texas. (Oh, I also changed my home time location so I could do that.) She has been having some problems with him and got to the end of her rope, so she asked if I wanted him. I said sure and arranged to pick him up on the truck while I'm out.

To start out, they had me going all over. This is the trip when I got the new truck, so I won't trouble you with more of that. The past week and a half has been trying to get to Texas on time. Started out with going to eastern New York from South Carolina. Ok, that's a move in the right direction....not. But since I don't turn down a load unless I can't do it on time, I took the load. One interesting note about this one is that the load information came with a message that New York requires some kind of permit that I needed to get. Cool, now if only they had sent me that warning for Oregon 2 months ago, I wouldn't have gotten a costly citation. I can kind of understand why I didn't get a warning message. My destination wasn't Oregon, it was Washington. But they should know you have to go thru Oregon to get there so they should include that warning for Washington also.

Oops, got off track. The New York run was just a nightmare. I got it on friday, I could easily deliver it on saturday, but it wasn't due until monday. I didn't want to sit on it all weekend so I called my DM and told him I could have it there on saturday afternoon. He made a call, then told me that I could drop it as soon as I got there. Great!, When I got there, the place was closed. The delivery directions said it was a drop location and I should drop the trailer in the lot on the side of the building and put the papers in the drop box. But the only thing resembling a drop box was the mail box. I wasn't sure if that was where I should put the papers. Then I discovered I had somehow lost my copy of the BOL. Wonderful! So I called afterhours and after a short arguement about being there a day early and someone should be there the next day, I was told to follow the directions and drop the trailer, get a copy made of the BOL, and send a MAC 38 to get an empty trailer since this location didn't have one.

So, I bobtailed up the road to a truckstop and parked it for the night, got a copy made of the BOL, and went back to the location the next morning at the scheduled delivery time. Guess what, still no one there. So I dropped the papers in the box and sent a message that I still needed a trailer. I finally got one an hour away, so I hooked up to that and went to pick up my next load which was to be be t-called at the drop yard in West Virginia where, guess what...they didn't have any empties either. UUhhgg! I sat there over night, again, and they did get an empty in the morning, so once again, I'm back on the road, this time heading toward Chicago.

I did finally get a load heading in the general direction of Texas, after getting stuck in Gary, In again with no empty trailer, but I knew I was going to be at least a day late on my hometime. What I didn't realize was that I was out of hours. I had six hours to run that day, so I got as far as I could, then called my DM to ask him some questions. He noticed that I didn't have any hours dropping off that night. I was suddenly stuck for 34 hours (which turned into 43 before I was able to leave). So someone came to where I was and we swapped trailers to get my load delivered on time and I sat. I got a message earlier that week about my idle time being high, which is odd, because I didn't think I idled that much. I told my Dm that where I was stuck had a heat index of 105 for the next day. He told me if I'm not in the truck stop, I need to idle the truck. Ok then. I did spend most of the day inside, but I did take a 3 hour nap, thinking I would be heading out at midnight when my 34 was done. When I got my load, I didn't need to leave until 10 am, so that extended my 34 to 43.

I had my hometime scheduled for thursday so that I could get some paperwork done and be able to call the courts during office hours in case I needed help. I needed to get custody of my son transferred to me for the swap. I know it's not going to happen right away, but we got the papers filled out and sent in, so everything should be good in a couple weeks...I hope. Anyway, my thursday hometime didn't happen until sunday and into monday. I did get the paperwork filled out and sent in. I told my Dm that I didn't need to spend 3 days off since I was only there to pick up my son and fill out the papers, plus I just had a 34, I didn't need anymore time off. He had given me a load to get me home, said it delivered 39 miles from where I needed to be. It really turned out to be 110 miles. He also backed it up with a load to be picked up monday night when I was finished at the same place. This load was a preloaded trailer to be picked up between 21:00 and 23:59. I got there at 23:00 and the load wasn't ready. I didn't get out of there until 3:30 in the morning! I was not happy! I just went up the road to a truck stop and went to bed, I was too tired to drive much anyway.

So the good news is I have my son with me for two weeks now. He is driving me nuts! Always asking questions about this or that. He is 17 going on 13. He hasn't travelled much, so this is a whole new adventure for him. He was amazed at a panoramic view of some sage brush in Texas. Sure, it was kind of neat to see the vast untouched praire land that makes up noorthwest Texas, but I told him he ain't seen nothing yet.

Right now, we are sitting in Loveland, CO, once again needing a trailer and a load to put in it. I got a pre-plan last night, but I had to reluctantly turn it down. It was a sweet run to Hebron, KY with 1154 loaded miles, but I just didn't have the hours to run it on time. When I told my DM this morning, he said I should have accepted it and he could have adjusted the delivery time (now he tells me!) I said I called afterhours and they said if I can't do it on time, turn it down. So he said I did the right thing, but now I wonder about the next time that happens, especially if it's afterhours again or on a weekend. Do I accept the load and hope he can adjust it? Or do I turn it down?

Well, it seems I've written a novel this time. it's time to get off and bug my DM some more about getting a load. He said I was at the top of the board, but that was an hour ago and I still haven't heard anything yet.

 

Well, I've had my son with me for about 1 1/2 weeks now. It's been a blast so far. He pretty much grew up in a small east Texas town and hasn't seen much of the world. It's fun to watch him discover new things. In fact, we are sitting in the Memphis terminal right now and someone just got a soda out of the machine. He got a kick out of how the machine operated. Ok, whatever, lol.

Still lovin the Shaker. So much better than the Volvo's. Doesn't seem to like the heavy loads as much, but it still gets the job done. And it seems to be somewhat of a unique color. It's a kind of dark blue that I haven't seen on other Swift Shakers. I've seen other blue ones, just not this color blue. I like it. It's been pretty dirty lately, but I finally got the time to run it thru the wash here at Memphis. I'm going to take a little more time in the morning and try to wash her up real nice. I'll try to post a pic, if I can figure out how. I may have to wait til I'm home and have a good internet connection.

I will have more to update this weekend when I'm home. Until then, be safe all.

 

Made it home on friday. I've been so busy since I got home I haven't had much time to get online. I had asked my Dm earlier in the week when I got my load going to Hebron, KY if I was getting sent home from there. He said I wasn't due home until saturday. Then when I got my next pre-plan, it actually had me going home and picking up on sunday, then going to MO by monday. When I got the dispatch information, I noticed the shipper required a newer Duraplate trailer and I had an older T number. So I called my DM and told him. First he tried to find me a trailer to swap with, but struck out so he got me another load. Now I'm going to Jacksonville, Florida with mixed emotions about it. It's cool going to Florida and maybe I will get to see the ocean, which would really be cool (I've only seen the Atlantic once before in my life), but I've also heard it's hard getting freight out of Florida. Hopefully I don't end up getting stuck sitting down there. I will not be a happy camper if that happens!

Oh, here is a pic of my truck. Hopefully it posts ok...