Running with JCT, Part Deux

Yawn. Been a little quiet in the indepent reefer forums lately. Tax time and refer haulers comin' outta winter. FINALLY. Been up to my eyeballs in taxes and getting ready for the Fed-drama Party myself. Sigh. One of the rubs of being Independent. Tax time is lotsa extra work.

Good news is the Loves deal. I called them to make sure I would get the bonus points (again my many thanks to Macho on the lead that solved my PFJ point issue) and since my Loves card predates my JCT tenure I thought I'd be proactive as I too have the app and nothing came to me about it from there. Called them and they told me I was good to go as it was driven off the fuel card as the identifier for having the points and the rewards card just told the "system" whose reward card to put it on. Cool. Haven't tested it yet but cool none-the-less.

Also some great news from my accountants. I don't use ATBS. ATBS Pashaw!!! I use the esteemed firm of Dewey, Cheetum & Howe. They guarantee a $29,000 refund every year because they have SPECIAL software and IRS connections on ALL your possible deductions as an independent OTR truck driver. I found out Friday, after e-mailing them my 792 page income and expense sheet, that I can actually claim all of Uncle Clyde's bananas and beer and 1/2 of Junior Orange's as a Family Business Expense - IF Jerry says I really am the Papa Wild Hair, as a Marketing and Branding expense. Ain't that GREAT!! Who'da thunk it?! Awesome!! I signed the return and e-mailed it off right away and get this guys; I grossed $175K last year and thanks to Dewey, Cheetum & Howe and Uncle Clyde's appetite and Junior Orange's maybes; I'm getting a $300K tax refund this year!! The best part is it only cost me $7,500 up front on my credit card and you know I had to trust them with all my personal info to be able to file it. But WOW. I'll be able to retire after all and can stop practicing for my Golden Years gig. "Welcome to Walmart". Though I do have it down pat. It NEVER hurts to have a retirement plan B. Right?

Hang on, someone's at the door. DANGED they knock loud. "POUND ON IT HARDER WHY DON'TCHA"?!

"What?!! Who?!! Revenue WHAT?!! Put the handcuffs away. HONEEEEYYYY!!!"

Gotta go guys. Little tied up at the moment. See y'all in Sapulpa soon. [GULP] At least I hope so.


"LET ME GO!! I never even HEARD of Mexico. Isn't that by Canada or China? CLYYYYYYYDE!!!!"

Edit:
I am truly sorry for ever even having THOUGHT about swatting a fly. To my Fellow JCT Ops and all others; Always be forthright, forthcoming and honest on your US tax returns and always strictly obey and adhere to all Laws, Rules, Regulations and APPROPRIATE (CLYDE!) Customs in ChinaMexicAmericaNadia and never under ANY circumstances play with fuzzy orange things after eating the worm at the bottom of a bottle of MezcaliSakiBurbon Canadian Whiskey. Yeah. Prolly best I stop there. The fuzzy Orange things was prolly over the top. Yeah. I am truly sorry for all my sins (except one - OK, six MinAminals I KNOW of and Love dearly) and I promise to never again play with cute, round, hairy, fuzzy, orange, curved behind . . .

REALLY HAVE TO HANG UP THE PHONE ON THAT ONE NOW.



Nite all.

Meep!

Anybody know a good quadrilingual tax/ um. Yeah. Multi-faceted International Attorney. Works for peanuts would be great too seing how bananas isn't getting me ANY-WHERE!!! Jumbo would work better than Dumbo. Just sayin' . . . a bone? Anyone?

Bye again.

They're coming to take me away HAHA They're coming to take me away HOHO HEHE HAHA !!!!! To the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time . . . . . .

 

So how's everyone doing with the miles since the staffing changes earlier this month? Ever since my miles have dropped to the point where I think they don't want me here anymore. I have went over this with the new DM and all he says is he will do better but nothing changes and I'm just fed up at this point. My loyalty is to my income and always will be, I'm a simple driver that have one request KEEP ME MOVING, and so far this new DM has FAILED!!!

 

I have not seen any drop. I'm still running about 3k a week

 

Mine been picking up a bit, knock on wood [knocks on head]. I'm still trying to get my fangs sunk into this real good, but seems so far like I'm doing better w/ relationship building in Planning more so than w/ my DM. I got kinda a green DM and from what I'm gathering in the wind here it seems like there are some things happening at Sapulpa I am certainly not privy to. Getting calls questioning things that weren't questioned before. Some things I might used to get knocked on the nose about - slide. Kinda sensing a shift in the paradigm in general myself.

My plan is to keep the Planners happy first. They seem to have the closest finger on my mileage pulse if you get my drift. I'm not sayin' don't relationship build with all the players. Not sayin' that by a LONG shot. It takes a whole child to raise a village. Or one child to RAZE a village. LOL. OR One village to RAZE the children raisers! Hell, I dunno!

I know when to duck, though. I'm doin' a Brer Fox thing right now and "Layin' Low", "be-yun-haved" and rollin' it as it flows so the tension stuff can stay yonder, not hither. I have practiced this down to an absolute art:

"Hmm. I see. Ok. Well I'll certainly do my part and the best I can. It should be good to go. Barring unforeseen circumstances, naturally. We're in this for the long haul so I guess we need to wrap this up and get to haulin'. Hahaha. Be Safe there in Sapulpa and we all appreciate what y'all do for us back there. If anything goes wrong I'll be sure to let you know. If you don't hear from me, everything is fine. My best to the Family." Then . . .

RUN !!!! Just RUNNNN!!!!

Strategemnationing! Yup, yup, YUP! Gots me a PLAN! The way the Greatest Generation Flyers got through the War was to avoid the flack. Flack took down more bombers than fighters did. Fighters just did it with certainty and flair. The big numbers of downed bombers came down from flack. They avoided the flack by flying high and learning high altitude precision bombing and flying real (REAL) low to the ground and making a big ole bomber do what it wasn't designed to do in evade and escape maneuvers. Hmmm. Sounds a lot like truck driving these days no matter WHO you do it for. Dodging a WHOLE lot of bullets and flack from a whole lot of places and us just keepin' it all movin' so our neighbors and families back home got food on the table. Literally in our case. We feed America. It sure don't walk itself from the farm to the table!! Just sayin' . . . we can learn a lot from those that endured before us so we can Do our Do.

So, I deliver my stuff precisely (MY way! My plane, my cargo and I will get it there MY way, and deal with the fighters and flack of THAT on MY terms - long as it's on time), avoid HQ flack flying high and tight and escape and evade when I must. At the end of the day NONE of us get paid till the goods are delivered. Regardless of challenges on OUR end . . . or THEIR end. We'll see a bunch more HQ paradigm shifts before we hand John that dollar. You can bet on THAT. It's Trucking. What keeps us ALL in the air and going is the OUTSTANDING Pilots of JCT making sure the cargo gets where it's supposed to; when it's supposed to and dodging all the bullets and flack aimed our way every inch of every mile on that Mission.

Have Faith! Persevere! Do your DO! Keep your eyes on the Prize and NEVER look back!!

"Plowin' Straight Ahead, Come What May . . . . There's a COWBOY IN THE JUNGLE" . . . . [maybe more than one]!

(Jimmy Buffett)

Nite All. Got an early p/u.

Don't we all.

 

LMAO Aminal you sure have a very odd and entertaining way of making your point. But at least most should be able to remember it cause of the way you make it.

As far as my miles they have picked up a little bit. But then again I have been running recap for the last 2 weeks.

Can tell spring is trying to beat the door down since we've already had some twisters. So on that note everyone have good travels and be safe out there.

 

Calling me an Odd Duck would definitely not be a mischaracterization.

However, to know me is to . . . wonder "What EXACTLY was God thinking when he made THAT one?!! Must have been the same day he created Duck Billed Platypuses, Ostriches, Giraffes, Avocado Pits and such. Definitely an off day in Heaven when he created Aminal. That's for sure!"

 

Come to think about it, I do seem to get better miles when I'm on recap and I got a good solid day coming back each midnight as opposed to running out the restart tank. I do know JCT uses the AS-400 software and that "models" you with your hours, ETA and availability. It does the rate, time, distance, hours calc and throws up loads that truck "can do". They go from there.

Now I'm wondering; when your on the second part of a week coming off a restart (restart 70 down to say 30), there is a goose egg recovery from the restart about three days in front of you. Maybe a weak recovery day from a p/u or del day too. Maybe a 4 or something. So you got a goose egg and a 4 messing with your ability to roll on steady and heavy for OTD, so the AS-400 has you "modeled" a bit off so it doesn't throw as many options for your truck out to Planning. So, they have to toss the modeled slick and smooths out to those trucks first THEN work on the OK, what can I get THIS ones. So you get more leftover kinda runs. Hmm. Something for me to look at closer.

 

OK how much is the transflow nowadays? I figured after they bought TripPak the cost would increase. Current Re-Orientation date for me is May 18th.

 

Not sure don't use the scanning either in cab or at truck stop. Never in a big worry to get a trip off. Will find out later when I'm not in a rest area for you though. LoL

 

If you use the mobile app it's $6 in the truckstop it's $12