Running with JCT

I picked up a load of strawberries last night in Salinas. The load wasn't ready, so I had a couple of tacos from the meals on wheels in the parking lot. I have to hand it to California. You can pick any random food truck at any shipper in the state, and I'll put their tacos up against any Mexican restaurant anywhere else. These were exceptional! So I had dinner and waited. And waited. You know the drill. About 10pm my berries were ready and within 20 to 30 minutes we were loaded and parked on the lot to wait out our 10. This is another light load at under 18,000 lbs.

Got rolling in the pre-dawn chill and headed to Winnemucca. I had to deal with Pacheco Pass at about 1,400 feet and Donner pass at 7,200 feet today. In between, I had a surprise headwind on I-5 that was pretty effective at holding my mileage down. At the top of Donner I checked the Scangauge and saw 6.1 mpg for the day. That's not too bad considering that I started from sea level. I stopped in Fernley to add enough fuel to make Cheyenne and to grab a shower. The Scangauge reset when I was fueling, and 130 miles later in Winnemucca, I was at 8.5 mpg for that stretch. I have just over 1,000 miles left to North Platte, and most of it is in the mountains. That's a lot of ups and downs, but if the winds are ok I should do pretty well from here.

Today is Wednesday, and that means that the settlement email is in. This settlement had two significant trips on it from Castroville to Ft. Worth, a local delivery in Dallas, and Ennis to Porterville for a total of 3,278 miles. I got charged for 472 gallons of fuel, so 3,278/472= 6.94 mpg. I got somewhat better than that, so this check takes a small hit on the way the fuel dropped. Still, I got $1,229 for the week. I'll be very interested to see what happens next week with another big mileage week and great MPGs!

 

It was part of a relay, so no special pay just $.93/mile for 33 miles.

 

There are quite a few owner/operators at JCT including former lease operators who paid off their trucks and stayed on. This thread is full of information detailing my experiences as well as several other drivers who post on here, but in a nutshell I average about 3,000 miles per week with an average length of haul of over 1,400 miles. JCT pays $.90/mile plus fuel surcharge (currently $.45/mile) for ALL dispatched miles, loaded and empty plus a 2 cent/mile quarterly bonus. Paid base plates and permits. EZ Pass, Pike Pass and Pre-Pass, toll and scale reimbursement, reefer fuel and lumpers are all paid.

My favorite thing has to be the length of haul. I hated those little 400 mile loads that I used to get back to back. I'm so spoiled over here that anything less than 1,000 miles is what I consider a reposition load. There are plenty of miles to run too. JCT isn't a perfect company, but it's very good in doing the things that are important to me.