Running with JCT

Didn't see the train. That sounds like a lot of fun though. Thanks for reading. I've been having a lot of fun writing this up and doing all of the head scratching and calculating has given me new insights in my business.

 

Last night I sent in a macro for hometime to get this truck looked at. I figure five days in Las Vegas will do the truck AND me some good. Today I phoned in to my hometime coordinator to let her know that I was flexible on the dates. I just need to take care of this reasonably soon. We run a lot of I-40 and she said that I should get headed out that way and catch a relay back to home. We make several standard Monday and Tuesday deliveries in Sin City so this should be a piece of cake.

So I delivered my 40,000 lbs of beef tongue, destined for Tokyo and sent in my empty macro. Got a message to call the load planner. I got to do a shuttle run from San Leandro to Turlock, CA. This is a standard deal we have with Otis Spunkmeyer and it pays a flat $75. The planner noted my hometime request and said he would send me out across 40 somewhere tomorrow. As I expected, I caught another trip that I would dearly love to run: Salinas, CA to Winter Haven, FL. That's 2,919 paid miles. . . sigh. Hopefully I'll get to run it to Albuquerque or so and then get the home run.

Ah well, I need the time off. In the last seven days I've run 3,529 miles. I wish we could make a living at about 2,500 miles/week. When I post my graph we'll see just how puny the cents/mile would be at those levels. I think that I posted on here that once the fixed costs are paid for, I make over $.50/mile. In order to have a good check, I have to pile on as many of those 4-bits as I can!

 

I was perusing another thread and thought of a resource that I use daily:

http://www.poi-factory.com/

You can download free points of interest for your GPS here. For instance, I have: Loves, Pilot/Flying J, T/A Petro, Ambest, Blue Beacon, CAT Scales, Low Clearance, Sapp Bros, Rest Areas, and WalMarts among others. It's very nice when you're in some backwater late at night, hours running out, to search "Truck Stop Guide" for that little-known independent truck stop.

There are literally thousands of POIs that you can download. Hmm. . . "Red Light Cameras" might come in handy! Happy searching!

 

Sitting in Joseph City waiting for my swap. A team is hauling this lettuce off to Florida and I'll take some Tyson down to Carson. Now just have to figure out how to get from Carson to Las Vegas! This load delivers Tuesday morning and I hope to be home Tuesday or Wednesday.

This load turned out to be about 30,000 lbs. It would have been real profitable from here on to Florida too because I was killing the MPGs until I started climbing in Arizona. Even with that climb I managed 6.2 mpg from Lake Havasu to here. But this cruise control/jake brake issue is too much. I've tried everything and it just works if and when it feels like. Yesterday I left Salinas with no cruise. It sucks to try and maintain *ahem* 55 mph in California just with the foot. I was driving along highway 46 approaching Lost Hills with the inoperable jake on when I noticed my speed dropping. Hello Jake ol' buddy! It just came back on its own.

I've got a little project for tonight. When my tire blew, it somehow managed to hit the fairing and crack the rear piece. I'm going to pull it off and try some J-B Weld on it.

 

You're very welcome! Good luck on your new venture!

 

The team showed up last night in Joseph City and we made our swap. They were hauling chicken out of Arkansas going to Carson, CA with a final destination of Hawaii. The best part is that the total weight is 10,135 lbs! Lol. I couldn't even tell the trailer was loaded.

So I headed west this morning with dreams of some monster MPGs dancing in my head. First stop was Lake Havasu @ 9.7 mpg. Climbing out of there (reset the Scangauge) to Barstow then down into the L.A. basin I managed 8.7. This week didn't start out too promising Tuesday in Sidney, Nebraska with a fresh drive tire and a heavy load of west-bound beef tongues. Running through the mountains in Wyoming and Nevada I got into Oakland sitting about 6.3 mpg if I remember correctly. Tonight I have 3,117 miles for the week and 7.3 mpg. Not bad!

I guess that I'll find out tomorrow by what means they will get me home.

Rant

I just heard about some companies who are trying out cameras in the truck monitoring the driver. Con-Way was one company mentioned and SRT another. Are you freakin' kidding me!?! I can't believe that there are any drivers who would stay with a company that did that. The only power we have is putting feet to the pavement. If companies lose their drivers, this outrageous invasion of privacy will go away. We already put up with enough federal laws: DOT inspections, random drug tests, log books, etc. And little by little companies have been becoming Big Brother with Qualcomm tattling. I got a message telling me I was speeding in Texas late one night. The company's system still had the old Texas split day/night speed limits in their system. Where do we draw the line?

If JCT ever decides to go this way, I'm going to go all Anthony Weiner on them. They will get to give me a daily colonoscopy until they get their truck back.

 

Very cool. You definitely won't have to fight for miles here, lol.