S&S Transport

Finished out the week at 3,220 miles. I could have done more, but truck is in shop as of yesterday. I figured since I had a decent week to go ahead and get service done. Why come back 1500 miles later when you re already in town, plus I only had 4 hours on my 70.

Some of you ask what are the pros and cons of S and S

Pros:
No forced dispatch
All trucks have APU, refrigerator, DirectTV, XM radio which you pay for subscription
BestPass
Everybody is in plain sight including the owners when you walk in the building.
If you want to run, they have the miles, and give you plenty of time to get it there
You can run all tolls, no dispatch approval needed
No cost passenger policy
They will try to accommodate you on your truck preference: Auto vs 10 speed/ Cascadia vs T680. The trucks are O/O spec'd as well
They go through the truck with a fine tooth comb when it comes down to servicing their equipment
Mileage is practical miles with PC Miler

Cons:
No night or weekend dispatch
No afterhours shop
No driver amenities on site, but they are in the works of adding those in the near future.

Any further questions just ask away

 

After a day and a half in shop, I get a restart and got a 1700 mile run to CT for Tuesday morning. I plan on getting to CT in time for another restart.

 

Its hard to believe its been a month already at S&S. Other than the first week here, and working out the kinks with the truck I m in now, its been a great experience. My lowest mileage for the week was 2900 and the best week so far was 3220. My average length of haul is between 900-1100 miles.

I like the fact at S&S, most of our loads are light. 80% of them average less than 15,000 lbs. I have had 4-44,000lbs plus loads that averaged about a 1,000 miles each. Usually those heavy loads pick up either in Grand Forks or somewhere in ND.

We are in the process of adding 30 to 50 trucks to the fleet which were supposed to be delivered next month but got pushed back due to the demand from the big boys. That will put us roughly at a 150 truck company

They are a small company that s not afraid to spend money to make money. We re phasing out our older trailers, and will begin phasing out the older T680s and Cascadia's next year. We just bought several brand new trailers

 

Beginning of 2nd month has started with 3 different loads within an hr. The first 2 got changed, and ending up with a load and reload in Anniston going to Winnipeg. 1600 miles. But the only bad thing was that Anniston took their precious time loading the reload, and I barely made it back home with 10 mins left on my 14. So 1350 miles and 33 hours later, I m taking my 10 in Fargo so I can make delivery.

Then back to the shop AGAIN for some issues with PeopleNet, Onguard, and a few other things. I hope it will not be an all day affair

 

You should have listed the on guard system as a Con on your list.

 

I know, right? Especially when you come upon a slow truck 700 feet ahead of you, and it backs you down to their speed, and you hate to jump out in the left lane that far back with a 67-68mph truck to try to pass.

And the slightest thing gets on that radar box, it disables it and you re stuck at 65 on the throttle until you pull over and clean it. Then sometimes the OnGuard won t go back to normal

 

The week of Thanksgiving is off to a good start. It started off with a 1600 mile run to Winnipeg, then back to Grand Forks for some repairs. I deadhead 250 miles to St Cloud to pick up 3 pallets and take them to Anniston, then 17 miles to the house until Monday or Tuesday. I m literally deadheading even though the customer says those 3 pallets weigh 10,000lbs, they re more like about 500 lbs. If they had one box of roman noodles or one box of popcorn, they would still put 10,000lbs on the bills.

Its good to know that this company tries to accommodate drivers for the holidays. I do believe everybody got home for Thanksgiving that wanted it

I will close out the week with 3200 miles

 

@bigkev1115 and @LDYTRUCKER Is everything still going well over at S & S?