Stevens Transport A year in review

May 10 to 16

Miles ran 3071 good week

Miles paid 1152 home time always kills the paid miles

Miles transflowed yet to be paid 1025 paid out on Monday

Came off home time Monday morning at 9 am dallas time. Called my DM to let her know I am ready to roll. In the past it would be the afternoon before I started rolling. Start loading up the truck, and the QC beeps, repower a load in Cheyenne WY at noon. I better hustle. Finish loading the truck up, throwing everything on the bunk,QC beeps again, repower canceled, beep, repower set for Rawlins at Noon. Rawlins is 126 miles away, so I can be there about noon, finish loading up, and head on down the road. Snow storm is moving in and I want to get out of WY. I hit heavy snow between Casper and Muddy Gap WY. Light Snow in Rawlins. I pull in right behind the driver I am repowering. Get a Target load going to Cedar Falls IA...Let me tell you how many of these loads I have picked up but never delivered. Call in for my produce Talk, Let them know it is Snowing in WYoming, the weather men have missed predicting this one but it goes in one ear and out the other. Call in for my weather talk, get told I have no worries, and I inform them it is Snowing, and will be getting heavy before the day is over.

I roll and make bosselmans Grand Island for the night. Lots of parking, good food, and a drivers lounge you can spend time in comfortably.

Now I have an easy roll up to Cedar falls. Start to park at the little cenex lot just a few miles from target, but it just does not feel right. so I head down the road 8 miles to the Flying J. I always go with my gut instinct in a new area.

Head over to Target in the wee hours AM, and it takes them 4 hours from the appointment time to get me unloaded. So 2 hours detention time
Head over to the Pilot/road ranger, scan in my paperwork, and get a load picking up at tyson in waterloo...this will work, go drop my empty, bobtail over to Wal Mart and do some shopping, then pick my load up. Pull into Tyson, in the rain and MUD, did I say MUD, and my load is ready. So much for my plans...Scale the load on their scale, am over gross by 780 lbs. To use their scale, I am not in the truck when it weighs, and I try to tell the shipping clerk this to pull 1000 lbs off. Hands me a new seal, and I wait to be called to a door...1 hour later, in the door, they pull a couple of pallets off, then a few minutes later bump the trailer again, putting the pallets back on, come out and tell me I am done. Okay, head over to their scale to see where I am at and Watch a Transam driver catch the side of his trailer on the post and rip the cross members out from under the loaded trailer for about 5 feet. Yard Jockies are trying to get him to stop.

Well over to the pilot to weigh...I am still too heavy, 420lbs over. Stevens wants me to go back, so I go back. Inform Security, and shipping, wait for a door, listen to the yard jockies, watch transam try to back his badly damaged loaded trailer into a hole.. and wait. 2 hours later, finally back into a door, feel the dock plate hit the trailer, some rustling and thumping, and I am told I am ready. Back over to the pilot, yep I am now 79980. I have 5/8 tank of fuel....

Call fuel for a new opti stop, get one, and head out. My 14 is quickly approaching but I can make Iowa80 for the night and do. Any time I am running 80 around Chicago, the fuel stop is ALWAYS a pilot down on US 22 or US30 for 50 gallons. I calculate what I got, and I can make the loves at Hubbard OH, my next fuel stop. So I stay on the toll road and cruise for the day. Now I am running a full day ahead with this load going to CT. C, my DM asks if I would like a repower...I say sure.

Friday morning dawns, and she says sit tight for a couple of hours...about 10 am, I get a call, one drop in Elizabeth NJ for Saturday morning..an improvement at the CT load drops at 1800 Saturday. both about 400 miles. I take it, the other drive arrives about noon. I get the comment oh, another alliance driver taking my load, and giving me a crappy one. He settled down when he found out he still had 400 miles to go, and the time to do it. I headed out to columbia NJ, my fuel stop, and a cluster as they upgrade their pumps....get fuel, park as there is NO place I am comfortable parking at close to elizabeth.

I get a pre plan to pick up a hershey load in Lancaster PA, and head to Ogden UT. Good miles, gets me out of NJ quickly, and I can make Ogden with my hours. And it is an open appointment drop.

Get up Saturday, head the 70 miles to my drop, got to love those narrow streets, pull up beside the receiver, Barbed wire fenced lot, locked gates, buzzer... He comes out, it is 630am, and says good you are here, back it in. I will move those 2 trucks... This is one tight back, from the street. put it in, paid him the $175 and in 15 minutes I am empty. He walks out and hands me my paperwork, and says have a nice day, but don't hang around. This is not a good area. i told him thanks, had no intentions, and worked my way out.

Stopped off at the Petro in bordentown to wash the trailer out, and got the truck washed too. Headed down to lancaster, found the Y&S factory, no guard, no fence, drop the trailer, talk with a shaffer driver, get my paperwork and head out. Stop in Smithton PA for the night. Now if you like local stock car races, this is a good place to stop on Fridays and Sundays. A track is located 1/4 mile behind the flying J. But I stopped on Saturday night.

I take a nice leisurely Sunday drive, across the Ohio countryside. My Fuel stop is again the Pilot on US 30 in the middle of no where ohio. 50 gallons, and then a fill at gary IN. All the running around NJ, and then the PA hills, has been eating fuel. I am enjoying the country side, the towns, and finally make my way up to US 30 a four lane. I see I can once again skip the 50 gallons, and just fill at Gary.

I plan on stopping at RJ's TA west of chicago, but when I pull in at 6pm, the place is packed, so I head down the road to the Flying J at LaSalle. the lot was never more than 1/2 full the entire night.

Not a bad start after home time, I wanted to burn my log book to the ground as quickly as possible, but that did not happen. I had 9 hours left to drive Monday before hitting my 70.

 

$590 / week truck
$50 / week APU
$167 / week insurance and administration costs

$807 / week if the truck does not move.
Then there is the mileage charge and FHUT tax of $.045

Better deals else where if you have the credit to swing it.

 

May 17 to May 23

Another good week in the books

Miles ran 3015

Miles paid 2079

Miles translowed, yet to be paid 3448

Catching back up from my home time, now the cash will start rolling back in.

monday morning dawns, and off I go heading west for Ogden Ut. A nice peaceful day not even a head wind, and make it all the way to Little America WY. Leaves a nice 3 hour drive to Hershey for a drop. Send in a breakdown message, as one of my rock chips has decided to spread into a crack, and trying to plan ahead, and being in a major metro area, time to get the windshield replaced. that is my thought process at least.

Wrong again, road rescue tells me to not worry about it since it is not in my vision area, but to double check with the glass man during normal business hours. Okay. Then safety calls wanting to know what I was trying to hide, How had I cracked my windshield. Explained the rock chip had spread, and I was just trying to line up my day to be productive. The attitude towards drivers really needs to change.

Get up tuesday, make my drop delivery, inform the guard I don't need an empty as I need to be bobtail to get some work done. Okay, just wave when you go out. Head over to the pilot and scan my trip in, and call the glass man. We discuss the crack, he advises since it is not in my sight lines, and has stopped spreading, we can leave it alone, and fix it next time on the yard. Now if I really want it fixed, it will be about $500 on the road, as compared to $150 on the yard. I will wait. He also told me who they use nationally to fix rock chips, and it runs $30 to $50, and they come to the truck. Good information.

Call in to my DM to say I am ready to be dispatched, and she says road rescue has not released you. got that straightened out, the communications problem again, and get told to go back and get an empty.
#### this sucks, no easy candy run to the west coast, that will fit into my hours. Go get an empty, send in the trailer # and get told don't move until you have the load assignment. Okay, strange, and as soon as I see it, it makes sense, as I pull out of Hershey, turn right and turn left into the shipper. A medical supply company. The load goes to Los Lunas, right beside wally world. And I have a Friday morning delivery, which works great with my limited hours.

On wednesday I knock 300 miles out of the run, stopping in Green River UT. Now for thursday I have a whopping 3 hours to drive, but I am going to use them, drive down to the rest area just past Moab UT, park the truck, do some hiking, and enjoy the day. Had a good hike, checked out the whole in the wall tourist trap, and then Head down to the UTe mountain casino to call it a day. leaves me a 5 hour drive to make my 9am appointment.

Friday dawns, with me rolling across the high plains of New Mexico...a great sunrise over the mountains too. Get to the receiver at 8:30 and am empty before 9:30. Send in my empty call, button up the trailer, and have a load, picks up in Liberal, just as my DM and I had discussed, so that I could get up there with my limited hours, and reset. Read the rest of the load info, and this load DLD's (dead Line Departure time) at 0400 on Saturday. I don't even have the hours to make liberal today, let alone make that pickup. I try and let meat dispatch know, but they won't listen to me, so I call my DM.

A few minutes later I get another load assignment. Still Liberal, DLD saturday, 11:15. I send meat a QC asking what part of I have no Hours available do they not understand. My phone rings, always works, They have overbooked, and need to get the loads moving, I agree to pick the load up, but also inform her that I will need to be repowered 4 hours later. That is all the hours I have. Push hard, and shut down in Stratford TX. Not a good place to get sleep, with two train tracks running by. Call National beef, and my load is ready, so I can pull in, pick it up, and run my 4 hours off, making Tucumcari NM, early Saturday, to give them time to repower.

There I go thinking again. Pull into Liberal, 5am, pick up my load, count 10 Stevens bobtails, all waiting for loads, grab mine, it is Cally Legal, and head down the road for breakfast. Send in my running late and repower request, eat breakfast, and head west.

QC beeps, meet truck #### in Albuquerque for repower. Here we go again, they can't read. Get to Tucumcari, call asking about repower and am told to just get it there as soon as I can. I state that will be sunday, and MY DM says okay. Normal Saturday. I wait until 1:30 pm and send a message on the QC to let the other truck know that I will not be there until 4am sunday. trying to help out with the communications. My phone rings, dispatch wants to know which truck stop I am at, they have a truck that can pick up my load, and I will get his, that delivers in Long Beach CA Monday afternoon. I can do that. Communication helps sometimes.

This driver shows up with the trailer tandems slid all the way back. This is a meat load going to Cally!!!! Makes me wonder who his trainers were. Swap trailers, he complains, I slide the tandems to the 5th whole, and pull onto the scale. Good I am cally legal. Park and wait for Sunday, which I will have 9 hours to drive, so I can make Little America, flagstaff AZ.

Was also going to meet up with Baracuda for lunch, but the winds and dust storm kept that from happening. I had to shut down in Holbrook AZ. Sent in running late messages, and went to bed, so I could get an early early start so that there would be a chance of saving this load and getting it delivered on time. I am about 30 minutes short on my log book of being able to make the delivery with the added distance.

another fun filled week, from the absurd accusation, to a relaxing refreshing day in the wilds, to the total lack of thinking and planning, and NO communication.

A person needs to really like this job to put up with all the c r a p some weeks. And it is not just stevens, I read the other threads on here about other companies, and they all have the communication problem.