Stevens Transport A year in review

Week 4 is in the books
Miles Driven 3283 Great week
Miles Paid 2707
Miles transfloed, not paid 1858

I was surprised when I added up my miles this week. I have been dealing with weather all week long. Started in Scottsbluff Nebraska on Monday morning, getting unloaded. The dock was a pit with concrete walls just wide enough for a trailer. 45 minutes later, I am empty, head 1/2 mile to the truck stop, and wait for a load. I am 130 miles from windsor Colorado, and a good Kodak load, or Lexington Nebraska, a meat load. QC beeps, head for Dakota city Nebraska, a 494 mile dead head. Actual miles to get there, 540, after droping down to I80 to get fuel. And Nebraska has a high wind warning, gusts to 60 MPH. tried to get the load changed, as there was no way I could make the DLD pick up time. Was told to do the best I can, Standard useless reply.

I know this area, the wind is out of the NorthWest, so it is a a tail wind until I get close to grand Island Nebraska, when it will become a broad side wind. I head for bosselmans at Grand Island. The last 30 miles to Grand Island are difficult, with the wind moving the empty trailer across the rumble strips. Park at grand Island for the night. Blizzard Warnings are up for Eastern Nebraska, and iowa.

Tuesday, the wind has subsided, head out on US30, make it 50 miles, and then I am shut down for 1.25 hours waiting for a fatal accident to be cleaned up. Car hit a patch of ice, and ran into a grain trailers tandems. Make it to Dakota City at 10am, 6 hours after the DLD, drop my trailer, hook up to the loaded trailer, slide my tandems up. Get ready to pull out, trailer brakes are frozen. Takes another hour to get the ice out of the air lines so that the brakes will release. Move to the scale, I am good on all axles send in my running late message, load is going to carlisle PA. Make it to the Iowa 80 and call it a day. Get up at 4am, take off, plan is to make youngstown OH, at 8 am DM calls, asking if I can repower a load in Ohio going to Springfield Ma For a wednesday noon delivery. It will be tight, but I can do that, and I get more miles .

do the repower, and stop for the day at barkeyville PA. plan to leave at 2am, will be in springfield about 10am. wake up to 4 inches of snow on the ground, and still snowing. Okay, light traffic I go, 45 mph for the next 3 hours, but only one jackniffed truck. Dry roads, still can be in springfield by noon. run up 81 to 84 as it is shorter, and come to a stop, in New York for trucks could not pull the little hills. Cars off the road, just nasty ice.

Slowly start moving, next 30 miles are slow, then just rain, then dry roads, all the way to springfield. Pull into the reciever at 1:30 pm, my 8 hour drive had turned into a 10.5 hour drive. Get unloaded, no problem, although stevens was freaking out about me being late, and head over to the pride Truck stop. I have a load to pick up in albany NY, at 4pm today, and inform stevens I will make it in the morning. It is a drop and hook.

Get up to snow and ice, and I90 is a sheet of ice. I wait for the sun to come up, to help melt the ice. slide my way out of the truck stop and head to albany. The berkshires were still icy, and the wind was blowing, so there where a couple of slides and butt puckers. Stop for fuel, get a call from DM, we have to get those first two drops done today, this is a drop and hook, you need to hurry. Okay, I will do the best i can with this weather. Get to the shipper, drop and hook, placard the trailer, and call safety for my haz mat talk. The same one I get every time, but I must call before rolling. I am on hold for 32 minutes. So much for making the 4pm appt in Philly. I send in the running late message, and I call the receiver, they will take it up to 5:30. Make my first drop in NJ, which is the only part of the load that is haz mat. Pull the placards, hard to do in the bitter cold. Sure wish stevens would invest in the holders, instead of sticking the placards to the trailer.

Pull into the philly drop at 5:15. Get a rash of s h i t but get unloaded. Head for Carlisle Pa to call it a night. Now I do not have the hours to make the delivery on Tuesday in Laredo, and have told stevens this since I accepted the load.

I leave carlisle saturday morning, fuel route is down i81 into the heart of the storm, but I choose to run across pa on I70/76 and into Ohio, where it is cold but dry. Make London Ohio, out of hours, and shut down. Sunday Head south, and make Jackson TN, back on my fuel stops, and shut down out of hours. will make West Memphis in the am, before they all come to work in Dallas, I will be out of hours, and they will have to repower, or reschedule. gonna get the truck washed, and PM'ed at the Petro. Do my laundry, get a hair cut, and take the day for myself.

Another week of hard work and not a thank you will be heard, just "do the best you can"

 

if you mean the transfloed not paid, that means I have sent the paperwork to stevens, but have not received payment yet. It takes a full 2 business days now before I get my settlement. And many times I end up transflowing on saturday or sunday, so that means Wednesday before I get paid.

 

North California, we haul out of the fresno, bakersfield, la areas, into the oakload/san fran area. I do not go to california much, i tend to stay east of I25. Just the way the runs have been working for me. As a solo driver, going into California, I end up playing shag truck for a week, picking up the multi pickup loads, and then handing them off to a team to run cross country. frustrating for me to do all the work, but get none of the miles. I do get stop off pay.

 

Final settelment is in for January

Miles Driven 12,948
Dispatched (paid) miles 12204
Non paid miles 744 Caused by stevens paying shortest, and since I can not fly, I have to stay on the roads, and drive some additional miles.
6.1% variance miles. A little high for me, but going around the storms this January has added miles.

Fuel cost was $.177 per mile
Net pay per mile $0.063 per mile
Very lousy, except it is due to expenses taken out of my check, that were incurred in December 09. Being a lease operator at times bites one in the rear end.

Compared to last year,
actual miles increased by 1799
dispatched increased by 1547
variance increased by 252
Last years variance was 4.6% this year 6.1%
Fuel cost, .184 per mile
net pay per mile .364

So I improved on my fuel cost, but made less money this january than last year. 2 weeks off for christmas dug me a deep hole that took the entire month to get out of.

The Good and the Bad as it happens.

 

Week 5
Miles ran, 3240
Miles paid, 3163
Miles transflowed, not paid 844

Another great week, will improve the bottom line too.

Repower in West Memphis goes off quickly and smoothly. Get my truck serviced, and do my laundry. Original load was due in Laredo on Tuesday, new load due in Laredo Tx on Wednesday. Works good for my hours, and keeps the miles.

Arrive in Laredo Wednesday about noon, drop my trailer and bob tail over to our yard. Not a dust bowl today, but a mud pit . The truck I repowered with in west Memphis, is still sitting at the yard in Laredo. I went over to talk to him, but he did not want to talk, so I have no idea why he was still there 24 hours later. At 6pm I get my load assignment, from Laredo TX to Salem OR, 2161 miles, delivers on Monday morning. Good run, good miles, and I have the hours to make it. Now will the weather cooperate?

Pulled out of Laredo in rain and fog, taking US highways up to Salt Lake City. Pleasant drive. run out of the rain around I10, and stop in Roswell NM for the night. Truck stop is closed, but the restaurant is still open, have a good meal, and get some peaceful sleep. Make Green River UT for Friday Night. Get up to 3 inches of snow, and head North, as the storm is south of me. 60 miles of snow packed highway, and then just wet highway to Salt Lake City. Make Ontario OR and shut down, watch the Bud Shootout on the big screen at the Loves, and call it a night.

Tonight I am in Brooks OR, 7 miles from my reciever for a 7am appt.

a easy week, good miles, and now we will see how next week goes, as my hours are shot for the next 3 days.