Superior Carriers 2013-2014

3/26-3/27

Got tankwashed down to Louisville. Dropped my dirty tank at Derby City TW, grabbed a clean one and took it about 60 miles miles to Bradenburg Ky where I swapped it for a loaded one. It delivers Thursday morning in Newnan Ga. I will pick up a few layover hours on it. Looks like a short week with Friday being a holiday.

 

3/28-3/30

I did make it home for Easter but just barely. Got in about 10 PM last night thanks to the tank wash in Augusta Ga. My delivery went off without a hitch and I was immediately tankwashed home to High Point. As soon as I hit I-85 I got another message saying call Augusta. Fortunately it was before the 285 loop and I was able to hit a truck stop and call. They had a 425 mile load from Augusta to Cherokee Al that was first come first serve on both ends with a clean tank waiting for me at the tank wash across the street. I figured I could run it and maybe still get home Friday night so I agreed to it.

My drop/hook ended up being a break. I hooked to the trailer and discovered on pretrip that it hadn't been washed. Dispatch didn't have any other trailers so I was forced to wait for that one to get cleaned. It seemed like every trailer this place was washing required them to scrape stuff off inside the tanks. There were 3 trucks ahead of me in line. Fortunately they didn't make me hook to it to get in line so I could log a break. After it was "cleaned", I hooked to it and discovered my hoses floating in some brown goo in the hose troth. It was also still wet inside. By then they had pulled a couple of other trucks in so I had to wait for them to get washed out.

My guess is the last driver wanted to keep his hose caps and removed them. The tank wash guys saw no caps and didn't wash the dirty hoses.

That put me behind other trucks to load and unload. It took 3 hours to load and I shut down just east of Augusta at 1 AM since I had logged a break but really didn't sleep during it and was a bit too tired to drive all night. Headed out about 11:30 the next morning and found myself in a line of 4 trucks to unload. That took 4.5 hours and ran me out of hours at the plant. Fortunately they had a place for us to park there. Had a 600 mile deadhead back to the house from there.

We are running a lot of this Augusta Ga to Cherokee Al. Even with the delays there is some decent money to be made running them back and forth. I had the option of running back and grabbing another one but wanted to get home for Easter.

 

They could be so long as Qualawash is up to speed. That really is the limiting factor along with traffic around Atlanta. Being able to take a break on both ends at the customer or tankwash takes some stress off it. If you get on it make sure you have some packaging tape for your placards. The Hot ones don't always stay on with the spray adhesive they have at the plant. Fortunately I grabbed a couple of extras. I even left one for another driver parked at the Loves who was missing one as well.

 

They didn't seem to particular to me. I watched them load 2 tankers with their product to 86,500 lbs while I was waiting to scale. They scale you on the loading racks and there is a big digital readout.

 

Looks like I am taking a week of vacation this week. My wife is having some minor surgery on Thursday. The didn't have anything short enough to keep me busy. My truck is also going to get some recall warranty work. Works for me.

The YMCA national swim meet is in Greensboro this week so its a good opportunity for me to revisit some friendships from my 30 years of coaching. I haven't seen many of these folks for 5 years now.

 

3/30-4/9

I have had a nice extended vacation just hanging out at the house. I have been home since Easter Sunday. Dispatch tells me its been "slow" so I am not getting back on the road until Wednesday. I got one of my favorite dedicated loads. Dry bulk out and back to N Chicago. I like this one because its drop and hook in Chicago and there is no delivery appointment in Brown Summit. That takes the stress out of it.