Superior Carriers 2013-2014

Really he wasn't moving fast at all. He was entering the lane at a sharper angle than when you merge to avoid the cones closing the lane he was in. I managed to miss him with the tractor by moving right and giving him half of my lane. I wasn't sure he hit me with all the vibration from the rumble strips until I saw the fender and abs light knocked crooked. It could have been a lot worse had he been a few seconds earlier and made it into the lane in front of me.

No one was hurt fortunately.

 

9/5-9/6

Made it back to the yard Thursday about 3 hours later than planned. Rather than deliver the load they had me drop it on the yard for a local guy to deliver Friday morning. I pulled it through the inbound check lane when I got there and they put a new tire on it. Road service didn't have the right rim to replace it but they got it to hold air with a sledge hammer and I was only 120 miles away from the yard.

Friday I preloaded a trailer in Raeford NC and got home around 5 PM. I am off today and head back to Plaquemine Sunday morning.

 

9/7-9/13

Got 2 trips in this week. Left Sunday to load in Plaquemine. Had no issues except for a few grumpy Saints fans at the inspection racks on Monday. Got back Tuesday around 17:00 and they turned me right around with a Dry Bulk load to N Chicago and back for Thursday. That gave me about 16 hours at the house Tuesday night. Got back from N Chicago about 19:00 Friday and am off until Tuesday when I head back to Plaquemine. Looking at a busy weekend. Going to a wedding this afternoon and the Panthers-Lions game on Sunday.

 

9/13-9/15

Awesome weekend. This wedding was like none I have ever been to. It was held outdoors in the NC mountains. Both the bride and groom are music teachers. The bride has made her living singing opera in Boston the last 5 years. The entire wedding party took turns singing or playing some instrument. It was everything from classical opera sung in Latin to bluegrass to the Grateful Dead. Quite a party.




Sunday I made the trip to Charlotte to watch the Panthers beat Detroit. We have some stadium improvements. This scoreboard is huge.



I thought I would be off today but the Plaquemine load got pushed back because the customer didn't get the trailer empty. I have some Dr appointments Friday so will have a low pay week. I am doing a 500 mile load and a bunch of local work this week.

 

Yeah that "earning a day off" for every 7 out is a bunch of bull poo. System means that you are under dispatch from the closest terminal to your last delivery with the goal of keeping you loaded as much as possible. General company policy is to dispatch you in the general direction of home. It all depends on the terminal you are at and how busy they are.

I ran system for my first 6 years with the company. I was able to get over 100 days off per year with a day off defined as 24 hours at home and off. A typical reset gives you only 1 day off. Getting every weekend off like normal workers would be 104 days off.

Staying out longer is no problem when we are busy. You could easily stay out 2-3 weeks then take a week off. When it gets slow they will deadhead you home to save layover pay. It got pretty tight in 2008 and that happened a lot. That hasn't been the case lately.

I had a nice conversation with Brian Nowak this week and he told me we are turning down a lot of freight for lack of drivers.