The Heyl Truck Lines Experience

Where have all the Heyl drivers gone? I enjoy reading about everyones travels. Keep us updated if you will, if you got time?

 

I was kind of worried no one else was on here, but I will talk about my last 2 weeks I guess. I got into Sioux Falls last wednesday after not seeing a terminal for 2 months, I had a whole list of things, so I spent 2 days in the motel. I only needed to spend one night, but the load I picked up in Sioux Falls had plenty of time to deliver it, so I spent another night. I enjoy going to the Sioux Falls terminal. My DM is there, she really understands what we go through, her husband is a driver as well, and she wants to know how I am doing, and it helps that she also thinks that my ex wife is crazy! Also Red is there, our accident/compliance guy. He also lets everyone know how good our saftey record is and shows us the people who did drag us down, and they aren't here anymore. He also takes everyone out to lunch that is there, and he pays everytime, can't beat a free lunch!
Went from Sioux Falls to Vancouver, BC. That is one beautiful city, but just like the rest of Canada, it has really screwed up traffic designes that make no sense. I was going to pick up something around there, but they ended up dead heading me 350 miles to pick up some tyson. Whew, by the time I picked up the load, which was a drop and hook on both ends I made it 1600 miles to Waterloo, Ia just in time. I have seen as much snow in April than I did in January. Thank goodness it is late enough none of it is sticking, but just annoying when it is 90 degress in Texas to see snow falling. But, again, I LOVE that drive across 90 in Montana and South Dakota, beautiful scenery and very little traffic. One of these days I'm gonna rent a car and get off the interstate to see what more Montana has to look at!
But now I just picked up a load out of Waterloo as well, that has 4 days to go 1300 miles to Orlando. Hopefully I will either switch with a Florida driver or drop it in the yard. But at least I get into the warm weather again!
I shouldn't complain to much about the snow, I wasn't in the south when those tornados hit. Saw the devastating pictures of the Petro in Virginia, and gonna be sad when I go past Ringgold, Ga they go hit as well. I have never seen a tornado in my life, and I hope I never see one. Pray for those in Alabama and everywhere else effected by the sad and devestating loss of life and property.

 

I have been driving for Heyl for a little over a month now and I have nothing bad to report. They keep you moving with no waiting on loads and that means a lot. My last company you would sit a day or two is three sometimes waiting on a load.

 

My last load took me to a Walmart dc in North Platte, NE. They were actually pretty nice and took me almost a whole day early. After that I picked up a loaded trailer at a Tyson plant in Lexington, NE and took it to another driver. I needed to swing by a terminal to get my APU fixed. They finally figured out what was wrong. I guess a rock got stuck in the fan on the back of the cab and that made would fry the fuse everytime. I got some backup fuses and will be checking for rocks from now on lol  

From Akron I went to another Tyson plant in Dakota City and picked up a loaded that had 2 stops. One was around Tacoma, WA and last one in Milwakie, OR, I was heading home. 1st stop went fine, but 2nd one I'll never forget. One of the guards at a guard shack was having a bad day I guess and took it out all on me. I really wanted to punch him where it hurts, but I had to resist the urge lol   It's not worth losing my job over it.

I left this morning from Portland and picked up a load from Kennewick that's going to Cedar Falls, IA.

It'll be 3 months soon since I started and I love it here. Very little downtime so far, my DM pucks up a phone every time, if they brought me home few days early no sweat, have few extra days off and the few driver that I talked to haven't complained about a thing. 

 

A little bit of irony today. The last post I said it was going to be a sad thing to go through Ringgold, Ga. I was going to get to Zephyrhills and do a 34 hour restart before I deliver in Orlando. I called to Florida shop in the morning, they said they do have the electronic logs to put on my truck. I have been looking forward to getting it on, it is coming eventually, might as well get it as soon as I can. Looking forward to see if it will actually help with saving time for fueling or other things that you can log 5 mins and not 15. But I'm not going to have the ability to creatively adjust the time I got somewhere. Anyways, back to what I was saying about Ringgold. 20 miles before I get there, and I get a message to stop at the Frieghtliner to switch with someone there. The other driver that was there was suprised to see me, he didn't know we were switching loads. Now I got a load that delivers a day earlier in Lakeland. The next exit past freightliner was a sad sight to see. The exit was closed, and downed trees and debris was everywhere. But the truckstop the next exit down was open. Here and there down 75 you could see down trees and other evidence that a tornado or high winds swept through.
BTW Barracuda, if you are ever still here, you were posting a few months ago about cheap places to do laundry, when I was at the Pilot in Rapid City it was only $1 to wash and dry.

 

i have a question about the heyl company. my brother is one of the local drivers for the company and he tells me that you have to run chains on the tires. my old company would let you shut down if chain law can in to effect. someone please let me know i am thinking about applying to the company but the only thing is i dont like driving in the dead of snow.

thanks for the info in advance.

 

We carry chains on the truck, but if you dont feel safe driving, pull off and wait out the snow. Been here for 5 years, only put on chains one time.

 

Sure glad last week was good, this one will be horrible! I delivered to Lakeland and went back to Zephyrhills. Talked with Ted, the head guy here. Basically said we dont have anything today. Not a lot tomorrow. But Friday we have a lot of freight going out. Yippee! So I sat down here for 3 days, get 2 days of detention. But, the people who live around here they would tell to go home, and not get any detention. At least I have the electronic logs on my truck now, to late to turn back now. I will see if I actually lose time compared to how I usually log. Picking up tomorrow in Lake Wales, Fl going to Temple, Tx (near where I USED to live) Dallas and OKC for tuesday. Tuesday is payroll cut off, hopefully I can get the last on off quick and turn in the trip pak to get paid this week.
This is a rare occurance to go this long waiting for freight down here, usually it is pick up as soon as you drop off. Just the luck of the draw this time.

 

well thanks for the info.

 

My first 4 days with e logs are mixed feelings. The first day I went from Zephyrhills to Lake Wales, 58 miles. Normally I would log an hour, but it took an hour and 20 minutes on e log with all the stop lights and traffic. In that day, after getting loaded I only made it to Ocala. In a day that had lots of highways, speed up and slow down, I would just average everything out to 58-60mph, But that day I only averaged 42 mph, lost out on about 45 minutes of driving time, that I would have creativly adjusted to fit. But, I did gain about 10 minutes of on duty time, only putting 5 minutes in on loaded call, pti, and fuel. The next 2 days was easy. I 75 and I 10, just log as you go, 63 mph average for the day. Yesterday, I had 2 stops one in Temple, Tx and other in Dallas. By the time I got done at the end of the day. Trying not to fiddle with logs, just do it as I would normally do it, I lost 15 minutes of driving time. Today is another example of losing more time. I have 2 stops in OKC. Sitting at the Petro in downtown OKC, I have to go to the north end of town, and show driving time to get to the stop. Before I would have just said I was in the same town so, no need to show driving, then start my 14 hours from when I get empty from there. By the time I get empty from the last stop, I probably wont have much time left on my 14 to do anything except go back to the truck stop and start all over tomorrow. So, it feels a little more convenient with e logs, but just like I thought, I would lose out on driving time once I leave the interstate, and have to keep showing driving time until I get to where I need to be. It is interesting having a new screen looking right at me showing exactly to the minute how much time I have on my 11 and 14. I could do the same thing looking at my log book.
Had a small accident in Lake Wales picking up my load. I have picked up there at least 20 times, but always been a drop and hook. This time it was a live load. When I got my dock assignment I was told to go up the road a little ways and the docks would be on the right. I get to an intersection and went a little past it and saw some docks. Wasn't sure if they were the ones to go to. So I backed up about 10 feet, and at the last moment noticed just a sliver of the pick up trucks mirror. Stopped and saw that I put a very small dent in the fender. AHHHHHH!!! We exchanged information, and thanks to this new smart phone I was able to send the pictures to the saftey manager right away. Gave him all the info and was able to look at the pictures right away, and said don't worry abut it, something small like that is a little inconvenient, but not to big of a deal. I will probably lose a little from my quarterly safety bonus. Turned out I needed to keep going straight to the docks. Then once I got to the docks I had a Stevens driver tell me how to back into a dock, tried to tell me not to open my doors until I line up with the docks. WTF!!! That was my first full day on e logs, that made for an interesting day!