Arrow Trucking

[dewercs2]

I just used a note book and put in there...

load #
date
from-to
tarp (yes or no)
paid miles
actual miles
fuel (lease truck)
how much the load paid
tolls ect stuff to be re-paid by the company

we were in a lease truck so keeping careful records paid off several times....even after Arrow.....

I used a notebook just for this reason....of course I rode with Bo all the time so i had plenty of time to keep records. Bo was always in a habit of doing state miles too so I also kept a notebook with beginning miles and then noted fuel stops, state lines, work done on truck and where....ect.

There were SEVERAL times someone used our truck number to get stuff done to their truck....if we didnt watch our settlement sheets we would have lost seveal thousand dollars..I know you dont have to do this but I thought I would mention it anyway :-)

Thanks Tootie,

I kinda do that allready but wanted to get it on the computer. I was thinking about the mileage and stop locations so I could keep a running tally of miles driven a week and month. I tried to do it on the desktop but my wife rescued me and redid the spreadsheet so it would auto calculate. Got it to the laptop but it wont work. XP desktop and Vista laptop....guess they don't work together...

[jvnd1953]

I quess I shouldn't have changed the subject so fast on ya'. That is funny I've also had paydays like that. I hate the payday after hometime especially. The last one I owed Arrow for my insurance because I made $0. That was after 7 days off so I can't complain. I just arrived in Lamar, Co. I unload in the AM right in the center of town just about. There's a big coal electrical plant there. Anyway, I hope things get better. Vans and reefers are better right now and will be in the future. People always need food. I just hate reefers because of the noise. They are loud from a distance and I can only imagine in a sleeper right next to the unit. About the number of people at orientation, you have to remember only half make it through. That's still a lot though. They used one motel for new people and existing drivers but they found out that most new guys were quitting at orientation because of what the existing drivers were telling them. Now they keep them separated at different motels. I heard that these training companies like Arow, Swift, etc. get some sort of subsidy from the government for each new driver they hire and then when they complete probation. Maybe someone can comment on that. I've also been looking elsewhere because I'm not sure if Arrow will survive. They definetly need a new business plan and I think some better management.

[married to the road]

They used one motel for new people and existing drivers but they found out that most new guys were quitting at orientation because of what the existing drivers were telling them. Now they keep them separated at different motels. .

Did they go back to using two hotels? They used to use the Trade Winds for new hires and Days Inn for existing drivers for a while, but they stopped using the Trade Winds, probably because drivers would go down to the bar and get drunk and act up.

[jvnd1953]

Days Inn for new drivers and I believe a Holiday Inn for existing. Read my previous post for reason.

[dewercs2]

Did they go back to using two hotels? They used to use the Trade Winds for new hires and Days Inn for existing drivers for a while, but they stopped using the Trade Winds, probably because drivers would go down to the bar and get drunk and act up.

I spoke to a new hire a couple weeks ago. He told me there were 40-45 guys in his class.

[jvnd1953]

A month ago there were about 60 in the class. Only about half complete orientation though. dewercs2, is the closing of the Ontario office effect regional hauls?

[jvnd1953]

I got D/H to Denver to make 4 pickups of lumber. Since the trailer is a steel non-spread I will have to figure out what goes where. 2 of the stops are unkown wieght. I scaled after 3 stops and was fine. Went to the 4th and this was going to be tough. The shipper and I compared my scale ticket and luckily this guy was good. We loaded and I rescaled at gross of 79990. I was 20 lbs over on my drives but this was full tanks. The load went to EL Paso. Unloaded early. D/H to Carlsbad to United Salt. Load wasn't quite ready. Needed heat treated pallets? Oh well. Going to Laredo. When in Laredo they talked about shutting down the border because of the flu. Thank God they didn't or I'd still be there. Got a Sat for 3 days waiting for a load. Got A/C units to Tempe. Did a favor for Bill in the Phoenix terminal by picking some pavers and bringing them to the yard. I quess the regional drivers are very busy I then got a load of pavers going to Home Depot in San Bernardino, then home for a week. Thank God. Did get some decent checks though. Hey Paul, wgere are you? Drive safe. Paul, did you get your safety bonus? I didn't get mine but I didn't ask for it this time because I hit that pole in January so I really don't deserve it even though Arrow is either unaware of it or letting it pass. It's not on my DAC and Arrow has never mentioned it.

[jvnd1953]

dewercs2, keep listing your runs and if it's not to personal, what they pay. I do read them. Thanks

[dewercs2]

Sorry everyone.... I had a full 4 paragraphs of info that I had typed out but the connection dropped. So when I went to reconnect.... nothing...

briefly... picked up a loaded trailer in Otay on monday last week. Ran that to Portland, OR. offloaded on wednesday Had directions to remove tarps. When I followed the directions it brought me right into downtown Portland job site. The directions were suppose to be a location that was so I could remove my tarps. anyway.... I was at site... A crane was used to lift off the windows and up to the top floors. That was pretty cool. That load paid about 423.00

Next load... I DH down to Dillard,Or and loaded lumber which took me to Las Vegas. I was concerned that my hometime request for home on Thursday would be missed. I was in contact with my DM about this
SO.... I ran this load to Vegas and arrived friday...$250. My next load was for me to grab pavestone and head to San Fernando HD and offload at 10pm
lets see.... I start at 6am...hmmm 10pm wont work with HOS After a little arguing and QC I am told to take load to house and deliver on Monday.
Arrived at house around 8pm. Hmmmm plans were to be in Laughlin, NV friday morning... Wife and I didn't get there till 2pm saturday... cuzz had to do laundry...

SO.... Monday rolls around... Not going to mention how I had to tow my bike back since I wouldn't hold a charge and charging system in acting screwie.... anyway....

Back to monday.... Jump into truck and it wont start... Tried to jump with my P/up but won't do it...tried to charge from my p/up.. done it before but not this time.... SO... I see a Arrow Line haul driver and he agrees to jump me....

I call Home Depot and tell them going to be late.....call DM... can't use QC not enough juice...

Anyway.... after charging it finally starts... thank line haul guy and run to LA.

Offload... call breakdown and they ok a electrical system check.... cool... run to Ontario TA.... get a load to load tuesday AM in Carson, CA. Im in shop and talking with the guys and watching... shows I have a power drain of about 11.35 to 11.51 volts... Arrow ok's them to search for the drain. fueses are pulled as I watch the volt meter attached to the batteries.... cant find it... isolated it to dash panel though.... They also find that I have a loose shock absorber on L/F steer and a small air leak from the pressure line coming out of the Air compressor... Arrow won't fix.... Figure what the heck I can do myself no worries... released out of shop. 98.00 bill... Arrow can't pay
Not till 5pm tommorow! I'm parked and QC to the DM since it's about 9pm....
615am.... Arrow paid good to leave

I run to Carson and load up.... Soon there are 2 other trucks with me as I secure the load down... we are all running to the same location in Vegas. for a 7am offload. $110

I get rolling and head north... Call breakdown when I remember what happen to DD on his thread going into NV on 15 north....

Breakdown says take into TA and have them look at the loose shock and air leak. I roll in the guys jump on it.... 3 hrs later... Arrow has paid, Im showered had a meal and running north to Vegas.

after the drop ran back over to Pavestone and back down to LA. $98

next load.... Rancho Cucamonga to Tucson..

DH from Tucson to Phoenix.... load Pavestone and run it home.. Deliver monday AM

Monday... delivered... waitied about 1.5hrs.... load in Bloomington (near Rialto) at the train yard. cool....

Start getting phone calls from parents about baseball team at high school and what the coach is and is not doing... parents are getting angry.... want to meet.... I put in for home time.

.....run this load to Deming, NM This is not going to be good....... I make the drop on wednesday and get a load... head to Morenci, AZ. cool... heading back into AZ... If us regional guys get to far from home we get sent to places like OK. The load says that it deliveres in Shawnee, OK

[jvnd1953]

Darn, dewercs2. They keep you running. You have time to coach a team? Thinking of trying regional. Can always go back to linehaul. Do you know what happened to the office in Ontario? Thanks for taking the time to post your loads and pay.

[dewercs2]

Darn, dewercs2. They keep you running. You have time to coach a team? Thinking of trying regional. Can always go back to linehaul. Do you know what happened to the office in Ontario? Thanks for taking the time to post your loads and pay.

Our loads dried up when that office opened.... strange how I found out that they were agents for Arrow and not employees. I had also heard that they were Landstar Agents. When I asked them in the Ontario office they denied it.

One of the regional drivers told me that he had blocked his ID when he called into the office and said he wanted another sack load coming out of Compton area. The person in the office said sure no problem we have a few ready for tommorrow, When you due in. When the driver ID himself as a Arrow driver the office person started stuttering and placed him on hold. When the line was picked up again he was told there were no loads available and was hung up on. We think our freight was being given to other drivers.

Im not coaching baseball anymore. I use to coach my son for about 6-7yrs. His freshman year 2yrs ago I and another parent were asked if we could coach the Frosh Team. We said sure since most of the Frosh were our kids that we had coached the year before to a District Cahmpionship for Pony Baseball.

During that season my wife began to work with the Booster Club and I would help out as much as possible. In the Soph yr my wife became the Booster Secratary for that year.

Frosh season came to an end and the other dad and I were told to keep our keys to the baseball field which we did and would come in on weekends to work with kids. At the end of the Soph yr our Varsity coached resigned and moved to Norte Vista-Riverside where he is in 1st place. The school is a higher division school and was a slam dunk for him to move to. At this sametime I was nominated and became the Booster Club Prez.

My term was to run till the end of this May or June (forget which). anyway.... The new Varsity Coach and I started off on the right foot but it went to heck pretty quickly. He was eliminating everything the Booster club had in place. Fund Raisers, Snackbar storage and setup location, our keys were taken and no access allowed to anything.... supplies were moved to a shed where rats/mice would get into, till we placed in a parents home. BBQ's were left outside..... No parents were allowed to do anything at the fields anymore. Mind you... The Boosters had already raised about 45k in funds for the program in 9yrs. The culture was to help. Parents had gotten together in previous years and built brick dugouts, poured cement, purchased and built batting cages.....He killed all that.

He and I had a conversation as to why my son was going to a hitting instructor who was teaching my son to compact his swing and learn to either go with a pitch or pull it. Varsity coach said he hits my way or he doesn't play. The last conversation that I had with him was the reason why my son and the previous prez son were exchanging a note that had the contact info for Lake Elsinore Storms Stadium. I told him the I had had a conversation with the previous President and that he was to send contact info with his son to me via my kid. That the Boosters have had the end of season banquet at the stadium for 6yrs now and I was getting the info togther and would come to him with a list of dates the facilities were available for the players banquet so he could decide the date.

I was told that this was his program and that he would decide if and where a banquet would be held and that he had the right to disolve the Booster club. I agreed with him that he did. He then said great then there wont be a problem then. You are disbanded and I would like to have the Booster money account placed into the ASB account. So about 16k has been moved into the school and our account closed.

Since I am not at home during the games I get regular calls from 2 parents as to how my son is doing or not since he sits the bench along with last years starting shortstop who was honorable mention 2nd team in the region. The coach has a kid who DH's for a few kids who is 4-36 at bats. There is so much turmoil on that team that parents who I would only say hi to were now calling me and venting about the lack of coaching etc.. this year. A couple parents have gotten together and called for a meeting and asked that I please attend this sat, which was yesterday. I had about 10 families get together and they all vented. One had contacted the local sports reporter who was suppose to attend but was unable to. She did call me friday night when I was in Phoenix and asked to have a sit down tommorrow (Monday).

It was an eyeopener as to what I heard what was going on. I thought it was only me and my wife and couple other parents felt this way. The agreement was that all parents want this guy gone. If we have to all face the school board then so be it.

I made sure to say I might not be able to make it since I am now a truck driver. And Im not the Prez anymore.... Kinda nice not being it, since all the stress was pulled away.... or so I thought....

[dewercs2]

If your getting runs on Line Haul stay there..... call me.

to comlete the previous epic....

I was headed to OK but half way up the 70 by Anchon, NM I received a call to head to El Paso and repower with another driver there. The load I would be picking up would get me to phoenix where I would drop trailer in yard and hook another trailer that would take me to Hemet. This is a steel trailer with about 11k on it. It goes to a winco that is being built here in town. I'm to deliver mon at 7am.

[dewercs2]

Arrow safe stat score has gone from 99 to a 69.

[tootie04]

Arrow usually does not put anything on your DAC till AFTER you are gone. So if/when you leave keep a close eye on your DAC....cause 70% of the info they report is FALSE. Bo had stuff put on his DAC that was so totally insane it wasnt even funny. He got it fixed but still was a PIA!!

[jvnd1953]

Thanks tootie04. Politics in everything huh Paul? I'll call you this week sometime. I'm getting off a week of hometime here. That's interesting about the Ontario office. Drive safe.

[tootie04]

i agree with what you said about the Ontario office....I had suspisions of that when Bo was driving for arrow and running out west.

tootie

[dewercs2]

Made my drop and given a plan to DH to Adelanto and hook to a preloaded trailer! whoohoooo.... get rid of this steel trailer!

Get to Adelanto and into the shipper. First trailer I see is another steel... then I spot an aluminum... Drop my trailer and drive over and hook to it. Do a quick pretrip and spot that there's a 1" gap between 5th and trailer.... pull out from it, lower the gear and pull back.... 1/4" now.... lower gear somemore... Im good... Then I think I don't want to take a chance so I pull the pin release and pull out again..... lower gear.. I know... but what the heck... Back under and it feels right, take a look.... looks right.

Airing up and checking lites... what's the air leak coming from..... hmmm

At this place the shipper uses large forklifts to lift and move empty trailers around. A driver had slid the forks under the trailer between the spreads and had knocked the little drain valve off the air tank

I called a guy over and showed him. He jumped on his radio and within 20 minutes a maintinance guy was under the trailer putting a plug in the tank so I could get.

20 minutes later I'm strapped down with 4 45ft plastic W/cement pipes on the deck. Get to the gate and paperwork is processed 15minutes after that and I'm running up the 395 towards the 58. I'm suppose to be in Paso Robles at 7am offload.

Spent the night in Beautiful Lost Hills, CA at the Pilot here since I dont know of anything in Paso Robles... Later I find out that there is a truck stop but it's closed down.

I left Lost Hills and ran the 46 over to Paso Robles. Got to the gate at 645am and drove to the offload location.... Myself and another Arrow driver were here. The pipes are in numerical order so they must be offload in series. I was the 2nd to last of 10 trucks... It took these guys on average about 45minutes per truck to offload. I was empty by 1215/1230pm. I had spent about 5.25 hrs here.

I had a load to DH back to Adelanto and come back to this location by 7am tommorow. I don't like the idea of driving for free 5hrs but thats life being %. As I'm running east I'm trying to calculate how I'm going to do this.... Figured that there's no legal way I can do. QC arrow and say just that...detained at drop 5.25hrs has eaten into the 14hrs and keep trying to figure how to run this, but think it not possible to get back at 7am legally.

I get a QC back and told that load is pulled off me.... So I sit here and beautiful Lost Hills, CA.

[LightsChromeHorsepower]

The only good thing about Lost Hills is that you're only about 15 miles from Buttonwillow, where you can at least get a halfway decent meal at the Willow Ranch.

[dewercs2]

The only good thing about Lost Hills is that you're only about 15 miles from Buttonwillow, where you can at least get a halfway decent meal at the Willow Ranch.

Dang it..... Forgot I was that close! Ugh and I have nothing but time tonight to enjoy a meal from Wendys....

[LightsChromeHorsepower]

There may be a Mexican restaurant there, up by the freeway on the south side.

I can't remember-Love's has Arby's & the Pilot has Wendy's? What a gastronomical choice!

Enjoy your meal!