Ok, back to what's been going on. I had a heavy load of big steel bars that I took from Tulsa Oklahoma to Laredo Texas. By the way, you could run between these 2 states real nice. Lots of freight in both places. So much, I turn my cell phone off. They keep calling even after you take your truck off the boards.

So anyways, I get to the address in an industrial park and it looks like the place is closed down. I sit there for a while and call the contact number that Pittsburgh Logistics gave me but it's a phone sex line. I call Pittsburgh and they think it's a joke. Well, they are one number off on the number they gave me although it's an hour before they call back. I think everyone in the office had to call before they got back to me.

They give me the right number and I call but it's an automatic answering service all in Mexican. The only word I could understand was the word "English" and I think they were saying push some number for English but I don't know Spanish numbers!!

So I see someone park in the back and walk to the front and I wait a little while then walk out front also. I look up and the what I thought was a 2 is actually a 5 that broke. I was at the wrong address.

I get back into the truck and go about 100 yards down the road and HOLY CRAP Batman (not you Twilight). There are tons of trucks everywhere. It's like the first day of school and nobody knows where to go. Trucks everywhere. I'm so freaking lucky that people were jockeying for position that there was a gridlock and I was able to scoot in and park out in the back where there wern't any loading docks. Everyone else was hovering around the 20 loading docks hoping to be the first one. They were all vans by the way.

I guess the shipping department shows up at 9am and now all the drivers are waiting for the shipper to come out of the door. I guess it's first come first serve.

How he knew I was the flatbed driver I don't know but walking up the parking lot is a dock worker in uniform so everyone knows he works there. He catches my eye then hand jesters to me and it looks like he's twirling his hand above his head like he thinks I'm crazy then grabs his ass. Great, a homo. Then he points at my truck and then the back of the lot and I realize he means, turn around and back in. Ok but your still a homo.

I tell the guy there is another flatbed that was here when I came in with the same load so I find him which was not hard. I just looked for the American in the crowd and it was him. I let him go first. I could just about get the straps off and he was done with the other load and taking mine off. I was unloaded in minutes and on my way trying to get out.

It takes about 20 minutes to get out while waiting for everyone else to move and trucks still coming in. I get out on the street and pull over and just lay down in my bed. WOW....

I take about an hour and read the CAD forum, have coffee and wait for the sweat to dry off me with the A/C on full. It's not really hot but the humidity must be over 80%.

I head out to pick up my next load which is 10 minutes away and going to Bear, PA. Closer to home and from there I know I can get a load the rest of the way. It's a load of coiled wire that will lay flat on my bed. There are 11 coils. I go into the shippers office and she is so happy to see me. I guess they couldn't get anyone to take the load. It's going to be late Wed by the time they get done and I have to tarp the load also. She says it has to be there Friday before 3.

I say hold on missy. That's almost 1,900s mile in 2 days since today will be a wash. Even though I haven't driven that much my total 14 day will be shot soon. So I say I'll deliver late Saturday if I push it. She gives me an attitude that nobody is open on Saturday and it will have to wait until Tuesday because Monday is a holiday. Now it's like, you bitch....I say there is no way I'm sitting around for 3 days without getting paid. I tell her I'm not taking the load and going out to tell them to stop loading me.

I get on the phone with the broker and she already got a call. I told her and she was pissed at me even though her paperwork said deliver by Saturday. So, that was that and I took off for the new Flying J here in Laredo.

I post my truck as available for Thursday and figure I'll take the rest of the day off like I had originally planned. I get on the load board and see a load going to Vermont so I call. It's a bunch of transformers going to 4 drops ending in Vermont. No tarp and just straps and the whole route is right on the way and it looks like I would be stopping around those areas anyways for the night so I take it. It's from the actual shipper and paying a little over $2.00 per mile.

So, I load up at 9am this morning and off I go. I'm sort of surprised this wasn't listed as a hazardous load since transformers have some bad stuff in them!!!

 

My job at least the portion of it that pertains to trucking is to book backhauls for our trucks, get permits, make sure the safety records are accurate, keep lisences and insurance current, invoicing, arrange for customs clearance, spec new equipment, keep track of expenses and finally, drive when the drivers don't want to or can't.

We are regional and our drivers are old enough that the kids are gone....but one does have grandkids and we try to get him home 3-4 nights/week.

And no I don't claim to make much money at trucking. As a trucking company, it would be abyssmal. We have our hands tied inasmuch that we must return to the yard after every trip and cannot follow the money. Also must go outbound even when there are no good backhauls to be found.

For the 6 months ending April 30:
Invoices: $58,000
Permits: $1,700
Dead miles to pickup: 5,800
Loaded miles: 17,500
Dead miles from delivery to yard: 3,750
All miles: 27,000
Extra miles: 15,750

If I was purely a carrier for hire it would be calculated using all miles:
$58,000 - (27,000 x $1.45/mile cost) - $1,700 = $17,450

But since we are a private carrier, I calculate costs using only the extra miles:
$58,000 - (15,750 x $1.45/mile cost) - $1,700 = $33,500

 

That's it....Geez... what a slacker!
:lol: :lol:

 

 

It's weird how that works. Moving cars, most with with full or near full tanks of gas/diesel. You'd think you'd need placards but nope. The repoed vehicles are a hazard class all in them selves. :shock:

Good post about the start up costs. Sheds some light that even with a good chunk of cash.. can take awhile to get money finally flowing.

Oh, and I never have to pay for any gas the whole time I moved cars :twisted:

 

I talked to one of the engineers at a drop off yesterday about the contents of these transformers and they don't use any PCB's in them any more so that's why they are not hazardous.

I delivered yesterday to my first stop in Oklahoma City. They had to take almost half the load off to get to there load. They loaded my trailer wrong even though the paperwork was all in order. Now that I look back on it, the fork lift driver could not speak English and I'm assuming he couldn't read it either.

My next drop was in Kansas and when I called they said they were all going home at 2:30 and there was no way I could make it. That meant I had to sit until Tuesday. I figured I would drive a little more and stop at a truck stop for a few days or what ever, not sure what I was going to do. The phone rang and it was the customer who said they had a problem and may still be there for a while and to call at 4:00 to see how much longer they would be there.

So I pop some Ibuprofen and beat feet for the next 5 hours non stop. The place I deliver at is a little town past Salina. I'm driving by huge lakes on both sides of the road that are miles wide. I soon realize that there are massive Oak trees sticking out of the water and then realize it's a flood. I drive by the Flying J and I think a Pilot. There are tons of trucks all over the place with water almost over the whole cab!!!!!!!!!!!! The restaurant and garage is almost totally under water. Almost all exit ramps are closed. This was total devastation and I heard nothing about this on the news.

I turn off the exit for Solomon Kansas and I'm thinking, this is the town I want to live in. It's something out of Mayberry RFD. Older houses all with porches and EVERYONE is waving to me. I find myself driving 5mph just because it feels right like you want to. One little residential street after another then a small main street with some stores. WAY COOL. I saw a few houses for rent just driving down the road and I'm thinking...Mmmmm?

The place I was going to deliver was at the lowest point in the town and it was starting to flood as the overflow from Salina is starting to overflow. Just in the short time I was there it came probably 10 feet closer. Not good.

As I left there were town DPW workers putting up sand bags. The place had me take a different route out of town. It was so cool because I was something new in town and each person who saw me just started walking towards my truck as I was driving. I realized I had to chat with every single person. WAY COOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most of the people in the town seemed to be walking around and talking and watching. The type of place where everyone knows everyone. The kind of place that if a KFC was built it would be where you took your wife for your anniversary, ya know, some place special. Lets have gravy this time honey and splurge. lol

So anyways, I deliver and leave and head down the road about 30 miles to higher ground and a small truckstop. I have 3 full days and Tuesday morning to make it 900 miles to my next drop. I feel like a postman delivering mail. I kind of like this especially since all my stops are sort of at points where I would stop for the night anyways.

I have 5 stops with a total of 28,000 pounds and each stop makes me about 6,000 pounds lighter. Some drops are more and some are less. I'm like speed racer now with the cruise control on 70 and cruise up any hill without any loss of speed.

I actually have half my flatbed available for some LTL loads but I doubt I could get anything this weekend to take up the space.

Oh, and by the way. Laredo is no longer Texas, it's part of Mexico. Billions and billions of trucks. This must be the pickup and drop off point for Mexico and if you didn't know any better you would say you were in Mexico. All the shops and stores are Mexican and only 1 out of 100 people speak English.

 

Pretty interesting. Good stuff, Steve.

 

Not much going to be posted for a few days unless something happens here at the Iowa80 truckstop. I did about 500 miles today and have a little less than 400 left to do before I deliver on Tuesday. I have my last 3 drop offs in Michigan and my truck is posted as available for Wed but only back home.

I checked the load board and there was like 700 loads leaving on Friday and by Wed it should be off the scale so I don't see any problem getting a load in about 10 minutes.

More trucks crashed on the side of the road today and one blocking Rt80 and the highway was shut down. I followed a local driver who took me on a bunch of back roads and around the problem. Nice country ride and good conversation. I can't imagine why these trucks are crashing in broad daylight, sunshine and not much traffic.

I just had an awesome steak dinner and got back to my truck in the nick of time. It's pouring rain out and I LOVE IT. Nice and cool, rain on the roof, watch a movie and sleep in until all hours of the night till maybe 3am. What a loafer.

 

Don't be a stranger. Tells us about your showers and that booger you pulled from the left nostril... :P

 

Actually, I'm laying in bed. My laptop is attached to the ceiling of my bunk with my USB camera pointed at my belly button. I'm using the optional video out on my laptop to my TV's optional video in and the picture in picture feature turned on. I can watch TV and pick the fuzz out at the same time without having to look down. This is so cool, I can't believe I didn't think of this before. I'm just wondering how come I don't have a girlfriend.