See anything? What, are you kidding. I had the grip of death on the wheel looking only straight ahead. The beach area was real nice but filled with RV's and retired people with those stupid looking khaki hats on like they all thought they were Indiana Jones or something. Speed walking snow birds.

 

Find some dunnage or get yourself some 2x4's and run them length wise across the tops of the pallets. You will get more surface area and the straps won't sink between the bags.

 

Oh, that's a good idea. I'll do that next time or if I have something similar.

 

Steve, a friend of mine suggested that the occasional oil usage may be contributed to over revving the engine with the Jake brake on. That could account for using oil some times and not others.

 

I've never over revved the engine. I haven't been over 2100 RPM. I forget what the redline is.

I'm home now for a few days. I don't think I could drive much further than I did. From Maine to the coast of California and back again in 2 weeks. 600 miles a day wears a little thin but at least I know I can do it and keep it up. I ended up starting to drive at 2am then stopping around 8am. I would have breakfast then take a 2 hour nap. Drive until maybe 2 or 3 then stop for the day until the next morning. I like the ability to split my sleeper berth since I only need 7 hours sleep but do like my naps!!!

The onion load wasn't bad but you do need to keep tightening the straps all the time. Those little suckers like to compress down.

I delivered right into the heart of Boston to the produce warehouse. I'm pretty sure NOTHING else can match the traffic and tight turning I had to deal with. If this was last year when I started I would have just shut the engine off and walked away. Not a bad 2 weeks. $10,000 for 6,000 miles and easy driving. I'll take this kind of work over load and unloading every day.

This is the first time I've dealt with loading docks and NOT a fan of this kind of work. Now I know why I chose flatbed instead of VAN work. I had to pay the lumper $60 to unload me and it went to the owner and not him. I didn't think this was right at all. I gave him $10.00 which he refused but I made him take it. Told him I would have to go medieval on him if he didn't take it. He was like 10 feet tall and muscles bigger than my whole body. He just laughed and said thank you. Nice guy.

Once again I'm home doing TONS of paper work and that freaking IFTA again. What a pain!!!

 

Invoice the broker for the lumper fees and sumbit the reciept with your invoice. Sometimes they say theay want you to call so they can pre-approve the expense.....but you never know they might pay.

 

It was stamped right on the invoice that I paid $60 and the broker knows there is a lumper charge and to put it on the invoice.

Just bugs me that the owner got it and not the actual person unloading me.

 

If you are going to haul produce, you may as well get used to being shaken down for lumper fees. And I would not hold my breath about getting the lumper fee back. Most of the time the carrier pays that out of their pocket. I think it stinks, too. The government wants to regulate everything else we do, it would be nice if they started regulating these lumpers. I think if someone orders a load, they should be the ones responsible for paying to have it unloaded.

 

I'm getting the money back. They already gave me an authorization for the fee. I called them before they unloaded me so they OK'd it.

I'm not going to haul produce again if I can help it. The only reason I did was because the money was good and took me all the way across the U.S. right home.

 

I have hauled onions out of California when I couldn't get anything else. Sometimes they pay well, other times they are too cheap. Hauling onions is much easier with a side kit.