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Originally Posted by person
So you now have a broker that takes care of you all the time? From USX? What kinda rates?
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Yes, she will take care of me all the time if I let her. Not like I'm locked in but she seem to have a lot of contacts. I was in NM and I did a lot of loads for her and even got paid the same rate to dead head over 500 miles to pick up another load of the same thing.
The rates have varied but between $1.65 and a little over $2.00.
I'm loaded up with about 22 pieces of farm type equipment, all brand new headed for the coast of Oregon. It took most of the day to load me up as they were trying to pack everything like a puzzle. They even had to get a chainsaw out to shave off enough of the wooden skids so it wouldn't be illegal.
Then they said it had to be tarped and I didn't even have to think and just started laughing and said there IS NO WAY I'm going to tarp that. I told them every single thing on that truck was a razor blade and it would also be impossible to spread a tarp over it. And second of all, it's freaking outdoor machinery. Nobody dared say anything and just said OK.
The owner of the company was out in the yard after a while because we had been there so long. The employees said they had never seen him drive a forklift. Then one of the managers who was out there also trying to lead the effort got a phone call from his wife. The bank is being robbed right now live on the phone. I was on the trailer and all I could see was 20 people huddled around a cell phone with the speaker on. So that took an hour to talk about it after he hung up. Big deal, give him the cash and load me up.
So I'm off in a bit to Oregon and not sure where after that unless she puts something together that I like. I'm sure I could call ATS and get another container load from them like the last time. They are on a huge push to finish this phase of there wind project before the ground is frozen and the snow comes in Utah.
It's pretty cold every morning I wake up now and a few days I've woken up before my time and hit the old Rigmaster button and gone back to sleep. The electric heater is a definite must to have for sure. Without it, you would have an hour or two before the cab warms up to a comfortable point but with the heater it's real quick. I don't think any APU could bring a 40 degree bunk up to 70 degrees without hours of running so this works out perfect.
As far as running Canada and Alaska with a spread, I'll call the DOT and ask them in each state. I know some of the ice road truckers were running spreads but I'll leave these questions up to the experts and I'm finding nobody on here can even agree on Canada and the length laws.
I think I saw Merrick on the news frozen inside his cab in Florida. I understand the temp dropped to 61 and they found him in shock.
