I got tired of sitting at the McDonald's and staring at the computer screen... So I went for a walk in Winnemucca NV trying to find some kind of an eatery. Found 20 hotels, 10 casinos and 2 restaurants. One of them was Pizza Hut. What the heck... So I stepped in and while waiting for my order to arrive I booted my computer again and logged on to the Landstar Load board. It's the end of the day on the East coast so someone can post a new load - you never know. Well, guess what - there WAS a new load posted! $2.69 per mile, all legal dims, no tarp (as far as I could tell) and it was going 3000 miles (!) into Eastern Canada. It loaded 400 miles away from me and the note on the load said, "must load today". Just my luck ... I sent the Agent an email anyway, "if you don't find anyone to pick it up today, I can be at the shipper anytime over the weekend or first thing Monday morning."

tracer
"re: your ltl load from cali to ont, canada

I called twice before about the Cali to ONT load (LTL). Have you heard back from your client? I'm the stepdeck guy in Winnemucca, Nevada, 4 hours away from the shipper."

agent

"I have called and emailed my customer and he has not responded. I will call you as soon as I hear something."

tracer
3.5 hours later

"Has it been over 24 hours since you talked to your broker? If yes, we might need to call 911 and report him/her missing. I'm eating pizza at the Pizza Hut in Winnemucca NV and there's a TV with CNN Headlines on the wall next to me. Nothing about a missing freight broker and stranded Canadian trucker on the news yet "

agent

"Quite funny and yes my customer seems to be missing. I don't understand this as I have known him for 20+ years!"

I wish I was making this up All this is about a good-paying LTL I have been trying to get since early since early this morning!

If u haven't heard back from either of them by now, I'd start heading east.

start that book it get rid of your boredom and make you sum $s ,i buy 1st copy

LOL Tracer they never run out of lies man.

Here is my story from 2 weeks ago. Dec 23 I call on a posted load from the Port of Baltimore to Guelph.

DEC 23:
Broker: 1pc of steel plate x 10w x 20L x 4"T x 33,000 lbs, no tarp, pays 1600 TWIC req'd. I have 9 loads ready to go now.
Me: If I give you 2 step decks on the 27th can I get $1700 per truck?
Broker: Yep.
ME: I may have a 3rd truck available but I will call you back on that one.
Broker: I will get you the confirmations this afternoon.
Broker calls me back: Any news on that 3rd truck?
ME: I have alot of DH in it.
Broker: How about if I guve you $1800 for that truck?
ME: OK. 3 trucks then. How are your coming on the rate sheets? It's getting close to Christmas and I'd like to get started on my permits.
Broker: before I go home you will have them (they never arrived).

DEC 24:
ME: Hey, what happened to my rate sheets?
Broker: I never heard back from my customer, but the loads are mine to give don't worry. Today for sure.
ME: (later in day)Still no rate sheets?
Broker: No. Customer just wants to spend time with his family on Christmas eve.
ME: So? You are the broker right?
Broker: Yes.
ME: So what's the problem?
Broker: No problem. Dispatch your trucks, don't worry

Well, I have to ship these loads because I have customers waiting so off we went on DEC 26. I get unloaded at 10:00 on the 27th and still no word from ding bat so I log into DAT and I see my loads posted by another broker so I call.

Broker2: Yes I have 9 loads available.
ME: I was supposed to load 3 trucks today for LOSER Brokerage INC, but the deal fell through.
Broker2: Oh that was you? Yeah, I was talking to the customer about that. Loser Brokerage was trying to get him to pay in advance for the trucking and he wasn't interested. I have the loads because he is my neighbor and I'm giving him credit.

I brought all 3 trucks home empty and later moved 4 of the 9 loads with broker 2.

lies, lies, lies.

It's called what truck stop are you at tonight....

From what I've seen California has some good-paying loads going to ON and QC in Canada. I'm thinking of moving WEST to Reno, NV so that I'm close to CA Monday morning. If another good load shows up there, I'd be ready to jump on it. If I start going east now, I'd probably have to go all the way to IL or IA. That's 1,400 miles empty.

I'd be afraid to drive empty without having a load confirmation with my rate. Even at Landstar I always ask the agents to email me something before I start moving.

It's Saturday and I'm at my laptop again trying to figure out which way - if any - I should move my empty truck. The idea is to park close to an area where some good loads might pop up on Monday, Jan-10. I've looked at the Landstar board and on Friday there were 7 loads going from here to ON and QC in Canada. I don't want to go to Alberta because I'll be stuck there for a month or will have to take a $1/mi load to get back to North-East. So, I'm really only interested in something that goes to ON and QC (I'd take something else but as Canadian I'm only allowed to move shipments from US across the border). Anyway, according to Google Maps - and I don't think they're mistaken - Nevada where I'm stuck right now borders on only 4 states: California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and pensioner-friendly mafia war Arizona. According to the Landstar board, there were 3 loads in CA, 2 in OR, 1 in ID, 1 in UT and 0 in AZ (which is a good thing - I don't want my tires to be shot out by Mexican snipers). I checked my distance and from Winnemucca it is:

433 miles to Load 1 in CA
291 miles to Load 2 in CA
256 miles to Load 1 in ID
354 miles to Load 1 in UT

I didn't include the loads in Oregon because there were extremely cheap, and when I suggested a higher rate the agent called me 'crazy' and said I'd never find something like that out of OR. So, screw OR! My gamble is on CA, UT and ID.

I called the Agent who posted the high paying load in CA on Friday and surprisingly a guy answered the phone! Clearly he wasn't in the office but talked to me on his cell phone (he didn't sound too pleased). He said they didn't have anything for Monday yet and asked me to call them at 8 am EST on Monday which is 5 am local time.

So, right now I'm not even sure I should move the truck at all. I have enough fuel to go about 500 miles and there's a TA in Mill City, NV - 30 miles west from me on I-80. There's another TA in Sparks, Nevada; near Reno. That would put me closer to California but then I'd be too far away from Salt Lake City, UT. There's actually a good load posted out of Utah that I can sign for right now but it picks up only on Jan-14th! I hope I'll be able to find something sooner than that. But I'm keeping this load as a kind of a fallback option...

So, what do you guys think? Shall I move to the TA in Sparks, NV? That's only 17 miles away from the border with California but 500 miles from Salt Lake City, Utah. California seems more promising but it's all a gamble. There may be no new loads at all on Monday.

Here's some pictures from around the Flying J truck stop in Winnemucca NV. See how on the fuel price sign they broke the Flying J logo to get it replaced with the Pilot sign.

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I didn't get any feedback regarding the deadhead to Reno (Sparks) NV, so I grabbed a double espresso at the McDonald's in Winnemucca NV and headed west on I-80. The weather was beautiful, the temperature sitting just above freezing and I hardly saw any snow anywhere. This being Sunday I saw very little traffic. So I set my cruise to 60 MPH and 1,280 RPM and it took 2 hours and 45 minutes to cover the 161 miles from Winnemucca to the TA truck stop in Sparks, NV (X. 19 off I-80). I spent the time listening to the audiobook by Lee Child about another set of adventures of the former military cop Jack Reacher. Some bad guys are threatening the Vice President of the United States and Jack is asked to 'audit' the effectiveness of the Secret Service protection. I'll start looking for a load on Monday and I hope something will show up in California that I can take back to Ontario or maybe Quebec. This TA has an interesting collection of firearms that are displayed on the walls in the hall, from the early rifles and revolvers to hand grenades and even mortars used in the WWII, plus a case of relatively modern automatic pistols.

DIESEL PRICES at SPARKS TA, NEVADA

Cash: $3.39 per gallon
Landstar: $3.17 per gallon (after discounts).