WEEK TWENTY SIX
Monday, June 23rd through Sunday, June 29th
Another Monday has arrived and it really isn’t any different than any other day. I have a load to deliver and get started at 3:30am so that I can drop my load asap and get my next load offer. This is another dropped trailer at a WalMart DC and after doing so and hunting down an empty trailer I put in my MT call and received a single load offer that is to pickup 80 miles down the road in Muskogee. I had been to this customer sometime ago and recall that it is a little hard to get to and has one of those short docks that will leave my truck sticking out into the street when being loaded. Looking forward to that.
Although it is a live load, it has an open pickup time frame so I don’t have to sit around waiting for an appointment time. I was given a door as soon as I arrived and the loading didn’t take long at all. This load was destine for Dallas(310mi) and had a 7am appointment the following morning. This was a short run, but I had already put in 300 miles before getting this load and it will give my a solid 600mi day. No complaints here, I can get close tonight and then drive into my customer before the morning rush hour has a chance to annoy me.
As planned, I arrived about an hour early for my delivery and as soon as I pull around the corner to get into the place I recognized it. I had been here about a year ago and it was a drop and hook. This is a pleasant surprise for me, it beats the heck out of sitting around on a live unload. The joy soon faded however, because there were no empty trailers to be found and to make it just a little worse there was another Crete driver who also needed an empty. That means that he would get the first available trailer and that would just result in a longer wait for me. We went inside to ask the warehouse clerk when a trailer might be emptied and available (there were a number of loaded Crete trailers on the property). The reply was to check back in a couple of hours. With that I sent a message off to dispatch (7am on a Monday morning, not good) to inform them of my situation and asked if they knew where I could get an empty trailer or if they might have a load I could bobtail to.
I was not too surprised when a timely response was not received. About an hour later the QualComm beeped with a “How long will you have to wait for a trailer”. Wish I knew the answered to that one. I made one more trip into the warehouse and this time I was told to check back around noon. I’m willing to sit around for a couple of hours, but the noon thing just wasn’t going to happen. We have a terminal down in Wilmer, and although it is about 25 miles away I decided I was going to look for an empty there. I couldn’t get any help or commitments from dispatch without an empty, so I’ll go find on one my own.
I put the truck in gear and headed out of the yard only to have Murphy’s law kick in when the Qualcomm chirped to life. At least I was bobtailing and it was easy to find a place to park. I was please to find a single load offer that was to pickup south of Dallas and I would be able to get my load without bringing in an empty. Can’t complain about that. It was a good mileage run going to Ft Lauderdale area (1352mi), but it didn’t deliver until Friday morning. This actually works out very good for me. I’m getting tight on hours and this will allow me to run out the rest of my day a put in a reset. Unfortunately that reset would have to happen in AL. I would have liked to take my down time in Ft. Lauderdale, but it was not to be. I just didn’t have enough hours to get there. After picking up my load and running my hours out I was able to make it to Mobile, AL by the skin of my teeth, as far as hours go. As is always the case, parking in this town in almost impossible to come by, but I knew of a side road near a past customer that I could park on for the night.
I decided to get a hotel room for Wednesday night to save on idling time and much more importantly, to get me out of the truck for a day. A little advise to anyone trying to get a hotel room in Mobile. Many claim to have truck parking, in face they do not. At least Google Earth saved me pulling into the Red Rood Inn. That would have been a bad situation for me. I ended up at the Howard Johnson (only the best?) and was able to wiggle into a parking spot only because it was early and there was no one else in the lot at the time. I also took this chance to figure out the local bus schedule and did a little sight seeing. If you ever get down there and have a little time available to you I would suggest checking out the USS Alabama.
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Thursday morning had me back at work and it was just a matter of putting as many miles behind me as possible for the day. I ended up stopping with more than an hour of drive time left because truckstops are virtually nonexistent in south Florida. I actually had just enough time to make it to my customer, but I didn’t know if they had overnight parking available and if they didn’t I would be hard pressed to find parking. I was lucky to get parking at the Pilot. It wasn’t even 6pm and there were less than 10 spots left. I’m glad I don’t make it down here very often. It’s been 5-6 years since my last trip into the Miami area (in a truck that is), and hopefully it will be at least that long before I return.
Friday finds me about 90 miles from the customer and as usual, I pulled in an hour early for my delivery. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. This is a “doesn’t” day. They did give me a door assignment, but told be unloading would not begin until the appointment time. After some tricky maneuvering I was able to get my trailer to the door of this “strip mall warehouse”. Another one of those places where 53’ trailers were never meant to go. I actually had to drop my trailer once docked because my tractor completely blocked thru traffic.
All I had to do at that point was wait, and that’s what I did. They were taking their time and it was close to 3hrs before the unload was completed. I had put in an MT call a bit early in anticipation of getting a load offer and load info asap. There was no where to park in the area and I needed to know what direction I was going as soon as the trailer was empty. It didn’t do me all that much good though. My next load offer was slow in coming and I found myself empty before getting my next load. Now I had to pull out of the door and try to find a somewhere to park where I would be out of everyone’s way. I wasn’t too successful and had to keep driving around the building every time someone else wanted to drive out. The load offer eventually came through and it was a single load offer. Looks like I’m going to OK (1392mi), and it’s a wonderful drop and hook on both ends. Sweet! The big surprise it that I’m being deadheaded 320mi to get my load. I don’t see deadheads that long very often anymore. I don’t image there are many options from the Miami area.
As soon as I knew where my pickup was I was off. I hadn’t received any load info yet, but I was tired of being chased out of this parking lot and planned on stopping somewhere down the road once the Qualcomm started beeping (it took another 45mins before that happened). The Florida weather was looking nasty today but the roads stayed dry, until I was 10mins from my PU that is. Then the skis opened up and unloaded on me. The traffic was crawling along at 20 mph and my drop n hook was not much fun. It did stop raining shortly after I was done though.
The next two days weren’t too bad, but I did run into some nasty downpours and the four wheelers were hitting the ditches like it was ice. They seem to think they can keep driving 80 mph regardless of the weather conditions.
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It’s been nice getting a couple of longer trips of late. Fewer pickups and deliveries makes for far fewer problems and simple days of driving. Before I know it, I’m looking at a Sunday and I’m dropping my trailer in OK and awaiting my next load offer.
It’s another single load offer, but I’m not complaining. It’s a preloaded trailer 100 miles away and is going to Columbus, OH(1113mi). Another nice long run. The only drawback is it’s a live unload scheduled for 1pm next Tuesday. That will have me sitting around a little bit, but nothing too serious. OK, there are two drawbacks to this load. The other is that this is a tire load. At least it is a preloaded trailer, the unload will be time consuming though.
I got my preloaded trailer and made it to Joplin, MO before my Sunday came to a close.
Killer miles for the week, love it!
Can you believe the year is half over already, we will be driving in the snow before we know it.
WEEK TWENTY SIX RESULTS
Monday, June 23rd through Sunday, June 29th
Miles include deadhead
Little Rock, AR to Ocheleta, OK(final leg)................................302mi
Muskogee, OK to Garland, TX................................................ 310mi
Waxahachie, TX to Pompano, FL...........................................1352m i
Alachua, FL to Ardmore, OK................................................ .1392mi
Lawton, OK to Joplin, MO(first leg)..........................................403m i
Total Paid Miles............................................. ........................3759 Miles
Actual Miles...................................3796Miles
3759 miles x .42 = $1578.78
