Usually figure about 8 pounds per gallon.

 

I had a great Easter weekend, I hope everyone else did too! Perfect weather, all the family, so much food I'm still in pain, and a decent amount of time off to boot!

But I had to get back on it today, and even looked forward to it. But it was a smooth, easy day, nothing really to report. I have a delivery due in Montgomery Illinois at 11:30 tomorrow, so since it was only about 70 miles away, I decided to spend the night in the Gary yard, to take advantage of the free showers and amenities.

I figured that holiday traffic would be brutal today, but much to my amazement, Louisville, and Indianapolis were smooth sailing, so I made out really good. I don't know about this place tomorrow, I have never been on the highways going to the town, so I don't know what to expect. So even though it's a hour and a half trip, I am gonna give myself 3 hours to get there since it's a scheduled appointment, and if I miss it I could be sitting for a whole day, so I don't mind losing an hour or so to make sure it's on time.

Anyway, sorry there's nothing more exciting to report, but no news is good news, or so I have been told! :wink:

 

Well, the whole leaving early to get there on time thing blew up in my face. It was a easy drive, and I got there early only to have to wait to get unloaded, oh well, I knew I took that chance. Thing is, that I didn't even get unloaded when I was supposed to, I had to wait 2 and a half hours past my delivery time, so needless to say many hours were burned for nothing, but that is what happens sometimes in the wonderful world of truck driving.

I finally got unloaded, and was ready to go, but I had to wait again for a pre-plan. An hour later, I finally got some news, not that good, but at least I could start rolling. I was to head about 40 miles away to pick up a load, and run it about 300 miles to deliver, but when I arrived, I again had to wait 2 hours to even get in the docks. 45 minutes later I was finally loaded, and anther 45 I was tarped. But by now, I was out of hours and had to spend the night in the lot of the shipper, which is why I couldn't update last night.

I had to get up around 3 am to make it to the consignee(which I should have been able to do yesterday, but since all the delays, well you know) by 7. I got there this morning, hoping everything would go a little smoother than yesterday so I could maybe make up some miles. But again, it was another hour and a half before I got unloaded, oh well, not too bad.

Dispatch was on it today trying to help me out with some miles, which was cool. I was supposed to go and pick up a preloaded trailer, cool, no waiting, just drop and hook, whoo hoo! It was only about 40 miles away, so I made it there pretty quick, only to see the preloaded trailer meant just that, not secured, just loaded, oh well.

60 strap protectors, and 12 straps later the load was secure, and I went inside to get my paperwork and hit the road headed south to Birmingham, which is some pretty decent miles. Well, I get the paperwork, and when the load arrived, it was ok, but after getting galvanized, it added a lot of weight, and I was afraid I would be over gross. I tell them I need a beam removed from the load to be safe, and they said no problem..................but you will have to wait for the loader to come back from lunch. Grrrr, so I started unstrapping, so I could have everything done by the time he got back.

He showed up a few minutes after I finished, and got me unloaded in a decent time frame, not good, but decent.(of course it was just ONE beam) I secured the load again, and was finally able to hit the road, but man was I tired, and I am running low on hours, but I decided that my goal would be just south of Milwaukee at a pilot so I could get a free shower and hit the sack, plus it was almost exactly far enough away for me to use all my hours getting there.

So a bad string of events yesterday, hardly any miles, and a 30-45 minute drop and hook today took 3 and a half hours. PLUS I still don't know what the weight is, I have to drive 20 miles south to get to a scale, and if I am over gross, I will have to drive back again, taking back roads to avoid the scale house in the north bound lanes.

Anyway, I call to see if I can fill up the truck before I scale, since I only had about a eighth of a tank. I get no answer, and decide to just go on, I am sick of waiting around, I need some miles, so I took off. I got to the scale, and was delighted to know that I was good to go, whew, if I would have had to drive back to wait to be unloaded again, I would have been.....well you know.

So I made my goal I set for myself, I made it down 41, went through Milwaukee with a little detour that I was hoping and praying wouldn't effect my stop I had planned for the night. Thankfully, it was just a small stretch, and was soon on 94, and finally made it to the pilot today, just within my hours, and boy was I tired, I went inside took a shower, that made me feel as though I was melting away, almost didn't have the energy to climb back in the truck, but the bunk was calling my name loud and clear.

So now, I have rested a bit, and thought I would write and update the post. Now I am going back to bed and sleep to around 4 before I head out, cause this load is due in Birmingham on early Friday morning, and that leaves me with a 13 hour trip to shave down to 11, or at least get close enough to make the rest of the trip Friday morning. At the very least dispatch said they could reset it since I spent so much time waiting today, but that might screw me out of scanning my paperwork by noon, and without this trip on my check, it won't be hardly nothing. Of course with this weeks check I brought home 645, so I am happy! If only I could bring this home every week, but oh well, who knows, maybe one day. Oh, and I got a raise! I now earn 33 cpm, instead of a measly 32!

Now, lets go to Alabama!

 

i still feel the need to post my week at roehl
only about 3700 miles this week nice 1400 something dollar check and what do you know i get next week off woowhoo.

 

Sounds like a pretty good week ken_o.

 

Well, I got to my consignee with no problems, and only one little event taking place. I was about there when I got a qualcom telling me to call dispatch, oh man, these things are usually not too good, if they needed something they would send me a message.

I finally get a chance to call, and much to my surprise, I won a MPG award, so I get a MPG jacket, or a $50 gift certificate to spend at Roehlmart. I think I will choose the jacket since not just anyone can get it, no buying that I know of, here is a link to the little beauty(can you tell I am proud about this?)

http://roehl.logoshop.net/updateable...cfm?pageID=231

That just got my day off to a great little start, and I was raring to go. And even though it was raining like pouring pi$$ out of a boot, I pushed forward. I made it to the consignee, early as a matter of fact, and got unloaded pretty quick, no big long lines to worry about. I already had a pre-plan they sent me the day before instructing me to head about 40 miles west, to pick up a load of lumber, oh man, here come the tarps.

I make it to the shipper with no problems, even though it was back roads the whole way that weren't marked all that good. They loaded me quickly, again the lucky streak gaining momentum. Plus it was actually a easy tarp job to, AND now I get to head home for the weekend!

Had to drive through mild to moderate storms pretty much the whole way home, but it was no biggie really, and that just about sums it up, I know it sounds boring, but it was a good day, and that is fine with me!

I get home, and the rain stops, I get up this morning to a picture perfect day. Chris and I got the nova out and had some fun, picked up his dads truck, and came home to do some spring cleaning................5 hours later, the basement is clean, the upstairs is clean, and the yard is mowed and trimmed, and I am officially tired, lol.

Now, I have to leave tomorrow evening to be in KY first thing Monday morning to deliver this load. Hopefully they will give me something past a terminal, so I can get my jacket, lmao, I can't wait to get that sucker, it's the only thing I have ever "won" or earned and actually got, shoot, I might even frame it!

Now, lets go to KY!

P.S. Ken, how long have you been driving, and was the 1400 gross or net, I would hope net since I gross right at a grand, and run a thousand miles less. Wish I could get miles like that though, but at my current cpm pay, I would have to drive 4250 miles to GROSS that much money, my hats off to you!

 

Novacane,

Big congrats on the MPG award. What did you have to do to get it? That does look like a very nice jacket.

I sent you another PM.

sauerball

 

even if i was top of the pay scale 3700 miles would only be a hundred more grossbut if i trained i would gross180/300 more a week.
you schould took the gift cert for roehl mart got you some pull over jacket deals. maybe even some outer wear after all your gunna be tarpin in the rain.

 

Not a very productive day today, lot's of time sitting waiting.

I got up and drove a couple hours to the consignee this morning, got there on time, and wound up having to wait 3 hours to get unloaded. At this point I thought it was no big deal, sometimes it just happens, so I didn't let it bother me, or ruin my day. Plus it gave me a chance to bug dispatch by sending them messages like, "any idea on a preplan, I should be unloaded any minute" hoping to cut down on the time it takes them to give me a new load.

After 3 hours, I am finally unloaded and ready to go, and dispatch had me a load assigned as soon as I sent in the unloaded macro. Cool, a decent run, little over 600 miles, and to make it even better, it was a load of truck hoods, which are really light, for instance, my current load weighs a whopping 3700 pounds, lol.

I had to leave Ky. and head up to Columbus to pick up the load. Made it there with no problems, and ahead of schedule, cool, maybe I can make up some of my slow day..................NOPE!!

I sit there waiting to get loaded almost 4 hours! By this time I was beginning to get a little frustrated, but it didn't get to me that bad thankfully, like I said, sometimes it happens. I finally got loaded, and was on my way, but I could only make it a short distance before it was time for me to shut down for the night.

So what it all boils down to is I had a 13.5 hour day that made me a whole 105 bucks, hmm, by my math, that is about 7.75 an hour. BUT that isn't all that bad considering that I was sitting in the truck watching movies, playing games, chatting with other drivers, or twiddling my thumbs, lol. It just makes me mad that if I could have been driving like I should have been able to, I would have made almost double that. But I must admit, I have never had a job where I could make a hundred bucks a day, so believe it or not, I am pretty happy.

Anyway, I have to head to Alabama with this load, so tomorrow, I should be able to make up some ground, and besides, when the miles have been short here lately, dispatch has tried to "hook me up" with better loads, so we will see what I get after this load.

 

I made it to the drop in Alabama about 30 minutes ahead of schedule this morning, having drove almost 600 miles yesterday. I actually was around 30 minutes early, and got unloaded nice and quick.

I was dispatched for a load in Ellenwood, so I took off toward Hotlanta. I got to the yard, with a message to call dispatch, I hate when they tell me this. So I call, and sure enough I am in trouble. I have an awful habit of not sending in a arrived at consignee marcro. Its mainly because when I arrive, I am trying to figure out where to put the truck, and getting it unstrapped so it can be unloaded so I can move onto the next load.

So even though I wasn't late to any appointments, I was still wrote up for not sending the correct macros. I would forget to send it when I arrived, and by the time I think of sending it(usually when I am on top of the load) it's after the delivery time so according to the computers I am late. This really upset me, but then again, it is my mistake, and I think I should have been "punished" for it, but not wrote up, or something that aggressive, of course that's my opinion, and it really doesn't matter. So I will have to work on it.

I got to the yard and while trying to find the trailer I HAD to get to Tn TODAY I realized that it hadn't arrived. So since I was waiting I asked if someone could look at my batteries and possibly replace them since I have had to get a jump start about 4 times in 3 weeks, and it's getting old. They checked them out and said nothing was wrong, so nothing happened. I have been having problems with my fuel filter vacuum, and told them to change the filter because the check engine light was coming on, and it would sputter every now and then, and that is what happens when the filter is too dirty.

I would have done it myself, but I just had it changed less than 2 weeks ago, and it shouldn't be dirty by now, so I figured something might be up with it. Again, nothing is wrong, and of course the check engine light is on, and it still sputters every now and then. They did find a problem I didn't even know about, they said something was wrong with the brakes, even though they showed no bad signs to me. So they fixed them, and now I get to enjoy the nice squealing sound they make every time I touch the brake pedal, which I guess is a good sign that they are working properly since before they were totally quiet. :roll:

Now they are talking about letting me go home today, which I don't understand, nor do I want to do. My paycheck was another whopper, 305 bucks, but again next weeks should be better, since again I didn't get a trip scanned in time for this week. But if I get sent home early this week, I will be behind again.

I know everyone gets tired of me complaining so I will end it here, surely today will be a better day. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been a horrible week, but it ain't been the best either. Just the low miles, getting wrote up, the state of my truck, and being sent home early gets to me a little.

Wish me luck!