Had a nice ride through Montana yesterday on 90 until I got to the Idaho border then the road turned to crapola. Man, I would love to ride along in one of those freight trains. They get to see stuff you and I will never see.

I'm 300 miles from delivering in Tacoma then another 130 or so to Portland with my last load then off to Jubitz for a day off or two. Time to shut down and have the truck washed, laundry and clean. Maybe watch the new Batman movie if it's playing there which I'm sure it is.

I didn't mention this before but when I was loading up in Mass an RV pulling a trailer with a car backed into the front of my truck. He forgot he was pulling the car I guess. He bent the corner of my bumper right under that we had to hook a chain to pull it away from the tire.

He is a retired Doctor and was really nice. I called my local truck chrome shop then handed the phone to him. He gave them his credit card info and I picked up a new bumper and chrome piece that goes around the headlight. I've been carrying the parts since I left home and will put the bumper on at Jubitz.

He gave me all his info just in case but it really wasn't a big deal. I wish all accidents could be this way!

Came across this video!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQkyWHUMUK8

 

You might consider going to the IMAX showing of The Dark Knight.

1945 SE Water Avenue
Portland, OR

It's downtown, but I think it would be worth the taxi ride.

 

That's what I will do....Thanks!

 

Fu%#in' IMAX,...I always fall asleep looking up :roll:

 

Steve,

What percent of your loads require tarping?

When you see that a load requires tarping, do you charge extra?

 

I was cracking up at the end. :lol: :lol:

 

NOT looking for a fight here, BigD....and I don't have all the info in front of me, but.....

When I was there, I compared the routes of the different busses, and I would take the #15 to the nearest light rail stop (don't remember where it is) and then ZOOM into downtown with a minimum of stops on the light rail. It arrives much sooner, and transfers cost nothing. IIRC, the #8 was my second choice, but I THINK it takes longer, makes more stops, and is more crowded... as it IS a city bus.

Either way, all this info is available at the brochure rack inside Jubitz, and surely on the website. NO WAY I would pay for a cab all the way from Jubitz! But, be sure to check the return times, and compare to the movie showtimes.

 

I would say maybe 25% require tarping. When the brokers call me and say it's a no tarp load they act like it's Christmas time and I'm going to do it for a really cheap rate.

I don't charge anything for tarping. The shipper doesn't differentiate between a tarped load and not. They have this much to pay to ship the load and that's it. The broker tries to take as much of that as possible. You can break it up anyway you like but if the broker doesn't get what they want, your not going to get the load. Simple as that.

I once did a load up to Canada and right off the bat the broker was told by the shipper what to pay. He said $100 to tarp, $2.10 per mile and $500 to dead head back to civilization.

Tarping is a crap shoot. A full lumber load can take less then an hour to tarp and a load of crane parts can take 5 hours because it's an odd size and many edges need to have bubble wrap put on.

Tarping comes with a flatbed job so get use to it. You can spend 10 hours while they build and load a shipment and no tarp or you can be loaded in 15 minutes and spend 30 minutes tarping. You can spend 4 hours waiting to be loaded and no tarp. It's so subjective. I NEVER plan on loading a second load in the same day. If it's an LTL I tell the next person I'm not sure I can load that day and it may be first thing the next day.

I'm here in Jubitz shutdown waiting for a load either today or tomorrow. I already got 3 calls yesterday about a load to Washington D.C. but turned it down. Ever since getting lost and ending up in front of the White House I'll never go to D.C. again. The worst part was getting laughed at by the secret service. For those who don't remember they were all very nice and helpfull (AFTER THEY STOPPED LAUGHING). They called the local police who escorted me back to the highway. They were getting ready for construction on the highway and someone put a wrong sign up. I was the first one to screw up. There were other trucks passing me as I was being led out.

I got my DOT physical here yesterday at Jubitz. The doctor was very nice. Kind of a joke though. I told him my doctor takes over an hour to do the physical and costs $375. This one took 10 minutes and $65. I also showed him a rash I have around my belt line. Took him 2 seconds to say it was a nickle rash from the nickle button on my Levi jeans. He told me you can go to Walmart and buy silver plated buttons or just plain duct tape the button. lol

I slept for almost 12 hours last night which isn't like me at all. I left the roof top AC unit running full blast when I went to sleep so I'm assuming that was the reason plus I don't have to drive today yet. In the winter I long for the nice weather to hang my arm out the winter. In the summer I long for the winter and the great nights of sleep in the cold.

I'm going to try and put the new bumper on my truck this morning. Hopefully I can get a few truckers to hold it up for a second while I put a few bolts in. The only part that takes some time is drilling 2 holes underneath for the 2 support rods but that's it. Pretty quick job.

I had a call from one broker who called back 3 times but just couldn't understand. She said you have a truck in Portland. I said yes. She said where are you looking to move the truck? I said I'm not looking to move it anywhere in particular, I do all 48 states and any place is fine. She says yes, but where do you want to go. Well, this went back and forth a few times before she said goodbye. She then called back 2 more times and the same conversation. She couldn't understand that it didn't matter where I wanted to go but it's like she wanted me to give her a particular destination. I have a feeling it would have gone this way. I want to go to Florida. Oh yea Steve! Well, I have a load to Florida just like you WANT for $1.20 per mile. I don't know who the broker was but I'm sure it would have led nowhere. I've heard this story before and I'm sure they would have double brokered a load to any place I mentioned.