I made my drop in NC as planned and was offered a load from Canton, GA to Laredo, TX shortly after calling in my empty status.

I picked up a "so called" OD load on Friday (I call it that because the only reason it needs a permit is because there is one small section that make the load 9'2" wide) and made it to Grand Bay, AL just before sunset. Since this load doesn't deliver until Monday, and my route has me going through the house, I made it home Saturday evening.

I will head out first thing Monday morning and drop this load in Laredo. I know that my trailer has already been loaded and is waiting on me back in Schertz, TX.

 

Hey Dice man!
Sounds like everything is rolling smoothly for ya. Good deal! Keep the posts coming!

 

:rofl::rofl::rofl: Sorry to laugh....but I wouldn't call everything smooth. There is a LOT that I have not been sharing on here but will do so real soon. But nonetheless, thanks for the positive post!!

 

Yeah, I guess ya cant help but have the rough spots.

 

Rough spots would be putting it very mildly.........

 

Guess it's time once again to make an update..............

I made that drop in Laredo with no issues. I then hooked up to one piece of crap flatbed trailer I've ever seen and took it to Waco, TX. I get to the consignee 15 minutes after they opened on Tuesday morning and was pleased to see I was the only truck there. Well it took them almost an hour before they even started to unload me. I had 10 front loader buckets stacked side by side and one on top on the front portion of the load. It should have been a fairly easy offload, but instead it turned out to be a little more involved because the CAT plant down in Mexico set the buckets on 1 x 1 dunage and therefor it made it difficult for the forklift to get under them. So it was a slow process and one forklift was set on one side of the trailer to prevent the buckets from being pushed off as the other forklift tried to push his forks under the one bucket.

They get 4 buckets off the back of the trailer and then they are called away for a safety meeting. 2 hours later they come back and apologize for the long wait and then tell me that in 15 minutes they have to go to lunch. I explained to the guys that I had to be back down in Schertx, TX before 2pm to pick up another load and I'm already running late (this place in Schertz does not allow trucks in past 2pm because drivers were taking too long to secure their loads as they close at 4pm). The guy is cool and says that he will do his best to get me out of there as soon as possible. It ended up being 12:30pm before I rolled out of the plant and mashed on it to Schertz.

I arrive at Schertz around 2:45pm and explain to them that I know 2pm was the deadline to come in but I promise I will be out of there before 4pm. Just as he was about to say no, he noticed that it was my personal trailer that I was picking up and said O.K. but to make sure I was out before 4pm. I dropped the piece of crap trailer and hooked up to mine. It was a permit load of stainless steel going back to the power plant in NC that I went to before. Because it was stainless steel, I could not use any chains and had to use straps only. Well I managed to get it all secured down and all my flags and OD signs up by 3:55pm!!!! whew.........:clap:

By now I am soaking wet from sweat from head to toe and exhausted as hell. I roll down to the TA in New Braunfels, TX for fuel, shower, and a meal. Since I was low on my 14 hours, I decided to just call it a day and hit the road first thing in the morning.

The following morning I was up and on the road by sunlight. Just west of Texarcana I get a call from my dispatcher asking where I was. When I told him, he gets a bit of sarcasim in his voice because I left out Wednesday morning vise Tuesday afternoon. I explained to him I was low on hours and that's all there was to it. He then has the nerve to ask if I would still be delivering it on Thursday........... um, no I have about 900 miles left to go and its late morning Wednesday.

Anyways, by Thutsday I made it to Knoxville, TN which left me about 150 miles to go to the customer in Cliffside, NC. I get going Friday morning and start hearing of road closures in NC. Sure enough, part of I-40 was shut down due to iced over roads and a couple of jack knifed trucks.:eek2: It's too early for that "white stuff". Luckily I only had to wait about an hour before the mess was finally cleaned up. I go ahead and call my dispatcher to inform them that although I had planned on offloading around 9am, it was now going to be closer to 11am due to the closure.

I get down to power plant and the security guard tells me that the guys will be back in about an hour as they all just went to lunch.....dammit!!!! Oh well, that's the way it goes right......While I was sitting there, one of the "head honcho's" recognized me and my dog from the last time I was there and came over to shoot the $hit with me. He tells me that they will be unloading me at the same place as last time and if I want, I could head on down there and take my securement off. Cool, I can get everything off and put away before they get there. :thumbsup:

They show up on time but unfortunately spend the next 4 hours unloading me!!!!! :roll2: Mean while, my dispatcher keeps calling me asking what the status is as they have a load lined up from somewhere in SC going to OK. I explain to him that there is nothing I can do as these guys were doing their best to get me out of there.

When I was finally emptied, I called in and the dispatcher (this dispatcher has been on medical leave and we do not know one another) tells me she will call me right back. I thought about just waiting right there since I did not know which direction they were going to have me going. But instead decided I was going to head down into SC (state line is only 5 miles south) and head to a TS to wait. I waited and waited.......finally at 4:45pm I called them and was a little pissed when I got no answer. Them SOB's went home for the weekend and left me hanging!!!issedoff: It wouldn't have really bothered me if they called back and just said sorry, nothing happening right now, we'll call you Monday. Instead they just left me hanging. Maybe I am over reacting or being childish, but I am the type of person that expects people to do as they say and say as they do.

So here I sit in Duncan, SC for the freaking weekend. This type of B.S. just adds to the pile of crap I've had to deal with over here and hence why my days are numbered! I'll explain more another time.

 

Just out of curiosity, when your talking about dispatch are you referring to the local agent or dispatch at LoneStar? I'm sitting in the drivers room here in Ft Worth right now and there are dispatchers here and in fact I was dispatched about 1 1/2 hours ago to California as soon as the truck arrives. Throughout all my fiasco with the truck getting wrecked and such I have heard from people at least three times a day all the way from my dispatcher up to the Ft. Worth terminal manager.

I have had the opportunity to talk to many drivers setting around the yard the past week and as far as the O/O's go all but a couple have just raved about thier agents.

Have you talked to someone at the corporate level to see about switching to a different agent or possibly going on the system board here in Ft. Worth.

I haven't done much here and only been here a couple weeks but so far there has been 0 problems with communication.

Sorry to hear your days are numbered but be cautious, there aren't verymany companies taking trucks right now and the one's that are are the ones that will take trucks even if they have no freight for the ones they currently have.

 

When I say dispatcher, I am referring to my terminal, they are the only ones I deal with at Lone Star. I will post all the details later but I'll just say that no company is perfect nor is every company a good fit for a driver and vise versa. With that said, lets just say that L.S. (or at least my terminal) and I are not a good fit for one another.

 

I know there are times when a company is not a good fit but I would hate to see you have to go through the entire ordeal of moving to another company when a switch to a different agent/terminal within LS might be a solution to the problem.

Just a thought as I know that times are getting tough everywhere and starting back at the bottom with another company might be even worse.

I have a really good friend who I workedwith a few years back in the heavy haul/specialized line and he left it a year ago for a local tanker job making $21 an hour but now he's only averaging 4 hours a day and is starving to death. This past week he has talked to 20+ companies about a driving or O/O position and none are taking anyone right now. Some of these big energy projects that companies were counting on through 2010 have been put on indefinate hold because the venture capitalists funding them have put the check books away.

Anyway just my .02 cents (.00000002 adjusted for inflation)

 

I have been wondering about you guys also... How funny I came home last night and thought I need to log onto CAD. Had a little trouble with the log on but got through. Looks nice so far but I've only looked at DD's Thread.

DD still having fun with Arrow. I'm in the Phoenix Regional Board and have mostly been running Phoenix to LA and back. I get through the house once a week ontop of the weekend.

DD glad that you kept up the thread.

Stan glad to see you were wondering too.... Back at it and having fun. I wanted to thank you both for the encourgement when I was hurt.

I had a slight scare coming through Blythe this week. My truck has the headlight lenses that are fogged over and I don't have a strong pattern of light... Anyway I was chatting with the wife and spot a large gator at the last second. I had two coils on and figured don't flip the damn thing. I ended up running it over with drives and trailer. I did have a flash back but got over it.


pb
Arrow
5146