Received on Tuesday afternoon a dispatch to load 3 humvees and take to Phoenix from LA area on wednesday and deliver thursday.

I followed the directions on the QC and found that they forgot to list the right turn onto the street that led to the main gate. After not finding the shipper I called them and I got the right directions and was in the gate 5 minutes later. I arrived, found 4 other Arrow trucks were loaded with 3 Humvees each and 3 were already chained down. I backed to the ramp and was loaded. I threw 4 chains onto each humvee and looked over to see 3 trucks start pulling out.

The driver that was chaining down when I arrived came over and said hi. We had met in Coachella several weeks ago and had talked outside our trucks for over an hour or two with another Arrow driver.

This driver started to give me a hand and right off the bat I was telling him thanks for helping me. He said that 2 of the drivers had helped eachother but 1 driver had sat in the truck and didn't want to talk or help them. So we spent 10 minutes knocking out the rest of the chains and we were then off and running out of LA together.

During the drive something happen to my CB. It developed a high pitch squeal everytime I keyed up so I stopped at Exit 19 in Quartzite to speak with "Hardrive". After finding out that he's closed down and possibly on vacation. Ughh...

I drove on to the Phoenix yard and shut down at the yard. I spoke with the driver who had ran out of LA with me and we planned to get to the customer at 7am an hour and half before the customer opened.

We arrived at the customer and found that we had beat the 3 other trucks and would be empty first. :thumbsup:

We were empty and received dispatches to load at the same location and run a local run to Casa Grande Home Depot which we did. Before we were empty in Casa Grande I received another load to take to CA. The drop was about 15 miles from home so I came home thursday night.

I got back to the truck friday morning to make my 7am drop. I started the truck and hit the lights and began my pretrip. When I got back to the trailer the motor shut off.
I walked back up the tractor and started it.... looked at the dash and I see check engine and engine protect lights flashing.:eek2:

I lift the hood and see the coolant dripping out of a hose. I popped open the resevoir and find its empty. I pulled out a gallon of coolant I had for my leak from the top of the radiator which was pretty light. I poured it in and didn't make a dent in the level. I started the motor and the hose was pressurized. Coolant poured out of the hose :hellno::hellno:issedoff:issedoff::tears::tear s:
great now im done for..... atleast i'm at home....

After going back home, filling coolant jugs with water and making calls to let everyone know I was put into contact with a shop about 5 miles away. Breakdown told me that I could disconnect the coolant sensor and I could drive without the motor shutting off:thumbsup:

So I started to roll out and was about 100yds from where I started. I was on a 4 lane street just about to a light, yep the motor shut off and I coasted to a stop in front of a fire stationissedoff: I was in the right lane blocking it. I hit my 4ways.... I was pissed I called the Beakdown Dept and was waiting on hold. I tried the motor and it started I moved away from the fire dept and rolled to the next light. I shut the motor off and was connected with the Breakdown guy. I described what was going on and he stayed online with me. I spent the next 20 minutes shutting off the motor as I coasted to the next light or stop sign. When I got to the shop the owner met me in the driveway and had me drive right in. When I got stopped he popped the hood and said he would have to go get the line. 15 minutes later he was back with a line and said he would have his guy install it quickly.

The owner was about 30yrs old and eager to help. His guy was at my truck within 20minutes and had the hose changed and added coolant quickly....:thumbsup:

I called Arrow:tears::tears::tears: knowing that the 311.28 bill might take a little while to be paid. Arrow said to fax the invoice and they would have it paid shortly.:tears::tears::tears: Arrow called back in 20 minutes and had the bill paid!!!! I backed out of the shop and was at the customer by noon!!!! I was offloaded and put in my empty status. I waited the next 4 hours for a dispatch. At 4pm I was told to call back on Monday morning. I was running back to the house where I shut down at 4:05pm

I am off this weekend which happens to be my 44th b-day. I got to enjoy watching my son play a double header today and relax tonight.

 

I am off this weekend which happens to be my 44th b-day. I got to enjoy watching my son play a double header today and relax tonight.
__________________


Cool and Happy Birthday!!

 

[QUOTE=dewercs2;444352]

I was getting paid DH and actually shows on my paycheck as dh pay. I think they are just trying to limit alot of pay and such. The time when layovr kicks in has been extended. I don't think there has been a safety bonus paid in awhile too.

QUOTE]


Did they extend the layover period to 72 hours before you get paid anything? They told me that right before I quit and thought they were bs'ing me.

I quit back in Dec. and sent off for my DAC report a couple months later and they have no info on me. Guess Arrow was lazy and just didn't put any thing on there. I have sent out a few applications and havn't heard anything back. Wonder if that has anything to do with it. Going to start sending out more apps I guess...

 

dewercs2 you have to ask for your safety bonus. I have gotten mine every quarter. I won't ask this time because of my knocking over that stoplight. I had to go into safety again but it was because I was missing a log sheet from 11/08. Luckily when I did my taxes and figuring out my oer diem I found it and threw it in my truck so I had it with me. They never mentioned that accident and said everything else was good and gave me an "atta boy". It's been 3 months since that happened so either it "flew under the radar" or it wasn't a big deal to them. I finally got home today. I spent 2 weeks waiting for repairs to my truck and it took them a day to repair. The starting problem was a loose wire. They fixed my dryer, put on 4 new tires, replaced the brake shoes up front, replaced a brake canister, new wipers, and a PM. Truck runs great for having 615,000 miles. Got a load of AC's from Norman, Ok. to Laredo, Tx. I then needed a load home but nothing was available. The day before they had 4 trucks going to Barstow, Ca. with power poles. Just my luck. As I sat in the driver lounge I found out the 5th load going to Barstow was delayed but already given to another driver. The driver heard my story and asked if I wanted the load. I couldn't belive it. 1450 miles and home? I gave him $20 for dinner. The load got in Sat. morning. A day late. I still delivered 3 hours early:lol2: I'm with you Paul, I will stay with Arrow until the bills can't be paid and then I'll find something else. You broke down under load so that's why the bill got paid so fast. I got a flat tire and was in and out of a TA in 2 hours. If you have a problem with the truck this is the way to go. Conveniently breakdown under load. Waiting 2 weeks at $50 a day can make you go broke. Drive abd be safe

 

Yes, he was our DM my hubby had a lease truck....he now is the guy you lease a truck from...his name is glen and he is a really cool guy!! But I would not recommend leasing a truck :-) Freight should start picking up out there....stay safe!!

 

an update and not from home....

I DH to LAX to pick up a load that took me to Seattle Airport cargo terminal. I was to be the 2nd truck to load a total of 7 crates. A Trainer truck was there ahead of me and had tried to load all the crates on his truck but could not fit it. So he picked all the large crates and left me with 9 crates that put me at a total of maybe 10k. The catch was that the paperwork didn't match and the shipper was showing that everything was loaded onto his truck. I asked this guy why he thought he could just pick and choose what he was to carry and not follow the load assignment. He said Cuz I got here first. :hellno: He then smiled and said that he had all the paperwork. The shipper said that he wanted the bills so that he could make the changes to it showing who had what. :thumbsup: The trainer told me that he was going to Ontario tonight since he only had 2hrs left to drive on his 11. This was at 4:30pm on wednesday. I said se ya, figuring he wouldn't get far. :lol:

The crates were about 3ft tall and took up all 48ft of space. I strapped down and made some adjustment on location with the smaller crates that maybe weighed 120lbs. I basiclly stalled til about 7pm and then hopped on the 405 north. I drove up the first TA on the hwy 5. In the am I did a pretrip and found a leaking coolant line which I hadn't touched earlier. Pulled out a screwdriver and tightend it down. Checked the oil and it was low. Added the rest of my oil and headed out. I stopped in Corning, CA to fuel, check my oil and QC. I had another load in Redmond to hook a preloaded trailer. When I checked the oil level It was low again. Grabbed more oil and filled again. Arrived in Medford, OR with no time left. I had knocked out 620 and was tired. I sat in the seat for a bit.... just to tired to move I guess. When I did climb out I started to walk back to the trailer and saw oil sprayed everywhere.:eek2: I looked under the truck and saw a small puddle forming. I checked the dipstick and it was low again. Whatever..... I'm tired hungry and have to use the bathroom:surrender: After a meal, texting my DM and talking with my wife I crawled back into the bunk and was out.

In the am I checked the oil and either it had spread or I had lost a lot of oil. Pulled the stick and it was down 1/2in on the stick. Added another gallon after talking to my DM who said this load needed to get to the drop and I had to get the other load:bow:.

As I was driving through Oregon I received a call from the freight broker who was calling to see how far I was from the drop. I told him I'd arrive between 3 or 4pm. I asked how far behind was I from the first truck. He told me I was about 800 miles ahead of him. The trainer took his trainee to Carson, CA to recover truck. The trainer then had a flat and also ran out of hours.

I arrived at the drop at 330 and was pulled onto the tarmac. I backed under a large cargo plane nose. That was cool, I wish I could have taken some pictures or atleast had the wife or kid with me.

I put in my empty call and ran 16 miles to the preloaded trailer. I arrived and figure it was raining, cold and getting dark. I'm dropping the trailer I have and will sleep here tonight. Nope, securtiy told me I had to move to Home Depot lot and sleep there. Since it wasnt raining now and I was still awake I figure heck throw 6 chains and a strap tonight then hit the hay.

I woke up to not feeling to good and walked into the Home Depot to use the bathroom. I spent about 45 minutes in there sick. So after getting that out of the way I headed back to the trailers and was happy that All I needed to do was hook the trailer do a Pretrip and I could take off. BUT first I had to see if Snowqualmie was open. and since I have all position tires as drives and I only have 3 cables for snow....

After listening to the radio and CB I was cool to run up but they had a traction tires and no oversize vehicles advisory ongoing. I ran up and over no problems.

As I was climbing Cabage my check engine lite came on...:hellno::hellno: I looked at the oil temp and saw it starting to rise from 100-125... I got to the top of cabage and pulled into the rest area. Pulled the dipstick and it was barely showing any oil. I poured what I had left of my last gallon and headed out. I texted the DM and told her what was up and I would nurse it to Boise ID. Almost to Ontario, OR the check engine light came on again and I kept going. I called breakdown and told them I would be in Boise within the hour and I would need to go into the shop there to get this leak fixed.

When I arrived the TA guy tried to get to the lines but wasn't able to. I have a CAT C15 with lines that are mounted high up on the motor between the firewall and motor.issedoff: TA refers me to Kenworth here in Boise and I go to see them. It's now 12am and I'm told drop the trailer and park the truck. We'll look at it in the am. They took me to the motel where I was last night. This morning I call and I'm told I can be out of the shop around 1 or so. I arrived at the shop and was told that the truck was given a road test and the leaking oil cooler line needed to be replaced. I told them they needed to call Arrow and was told they already had done so. About 20 minutes later Arrow gave the ok to replace the line. My truck was done around 3pm and I contacted Arrow. The invoice was faxed to them and I began the long wait. After a few phone calls I'm back in a hotel since Arrow doesn't have the money to pay for the work. :roll:

I've called the customer and they are there on the weekend. Sooooo after my truck is paid for, I'll run the 5 miles to them, make the drop and run to phoenix so I can make my drop monday morning.

 

Thanks Creek

 

[QUOTE=married to the road;444491]I need to get off my butt and bring my paystubs with me so I can see what I'm getting paid.
No DAC, isn't that good you have no report but can show the work history?

 

I got a kick out of the info that you hear about Arrow when your on hold :zzz::zzz::zzz:.... 18mos age of the equiptment...ummm yea...sure....:thumbsup::lol2::lol2:

 

[QUOTE=dewercs2;445044]I'm not sure if it is a good thing or not. I'm sure they could call Arrow and find out if I had any accidents or anything, so I've been listing them down on my apps. If I lied about it and they found out, I probably wouldn't be working there for long.