Has any Crete driver been charged for going out of route fueling?

They are going to take/steal $10 from me.
nice.

I have always followed their fuel solution before this one time. But this fuel stop was on one of the worst "suggested routes" I have ever received. And they have already gotten enough of my cell minutes free for me to call and deal with their rudeness.

It is really petty.

 

Try and send a qualcomm message to your terminal manager to get a different routing the next time you disagree with the routing.

 

It wasn't that easy but to keep my anonymity I'm not going to say why. Call me paranoid.

I did get it resolved though and an unneeded apology, but I did appreciate the understanding. And I'm glad it isn't just a blanket policy to charge oor fueling.

 

WEEK TWENTY SEVEN
Monday, June 30th through Sunday, July 6th


I could have started this Monday morning as early as 3am, but this load had a lousy 1pm delivery tomorrow and I only had a little over 700 miles to go. I could get it there earlier, but there wasn’t enough down time to justify a TCall and there was no point in pushing, so I just decided to take it easy for the next day or two. If nothing else, it would be a nice change of pace. I slept in and took a nice leisurely drive across MO and called it a day in our Indy yard. I could have made it another 100 miles or so, but I had a White Castle craving and oddly enough, there happens to be one just down the road from the yard. I’ll admit that a 9hr day is nice, but I can’t help feeling like I’m wasting my time sitting around.

Once again, Tuesday was a day that I could have gotten an early start, but in order to time my delivery (I had specific instructions not to arrive more than an hour early) without starting my clock too soon I sat in the yard until 8:30 and headed out. With a short stop at a rest area I managed to pull into the receiver at exactly 12 noon. One hour early. I said hello to the guard and then proceeded to wait 35mins to finally get a door assignment. In the mean time I passed my time by reading the many “notice to drivers” signs stuck on the wall. The one that really scared me was the one that stated “Live loads can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, please be patient. We will let you know when you are empty” or something to that horrid effect. I had hoped to get away with a drop and hook, but it was not to be. I headed on over to my dock and hoped for the best with somewhat of pessimistic outlook. Tire loads are just about the worse load you can have when it come to unloading. They are loaded on the floor and must be unloaded by hand, one at a time.



The only thing I had going for me was that this was a Goodyear plant and I had to assume they were properly staffed and proficient at unloading.

The end result turned out to be quit acceptable for a tire load. They finished up in just over two hours and I was ready for my next load offer.

I was expecting a load of pet food out of Obetz just up the road and that’s what I got. I was only given a one load offer, but it was a good one. A preloaded trailer that picked up anytime today and delivered anytime Thursday (or earlier) to Opelika, AL (687mi). If I had the hours I would have had it there Wednesday afternoon and been ready for my next load. Unfortunately I was on the verge of running out the last of my 70 hours for this week and would have to find a place somewhere between here and there to put in for a reset.

With that in mind I headed on over to the shipper and got my trailer and made my way out of town. As soon as I got onto the loop on the south side of Columbus I started hearing something about the interstate being closed. The problem is I didn’t know what interstate or what direction. After a few tries I found out that I-70 east bound was closed down just east of town and was causing one hell of a mess. I was grateful to be heading south out of town on I-71. Dodged quit a mess there, sometimes luck is with me.

As I was going down the road I was checking my available hours and trying to find an acceptable place to waste a day for my reset. I really wanted to make it to Knoxville where I knew I could drop the trailer in our yard and allow me to make my way around town via bobtail (thereby, greatly increase my hotel options). Along with the fact that there are plenty of restaurants to choose from and it would also give me a chance do a little shopping and catch a movie or two. But wanting is not the same thing as doing. I simply didn’t have the hours to make it there today. My early stop over in Indy last night has just bit me in the ass. If I had run out the rest of my hours yesterday, I would have been able to make it to Knoxville tonight. This just reinforces my “run as far as possible” mentality.

While I was contemplating an alternate layover spot I once again heard a faint CB report from the distance that the interstate was closed. This really was nothing new at this point; I had been hearing numerous reports ever since I had left Columbus. Something about this report, however, struck a different cord. I could swear I heard something about southbound this time. I-70 runs east and west, someone must have been confused. A few minutes later I once again heard southbound and this time it was load and clear. Sure enough, not only was I-70 shut down, I-71 was having its own share of problems and I was headed directly into it. So much for my “Good Luck”. Apparently there was a horrific scene down the road and a helicopter had been called. My driving hours were getting tight for the day and I couldn’t afford to lose any driving time to sitting in traffic. I grabbed the atlas and started looking for alternate routes. There were a few viable options, but from what I was hearing on the CB, most of them were getting stopped up with overflow traffic from the interstate. I also learned that it had been shut down for a while and the helicopter had just left with its passenger from crash site. I had plenty of time left on my 14hr clock so I pulled into a Flying J and waited for the mess to clear up.

This gave me some time to finalize my destination for the day and make sure I could get a hotel room in the area. An hour later the news came down the pike that the road was once again open, but still backed up. These reports were coming from drivers that had passed the scene of the accident 30 minutes ago. Combine that with the 30 minutes it will take me to get there I figured there would be a very good chance that the traffic would be moving by the time I got there. Off I went and the traffic was indeed flowing unabated by the time I arrived at the reported crash site. All was well once again and with the exception of a slight delay getting through Cincinnati (nothing new about that) I ran out the rest of my hours and settled in for my reset in very exciting community of Corbin, KY. Not my first choice, but it’s where I found myself when my logbook said stop.

Wednesday was a boring yet restful day in the comforts of a nearby hotel and before I knew it my reset was over and I started my Thursday as soon as I could in order to drop my trailer as early as possible and get a start on my next load. I still had 400 miles to go and after a 7min fuel stop in our Marietta yard I managed to make it to the Wal-Mart DC by 2pm. My drop/hook went quickly and I put in my MT call and waited for my fate.

My concern was that this was July 3rd and that makes tomorrow the 4th. No one is open on the forth and I could only assume that I would be getting a load that delivered on the 5th or later. That would be fine if I got a high mileage run, not so good if I got stuck with a short haul. I wasn’t exactly being optimistic about my chances.

A few minutes later I was actually given a choice of two loads. The 1st was preloaded and ready to go just up the road with a final destination of IN (420mi) with an anytime drop. Yes, this is a short run, but the kind I love. Not a second of wasted time and I would be empty early tomorrow and ready for my next load in a solid freight area. Under any other conditions I would have jumped on this load, but as it where, I would be dropping this load on the 4th with a very strong possibility of no freight availability once I got there. There might be freight, there might not. I didn’t want to take that chance and that left me with load option 2. It was a live load (yuck) 100 miles away in Birmingham and going to Ardmore, OK (858mi) with an anytime drop on the 5th. The big problem with this load was that it wasn’t scheduled to load until 9:30pm. Not good because it was currently 2:30pm. I had started my day at 7am, which means my 14hrs will be up at 9:00pm. My live load is 30mins after that. Well, I can drive after 14hrs, but that doesn’t mean I can work after 14hrs. I’ll make it work.

One other contributing factor to my choice; I was looking forward to finding a 4th of July celebration somewhere along the way and enjoying a fireworks show. I figured I’d have better luck driving around in TX and OK as opposed to central IN.

I headed toward the shipper with my always hopeful optimism at getting loaded early. If they would do this I would have plenty of time to put some miles behind me and find a place to park for the night. If not, I would have to find a place to park nearby.

As I approached the shipper I realized I had picked up a load here over a year ago and that one was a drop and hook (I also remember that trailer had a blown air pod on it that another driver stuck me with). Even though I had an appointment loading time, it isn’t unheard of to find a loaded trailer waiting. My hopes where high but the result, not so much; this was indeed a live load, but not all was lost. Even though I was over 3hrs early I was actually given a door to dock too. At least I will be loaded before my 14hr clock expires.

Or NOT!

Even though I was allowed to dock early, it did nothing to expedite the loading process. As the minutes turned to hours I decided to crawl into the sleeper and watch a movie. As scheduled, the loading began at precisely 9:30 and a mere 2hrs later the process had come to an end. My 14hrs also came to an end long ago, but as luck would have it there was plenty of room for overnight parking and at least I didn’t have to deal with that problem. I didn’t bother setting the alarm and took off when I awoke in the morning. No real hurry with this load.

Well, what do you know? It’s Friday, July 4th and the country is celebrating a national holiday and I’m ready to spend the day driving, ugh!

This was one of those loads in which I was given a fuel routing that was along a “practical mile” route, interstates the whole way but after checking the route on Streets and Trips the paid mileage was based on a less than practical and more direct route of mostly two lanes. In short, my fuel routing would have resulted in 70+ out of route miles, so I went ahead and took the two lanes. This made for slower progress, but what the heck; I was in the mood for some sight seeing today. My only problem was that I would need to get some fuel at an unauthorized fuel stop along the way and this being a holiday meant that I would have to deal with weekend dispatch. I opted to not bother them and pulled into a Pilot and put in 50gals. Just enough to get me where I was going, a shower and a small enough amount to avoid getting a phone call for unauthorized fuel purchase.

The rest of my Friday was spent meandering across some of our finer southern states and came to a close in the fine community of Paris, TX. I had hoped I would be able to find a good fireworks display but I could find no info on such an evening. I actually had a little time left on my clock and knew that the Choctaw’s had a couple of casinos across the state line and I was sure they would have something going so I jumped back in the truck in the search of show. I was rewarded with a fairly good steak dinner and a first rate fireworks show (OK, second rate, but not bad for the middle of no where)!

Saturday started with me being a little more than an hour away from my drop and I was empty and awaiting my next load offer by 6am. This particular time had concerned me since I took this load. I figured I had little chance of getting a load on the 4th, which is why I took the load that delivered on the 5th. But loads weren’t exactly plentiful today either. A half hour went by without an offer and I finally broke down and sent a message asking for a load. That went unanswered for another 40 minutes before I sent another message that was eventually answered with a “low on freight, will let you know when we have something”. This wasn’t an entirely unexpected turn of events and I didn’t get too wound up about it, I just kicked back and awaited a load.

After 5 short hours (I wish I would have known that earlier so I could have slept in, and not started my 14hr clock so early) I got a single load offer. At first glance I was none to happy with it. It was a load that was scheduled to PU anytime tomorrow. What a waste of a day this turned out to be. But I quickly realized it was a preloaded trailer (I assumed this) at the Goodyear plant in Lawton, OK. It had to be a preloaded trailer. I was at this very shipper just last week (yuk, another tire load). This being a holiday weekend, it also meant that this very trailer has probably been sitting here since Thursday and that 5 hours I just spent lounging around in my truck could have, in all likelihood, been spent in a more productive manner. Oh well, that’s truck driving. I could only assume that since this load wasn’t scheduled for PU until tomorrow that it had just come up in the system for dispatch. I’ll give them the benefit of doubt on this one.

Not only is this load picking up at the same shipper, but it’s going to the same receiver just outside of Columbus and once again it has a mid-day appointment delivery. I know how this is going to work; no early arrivals and a 3hr unload. Crap! One more stroke of good luck to top it off. It wasn’t scheduled to deliver until Tuesday and this is Saturday. That’s a nice run of 1113 miles, but over 3 ½ days. Holy Crap! I’m going to be hell bent on Tcalling this load. There is no way they can expect me to sit under this one. In all honesty, I’m not too worried about it. I have little doubt that I will be able to drop this in Indy or Columbus.

So off I go to get my trailer. I’m greeted by the same pleasant lady that I dealt with last week and she even remembered me “Hey, I know you, weren’t you here last week?” Sure is nice to work with people that don’t hate life. I went through the normal routine and was headed down the road within a half hour.

Thanks to my extended wait for a load offer this morning I was somewhat limited on available hours for the day but was just able to make it to Tulsa for the night and parked at yet another casino, sure are a lot of them in OK. This was a bit frustrating because if not for the wait, I would have been able to drive far enough down the road tonight to make it possible to reach Columbus the following day. But as it worked out, I would have to settle for Indy as a final destination Sunday night and work on a Tcall from there.

Sunday was just a good old fashioned day of solid driving and I made it to Indy with time to spare. All I had to do now was dump this load. I was still in the position of dealing with weekend dispatch and decided to wait until the morning to tackle that little obstacle.


Another week is history and I find myself in the exact same place that I spent Monday night. Just one big loop. Do it again!





WEEK TWENTY SEVEN RESULTS
Monday, June 30th through Sunday, July 6th
Miles include deadhead


Joplin, MO to Lockbourne, OH (final leg)..................................... 710mi
Obetz, OH to Opelika, AL................................................ .......... 687mi
Birmingham, AL to Ardmore, OK................................................ 858mi
Lawton, OK to Indianapolis, IN................................................ ...926mi

Total Paid Miles............................................. ..........................3181 Miles

Actual Miles.............................3231Miles

3181 miles x .42 = $1336.02

 

I had never heard of this practice.

Just out of curiosity, did they hit you up for out of route miles or was the charge for fueling at an unapproved fuel stop.

Either way, $10 sounds like more of a minor slap on the wrist, "don't do that" kind of thing as opposed to a serious attempt at recouping costs.

If I ever have a problem with my fueling solutions, a quick call to my fleet manager is all that is needed. On the weekends I just send a QualCom message and have always been rerouted. Going through proper channels has always worked for me. True, a pain at times, but I realize fuel costs must be controlled these days.

 

It was for fueling at an unapproved stop. But the fuel department rescinded the charge. And your right, it is just a slap on the wrist. I tried to only fuel what I needed anyways.

My qualcom was down and going through proper channels, esp. on Sunday, will eat my cell minutes. Besides, waiting on hold for fifty minutes for someone that obviously doesn't want to deal with me or anyother driver puts me off too. It has gotten to the point that if I HAVE to call operations or breakdown I do a quick prayer and hope for their indifference. And the one time I did have to call safety wasn't smooth sailing either.

Honestly, I don't like to talk with most of the drivers out here either. And I have no idea the workload or stress operations and breakdown has but...
sometimes I wonder if I called the right company. Thankfully my QC is working now.

 

I just wanted to say thanks and great job posting this actual information. That you ran 140k isnt that big a deal. That you did it Legally.. wow nicely done man. Thanks a lot for posting actual info rather than just hot air.

Additional note to newbies: You Can run that hard and be home weekends but you will be running VERY illegal and spend your weekends laying on the couch recovering. Very long loads allow high legal miles and those guys stay out a long time. Not many are cut out for hardcore otr.

 

$10?
I saw the company im with charge a driver $180 for OOR. Me I woulda laughed at them and walked out.. The gave me a route that i broke down and took throught the back country of Ga. I lost more time on a back 2 lane road at night looking at all the deer, In small town waited 20 mins for a train runnnng at 3am that seemed a mile long, the dam thing was bigger then the town (lol) no place to stop for coffee May have save them, $50 in fuel and cost me 3 hours more in time.

 

Let me guess, your company doesn't pay you for your time? If they charged me $180 for anything I would be out the door. I'm giving this job a few more months before I make a decision. Who knows maybe they'll fire me and I'll take a vacation.

 

WEEK TWENTY EIGHT
Monday, July 7th through Sunday, July 13th


OK, ready to start another week on the road. My last week ended with me pulling into the Crete yard here in Indy and putting in for the night. I have another trailer loaded with tires like last week that isn’t scheduled to deliver until Tuesday at 13:00. It is now 3am on Monday and that leaves me with 34hrs to go 200 miles. I could stay here and put in a 34hr reset, but I still have 27hrs available before that will be necessary and I have no desire to do that at this time.

It is my intention to Tcall this load so that I can keep moving (getting out of a live tire unload would be nice too). Before contacting dispatch I did a quick check of the yard for an empty trailer (to facilitate getting a clean dispatch) and found that I was out of luck. The yard was packed full of trailers, but they were all loaded. This was the tail end of the 4th of July weekend which resulted in a large number of loaded trailers that had been Tcalled by drivers that live in the area so they could take their time off. Good news in a way; I wouldn’t be able to get an empty trailer, but my chances of re-powering a load in the yard was good. The only question was which load they would need me to deliver. Most of them were to deliver in the immediate area, but there where a number of them that had good miles on them. Scary part – two were going to eastern New York and one was destine for Baltimore.

With that in mind I sent off a message to dispatch. “I’m at the Indy yard and have a load that doesn’t deliver until tomorrow after noon. What are the chances of Tcalling this load here or in the Columbus yard so that I can keep moving? There are no empty trailers available, but I can re-power any of the loaded trailers sitting here in the yard.” The early morning dispatch shift must not have been too busy because I received an answer almost immediately (This is why I set my alarm for 3am. If I had waited until 7am or so I would have to compete with an entire fleet of drivers vying for their attention).

My answer was, “Tcall complete, what empty trailer do you have?” Dispatch tends to scan messages and apparently failed to read that no empties were available. I once again reminded them of this and offered to re-power a load, if not “I could forward this load to Columbus and get an empty there”. After about 10mins I was sent out a single load offer and as I had feared, it was the Baltimore load. The pisser about this one; I had put in for home time on or about the 10th of this month (that will make 6 weeks out); today is the 7th. Now, I’m not dead set on getting home at this time and I would rather be making miles as opposed to sitting around waiting to make a delivery. There were no loads in the yard headed in the direction of PHX anyway, so I went ahead and accepted the load. I might be able to make it home by the weekend if everything goes perfect (I’m not counting on it though). Murphy ’s Law was in full effect. I haven’t been anywhere close to the feared Northeast since early May. I put in for home time in PHX and BAM, I’m off to Baltimore. I suppose I could have requested another load, but I was happy to be moving.

This Baltimore (584mi) load wasn’t all that bad, other than the fact that I was going to Baltimore. It was sitting here and ready to go and had an appointment delivery the next day of 09:30. I could have went back to bed and started later in the morning, but I wasn’t really tired and if I left now I wouldn’t have to deal with the rush hour traffic here in Indy (not really anything to worry about anyway) and would hit Columbus after the brunt of their morning traffic. The main deciding factor however was the burning desire to get into Baltimore as early as possible so that I wouldn’t have any trouble finding parking at the TA in the center of town. Generally speaking, it fills up quickly and you really need to be parked by 4pm to guarantee a spot for the night (at a cost of $12, F… TA)!

After getting my load info I was happy to see that the customer had overnight parking so I could avoid paying the parking fee. I guess I could have stopped outside of town some, but if I could park at the dock of the customer I would be able to avoid the morning traffic going into town and I would also be able to start my 14hr clock much later in the day. Always helpful in getting good miles the following day. I also had my normal hope of delivering early, but the load info stated under no circumstances was this load to be delivered early. So much for that idea.

A few hours into my day I heard the familiar beep of the Qualcomm and was able to read the first few words of the message on my dash and it was from an unfamiliar name. Better pull over and find out what that one is about. Turned out to be a question “Are you still wanting home time in PHX?” That would have been a nice question to have received while I was in Indy. The day crew tends to pay a little more attention to home time requests and I find when I’ve been out for six weeks, they tend to be a little more attentive. I sent off a response, “Yes I am, Thx.”

That was the last I heard about it (at least I know someone is working on it), and I spent the rest of the day making my way to Baltimore. Once there I was tring to decide where I wanted to park for the night. The truck stop was only about 2 miles from the customer and would afford me a place to hang out until the sun went down so that I could avoid idle time, but it was a pleasant day and I decided to head on over to the customer. When I got there I found a very small “distribution center” with 5 rundown docks and a small lot next door (that must be the so called overnight parking). I pulled into the lot and prepared to spend the night there. That didn’t last long; within 15mins a UPS bobtail pulled up next to me and informed me that I couldn’t park there. It was one of their transfer lots and not affiliated with the place I was delivering to in the morning. I appoligized for the intrusion and pardoned myself long enough to ask where this elusive overnight parking was. It turned out that I could park at their dock overnight, but only after they went home for the night and that was still 3hrs away. Looks like I will be spending my night at the TA.

I was very surprised when I pulled into that arm pit of a TA truckstop. It was 5pm and the place was half empty; unheard of at this time of day. I don’t know if it was due to the recent holiday weekend or decline in freight, but whatever the cause, parking was plentiful. All I had to do was go into the TA and buy $20 worth of stuff so that I wouldn’t have to hand over $12 to the parking attendant when I left in the morning.

It was a pleasant 80° day with a wonderful breeze but the direct sun made sitting in the truck rather unpleasant and I wanted to keep my idling down, so I grabbed a book and sat under a tree across the street and watched the people go by. Apparently this TA sits on a corner that doubles as a major buss stop that commuters use to run up and down the coast. A number of different commuter bus lines were stopping here and my curiosity was peaked. Later that night I pulled out the computer and started checking out various bus lines and found out that I could get to virtually anywhere on the east coast from here. I also learned that a number of these buses run deep into the surrounding states at reasonable rates. I will make a point of utilizing this info the next time I am able to take a reset in this area. In a mater of a few hours I could myself in DC doing the tourist thing or any number of other points of interest. I might even be able to swing a Manhattan trip someday or maybe a baseball game in any of the ballparks in that part of the country.

My delivery was set for 09:30 and I considered heading over tonight and parking against one of their dock so I would be ready to go, but I had failed to ask when they opened in the morning and was afraid I would be chased off. My load info was adamant about not delivering early and I didn’t want to cause waves and I opted to wait until the morning to arrive.

This turned out to be a bad idea. I arrived at 9:00 only to find another truck sitting in the docks blocking my entry and I was forced to park in the street and block a driveway or two (right next to the sign that said, “Don’t block drive”). I also learned that this customer didn’t open until 9:30 (who opens that late!). To make matters worse, the Werner truck that had beat me there had backed up to the middle dock and could only manage to back in at an awkward angle that had one corner of his trailer against the dock and the other corner at least 18” away. When I politely suggested that he “might want to strengthen out his truck” so that the dock plate would be able to catch the end of his trailer he looked at it and made a statement to the effect of “it should be OK.” I had the feeling he was a little inexperience and left it at that.

When the dock doors opened up we where greeted by your traditional east coast dock worker who was far from impressed with Werner’s docking attempt and wasted no time in telling him to try it again (with a much less tolerant manner than I had employed earlier). He then instructed me to take one of the two docks next to him.

My first impression of this Werner driver turned out to be dead on. I could not back into my spot until he finished his maneuvering, so I sat back and enjoyed the show. This was one of those nightmare docks that could beat up the most seasoned driver and Mr. Werner was out of his league. He was having one hell of a time dealing with the fire hydrant and the protective posts around it that sat dead center in front of the dock. What a ridiculous setup this was. I finally broke down and headed over to help him out. I don’t like to do this for two reasons. One, some guys don’t appreciate the offer, and two, I really don’t like taking on the responsibility of someone else’s actions, but this poor guy was lost. We finally got him situated and I headed out to my truck to start what I was sure was going to be an unpleasant experience. I hope Werner appreciates the fact that he got the “easy” spot.

What I now had to deal with was docks that were setting on a piece of property that was in a triangle shape. The bulk of the building was on the wide part of the property and the docks were situated at the tip of the triangle. This tip was bordered on one side by a very busy main artery 4 lane road with a built up median (preventing me from splitting the lanes of traffic) and a standard side street on the other side that had its share of traffic going in and out of a busy industrial area. At the center of that dock area was a fire hydrant with a box truck parked across the street (with tall grass growing out of cracks in the road under it telling me it was a permanent structure). These obstacles prevented me from making a traditional approach to the dock from the side street and left me with the sole option of driving into the oncoming traffic lanes of the 4 lane and then blind backing into my dock with a dropped pup trailer on one side and the Werner truck on the other side. My only saving grace was that I had the width of two docks to play with so I could shoot out into the street and quickly back into my spot and then worry about wiggling into my dock once I get off the street.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? My first hassle was finding a place to turn around. If I had arrived 10mins earlier before Werner got there I could have pulled into the U shaped dock area, spun around and back to the dock effortlessly, but now I was on the street pointed in the wrong direction. I was able to find a drive down the road that I could back into and get myself going the right way. Next, I pulled up in front of the docks and waited for an opening in traffic. The problem I now faced was that I couldn’t pull all the way up to the street because I would be blocking all traffic behind me, but by stopping short of the stop sign I wasn’t able to get a good look at traffic coming from the left (the traffic I had to pull into head-on). I actually had to get out of the truck and stand in front of it and when I saw what I hoped to be an ample opening, I then would have to run back to the truck and go for it. This was compounded by a double set of traffic lights in close succession and a ridiculous amount of traffic and the endless thread of left turning traffic that would throw a wrench into everything.

Ten minutes into my adventure I was horrified to see a bozo in a pickup full of pallets pull into my docks and park directly in the middle of both docks. I chased him down and was able to get him to move over, but I just lost my cushion of error. Long story short, yeah I know, too late, I sat there for a total of 25mins waiting for an opening that I though I could make work and it was off to the races.

I jumped into the truck and floored it. There were a number of cars bearing down on me from ahead and a few coming down the side road. I had one chance to make this work. Why me? I managed to hit my spot without backing into anyone and finally docked. Wow, I hate these antiquated docks.

While being unloaded I put in my MT call and hoped for a load home, or at least in that direction. I immediately received a preplanned load going to Missouri followed by a message that said “take this to the Columbus yard and Tcall it, we will get you a load to PHX from there”. This was a pleasant surprise because no one had informed me that I had been preplanned. I was happy to be going home, but not too pleased with what would in all likelihood be a Monday or Tuesday arrival due to losing a day along the way for a reset (I’m running short on hours). I stay out for long periods of time and insist on spending a full weekend with the wife because she works during the week. I don’t get any special enjoyment out of spending my time off while the wife is at work. I know I can call my Fleet Manager and stretch out my hometime, but I don’t really want to take that much time off either.

I’ll worry about that when the time comes.

This next load had an appointment live load just down the road and I showed up a few hours ahead of schedule in the hopes of an early load. They were more than happy to load me when I got there and I was rolling 45mins later. Columbus was only a little more than 400 miles away and I made it there by the end of the my day and informed dispatch so they could Tcall my trailer. I was looking at a log book with limited hours left on my 70 and let dispatch know that I was going to take a reset.

They said OK and sent me a preplanned load that I was to PU Thursday morning here in Columbus that was going to Fontana, CA with a Tuesday delivery and told to Tcall it in the PHX yard for my home time. Perfect, just enough time to put in a reset, thus allowing me to run hard once loaded. The mileage was perfect, I could run three 650 mile days and make it to PHX by Saturday evening as a best case scenario, or if I run into delays I would make it by Sunday morning for sure.

I spent my reset at the Columbus terminal. I was going to get a hotel, but since I was on my way home I figured I could put up with hanging out at the terminal. I pulled out my computer and used it to watch movies and pass time. There were plenty of drives to BS with too. There are always a number of trucker stories to keep me entertained.

Thursday finally rolled around and I headed over to get my home bound load on the north end of Columbus. It was a fairly quick loading process and I was on my way home before I knew it. My next three days consisted of steady driving with as few stops as possible. Fewer stops meant an earlier arrival and I was shooting for a early afternoon arrival. The entire trip was on interstates and I encounter no problems unlike this unfortunate driver just south of Flagstaff:



and found myself in PHX by 3pm Saturday afternoon. I’ll be damned, I actually made it home for the weekend, or at least part of it that is. And NO, that’s not good enough. I desire to be home for a whole weekend, Fri thru Sun at least; especially this home trip. I need to be in town for my Nieces baptism next Sunday (it had to be rescheduled from this Sun because I didn’t think I had a chance of being home by tomorrow considering I was in Baltimore just last Tuesday). But I’ll worry about that later.









WEEK TWENTY EIGHT RESULTS
Monday, July 7th through Sunday, July 13th
Miles include deadhead


Indianapolis, IN to Baltimore, MD...........................................584mi
Baltimore, MD to Columbus, OH.............................................409 mi
Columbus, OH to Phoenix, AZ (first leg)................................1909mi

Total Paid Miles............................................. ..................2902Miles (Short week, Mon thru Sat)

Actual Miles................................2970 Miles

2902 miles x .42 = $1218.84