Cockroach; Are you still stuck on the west coast? :?:

 

Also, If you don't take any time off at all and run all the available hours you can when you go solo and don't lose any of your receipts and don't have any equipment breakdowns then yes you will make more money than I did my first 2 months, but if your like me and need a day or two off here or there, or the only trailer in the lot is missing a mudflap and you need to get it replaced, or your windshield wiper breaks off in the snow and you have to crawl along the shoulder of the road to a TA that is so busy it takes over 3 hours to buy a new blade over the counter and that messes up your hours for the day and you can't make it to your next load legally then yeah.. "life happens" you should plan on it and then be happy if you make more money..


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At the moment yes I'm still on the west coast. I'm at a shipper in Oregon, I got my first load out of here though, I am on my way to Chicago! WOOHOO

 

Yes I do think it will get better, i'll keep you all posted.

 

Heading to Chicago you will be in my home town. Hope it gets better I was looking at Central Ref. but reading some of your posts I am having some doubts. I guess thats the way it goes.

 

Have you read the thread in the other forum about gordon?

Every trucking company will have its issues. What you should do is come up with a list of whats important to you.

Nice equipment?
does not force you to run illegal?
lumpers?? All of mine are pre-paid by the warehouse, I tell them I'm central sign a slip of paper and goto sleep.
lots of money?
hometime?
Take care of you when you break down?
give you equipment that wont break down?
how fast does your dispatcher respond to qualcom?
how goo are the night dispatch people?
how many miles do you get?
is there enough freight to keep you moving?

 

Theres NO SUCH THING AS THE PERFECT TRUCKING COMPANY!!! :x
Learn this!! This Is The Gospel According To Skullitor. 8)

 

On my way out of Oregon I noticed a state trooper pull up behind me with his red & blues so I stopped and had a chat with him. He was a really nice guy and checked my truck's equipment out for me and even looked over my logs & paperwork to make sure I was all legal for me!

I don't understand why people don't like driving in oregon, the troopers in other states aren't nearly as helpful as the ones in other states :lol:

 

A mistake in Cal. WILL COST YOU BIG $$$ Fines.Better Oregon than California. :shock:

 

Heh, I'm still fine free though thanks to my analness of being totally legal.

coming into wyoming was weird, all they want to see is your registration, they didn't look at my license , BOL, logs, insurance. heck they didn't even scale me. Is that normal or do they check random things?

I parked myself at a TA again tonight (I got a wireless subscription for the month) and I'm really getting tired of the truck stop thing.. I hate backing into these tiny spaces at night, and it gets so old having people yell at me over the CB for being 'in the way' I'm so tired of hurry up central or get out of the way central or hey central what the hell are you doing. or when they get on and start talking about how central will hire anyone..

Take today for instance, one guy was sloooowly pulling up next to a spot.. thinking about it, lalala so i went to go around and an england truck swings around right at me and stops infront of me facing me, then another truck comes around the corner and stops right behind me, so now I'm sitting right across from the spot this guy is setting up for, instead of letting me get out of the way he starts backing in and after he has me blocked in ALL THREE of the trucks get on the CB and start dogging on about how stupid the central driver is and what the hell is he thinking blah blah blah.

*sigh* well I have not backed into ANYONE yet and so what if I take my time backing up and pull up a bunch of times, I've only been doing this a few weeks. I think I'm just going to start parking in rest areas or on the side of the road or on off-ramps.. I never use the facilities at night anyways.. I shower mostly at flying J's but I won't park at them at night the spots are to hard to get into., I stop half way though the day and take a meal/shower break.

Anyways there was a really nice driver who was still in his truck and pulled forward so I could pull straight in to a space which was cool of him. I hate backing in these dark tight parking spots at night. Also its good to see there are some people out here who are cool.

I am still on my way to chicago to take my home-time in wisconsin.

My home-time was supposed to be on the 10th and 11th but my del date is the 12th in the morning, and I'm not going to be able to legally get it to chicago until the 11th p.m.. My dispatcher told me If you can get it there earlier I'll let you drop it, but I can't see a way to do that. not in these slow slow slow trucks.

 

So here I am, its 8 PM on the 12th and I am finally here for me 10th-11th home time!

I was only an hour away and a piece of my truck fell off!!! the thingy under the bumper.. dunno what its called but its black and has wires hooked to it fell off and was dragging, it snapped into two pieces, I pulled it off and threw it in the cab and now one of me drive lights (down next to the fogs which i don't have) doesn't work, i guess thats what those wires where for.

I'm going to ask my dispatcher in the morning about the $40 or so a day we are supposed to get for missing out hometime.

Also PALLETS SUCK stay away from them at all costs, I had to get rid of some after a load and ended up getting authorization to throw them in a pile at one of our drop yards. the first 10 or so are ok, but after dragging 34 of those damn things they start getting heavy. Actually I paid another driver to help me out so I only did like 20 of them myself and it only took 2 hours instead of ??????

Why did it take so long? well snow.. and crawling in and out of the trailer and stacking them and they are falling apart....

In chicago I was driving down a MARKED TRUCK ROUTE and then came to a light and there was a big no truck sign, I looked to the left, that street also had a big no truck sign then I looked to the right, wow a 3rd big no truck sign. Do they expect me to U-Turn with a 53 foot trailer on a narrow 2 lane road!?!