New Job: Follow Up
Hi everybody...
I am back from my second trip with my new company. As you know, I left Saia and have secured employment somewhere else. This new company does things a lot differently than where I had worked for the last 6 years.
I am now driving over the road again, but when I go out I come right back, instead of getting empty then waiting around for hours or days before I find out where I am going next. Then do that for 2-3 weeks before they think about getting me home. None of that nonsense around here.
I pull a 53 foot refer trailer but we do not do produce. We all know about produce... Loading at 15 different packing houses, then driving without sleep to the produce markets and deliver to several places there...
We only haul our own products that are made in factories here in Fresno. All of our backhauls are raw materials to make more product.
I am driving a Kenworth with a 13 speed, 500 hp Cat engine, with a sleeper. No more hotel rooms. When I get tired I just lay down in the back. I have a 13 inch color TV and a DVD player, a built-in refrigerator, and a microwave oven.
Trucking has changed since I was out here years ago... I packed frozen TV dinner like things with me so when I get hungry, I just pull over anywhere and "Cook" dinner. The night before I leave out we are going to BBQ a lot of extra meat and I will package it up for my trip... Micro left overs... Yummy....
The truck stop food is something else. I have over $100 in Petro Points that I have been cashing in for meals these last 2 weeks. It doesn't matter what you order, it is $10. I had a shimp and salad lunch for $10. I had a chop steak dinner, $10. I had a chop steak breakfast, $10.. Gross too. Now I remember why I don't eat at truck stops... It tastes awful and it costs too much... I would rather eat leftovers...
I am looking forward to making lots of beef, pork or chicken on the BBQ, and making loads of rice and veggies then microwaving stir fry with sauce. Enough about the food, I am getting hungry...
Another thing about truck stops... If you don't get to the truck stop by 2pm forget about finding a parking place. It is amazing how full they are. I have been talking to other drivers in these truck stops too. They are doing a lot of sitting. Freight is not good out there. The ones I have talked to have been sitting for days!!!!
I feel very fortunate that my week is planned out and I do all of my sitting at home... Back hauls are scheduled first, then my load going out!!! No sitting. This company has at least 2 loads a day coming out of Laredo to Fresno, loading and unloading at the same place...
The yard is 1.5 miles from my house. All of the loads come out of, and back to, the Fresno warehouses located just south of downtown. I have pulled 2 loads so far. One went to Salt Lake City and one to Texas. The only thing I have to worry about is making my appointment delivery time.
They give me more than enough time to get out there, and they unload me as soon as I get back, then I take the truck to the yard and go home.
I hauled totes full of fruit flavored syrup to Dannon in Utah. Then empty totes back. To Texas I took fruit flavored something to a Food Distributing house and then to Laredo to cross dock with a Mexican truck, a load of frozen strawberries in 5 gallon buckets. All one pick up and one drop, no touch frieght... If I do get a load that needs touching, lumpers are paid without question. Or I can do it for what the lumper wants... $$$
Everybody has been so nice to me. Not only at the yard but at our customers too. All of their drivers that I have spoken to are happy to be working here, and most have been working here for many years. It is rare and very fortunate for me that there happened to be an opening just at the right time.
This last trip to Texas, (1600 miles one way) I left on Saturday afternoon, and got to San Antonio Monday afternoon for a Tuesday morning appointment, then to Laredo to load at US Cold Storage. I loaded in the afternoon, and drove until I got tired. Wednesday from Del Rio Texas to Tucson AZ, Thursday from Tucson to Bakersfield Ca. then Friday the last 120 miles, delivered in Fresno at 7am then went home.
Yesterday, (9am Friday) when I dropped off the truck and the paperwork from the trip, they told me that I will be loading on Monday for San Antonio and it delivers Thursday morning, then reloading at Laredo and coming right back. They said that I can get loaded any time you like, they open at 7am. I asked if I can load later, like 10 - 11am. They said any time...
It is so laid back around here... I work when I feel like it... I stop when I feel like it... Very unlike Saia... I am still very programmed to the Saia way of doing things but after time I will relax and take more breaks, and not race the clock every day. These people give me more than enough time to get where I need to go, and I do it legal. I only drive 11 hours or less per day, then stop for 10 hours. I start my day around 5am and drive until I am done.
Try and tell your boss that you will show up when you feel like it, and see what happens...
Every thing happens for a reason... Maybe this is where I am supposed to be and this is what I am supposed to be doing...
The best part is that after seeing 2 pay checks, I am taking home more than I was at Saia. I am putting in a few more hours doing it, but I have never been afraid of a little more work...
Trucker Rich
