Comments By Greg M.

Try uship

I attended the Millis school in Trenton, Ohio in 2017 and was very impressed. I did not end up going solo but it had nothing to do with the school.

I am sure much has changed but the things I liked were the small class size, training pay that was much higher than many other companies and the fact that there was little if any team driving during the training period.

I believe that the merger you are referring to was Millis being bought by Heartland Express in 2019 or 20. Heartland has been on a bit of a buying spree and has purchased several other trucking companies since. They seem to be leaving the new companies to operate somewhat independently so I would not let that bother you.

Christmas season 2020 I worked for a small USPS contractor. One night last trip I get ready to back into my dock when the city horn in the old 2000 Volvo did the same thing. Just started blaring on it's own. Funny thing was that I was right by the area where the USPS employee yard jockeys hung out while waiting for their next jobs. They tended to be pretty grumpy and did not particularly care for non-union contractors.

So here am blowing my horn at them the entire time I'm backing in. One finally came over and wanted to know what my problem was. As I started to explain it finally stopped. Actually got a laugh out of him when I explained it.

Everything worked using the exterior light test function before I left. Also confirmed with yard spotter that they were working when I dropped trailer. Obvious intermittent issue. Shop has a new pigtail for me. 2 trailers so far today working fine.

Were the trailer lights working when you did your pre-trip?

I was the one confused. Defiantly should have had them back. Not sure what I was thinking.

This part confused me. I haven’t pulled a box in several years but in my experience if the load comes pretty far back I would keep the tandems a little further back to try and avoid tandems being overweight like they ended up in your case. Obviously you’re experienced and know what you’re doing..just curious why you moved them so far forward if the load came pretty far back?

Little bit of click bait. Title is basically true but everything worked out ok.

My company operates under the 150 air miles exemption for logging. We don't have e-logs and normally do not fill out paper log books, we do keep a daily trip sheet which has basically all the same info. We are allowed to go beyond 150 miles 8 days out of 30, we just need to fill out a paper log for each of those days.

Today I started out with a trip from Cincinnati to Orrville, Ohio, Google Maps says about 180 air miles. I had done the same trip yesterday so for the second day in a row I started a paper log sheet. Once I got empty I was sent a few miles north to Rittman, Ohio to pickup at a Morton Salt facility.

Anyone who has hauled salt already knows this is where the overweight issue comes from. Bills said 45k. I am in a day cab and I know my empty weight is somewhere around 32k depending on fuel and trailer model so I wasn't concerned about gross weight. The load came pretty far back so I decided that I needed the tandems forward based upon my rough estimate using my suspension gauge.

Get loaded and get onto I76 heading west towards I71 to head home. I am very rarely on 76 but as I'm heading down the ramp it occurs to me that there is a weigh station somewhere around here. I had convinced myself that it was behind me right about the time I see the sign and it is open. Sure enough I get the red arrow and they ask me to come back around and get axle weights. Guess what 78.2 gross, 10.6 steers, 29.8 drives and 37.6 tandems!!! "Sir, please pull around back and I'll be right out."

Officer comes out and shows me the weights and says he will let me fix it but he is going to do a Level 1 inspection. Asks for all my documents and then asks if I drive out of Cincinnati. I say yes and he mentions the distance, apparently our DOT number says that we operate under the 150 rule. I say yes and that I am running a paper log today. I pulled it out and he seemed impressed!

Does the inspection and everything is going great until he is finishing up with the trailer lights, this is an almost brand new 2023 Utility trailer. Turn signals great, brake lights? Nothing. We try a couple times then I get out and fiddle with the pigtail and they finally come on. We decide that it is probably the pigtail. He issues a warning on the trailer and passes the truck and puts on the orange pass sticker.

I slide my tandems and he calls out the weights as I go back over 11K steers, 33.8 drives and 33.4 tandems. Says good to go and have a nice day.

All in all a pretty good result but I was struck by a couple of things:

First was how badly I did at estimating the tandem position. I have probably CAT scaled 2 loads over the last 5 years. Been over scales lots of times with heavy loads and never had an issue.

Second was seeing how smoothly the log situation went. I have always assumed that it would be a big production explaining why I am not running elogs, or logs at all for that matter. My current log book starts in April and has occasional entries up until today. Some times I go weeks without logging then weeks like this one I may log multiple days. I gave him the entire book and when he gave them back he said they looked good.

Final thing was attitude. I was friendly and non confrontational. He was the same and I actually enjoyed the interaction. There was a driver next to me and he kept running his mouth complaining about everything. Needless to say his inspection was going on when mine started and still going on after I left.

Off topic but this comment triggered a memory.

Back in the 70s my family's ready mix concrete company went union, Teamsters Local 100 in Cincinnati. I don't remember the details but sometimes the union would send laid off LTL drivers to us.

Very few, if any, ever stuck around. Mixer driving is a totally different world than bumping docks. My dad was in charge of maintenance and drivers. I still remember his favorite phrase "Freight haulers aren't worth a damn as mixer drivers."

According to him his best drivers were Appalachian county boys who moved up from Kentucky back in those days. They naturally had a feel for that sort of work and they were making more money than they had ever seen so they were highly motivated.

I’m guessing some Yellow guys will end up at ABF at some point since they’re Teamsters as well. The Union will probably push to have them be hired before new members. The rest will retire or be scattered among the other no union ltl outfits.

Moved perhaps the oldest trailer I’ve ever moved yesterday.

Drivers on my account park our trucks in a small gated lot next door to our customer. When I finished up yesterday my dispatcher said that the lot needed an old storage trailer moved and that I just volunteered.

No one could remember when it was last moved. Tires and landing gear were sunk into the ground at least 6 inches. When I put air to it I was very surprised to just hear a few leaks and the brakes released with no issues.

No room to turn around in the lot so they blocked traffic and I pulled onto the street and backed up so I could pull back in.

My dispatcher called me today and said the lot management was very impressed with my skills.

Here is a picture of the BEI trailer in its new resting place. Should be good for another 20 years.

You should also take the time to try and educate yourself on all the things you didn’t know. Everything you mentioned you should be able to research online and at least get the basics. Pretty sure all the things you mentioned have been discussed on this website as well as being covered with videos on YouTube.

RB in Springfield, Ohio is also pack full of tractors and trailers. In addition the International Used Truck facility east of Columbus was full of identical looking white sleepers along with a bunch of other trucks.