Comments By Mike B.

Spent the night at the New Kingston terminal Friday night. Free coffee, Free food and best of all A free shower!! They have 2 showers for women and 2 for men. About the same as a truck stop shower but maybe a little cleaner.

Got up around 4am searched for an empty refer trailer and only found 1 on the lot. I did start it and and left it running just in case. Got to the shack and he had me set it at 55* and turn it off. Easy check in with a quick inspection. Dropped in the spot they told me, went to the shipping office and got my paperwork and trailer assignment. Headed down the road to a weigh station. Almost had it. Drives were over by 500. 1 quick slide and we're good to go.

I knew the timing had to be on in order to get home. My main concern was 95 after NYC. It actually wasn't to bad except for 2 spots they had the right lane closed. 3+ miles of horrendous driving by others and that was it. Stopped for a ""30"" min"" ;-) at the TA in Willington CT. Dropped the trailer up the road at a drop yard. They're were no empties so the deal was to bobtail home. It's weird because I's much rather be pulling a trailer than bobtailing.. Got back and shut down around 5pm. Doing a 34 and headed out on my next Mission.

Picking up in Skowhegan, Maine. The load is headed to Lincoln, Nebraska. The deal is, as my asset manager told me, They may have me take it all the way or they may have me T-call it on the way. They won't know till sometime Monday morning after they get together and figure out how to get me on the account I'm supposed to be on..

Side note: My wife has finally read my Eastern Freight ways blog and this one. I didn't say anything bad about her did I? LOL just kidding.. Till tomorrow

Had a quick drive down to Florence, KY again. This load was heading to Buffalo, well just outside of Buffalo to Cheektowaga, NY. Was a little concerned with all the Blizzard warnings I was hearing about from Cleveland to Buffalo . Long story short, It wasn't to bad. A lot of wind. More than what I've dealt with before and some random, heavy snow squalls. Decided to see if I could find parking at Jim's Truck Stop which was 1 mile down the road from the receiver. Surprisingly there were about 10-15 spots open.

Headed out this morning for a 7am delivery. Live unload took about 1 1/2 hours. Next stop was downtown Buffalo for a drop n hook headed to Palmyra, PA. Short one setting me up for my load home, or so I thought. I stopped for my 30 and asked for the pre-plan to be sent. After looking at it further it was a Sunday pick-up LOL Yeaaa not going to happen. Sad part is it was 1 hour east of my Palmyra delivery and was delivering Monday in Raymond, NH which is only 1 1/2 hours from my house....

Delivered my Palmyra load and spent the next 30 minutes with night dispatch trying to figure out how to get me home by Sat. early afternoon. Another long story short.... Drove over to the New Kingston terminal to shut down, shower and await the plan..

Finally got it. Palmyra pick up, T-calling it in Holland, MA and then headed home.. It's a refer load.. 1st one ever for me. We'll see how this goes.

Scorpions!

I shut down in PA early yesterday for the high wind gusts, too.

They were crazy. Today wasn't much better till I got past the mountains in PA

So I didn't head out Monday. They had a load on me picking up in Skohegan, ME going to somewhere in PA. Was going to be a 1 1/2 day run for about $820. Well come to find out it picked up on Monday and didn't deliver till Friday.. Yeaaa that's not going to work. So I didn't leave out till Tuesday afternoon for a 4-6pm live load in Adams, MA. delivering to a live unload in Springboro, OH. Arrived at 4:30 and was told it wasn't going to be ready till after 6pm. Finally left around 8pm.

I had scoped out a few options to shut down for the night after fueling based on leaving Adams around 6pm. They were now not going to work. So I shut down after fueling. Dark, Raining night Around 1am I found a few spots open at the Loves in Binghanton, NY Circled around and pulled right in. After heading to bed at 2am I here a banging on my door.. WTF. What time is it... 6:30am I ignore it. 1 minute later.. Bang, Bang, Bang... I slide the curtain and a driver is standing there looking at me. "WHAT?!!" I need you to move he says... WHY? I need to go out this way.. NO, GO TURN AROUND OVER THERE.. You need to move. NOT HAPPENING. I'm going to go tell management.. OK. SEE YA. 15 mins he wasted until he finally did what I told him. Back into any one of the multiple spaces that are open and then pull out and leave. Literally took him 30 seconds to do so..

Drove to the receiver Weds. Got there at 11:30pm was able to park in their lot and slept for the night. Delivered first thing this morning.

I'll finish this off tomorrow. Sitting in Buffalo right now with Blizzard warnings and my truck is "Rocking like a Hurricane" (name that band) 23* out right with a reel feel temp of 0*

He's alive....

It was a crazy couple of days Friday and Saturday. Friday we did a walk around with the truck, got my locks and stuff needed, returned the rental and was finally ready to roll. Called and waited an hour or so for them to find me a load home so I could get the rest of my things. Went to log into People Net and had issues with it. About an hour or so later it was good.

Grabbed an empty and headed to Florence, KY to pick up a load (drop and hook) Load was headed to our Columbus terminal to be T-called. Columbus was packed! No place to drop the load. Searched and found and empty so I had to drop the load, move the empty, grab the load and put it in that spot then re hook to the empty. also snuck in a 30 minute break.

Headed off to Massillion, OH to do another Drop and hook. Was going to park at a Mc D's in Wooster, OH to do my 10 on my way. Bad Idea. Small town, Narrow roads and of course I ended up lost driving through the countryside.. 1 hour later.... Ehhh Finally get back on 30E and just drove to the shipper. Did the DnH and was able to do my 10 there...

Left the next day for Dayville Connecticut for another DnH. Long day of driving but good miles for the trip. Made it home early Sunday morning.. 34 hr reset and I'll be heading out tomorrow. Will have to spend the week doing Crete's General North East regional freight so they can get me on a normal schedule for my dedicated Account next week..

Congrats Mike looking forward to your journey. When I read your road test I chuckled, reminded me of mine at QC. My trainer was like yours, very experienced and old school. He told me lets go and had me drive. He said I could do a post trip. We went to a customer to drop an empty and pickup a loaded at Bush in downtown St Louis. It gets real tight in there. I was in his day cab. I got it done and in a day cab wasn’t too bad. He never said a word until we were done. He said he never had a driver get in and out so easy. What he didn’t know was I had been driving a 389 Peterbuilt in and out of cemetaries for 2 years before he got me. Bush was easy compared to that.

Thank you. HaHa. Yea I like the old school approach.

Thanks for posting these updates. Best with the next chapter!

Thank you Rookie.

Day 4

Short one tonight. Checked out of the hotel (again) got to the terminal and went into the Defensive driving room. The instructor pulled myself and one other driver out and said come with me........ Into the office and yes... No DDC for us. We were finally officially hired. Bad news was that our trucks were in Indy. 530+ miles west.

Crete rented each of us a SUV to drive out here and get them as well as paying us .50c a mile to get out here. Much better than sitting through another DD class. Anyways I arrived around 7:30 pm, went into the shop, showed service my truck number. He gave me the keys and ran me through what we had to do tomorrow morning. Return the rental, Do a walk around and walk through on my truck, get my supplies and hopefully find a 1000 mile load home. lol

I ended up with a 2018 blue International LT with about 230,000 miles. Interior is in good shape, everything works so that's a plus. It was a little to dark to get a good view of the outside. As long as she keeps running i'll be happy. First time with an International so we'll see. Anyone have experience with one? Anything different to expect vs. a Freight?

Day 3 of Orientation At Crete

We got everyone loaded into the vans, headed to the terminal and unloaded all of out stuff. Some drivers just came off of another truck from their old company so they had a lot. Stored it under lock n key and started our day. We covered Benefits & 401k. The head of recruiting came in and talked with us for a while. Then onto trip planning. 3 different routes using their fuel solutions program. Each route was increasingly difficult. We took turns in groups to go out to the yard and go through a pre-trip, the esbar heater and the opti idle.

We also went through a 1 on 1 with the head of orientation. At this time we found out that the Follicle tests had been delayed due to them not being picked up on time by a well known door to door carrier.. LOL Soooo another night in the hotel. We did get word that they were received and drivers were becoming hired as we left the terminal.

So today we go back and finish up this morning and find out if our trucks are here or we have to go hunting for them.

Day 2 of orientation with Crete

If you are reading this and coming to orientation on day 2 make sure you drink your coffee and get some rest the night before. Full day of classroom. Reviewed everything from transflo to blood borne pathogens and everything in between. Several videos and a few tests. Pro-tip, Finish and pass the tests early for a quick 5 minute break. Lunch was an order out again. If you like a lot of food i'd recommend getting a salad.

Day 2 was a longer day but went by pretty fast. 1/2 of us are checking out of the hotel on weds. while the other 1/2 are staying 1 more day for Defensive Driving Class. (Smith system) 3 of the ones staying behind will be waiting for a trainer while those of us checking out will find out (officially) if we're hired and if our truck is here at this terminal or if we'll have to go on a hunt for it. Hoping mine is here so I can get to work, go home, gather the rest of my stuff and see my wife..

Anyways. I'm all packed up and have most of my stuff loaded into the van. Time to go find the others..