A True Story About The Consequences Of Refusing Loads

Am I understanding that right? 4,282 miles in one week? 7 days? Great story (lesson) by the way.

Technically it's nine days. The load I took to New Hampshire pulled out of Delhi, Louisiana on a Sunday. I turned it in after the cut off on Tuesday, which throws it on this next paycheck.

If you took my last three paychecks and got an average of weekly miles it is just a little over 3,400. That is a very nice average, and fairly consistent for me.

Gotchya! Inspiring. Thanks.

I refuse nothing and it pays off well dont make sense to turn down money

It always amuses me when people complain about not getting miles or making money. The first thought that always comes to my mind is, "What are you (not) doing that contributes to your problem?" I am a rookie and have no idea why people are afraid of the northeast, pretty silly if you ask me. Just a couple weeks ago, I met a Prime lease driver as we were both picking up paperwork after an unload just south of Baltimore. He was saying he had just refused a multidrop load from Baltimore to NJ City and Maine because he was tired and doesn't care for that area. He had arrived to the receiver before me (the night before), and we were docked at same time. Fifteen minutes later as I pulled into nearby truckstop, that same load came through my Qualcomm. Obviously I happily took it. Silliness.

My thing is I don't understand all the hype about driving in the northeast. The snow and roads being shut down in winter weather is WAY worse out west, and no state in the northeast has chain laws! I know tolls are a bit higher, but if you're a company driver that doesn't matter because you're not paying it. Sure, there's traffic, but I live just outside of Washington, DC so I'm used to it. Prime doesn't deliver in Manhattan or Long Island, so all my NY runs are suburbs and more rural areas. Honestly, as a rookie driver, I didn't see why everyone was so bent out of shape about the northeast. I much prefer running up here than all the way across the country. I keep thinking "if THIS is what people consider unacceptable, they sure have lofty ambitions!"

The snow and roads being shut down in winter weather is WAY worse out west

You weren't driving a couple years back when we had two separate storms in Western New York of over 7 feet of snow only a few weeks apart. It took days to dig out all the vehicles strewn all over the city and suburbs. In fact, over the years they've had to call in the National Guard on occasions to dig us out.

So consider yourself lucky. You just haven't been through a hardcore Northeastern winter yet. The past two years were as light as any winters we've had.

I'm from WNY so I know all about those lake effect storms, lived the 5 ft, 2 days stuff from a couple years ago. Miss Miyoshi, we do deliver to Long Island occasionally. I had a delivery in Bethpage a few months ago.

My current load is heading to Conklin and Saratoga Springs NY, which are actually no different than going to most of middle America, unless of course a snow storm comes along. In such a case, you simply find a place to safely park and wait it out. Easy peasy. Keeping up on current and incoming weather conditions along your route sure can make a drivers life less surprising. You know what they say, **** Poor Planning leads to **** Poor Performance. Same applies for knowing what times you are likely to hit metropolitan areas.

I have refused loads only twice: once because my recap hours would not have been enough to cover the trip, second because I had a vacation planned, my truck was acting up, and I wanted to stick closer to home so as not to miss my flight in case of breakdown. Other than that, I just go where I am told. If it's a new area, I figure in a little extra time since I don 't know the roads or where to stop for breaks, and I prefer not going someplace new in the dark if I can help it. The rest is all adventure to me. I have not been northeast much, some New York State, once to Philly shipyards, and those were fine. Other places I have been to that had been played up as sooooo bad, turned out to be no big deal.