How Is Your Year Going?

I'm currently sitting at a customer we typically do Drop & hook at that doesn't have the load ready. I just got a door to be live loaded after an hour of waiting. Another driver of ours just left after he waited nearly 3 hours to be loaded. I got thinking about how many miles I've driven so far this year. When I get back to the yard at the end of the day I'll have just shy of 33,000 miles

I'm ranked 87 out of roughly 150 drivers. The only reason it's so high is because I don't drive as many miles as most guys do. When I pick routes I typically aim for 300-400 miles with backhauls that will cause me to sit and wait to be loaded. I have 619 hours of driving but total time clocked in is 1077 hours. It all pays the same and somebodies gotta do it so why not. Occasionally I'll switch it up and take a 600 mile run though. Most of the speeding (4 mph over) is coming down hills or eastern Nebraska as google maps isnt updated to most state highways now being 65 mph. Year to date I've earned $42,205.14 which puts me on pace to gross about $91,500. How's your year going for you?

RobT, my year had been going quite well. On May 5, I got the word that I was being transferred from OTR I/M to OTR Long Haul - that means DC runs with backhauls. I had been looking forward to this change. I had accrued about 30,000 at that time with a couple weeks off in there, running four day work weeks, Sun - Wed. I'm paid hourly, which makes the sitting in railyards acceptable. Even then, I chafed at that. I was going GREAT!

Then I got the word that I was out of the truck until at least 3 months after my fusion scheduled for next week. He put me on meds that are a Bozo No-No from my outfit's perspective, nor do I want to be driving 70k+ around with the slight wooze they give me. The good thing is I have discovered that electric meat smoker that has been languishing for quite some time, and I'm occupying myself with that. All protein, no carb, and the house smells GREAT. So, a silver lining in what would be a mind numbing depressive. Here is my latest conquest - pastrami.

I'll be right over!!!

Laura

Pretty good.

Business seems to be picking up again which is good. Unfortunately 3 people got fired 2 of them below me. technically I gained one seniority spot, but they do not want to hire new drivers just to call them off so they temporarily got rid of the 3 extra board run, unfortunately they both had drivers with more seniority than me. So I ended up losing my run in the bid we just did now I have to go back to 9:30 pm run which I do not like. They said we should be looking to hire again in a few weeks and will rebid again after that, hopefully I can get my 1:45 am run or something around that time.

One step forward and two back right now, but at somepoint all the frustration will pay off.

I'm on target to make my rookie year salary by the end of June. That's more money during the first six months of this crazy year than any other six month stretch during my seven years as a driver.

Think about that... My pay has doubled in 7 years! There's just not too many jobs you can start as a second career in your mid fifties and accomplish that. I have been really busy this first six months of 2020. I see no slow down ahead for my second half of the year.

I'm not thrilled with the YTD numbers, but it's been a rough 3 months.

How do i find out?

Started out the year on fire. When the shutdown started it was all the freight I could handle, especially since I'm hauling both reefer and tanker. About a month after the shutdown everything got pretty slow. It looks like its picking back up. After this week I'm at about 37k. So I'm expecting 75k this year down from 81k last year. My 2nd full year into trucking. I do think everything will pick up significantly come July.

Yesterday 1100 cases, today 1100 more cases. Both weighing like 22-24k lbs. The first day I came back to work I had 800 or so, and I still managed to finish on time but I was completely delirious and out of it. It's a little better now.

For YTD including unemployment I'm at about 40k; this week I got 1.5k gross from working just 4 days a week.