My Prime TNT Progress Updates

So, reasonable ranges are 10,000 to 13,000 miles per month or 120,000 to 156,000 miles yearly.

156K is a stretch, unless you plan on living in your truck. 144K is 12K every single month for a year, also not likely. Possible? Sure it is. I did 14,000 miles one month in 30 days driving for my biggest month. I've done a bunch of other months where I drove less yet banked more.

Right, so maybe 120,00 to 135,000 is more realistic range. I’m not a young man, so don’t want to over do it. This was a hypothetical exercise.

Anyway, arrived at the terminal at 16:30 CDT. The trailer with faulty reefer fuel sensor is going into the shop tonight while we are here overnight.

Visits to the terminal are busy.

Robert has the truck in a service bay now having a preventative maintenance service done (oil change, etc).

Tomorrow morning at 04:00 he has a tire shop appointment to have a couple drive tires replaced.

The trailer is in the trailer shop now being worked on with a full PM service.

04/14/22 wrap

I’m about ready for bed. However the numbers guy in me won’t test until I lay out the realistic annual miles ranges.

I’m assuming that I drive 4 weeks followed by 4 days off. I can repeat that 32 days cycle 11.4 times per year.

2,500 weekly miles is 10,000 miles per 32 day cycle. That would be 114,000 miles over a year. This accounts for days off. If a week of paid vacation is taken, then less annual miles, but you still got paid.

2,750 weekly miles is 11,000 miles per cycle or 125,400 miles annual

2,850 weekly miles is 11,400 miles per cycle or 129,960 annual.

So, a range of 114k to 130k of paid miles is reasonable.

04/15/22 A rainy morning in Springfield.

We went to sleep last night about 22:00 and got up at 03:30 to make the tire shop appointment at 04:00. The tractor should be in good shape now.

Parked again and back to sleep from 05:00 - 08:30.

I walked to the Plaza building to the TWIC office. I have my activated TWIC card now, which will allow us to be dispatched on loads to ports, airports and other customers that like us to have it.

TWIC is the federal Transportation Workers Identification Card. Requires a background check. I applied for the TWIC on the day that I was hired by Prime on 03/03/22. The cost was $125.25, that Prime deducted from my first two paychecks. I received a message a couple weeks ago that my TWIC was ready to be picked up in person to activate it by my fingerprint. This was first opportunity to get back to Springfield terminal on a day that the TWIC office was open.

04/15/22 continues

TNT miles by payroll week for 03/11-04/13:

Wk 1 = 2,756 (3.5 loads) Wk 2 = 5,558 (3 loads) Wk 3 = 3,854 (2 loads) Wk 4 = 4,501 (4 loads) Wk 5 = 4,734 (4.5 loads) Total = 21,403 (complete)

Wk 6 (in progress) = 759 Total = 22,162 (04/15)

The 1/2 load in WK 1 was when I got on the truck half way through the load Robert was running. I drove the last 303miles and got credit for it.

The 1/2 load in WK 5 is the load that we had to “re-power” to another team in Oklahoma City due to the truck NOX sensor failure requiring shop time. I was credited for the 1,358 miles completed of that 2,659 miles load.

Robert told me that for Wk 5 he made $12k revenue and that he couldn’t have done that without me (nice of him to say).

It happened because the Dispatcher filling in while regular FM is on vacation pressed hard on Sales Dept to find us an empty trailer in St Paul, MN area on Wednesday. That allowed us to drop our loaded trailer at 14:00 to complete the load paperwork prior to the 16:00 CDT weekly payroll cut off time. If we had to wait to live unload we would have missed the deadline. That load would have gone onto Wk 6 payroll.

This is a big point for new drivers to understand; weekly paychecks will not be consistent. That is why better to look at it for budgeting over a longer time period such as a month.

During TNT I’m being paid a flat rate each week (pay day today). I’ll be like everyone else once I go solo. You have to be rolling to make money.

We have Big Mama rolling again for Clarksville, AR.

Hopefully we will get a good next load assignment tonight.

Arrived at Clarksville at 15:00 CDT. Sit at Lazy Earl’s truck stop across the highway from the Walmart DC until about 17:30, then go check in.

Robert took the scenic route through the AR Ozarks. Beautiful route, but very hilly and curvy road. Had an 11% downgrade for several miles with truck speed limit of 20 mph. We were at 15-20 mph using the cruise control set point technique.

I took several video clips to share with my family so they can feel like they are riding along in the truck seeing the view.

Checking in now at Walmart DC for live unload.

Our next load assignment came in for a Loc 01 D&H until midnight tonight in De Queen, AR (156 miles away empty). The Loc 90 receiving customer is in Blue Ash, OH (757 miles loaded) to deliver by 06:00 EDT Easter Sunday. Total of 913 dispatched miles.

The receiver is a Kroger DC with same rule as Walmart DC about not arriving earlier than one hour.

We can easily drive this on Saturday to arrive Saturday night. Find nearby parking. I’ll then time my early Sunday morning drive to arrive at 05:00 EDT to check in for a live unload.

This new load completed Sunday morning will bring me to 23,075 TNT miles on 04/17.

We have a good shot of getting in 3 or 4 completed loads by next Wednesday deadline.

04/15/22 continues

The live unload was completed at 19:45 CDT when called to come get the BOLs. This is a Walmart DC where you decouple from the docked trailer and park in bobtail waiting area.

Robert has recoupled the trailer and is preparing to depart loc 90 at ~20:00 CDT.

It will be a 3 hrs drive to our new Loc 10 customer.

I’ve been napping off and on. Try to sleep now to take over driving after pickup our new loaded trailer.