Davys Weekly Somewhat Erratic Diary Of OTR Dry Van.

Week 3 Continued...

I cant sleep, it just doesnt happen til about 3 am. I have multiple alarms set. I wake up in a panic at 0830. I immediately call my DM.

"I royally screwed up" I say. I tell her I could give her some plausible but lame excuses, however the fact of the matter is I overslept.

"Thats your royal screw up?" She laughs. Not a big deal. She emails the account manager and load planner. I did some digging on the receiver, found their local direct number and called them, theyre open til 12, they say they are busy but will do their best to unload me. Its a small hey and feed operation. I thank them profusely and offer to sweep up, get them beer, water, whatever they need.

This is where it got interesting to me and I learned a few things. I get down there, deliver at 10:30. The planner had put a small load on me to Phoenix. about 400 miles. After being late, he pulled the load off. Im frustrated but can understand. I discuss it with my DM , she pulls my record and hers, in her 120 days she has had 4 service failures, none from me, all other drivers. She digs back on me and shows 0 service failures, 0 unexcused lates.

She fires off an email to the planner stating that Im one of her best drivers, a very hard runner and always communicate with her immediately. She went on to say that the DMs there call me their goto guy. The planner argued with her for a bit and ultimately said he had a driver with a full clock that needed to get to Phoenix anyway. His boss got involved and basically said his decision was final even if I was that good of a driver. She explained that I immediately took ownership of the mistake and didnt try to hide it but nonetheless, mistakes happen.

While this is transpiring, the planner sends me an 1074 mile load back up to WalMart in Hermiston. These loads can not for any reason be late or early or they will be counted as a service failure, weather notwithstanding. I tell my DM to please thank the planner and that I understand where he is coming from as well. Also that I want to make his life easier and that I understand he has a boss to appease and rules as well.

The service failure report for the week closes on Sat, so if it had shown as a failure it would have been there. Luck and being diplomatic saved my bacon. Stopping to think about how my performance effects not just my DM but the load planners and people up the chain happened here. Im holding a less combative view of the planners as a result. I still dont have a manner of direct contact with planners, so my performance has to do the talking for me.

Load 4: Mira Loma CA to Hermiston OR. 1074 Miles Net. Delivered On Time.

This one goes up 395 to US 6 to US 95 to I84. Weather is clear. Will have to contend with 4 hour recap. I leave LA, stop in Bishop CA, where I got stranded, do some shopping and continue on to Hawthorne NV. Its pushing past where I want to run hours wise, but I wanted a shutdown spot with a bathroom as Ive got a bit of a cold going, enough said on that. I know that there is a golden gate truck stop in Hawthorne and its usually got a few spots even at 2 am. Weird blind side back version of a straight back because the pumps but it works out ok.

On the next day, for one thing, I cant deliver early, the other reason is that I only have 8 hours left on my 70, I run it up to my fuel solution at the J in Ontario OR. Its about 7 pm, amazingly there are still a few spots left. I quickly fuel as I ran it down to the bottom of the tanks and grab a spot in between two trucks. I prefer that as I dont want my nose of truck remodeled by a late night desperate parker.

Weather wise, will be snowing on cabbage but not sticking. Of course now I get up at 5 am easily when I dont need to be up that early. Pass is good to go. Straight forward delivery and grab an empty.

Load 3 Richland WA to Portland OR Net 256 miles.

Weather will be wet, with some winds. Biggest concern is my 70.

I start the day with 7 hours left on my 70, its down to 3 by the time I deliver the last load and pick up this one. I park at CrossRoads truck stop in Umatilla. Its a cool old truck stop with an old mom and pops diner as well as a lounge, all though I have no interest in the lounge. Place fills to capacity after I park for the night. Id love to have run this one in early, but I dont have the hours, wouldnt have the hours to park after I drop. Sometimes you just have to have the patience to not burn your clock. My recaps will even out the rest of the week with all 9s and a 10 plus. Ill have to cap my use of my clocks to 7 or 8 hours max if I can to build up a little cushion as I have a 5 hour recap on Friday combing back. Ill drop this in the morning.

Week Totals: 3649 Miles.

This is great, Davy. You are inspiring me to think of doing a diary as a reefer hauler.

Brett's idea of a weekly rundown thread is something that would be really nice to see, too.

Wow Davy, what an epic account. Thanks for taking the time to post all of that. Highly interesting.

One very significant thing I learned from your diary is that there is a Weed, CA. I never knew that before, I guess I’ve lived a sheltered life. Who would have thought?

Wow Davy, what an epic account. Thanks for taking the time to post all of that. Highly interesting.

One very significant thing I learned from your diary is that there is a Weed, CA. I never knew that before, I guess I’ve lived a sheltered life. Who would have thought?

Lol, I think it was named long before California's obsession with weed.

Absolutely stunning view of Mount Shasta from the J there

Week 4 thin and thinner.

Back to low miles and more snow. I've given up on seeing any terrain east of the rockies, really on anything but mountains by this point. I've been in mountains and storms since December.

There's lots of contributing factors but essentially it comes down to the fact that I'll get the job done safely and communicate instead of getting stuck or crashing. We still have a limited choice of loads and it seems as though they don't want to put inexperienced drivers in the mountains and weather zones. I can't blame them for that.

I looked hard at a position with Marten, dedicated at 75 cpm , loop from CO through CA and AZ and back, but the miles are fixed at 2075 per week with only one day at home, rigid schedule. It doesn't have the miles or flexibility I desire, so I'll stay at Knight and just ride out the lull or wait until I get a new DM , as mine is talking about leaving.

I can range from 1300.00 to 2000.00 a week presently so even though it frustrating, the opportunity to make more is present at Knight.

I'm finding that I want to run hard 3000 to 3500 miles a week for a few weeks and then take off a few days. Recharge, come back and repeat. That type of work cycle is just not possible to obtain where I'm at. Under the best circumstances and a booming market I can get 2500 to 3000 but it takes a lot of effort. In the meantime, I just get more experience and clout as a driver. I'm always looking ahead to the next step and may in the future move on if I find something that suits my needs better.

Load 1

Longview WA to Reno NV. Net 656 miles. Delivered on time.

Planning...weather first and foremost. Large storm coming in on my route which will take me down US 89, CA 44 and 36 all high elevation two lane roads with challenging conditions. It's essential that I get this load moved south as much as possible.

Still on recaps, I'll push for 10 the first day to get ahead of the weather. Stop at Fuel and Go outside Eugene, lots of spots, I always ask the owner if I can park there. It's an old pacific pride Station that doesn't really have a lot. The TA is packed at 1 am. I stop there because I can still catch or 58 over to us 97 if I choose to.

Next day is a live unload at a really tight reciever, I stay at our terminal that night and deliver in the morning. To get the back done, I have to go over a short height island and blindside it. Get it done with no pull-ups. I pulled olall the way out into the street, block traffic and do what I need to do.

Load 2

Sparks NV to SLC UT net 518 miles delivered on time.

Run of the mill load, live unload at a scrap metal place. Picks up from the Tesla Factory. Mind-blowing huge. Grinds several hours off my 14 getting the trailer. I drive straight through, couple inches of snow on the two hills on 80 in NV. Nothing major. Sleep at our SLC terminal, it's tough to find parking there but I get it done.

My 70 is down to 2 hours with a 5 hour recap coming back. Several rounds of snow coming in over the weekend. I have hometime scheduled in CO. They give me a 14k load over 80. Forecast for snow, ice and the usual 55 mph winds.

I offer to park the truck at SLC for the weekend and just fly home myself. They agree, but won't reimburse. At this point it's not even worth arguing. I just say ok. Live to fight another day.

Load 3.

Odgen UT to Woodland CA net 735 miles. In process.

I start chuckling when I look at this one. Back over donner pass. Winter storm warning 2 to 4 feet of snow, winds up to 50 mph. Its pretty much a given that if theyre sending me over Donner, its going into a storm. I don't bother pointing out that I'm going to be shut down. They don't have anything else and I need to stop in Fernley anyway, my brother has a tentative diagnosis of cancer.

I run to Fernley NV, let my DM know about the weather and ask if they want me to sit on the load (of course they do) or drop it for T call. So I'm sitting til tomorrow, pass won't be suitable tomorrow either, R3 and max chain controls, but will see how it goes.

Please pardon my absence. I've been buried with a ton of small runs the last few weeks. I've done 9 loads this week. A 900, a 700 and then a bunch of 250 to 300 mile loads.

The past few weeks has been almost a dedicated lane consisting of LA to central CA and back then LA to Vegas, to SLC and back as well as Phoenix.

The loads all kind of blur together and the biggest challenge is covering my recaps because they invariably will have a short day or two per week.

I finished last month with 10460 dispatched miles. Just shy of a full bonus. With my miles and safety bonus I netted 426.00 in added bonuses. I didn't get the fuel bonus but didn't expect to with all the mountain driving. I took 4 or 6 days off and had a few down days for weather.

So far this month I'm at 6900 to 7100 plus or minus dispatched. I'll take 2 days off this weekend and another 1 off next. This week as I said was 9 loads, totaling 3586 miles. It's a hard way to get the miles but enjoyable too. I should still be able to do 11k plus for the month, may get the fuel bonus. If I get safety, fuel and miles, I get a kicker as well. All told its possible to get 8 cpm bonuses for all the miles in the month in this structure. In addition, there's been 2 to 3 days of ancillary pay per week on average.

Loads are starting to get back to a rhythm with at least one preplan on me while I'm on a load.

I've had some really enlightening and cool conversations with my DM about how their job works and how we work as a team.

I've had some crazy adventures and interesting deliveries in LA, one of which I'll make a separate post for. Tight areas, disorganized customers and old neighborhoods are breeding grounds for incidents. An abundance of caution and route planning serves me well is the theme of the post, after delivering to an old set of docks just south of East LA. I'll put it together tomorrow.