I've been on the road now for 29 days. I am wearing my last pair of underwear. I need to stop at a Wal-Mart and buy a pack so that I will have some for the next week. I used to do laundry on the road, but no more. It is rare to find a clean laundry room. I like to wash my clothes twice to get them really clean, and it is just more economical to do it at home. I'm in good shape with pants, shirts, socks and bedding.
Yesterday, I left the Muralt's Ambest at about 6am, picked up the load and got back to the truck stop in Missoula MT around 5pm. It was 346 round trip miles. US93 is being widened and repaved so going north and south took about 8 1/2 hours. It doesn't matter because the scenery was outstanding. Too bad the winters here are so damn long, dark and frigid. There was nobody in the water which was probably in the 50 degree range.
The load CAT scaled at 80,040 lbs. with the tanks a little over a half full. The paid miles for this trip are 1684. The "real world" miles (shortest route) from MS Streets and Trips are 1950, a difference of 266 miles! Now I'm driving this company truck 1950 miles and using diesel to move the freight 1950 miles. If the carrier is charging the shipper 1684 miles then they're getting screwed, not to mention underpaying me for my professional services.
Item #2 - There is a company called Exit 39 or Exit 41 - something like that - and listen to this. They install and provide "off-site" take-out order service. You pull into a Wendy's drive-thru. You place the order to someone somewhere else - could be you're in NJ and the order-taker you're talking to is in Utah. The company says this is more efficient. The order taker will be trained to speak clearer and the mic set-up is promised to be far superior to what is presently used. They say order-takers will not be in Mexico or India. Maybe we will soon see the clerks behind the counter at Pilot and FJ replaced by machines. It couldn't any worse that things are now.
Item #3 - There are occasions, after I pay for my scale ticket, that a driver comes up to me and asks me how to get his load legal. I guess they don't cover that during new driver orientation. I drive a spread axle so I really don't care about moving axles backward or forward. My fifth wheel is fixed, so I don't care about adjusting that either. If I were to drive a box I would have spread axles, and forget about all this nonsense. As I understand it, each slot that you move the axles forward or backwards shifts about 350 lbs. of weight. I'm sure that differs from trailer to trailer. So, if you slide the axles forward (push the trailer back) you're putting more weight on the trailer axles and less on the drives. If you slide the axles back (push the trailer forward) you put less weight on the trailer axles and more weight on the drives. Just thinking about all this gives me a headache. If you have questions adjusting the weight on the steers, talk to an experienced driver for assistance.
Item #4 - Do you work for a carrier that uses a "fuel solution" type of system. What a pain in ass. On this load, the "mandatory" fuel stops are - 117 gallons at Jakes Exxon in Ritzville, WA, 50 gallons here at the Muralt's Ambest in Missoula, 128 gallons at the Pilot in Rocker, MT and finally 50 gallons at the Pelican truck stop in Laurel, MT. This system is reported to save the carrier about $30K a month.
Item #5 - Why can't you comment or send us an e-mail here at acourtesyflush? Our feeling is that you should expend your energy communicating with your elected representatives rather than contact us. Their addresses can be found via Google.
