Hello one and all. I know that it has been at least a few weeks since my last post. At least it hasn't been a few months. I know the last time I posted, I was not far from the end of my over the road training with my trainer. Now, I have been out on the road in my own truck since roughly about march 1st. So, been at it 3 weeks now. The funny thing is, I haven't made a dime yet. Yup, thats right, not a single dime. My first week because it took them about 3 days to get me out of indians from the school on a load, I only had like 2 loads that I hauled that week for roughly about 1500 miles. My first paycheck was $400 only because we received a $400.00 lease signing bonus. Other than that, because of having to buy chains and stuff like that, i owed crengland more than what I brought in, and so my first week I was till negative $400.00, and that was just taken out this pay period. I think after making payments to pay off my chains, I have about $150 left to pay, but other than that, I'm hoping that I will see something on the pay check next week, even if it's still not 'great'. Something would be better than nothing. The real goal for me is to just hang in there, at least 2 years, and then I would 1) my truck payments each week would continue for a year and then I would own my truck, 2) i would no longer be paying 14 cents out of my 90 cents per mile to crengland towards variable mileage charge. Just that extra 14 cents per mile is the difference of a few hundred dollars that would come to me instead of needing to be paid out. Plus, once I own the truck, i would make an additional $800 per week plus the few hundred additional dollars from not having to pay the variable mileage, so those will be the golden times right there. I'm trying to shoot for 3,000 miles but it just hasnt happened yet. This week, I finished a trip on the very first day of the pay period. It was from virginia to ill, and was about 850 miles. I messaged my dm and said if he could get me at least 2 more trips like that before the end of the pay period week that would be awesome. Well, I got assigned a trip bringing me down to south texas right near mexico, was about 1200 miles, so all in all, still about 2,000 miles total. I was scheduled to get in there on monday morning around 5AM and I got in there at 9AM sunday morning instead. I hoped to get assigned and out quick, and I did get assigned quick for a pick up monday morning, but when I showed up to this banana company, she told me that the load hadn't arrived yet and that she would call me. She told me i could just park on their lot and wait, so I did, thinking I would not go anywhere till i got the load (less fuel cost for me if I didn't have to drive the 20 miles back to the flying j truck stop).
So that night as they were closing up for the night, one of their night workers banged on my door. (i was laying down in bed in the back) and so I rolled down the window and all this mexican dude said was "leave, we are closing the gates. So, I found a place to park over here at flying j, and then this morning figuring I wasn't going to drive over there again till i had to, i called and asked if she could call me when the load arrives so I will know to come down. She was like "absolutely, when load get here i call you." So, here i am at the flying j in edington, tx i believe the town is called. Now that you know my current deal, let me back track and tell you all of where I have been since I last posted.
I believe I was on my way with my trainer to ohio or something like that when I last posted. When I got on the truck, like I said it took almost 3 days of sitting at a truck stop in my truck before they got me a load out of there. I picked up this load for 200 miles going to michigan. It was a swap because the current driver couldn't make it there, and so I swapped my empty trailer for his loaded one and took off. It needed to get there by 8 am, and i picked it up around 11PM. So I got out there roughly by 4:30 in the morning, and then it took me an hour or so to find the location because I wasn't able to see the landmarks mentioned in the directions because of the darkness. I finally found it, got the load delivered, picked up an empty trailer, and then drove 30 miles to the nearest pilot truck stop to crash. I think i arrived at the pilot about 7:45 in the morning after being up all night. I was so tired! I went inside where there was an arbys *i was starving too*, and got the large roast beef, curly fries, and a turnover and went back to the truck, ate, laid down and crashed. I think about 3 or 4 that afternoon I got a call from Erin wondering why i hadn't responded, I told her how I had delivered, been up all night and just woke up and she was like "ah, ok.." So from there, there was a load from chicago that dropped off in ohio that was supposed to go to bethlehem, pa, so I went to ohio to pick it up, and made it all the way to within 12 miles of the delivery spot in pa and got a call saying that the customer changed their mind, didn't want the order, and so cre was re-routing me back to indiana. I was like "are you kidding? I just brought this load 'from' the midwest all the ay out here. now you ant me to take it all the way back? Am i getting paid mileage both directions?" and my dm was like "yup, of course." So I was like "alright then. As long as i'm paid both directions, I will take it where-ever you want me to get it to."
So I came out to lebanon, indiana to drop it off. Then from there they gave me a load from lebanon to schodark lndg, new york. When I was about half way there, I had to pull over at a weigh/inspection station/rest area, and I really had to use the bathroom so I thought "i will take advantage of this mandatory stop and use the bathroom. I shut the door, went in, did my stuff, came out, got to the door and thought "oh shit where's my spare key I normally have in my pocket?" I still to this day don't know what happened to it, if i dropped it, if i set it down...what, i dont know. So basically, i was locked out of my truck, my phone and everything i own was locked in the truck as well. i was like "frrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkk!!!!!!!!" (yes i said frak. watch battlestar galactica or caprica and you will hear them say that instead of the usual f word, i think it's pretty cool.!) So after borrowing a phone, and calling my verizon roadside assistance, they couldn't unlock vehicles this big (my truck is a 2012 cascadia freightliner), but they connected me with this locksmith that said he probably could but it'd cost me $100.00. I just got a check in the bank and really didn't want to but what choice did I have? It was pay the money and get back into my truck and continue my trip, or be stuck outside with nothing i could do about it. So I told him to come on down. It only took him about a half hour to get the door unlocked. Thankfully I didn't just have 1 spare when I started my lease, but 2, so i grabbed the other spare, and when I stopped next about 4 hours south of my destination in new york, I bought this clip that I put my spare key on and i always have it clipped to my belt loops on my pants. That way, i let myself in, and then immediately clip it back to my loop so i can get out of the truck, lock and shut the door and i never have to think "do i have my key?" because i always do.
So after delivering in ny, they loaded me from there to virginia. Went over to salem virginia to pick up my next load and took that to wal mart distribution center in illinoise, and then from there they initially loaded me to go from there to nj, but it was canceled and instead they loaded me coming down to harlingon, tx to conway. Then i came over here and i have been sitting just waiting on when i can pick up my next load. This one is supposed to go from here all the way to PA, which will be about 30 minutes from where we live according to what erin tells me. Was supposed to get to the drop by thursday night at midnight but i think it's been changed with this delay i have had while waiting for the load to arrive at the customer.
so other than that, my lease is a 26 month lease, and then i make the same payments for a year and then I own the truck and instead of having the potential to make 300-600 per week, i could make 1200 to 1800 per week, so i have expressed to erin how ideally, that is the goal, to just do the best i can until i own the truck and we are doing really well financially.
On that note, I will go ahead and bring this entry to an end. Talk to you guys again soon!
C
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
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