Moving Again. Just not out of Texas

Finally got a call this morning from dispatch wanting to know if we would be interested in a load picking up in El Paso going 413 miles to Del Rio Texas. Not the greatest load, but not the worst either. Picks up this afternoon, delivers at 8 AM in the morning. We said we would take it and this time they finally won the bid on the load so we are now at the shipper waiting for the freight. One thing about picking up loads in Texas border towns, you almost always have to wait on the freight. At least we do with the carrier we are with. We were told to be here at 3 PM and it's now 5 PM. The shipper said the driver called in and said he was on the bridge trying to get through customs. They were in the process of xraying his truck. Shipper says probably 30 minutes to another hour before he gets here. I told him we were in no hurry because we have plenty of extra time on this load, but the shipper said he has plans to go to the movies and got called in today on his day off just for this load, so he is actually in a hurry. That's a switch!
The reason I say this isn't the best load is because it delivers in Del Rio. I am unfamiliar with that area and have no idea what kind of freight comes out of there or if we will end up having to empty move somewhere else. I do know that we will be on the Laredo board after delivery. We will be about 185 miles north of Laredo. In the end, it just came down to us being bored sitting for so long in El Paso and needing a change of scenery. It feels good to be back on a load again. Hopefully it will work out for us and something else will come along pretty quickly tomorrow.
We've been making plans for the week of July 4th. We're going to take the week off and spend it at my parents house in Indiana. Hopefully we will get to visit with a lot of our family and friends. We've found over the last couple of years that in our line of work, it's pretty much useless to try and work through certain holidays. July 4th is one of them. So many car manufacturers have plant shut downs that week that everything comes to a crawl. Besides that, in our former regular jobs, we never got to be off together to celebrate holidays, so we have some lost time to make up. I'm hoping that our sons will be able to join us there. More quality time. One of the perks of this job is the ability to visit family when we want. It's nice to be able to drive to visit them and get paid to do it. Living in Florida when the rest of our families live in Indiana makes it hard to visit, but this job helps with that.
It was hard leaving the boys today. We've been with them now for almost a week. Felt like we were camping out together, just in a truckstop instead of a campground. This job is definitely more than a job, it's a lifestyle. Most people wouldn't like it, but fortunately, it works for us!

El Paso Stew

I like Texas. I usually look forward to coming here. It's truck friendly. Big roads, plenty of parking. But today makes a full week of being in El Paso. Four days that we have actually been on the board and available for a load. I am ready to go. I have my paperwork all caught up. We have visited with the boys. All truck repairs are done. It's time to make some money. I got a phone call this morning at 2:30 AM. A dispatcher calling wanting to know if we would help with a recovery load. Another driver broke down in Amarillo on his way to El Paso. Would we help? Sure. I gave him a flat rate that we would do the load for. It included all miles there and back and another $100 for the hand transfer we would have to do. He said there was no one in the office who could approve that offer so he would have to wait until 9AM to call a supervisor at home and see if they would allow it. No need to wake them up. Hmmm. Guess it's okay to wake us up, but god forbid we should wake up a dispatch supervisor. Needless to say, they never called back, so here we sit. They are really just pushing me into making a decision on switching carriers. Once the idea gets in your head, every negative interaction you have with your company just seems that much more intolerable. Our company that we are with is known to be one of the hardest to deal with. They hire drivers who have no experience, which is why we started with them. They gave us our chance and we appreciate that. But I think we are at the point that we have outgrown them. We do not want or need to have our hand held. The dispatch games have grown old and we have progressed to the point that we can manage our time well enough that we can certainly do more loads than they seem to be able to give us. If I am going to be sitting for a week, it better be my choice. Not because they have young inexperienced people trying to do a grown up job and not a clue what they are doing. So, here I sit in El Paso, stewing. Too much time on my hands. Dreaming of our next load. Looking ahead to the future and what it might bring us. One positive thing that I should note. I did not have to go to Best Buy and exchange my tablet. Luckily my techie son is stuck here in El Paso with us and he was able to get it rebooted for me. It lost all my user data, but that's okay since I was smart enough to upload my important information to dropbox. Dropbox is a free online storage for your data. I was able to recover everything I needed. Just took a little while to reload all my apps and download all the data, but all is well now.

Quality Time With The Boys

We seem to be stuck here in El Paso. The nightmare just will not end. The only bright spot is that our two sons who drive for the same carrier are now stuck here with us. We have been getting in some quality time. Its not all our carriers fault that we are still here. They had loads for us but we couldnt take them due to truck repairs. Now that we are ready to go, its a holiday weekend and no freight.

We were offered a couple of loads but nothing worth taking. Lately I have been considering switching carriers. Our current one just doesnt seem to be keeping us running with good loads.  They have tons of crap loads but we arent working for free or for cheap. We have two more truck payments and once those are paid we are going to determine if we are staying or moving on. Its a pain to switch but if we are going to do it, I think that will be the best time.

As soon as John wakes up I need to head over to Best Buy and exchange my Asus Transformer Prime tablet. Got it out today to do paperwork and its locked up on the bootup screen. Thank goodness I bought extended warranty. At this point Im not suprised it quit working. Everything else is so why not?

Our Boys are Joining In

Our two sons took the plunge and purchased a truck of their own and will now be expediting with the same carrier we are with.

Our oldest son had enough of driving for Conway. They were getting him pretty good miles and he was making good money, but he had no life. They don't give you much time off and he has a girlfriend who tried riding with him but was unable to take the lifestyle. She went back home and he never gets to see her while driving for a company.

The two boys put their money together and came up with a down payment and found a truck to purchase at Fyda Freightliner in Columbus, Ohio. They bought it sight unseen, only pictures. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out for them.

I tried to talk them into driving for an owner first and saving more money but they want to be their own boss. I can't blame them for that.

It's nice that they are signing on with the same carrier. I can mentor them and help them avoid many of the rookie mistakes that we made when we started.

Can't wait to run into them out on the road!

A visit with our son

We did have a few days wait for the next load after the holiday. But it was a pretty good wait. Our son, Johnny who drives for Conway happened to be coming through the area we were in. He had some extra time on his load so he stopped in at the Petro in Oak Grove, Mo where we were and we all went over to the Waffle House and had a meal together. It was so nice to see him. I wish I could see both my boys more often!

He didn't get to stay too long but it was a good visit. He was showing us his new phone. He got a Droid X. He's been trying to talk me into getting a smartphone but I never felt it was worth the extra $30 a month for the data plan. After seeing what all his new phone can do, I am convinced. Me and John are both going to get new phones as soon as we get home again.

Dispatch called while we were there and offered us a load picking up in Richmond, Ky. I said, do you realize we are in Oak Grove, Mo? Thats a ridiculous amount of deadhead. They knew and they were prepared to pay us to drive the deadhead to get the load. We reached an agreement on the load amount and headed out to Richmond.

We got that load picked up and delivered it in Alexandria, Virginia. I was nervous as a cat. We were hauling explosives and that area over in Alexandria gets really hectic with traffic and I didn't want to get caught up in traffic and forced off on a route I wasn't allowed to be on. But, I made it. Just a little stressed.

Our next pickup was in Newton, Pa and takes us home to Florida. The load delivers in Clearwater which is about 90 miles from home.

Time to relax!

Orientation Completed

We made it through! Yay for us! It really wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Of course, all I had to prepare me for the experience was the orientation we went to at Conway. Wow, what a difference between the two.

 At Conway, we were treated like second class citizens and they really played with your head. Always letting you know that you could be sent home at any minute and that they thought their company was so good and that if we got selected to be a part of their company we should really feel special. The whole experience left us traumatized and I'm not saying that lightly. I am dead serious.

This time around, it was so much better. Our son Stephen ended up driving us here and we had a blast on the drive there and in the motel we stayed at during the orientation. We had only planned on 2 days but it turned into 4 days due to the extra class we opted for to get our DOD stuff out of the way.

Stephen driving us to Orientation

As we got to the motel we passed a truck going the opposite direction and I pointed it out to John and told him that I thought it looked like our truck. We continued up to the motel and parked the car and as we got out there was a lady next to us unloading luggage from her trunk. She looked familiar so I took a chance and asked her if she was Arlene, the owner of the truck we were going to drive. Turned out that it was her so we stood and talked for a bit and she explained that her friend that drove there with her had just taken the truck over to the truckstop to leave it in the parking lot because the motel wouldn't let them park it there. So it was our truck that we passed earlier.

We made plans with her to meet up the next day and go over paperwork and get the grand tour of the truck and because it was so cold and snowy outside we all headed our separate ways. We got checked into our room and warmed up then we all headed out to eat. We ended up going over to the truckstop and eating there and our son, who used to drive for Conway, showed us around the truckstop and pointed some things out that we would need to know. We were thankful because neither of us had a clue about so many things since we had no experience whatsoever with truck driving, truck stops or anything else related to the job.

The next day was Sunday and we slept in. Arlene called and asked if we were ready to eat. We agreed to meet her at the other truckstop in the area. We found her and she bought us breakfast and went over the contract that we would have with her. The contract detailed how we would be paid as independent contractors. We would be getting 60% of the gross revenue to the truck in addition to 100% of the fuel surcharge since we would be responsible for buying fuel. She would be responsible for 100% of truck repairs and maintenance. We would get a 1099 at the end of the year and be responsible for our own taxes as nothing would be withheld from our pay. It's a pretty standard setup for expediters who are driving for owners.

After breakfast, we all drove over to the truck and she went over how to work different things, like the apu, the ceiling vent fan, which has a rain sensor to automatically close if it starts raining. She showed us where all the storage spaces were located, and how to raise the bed if we wanted to convert it into a dinette table. She gave us a lot of information and it's a lot to process but she said to feel free to call her anytime if we needed to ask questions. The truck is really very nice and well maintained and I think we are very lucky to be driving such a nice truck. Most people who start out doing this job with no experience usually start out driving a "starter truck" and then move to a nicer truck after they've proven themselves.

In addition to all that, she gave us some tips on how to handle different situations that might come up with dispatch and the loads they offer. Being new, we welcome all the help we can get.

After a couple of hours, she handed us the keys and wished us good luck and told us she was going to head back home. What an overwhelming feeling that was to suddenly be responsible for this truck that we had never driven and knew almost nothing about. And we were going to be driving it all over the country to places we have never been and dealing with shippers and freight and oh my...Panic mode set in. Thank goodness our son was there with us. He calmed us down and assured us that we could do it.

The next day was the first day of orientation. We had to be there at 7 AM. Stephen got up and drove us over there since we weren't authorized to drive the truck yet. Until we completed orientation and all paperwork was done, we couldn't legally drive the truck. We were both having flashbacks of our horror at Conway, but we tried to keep a positive attitude.

There were about 20 of us in class. Some of us would be driving straight trucks, some cargo vans, and some tractor trailers. The first day was a lot of paperwork that we had to fill out. Thanks to all the government regulations, there is a lot of information that you have to give to drive a truck. They want 10 years work history and it all has to be verified. We were prepared for it all since our boys had already been through this and we had done it all at Conway so we had our info in order. Others in class were not so prepared and had to make a lot of phone calls home to try and get all the info they needed.

We all had to pee in a cup, get our vision tested, blood pressure checked, and then a physical. They had a Dr. right there on site so that was convenient. We got photo id's made. Lunch was served and was delicious. We got several breaks throughout the day and on the classroom portion of the talks they were giving out valuable information so it was not boring like I expected it to be. We were given company policy and procedures so that we would know how to be legal out on the road and get paid properly.

The second day was more slide show presentations, question and answers, going over how to use a qualcomm, etc. Again, things we really needed to know. A lot of people there already knew all this stuff since they had driven before, but for us, it was all new. Everyone we dealt with was respectful and friendly.

We could have been done at the end of the second day but because we had elected to go for our DOD clearance to give us access to more and better paying loads, there was an additional class that we needed to do. We went back on Wednesday and it was an all day session. Then we were told we would need to come back on Thursday to fill out the application for clearance on the computer. We had no idea what we were getting into on that one. No application in my life has ever been as in depth as that one! We were there from 8 AM until a little after Noon completing that thing. No wonder so many people won't get their clearance. It really is a time consuming chore. I'm not sure how long it will take to find out if we get the clearance, the company said they will notify us when they find out.

The shop took our truck in on Wednesday and added the decals with the company logo's and dot numbers, so it's all legal for us to drive now. We drove it to class on Wednesday and Thursday. Of course it had to be snowing both days, but not too bad.

After we wrapped up on Thursday, we went back to the hotel, checked out and sent Stephen on his way to Indiana. We had such a wonderful visit with him during this time that we will always have special memories of this trip. He taught us how to get the truck scaled and how to get it washed. So many things that truck drivers take for granted but for newbies like us, we have to learn.

We drove the truck over to the local Walmart and set off on a major shopping spree. There is so much stuff you need to set your truck up for life on the road. We got everything we could think of right now, but I'm sure as time goes on we'll find more that we need to make life more enjoyable.

Now we are back at the truckstop and waiting on our first load. Oh My God!!!

Last Day at Walmart

I thought this day would never get here! We are both so happy that our time at Walmart has come to an end and we are moving on to a more exciting career. We have been counting down the days. We both got unexpected surprise parties at work. It was very sweet of our co-workers to do that for us.

Trucks that were on top of our going away cakes

John's Department Manager put a party together for him and had a cake made. It had a semi tractor on top of it. My Department Manager, who has also become one of my best friends and the only thing that I will miss about working at Walmart, also put a party together for me. She had a cake made for me also and it had a full Walmart semi trailer on top. Very cute and very much appreciated!

It was the first time that a lot of my coworkers knew that I was leaving. I didn't tell too many people because I didn't want them to think that I was better than them by leaving, or whatever. Just really didn't want to cause any hard feelings. Everyone who talked to me in private said they wished us well and wished they could find a way out of Walmart. I feel a little bad talking bad about Walmart, but it truly is a lot of work for very little pay. The only way we survived working there was by having almost no bills and no kids at home to support.

We now have 10 days before our Orientation starts in Ohio. We're working on a plan of how we're getting ourselves and all of our stuff that we want to take with us there. Most likely our youngest son will drive us up there in his car and then he plans to drive on over to Indiana and spend some time with one of his cousins. All I know is that however we get to Ohio, it will definitely NOT be on a Greyhound Bus!!