...and hope for the best.
That's what the hubs and I are doing right now with his new job. It doesn't sound or so far seem all that great and I honestly don't think he'll be there for very long but they were the only trucking company that offered him a job and after pretty much 2 months of no job, he (we) jumped on it.
The kids & I took him to Montgomery, Ala. late Sunday where the company had a Greyhound bus ticket waiting on him. (He was thrilled, let me tell you!) From there he would go to Nashville, Tn. to the Western Express trucking terminal, be put up in a hotel for their 2 day orientation and then be given a truck to be on his merry way. Sounds like it would go smoothly, but of course, it didn't.
We found out on the way to Montgomery that they only provide lunch and if he gets up at 5AM, he can grab a Continental breakfast. Let me just say that this company does not pay the drivers for going to orientation (as others do). They also don't pay safety, fuel and retention bonuses (as others do). BUT again, they offered him a job so I should just stop complaining- NOT. Anyhoo, the first day of orientation lasted from 6 AM to 9 PM. The last shuttle from the terminal to take people to eat was at 8 PM. Hmmmm, what are these guys supposed to eat? So hubs walked to the nearest food joint, a Waffle house, at 9:45. I stayed on the phone with him b/c I was worried about him getting mugged or something.
After his orientation was over, which hubs says was crap (but this is the 3rd company he's worked for in 3 yrs.- 2 layoffs due to gas prices- so really what more could they have to go over besides their company policies?) they scooted him outta the hotel to sit in the terminal lobby for hours on end waiting for another trucker to come pick him up to take him to his assigned truck-in Kentucky. He was the last guy from his "class" to not have a load out of there.
He arrived at his truck, which had been left by the previous driver (reason it was in Kentucky), at around 3:30 AM. The truck was dead so he had to call for someone to come jump it. He then received a message over the CallQuam that that will be a charge of $160. WTF?! Finally he gets that taken care of and now he is sitting. Waiting for a load back to Nashville so the truck can be serviced and cleaned. What a crock of shite.
So it looks as if he won't be getting any loads the rest of this week. We're hoping he gets some good ones next week b/c that's Christmas money....of course he found out at orientation that they run off of a star system and the guys with the highest stars get the loads offered to them first. A new guy obviously, has no stars.
Here we go with it. WWWWHHHHHEEEEEEEEE................
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Cross our fingers...
12/02/2009
By the time I got to the half point (heading out of town) the in bound side was starting to get backed up. Sweet! good timing and all that. Finishing my journey into Laurinburg, NC I got my next work assignment. Taking a load down to Statesboro, GA for a 7am delivery. Just a bit of rain on the way down but nothing impedingly heavy.
That brings my total for the week upto 4100 miles and 150.00 in detention and tarp pay. That would be fantastic if Uncle Sam didn't grab such a large chunk when the miles spike like that. Over all it will still be a nice bump right before christmas.
Got to get to sleep. Getting up at midnight to secure and drive the load down.
Have a nice day
Bookerz out
Snow Plow Preparation List , Before The Storm
the storm but this works for me. The first thing I do is what is called a
Pre-trip inspection just like you would on a tractor trailer.
Lift the hood on your plow truck , check the engine oil, power steering fluids, windshield washer fluids , and battery connections are tight, check the belts be sure they are not cracked, check the coolant level, (with the truck cold), check the brake fluid and If low it either means your pads need to be changed, or there is a leak. The fluid went some where! Look around in the motor compartment for any loose wires, be sure they are not touching or rubbing through anywhere. OK, now close the hood and proceed to the rest of the inspection.
Get in your snowplow truck check and see that the horn works, the wiper works the heat works, put the truck in 4wd and drive forward a few feet you should feel the difference of resistance when you turn the wheel and drive forward . Then disengage the 4wd and put the transmission back into park. Check that the parking brake is working and releases, check that the brakes are working.
Now check the lights, put on the low beam headlights, parking lights, start at the drivers door out side of your vehicle and walk counter clockwise around your plow truck check the tire lugs, tire pressures, grab the mirrors make sure they are not loose check that the lights are working. Now go back and check high beams and left, right signal lights and brake lights. When you are done with this now we can go on to checking the plow out.
We can now begin to check out the plow. You want to make sure everything is working before you go to work. You want to make sure everything is working fine and not faulty when you need to start snowplowing.
Time is money and we do not want you to have any break downs if we can help it.
Start the vehicle and raise and lower the plow a few times
Check the controls are not loose and cycle the plow with the controls
When you are doing this watch the amp gauge for not over excessive amp draw down in the system.
Raise the plow up and leave it up for a few minutes to make sure it does not drift down
Check the snowplow high beams and low beams are working and adjusted right.
Check the turn signal lights are working and not loose
With the plow down get out and inspect the chain is not worn
Check around all hydraulic cylinders for leaks or dents in the cylinders
Check the snowplow hoses and hose connections
Check the center pivot of the plow for play
Check the plow frame bolts are tight and not loose
Check for any cracks on the welds of the plow
Inspect the snowplow cutting edge, shoes and springs
Look at the snow plow pins and the plow retainer rings
OK now that you inspected your snowplow. Let’s go over a few things you should have
in the truck with you, flashlight, gloves, extra plow pins, extra hose and quick connectors, hydraulic fluid,
Box of fuses, a relay for you plow, Electrical tape, 2 cans of fix a flat, and road flairs.
I have used this list for over 20 years and it has saved me many times. I hope it saves you Happy plowing From Edgeolite.com
Click here for more information
http://edgeolite.com/more-info.htm
http://edgeolite.blogspot.com/
TOM CORBETT: CORPORATE CRUSADER
"Hot august night.And the leaves hanging down.And the grass on the ground smelling --" *
-- like raw sewage!
On a hot August night in 2006 more than 200 of the 1,300 people who live in East Brunswick, Pennsylvania gathered inside a barn owned by Dr. Glenn Freed.
Almost one-fifth of the rural township's population showed up, despite the stifling heat and sticky humidity.
They came because they were afraid.
People were talking.
Something wasn't right in their neighborhoods.
They'd heard too much.
They'd smelled too much.
They were worried.
Scared.
Angry.
About sludge.
Sewage sludge.
The solid poison that's left after the water is removed from the stuff people flush down their toilets and throw down their drains.
Sewage sludge.
Used by local farmers to fertilize their fields.
Used because it was cheap.
Sometimes free.
Sewage sludge.
Used in spite of it's high toxicity.
Used even though it could pollute the water that people were drinking.
Used because waste-dumping corporations swore it was an "environmentally friendly fertilizer."
Waste-dumping corporations that were highly paid to haul the poison away from sewage treatment plants and then dump it on farmers' fields.
Ever since the deaths of two children, and countless reports of illness and livestock loss, rural Pennsylvanians say they oppose the dumping of sewage sludge.
They say they want to decide whether it should be legal to use sludge to fertilize farms in their townships and boroughs; their cities and towns.
They say all government is local.
But the folks who make state and federal laws say different.
Pennsylvania law says big corporations don't need community permission to drop pesticides overhead from airplanes...
Or to withdraw water from local aquifers...
Or to site unwanted refineries near schools and churches...
Or to dynamite coal or limestone out of land more than 2,500 feet from peoples homes...
Or to dump sewage sludge in your home town.
State agencies issue "permits" to dump the sludge.
State legislatures take away local communities' right to stop them.
Stop them from poisoning their fields and their water.
Stop them from destroying their towns.
So, on that hot August night, the folks in East Brunswick asked this question:
"If those people who are directly affected by rules and regulations are denied the rights to make those rules, do we really have a democracy?"
Those perspiration-soaked citizens - American citizens - citizens of East Brunswick Township in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - decided to support a cutting-edge ordinance; one that not only asserted their rights to make rules that govern where they live (like banning corporations from hauling and dumping sludge) — but also would invalidate the Constitutional "rights" claimed for corporations by their highly paid lawyers.
The people organized.
They fought back.
And by December 2006, the ordinance was passed.
But that wasn't the end of the story.
In fact, thanks to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, it was only the beginning.
Corbett, who is supposed to be "the peoples' lawyer," fought against the people and for the corporation.
Corbett argued that the citizens of East Brunswick Township had "no inherent right to local self government."
Corbett, who previously served as a waste management corporate lobbyist, filed a lawsuit against East Brunswick to overturn their ordinance.
Did you get that?
Attorney General Tom Corbett, who is paid by the people of Pennsylvania - the people of East Brunswick - to be their lawyer - to represent their interests - instead chose to defend the interests of the sludge-dumping corporations.
Old habits die hard.
Corbett's empathy for the sludge-dumpers was rooted in his service as a Senior Executive and lobbyist for Waste Management Corporation - the largest importer of trash into Pennsylvania.
During Corbett’s time at Waste Management, the firm repeatedly was fined by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for committing environmental and safety violations - violations that included the surreptitious and illegal dumping of hazardous medical waste.
During Corbett’s four-year tenure at Waste Management, the company and its subsidiaries were fined more than $3.7 million for various violations at its landfills.
During Corbett's stint as lawyer and lobbyist for Waste Management, Corbett defended these practices.
For example:
In May 2001, the Pennsylvania State Police and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) ran a week-long campaign - called "Operation Clean Sweep" - to crack down on unsafe and environmentally unsound trash trucks.
Of more than 40,000 inspected trucks, the state found more than 11,000 safety and environmental violations.
The biggest violator -- and the region’s biggest waste hauler -- was Waste Management Inc., with 339 environmental violations and 554 safety violations.
The DEP said as much as 65 percent of the Waste Management truck fleet was put off the road for repairs.
Waste Management also was caught illegally dumping hazardous medical waste.
On the first day of “Operation Clean Sweep’, a trailer truck owned by Kephart Trucking was stopped for a safety inspection by state police at the Mifflinville rest area on Interstate 80 in Columbia County.
Police noticed a reddish substance leaking from the trailer, opened it and discovered medical waste hidden under a thin layer of municipal waste.
The hospital waste -- which included syringes, bedpans and wound dressings -- had been picked up by Kephart at a Waste Management Inc. transfer station in the Bronx and was headed to Shade Landfill in Central City, Somerset County.
Shade Landfill was not permitted to accept raw, unprocessed medical waste.
Tom Corbett also took the lead for Waste Management in fighting Republican Governor Tom Ridge’s attempts to limit out-of-state garbage dumping in Pennsylvania.
When Ridge attempted to restrict the amount of waste coming into Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett led the fight for Waste Management against Ridge's initiative.
Tom Corbett's record on the environment:
Corporations over communities.
Sludge over safety.
Profit over people.
*Lyrics from "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," by Neil Diamond
Frank LaGrotta served 20 years in the PA House of Representatives - 16 years on the House Appropriations Committee, where budgets are drafted. He presently is holed up in Dick Cheney's old bunker working on a new book about how government REALLY works - or, should we say, does NOT work. You can email him at frank.lagrotta@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @LaGrotta12.
No sign of June either...
The Skyline Drive is part of the Shenandoah National Park. There are campsites, cabins, nature trails and information points, you could spend a month there quite happily. The road runs along the Ridge bit of the Blue Ridge Mountains and bends and curls about for just over 100 miles and contains 75 lookout points where you can pull off the road, gawp and take photos. It took all day to drive, but we weren’t complaining. Happening to drive it as the trees were turning colour in that part of the world (Canada’s ‘fall colour’ season has been and gone) every bend brought a new orange carpet to look at. We quickly realised that stopping at each lookout would mean extending our journey by a day or two and became a bit selective.
There were deer. Apparently there are bears too, but we had no pickanick basket, so they left us alone. Hundreds of people drove and walked and there was no noise, no litter. Occasional signs advising us not to feed the wildlife (and giving sensible explanations why) were the only evidence of a truly remarkable workforce of rangers and researchers who appear to maintain the park safely for sharing between us and the real inhabitants. We had paid $15 to get in, this would have been the same had we wanted to camp for a week or just drive through, and I am happily convinced that we got our money’s worth. It made our awful foggy night drive on the way down worth it in the end; we knew there were mountains here. A glorious day, impeded only slightly by my truly terrible Laurel and Hardy impressions.
And then it was just about the last leg home. A night somewhere obscure and hilly in Pennsylvania and back into New York State, onto the toll road I90 and following signs for the border. The Canadian jobsworth quizzed us in routine manner, She didn’t care where we’d been or what we’d been up to. ‘Where do you live? How long have you been away? Are you importing any goods? Welcome to Canada.’ And we were home.
I like home. Kilometres, litres, French translations, Tim Horton’s coffee, resentful cat. A grand expedition suddenly over. When we first discussed the totally insane prospect of taking a wedding cake to Florida I thought it might be a bit of a fun wheeze. Then I thought it was impossible. Then I thought I’d do my best and see what happened. What happened was one of those journeys that make life worth living. I can’t thank Cherry and Ron enough for their brilliant hospitality.
Twelve days and 5,000 kms. The car needs a bit of a clean and my habit of nibbling trail mix on long hauls means the inside rather resembles a birdcage. But it’s evidence that we made it, so I’m reluctant to remove all traces of a grand adventure. I do have my NASA coffee cup though, to remind me on the very back-to-normal days that we went somewhere extraordinary. It is the most perfect piece of design I have ever owned. It may only be a coffee cup but it is engineered down to the last detail, to deposit the coffee in your mouth while on the move, as opposed to down your clothing or all over the car. I suppose that sort of thing matters in space.
I have my book too. It’s a wonderful read, I challenge anyone to get to Chapter 2 without making plans to visit Savannah. Or, in my case, revisit. What else has changed? Well, I managed the driving hours without collapse, maybe I’m strong enough to get back to trucking sometime soon. That would be nice.
Is there a 'war on trucking' afoot?
His answer is yes. "Beyond record low freight volumes," Regan wrote, "trucking companies are looking at potential legislation and federal rule-making procedures that could significantly increase their cost of doing business."
For his story, in which he make the case that a veritable "war" is real, click here.
More interesting was the response of Transportation Business Associates President Jay Thompson, via the glgroup.com site. Thompson there breaks down on a per-mile basis added costs that potential regulatory changes -- hours of service, emissions devices, Cap and Trade Legislation, CSA 2010 -- could have across the industry and comes up with a good 25-plus cents per mile cumulative addition per mile, no small hike in operating costs, as any owner-operator can attest.
Thompson's an analyst with a great sense for historical trucking trends and big-picture sorts of implications. And you know what they say about predicting the future -- you've got to know where we've been to see where we're going. Keep an eye on his GLGroup page for other of his analyses of industry articles.
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Already I'm ranting about trucking
It's been a week since I reported how my trucking idea was going.
I had a truck picked out in Atlanta for $25,000. They were/are working on getting $13,000 financed for me. Since I have not worked in the industry for 5 years and I'm out of work currently lenders are skeptical about lending money.
I'm not worried. It's not like I have to go back to trucking tomorrow. In fact that is exactly what I don't want to have to do. If or when I go back I want it to be on my terms.
So in the mean time I signed up to "Internet Truck Stop" to start watching where loads are at and how much there paying. It's pathetic!
Right now there are 957 flatbed loads posted in a 60 mile radius of Augusta, GA.
Of those loads some actually post the rate. For example:
AUGUSTA GA - T0 - COURTLAND AL $550.00 410 miles
That is $1.34 per mile.
If I averaged 55 miles per hour it would take 7 1/2 hours to get there and that ain't including going to get the load, getting it loaded, strapping/chaining or tarping it down. That would leave me $341 after I took out fuel. Take out meals, insurance, maintenance, internet service so I can book loads from on the road, $3 per page for faxes that truck stops charge so I get the load in the first place, then another $9 to scale out my truck to make sure I'm under my legal weight limit.
If you don't have a truck payment you may be OK with rates like that but so many driver have new trucks or lease agreements so after they take those things out and along with their high truck payment they are left with nothing but their truck they live in.
The last company I worked for was not a trucking company.
I drove a standard GMC van that averaged 18 miles to the gallon and cost about $12,000 used when they bought it.
When I made a service call they billed $1 per mile plus $65 per hour while I traveled to and from the site and time on site.
So if I went 50 miles to make a service call and was on site for 1 hour they charged
$100 mileage
$195 labor.
___________
Total of $295 for 3 hours. That is if I didn't use any parts.
Now - Back to driving. Driving an 18-wheeler with a commercial driving license brokers try to dictate how much I should make. Many drivers take loads like that and they are driving down rates or keeping rates low. It pisses me off.
Not all are that bad. Here is another load going from:
MODOC SC - to - MOUNT MEIGS AL $450.00 for 299 miles
That breaks down to $1.50 per mile.
No load in my opinion should pay less than $2 per mile.
I found another truck on Ebay that was repossessed. It's in West Virginia. Actually it was a flatbed trailer I was looking at. When I called about it I asked if they had any trucks that they were looking to get rid of and he told me yeah, the one hooked to the trailer. He said it is a 1999 International with 1-million miles. He said he would let it go for $7000 and the trailer for $5000. Then he said he could let the package go for $11,000.
He gave me the phone number of where the truck was and when I called about it the manager woman said there not selling trucks on the internet so I sent her the link to the trailer off Ebay and gave her guy's name and phone number.
She said she would get back to me and send me an Email to trucks there auctioning so I could bid if I wanted to. So in the meantime I thought I'd write about it.
Also since I signed up with Internet Truck Stop I have been getting calls to haul loads from brokers. Right after I signed in I accidentally listed my truck in Augusta and a lady called within 2 minutes for me to haul 1 of 3 loads she had. I asked her how much they paid and it was about as much as the loads listed above, not to much. I quickly took my truck listing off and have received 2 more calls from the some man, one last night and one today, asking me if I had a truck available in Augusta. I said no, I don't have a truck listed. I checked and it's not listed.
Now I almost want to buy a cheap truck and trailer just so I can sit home and list it and cuss out someone wanting me to haul for for a crappy $1.30 a mile load. If it wasn't for having to pay $130 a week for insurance I would.