8/4/07

Well, I rolled from the west side of Indiana to the west side of Iowa today and... well... um... I guess that's about it.

Oh, but the traffic... no, there was no traffic. Wait a second, the scenery... yeah right. Oh man, the weather... um, nope. No pickups, no dropoffs, no fuel stops, this was about as ho-hum as a day on the road can possibly be.

Since I've proven to be a pretty useless blogger today, we might as well see if we can answer a few questions. I have plenty of time to elaborate tonight, so maybe I can pretend to know something useful. Keeping in mind here, I don't speak for CFI, but I'll do what I can based on my experience. These come from Kurbski:

Q: What terminals are in or close to Florida?
Well, the closest actual terminal is presently in West Memphis, Arkansas. We used to use a drop yard in Groveland, but they have closed that down. Now, most of the drivers in Florida use a truckstop or other secure location for their home time.

Once the merger with ConWay has been wrapped up, I would expect this to change. It hasn't been spelled out completely yet, but we've been told we'll have access to "many" of ConWay's existing service centers. Since they operate over 300 service centers, it's anyone's guess exactly what "many" will mean. From looking at their website, it looks like Orlando has the closest service center to Daytona. There's also one in Gainesville, which is probably not a whole lot further away from you.

If you visit con-way.com, you can navigate to a directory of their service centers, but it's a pain in the ass if you don't know how to find it. Starting from the home page, mouse over 'companies' and drop down to 'freight.' Then, mouse over 'tools' and drop down to 'service centers.' From there you can play around and see where the locations are. I live five minutes from a CFI terminal, but some of those ConWay locations might give me a chance to park it for a few days and see friends in other places.

Q: What's your opinion on freight into Florida since the ConWay merger?
Well, the merger hasn't happened yet, but I certainly don't expect any drop in freight, that's for sure. How much of an increase is really hard to say. It doesn't seem to me that there is a shortage of freight going into Florida. You have plenty of consumers down there, so people are always sending stuff your way. It's the freight coming out of Florida that can be a little shaky. I have a buddy in Port St. Lucie who drove for CFI last year. He always got home quickly whenever he wanted to, but when he went back on the board he would sometimes sit at home for a day or two before they found him a load out of there.

Personally, I've pulled beer out of Jacksonville a few times, Red Bull out of Miami, some Mom & Pop stuff out of the middle of the state, and some overnight logistics stuff from the airport in Fort Lauderdale. In my experience, I haven't waited long to move out of Florida, but the conventional wisdom holds that this won't always be the case. With the ConWay merger, I think we might be able to pull some of their Menlo business involving international freight coming into the ports down there. This might help balance the freight leaving Florida against the freight entering Florida. We'll have to wait and see.

Q: Does CFI allow you to do a reset in your home town if you are passing through and the time allows?
Yes, but it almost never happens, so I wouldn't expect to be getting many restarts at home. Assuming you pick up on time, deliver on time, and keep your mileage within 8% of your dispatches, you can do whatever you want with your time. That being said, your odds of being on the coast down there with enough time to kill 34 hours are pretty slim. Considering your location, I would come in with the expectation that the only time you're going home is when you ask to take time off.

I've never gotten a restart at home and I live in the city where CFI clears 90% of its Canada freight. I do get through the house quite a bit, especially lately, but not for 34 hours.

Q: Can you explain the averages on miles? There's a lot of whining about miles on the message boards.
And how! Good Lord, truck drivers are almost as whiny as waitresses, and a lot less fun to shower with. Here's the deal on miles, plain and simple. You can expect 120,000 miles a year, at least at CFI that is. If you work a year, take your 52 days at home, and make responsible use of your hours there is no reason to get less. That's an average of 2,300 miles a week over the course of the year. If you figure it based on only being on the road 45 weeks, it's an average of 2,666. Some weeks you'll go home and won't make anything. Some weeks you'll run your balls off and push 4,000. I got 140,000 in my first year, but I am pretty sure this is the exception and not the rule.

If I can get 140,000 and take all of my days off, 120,000 should be expected for anyone. I don't speed, I don't cheat on my log, and I don't have any friends in operations. I'm a regular newbie driver just trying to stay busy.

Here's what I think about people who bitch about miles; They take the good times and keep their mouth shut, thinking they're just getting what is coming to them. Then things slow down. This business is as cyclical as everything else. When they slow down, one or two bad paychecks come along, and everybody comes out of the woodwork to say they're getting screwed.

I've had people ask why my miles have always been good, and I really have no simple answer. Here are some things I always try to keep in mind though.

(1) If I get a dispatch that looks like it will be tough to fit within my hours, I make it fit. If it's just impossible, that's another story. I don't run illegal, but if cutting a ten hour break to nine hours and forty five minutes will keep me from missing a load, come on.

(2) I make use of the split-sleeper provision to use my hours as efficiently as possible. You'll learn the logging rules in school, but nobody seems to master the split-sleeper. Used properly, this can mean the difference between taking the standard ten hour break and being able to get by with just eight hours. As you may have read on here, this has been the difference between making runs on time and having to pass them up as recently as last week.

(3) I don't complain. Pure and simple, I don't bitch about anything. I'll get online and rant about how dumb the dispatchers are from time to time, but they'll never hear anything other than "please" and "thank you" from me. I have no idea if they have any way of keeping track of this stuff, but it seems to me that people who huff and puff about little things the most are the ones who end up bitching about their miles the most too. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I'll stick with what works for me. All of the "I don't want to go to the northeast," "That dispatch is too tight," "I hate running overnight," and the rest of it will just earn you a reputation as a pain in the ass, as far as I'm concerned.

(4) I try like hell to get a full ten hour break either at the customer, or right near the customer, before I get unloaded. That way, when I send in my empty call, I haven't started burning the time off my 14 hour clock. If I still have a full 11 and 14 available, the planners (which is a generous title, BTW) have more options to get me a good load. If I have to drive a half hour, then spend an hour and a half at the dock, my 14 hour clock ticks away while I wait.

(5) Whenever we're at a terminal, we get to choose a load from those that are available. Sometimes there's only one and that's what you get. When we have a choice though, the general mentality of drivers is to take the one with the most miles. I try to put a little more thought into it. Maybe one that has a hundred fewer miles will land me in Chicago, where I know I'll get my next assignment right away. Maybe one that takes an extra day will land me in Maine, where I know the run out will be a long one. I haven't mastered this process yet, as I'm only a year in and still learning, but I'm working on it. Getting to know the freight lanes and avoiding the 'herd' seems to pay off more often than not.

Good questions Kurbski, and hopefully some of that info will be useful. I put your ASU question on the CFIDrivers.com forum, so I think you'll get some good info there too. I saw today that your registration finally went through.

My brother starts his career as a firefighter on Monday. He's been working as an EMT for a few years now and finally got hired on with a good department. You guys are one of the few remaining holdouts with a defined-benefit pension. He's pretty excited about that. Haha, 22 years old and looking forward to retirement. Anyhow, time for a nap now. Cheers.