Back on my usual five and a half hours of sleep today, I feel like a million bucks. I got up in the morning, checked the truck and trailer over, and hit the road. I stopped for a delicious Subway BMT with double meat at lunchtime. The sun has been shining all day. I had the fortune of seeing several bikini-clad young ladies along the route. As far as easy drives go, heading north through Iowa and into southern Minnesota on a weekend has to be right up there among the easiest. There is hardly any traffic, the speed limits are 55-65 for the most part, and the roads are smooth and straight. It really doesn't feel like work at all sometimes.
I had planned to stop in Cannon Falls at a place listed in my truckstop directory, but circumstances changed my mind. I stopped in at a gas station here in Racine, MN to use the restroom and grab a soda. I wound up talking with a guy inside about the local racetrack that I passed, right down the street. He invited me to join him and some friends for tonight's festivities. While I'm about as far from being a race fan as one man can be, a chance to break up the routine is always welcome. So... a night at the races for me. I'll have a couple of hours to drive in the morning, but Sunday mornings are pretty mellow for the most part.
I added a feedback link to the bottom right hand side of the blog. I noticed that the blog has received quite a few clicks, but no comments, so I thought people may occasionally have questions that they prefer not to ask in public. The feedback form that pops up is spam-proof, which is why I chose that format rather than a direct link to my e-mail address. I actually received a question from a fella named Tony this afternoon. Tony provided me with a phony e-mail address, but it really makes no difference to me. The only reason the e-mail address is requested is so that I can respond to any questions if you ask me to. Tony's question is probably not all that interesting to most people, but it gave me a reason to take a little trip down memory lane, which is always fun.
Tony wondered what is up with the 'Godfather' handle, since it's no secret that I am of Irish descent and not Italian. Since he addressed the question to 'Vito,' and my name is Joe, I can only assume that he came upon the blog through some of my postings on one of the message forums related to trucking. The two that I frequent most often are classadrivers.com and cfidrivers.com, both with the screen name vitocorleone99. Okay Tony, here's the story...
I am a hell of a cook and I always have been. Back in the day, I would invite a group of people to my home and entertain them with various delectable dishes, most of which involved some form of pasta and a hearty red sauce. I would get the typical, "Are you sure you're not Italian? Chuckle, chuckle."
Then, on my wedding night, I sat back in my chair with a glass of red and in my well-tailored tux, just observing the guests having an enjoyable time. One friend quipped, "Look at the Godfather here." Again, chuckle, chuckle. Then a few of the other guys started playing along.
During that time I was running an entrepreneurial enterprise (for entertainment purposes only, of course) and would occasionally rub elbows with certain undesirable elements of society. At one point (in '99) a friend of mine was in a jam. I talked to a guy who talked to a guy who handled the situation for me. So my buddy was deemed 'Sal' (as in Tessio) and he started calling me 'Vito' (as in Corleone). From that point on it has always been a good little laugh between us.
So, story time's over. My ride to the races should be here shortly, so goodnight to all, and to all a goodnight.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
7/20/07
I slept until 11am today, with no alarm clock. Normally that would sound nice and restful, which I'm sure it was, but it's too much sleep for me. I imagine the complete lack of sleep the night before was a contributing factor. In any case, I have felt like crap all day. One of those days I guess.
I was rolling up I-55 and stopped in for fuel. I remembered to pick up my beloved American Express card, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. A short while later I pulled into a rest area to participate in the conference call with Herb Schmidt, our company's CEO. Since I know Herb has been inundated with questions from drivers who are scared about various issues surrounding the merger, I decided to ask about some potentially positive developments that I haven't heard addressed.
The drivers who spoke before I did spent some time addressing their concerns, so I only had time for two questions. My first question regarded the possibility of additional locations from which we would be handled by local dispatchers. We currently have five locations where, when our turn comes up, we get to choose a load from those that are available. I like this because sometimes a load that looks bad to another driver might look good to me. The outlook seems positive for the prospect of adding one or more of these locations at some point in the future.
The first step will be to use the ConWay and Menlo freight to even out our running lanes. Then we'll be adding local pickup and delivery drivers to the locations that have the most freight density. Having a local driver pickup and deliver will mean that all we have to do is arrive at the terminal, drop a trailer, grab another, and be on our way. Then, over the course of time, locations with sufficient traffic could be handed over to a local dispatch staff.
My second question was a more big-picture one. I think the reason some people fear mergers and acquisitions is that they see large corporations go into growth mode, buy up smaller ones, and see what's left. I wondered if ConWay's acquisition of CFI was one step in a larger growth plan, or if it was expected to be adequate to achieve their objectives. On this topic, I was told that the plan is to treat this as a one step deal, and then grow organically within the CFI framework as economic demand allows.
I had a few more questions, but they were no big deal. I imagine the only real answers to anyone's questions are going to require some time.
After the call, I got back on the road and made it just into Iowa where I'll spend the night. The practical route for this trip would have taken me up I-55 through Illinois and then angled over toward the twin cities. Instead I chose to run state highways up the east side of Missouri and the west side of Illinois. From here I'll have a pretty straight shot up into Minnesota. The net result is that I got a much more enjoyable and peaceful ride today, with virtually no traffic, and I'll be paid for around 60 more miles than I actually drive. Tomorrow I'll get as close to the customer as possible and prepare for a delivery early Sunday morning.
I was rolling up I-55 and stopped in for fuel. I remembered to pick up my beloved American Express card, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. A short while later I pulled into a rest area to participate in the conference call with Herb Schmidt, our company's CEO. Since I know Herb has been inundated with questions from drivers who are scared about various issues surrounding the merger, I decided to ask about some potentially positive developments that I haven't heard addressed.
The drivers who spoke before I did spent some time addressing their concerns, so I only had time for two questions. My first question regarded the possibility of additional locations from which we would be handled by local dispatchers. We currently have five locations where, when our turn comes up, we get to choose a load from those that are available. I like this because sometimes a load that looks bad to another driver might look good to me. The outlook seems positive for the prospect of adding one or more of these locations at some point in the future.
The first step will be to use the ConWay and Menlo freight to even out our running lanes. Then we'll be adding local pickup and delivery drivers to the locations that have the most freight density. Having a local driver pickup and deliver will mean that all we have to do is arrive at the terminal, drop a trailer, grab another, and be on our way. Then, over the course of time, locations with sufficient traffic could be handed over to a local dispatch staff.
My second question was a more big-picture one. I think the reason some people fear mergers and acquisitions is that they see large corporations go into growth mode, buy up smaller ones, and see what's left. I wondered if ConWay's acquisition of CFI was one step in a larger growth plan, or if it was expected to be adequate to achieve their objectives. On this topic, I was told that the plan is to treat this as a one step deal, and then grow organically within the CFI framework as economic demand allows.
I had a few more questions, but they were no big deal. I imagine the only real answers to anyone's questions are going to require some time.
After the call, I got back on the road and made it just into Iowa where I'll spend the night. The practical route for this trip would have taken me up I-55 through Illinois and then angled over toward the twin cities. Instead I chose to run state highways up the east side of Missouri and the west side of Illinois. From here I'll have a pretty straight shot up into Minnesota. The net result is that I got a much more enjoyable and peaceful ride today, with virtually no traffic, and I'll be paid for around 60 more miles than I actually drive. Tomorrow I'll get as close to the customer as possible and prepare for a delivery early Sunday morning.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
7/19/07
If my day was finished at 10am, it would have sounded something like this:
I tossed and turned all night. I couldn't get to sleep for the life of me, so I woke up completely exhausted to the sound of my alarm this morning. I went inside and grabbed a case of sodas and an energy drink. Okay, here, I'll pay with my American Exp... Wait a minute, where the hell is my American Express card? I had cash in my wallet, so I paid and headed out to the truck to find my card. I use that thing for all of my expenses, so a lost card is a major issue. I pay my bills on it, I buy groceries with it, I put gas in my car with it. I get a nice breakdown of my expenses at the end of the month and pile up reward points in the process. I called the Pilot in Hayti, MO to see if it was there. That's where I stopped for fuel yesterday, so I had my fingers crossed. Yep, it's there. At least it's not in the hands of some criminal, but there's still the issue of my card being in Missouri while I'm in Mississippi. Well, time to get to work, we'll deal with that later.
On the way to my dropoff, I drank the energy drink that I had purchased. I'm not going to say what it did to my stomach, but you know what it did to my stomach. It took 20 miles to find a place with room to park and use the toilet. That may have been the longest 20 miles of my life. Ah, the glamorous life of a truck driver.
So my day was off to a glorious start, only to be continued when I got to my customer. The signs clearly instructed drivers to park in the area to the right and walk their paperwork to the security booth. As soon as I got started with my check-in, here comes a Swift driver. 'S'tudents 'W'ith 'I'diots 'F'or 'T'rainers sounds about right today. The dumbass driver, with his trainer sitting right next to him, pulled up right next to the security booth. His piece of shit Volvo was idling at about 1200 rpms. So I couldn't hear what the guard was telling me. I had to keep asking her to repeat herself. She kept looking at me like I was a retard. Then, once she had me all checked in, I walked back to my truck. But, oh yeah, I got to wait for the Swifty to check in since he was blocking the entrance. And the clock struck ten.
That's what my blog would have said, if my day had ended at 10am. If my day had started at 10am, it would have sounded more like this...
After I got to the dock, I caught a nice nap while they unloaded my trailer. Since the warehouse required me to unhook and park in front of the trailer while they worked, I didn't get bounced around by the forklift. Once I was empty, they brought me my paperwork and sent me on my way. The aforementioned parking area had plenty of room for me to pull in and take a break.
I then made a call to a fellow CFI driver. He operates the website cfidrivers.com in an effort to share information with people thinking about a driving career at CFI, as well as some of us drivers who just like to argue about things. Our CEO has been making a concerted effort to communicate with the drivers and field their questions as everyone wonders about the effects of our upcoming merger with ConWay. The driver with whom I spoke today has been able to exchange thoughts with our CEO each afternoon. He asked if I would care to participate in a conference call between himself, our CEO, and a few other drivers tomorrow afternoon. Since there are really very few things in this world that concern me, I'm not quite sure I have any questions to ask. The fact that somebody thinks my input may be useful was enough reason to decide that I can come up with something to contribute by tomorrow, so I'll be participating in the call.
As I was on the phone, my communications unit beeped, apprising me of my next load. It was to be picked up in Meridian, Mississippi and delivered in Fridley, Minnesota. By golly, that will mean I'll be stopping for fuel at the Pilot in Hayti, Missouri. My American Express card will only be getting a very short vacation after all. Nice. Having to cancel the card and have one re-issued is just a royal pain in the ass. Now I can pick it up in the morning.
As I rolled past all of the catfish farms in Mississippi this afternoon, I started to think some down-home cooking sounded pretty good. Like yesterday though, I'm unfamiliar with the surroundings so I wasn't sure where I could stop. As I rolled past I-55 on MS-35, I saw a truck stop with a sign out front - "Down Home Cafe." Catfish filets, hush puppies, fries, beauty. Ahh, that sure did hit the spot.
I arrived at my customer a couple of hours later, five hours before my scheduled pick-up. My trailer was already loaded and ready to roll. I dropped my empty and idled along, looking for my new trailer. It wasn't among the rows of trailers along the fence. Nope, the fence line was full, so my loaded trailer was sitting down at the end all by itself. Easy to get to, easy to pull. The weight is only 14,000 pounds. Traffic was light, the sun was shining, and so on and so on.
It occurs to me as a write this that the majority of truck drivers I've met would prefer to focus on the first three hours of this rather pleasant day. I just don't get it. Days like today cause me to sincerely question whether I would like to take a job closer to home. I would experience the same monotony day after day, and days like today would only be memories.
I have to pass along a gem that I had the fortune of hearing on the radio tonight. I have very little respect for the folks at The Daily Show. They take potshots at anyone on the right end of the political spectrum, even though the hilarity can be found all over the political landscape. Credit must be given where credit is due though. Their bit lampooning the Democrats (even if unintentional) was awesome. The Senate is modeled after the British House of Lords, the respected, deliberate, thoughtful body in the political world. They serve longer terms so that they may be less swayed by short-term opinion polls. They require 60 votes for cloture so that they must work to achieve common ground. The Senate, my friends, has been reduced to this:
That is just too funny to ignore.
I tossed and turned all night. I couldn't get to sleep for the life of me, so I woke up completely exhausted to the sound of my alarm this morning. I went inside and grabbed a case of sodas and an energy drink. Okay, here, I'll pay with my American Exp... Wait a minute, where the hell is my American Express card? I had cash in my wallet, so I paid and headed out to the truck to find my card. I use that thing for all of my expenses, so a lost card is a major issue. I pay my bills on it, I buy groceries with it, I put gas in my car with it. I get a nice breakdown of my expenses at the end of the month and pile up reward points in the process. I called the Pilot in Hayti, MO to see if it was there. That's where I stopped for fuel yesterday, so I had my fingers crossed. Yep, it's there. At least it's not in the hands of some criminal, but there's still the issue of my card being in Missouri while I'm in Mississippi. Well, time to get to work, we'll deal with that later.
On the way to my dropoff, I drank the energy drink that I had purchased. I'm not going to say what it did to my stomach, but you know what it did to my stomach. It took 20 miles to find a place with room to park and use the toilet. That may have been the longest 20 miles of my life. Ah, the glamorous life of a truck driver.
So my day was off to a glorious start, only to be continued when I got to my customer. The signs clearly instructed drivers to park in the area to the right and walk their paperwork to the security booth. As soon as I got started with my check-in, here comes a Swift driver. 'S'tudents 'W'ith 'I'diots 'F'or 'T'rainers sounds about right today. The dumbass driver, with his trainer sitting right next to him, pulled up right next to the security booth. His piece of shit Volvo was idling at about 1200 rpms. So I couldn't hear what the guard was telling me. I had to keep asking her to repeat herself. She kept looking at me like I was a retard. Then, once she had me all checked in, I walked back to my truck. But, oh yeah, I got to wait for the Swifty to check in since he was blocking the entrance. And the clock struck ten.
That's what my blog would have said, if my day had ended at 10am. If my day had started at 10am, it would have sounded more like this...
After I got to the dock, I caught a nice nap while they unloaded my trailer. Since the warehouse required me to unhook and park in front of the trailer while they worked, I didn't get bounced around by the forklift. Once I was empty, they brought me my paperwork and sent me on my way. The aforementioned parking area had plenty of room for me to pull in and take a break.
I then made a call to a fellow CFI driver. He operates the website cfidrivers.com in an effort to share information with people thinking about a driving career at CFI, as well as some of us drivers who just like to argue about things. Our CEO has been making a concerted effort to communicate with the drivers and field their questions as everyone wonders about the effects of our upcoming merger with ConWay. The driver with whom I spoke today has been able to exchange thoughts with our CEO each afternoon. He asked if I would care to participate in a conference call between himself, our CEO, and a few other drivers tomorrow afternoon. Since there are really very few things in this world that concern me, I'm not quite sure I have any questions to ask. The fact that somebody thinks my input may be useful was enough reason to decide that I can come up with something to contribute by tomorrow, so I'll be participating in the call.
As I was on the phone, my communications unit beeped, apprising me of my next load. It was to be picked up in Meridian, Mississippi and delivered in Fridley, Minnesota. By golly, that will mean I'll be stopping for fuel at the Pilot in Hayti, Missouri. My American Express card will only be getting a very short vacation after all. Nice. Having to cancel the card and have one re-issued is just a royal pain in the ass. Now I can pick it up in the morning.
As I rolled past all of the catfish farms in Mississippi this afternoon, I started to think some down-home cooking sounded pretty good. Like yesterday though, I'm unfamiliar with the surroundings so I wasn't sure where I could stop. As I rolled past I-55 on MS-35, I saw a truck stop with a sign out front - "Down Home Cafe." Catfish filets, hush puppies, fries, beauty. Ahh, that sure did hit the spot.
I arrived at my customer a couple of hours later, five hours before my scheduled pick-up. My trailer was already loaded and ready to roll. I dropped my empty and idled along, looking for my new trailer. It wasn't among the rows of trailers along the fence. Nope, the fence line was full, so my loaded trailer was sitting down at the end all by itself. Easy to get to, easy to pull. The weight is only 14,000 pounds. Traffic was light, the sun was shining, and so on and so on.
It occurs to me as a write this that the majority of truck drivers I've met would prefer to focus on the first three hours of this rather pleasant day. I just don't get it. Days like today cause me to sincerely question whether I would like to take a job closer to home. I would experience the same monotony day after day, and days like today would only be memories.
I have to pass along a gem that I had the fortune of hearing on the radio tonight. I have very little respect for the folks at The Daily Show. They take potshots at anyone on the right end of the political spectrum, even though the hilarity can be found all over the political landscape. Credit must be given where credit is due though. Their bit lampooning the Democrats (even if unintentional) was awesome. The Senate is modeled after the British House of Lords, the respected, deliberate, thoughtful body in the political world. They serve longer terms so that they may be less swayed by short-term opinion polls. They require 60 votes for cloture so that they must work to achieve common ground. The Senate, my friends, has been reduced to this:
That is just too funny to ignore.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
7/18/07
Pretty smooth day today, so that's always nice. I started off around 9am and headed over to my pick-up. I had to make a stop at a rest area along the way when it occurred to me that I hadn't swept out my trailer since picking it up yesterday. Whenever we drop an empty at Procter & Gamble, we have to make sure it's clean and dry. No big deal, only took a few minutes.
When I got the bills from the security guard, I took a look at the weight of the load I would be picking up. I knew I would be running some hills in Missouri, so a light load would have been nice. 7,800 pounds. Groovy. Then, when I hooked to my trailer, it sure didn't feel like 7,800 pounds. I took a second look and realized that there were two bills. Combined, their weight was 44,000 pounds. Damn.
The weight can make the hills tedious, but the governors that companies put on these trucks only make it worse. Coming through the area south of St. Louis I found myself behind a Schneider driver and a JB Hunt driver. Both of those companies govern their trucks at 65mph. The JB Hunt truck was apparently lighter than the Schneider, so he tried to pass going up a hill. The problem was that he wasn't much lighter so he couldn't get past the Schneider on the way up. Then, coming down, the Schneider would pull back ahead. Instead of one or the other just realizing that they were both going the same speed and falling back in line, these two played cat and mouse up and down the hills for ten miles. Freaking obnoxious.
My truck is governed at 70mph, so if one of them would have just let the other pull ahead I could have gone around. My company has asked us to cruise at 65mph in order to conserve fuel, but in some cases I take a little liberty with the extra horsepower. Hauling 44,000 pounds up and down hills is one of those cases. Since the speed limit in Missouri is 70mph, I was trying to maintain that speed so my momentum could carry me further up the hills before I would have to downshift. When you are losing speed due to an incline, it's not exactly a straight-line equation. You might hit a hill at 70mph and, by the time you crest the hill, you're going 55mph and have downshifted one gear. If you hit the same hill at 65mph, you may very well end up going over the top at 42mph and have dropped three gears. These jagoff drivers left me shifting up and shifting down and flooring the gas and riding the brakes and just not enjoying the ride a whole lot. C'est la vie.
I caught a conference call with my company's CEO on the way through Missouri. He mostly re-stated some of the things he's already been saying about our upcoming merger, but he did address one interesting additional topic. On the subject of cross-border trucking, CFI has consistently been opposed to plans to allow Mexican trucks on American highways. I had speculated that, once we join the larger ConWay firm, CFI's interests may shift to the point that cross-border trucking becomes more of a positive. Mr. Schmidt told us that, after some conversation, ConWay has changed its stance and adopted CFI's position of opposition to the program. Very interesting. Essentially our CEO has placed the well-being and security of his drivers above the potential for greater returns to his new shareholders. That's a rarity in today's world. I'm not entirely sure it's the correct business approach, but it was interesting nonetheless.
I got into Mississippi tonight and I'm currently about 65 miles from tomorrow's drop. I had time to make it all the way, but the customer won't unload me early and they don't allow overnight parking. I'm running some US highways that I've never seen before and I couldn't find any nearby truckstops in my directory. When I saw a gas station with some available parking I decided to call it a night rather than roll further down the road and find that I had nowhere to rest.
Lately the radio has been devoid of interesting conversation, so tonight was fairly refreshing. Rusty Humphries was really on his game. The dominant topic was a recent appearance by Michelle Obama before a group of women. The sound clips were absolutely hilarious when you considered their context, and Rusty was giving it a pretty good dose of his own humor. Apparently Mrs. Obama was lamenting the fact that women in America have an absolutely awful life and we need her husband to make the government take care of everything. I'm not a political preacher, so I don't intend to get into the substance of the topic, but the episode was quite entertaining.
Another day, another trucking recruiter. When I acquired my NASD Series 7 license to become a stockbroker, I became a sought-after commodity in the financial world. I regularly received unsolicited job offers from people who knew nothing about me. They knew I had the license and that put me into a select group. Apparently a CDL license has a similar effect. I have contacted a few companies for information over the course of time. More than anything I like to satisfy my curiosity about what is out there, but if another company had the ideal package to offer me I would consider making a move from my current job. If I could earn a nice living and be able to play baseball in the summer, I might like that better than what I'm doing now. The thing is that I haven't contacted many people and the ones that I have contacted have consistently reinforced the fact that my current job is better than most of what is out there. I now get calls and e-mails from companies in which I have never expressed an interest. Schneider sent me an e-mail today. I have no desire to speak with them, but maybe I should reply and tell them to educate their drivers about running a truck governed below the speed limit.
When I got the bills from the security guard, I took a look at the weight of the load I would be picking up. I knew I would be running some hills in Missouri, so a light load would have been nice. 7,800 pounds. Groovy. Then, when I hooked to my trailer, it sure didn't feel like 7,800 pounds. I took a second look and realized that there were two bills. Combined, their weight was 44,000 pounds. Damn.
The weight can make the hills tedious, but the governors that companies put on these trucks only make it worse. Coming through the area south of St. Louis I found myself behind a Schneider driver and a JB Hunt driver. Both of those companies govern their trucks at 65mph. The JB Hunt truck was apparently lighter than the Schneider, so he tried to pass going up a hill. The problem was that he wasn't much lighter so he couldn't get past the Schneider on the way up. Then, coming down, the Schneider would pull back ahead. Instead of one or the other just realizing that they were both going the same speed and falling back in line, these two played cat and mouse up and down the hills for ten miles. Freaking obnoxious.
My truck is governed at 70mph, so if one of them would have just let the other pull ahead I could have gone around. My company has asked us to cruise at 65mph in order to conserve fuel, but in some cases I take a little liberty with the extra horsepower. Hauling 44,000 pounds up and down hills is one of those cases. Since the speed limit in Missouri is 70mph, I was trying to maintain that speed so my momentum could carry me further up the hills before I would have to downshift. When you are losing speed due to an incline, it's not exactly a straight-line equation. You might hit a hill at 70mph and, by the time you crest the hill, you're going 55mph and have downshifted one gear. If you hit the same hill at 65mph, you may very well end up going over the top at 42mph and have dropped three gears. These jagoff drivers left me shifting up and shifting down and flooring the gas and riding the brakes and just not enjoying the ride a whole lot. C'est la vie.
I caught a conference call with my company's CEO on the way through Missouri. He mostly re-stated some of the things he's already been saying about our upcoming merger, but he did address one interesting additional topic. On the subject of cross-border trucking, CFI has consistently been opposed to plans to allow Mexican trucks on American highways. I had speculated that, once we join the larger ConWay firm, CFI's interests may shift to the point that cross-border trucking becomes more of a positive. Mr. Schmidt told us that, after some conversation, ConWay has changed its stance and adopted CFI's position of opposition to the program. Very interesting. Essentially our CEO has placed the well-being and security of his drivers above the potential for greater returns to his new shareholders. That's a rarity in today's world. I'm not entirely sure it's the correct business approach, but it was interesting nonetheless.
I got into Mississippi tonight and I'm currently about 65 miles from tomorrow's drop. I had time to make it all the way, but the customer won't unload me early and they don't allow overnight parking. I'm running some US highways that I've never seen before and I couldn't find any nearby truckstops in my directory. When I saw a gas station with some available parking I decided to call it a night rather than roll further down the road and find that I had nowhere to rest.
Lately the radio has been devoid of interesting conversation, so tonight was fairly refreshing. Rusty Humphries was really on his game. The dominant topic was a recent appearance by Michelle Obama before a group of women. The sound clips were absolutely hilarious when you considered their context, and Rusty was giving it a pretty good dose of his own humor. Apparently Mrs. Obama was lamenting the fact that women in America have an absolutely awful life and we need her husband to make the government take care of everything. I'm not a political preacher, so I don't intend to get into the substance of the topic, but the episode was quite entertaining.
Another day, another trucking recruiter. When I acquired my NASD Series 7 license to become a stockbroker, I became a sought-after commodity in the financial world. I regularly received unsolicited job offers from people who knew nothing about me. They knew I had the license and that put me into a select group. Apparently a CDL license has a similar effect. I have contacted a few companies for information over the course of time. More than anything I like to satisfy my curiosity about what is out there, but if another company had the ideal package to offer me I would consider making a move from my current job. If I could earn a nice living and be able to play baseball in the summer, I might like that better than what I'm doing now. The thing is that I haven't contacted many people and the ones that I have contacted have consistently reinforced the fact that my current job is better than most of what is out there. I now get calls and e-mails from companies in which I have never expressed an interest. Schneider sent me an e-mail today. I have no desire to speak with them, but maybe I should reply and tell them to educate their drivers about running a truck governed below the speed limit.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
7/17/07
Pretty uneventful day really. I made it just south of Fort Wayne before I got tired and needed a nap. After a quick rest, I finished off the run into Southern Illinois. About halfway down I got a pre-plan for my next load. I like pre-plans, so I was feeling pretty good until I realized that it's a load picking up tomorrow, fifty miles away from today's delivery. I wasn't scheduled to get down here until 11pm tonight, so I suppose that makes sense. The funny thing is that, without a pre-plan, I probably would have gotten something sooner since I arrived seven hours early, but that's life I guess. I'm not about to start complaining about pre-plans.
The conversations surrounding my company's upcoming sale are getting to be pretty comical. Most of us just go about our business and let the suits do what suits do, but a few people are absolutely convinced that they're getting screwed. They can't really say why, but they're sure of it.
I got a call from a local outfit close to home today, but I couldn't really nail them down regarding pay. As much as people like to think local and LTL drivers have it made, in reality most of them earn less money than I do and deal with more hassles in the process. The criticisms of OTR jobs are widely known, but the fact that we march to our own beat and nobody really bothers us tends to be grossly underrated. Sure we don't get paid for waiting at a dock, but I usually watch a DVD or whatever while I'm there. I'm pretty sure most jobs don't pay you for watching movies, so I guess it's all a matter of perspective.
The political conversation today is bordering on the absurd. "If you don't give us what we want, we'll make everybody stay at the Capitol all night!" Hilarious. It would be amazing if the elected politicians actually tried to accomplish something once in a while.
Now I guess it's time to grab some grub and listen to the Tigers. Tomorrow looks to be a pretty long day, so I'll try to get a decent night's sleep after the game.
The conversations surrounding my company's upcoming sale are getting to be pretty comical. Most of us just go about our business and let the suits do what suits do, but a few people are absolutely convinced that they're getting screwed. They can't really say why, but they're sure of it.
I got a call from a local outfit close to home today, but I couldn't really nail them down regarding pay. As much as people like to think local and LTL drivers have it made, in reality most of them earn less money than I do and deal with more hassles in the process. The criticisms of OTR jobs are widely known, but the fact that we march to our own beat and nobody really bothers us tends to be grossly underrated. Sure we don't get paid for waiting at a dock, but I usually watch a DVD or whatever while I'm there. I'm pretty sure most jobs don't pay you for watching movies, so I guess it's all a matter of perspective.
The political conversation today is bordering on the absurd. "If you don't give us what we want, we'll make everybody stay at the Capitol all night!" Hilarious. It would be amazing if the elected politicians actually tried to accomplish something once in a while.
Now I guess it's time to grab some grub and listen to the Tigers. Tomorrow looks to be a pretty long day, so I'll try to get a decent night's sleep after the game.
Monday, July 16, 2007
7/16/07
Well, as expected, the truck was ready first thing this morning when I called the dealership. I picked it up and called the Taylor terminal to have them put me on the ready board. I was told that there were four trucks ahead of me, so I let the dispatcher know that I was going to come by my apartment and grab some laundry and things. I told them to give me a call when my turn came up. When I got home, I signed in to the web portal and found that I was actually #10 on the board. I'm not sure where the other five trucks came from, but whatever. In reality I was hoping my truck wasn't ready yet because I have been pretty tired all day. Being a little further down the list gave me more time to rest.
I got to choose from a few loads when my turn came up, so I took one picking up right down the street from our terminal late tonight and then delivering in Nashville, Illinois tomorrow night. It's a drop/hook delivery, so I can arrive early and get rid of the load without waiting if I want to. Whenever I've been home for a while, I tend to get tired after only a few hours on the road. The fact that my scheduled arrival isn't until tomorrow night means I can pull over and sleep if necessary. That flexibility was the main reason I chose this run. Plus the 512 miles for my first day back on the job is a pretty solid day's work.
When I read my e-mail this morning, there was an announcement that many would consider a bombshell, although it sounds to me like it shouldn't have been a huge surprise. According to a press release CFI is going to be acquired by ConWay this fall. ConWay is another trucking company that focuses less on long-haul truckload operations and more on shorter less-than-truckload operations. They have a small, rather unprofitable, truckload division that will now be folded into CFI's outfit. In exchange, the entire CFI operation will fall under the ConWay umbrella.
What does this mean for OTR drivers like me? Nothing really. That's the humorous part about the hysteria surrounding this type of announcement. We perform an unskilled job. We pick up freight at point A and drop it off at point B. As long as the companies involved continue to move freight from A to B, we'll continue to pull it. "Will we lose the family atmosphere?" Who gives a damn? "What will the logo on the trucks be?" Who gives a damn? "Will we have to change the way we run in bad weather?" Who gives a damn? "Will we get more days off / higher pay / better benefits?" Who gives a damn? "Will we have to wear uniforms?" Who gives a damn? If I were ever that concerned about any of these things, I would leave my employer and go in search of a company that offered what I was seeking. Freedom is a beautiful thing.
I listened to the conference call held for the investment bankers. I was struck at just how unprepared the people hosting the call appeared to be. Several questions were met with contradictory answers. Several others were swept aside. The only answers that made any sense were not really the types that investment bankers want to hear. The financial guys were noticeably unimpressed, as they should have been. Leaving the financial end aside, some potential positives, as far as the driving job goes, seemed to make a lot of sense to me:
I got to choose from a few loads when my turn came up, so I took one picking up right down the street from our terminal late tonight and then delivering in Nashville, Illinois tomorrow night. It's a drop/hook delivery, so I can arrive early and get rid of the load without waiting if I want to. Whenever I've been home for a while, I tend to get tired after only a few hours on the road. The fact that my scheduled arrival isn't until tomorrow night means I can pull over and sleep if necessary. That flexibility was the main reason I chose this run. Plus the 512 miles for my first day back on the job is a pretty solid day's work.
When I read my e-mail this morning, there was an announcement that many would consider a bombshell, although it sounds to me like it shouldn't have been a huge surprise. According to a press release CFI is going to be acquired by ConWay this fall. ConWay is another trucking company that focuses less on long-haul truckload operations and more on shorter less-than-truckload operations. They have a small, rather unprofitable, truckload division that will now be folded into CFI's outfit. In exchange, the entire CFI operation will fall under the ConWay umbrella.
What does this mean for OTR drivers like me? Nothing really. That's the humorous part about the hysteria surrounding this type of announcement. We perform an unskilled job. We pick up freight at point A and drop it off at point B. As long as the companies involved continue to move freight from A to B, we'll continue to pull it. "Will we lose the family atmosphere?" Who gives a damn? "What will the logo on the trucks be?" Who gives a damn? "Will we have to change the way we run in bad weather?" Who gives a damn? "Will we get more days off / higher pay / better benefits?" Who gives a damn? "Will we have to wear uniforms?" Who gives a damn? If I were ever that concerned about any of these things, I would leave my employer and go in search of a company that offered what I was seeking. Freedom is a beautiful thing.
I listened to the conference call held for the investment bankers. I was struck at just how unprepared the people hosting the call appeared to be. Several questions were met with contradictory answers. Several others were swept aside. The only answers that made any sense were not really the types that investment bankers want to hear. The financial guys were noticeably unimpressed, as they should have been. Leaving the financial end aside, some potential positives, as far as the driving job goes, seemed to make a lot of sense to me:
- We'll have access to several hundred of ConWay's locations across the country. The extra real estate is a huge help to OTR drivers. We'll never be far from a place to rest, a place to fuel, a place to shower, a place to drop off or pick up a load, a place to scale a load, or a place to eat.
- We'll have priority status with respect to another ConWay division, Menlo Logistics. When Menlo has a customer in need of service from point to point, that service can be provided by CFI trucks first if they are available. More pre-planning and less sitting are always good things.
- The nature of ConWay's terminal network is such that several new dedicated lanes are likely to be established. On a given day there is quite a bit of freight being shipped from one ConWay terminal, past other Conway terminals, and on to a final ConWay terminal. ConWay typically farms out most of this kind of work since they don't have many truckload drivers. CFI has been the largest provider of these services. It doesn't seem to be a huge leap that some CFI drivers will soon be able to take the same runs every day or every other day, relaying them at outlying terminals and ending up back at a terminal near their homes.
- Many OTR drivers, after acquiring the necessary experience, like to move into LTL or local positions. One of the most reputable companies providing these positions has been ConWay Freight. Now, a CFI driver hoping to gain one of these positions will not be an outsider, but rather an inside hire. This seems like a benefit to me.
- Insurance is an issue for a lot of drivers. It really doesn't matter to me because I am bulletproof, but some people like to whine about 'benefits' even though they have no clue what they're whining about. Because CFI is a relatively small company, the benefit options are limited and CHEAP. The cheap part is what I like because, as I said, I'm bulletproof. Guys like me pay our insurance premiums so the sickly people of the world can save money on healthcare. The population at large is mostly ignorant about how insurance works, but they sure love to bitch about it when things don't go their way. As part of a larger company, the insurance options should spread the risk more thinly and keep premium costs down for those of us who don't care whether or not we can bilk $2 million from our plan.
There are some negatives that will certainly crop up, but those are likely to affect office personnel and maintenance personnel more than drivers. The two companies are holding onto the spin that any redundancies will be offset by growth opportunities but that's just stupid. You don't merge two companies without streamlining the combined company in the process. To do so would be irresponsible to shareholders. The fact that the execs were unprepared for some pretty simple questions during today's conference call tells me that they are really not as prepared for a $750 million transaction as they should be.
One of my pet theories that I have been developing over the past several weeks and months is related to the open border issue. I have listened to our CEO, Herb Schmidt, as he's done radio interviews professing that CFI is against an open border. I assumed that the reason was CFI's smaller size in the truckload marketplace and their fear of being undercut by the bigger carriers. The real story became more clear to me today. What follows is an unsubstantiated hypothesis formed solely in my own mind. It has not received feedback nor input from anyone at my company or any other company for that matter. I'll say what I have to say, but I don't want to give the impression that I have any information other than what I have observed.
- The NAFTA treaty was formed to provide North America with open-bordered trade in various forms. It is opposed by unions who know their members in the U.S. are overpaid. It is opposed by small businesses who are not positioned to take advantage of open borders the way that big businesses are. It is supported by the bigger businesses that stand to become much more profitable through the movement of jobs to cheaper markets.
- The recently debated pilot program to allow 150 Mexican trucks on our roads is much ado about nothing. If people really thought the trucks would be deemed unsafe by our standards, they would welcome a small number and then shout from the rooftops after those trucks had been inspected. Instead the opponents of the plan want to decry the lack of safety before the Mexican firms have even had a chance. 150 trucks added to America's highways, when the industry points to a shortage of several thousand trucks a year, would do little more than slightly alleviate a growing problem. The issue is a selfish one, just like every other issue pitting one industry against a growing nation's interests.
- Investment analysts have long pointed to two companies as the best plays in the trucking industry for those looking to seize upon the adoption of NAFTA - Celadon and... that's right, CFI. Until today I didn't know just how deeply entrenched CFI had become in Mexican freight, but during the conference call it was learned that 40% of CFI's revenue is derived from freight either going to Mexico or coming from Mexico. So, if Mexican companies no longer had to dump their northbound freight at the border and pick up their southbound freight at the border, who stands to lose the most? A company doing very little international business or a company doing a lot of international business? Hmm...
- ConWay owns Menlo Logistics, a company with a strong base in the worldwide logistics business. Their job is to, in their own words, "optimize the distribution of freight and freight-flow information from manufacturer to consumer." As manufacturers become more prevalent in Mexico, the process of getting their goods to the service-based American consumer will be very lucrative. With CFI's hooks in the border locations and Menlo's worldwide reach, the new ConWay Truckload will be positioned to employ Mexican drivers to pick up the slack and keep the megacarriers and smaller Mexican carriers from taking too big a bite out of CFI's international freight. CFI, on its own, wasn't big enough to leverage Mexican shippers if cheaper alternatives presented themselves. The only way to prevent cheaper alternatives from presenting themselves was to keep the border under wraps. I suspect that CFI, while not actively promoting the open border, won't be taking as hard a line against it as they had to before.
Well kids, I guess that's enough of Godfather's Black Helicopter Corporate Theatre for today. I think I'll head out for some dinner and take a nap before it's time to hit the road.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
7/15/07
Well, the laundry is done, the bills are paid, the phone calls and e-mails have been handled, so I should be ready to roll tomorrow morning. Still, there's always that sneaking suspicion that I've overlooked something.
Mom called this afternoon to say she was cooking Mexican food. That sounded good to me, so I headed over and watched the Tigers put a hurting on Seattle while we enjoyed a nice meal. Now I'll polish off the last of my liquid sandwiches before I head back to work.
I'll have to call the KW dealer in the morning to make sure the truck is ready, but they're usually pretty good about getting me on my way. So, one more night to kill...
Slainte!
Mom called this afternoon to say she was cooking Mexican food. That sounded good to me, so I headed over and watched the Tigers put a hurting on Seattle while we enjoyed a nice meal. Now I'll polish off the last of my liquid sandwiches before I head back to work.
I'll have to call the KW dealer in the morning to make sure the truck is ready, but they're usually pretty good about getting me on my way. So, one more night to kill...
Slainte!
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