3/27/08

Another nice easy day and another pre-planned load set up for tomorrow; I can't complain. I rolled out of Nashville bright and early and, aside from the morning rush through Knoxville, everything was cool. The load was only 18,000 pounds, pretty light by ConWay standards, so even the hills didn't cause me too much annoyance.

I got into Troutville a little over an hour early and made my relay. I had received a pre-plan before I left Nashville, so I knew what the next few days had in store before I got here. I will be picking up in Danville tomorrow and heading for Laredo. The load picks up at 11am and there really doesn't appear to be a lot of parking between here and Danville, so I guess I'll head down in the morning and take it from there.

The run to Laredo will put me above 2,660 miles for the week, so again I can't complain. In point of fact, I think this week will actually be below my average for the last couple of months. Since I generally treat 2,500 miles as my target average, I have to say the miles have been pretty damn good so far this year. I was told, more than a few times, that I couldn't get miles with a 65mph truck; that the one cent raise we got would amount to a pay cut. Going backward from this week, my miles since I got the slower truck have been:

2,663
4,000
2,083
3,171
2,740
3,447
2,260 (In Laredo until Wednesday afternoon)

So what is that, on average? 2,900 miles? In a slow truck (aka "pay cut")? Whatever, dude. It works for me. Obviously, the odds suggest that this pace won't continue indefinitely. The point remains though, that the speed of the truck has very little impact on the total miles driven. It's the availability of freight that makes all the difference.