4/1/08

I headed up to Fort Worth this morning and made my drop. The security guard made me slide my tandems back before I could enter the yard, meaning I would have to back into a door with a wide arc. Normally no problem, but if you read this blog much I'm sure you know where this is going. There were about fifty doors along the side of the building where I was headed. There was one fire hydrant surrounded by a concrete curb and some concrete posts. Guess whose door was right across from the fire hydrant. That was a royal pain in the ass.

I grabbed my empty and pulled out onto the street in order to pull some nails from the floor and send in my empty call. Since I was in the Lancaster zone, I assumed that I would be chilling out for a while. There were quite a few other CTL trucks hanging around at the time. By the time I got back into my truck though, I had an assignment. It said that I was to pick up in Fort Worth this evening and then make three drops in Colorado on Thursday. In actuality, the load shipped from Haslet, a little ways to the north. One of those ZIP code things I guess.

I headed up to the Pilot in Haslet and took a nap. After I woke up, I was still about three hours early but I went ahead and drove to the shipper. That shipper also required me to slide the tandems before I could enter, but they had plenty of room to maneuver the truck. The loaded trailer was ready to roll when I got there, so I made my drop/hook and headed west. This afternoon was nice and easy, rolling along US-287 toward Amarillo. I had time to knock out a couple hundred miles before my 14-hour clock ran out. I really don't know where I am right now, so I guess I'll have to figure that out so I can catch up my log book. I know that, given the miles I've driven to here, I should have somewhere around 500 miles to go in order to get to my first stop (Colorado Springs) tomorrow night. It's a store delivery for 5am Thursday morning so I'll be able to park at the dock. I'll try to get in tomorrow after the evening's business has died down, but I'll need to be there early enough to have ten hours of down time before I head to the next drop.

This run will put me at something over 1,200 miles by the time I'm empty on Thursday afternoon. I'll also have the pay for two extra stops, so a good weekend can make it a nice week overall. From Colorado, I really don't know what to expect. It seems that I've had pretty long runs coming out of there for the most part.

My safety bonus hit my bank account yesterday. I saw that the amount was roughly 20% less than I had anticipated, leading me to think it was time for another showdown with the CTL people. I thought they had miscalculated, but it looks like a taxation issue, according to a fellow driver who checked his withholding. Apparently ConWay just takes the lazy route when it comes to taxing wages. You have the option to use Line 1a of Section 7 of Publication 15, withholding a flat 25%. That's what ConWay does, based on yesterday's deposit to my bank account. You also have the option to use Line 1b, withholding according to the tax tables, which is what CFI (and I, when I owned a business, and every other employer I've ever had) did. On the big bonuses that I used to get, the tax tables would take a huge bite, so the 25% probably would have been better. On the $400-something safety bonuses that we get here, the tax tables are nowhere near 25%. Another hundred bucks on loan to the feds, interest-free until next year.