I'm not in Central Texas and I'm still not a regional driver, but the same pattern with the same customer seems to be repeating. As I was slumbering away this morning, tucked into my cozy sleeping bag, my satellite unit chirped and woke me with a new assignment. I would be heading back to the place in Waverly where I delivered yesterday (48 miles), then making a drop/hook to pick up a load headed for Grand Island (109 miles). Given that our pay periods run from 12am Sunday to 11:59pm Saturday, most weekends are spent finishing off the prior week's work. In that context, 157 miles for Sunday isn't a bad start to the week. Most weeks start on Monday or Tuesday with zero miles. As long as I don't get trapped in this regional business for a few days I should be fine.
The timeline that I was given, much like those of the short Texas regional runs, left me sort of in-between. The plan summary said that I was to pick up at 1am and deliver at 7am. If I picked up at 1am, then tomorrow's 14 hour clock would expire at 3pm (or sooner, given that I still had to drive to the shipper). Obviously this would be undesirable. My dispatch included the number of my loaded trailer though, so I was pretty sure that I would be able to pick it up early. I decided to hang around and see if my 'Skins could put an end to the Saints' undefeated season and then head over. At some point in the afternoon, the wind kicked up and a pretty steady snowfall began so I changed my mind. I decided that it would be best to knock out some miles this afternoon before the roads got too bad.
The cold temperatures, heavy winds, and steady traffic were enough to keep I-80 clear of any accumulation for the most part. There were a few tree-lined spots where the snow was building up along the edges of the road but nothing to really slow me down. At the shipper I found that my loaded trailer was in fact ready for me, so I made my drop/hook and continued on down the highway. I planned on spending the night at the Bosselman's in Grand Island and then heading over to the consignee in the morning.
By the time I got to the truck stop I found that the surface roads were already quite a bit worse than the freeway. So, after topping off the fuel tanks and grabbing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I decided that it would be best to go to the consignee tonight. I have no idea how much snow is going to fall overnight, but I would rather not wait and see. Plus it was easier to get into the shopping center area on a Sunday night than it would be on a Monday morning when people are driving to work. All told, things worked out pretty well.
For my Redskins on the other hand, things apparently didn't work out so well. In a perfectly predictable outcome, their kicker missed a 23 yard field goal that would have put the game away and the Saints came back to win in overtime. Probably best that I didn't hang around to watch that garbage after all. One giant year of frustration for me as a football fan, one might say. There's always next year though... or something.
Assigning regional/local type work to OTR drivers is one of the oldest tricks in the book Don. Big dollars to the company for those short loads that pay little to the CPM driver as opposed to hourly. Thanks a lot FLSA exemption!
ReplyDeleteBe careful on the snow and ice.
Don Barzini
I don't think it's so much a trick as it is that they use those runs as a stop-gap to keep us moving, at least in the Nebraska situation. Texas is another story from what I've heard. Some guys have said that they got caught in that loop for three or four days in a row. I got out on Day 2 when I was down there.
ReplyDelete$70 for three hours of work on a Sunday ain't so terrible though, as far as I can tell.