Lake City, FL

From the northern border of KY, I got a load to West Palm Beach. It was the replacement of a load which had been stolen, and was very important. I had to make use of all my knowlege of wormholes and temporal distortions.

It paid very well. The problem is, I have already dead-headed back here about 300 miles, and am awaiting a return load assignment. This will probably be at least another 100 miles away in GA. It will be paper, and very heavy, and pay very little.

Despite this, because of all the monies I have invested in this truck, I will probably have netted more money than I had been netting in a week.

I got 6.0 mpg's, but that was mostly at 71 mph, with 40+ thousand pounds, and through a lot of big hills and small mountains.

I wish I had my fuel monitor--I have to calculate mpg's the old fashioned way. I can only guess that for the deadhead miles I got 7.2 mpg's.

Things bother me already. Like, I call them from West Palm Beach and say I'm going to be HERE at a certain time and need a return load, and they say "call me when you get there".

In other words, they know I'll be here, but won't assign me a load until I physicly arrive. Then I get here, and there are no loads--I need to wait overnight and call again in the morning.

Now it's 0945 and they have started looking for my load. You see it, right? Why couldn't I have got a load assignment yesterday afternoon? Why couldn't I have gone right through here and been at the shipper last night? Why, instead of being here, couldn't I be 300 miles north by now, and probably arrive at the reciever tonight?

As it is, I won't get to any shipper before noon, and won't get out of there til 1300. Probably can't deliver til tomorrow afternoon, and--you can see the chain reaction.

And the Qualcom. Some of the guys use it to send directions. Others just use it to tell me to call them, so they can verbally deliver all information. I just don't get it.

It's my first full week, so I can't start complaining already. So for now, I'll try to work around it. When I get back to base, I'll ask them about this stuff.

Anyway, I did really well on this last load, which showed them something. (You always need to prove yourself to dispatchers. Your record at other companies doesn't mean a lot to them.)

Anyway, since they've got me stuck with probably delivering paper to Ohio tomorrow afternoon, maybe I'll get a south Texas load for monday delivery. That would be a very good week.

Freight coming out of southern Ohio pays well. The flip-side is, freight coming out of many parts of Texas pays very little.

Market forces dictate this. Where there are a lot of trucks available, the rate is lower. I could gross over 3k going down there, and 1.1k coming back (I get no surcharge, either). Factoring in fuel costs, the return trip might be damn near a wash. I simply have to regard the whole thing as one trip.

Damn, I have to talk to them when I get there. Ed, the boss dispatcher, told me to give them about an hour. Does that mean that when he finds a load for me, he just sort of puts it on his desk and waits for me to call?

I just called. Brian said that Ed had stepped out, and he would look on his desk. Yep. And I'm supposed to call back in about five minutes.

OK. They're pretty laid back. I hate making all these phone calls, but I guess I can get used to it.

My eye remains on the prize. Last week's check will be chump-change, but this week's will be pretty good. I won't go out of my way to get back to base and get my PO Box, but if I do, I can start ordering the smaller stuff I need, like the ceramic treatment and data signal booster.

After about mid-September, I can finally order my hydrogen generator. I should be close enough to my preventive maintenance to go ahead and get that all that stuff done at once.

...jeez. I just called again. Ed said nothing yet. I said I have a Qualcom and didn't want to keep calling him. He said that's okay--keep calling him every hour or two.
I hate that.

However, I was never one to dwell on the negative for more than about ninety seconds. This also means that whenever I need a 34 hour break, or to take care of some business, I can simply not call them. Seems as if, unless they have something urgent, they won't bug me.

So I got that goin for me....

Freight is slow. All he has right now is a paper load picking up tomorrow, and he's trying to get me something sooner.

Take the good with the bad. I can screw around here at this rest area, which aint so bad. I got grub, make tea in the microwave, got my APU keeping me comfy for relatively little money. I just made a good chunk of change, and what I do for the rest of this pay-period multiplies that.

With USA, Ryan tried to keep my running through the weekends, but often couldn't. That won't happen much with these guys: They have a lot of nice long runs. I can do 1500 miles (easily) on a saturday and sunday, and these guys have those loads.

I could get stuck, though. If Ed doesn't come up with a better load, and I'm delivering friday night, there might not be anything for me. In which case I'll get my PO Box and catch the Browns vs. the Cowboys.

Some guys are greedy and want to runrunrun. Others are lazy. I can do both. Life is good.