Hard Times

I just switched to a weekly rent at this hotel. Yesterday I put my new cellphone through the wash and I'm on my old backup now. That's right, I laundered my cellphone haha. I tried a blow-drier and stuff, and it went from lighting up the screen do a paperweight. I got it charging now but I'm not optimistic. I did get a warrantee though.

Yeah I'm ticked off too. Most brokers are business hours only. I find loads I want, and call to get voice-mail, if even that.

I see a load leaving Brownsville on tuesday and delivering to Ohio on monday the 22nd. I'm 300 miles away, and can't be deadheading down there just in case I get it and it pays anything, and as of business hours monday I probably won't have time to go get it.

There is nothing else, either. No new email alerts or postings for the carriers to screw me out of at warp-speed. These guys I swear have every broker on speed-dial and must hit the buttons the instant they see a load (without looking at it).

So I've revised my strategy, and will look farther ahead. That's why I took the weekly rent. It's insurance. If I get a load within four days, I lose more money on the hotel rent, but at least have a load to more than offset it. If I'm stuck for a week, I simply lose a bunch of extra money for sure.

Why a hotel? Well it's hotter in the cab than outside, and I have to run the A/C. I only have one free shower coming. In 24 hours even with the APU I could burn ten gallons, or over 20 bucks. If I take a shower at a truckstop, it's 9 bucks. I pay only a little more this way, plus preserve my fuel to give me more range--hence more options about where I will fuel once I do have a load.

I pay a little more this way, but not that much. And I can write off every penny of the hotel bills.

So there.

Anyway, Xmas is thursday. Nothing will happen until January 5th, probably. I'll look, but might be stuck until then.

So I'm looking ahead to the 26th, 29th, 30th, and the 5th.

My paid site has once again decided that my login information is wrong and has locked me out. But the persistant fact that no matter where I search there are simply zero loads available pretty much says they suck. I'm committed to 90 days, after which I can cancel. Which I will.

So it's the free loadboards for me...I'll do some more research on the others, since www.123loadboard.com DID have some loads that the others didn't.

With the Brownsville-to-Ohio load, I found them on the internet and got a working answering machine to leave a message on, and also emailed them. There's an outside chance they'll get back to me, but there's really nothing in it for them. If the load is any good, it'll be gone within five minutes on monday morning.

Another handicap I have is that my company doesn't have deals in-place with a lot of these brokers, so that when I try to claim a load, I then have to have them fax everything to the company--and the company just seems to ignore it more often than not.

On the first load, it wasn't a problem, but then Schneider wouldn't commit to me without the deal. So I had them fax their stuff, and when I called the company was told that they'd see to it. They didn't. A day later, I called Schneider for another load, and was told that they don't have anything on my company--

So you see, I should have had two loads, but because my company won't help me, I lost them.

Ever have one of those nightmares where you're running as fast as you can and can't go anywhere?