My Day By Day Experience At Eastern Freightways Flatbed Division

Well here we are. I've got my truck and picked up my first load Friday morning in Danville, PA and headed back to my home terminal in Concord, NH. This load is headed to Attleboro, MA on Monday for a 7am delivery. Actually the delivery window is from 7am.- 2pm. but my plan is to leave the terminal at 4am to get a jump on the Day/Week. I'm excited and a little nervous as I think about what lies ahead of me. If you have followed my previous thread on my experience with Eastern Freightways orientation and training then I thank you for following me on this new thread. If you just came across this thread first then here is the link to my other thread: Orientation/Training at Eastern Freightways

I look forward to sharing my experience, the good, bad and ugly. I'm one to always listen first then ask questions. I like to learn as much as possible with anything that I do. So I'm also looking forward to any advice and comments that you all may have.

Awesome. I dont read any diaries so this is the first I have read. What ya hauling for your first load?

Sweet (I was gonna say "awesome" but I didn't want to repeat)... I've been leaning towards going flatbed and I'm very excited to read your journal. I did follow your training diary and can't wait for this one.

Kewwll. As a fellow flatbedder I'll be following along. Good luck!

Awesome. I dont read any diaries so this is the first I have read. What ya hauling for your first load?

Hey @juicebox Sheetrock was my first load. We do a lot of it here at Eastern. I have some OSB Board now. Thank you for taking the time to read mine.

Sweet (I was gonna say "awesome" but I didn't want to repeat)... I've been leaning towards going flatbed and I'm very excited to read your journal. I did follow your training diary and can't wait for this one.

Hey Han Solo Cup. After all the research I did I personally found that it's where the money is! Plus I enjoy doing some physical labor and getting my hands dirty.

Kewwll. As a fellow flatbedder I'll be following along. Good luck!

Thank you Turtle! I'm sure we'll see each other out here one day!

Day 1

I lost my Verizon Hot Spot last night so I couldn't post this till now but here is Monday.......Up at 2:30am and got to the terminal a little after 4am. I moved the rest of my stuff in the truck, well threw it in the bunk is more like it. My plan was to finish taking care of it tonight. Which I did do. I had about a 2 hour drive to attleboro, MA and left around 5am. Hoping to get to the receiver as they opened. I needed to fuel so I asked the mechanic about the pump set up. Sweet same as I've been using. I drive around and fuel up the passenger side. Hmmm not sure if it will reach the drivers side or not.... Nope after a little tugging it was about 2" to short. Well 35 gallons is good enough to get me to MA. I head down the road and get on the interstate. #### it! I went north instead of south. Get off the next exit and get on the south on ramp. Traffic was light until around 495 which is always a cluster luckily I'm heading down 95s.

GPS says "take this exit". OK "Turn right" OK "Take your next right" Ummm no that looks like a residential neighborhood. I go past the turn and pull over, re-check my receiver info, google earth the place, recheck the info. Well it looks like it's back there so... Take the long way back around to the turn. Left, right, right, left DEAD END.. Check the info again.... Ahhhh I entered Fuller Drive and not Fuller Ave. Again, simple newbie mistake. The good thing that did come out of this was I became pretty good at some seriously tight right and left turns...

Got to the receiver at 7:40. Time to untarp and fold these babies. They were not pretty but it worked. Got unloaded pretty quick and received my next pre-plan. Picking up in south Windham, Ct headed to Phillipsburg, NJ It was a nice easy drive to CT. Got checked in and loaded pretty quick. Now it's strapping & tarping time. Roll em out, spread them over the sides and.... why are they uneven? err even them out and ready to bungee. "End flap first, no last wait I remember now".. 80* and I'm seriously sweating pretty bad. Loads tarped and looks freaking great. Time to go as far as we can.

Get ready to leave the shipper and what's that hissing noise from the Trailer protection valve? Our schools truck did that once. so I decided to take a trip to the Meriden terminal. I needed fuel anyways. Mechanic comes out and I apply the trailer breaks and wouldn't you know it, the canister is shot. I got it in within about 30 minutes and about an hour later we're good to go. Well that killed my plan. I was coming over 84w so I decided to get as far as I could. I was familiar with the area and was hoping to make it to the Montgomery terminal. 26 miles short and 5 mins left on my clock, Rest area it is.

Day 2 I actually slept like a baby last night. Woke up at around 4:45am feeling refreshed! Started the coffee pot and went out to Pre-Trip. Finish the pre-trip and coffee is done. This little 12v coffee maker isn’t that bad. The chord does get pretty warm though. My goal this week was to not spend any money. So far so good. Finish my coffee and head out for NJ. Nice ride without much traffic. I get to the receiver 5 minutes early. Nice little hardware store. Friendly people. I untarp and roll them. (Man it was hot at 8am.) and unstrap the load. I get my next pre-plan. Back to Danville, PA for a drop and hook. Wish it was that easy. This place tarps the load for you but you usually have to spend about 30 minutes fixing it so it doesn’t fall off. Sometimes they are not that bad but today was not one of them. This load of sheet rock is headed for an overnight/early morning delivery at Home Depot in W. Hartford, CT 3:10-4:10 Had a good ride from PA to Waterbury, CT. I’ll be glad when they’re done with that section in like 10 years.. HaHa. What a mess! And 4 wheelers were horrible today. Trying to squeeze between me and a barrier then flipping me off after they realize it’s better to get behind me and then go around me. What a freaking concept.. I was headed to park overnight at home depot but wanted to fuel tonight and there was a tornado warning for the area and it was rush hour. Screw it, I stopped at the T/A in Southington and filled up. Glad I did. The wind started to gust and a soon as I started putting in DEF it let go. Sideways rain, lightning, wind. Yup $5 in DEF.. good enough. I got back in the truck and was soaked. It was like someone had dumped a bucket of water on me. Another screw it moment. The lot was full so I bought reserved parking and used my shower credit. Back to the truck and made 2 double cheeseburgers with my lunchbox cooker. Another great investment.. That brings us to this point. I can’t start my clock till 3:35 so up at 3am and heading the 25 miles to HD as soon as I can. Till then

Mike,

Sounds like things are going well....I enjoy the posts.

Chris