Beginning New Career With PTL. (A Diary)

Apologies to my legions of adoring fans but I haven't updated this post in a couple days. Nothing really new and exciting to post. It seems the favor I get for getting the hot load to Dallas there 4 hours early was a load of beer back to Nashville and then another Amazon load back to Dallas. The beer delivered at 0400 and the Amazon picks up at 1730 giving me 3 hrs less time than the last load. It's now 1720 and no load yet so we'll see. My partner is sitting real close to 29000 out of 30k so I look to be getting another pretty soon. In all honesty, I hope to stay with him beyond his 30k and get upgraded at the same time. Lots of people have been getting upgraded early but it really cuts out this cheap team freight they get out of the phase 2 trainees.

On a side note, I read back through this thread and noticed that I've made a lot of derogatory statements and complaints about my current partner. I'd like to apologize for that because that's not really part of my character. Although he isn't reading this and doesn't know it's being posted, he has no recourse to my complaints and there is only one side of this story being told. The guy is pretty young and probably requires less sleep and less money than I do and it's not right for me to try to pressure him into running as hard as I would like to. I'm sure he's just as sick of me as I am of him. I promise I'll continue to try to add some comedy to this thread but I'm gonna stop getting my chuckles at someone else's expense. Thanks for reading guys, I'll be back.

One thing crazy about these Amazon loads is the way they at loaded. They have a massive system of conveyors and rollers inside that lead into trailers. The boxes are just crammed into the trailers as they come down. Not palletized, stacked, or wrapped. Just thrown in there. Even though the loads are usually under 10k lbs, they feel a little like beer loads because of the shifting.

Got a load out of Dallas headed for Laredo TX. I'm very interested to see what happens next because dispatch has already said they have a load for me there. My partner is about 800 miles from his 30k and will be about 1000 miles from Murray. But PTL runs a lot of freight between Laredo and Los Angeles. They also primarily use the p2 trainees to make those runs because they are teams. So things might be changing for me real soon.

Well we got a 1300 mile load out of Laredo to Statesville. Gonna have to T- call it about 300 miles short since pay period ends at midnight which will give us about 5650 miles for the week. Last week was 4998. Truck started actin real funny with either the battery or alternator today and voltmeter alarm was going off and "load shedding" warning was sounding on instrument panel. Got to a Petro in west Louisiana to get system check but by that time system was pushing 14 volts again and could not replicate the problem.

What an entertaining and informative read this thread has been! You write very well.

I have a few questions.

First, what are the sleeping arrangements for you and your partner? Are you taking turns using the sleeper berth? What if you both want to sleep?

Do you pay for your own food? Do you eat exclusively at truck stops? Do you have a fridge?

Are you getting any physical exercise while on the road? Do any truck stops have gyms?

What an entertaining and informative read this thread has been! You write very well.

I have a few questions.

First, what are the sleeping arrangements for you and your partner? Are you taking turns using the sleeper berth? What if you both want to sleep?

Do you pay for your own food? Do you eat exclusively at truck stops? Do you have a fridge?

Are you getting any physical exercise while on the road? Do any truck stops have gyms?

Sleeping arrangements work like this. This is a double bunk trunk I.e. A top and bottom bunk. If one is driving, the other sleeps in bottom bunk. If we both sleep at same he same time, whoever is not in bottom bunk sleeps in top bunk.

Yes I pay for my own food except on the rare occasion that I charm a pretty young lady into buying me dinner. Did I say rare? I eat a lot of Subway because nowadays most truck stops have one. You can eat anywhere you can find a place to park. There are couple places we don't have in Georgia that I've always wanted to try so I put the extra effort into parking and walked a little. Whataburger and Tim Hortons come to mind.

You will get virtually no exercise while driving a truck. Parking a long way from the door at truck stops, parking and walking to eat non truck stop food and just walking around in circles at receivers is most of the exercise I get. I do plan on one day soon practicing Krav Maga on some guard shack employee but the red line just hasn't been crossed yet. (Note to self: when home next, learn Krav Maga.) It is rare that a truck stop has a gym and it is usually some giant truck stop. The Petros in Atlanta and Carlisle PA come to mind. Heck, the one in Atlanta has a movie theater.

Ok this is ridiculous. I was told to drop an 1100 mile run in Memphis TN. I got to Memphis at 2030. Was told that my truck has been placed out of service. Call maintenance to find out what's the deal. Apparently, I'm in in Memphis to receive an upgrade to my Qualcomm software. No one can tell me where to go to get this upgrade until 0700. Also, no one can override the OOS order because it was put in by someone with too much authority to be overridden. I'm seriously considering asking this guy if he thinks it would be cool if he was told to spend the entire night in his shop without pay and AFTER having done so, told that it was because the fuse that operates the city horn on a truck was almost blown. The horn still works but we were worried it MIGHT not. Stay in your shop away from home and family without being paid just a few more hours Mr. Mechanic Guy, because my fuse box doesn't open until 0800.

Just wanted to update post quickly because I am on a 30 that will probably turn into a much needed 90. Have been running like crazy between Laredo TX, and TN, KY, OH. Always a load out of Laredo and then back to Laredo. Getting tons of miles. Sleep not so much. Whenever I do get to sleep good in South TX some dude in a green shirt with a gun wakes me up and makes me tell him I'm a US Citizen. Yo soy de Estados Unidos, yo soy necessito dormire tambiem. Not that it matters. Company is kind of jerking ole sleeper berth around. He is well over his 30k miles and has been upgraded to first seat driver but is still running team wth me. It's kind of a raw deal in my opinion because we have agreed to run team as trainees but haven't agreed to run team beyond that. The forced team as a trainee was one thing that kinda turned me off about PTL initially but I figured it was very temporary so what the heck. But giving someone a 2cpm raise and then forcing them to continue doing team outside of initial agreement seems a bit bogus. But as it is effecting someone else and not me ( for the moment) I'm not dwelling on it too much. Trying to focus and getting a tad of sleep where I can and the beau coup $ and miles I'm getting.

On lighter note, I bet I go to Nagadoches TX more than my favorite septuagenarian forum moderator gets to.

Good morning Scott!

I slept on a side street in Laredo last night, since I couldn't find any parking down here after I sat for six hours waiting to get a load transferred from a Mexican flat-bed truck to mine. I'll be in Nacogdoches this weekend for some much needed home-time. I've got to put this thing in gear and get up to Ohio with this load and then they've got me headed right back down to TX. I'll be checking in with those green shirted gun toting fellows in just a bit. Do you find it odd, as I do, that almost all of the border patrol agents appear to be from south of the border? I guess it makes sense with the language barrier, but it just seems weird to me.

On lighter note, I bet I go to Nagadoches TX more than my favorite septuagenarian forum moderator gets to.

Spending the night in Laredo is one of the job perks they forget to tell you about. Where you on the road runs by the Exxon next to world trade bridge? There's a Bassett hound at that station that sits at the door and barks unless I get out and pet him. I'm pretty sure he wants to ride out. I would if I lived there.

I'm in love with the radio station in Nagadoches. When I hear Loretta, Waylon, Conway, Merle, Jones, Johnny and June back to back to back I never want to leave.