Happy New Year! How Slow Are You?

I’ve been running a reefer since the first of Nov and they have been killing me. No shortage at all that I have seen.

Headstones dropped off but I finally found out that was completely due to the company making some major changes for the long term.

I got a call from another guy delivering steel setups for transformers and they can’t keep up and wants me to come over there. I know the customer and they stay busy. He wanted to put me in a brand new 579 Pete he just took delivery of. I politely declined. I have too much money in my own equipment to park it and drive his stuff. He decided to obtain his brokers license so we can do it legally. Once he gets his stuff together I’ll be going back to flatbed.

I can deliver headstones once they get rolling again or haul for him if they don’t have a load. Just keeping all my options open and getting this box off my back, lol.

Not too much has changed at ABF. Things have calmed down a little bit at my terminal. We have gone from crazy amounts of freight to just plain busy. Still getting OT every week.

Dry van is still plenty busy for me with Knight. Some areas are lean but they always are this time of year. I just finished a ten day tour of duty in Socal. Even with short loads and layover on nearly every load, I still squeezed in 2800 miles for the week with mostly 200 to 400 mile loads.

As usual no shortage of loads in the frozen tundra states like UT,WY, SD, MT, ID etc. I'm going over I 70 to Denver today, just before a significant winter storm comes in tomorrow so I just turned down one back across it to UT. But the work is there.

We're still pretty busy. It's slowed down a little since the holidays but we're still busier than this time last year and continue opening more stores. There's a couple days a week we have too many drivers so they're asking people to take the day off (using vacation or no pay), but others they're asking people to work extra. Fortunately people always gotta eat.

We had a bit of a lull, but nothing too terrible. It knocked off about 2-300 miles/week from my typical >2500/wk. I finished this week with just over 2800 miles. We expect business to increase considerably in the next few weeks. I know an industry analyst I didn't know was an analyst until I started driving last year. LOL. He told me many companies were sitting at 120% inventory by the end of 2022. He and his team predict a steady increase in freight demand starting late this month and lasting through March.

I sure don't wanna jinx it for myself, but I'm starting off the year on-track. I'm dry van , no hazmat , southeast regional and the company is smallish (approximately 200 trucks).

Here are a couple of things, I think, work in my favor;

1. There's a good mix of OTR and dedicated loads. I have been (for about the past six months) taking an OTR load out of the house Mondays, get into a dedicated area, where they use me thru Thursday or Friday, and then an OTR load to our main location where I pickup a load that gets me home.

2. Our company has a good mix of manufacturing freight and consumer goods. Our largest customer is Lowe's, so we deliver to many of their stores and many of their suppliers provide us backhauls that get us to the Lowe's distribution centers.

3. I try to stay flexible. I could be pushing to make more $, but the dedicated loads pay a flat rate and this schedule has allowed me to make the monetary equivalent of running 2,400+ miles per week, without much of the stress. Yes, I know I could be making more money. Maybe, maybe not.

Stay safe Drivers! We're counting on you to provide what we want, need and desire.

Well I have a few applications floating around for line haul. There are a few ltl companies currently with ads up. Can’t be much worse than what I have going on now.

Well I have a few applications floating around for line haul. There are a few ltl companies currently with ads up. Can’t be much worse than what I have going on now.

Out of curiosity who's hiring? You would probably have times you'd work followed by a few call offs.

Dayton Freight out of Des Plaines keeps posting. I’m actually not far from the Pitt Ohio terminal. They been posting off and on for quite some time now. ABF the other one. My neighbors dad who drives for Jewel put me in contact with an ABF union rep. Jewel sounds like a nightmare to be honest but they are always hiring. I see central advertising regularly but I’m not touching that.

Well I have a few applications floating around for line haul. There are a few ltl companies currently with ads up. Can’t be much worse than what I have going on now.

Out of curiosity who's hiring? You would probably have times you'd work followed by a few call offs.

Interviewed with abf today. With the possibility of multiple lay down runs a week and the possibility of even being gone for three to four days, I couldn’t do it. And I was told I’d be on extra board for quite some time. O well. Great health insurance and benefits though I will say.