1 tanker, heading to Winnemucca NV

... spending the night at home

8:15 this AM we get a call for work. Winnemucca NV with a tanker. A Ford 550, a mini.

We have blizzard warning starting today so we get ready and out of the house rather quickly. Could have left in two minutes but we were not in that much of a rush. We are at the dispatch office within the hour.

Dispatch has a 2nd leg, a truck from NE to IA but we will get to the drop on New Years Eve and haven't heard of we can just do a blind drop or not. I have not committed to that trip but they did give me paperwork, just in case.

BB and I kicked around all kinds of scenarios. The original was, what ever I got today, she would just follow and come back home. And that is what it looks like we will be doing.

We also talked about her getting an RV out of IA and running with me and then finding work once we got to the west coast. But it is the holiday weekend so we need to make all of our plans today for the next four days. I think that may have been a big reason as to why we are just doing my truck.

We also want to see what kind of money we can make if she just follows. It doesn't look like much. We did do a lot of that before we signed on with the RV's but looking back we were not making the money we make now.

The shipper is about a half hour from the dispatch office. I know the main shop guys there but don't see them before someone else asks if they can help. They take down my info but can't find my keys. Then one of the main shop guys gets involved and is confused because he doesn't know the name of my drop. So we head out side and find the only truck that matches the truck brand. Right truck, different name on it.

Truck checks out OK. Truck is half full of fuel and full of DEF. It doesn't make a difference as this company pays all the fuel. They use the WEX card but I rarely did, then my card was stolen last year and I told them I did not want another one. Had to explain that to them again today. The office has never mentioned it, but they may have some accounting reason they want everyone using the WEX. I don't like it mostly because dispatch does not leave it active. So every trip I have to remember to tell them to turn it to active. Otherwise I am standing at a pump waiting to fuel and they are in the middle of something else. I like simple.

Truck runs good. Another half hour back to the office. Then I call dispatch to tell the I will buy my own WY permit on Saturday instead of trying to order one ahead of time. WY is not a routine permit. Normally we have to buy them at the POE but they are closed Christmas Day. We did the math. We can get to the drop Monday AM even if we buy that permit on Saturday AM. We've done this route many times. Just a little shorter this time.

We have about two hours before the storm warnings become effective so we take a quick drive up to the farm. No issues, just a pre-empt. Snow got here before the warnings became effective but we made it back safe.

At 1st look, we should make our minimum on this NV trip. BB has already used perk points to pay for most of the rental car. Without that we would have been under our mini. But this trip is for future good will. I want to stay on good terms with the local company for the day when Covid is over and if some day I want to keep doing local and been wants to be off the road. So I am not looking at this trip as how much money we can make.

Once it is afternoon on the west coast, I call my drop. They wanted a call to make arrangements as it is delivering to someone's house. No, it turns out that it was to make arrangements so they could drive me the 150 miles to the Reno airport. :) Nope, I have my ride with me. The company is covering the 'transportation' but I don't think it is anything extra this time. I know yesterday they got a deal.

Not sure what is going on at the local company. A couple of weeks ago they were saying how busy they were going to be. I was hoping to get a bus. There was one bus in the lot over the weekend. They didn't even go to the shipper yesterday and today I was told that my truck would be the only one in the lot tonight so no buses will be coming this way today. Possible they had some heading west that would not come through the lot but not many.

And I got a call in the afternoon that the NE to IA truck had been covered. I likely pushed that issue when I said we would get it to the drop on New Years Eve or Day.

The other issue we haven't talked about is my plate which will expire on the 31st. Five years ago we were in Los Angles and there was a truck there, but my plate was going to expire before I delivered the truck so they wouldn't let me move the truck. So we drove back empty. Seems like it would have paid to send me what I needed instead of getting someone else out there.

The long haul company has something going from NE to UT, too bad it wasn't going the other way. We'll keep watching.

Load board

US - 317

IA - 101

MN - 13

IA - 5

Loads to CA 3 and they can't be run together. OR has 8 any can run together. WA - 6, a pair to Reno still, 4 to AZ, 7 to ID, 2 to FL and 5 to the Carolinas.

Had some free time tonight so I watched a safety video for my local company and then was going to watch one for our long haul company. But the 2nd one wouldn't play so I will try again the next couple of nights. For the 2nd company we need an in person or on line safety 'event' every 100 days or we loose our bonus status. I am at 96 days right now. I missed out on a bit of money earlier this year because I was not watching.