As in previous quarters this year, the numbers for this quarter are in bold and followed by the corresponding figure from the same quarter a year ago in parentheses as a reference.

In this quarter I racked up 29,677 (31,402) paid miles, drove 31,820 (34,280) total miles, resulting in 7.22% (9.17%) OOR miles. This is my second best showing for OOR percentage thus far and the lowest number of paid miles by a slim margin. I spent long periods at home after the new year and before the Superbowl and I was stuck in the shop for five days with the engine problem so all-in-all I did okay.

My fuel purchases amounted to 12,133.43 (9,928) and my FSC reimbursement 7,831.86 (5,549), leaving an Adjusted Fuel Expense of 4,301.57 (4,379). Divided by miles run shows 13.51 CPM (12.77) for fuel, a horrid result.

My average weekly miles dropped to 2,282 (2,416), due mostly to the downtime I remarked on above.

With the relatively bad showing above you might be expecting a poor result in the Net Pay department for this quarter, and you would be wrong. Total Net Pay was 16,590.68 (12,296), the best this year by a whisker, and average weekly net was 1,276.20 (946). Note that in this quarter last year I was also setting aside an average of 500 dollars per week towards my savings escrow.

My net CPM this quarter was 55.90, the second-best I’ve recorded… beaten only by this quarter last year at 59.88 CPM.

The result? Despite high adjusted fuel costs (please oh please make the price of diesel rise!) and relatively modest miles my net pay for this quarter is the third-highest I’ve yet encountered. This despite the time off (voluntary and involuntary) and repair expense that was double that of last quarter. I did have one week with zero net pay and another with a paltry 167.54, but those were more than made up for by the other weeks in this period.

Net Pay By Week:

27: 1,327.26
28: 1,178.19
29: 0.00
30: 1,468.52
31: 1,721.86
32: 586.31
33: 1,496.86
34: 833.42
35: 1,359.53
36: 167.54
37: 1,711.20
38: 3,517.88
39: 1,222.11

Goals for the Fourth Quarter:

At the pace I’m currently on I should finish this year with approximately 63,500 in net pay, about 4,000 less than last year. This, despite the vast difference in FSC. My first goal is to finish strong and try to beat that mark.

My second goal is a continuation of my determination to remain efficient. No unnecessary idling, as little OOR as possible and cruising at 60 MPH. This is reflected dramatically in my net CPM, so I want to see if I can beat this quarter’s 55.90.

My next quarterly report will be at the halfway mark to the completion of my lease. I will have two years of solid data to use to predict the outcome and give myself benchmarks to try to beat heading town the other side of this hill I’m climbing. See you in 13 weeks.

I don’t care so much about the Best Picture winner (”Hurt Locker” will be long forgotten in a year in any case, in my book) but for crying out loud, how do you not at least nominate “Avatar” for the Best Costuming award? That a few pointy ears for “Star Trek” can win over a 150-minute movie packed past the fill line with costuming boggles my mind.

My mind being a bit boggled today, I quit at Grants, New Mexico. It was only 540 miles of driving and I wanted another 80 or 100 but the siren song of some Chester Fried chicken tenders were simply too much. After blindside backing into a spot in the tiny lot of the Loves (on my first try no less) I decided I wasn’t going to budge until morning.

I’ve often complained about weekend work at Hill Bros, tis true. Since my truck maintenance wasn’t performed until this morning, I was a bit afraid that this weekend would be like many of the others I’ve had with short runs and Monday deliveries.

The first spot of good news came when I learned I was placed on a load already on a trailer in the yard heading to Phoenix. When I got the paperwork I got another shot of good news: it only weighs 27,000 pounds! I haven’t seen a load under 40,000 pounds heading to Phoenix in at least a year.

Best of all, with this kind of load I can deliver at any time until 2300 on Monday, so I can set my own schedule.

Tonight I finish up in Dodge City, Kansas, 930 miles from my destination. If I get a good night’s sleep and am feeling up to it, I intend to drive about 630-650 miles tomorrow so I will be left with sufficient time to pick up a PetSmart load Monday afternoon and head towards Denver a day early. That would really make my week.

Before I could get a load heading west from Chicago I had to deliver a trailer to a customer about ten miles from the yard we share with Midwest Motor Express. I handed over a good 30 pages of bills when I arrived but apparently the master bill was nowhere to be found so that caused some grief for a time. Not really my business, though.

Afterward it was an hour-long ride to the north to tiny Richmond, Illinois for a preloaded trailer heading to the Menard’s DC in Shelby, Iowa. The people were pleasant, the paperwork needlessly complex and the trailer brakes were so-so but eventually I was on my way in one piece.

The drive west to Shelby finished off yet another Heinlein book, Farmer in the Sky. It is about a teenage boy and his family who emigrate to the Jupiter moon Ganymede to begin a new life as farmers. Part of the deal is similar to trucking in that they have to first work the land for the entity that paid for the trip, then they can start farming for themselves. This was one of Heinlein’s earlier works and it is better than the last one I listened to.

After dropping in Shelby I grabbed an empty and headed in to Omaha for a shower and some sleep.

This morning it was up bright and early for some annual paperwork I have to do for the company and my semi-annual physical. Some people get anxious about such things, like the driver I accompanied over to the testing location. Seems he has an issue with high blood pressure and just thinking about getting tested spikes his pressure pretty good. I’m happy to report all is well for me in physical land, 127 over 70 on the blood pressure and I can still see properly without the need of glasses.

I’ve spent almost 3.5 years in trucking to this point and during that time my weight has slowly climbed a total of 13 pounds. As a percent that is low and I am relatively pleased. I still snack too much and make poor choices from time to time but having a big refrigerator in the truck sure helps a lot with eating right and saving money.

The load following my FedEx adventure wasn’t entirely crappy. Once I regained my senses in the afternoon I was dispatched to nearby Kansas City, Missouri to pick up a preloaded trailer headed to nearby Salina, Kansas, about 180 miles away. The one virtue of this dispatch was a follow-on dispatch having me turn around after delivering the trailer and come back to KC for a different load. So, about 360 miles which would let me reset my internal clock to more human hours last night.

I arrived late this morning at the shipper for my second dispatch and was told to leave their lot for an hour or so until one of the two trucks in front of me left. The lot was too crowded, I was told, though it looked to me like most every other parking lot with docks that I go to day in and day out. Ever the compliant type, I pulled back out the gate and waited for a while. Finally, the 32,000 pounds of whatever got tossed into the back and I was on my way.

As I was leaving KC I stopped for fuel at the Pilot in Kearney, Missouri. The truck entrance to the parking lot had an amazing amount of damage to the concrete — I saw a Swift driver hit a deep hole covered with water and bounce his head off of the top of his cab. Needless to say, I took my time.

Even the pump area was jacked up:

After threading my way back out of this mess I began the long part of my day’s journey out to Elwood, Illinois for what I believed to be an 0800 delivery tomorrow morning. The planners had other ideas and along the way I was told I could drop the trailer there then mosey on up to our yard near Chicago O’Hare to be ready for a couple other loads in the morning.

The phone calls began around 2330 from HQ. The driver who was to pick up a FedEx load at 0330 in nearby St Charles, Missouri had his clutch go out and night dispatch was scrambling to find someone, anyone, to pick up the load on time.

I went back and forth with the dispatcher as she asked me if I could deliver my refrigerated load early then go pick up at FedEx. Alas, the building I was at was closing down for the night when I arrived four or five hours earlier so while the lights were on, nobody was around. Finally, I was told to bring my loaded trailer with me and drop it at FedEx for another driver to worry about.

Our night dispatcher also has to handle drivers who physically come up to the dispatch window in HQ, or into the building via the back door. “Oh boy, they’re coming at me from the front and rear,” she muttered.

“If I had a nickle for each time I’ve heard that line,” was my laconic response.

The unspoken side effect of helping Hill Bros with this dispatch is I screw myself for tomorrow. I can use the vagaries of the Hours of Service rules to get the load picked up and taken as far as Kansas City (the load itself goes on to Denver) but that will, in effect, nullify the break I’ve already taken and require me to drive until just past dawn, then shut down for my “real” 10-hour break. This, in turn, means either I will be placed on a nighttime driving schedule starting tonight or I’ll lose the rest of the day and get going tomorrow. A shit sandwich either way.

I arrived ahead of schedule to drop off my trailer and get the loaded one and headed off towards KC. I had to take a 30-minute power nap along the way when I got woozy but just after dawn I swapped the FedEx trailer for an empty and another driver got rolling towards Denver.

Today’s journey is a short one: a quick deadhead to Carthage, Missouri then swap my trailer for a loaded one heading to Troy, Illinois for delivery first thing tomorrow. Everything went as planned and tonight I’m parked at the consignee, ready for my 0630 appointment to unload.

This little industrial area that I’m parked in is fairly close to the Pilot and T/A in Troy and very quiet, I may park here more often when I’m in town.

I don’t have $3,000+ weeks very often so it was nice to see that my yearly longevity bonus show up when I opened my settlement email yesterday. Hill Bros pays each driver one cent for each dispatched mile you rack up in the previous year, and an extra half cent each following year. Last year was my second year at the company so I made 1.5 cents per mile in longevity bonus money, or $1,928.43. Coupled with the 3,200ish miles I drove, the net was $3,517.88. Yay team.

The preplan out to Frontenac, Kansas originated at the dreaded Central Beverage Distribution plant in Aurora, Colorado. It always seems to take them five or six hours to get a truck loaded there, and this time was no exception. I napped some, played computer games, watched some Hulu and basically vegetated.

By the time they had their act in gear I could only make it to Oakley, Kansas for the night and set my alarm for 0330 again.

The rest of the drive was easy and boring, and the guys at Eagle Distributing in Frontenac had me unloaded at a pretty good clip. From there I sped away south to Joplin, Missouri for fuel then east on I-44 to Springfield, Missouri for some home time.

Against my better judgment, I said in my last post. If I only knew…

My delivery was scheduled for 0400 hours local time so I set my alarm for 0330. A quick pre-trip showed me that my rig was ready to go, but the guy who pulled in next to me was way too close for me to pull around him safely (diagonal parking — only one way out). I delicately tried for five minutes or so before concluding it would probably cost him a mirror for me to get out and I decided to rouse the driver and get him to temporarily move back ten feet or so. I don’t like waking up other drivers but sometimes you gotta.

Only, there was no waking this driver. The truck was idling, windows down an inch and no amount of banging, knocking or pleading would raise him or her.

Plan B was a rehash of Plan A but getting my rig absolutely the farthest forward I could get it before exchanging paint with the trucks facing me and trying to make the turn. Forward a little bit, watching carefully. Backing a little bit to get a better angle. Forward again, set brakes, get out and look. Rinse and repeat fifty times. Finally, I was around the corner with an inch or so to spare and ran into the next obstacle: I was so far forward and close to the trucks facing me I could no longer turn right at the corner to exit the lot. Nor could I turn left, as a driver with an oversized load had ghetto parked on the end. Sigh.

Carefully I tried the corner and couldn’t make it work to the left no matter how far I swung, so I backed and filled for a while until I was able to straight back down the alley between the two rows of trucks far enough to let me swing back to the left and not hit anyone. Twenty minutes of my life down the tubes.

There was some road construction on I-70 but no traffic to speak of so a few minutes later I was dropping anchor at the consignee. A few hours later and the load was off and I was heading to nearby Aurora, Colorado for a preplanned load heading to Frontenac, Kansas.

Dispatch gave me a load picking up in St Joseph, Missouri heading to Denver, Colorado with two days on it, on account of my thin log book. Being a devotee of laziness, I stopped for the night in Junction City, Kansas instead of pressing on. I did enjoy a light dinner at an A&W restaurant — I haven’t been there since I was a kid.

This morning I headed down the road only to dodge one Kansas State Trooper after another with cars and trucks pulled over. There must have been six in less than 100 miles, which is a bit extreme in my book. Since municipalities and states only make money with one kind of revenue enhancement law enforcement, perhaps that explains it. No one gave my lumbering 60-mph truck a second look.

I finished the day at the Denver Pilot, against my better judgment. There was no place to park at the consignee and the Pilot was only a few miles away.