Ahhh...the life of an independent trucker!
Been running the same trip every week for over two yrs now...Topeka, Chicago burbs, Topeka, home. Left on Mon AM, home on Wed AM. Found the load through a broker board...it paid an acceptable amount. The company was reliable about payments. It was a good gig...not phenomenal, but good.
However, things have been changing. The consignee up there decided that they would no longer allow trucks to park overnight prior to delivery...that made a big change to my routine since I now had to park 80 mi away and negotiate rush hour traffic in the AM instead of arriving at 11 PM and just putting the trailer in a door the next morning. It also was a radical change to the way it worked out for my logbook, added several constraints.
There were difficulties with the pickup for the return trip that had been growing. They were limited by space and dock doors. Lately, although the load was ready to go when I arrived (the PO being placed 2 wks prior, and the load was picked up EVERY Tues) it was now taking up to 5 hrs to get loaded. That waiting time was eating up my clock vis a vis Hours of Service regs. The whse supervisor's excuse was that my load was "complicated" with numerous types of product (spices) and he only had 1 guy that could deal with it. What that really meant was that the rest of his whse employees spoke very limited English, and they couldn't figure out the paper work/computer entries.
I was getting bored with it, too...truth be told.
Sooo...taking a little sabatical. Do a little spring detailing on the truck, and springtime stuff around the house. Checks will still be rolling in for the next month or so from this load. There's tons of fr8 in this area. Back to the "gypsy" lifestyle, as we call it in the trucking industry. I'll be checking the internet load boards and picking and choosing my trips. Probably pay some sales calls on local businesses and see itf I can find one to haul for direct...no cut for a broker, always a better deal. The broker that I just left will give me outstanding references, as will all of the others I've dealt with..."Always on time, no problems".
I'm not gonna starve.
