And Then There Was One! (plus me) (for the moment)

My first new driver, Mike, is the only one left, besides me. I added two more after Mike and both have now failed to find success. I have said it before, truck drivers -- in general -- are not the sharpest pencil in the box. And I don't mean to belittle professional truck drivers. I am proud to be one myself. But you go hang around the fuel pumps at any truck stop and you'll see what I'm talking about.

On the good side though, I have another potential Leessor meeting Monday. This guy has also shown some initiative by researching what is required to upgrade his CDL from a "B" to an "A" and has that scheduled for next week.

He has experience delivering campers country-wide. That is the perfect type experience, in my mind. There are many common areas between 'Big Truck' drivers and Hot Shots like us. But there are some big differences too. Delivering campers over-the-road teaches one alot about professional driving but from a different prospective than a big truck. And he is a referral -- a friend of a friend type thing. I am very optimistic.

The bad news, I am likely going to be with-out a trailer next week. My new guy doesn't bring one with him. But no worries. I will get my new one fixed up -- still got brake issues -- and then let him lease it from me. It will likely get more work with someone else (highly motivated) pulling it that sitting with me in FL for $5/day storage.

My trip to SC Wed turned out well. I had a nice paying load out, delivered Thu after lunch, found a truck going to Greenville, SC and then two cars from there coming back -- one right into Belleville! I was home Fri nite late and made my delivery this morning after a nite in MY bed. My log book will catch up with me around noon today. I had a VERY long drive day yesterday.

DEAD BEAT BROKER UPDATE -- I finally got money from Bower's Trucking -- 44 days after they received the invoice and Proof of Delivery. One SHIPPER conceded to me that anything less than 45-days was no big beal. But I can't complain from the shipper. They typically are paying a very good rate for your haul. Waiting a bit longer for your money is factored in because you feel pretty good the money is good.

Brokers are a different story. DISCLAIMER FIRST: I don't hate ALL brokers. But there sure seem to be a bunch of un-professional, greedy, internet-savy parasites that have gone into business putting buyers and sellers together -- in this case shippers and carriers. Paying their bills late is only the tip of the iceberg to what some of these money-grubbers will do.

One of the more extreme of which just happened earlier this week. Many shippers send out an email announcing their shipping needs. I'm on this email list for many places around STL. So 30 minutes after the email is sent, I see all these brokers posting the freight on one or more load boards -- that I also subscribe too. It is interesting to see the variance in pay each broker is offering, compared to what the shipper is paying. This past week I saw a $1500 load being offered from $1400 to $900! For the same load! $900! THAT broker is on my "Do Not Call" list. There are a few brokers out there that actually EARN a REASONABLE finders fee for their service. But very few.

So, I am around STL for the next week or 10 days. Then I will head to see my parents for Thanksgiving - probably my MOST favorite of ALL the holidays. From there I will go on down to FL for some much needed R&R.

Everything in Life comes down to BALANCE

I lie here early Sunday morning, reaping the benefits of the time change, and was watching a movie contemplating life in general. My random thoughts reviewed where I am today -- this minute -- and then back thru time and how I got here; is this the direction I want to be going. Kind of a philosophical, home-alone moment.

I don't live in the past but rather try to learn from the past. I try to consider how my "TODAY" is formed by decisions I have made in the past ... choices I have made that led to this point rather than another. Almost with-out exception -- and the only reason I hesitate to make this an ALL INCLUSIVE statement is because there may be 1 exception even though I can't think of it -- most of my decisions involved a choice of action on my part that would have implications on many other people directly and indirectly.

Because I believe in Karma -- if you do good things then good things will happen to you, I try very hard to make good choices -- do the the RIGHT thing -- as often as I can. Because I believe good things will come back to me. Truth be told, I'm being very self-centered, looking out for myself! But I think the way to get there is to be good to others and it comes back to you multiplied.

But then there's that 'balance' thing. Because I also believe very much in balance -- ANYTHING to the extreme is most likely gonna be bad. It's kind of like my head and my heart are at odds sometimes. And there too is balance. For you to feel good about yourself, your head and your heart must be happy.

And everyone wants to feel good. I feel pretty good about my life. Certainly not perfect -- NOTHING IS! So it's about maintaining balance. But that doesn't mean 'stuck in the middle' either. Everyone knows the teeter-totter was way more fun when it was bouncing up AND down. You just have to remember, the further you go one way, the harder and faster you will come back thru the middle.

I'm not sure what I'm doing today since the mornings not even half done. I have been working my new trailer. The ramps are now done -- better than before -- thank you Lance Cabinets in Freeburg, IL. They should be stronger than the last set and are lighter. I am loading some 42' lengths of pipe on my 32' trailer tomorrow going to Omaha, NE. Come back for those pictures!

I may go out to Breeze again and visit my oldest son. He knows a place with good food, NFL Ticket and $2 beers -- gimme a recliner and I'll be in heaven.

But for the moment, it's back to movie time. BTW, it's Grown-ups with Adam Sandler -- 2 thumbs up.

Oh, and in case anyone is keeping score, in an ipdate to my "DEADBEAT BROKER" series, United Intercoastal paid their bill. Two week late but paid in full. Still waiting for Bowers Trucking. And I have three more coming due this next week, so stay tuned!

Good Fortune comes at a Price

I was doing a friend a personal favor. He is building a very large fence for his wife's horses and had ordered a bunch of boards and posts and wire. It was more than a tractor trailer load so I went and picked up the left-overs - which was still almost 20,000# - slightly more than my legal limit (but we won't talk about that part).

I was pulling my new (to me) trailer but was cautious to make sure it had been properly serviced. If I'm going to max this thing out on it's first trip (with me pulling) I wanted to be sure it was capable. I had replaced several of the 8 tires but soon discovered that two of them, although 'looking' okay, were going to be a problem. I made it about half way back on my 370 mile trip and two tires failed.

I hadn't been stopped on the shoulder of the interstate for five minutes when a 'good Samaritan' pulled up behind me to offer assistance (I assumed). Turns out he works for a nearby tire shop. I think I used up a ton of my Good Karma on that deal.

It took about an hour but he had a service truck to my rescue with one new tire (I had a spare) and I was back on the road. It came at a price of course but that is the nature of roadside breakdowns. I don't mean to imply that I was taken advantage of -- NO! I understand the service guy was working O/T and had to drive to my aid and this all happened about 6:00 in the evening. But I will say that I could have saved about $100 had I gone to the store during regular business hours and got the same thing done.

I was debating whether to make my lead to this post my "Good Fortune" story or my DEADBEAT BROKER UPDATE. As you see I chose the good news.

I have two more DEADBEAT BROKERS to gripe about today. Armstrong Transport - a North Carolina company agreed to pay us within 30-days. According to their A/P person, their checking account was hacked and they had to open a new account, and by our good fortune, the new checks came in today. Their freight was delivered on Sep 22 and the Invoice and Proof of Delivery emailed to them on the same day. As of this writing, they are almost 2 weeks late.

DEADBEAT BROKER #2 for the day is United Intermodal of The Colony, TX. Their excuse was they received only the invoice and not the Proof of Delivery. Ahhh, the 'missing paperwork' excuse. Not very original. And unless I take the expense to mail stuff for delivery confirmation, I have no way to challenge their tale.

Now, I have to admit, the person I am dealing with there seems to be helpful rather than arrogant (like Armstrong Yuck-a-deenies). When I re-sent my original email showing when and to whom it went, they agreed to next-day-air our check. And they were apologetic. We shall see.

Interestingly, the load board that I got the United Intercoastal load off of has a rating system. I promptly went online and gave them a 'negative' rating for non-payment. I don't doubt that is some incentive for them to 'do the right thing' and get our money to us. They don't have such a pretty rating even with-out my negative mark. In the past 6 months 16 other companies have rated them negative or neutral (the only other option is positive).