The Swamp

rass wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 6:33 pm Assuming that even accounting for the difference in um class(?) that years in Vegas honed that sense?

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Wed Mar 20, 2024 2:22 pm Brian:

A bunch of questions have come to mind about the logistics and practicalities of your new job …

1. Do you have to pay for your own fuel, or does Knight cover that? Do you or Knight have special deals with certain companies?

The company provides a fuel card so they pay it. They pre-purchase millions of gallons at the beginning of the year so they steer us towards certain truck stops to fuel there - typically Love’s or Pilot Flying J. Since those two have the best rewards programs and free showers for fueling it works out well.

I’ve noticed that Love’s is consistently 40 cents a gallon higher than Maverik for diesel – how do they make that work? Do they give discounted prices for certain trucking companies or drivers?

2. What kind of gas mileage does your truck get?

It varies based on the weight of the load and topography, but generally about 7-7.5mpg. We get a .01 bonus per mile each month if we hit 7.2.

3. On these 80mph freeways out here, how fast do you tend to go? Does the company impose limits on driver speed, through governor or monitoring? Do you consider gas mileage in deciding how fast to drive?

Knight’s trucks are limited to 63 on the pedal and 65 on cruise. I don’t worry about fuel and try to go as fast as I safely can.

4. How does the gearing work on your truck?

It’s a 12-speed automatic but I trained with a manual so my CDL allows me to drive either.

5. Do you have a backup camera? Do other semis?

Some do I think but we don’t. I think it’s pretty expensive because they’d have to be attached to the trailers which we’re swapping all the time.

6. Would you ever make deliveries to an individual retail store? I’m asking because last week when we were leaving Zion, we passed two Knight trucks heading the other way. As far as I know, trucks going that way have to turn around in Springdale. But it seems that there’s only small stores there.

So far I’ve delivered to a Lowe’s, Home Depot, four Costcos and two flooring stores. So it’s possible they were doing a store delivery. We also have dedicated routes for Dollar General I think.

7. Do you have a reliable source that you can consult to see where rest stops are? What is it?

I pay $99 a year for an app called Trucker Path. Its main feature is a truck route friendly GPS but shows truck stops and will estimate parking space availability based on what drivers report and historical trends. It’s pretty invaluable.

8. Is there any place with fewer rest stops than Utah?

So far the worse place by far is central California between Bakersfield and Sacramento. There’s almost no parking in that stretch. Utah (at least the I-15 corridor I usually drive) isn’t that bad.

If you’re around town and want to take a break for a meal, it’s on me. Let me know.

brian wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 10:52 am Not allowed to discuss our loads but my next pickup is in suburban Denver and would make a certain fictional “bandit” proud.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:21 pm Brian can play the Jerry Reed character in the re-make. Not sure which Swamper is the best Bandit.

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:21 pm Brian can play the Jerry Reed character in the re-make. Not sure which Swamper is the best Bandit.

brian wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:29 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:21 pm Brian can play the Jerry Reed character in the re-make. Not sure which Swamper is the best Bandit.

Gonna try to shut down in Grand Junction tonight if I can ever get my signed bills of lading here in Denver so I can pick up this load. Albertsons/Safeway is the worst. (Actually Amazon is the worst but Albertsons is horrible.)

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 2:51 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:29 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:21 pm Brian can play the Jerry Reed character in the re-make. Not sure which Swamper is the best Bandit.

Gonna try to shut down in Grand Junction tonight if I can ever get my signed bills of lading here in Denver so I can pick up this load. Albertsons/Safeway is the worst. (Actually Amazon is the worst but Albertsons is horrible.)

There's a Fresh Market distribution center in the SLC area - driving past it last weekend I saw probably two dozen semis waiting on a side road. They looked to be from various trucking companies. Were those drivers waiting to pick up loads?

mister d wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 10:37 pm I don’t believe a single 18 wheeler could transport more than like 30 pounds of dried maruchan.

mister d wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 10:37 pm I don’t believe a single 18 wheeler could transport more than like 30 pounds of dried maruchan.

brian wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 9:12 pm

Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 2:51 pm

brian wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:29 pm

sancarlos wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 1:21 pm Brian can play the Jerry Reed character in the re-make. Not sure which Swamper is the best Bandit.

Gonna try to shut down in Grand Junction tonight if I can ever get my signed bills of lading here in Denver so I can pick up this load. Albertsons/Safeway is the worst. (Actually Amazon is the worst but Albertsons is horrible.)

There's a Fresh Market distribution center in the SLC area - driving past it last weekend I saw probably two dozen semis waiting on a side road. They looked to be from various trucking companies. Were those drivers waiting to pick up loads?

Most likely. Not sure how they distribute to their stores but could have been mostly trucks delivering to the DC. We make a lot of deliveries to DCs like Wal-Mart, Target etc from big companies like P&G but the deliveries to the stores are usually from their internal fleet. Though we do deliver to warehouse stores like Sam’s for some reason. For example my delivery to the Safeway DC today was 20 tons of Maruchan ramen from their factory in Irvine. But the delivery of that (broken down into much smaller chunks of course) is done by Safeway/Albertsons trucks.

brian wrote: ↑Wed May 29, 2024 10:52 am Not allowed to discuss our loads but my next pickup is in suburban Denver and would make a certain fictional “bandit” proud.

brian wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 8:41 pm …my load is actually mostly Keystone and Keystone Light…

GoodKarma wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 11:41 pm

brian wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 8:41 pm …my load is actually mostly Keystone and Keystone Light…

Maybe try drinking something else? I hear pineapple juice is good for that sort of thing…

GoodKarma wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 11:41 pm

brian wrote: ↑Thu May 30, 2024 8:41 pm …my load is actually mostly Keystone and Keystone Light…

Maybe try drinking something else? I hear pineapple juice is good for that sort of thing…