You know, some days, even when on hiatus, it is good to wake up early.
I got to bed around midnight and was wide awake by 6am so came out to watch some tv and thought, ya know, I haven't looked at a Sunday paper classified section in weeks. Or craigslist.
I wondered if there might be anything from Manpower looking for a temp driver that could help me make a few cash dollars between now and my departure on the great Alaska adventure next month.
An ad on CL from Friday. "Need driver, TN to FL M-F 30cpm, have load ready to go Monday".
I googled the phone number which was local and found a link to a boat hauling operation - warehouse just down the road and another around the bend (Moccasin Bend, the curve of the TN River where it snakes around the tip of Lookout Mountain) off Brown's Ferry Road, about halfway between here and the LazyB.
30cpm isn't very good pay - I earned 45 cents per mile over the road and the last job I quit was 32cpm. But they mentioned running to mid and south FL and a google shows that Ocala is 500 miles - south FL is 800 miles. So, an average length of haul about 650 miles, times two trips a week should be around 2500 miles which is more than I was driving for Crete Carriers. 2500 x 30cpm = $750 week or about $600 take home. Not great, but not bad and certainly enough to meet my minimum needs if it were to be a full time gig. If temporary and even if it were one full week and 2 weeks with only one round trip, that would still be $1200 more in my bank account than I have now.
When 7am rolled around I called the first number and asked for "Bob", but got someone else who, it turns out, is a driver, enroute to FL. Not any driver. The owner, Sonny. We chat - he used to do boat hauling using client's trailers but expanded to general freight a couple of years ago when it became tougher to make money (you might haul a boat to the east coast or to Florida, but good luck finding uncommitted freight already on a trailer coming back to TN). So he got a couple of dry vans, and one refrigerated unit, and now hauls to customers he got to know when running boats - steady freight and usually able to get the driver back to Chatt or nearby by Friday. He pays the deadhead (empty) miles to Chattanooga even if the return load goes somewhere else like Atlanta or Knoxville.
I told him my situation, my background, and my idea that I thought the position might be temp to carry me for a few weeks - that I was then leaving for a trip to Alaska for 6 weeks. "Flying"? he asked.
"Hell no, I'm a driver", I said - I'm road tripping.
He paused and then said, "shoot, give me 3 weeks and I might be able to find freight going up there and you could get paid to drive to Alaska". I don't think he was serious, but the fact that he wasn't fazed by my admission that I was looking to work only a few weeks and then take a break until July was a good sign.
He told me I need to call Bob later this morning - the man he hired to take care of the "headaches". After a few years of growing the business, he and his wife decided they liked the driving, not the paperwork. He said if I came on board I would be driving his current ride, a '99 freightliner. That's pretty old, probably has a million miles on it, but he says its in great shape Its exactly the type truck I've been running for the last decade so I would be perfectly comfortable in it - hell, its even red like my Crete truck! Could this be my ride in a couple of days?
I imagine the white KW will be the boss's since the front page of his website shows his wife standing in front of it. http://www.slip2shore.com/ . They have a better than average safety record, good equipment, but show problems with drivers which I imagine is tied to the turnover rate of a small company. Gotta love the email addy as well " haulingassets", LOL!
Hmmm, got breakfast done, showered, took out the trash, now I just need to gather my DOT card, my license, my resume, my DAC report (professional truckers version of a credit check, except it reports driving history, jobs, tickets, accidents, and evaluations by prior employers), and maybe, optimistically, go ahead and pack my duffel bag for a 4 day road trip, just in case!
toot-toot !
