A Job or a Business

I started out after Thanksgiving on 12/1 and by the 6th I had 2718 miles. Then it stopped. In the last 4 days I’ve only had 464 miles. It is the seasonal slowdown combined with the winter storm that is really putting the hurt on me.

Here is a brief comparison to my ‘job’ and the business that Jim over at LeasePurchaseJournal has. First, I am paid OK for a company driver with just 15 months experience. I like the way Millis pays because, while the per-mile pay is competitive with others, they give some pretty good incentive pay in the form of bonuses. From 2000 miles to 2400 miles they pay an additional $.03 for all miles. From 2500 to 2999 miles it’s $.04 and over 3000 miles it’s $.05 for all miles. They also pay out a quarterly safety bonus of $.02 and a yearly of $.03. All of the bonus pay depends on me being on time and doing everything else that I am required to do properly and promptly. So for me to optimize my pay I have to get as many miles as possible every week and perform well in all areas but mostly, drive as much and as fast as I can. Don’t worry, I can’t go very fast, only 65 mph tops.
So I try to get 3000 miles per week if I can. Jim can drive quite a bit less being concerned with efficiency first. I fuel at terminals but will fuel at any TA, Pilot for or Road Ranger that I choose, Jim has to consider the price and plan fuels stops based on that. I have a nice truck but it still smells like smoke from the driver or drivers that put the first 400,000 plus miles on it. Jim got to set his truck up the way he wanted and it just smells like him. I can’t turn any load down and my home time and vacation are less than I would want. While neither of us can afford to sit much, Jim seems to be able to take more time than I can. I have to review my payroll recaps but Jim has to do detailed accounting, tracking and projecting costs and expenses. If I decide to give it up tomorrow I can but I expect Jim would find that hard to do.
This is just an off the cuff comparison but it is a few things that have noticed from reading his blog from my seat.
I guess the main two differences are; Jim nets quite a bit more than I do while being committed to quite a bit more financial risk. That is the difference between having a job or a business.

I'm a Pig

It seems during the vacation week and the Thanksgiving feast I reversed some of the weight loss I was so proud of. I haven’t mentioned it but I had lost 35 pounds from around mid August to mid November. I put about 6 back on and it’s been hard to get back on track. I have some techniques that I use to lose out here and it’s not that hard but with the season change it’s not as easy. First, I committed to not buying any food at truck stops. I only eat what I bring out with me and when I need groceries I go to a grocery store. I do reward myself about every two weeks with a steak, potato and salad at a real steak house. Second, I try to only eat 1000 calories per day. That’s not much but at my age and sitting on my but all day it’s enough. The key is to eat several times a day, up to 1000 calories and don’t skip most of the day and then pig on the whole thing. Also I drink a lot of water even though that does cause extra stops. Third, I try to walk about 20 to 30 minutes a day. This is where I have the biggest problem because frankly, with this job, you may not have an extra 20 minutes a lot of days. Forth, and this is big for me, I don’t keep any food in reach while I am driving. There is something about this job that, if I could, I would eat continuously while I drive. I could easily eat a case of Starburst’s every day. My goal is to lose another 30 and soon to turn the walking into running. Well, more like shuffling.

Back on My Head

Vacation is over. I can't think about it much. It makes it hard to think about living in this deprivation chamber for the next few weeks. Well thats what I used to call my office at my old job.

I noticed a lot of snowbirds on I75 south today, all loaded up in their rv's with extra trailers or cars in tow.

I'm having a time posting this. I turned off my usb modem and got a Motorola DROID smart phone to save money. It's harder to write with bu Ishould be able to put up pictures and video easier now. Verizon is going to allow tethering early next year.

Speach Recognition, Cell Phones and Corn

I've noticed that there are still hundreds of acres of corn still standing. I don't know anything about it but seems kinda late for harvest. I's been well below freezing a lot of nights up here in the north. Is that normal? Maybe its not for food but for methanol refining and it doesn't matter. That's just a guess.

My company doesn't allow using a cell phone while driving. It's their truck so it's their call. I don't see the problem. Using a cell phone with a head set seems harmless to me. I agree that texting, reading texts or holding the phone is a problem. I think that companies are concerned about their insurance riders with all of the lawsuits these days. The States passing laws about this are looking at stats that are influenced too much by teens and other drivers that are not trained to think about safety. I do think that there are a lot of us who don't use the phone responsibly. As usual the powers that be choose to deny everyone rather than holding individuals responsible for their actions.

I spent an hour yesterday trying out the Speech Recognition software that came with Vista on my laptop. I was surprised how well it worked. I was able to get most of the commands down in about an hour. It will write your dictation, allow you to make changes and corrections and open and close apps. I was able to open my email app, address, label, dictate a message and send it without touching a thing. I think I can really take advantage of this tool. My next test will be to use a digital recorder to speak the commands into and see how well it will work, playing the commands into the mic port to fill a document with text. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts throughout the day, especially in the morning. By the time I get stopped at night my senior status kicks in and I can't remember any of it. A recorder will save my thoughts for sure but if I could use it with the speech recognition tool to write the text, well, that would be sweet.

Headless Deer

I'm trying something different. It seems that all I do is write where I am and where I'm going every day. I'm going to do that as the day goes on with twitter. You can find that on the right side bar. Once in a while I will sum it up with a main blog post. I want to use the main section to write about things I see or think about during the day and to post pictures when I get good ones.

I don't know if any of you other drivers are seeing this but I have noticed it and a friend of mine has too. There are a lot of headless deer in the road. Everyone has heard jokes about people eating road kill and there is certainly plenty of it but apparently a lot of people stop and take the heads off of bucks when they are hit and lying on the side of the road. I know that buck horn is uses in a lot of crafts but is it that valuable? It just seems strange to me.

It seems that global warming is back on again. When I fueled in Austinburg OH today it was 83 degrees. That's right up by lake Erie and it's October  November14.

When I got 10 new tires a month ago, my fuel mileage went down to around 6 mpg or less for a while. Now that they are worn in I am getting 7.2 mpg, according to the Qualcomm. My over idle is at 1.53 %. That should make Millis happy. I think I'll monitor the miles driven and gallons purchased over the next few days and get the true mpg 's.

That's it for tonight. I want to play with my tech toys a while and eat the other half of that Subway I got at lunch.

West on I90, Again

I arrived in Weedsport to drop my load and before I could uncouple I was receiving my next load.

I am 8 miles south now in Auburn NY picking up a load of glass to take back across I90 west to Richfield WI., 756 miles. This load will drop in the Millis yard there. I have plenty of time since it doesn't have to be there until Tuesday. I'll be early and so I can watch some NFL on Sunday.

I got a load that deadheaded me 157 miles to Cary IL to pick up a load going to Clinton CT. It only took them about 20 minutes to load me and it is only around 9,000 lbs. It's never fun to have to drive through Chicago twice but even that wasn't too bad. I also got a message later to drop this in Weedsport at the terminal. It is'nt due until Monday so I hope there will be a pre-plan coming tomorrow to carry through the weekend.

So, after about a 550 miles I am in the last travel plaza in Indiana on I80/90 resting for the night.