Team Adventure: Georgia & The Florida Gulf

Friday, October 14, 2011

Georgia & The Florida Gulf

Me being bored, Montana sunrise and Destin, FL

This last week was a tough week because we arrived back in Denver and our load was ready to go back out for the week. No home time, which really equals, no laundry...So...off to Georgia we went! We made it to our first delivery in 34 hours, which was in Atlanta @ 6 am on Tuesday. Before we pulled into the guard shack we both heard the truck make a strange sound. We made it through the guard shack and backed into a door...now thats dedication. Our belt broke that runs the fan to the motor, and in the interim come to find out later, also cracked the hub. All this just equates to me, no truck and a trailer full of deliveries...SWEET! So in rolls the rental truck, which I am only going to touch on slightly, and out goes Miss Betty on a tow truck to the shop. Mind you, we have moved clothing, water, dog and dog supplies, bedding and shower stuff all into the rental within 30 minutes...and off we go to our next delivery. Now keep in mind that in a Team driving situation, ultimately one of you is supposed to be driving, and the other one is supposed to be sleeping...yeah right. I took the first sleeping shift and Jeff made a couple of deliveries. Our next delivery wasn't until Wednesday @ 6 am, so Jeff pulled into a truck stop for the night so I could shower and he could get some sleep. By the time I showered it was already 2 am. I had the best breakfast of homemade biscuits and gravy at a Chevron I have ever had! I get back into the truck with an anxious London, Jeff is sleeping and he is bored in a truck he is not very comfortable in, so I stay up in the drivers seat with him a few hours and decide I gotta get some more sleep while I can. This is the part where the rental truck comment comes in....I literally take 1 step to get to the coffin type sleeper bed and fight for my space with London. I felt like we were all packed into a sardine can. But that didn't last long because it was time to get up and make deliveries in 3.5 hours anyway. We make our 6 am and 3 other deliveries, have time for a meal outside of the truck, and before we leave GA for the night we get to pick our truck back up....move everything, again and be in Pensacola, FL by 6 am the next morning. I'm sorry but whoever says truck drivers aren't Super Heroes are just wrong.

Destin, Fl

Our only delivery for the day was in Pensacola so we decided to drop down to Gulf Port and take a drive along the 98 which follows the coast all the way to Panama City. It was a beautiful drive and a great afternoon. We then headed all the over to the Atlantic side to Jacksonville for the next days delivery and made two more that afternoon until we were empty.

Fall Color along our Route

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ABOUT TEAM LINN and OUR ADVENTURE

We started our adventure 4 years ago. Our first trucking job was with Watkins Shepard out of Missoula, MT. Great company to start with. Gave us fantastic training in their 10-day orientation on top of our CDL training we already had. We stayed with them for a year and half and decided we wanted a change.

We went to work for Diversified Transfer and Storage out of Billings, MT. This was no longer a truckload, it was LTL, less than a truckload. We ran reefer and had a terminal in Denver, so we ran 4 weeks and had a week off. That part was great, but the company was not a good fit for us. Loved the LTL, couldn't deal with working for an owner who was a piece of crap. I wont even go into further detail....

Next...we wanted to go back to full truckload reefer so we decided to go with US Xpress. We were very happy with them for the first 5 months. We ran consistent miles from the east to west coast and loved it. Our Fleet Manager Mike Gibbs was the best Fleet Manager we have ever encountered in this business. We became one of the top Teams on the reefer board with US Xpress. We were called by the Fleet Owner, the VP of the Reefer division and the COO of US Xpress to tell us what a great job we were doing and how much they appreciated our service. But then it all fell apart and our miles started to drop and our awesome FM was thinking about transferring out of the division. Jeff and I saw the writing on the wall and we decided we wanted out of this company before things got even worse. I still speak with many Teams that run with US Xpress and they are having horrible issues. This was a driver friendly company, but since Pat Quinan passed away in January of 2012, things changed dramatically. Pat was the compassionate one that knew the company was about the Driver. Unfortunately after his passing things quickly changed to being about numbers on a spreadsheet, our FM moved on and we turned our truck in at the Irving Terminal and never looked back at our decision.

We then wet to The Waggoner's Trucking out of Billings, MT. Yep, can't seem to get away from Montana based companies. We now ran a dedicated run from Denver to Oklahoma City three times a week. We ran a flatbed, split axle trailer...which is only 48' now, instead of the 53" we were used to. We were met in Oklahoma City by the owner of the company David Waggoner to give us our new truck. We were no longer a number, but we were The Linn's again. We pulled into the OKC terminal and everybody knew our name and we knew theirs. We were part of a family again and it was so nice to be back in the surroundings we have missed from working at Watkins Shepard. We were in a Kenworth W900 Long Nose truck. We were home every other day in Denver and have Sunday and Monday off every week to enjoy our house in Denver again. We really debated on a dedicated run, since we love traveling the 48 states, but after almost 3 years, we have been to every state and it was time to get back to some connection to our kids, grandchild and our awesome house in Denver. It was so nice to be home more often. But on the flip side:

We ran this route for a year, yes dedicated was great, home time seemed to turn into one of us sleeping...even though it was in our own bed....however, we both got tired of running the same route and we only ran our route at night. Although the company was great, working 7 days a week was tiring and we decided we wanted to go back to enjoying why we started doing this in the first place...to see the country and meet awesome people so...this brings us to our next job change.

We now are working for Gemini Motor Transport, which is the trucking company that Loves Travel Stops owns and services their truck stops. We are working in the SW Region, which includes, CA, AZ, NM. Plus CO and WY when we come back home. We are hauling a tanker truck now, which is only 42' long...getting shorter, I'm liking that, and we haul DEF (Deisel Exhaust Fluid) only. We are the first husband and wife Team that Love's has ever hired. I am also proud to say that I am the only woman that works in the SW region that drives a truck. We are responsible for 33 stores and growing, along with one other solo driver in the region. Our job is to make sure that no stores ever run out of product in our region. Since teaming is new for Love's we will be sent to other regions as well, as needed, possibly the NW too. Our first week we serviced 11 stores in Southern California (all the way up to Corning), plus New Mexico and Arizona. It has been a big change, but once again, we are up for the challenge. I know I have never been so glad to run on a different road and see new things. There are good things about running a dedicated run, but I am so glad we made this transition and I think we picked a great company. We get a reset every week and we only work 6 day a week now. Plus we are paid by the day, not by the mile. We will also be home for every holiday...paid. This company is hard to get into and I am so glad they picked us. The Vice President of the SW region flew in to DIA twice to meet with us before we decided to take the position. He is our direct boss and an awesome one at that. We could not have made a better decision making the move when we did. The dedicated account would have been much more difficult to do with the new Hours of Service that changed in July 2013. So once again, we made the jump before it took anything away from our adventure.

We are happy to answer any questions you may have about trucking in general, teaming or any of the above companies we have worked for. We had to start out just like you and had so many questions, but not a lot of people to answer them. Shoot us an email @ hobotruckers@gmail.com we would love to hear your questions or comments. Thanks for following along in our adventures.

Team Adventure

Friday, October 14, 2011

Georgia & The Florida Gulf

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