I plan to occasionally document my trucking adventures in the form of a blog post with pictures. I don’t plan to document each and every delivery, but will try to post at least one each week. With this being the first entry, I decided to start at my Company Headquarters of Apache Trucking located in Los Angeles, California. After a good nights rest, we picked up our truck on Tuesday, 7:49 PM.
Our Peterbilt 579 with stand-up sleeper and 455 HP engine ready to go.
The job market out of Los Angeles is usually pretty good. I’ve had a few jobs paying upwards of 25-30K in recent days, but today we are going to haul a couple of fork lifts on behalf of Sell Goods to Walbert in Winnemucca, Nevada. The job is paying $18,660 (or $28.16/mi). The job type is both fragile and high value. The trip distance is 651 miles with an estimated trip time of 16 hours, 57 minutes.
Our route will be all Interstate travel. We’ll head north on I-5 then east on I-80. We’ll drive the majority of this trip overnight with a planned rest stop near Reno and hopefully deliver the cargo on-time (perhaps even early).
The pickup location for Sell Goods is literally just around the corner from my HQ Garage. Here we are connected to the lowboy trailer with two forklifts. After a brief walk around inspection, we are ready to depart Los Angeles.
Just outside of LA we encounter our first of two weight/inspection stations. We gladly comply to avoid the fines.
A few hours it’s time to freshen up our coffee cup and while doing so will top off our fuel tanks at this Chevron station. Fuel cost was $2.82 per gallon.
As we’re approaching Reno, NV on I-80 we pull in for our second weight/inspection check which we pass with flying colors. The sun is just starting to come up.
It’s just after 6:00 AM and we need to get some rest. We choose this truck stop outside of Reno. They have nice clean showers and great truck stop food.
After a good nights (err, I mean good days sleep) I hit the showers, grab a hot meal and finish the drive to Winnemucca where I arrive at Walbert. I accept the more difficult parking for the max 90 XP opportunity and drop the lowboy and two forklifts as requested.
Another job successfully completed with an “Excellent” ranking. Another solid drive and I should reach Level 16.
Apache Trucking is shaping up to be a solid company. I currently own three trucks (including mine) and employ two additional drivers. I own the HQ garage in Los Angeles and just purchased a second garage down in San Diego. My two drivers in LA are gaining in experience and starting to earn their keep. I think I’m going to pay down a few of my loans to get my daily loan payment under $10K and then as I save, begin purchasing three new trucks and hire three additional drivers.
I hope you enjoyed this first Truckers Logbook adventure.
Until next time…
Happy Trucking!!!
J
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