So...my manager calls me.  I had just put my laptop on top of the dashboard - I was getting bored and I didn't want to sit in that sleeper - got a movie up, decided to watch Tombstone. She's going off on this company that can't have our trailers up there on time.  She said the list she has shows there are 3 of them sitting at the border waiting to be brought up. 

I just now thought: why don't we just go get them?  I have a passport, if necessary.  So do a few other drivers.  Probably cost some time, but I can't imagine it costing 2 or 3 days as other drivers I have spoken with have complained about. Tho, I doubt they were complaining about it on their paychecks. 72 hours being paid to do nothing?  Getting bored? I can find things to do.  I got out of the truck, did a bunch of walking around in that yard in huge circles.  I'm going to have to get some dumb bells to put in the cargo bay.  I would really like to do at least a minimal work out since I am not longer getting the iron pumping I was getting at my Ferguson job. 

But can you imagine being paid an hourly wage to do whatever you please?  I mean, my manager told me today - I was asking questions about being down here because I had heard conflicting stories - that I could go get something to eat and just send the Uber bill to the company.  Oh yea.  I figured that, but wanted clarification. Actually, I wanted clarification on the pay for the entire time you are there.  Cause I had heard 2 completely different stories from 2 drivers.

One said, you are not being paid for your 10 hour rest break. Another said, you only have that done if you go to a hotel (which is company paid).  I thought, I could go to a hotel of my choosing, not have the company pay for it or even know about it (nothing wrong with that btw) and get my hourly pay for those 10 hours and come out WELL ahead. 3 of those 10 hours would pay for a decent hotel, I could stay at a Marriot for the 10 hours worth.  Well not around here.  There are Marriot's here but not that kind of money. 

I just don't get people that don't think things through.  I would rather stay at a hotel via company pay after I've been here long enough and not get anything. Or, do the other thing and get a room on my dime and still make out within the 10 hour rule.  Today? I opted for them to pay for the room. I was done with that place and I had finally gotten word: driver will be here in 2 hours.  Will whoop dee doo. If I lose a couple hours of detention pay, I'm not going to lose sleep over it after sitting in this dirt, barren parking lot with nothing within walking distance for almost 22 hours. 

I'm not really used to this kind of company.  I'll give the older drivers credit for the company being forced to pay for things that other companies wouldn't even think of.  I don't want to ruin it for them, which was another factor in my taking a company paid hotel.  But, plenty of drivers don't do that, they'll take the pay and sit at that lot for days. But, they complain about it.  Why not just pay for your own hotel and they don't even have to know about it?  Just curious. 

Anyway, it's almost bed time.  Tomorrow will be driving  all day, get home tomorrow night, spend the night at the house and then get up early, I am assuming, to get another load and off to who knows where. She wanted me to go to PA again, but since I couldn't get out of here, she has something "else" for me in mind, of the which I don't know. I would have gladly taken PA.  Nice long, high paying run.  She gets me the miles, tho. She mixes it up with short and long runs.

Anyway, I think it time to be off to bed. 

Going on 19 hours of waiting in Brownsville, TX. I have gotten pretty lucky every time I"ve come down here - until this trip.  I got here with 2 minutes left on the clock before I had to shut down.  I wanted to get here so I could legitimately say I am on the wait clock and get paid for it as soon as I got here.  Meaning, 19 hours of waiting at what I believe is $22 per hour.  I'll have to double check that on my pay slip when they snail mail it to me.  I actually had no idea if was going to have to wait or not, but if I did, you aren't getting paid until you actually arrive and the full trailer is sitting on the lot and you are waiting for one to come up from Mexico.

I was told by the people that run this place that there was one coming mid afternoon.  That effectively puts my out of the running for getting home today. I have no desire or need to be driving until 3 am, I just won't do it.  Drive til' 11 or so, take my 10 break and then finish it off tomorrow. Or, if it doesn't get here until too late, I won't even take off tonight.  I'm just not in love with night driving and there isn't any need to get back at some certain time tomorrow. If they need the trailer for another load coming down here, the earliest is going to be for a Sunday load time. And after computer my hours, I won't have enough to take another load, I'll have to do a 34 hour reset, which would be quite fine by me. 

Have half of Saturday off and all of Sunday and then get with it Monday morning if something is available.  It's become evident that use new drivers, or at least me for sure that I know of, are really just giving tenured drivers the ability to take time off. 

There are a few things I"m not liking about this job, the truck situation is the one that I am having a hard time dealing with, the rest of it is stuff I can just overlook and continue on.  I'm not in love with seeing $1,200 being taken out of my checks in taxes, either, that's a bit ridiculous.  That's not 401k deductions or health insurance coverage, that's just taxes.  I just got 401k started, probably didn't come out of this check tho.  For the life of me, I cannot remember how to get onto this company's intranet and see pay stubs.  Going to have to figure that one out again.  But, anyway, I'm having 10% of my checks taken out for retirement savings starting next paycheck. 

I've been respectful about it, but I"ve made no bones about my discontent with trucks, being shifted around from one to another to another, getting dumped into a truck that has over half a million miles on it and has broken down twice in the short amount of time I've been in it.  At the same time, I haven't quite pulled myself to the point of starting to look for a new job. I just despise looking for jobs.  At least the paychecks are quite good here, which is a mitigating factor in all of this. 

If there was a store within walking distance, I would go buy some cleaners and scrub the interior of this thing down. I'm in a company truck now, old as it may be, and it has the Quaalcom on it.  That means if I want to go to the store, I have to log in and go on duty to use it. Which means the 14 hour clock starts ticking and doesn't shut off. If you do no more driving that day and go off duty, then it's 10 hours before you get your 14 reset back again.  That's right, you drove the truck for 15 minutes you still have to start all over.  Pretty unfair and unrealistic, but this is what the feds mandate. 

Well anyway, new things on the horizon as I will really start looking for a house for them starting this coming week.  Just didn't want to waste too much time on it when we were informed they would have to move since it was 2 months out.  I've found a few interesting ones, but they are also looking around when they are out and about. They found a couple of places not too far away but thought the monthly rate was too high.  I'm helping them get into a place because they have zero credit, I'm not paying for it.  Well, I"ll pay the deposits but that's it. Yes, I know it's in my name, yes I know I will be held responsible if they don't pay me for some reason, noted.

Well really, since I'm sitting here I might as well get on the rental sites and start searching.  A productive use of my time.  I have so much data left this month - which resets tomorrow, I think I will stream a movie as well. 

Anyway, just an update.