Brownsville, got a trailer, headed back up.
The mechanic calls and asks if I know of a Peterbilt dealership on the way back up.
I said sure, there's one in Houston. He says well take it there and see if they will look at the
problem (that I have been reporting for 8,9 10 months however long). Well, I can but I don't really want to be sitting around a dealership for however long not making any money. Well that's, the thing, the mechanic tells me, Ann says if you do it out of town you'll be breakdown pay.
I knew that, but I wanted that to come out of their mouths, not mine. So, I go to the Peterbilt in Houston. Huge facility. Like, way larger than any other Peterbilt shop I've seen. But I guessed right: they can't look at it until "next week". It was Friday. So I all the Peterbilt in Lufkin. First person I talked to says yea, we can get that in on Saturday. Ok! Let me call my company and make sure they're okay with that and I'll call back.
Well this went back and forth. Mechanic says fine, whatever, you're better off than coming back here. I call the shop back, uhh, I dunno who you talked to but we don't have anyone qualified to to look at that tomorrow (Saturday). Here I had thoughts of sitting in a hotel for a few days and getting paid for it and that all came crashing down. Back to my company, didn't hear anything back until maybe half an hour later. The mechanic calls. Well Ann and I have been talking, if they can look at it on Monday, why not do that? I don't care, I said, as long as I"m getting paid.
So I called the shop back. And they had to confirm if they would have someone Monday morning. Or whatever they really had to do, not sure. But they finally called back, we set an appointment and here I have been, since Friday night, at a La Quinta Inn in Lufkin, Texas. Breakdown pay is better than detention pay in that you don't lose 10 hours per day for your "rest" break even tho you aren't working as with detention pay. You get paid every hour you are sitting around. By tomorrow morning, I'll be at around $1,500 of sitting around in a company paid hotel doing nothing pay.
Not that I haven't done anything. I've watched several movies, went to Walmart, went to the restaurant next door - which has outrageous prices so I didn't go back there. Today I walked to the Applebee's for a steak. Still doing the diet, yes. That was the Walmart trip, get food. I then walked even further to the cinema and watched a horror flick. Scary movie indeed lol.
I'm kind of hoping it takes days for them to figure out what's wrong. Remember, 3 other shops have already given up on it. There is also another problem I'm going to have them look at, I'm looking to legitimately drag this out as long as possible. The first problem is when all the warning lights come on and then the cruise control quits working. I have numerous pics of it to back up my report, it's an on and off, itnermittent problem.
The other problem is rare but when it happens, it's freaky lol. The regen light comes on and then? A bunch of steam starts billowing out from underneath the hood. It literally looks like the truck is on fire. It's part of the regen process, but people stopped near me in traffic are always freaking out. It's not supposed to do that and I've been told it's a part that cracks. Well maybe that part is cracked and I have to wait 2 days for them to get the part?
Why don't I want to go home? Well that's not it. At all. What it is is that the plant where we load the trucks is going to be shut down 4 days this coming week, or so I was told. And work is really slow right now. Lots of trucks sitting in the yard, people not working, plants are shut down on the other end for breakdowns. I didn't bring this idea up to have the truck fixed out here but I'm glad they thought of it and frankly, my manager did it so I could get the money out of it. I was off for 12 days. I would have a really bad next paycheck after this bad paycheck I'll be getting on Friday. I can absorb one of those, 2 of them in a row? No. A couple more days down here and I an sit around for the rest of the pay period if it worked out that way with no work at all and have a very nice paycheck. Including this run that I'm on , that is.
Anyway, I will have the truck at the Peterbilt place at 7:30 am tomorrow, which is Monday, and then catch a ride right back to the hotel. I'm not going to sit around a driver's lounge in that place when I can be comfortable here. Actually I need to think about this. There was something else wrong with that thing that comes and goes and it's slipping my mind right now.
That's it, lol. Just been lounging around. I miss my dogs but they're fine at the other house. Rene sends me videos here and there of them, not that I ask for those either but it's nice that she does that. That's basically their second home. Well lately, it's really their first home for as much time as I"ve been away.
Oh, and I put an inquiry in for lease-purchase program. Kinda of got into with my manager after she sent out an ugly text to everyone. I told her I've been writing this truck up for 8 months for the same thing, the truck sat there for almost a month, why wasn't it taken to the shop? Etc etc etc. I also said I had asked months ago about info for the lease purchase program that she said she was going to get to me. So, she sent me that info and I sent them an email. I hope to receive back the details of the program and especially the costs, how much they take out of any given paycheck and how much I will be paid per mile.
According to other OO's, the company still pays them detention pay when they have to wait. I dunno how much, I didn't ask. I have a couple of people I can ask questions about this situation if I really start thinking I might want to do it. I wouldn't get breakdown pay, obviously, it's my truck, my responsibility. I have an old friend in Indianapolis that owns a truck repair shop. More major repairs I could ask for a load going near there to get fixed. The shop at the terminal will work on OO trucks tho. Including regular maintenance. I'm not sold on the program, I don't know what it entails yet. The OO's own their own trucks, they are not paying the company for them and their trucks are paid off actually. But sometimes the repair bills are pretty steep. A turbo went out on one a while back, the repair bill was 8 grand.
Just thinking about it stage. Been thinking about it, also been thinking about finding a new job. Or not, lol.
Well I'm getting offa here. I stayed up way too late last night watching a movie, gonna hit the sack earlier tonight.
