It is quiet on the jobsite.

Maintenance Sunday.

I need today to regroup. Truck drivers are really beginning to get to me. I have one who can't work a plan, another who muddles through, and a third who had talked to me about buying his own truck.

The first driver, slept Friday night in Andrews, the last night he was in the motel. Then he drove to the compound and picked up a load to go to Sweetwater. When he was off loaded he called me and I told him to go to the house, get his medications and get some rest. When the driver he is teamed with finishes his shift he would call to bring in the resting driver. Late yesterday this man's team driver called me and told me he was hauling his last load and he was calling his team driver. Minutes later the driver who had been off called me and told me he would come in about midnight and head to the jobsite. I told this man he had all day to get a nap and he told me he was too busy to sleep.

I've got a feeling this sleepy head driver can't make the cut. He was marginal on the Lovington run but now that we are going back to Sweetwater, it is imperative that you try for a four hour turn (or trip). I have one driver over the years who could do this consistently while others could do it on rare occasions. If a driver does his four hour turns, he can do three in twelve hours. I've found that many driver can only do two turns in that time. These are usually the ones who can't drive past a convenience store, Dairy Queen, or truck stop.

I probably have a mismatch on this particular team. The one guy will run hard and fast getting his loads done and then giving way to his teammate who takes way too long, so one driver is getting minimal sleep while the other is getting too much! Thing is one is old, the other young, but they have been friends for a long time.

The driver who talked with me about buying a truck did just that. Against my advice I might add. It is not that I don't think it is a good idea, it is that the truck he bought is extremely suspect.

The truck the man bought is the truck which repeatedly failed to be up to the work out here. Everytime we needed to count on it, it wasn't up to the task. The former owner bought another truck. I am afraid for this driver that he has bought someone else's trouble. Of course the clincher in this deal was the seller was willing to carry the note.

Usually the first three or four months set the tone for whether a driver who becomes an owner operator can make it. If he can run trouble free for that period, his odds of succeeding go up considerably. Then it is up to the owner operator to be a good enough business person to not think all of the money he is making is disposable income. Some of it had better be available for maintenance and preventative maintenance.

In this particular case I think I am more disappointed in the man who sold the truck than the man who bought it. I think the seller led a lamb through a long seduction and then swept in for the kill.

As I said earlier, we are now hauling back to Sweetwater. This is familiar territory. In the past I have done this haul with as few as two trucks and four drivers. Right now I have five trucks and five drivers (even with the one who quit). I also have my two standby locals out here. I have been inundated with calls lately from drivers who want to drive, so right now it might be the best time all season as far as driver availability is concerned.

My biggest fear right now is that my drivers will begin to think that since we are back to Sweetwater they don't have to run as hard. (I've always said the most dangerous thing in the world is a truck driver who thinks). The key to the who operation is consistency and predictability.

My driver who wanted to delay coming in last night had a brain fart and couldn't find his fuel card. Herberto called me about 2:14 in the morning to ask me if he needed to come to my trailer to get a fuel card for this driver. I am thinking this driver views rules as mere suggestions.

So today is rest and regrouping for me!

Another excerpt from my reading project.

"A person who sets his or her mind on the dark side of life, who lives over and over the misfortunes and disappointments of the past, prays for similar misfortunes and disappointments int he future. If you will see nothing but ill luck in the future, you are praying for such ill luck and will surely get it." Prentice Mulford ~ taken from The Secret.

Have a day!

FATHER, oh to be like YOU!