When In Florida, Watch Your Step!

A few weeks ago I got dispatched on a run way down to Miami Florida.  I knew we had a fairly regular run going down that way and a driver who handled it most of the time, kind of like I handle the loads going into Connecticut.  I asked my dispatcher why he was sending me on it this time and he only said that the other fellow couldn't make it this week.  After I completed the load I stopped in at the terminal in Gulfport, MS to get my truck serviced and spotted the fellow's truck who normally goes to Florida sitting there in the yard all messed up from an accident.  It turns out that "Hurricane" (the only name I've ever known this fellow by) had an accident after running illegally for nine hundred miles without stopping to take a break!  Well, that explained why he couldn't do that run last week - he was no longer employed at Knight.

I've tried to explain in here before about the competitive nature of this business.  If you are a good producer and can do it legally and safely you will find yourself at the top of the food chain in the industry.  You will get preferential treatment from your dispatcher, you will land the best runs, and you will make a better paycheck than your peers.  At Knight they have a tiered system of measuring your performance as a driver.  It is a three tiered scoring system with certain benchmarks you must meet to move up to the next level.  If you are a "Three Star" driver you are producing at the highest level.  This measurement is reassessed each quarter of the year and you receive quarterly bonus pay based on the level of your performance.  Out of about five hundred drivers at my home-terminal I made the short list of "Three Star" drivers during my first full quarter of being employed here.  That's me, third name up from the bottom of the list.  I was the only SAPA driver to make the cut.

Okay, enough bragging on myself.  Let me tell you about this next trip I'm starting in the morning.  It is a combination of Florida and Connecticut.  That's right, I'm leaving out of Delhi, Louisiana in the morning and heading to Nokomis, Florida.  Then from there I am going over to the opposite coast to Saint Augustine, Florida, and from there I am heading up to Farmington, Connecticut.  This is an extra sweet assignment.

When I made my last foray into Florida I almost got myself into some trouble without realizing it.  I had driven my way to one of the places I was going to deliver to and gotten there the night before I was due, so I was going to sleep on the premises and get unloaded first thing in the morning.  That is a great way to stay ahead of the game in this job.  Well, when you drive this truck all day like that you just want to get out of it for a little while to stretch your legs and get a little fresh air.  There was a little slough of water right beside me where I had parked and so I got out in the night air and walked around along the edge of the water enjoying the cool of the night air and the peaceful quiet of the evening.  In the morning after I got unloaded and was about to leave I took another little brief walk over by that slough of water and here is what I discovered lying along the edge warming himself in the morning sunshine.  I don't know if he was there the night before, but if he was I'm glad he wasn't hungry enough to let me know of his presence.

After delivering the rest of that load down in Miami I shut down for the evening at a Pilot truck stop.  I got there just before the sun began to set and was able to enjoy it's lovely descent as it painted the heavens with it's fading light.  I have some more things to share with you about that trip, but I need to get to bed tonight, so as soon as I take the chance to make another post I will fill you in on a few more of the details of my first trip into Florida while working on this new job.