Fuel for Thought

The Weekend Report

The pace. It’s been a while since it’s been this slow. All I had last week was one load from St Louis, Missouri to Quincy, Illinois. When it gets this slow I try to just go with the flow instead of wasting energy getting agitated or over guessing the freight. I’ll gravitate towards the center of the expedite universe or a house with friends. I’m already booked on a load that picks up Monday morning a couple hundred miles from here which sort of kills the rate, but it gets me back closer to the freight. Putting my money on the last two weeks of the month. And hey, last March was one of the strongest months for 2014.

Parts on board. This topic came up in an offline conversation, and it’s worth sharing. The question was—what spare parts do you carry? So this is my reinventory. Most parts are service related. Air, fuel and oil filters. Oil, quart of transmission fluid, gallon of coolant. Wide assortment of most light bulbs. Belts, pulleys and belt tensioner (all get changed together) (technically, not all in inventory, time to reorder tensioner and pulleys). I have a water pump that I thought I might need a couple years ago but never needed it. Occasionally I’ll have a part on board for something that I know is going bad like I did when I ordered my air conditioner blower motor and water pump. I no longer try to cover myself for anything that can happen. Most of all I try to catch things ahead of time when I’m in for other jobs or in-shop service. And the few parts I have are so the parts are on hand and don’t need to be ordered when I get to a shop.

Tools on board. Minimum tools to go with the minimum parts. I have all the tools that I use for oil and fuel filter changes in one light tool bag. In a heavier bag I have more of a MacGyver assortment. The idea is that I’m not going to fix a hard break. The MacGyver bag has the basics to make BDR repairs, like bailing wire, metal (speed) tape, zip ties, hose clamps, sheet metal benders and snips, heavy hammer, crescent wrenches, vise grips, cable cutters and pocket hacksaw. The improvising tools are to get me off the road or to allow me to limp to a shop; not for major repairs.

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