I am currently in Denver, CO. I drove out here over the weekend and had to fight a pretty strong wind storm through IA and NE. When I got to CO it was snowing. Yuck.
I delivered some snow removal equipment to two locations here yesterday and am now just waiting for them to find me a reload back out again.
Before I left out I had stocked up on food supplies. It's much cheaper to eat that way than in truck stops, and in Winter it is especially important to carry emergency supplies anyway.
Well, at lunch time yesterday I fired up my APU in order to heat something to eat in the microwave. The APU took a shit on me and I wound up eating in the truck stop anyway. I'll have to have it repaired when I get back to the yard.
Other than the Winter weather conditions there isn't really anything new going on. Just hauling stuff here and there.
I have been enjoying the fact that I can now scan my paperwork into the office right from my truck. The company had signed up for a scanning service called TransFlo a while back. With that service you typically stop at certain truck stops, carry your paperwork in and one of the cashiers scans it.
Well, I had mentioned to the office manager that they also have a TransFloNow service where one can download the free software and do the scan right from the truck, assuming of course one has a laptop and scanner, which I do.
She checked in to it and signed us up for it as it doesn't cost anything extra.
At our safety meeting last month the topic came up. It seemed that I was the only driver who knew about it and was using it. I answered a lot of questions from the drivers about how it works and what scanner to buy. Many of the drivers expressed interest in it.
The boss even told the drivers that if they turned in receipts for scanners of reasonable cost he would reimburse them the expense. I piped up and said "What about me? I've had mine for a while and didn't get reimbursed".
He said "Yeah, but you're a computer geek and would have one anyway." Laughter from everyone, including myself. "I'll reimburse your printer ink when you need it."
Good enough for me. I have a Kodak all in one unit and the ink is pretty cheap.
After I delivered these loads yesterday I immediately came to the truck stop and scanned in my paperwork. As long as they get it in the office before midnight on Monday I will get paid for it on Friday. That is the biggest advantage of scanning it in.
Ah well, time to walk back inside for more coffee.