It's a Team's Life

Month End

Month End

I don’t know about you, but I always enjoy coming to the end of the month. Why? Because I enjoy crunching the numbers to see how we did. Last month turned out to be a very good month for us. Having said that, we had to work very hard to make it happen. What I mean by that is that the flow of work did not seem to change from previous months; however, we found ourselves driving further to get to the work. Despite driving more miles than we average in a month, we still surpassed our preferred rate per mile.

In addition to analyzing the previous month, I try to plan the next month too. While there is no way to know exactly how much work will be available during the month, I can still look at things such as as the budget and the calendar to determine how much we have to work based on what extra bills might be coming due. As it turns out, this month will be less work and more personal projects.

Last week the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) held its annual Brake Safety Week. During the week scale houses might have trucks enter and perform a Department of Transportation (DOT) inspection focusing on the brakes on the truck. As drivers, it is our responsibility to make sure that our brakes are working in optimal performance. Actually, it is our responsibility to make sure that the entire truck meets all required specifications. The inspector is looking for cracked drums as well as worn, rusted or cracked rotors. Fortunately, I only got pulled into a scale a couple of times. In each case, I crossed the scale and was given the green light to exit the scale. While I am confident in our equipment I still get nervous every time I get called into a scale. Do you get those butterflies in your stomach like I do? I feel like I am being tested and want to make sure that I pass the test.

The last time we were home was sometime in July. With a holiday coming up we decided to go home and get a few things done over the long weekend. We visited with family as well. Now it is back to work. We will try to get as much work in as we can while enjoying some personal time to prepare for a vacation in October and move our camper down to Florida for our snowbird adventure this winter season. 

Here’s to millions of safe, profitable and PLANNED miles.

Kelly Plumb