I'm depressed. I just conferred with USX breakdown. Our truck has been pouring black smoke, using a lot of coolant, running hotter than usual and has lost some power. I wanted to know what breakdown thought about it. They think it's the EGR Cooler valve. It needs to go to a Detroit diesel shop. This will be the third time in two months that this truck has been in the shop. And we still can't get U.S. Xpress to give us a Volvo 780. In spite of the many problems with this truck that we've pointed out, and in spite of the safety risk that it poses at the customer in Chicago Heights.

Mr. Haynes says that they're just waiting for the plates and registration for those Volvos, implying that we can have one when they come in. But I keep running into teams who say they just left tunnel hill in brand new Volvo 780s, and I see USX 780s all the time on our run.

So why can't we get one? We certainly have more than enough in the way of valid issues to warrant it. Man. Ray said that the folks on this run were like the red headed step-children of U.S. Xpress. Now I believe it. Of course, for all my bitching I still hold out the hope that maybe this latest issue will be the one to tip the scales in our favor.

I suppose the reason I’m feeling a little depressed is that I’ve begun to wonder how much longer we'll have a job. How much more will it take for ray to cut his losses and take us off this dedicated run in favor of someone who has a truck that doesn't break every two or three weeks? We've already decided that we would quit before we returned to regular fleet. Ray would essentially fire us by taking us off the run.

Man, if we could only get that Volvo 780, we could really show these people something. We can't keep this Freightliner Columbia rolling long enough to impress anybody. I wouldn't blame Ray for cutting us loose. The loads have to be run. We certainly seem to be more trouble than we're worth. And all we want to do is drive.