Time to Start Blogging Again

I kinda dropped the ball on this blogging thing and frankly I have missed it. Who knew it would be so enjoyable to write a blog. I sporadically kept journals as a young girl. But somehow they never interested me like this does. Who knew, well I guess that was my mom and oldest brother. After all they are the ones who encouraged me to start this in the first place.

Everytime something interesting happens, one of the first things that pops into my head is I should be blogging this! Take for instance where we loaded at a few weeks ago. We went in to check in and get our passes upon our arrival. They have a temporary building set up that is very basic and the flow of people, well there was no flow! We went to the left to check in and get our papers first. We patiently waited our turn. When it came we both walked up to the counter and gave the lady our information. Now I know as I describe her some of you are going to think I am mean, but this is a dead accurate description and without this mental image the story just wouldn't be the same. She was a large, heavy set black woman. Maybe in her mid 50s who looked as though she had stopped caring about her looks decades ago. Her clothing was unkempt and she wore what looked to be a really bad wig (to make matters worse, it was even slightly askew). Her mannerisms were overly exaggerated in ever way. My instant first impression was of a lazy drama queen. Then I immediately felt bad for categorizing her without even knowing her. If I had only known then...

As we told her what we were there to pick up she made several dramatic and loud comments regarding possible problems with our paperwork and freight then immediately dismissed them. Frankly at first I was confused as I tried to figure out how to respond to her. Then increasingly worried she was just plain crazy and this whole thing was going to go terribly wrong at any moment. However we both somehow managed to quietly muddle our way thru her dramatics, that is till she asked us about placards. I told her no we didn't carry any on the truck and would need them. To which she just stared at us...and stared at us. I swear it went on for over a minute. Finally she said, well just go load and when you come back here for your paperwork you can get them then. I was really worried then because I knew I was going to have to explain something to her. I told her simply we needed to take the placards with us in order to be able to placard the trailer once the freight was loaded. As we couldn't move a hazardous load without being placarded. She just looked at me, slack jawed and dull eyed. I tried again, "really we can't move the loaded trailer back across the facility without it being placarded. If there was an incident or accident we would be in serious trouble." Finally it started to dawn on her I wanted the placards now. So she informed us that the placards were at the end of the counter in that cabinet. Mind the cabinet she pointed to was a large double doored grey metal storage cabinet maybe ten feet to her left. Then she just stood there staring at us. Like that explain it all perfectly! I had to tell her again we really did need the placards before we could leave to load. She finally, very reluctantly, with plenty of shuffling, loud sighing and moaning, moved to toward the cabinet. One of her co-workers had the misfortune of being right next to the cabinet as she approached. First she stopped in front of it and just looked at it for a bit. Then she reached out a hand and poked the front of it! After this she turns to her co-worker and loudly proclaims it is locked in a whiny voice. He has obviously dealt with her before, as he simply turned around opened and closed the cabinet, then went back to what he was doing. She contemplated this for a bit then reached out and sort of wiggled the handle with two fingers. Here she complains to her co-worker again that she can't get it open. He, never saying a word this whole time, turned around again and opened the cabinet. She looks at his back for a few seconds, then looks into the cabinet....and stares into the cabinet....and stares into the cabinet. FINALLY...she proclaims, "there they are." Pause........"they are on the bottom." Then, she reaches out with her right foot and gently prods them as she continues to stare at them. She then has the audacity to turn to us and inform us that they are on the bottom. We manged, not without a struggle, not to say a word and keep our faces neutral. At this lack of response she turned back to contemplating the cabinet again, finally reaching down and getting the small package of placards.

She slowly walked back to her place in front of us and asked, "how many do you want, 6?" I responded telling her, "no, 5 will be fine." To which she proceeds to lecture me that I don't need "6" as there are only 4 sides to a truck and if we are worried about losing one she suggests we get out our duck tape, as all drivers carry that stuff, and tape the placards really good to the side of the trailer. Yes she knows what a mess it will make, but that's the only way to do it! I just gritted my teeth for a minute then calmly said 4 would be fine. She didn't like this response and gave us the WHOLE lecture again, after which she dramatically handed them over with another admonishment about taping them securely! After all as she informed us we would be in serious trouble if we were to loose one of them and not have a spare on hand to replace it with! With great effort we both gave a smile and thanked her for her help, then quietly turned and left as quickly as we could.

Our next stop was across the hall. As we were standing there waiting this woman came out into the hallway. There were two men standing in the hallway, which is about 7 feet wide. One man was standing on the right side leaning against some lockers and the other was on the left side, about 10 feet farther down the hall from the first, standing next to the wall. This woman, came to a stop a few feet in front of the first man and said, "excuse me!" in a medium tone of voice. To which both men responded by standing up straight and flattening themselves against the walls to make more room for her. She stood there for half a second looking at them then yelled, "EXXXXCUUUSSSSE MEEEEE!" at them. They both just stared at her helplessly not having a clue what she wanted. It didn't take long to find out either. She proceeded to yell at them that they needed to both move to the left side of the hallway and stand straight so she could pass on the right side of the hall. OH, and I forgot to tell you about her gloves! She had been wearing latex gloves when we first came across her. Which isn't entirely abnormal, but she had removed one while hand us our placards and then replaced it! So here she stands in the middle of the hall way holding both gloved hands up in front of herself like a surgeon yelling at these poor guys to get out of her way so she can go wash her hands immediately! I couldn't hold it in any longer, I turned around buried my face in Randy's back and started shaking with laughter. As soon as I heard the bathroom door close behind her I just howled! Even Randy gave in and laughed out right. She, while impossible, had to be the funniest person I have encountered in a long time! What was even better was while in getting our passes I heard her repeat the entire scene in the hallway in reverse when she left the bathroom. It took all I had in me not to start howling with laughter again till we left the building!

Revenge on a Tailgater

We took the truck into our favorite shop, Cadillac Truck, this morning and left it for its 6 month DOT inspections.  On the way home, while still maybe 7 miles south of town, a little grey BMW pulls up behind me.  Mind I am driving an Excursion, but I don't drive slow.  Its a diesel too, so hills don't even faze it on cruise control.  It just growls louder and up we go!  I was doing about 6 over the limit and had the cruise set.  I could almost hear the driver behind me gripping the wheel and grinding his teeth.  Tailgaters are a huge pet peace of mine and I am sure there is an especially heinous place in hell, reserved just for them.  Unfortunately for this idiot he decided he just had to get closer the rear of my vehicle.  Like that was going to speed me up.  Not!  Just for him, since I was in a no passing zone for the next 6 miles, I tapped my brake, broke the cruise and slowed down to 5 below the limit!!!!! Na-Na-Na-Na-Na :-P

I could almost see the steam come out of his ears in my rear view mirror O:-D  Randy, who was in the passenger seat wasn't perturbed at all by the irritating tailgater, but almost came unglued by me slowing down.  I guess those tailgaters have to stick together no matter what, huh?

106 TDOT Construction Deaths

We were driving East on 40 in Tennessee the other day when I saw the sign at the side of the highway.  At first I was both shocked and appalled at the high number of deaths.  Then I started to remember the countless number of times I have almost hit construction workers in this state.  I don't want to seem callous, but the State of Tennessee has a problem.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen workers step into oncoming traffic as if it wasn't there. Or how many times I have had to jerk my truck off the road or onto the shoulder in order to avoid hitting absent minded and careless workers.  I know all of you have seen the signs at the entrance to construction zones about years in jail and fines you will get for hitting a worker.  What they should be doing is spending money educating these morons about the danger of becoming complacent regarding their environment.  Then again maybe they are going for a Guinness Book World Record for the highest number of Darwin Awards!

Stolen LEDs

So here were are at the Petro in Glendale, KY minding our own business.  We just had the truck washed. Then dried the aluminum, stainless and glass by hand to avoid water spots.  Of course we always miss a few and the wash is never perfect, so we end up using a little polish to rub out the inevitable drip marks on the aluminum and the remaining bug carcases from the stainless stacks.  

It was about then that Randy noticed something wrong with the dropped trailer we were parked next to.  Every single LED light was missing.   Some one had stolen all the marker, turn signal and brake lights.

We got the company name and number from the inspection sticker on the front of the trailer and called them to let them know.  It is Easter Weekend and the poor guy pulling this trailer probably wont be back to pick it up till late Sunday night.  We wanted to give them a heads up so they weren't blind sided.  After all it is going to take a little bit of leg work to find and get your hands on that many LED lights in Glendale, KY.

According to the company, their driver lived in the area.  Just as we had thought the driver had dropped the trailer to go home for the holiday weekend.  Of course they were grateful we had called them to let them know, but also suspicious that the driver had somehow caused this.  Randy explained that the trailer was dropped under two overhead lights and within clear view of the shop.  We would have assumed it one of the safer spots in the lot as well, that's why we parked there.  After hearing this explanation they seemed to relax and thanked us for taking the time to call them.

You can see the two overhead vapor lights in this picture and the shop was right behind me as I took the photo.

Such a dirty deed to do to another driver, especially on a holiday weekend!

Patience

We were supposed to load at 0800 this morning and had driven down last night to avoid Monday morning rush hour traffic.  We had just hit the snooze button on our alarm at 0630 when the customer knocked on the side of our truck to tell us they were ready for us.  There were 4 other trucks behind us that we were going to be loading with.  We were first in line.  However it wasn't 2 minutes (I had just started up the tractor) when the truck behind us pulled out of line and passed us so they could be first to be loaded.  Some people just don't have any patience and have to be the first ones to load and unload.  This is fine with us in this instance, because we know dispatch always offers out the short crappy paying loads first because they are harder to get covered.  Sometimes it pays to have a little patience and wait.  I guess we will see when we get to the other end of this one...

Musical Loads

So we were supposed to pickup a load in New Jersey going to Delaware.  We arrived sharply at 0600 for our 0630 pickup time.  We were pleasantly surprised to see some friends of ours in the other truck we were going to load with.  After a dicey blindside back into the building (inside dock), we all stood around chatting and catching up with each other till the dock people showed up to load us.  When everyone finally arrived for work we opened the doors and bumped the docks.  2 hours later we pulled out only to find out we were way over loaded on our drivers.  We were pushing over 60 pounds of psi on the drivers and are in a sunken dock!  When we checked in with the loading dock we were told that they had (we aren't allowed on this dock while being loaded) nose loaded us with 36400+ pounds!!  

Now a little history on this load...yesterday they kept offering out this load with no piece count or weight listed so we kept turning it down.  Finally after turning it down for the 7th or 8th time I called in to ask what the story was.  I was told who the customer was and that their loads never went over 12000 pounds, but no they only had the piece count, no weight on this load.  I agreed to do the load "IF" they would cover us by emailing the customer our weight restriction (we can only scale a little over 32000lbs).  I was further informed that there would be 3 of us loading, so the other 2 trucks should be able to take any extra if necessary.

Of course the customer was never notified of our weight restriction and the other 2 trucks turned out to be 1 other truck and another reefer with just about the same weight restriction as us!  Are we having fun yet?  The dock guy didn't want to unload the entire load, he just wanted to remove a few pallets from the rear to reduce the weight.  So we had to do the go around and explain to several people what it meant that we were over weight on our drivers.  They would have to move the entire load more to the rear of the trailer as well as reduce it, in order to shift the weight back to the trailer axles and reduce our gross.  Of course there were lots of suggestions from everyone else as to how we could avoid the scales (including driving half off the scales to avoid showing how heavy we were!!!) and the theory that once we were on flat ground the weight on our drivers would lift!  We had to explain that we don't run illegal, some one would notice if we tried to only put one side of the trucks axles on the scale and that once we pulled out the hole the dock was in more weight would be on the drivers, not less.  Of course they didn't believe us and left to decide what to do.  They came back a little bit later and asked us to move both trucks down to the other end of the building and put them into two docks there.  Then they would fix the weight issue down there.  Sure enough when we got onto flat ground, the psi on the drivers was almost at 75!!! For those of you unfamiliar, the drivers are usually just a little over 40 psi.

So after we get into the docks at the other end of the building we get calls from dispatch asking us if we want to do a little 11 mile hop loading from these same docks.  They had decided to off load us and bring in two dry boxes to haul our load.  Which was no problem for us, expect remember what the customer had said about fixing the load?  Apparently their idea of fixing the load was to completely unload us.  I guess that they just didn't want to break the news to us.  Like we would care.  So now we are waiting around for them to unload us and then reload us.

In the meanwhile 4 other trucks have showed up.  The first 2 get loaded right away and leave.  Then the other 2 try to hit the docks next to us.  Neither of them can drive for SH*T!  The idiot trying to hit the dock right to our left has to be the worst driver I have ever seen (that is saying alot)!  There are at least 3 truck lengths of open space in front of us and we in the dock.  Should be no problem to pull up straight in front of the dock and back straight in, right?  NOT!  He tried to hit our truck numerous times to being so far off he was headed for 4 docks to our left! It took Randy and 2 other drivers over 45 minutes to get this moron in the dock!!!!  I was sweating the whole time, thinking if he hits my truck or trailer I am going to skin him alive.  Since he didn't speak English I would have to because yelling at him wouldn't have accomplished anything.  I don't care who you are, if you can't handle a truck you shouldn't be in one.

Well after they loaded and sent these two morons on their way, the customer told us that something was going wrong with our loads again and they would be out to explain in a few minutes.  So there we all sat for another half hour waiting.  Finally the manager came out only to explain that we had in fact both been loaded for some time, but since someone had decided not to release the loads there was no paperwork and they were going to have to unload us.  Oh Boy...

So we spent 7 1/2 hours in their parking lot, bumped 2 docks and were loaded, unloaded, loaded and unloaded.  We filled out 4 bills of lading and got paid for 2 dry runs.  All without driving even 1/4 of a mile!  But we did get to spend a great day with our friends!

It was interesting to note that the customer continually acted throughout the day like we were going to bite their head off every time something went wrong.  It wasn't til the last 1/2 hour or so that they finally understood we weren't upset by all the commotion.  I mean we get paid whether we move the load or not.  What's there to get mad about?  We basically got paid $450 dollars to spend 7 1/2 hours catching up with friends.  Not a bad day in my book.

Sticky Situation

This was an early morning run we did for a customer.  We even called twice to double check the directions because we had a "bad feeling" they were wrong!  Boy were they ever.

It was dark, foggy and rush hour...and here we are at the bottom of a steep hill with a 2 ton elevated bridge to our left and a cement wall dead end in front of us.  

What you can't read because the photo turned out blurry is that these are EMERGENCY VEHICLES ONLY  and PEDESTRIANS ONLY signs.  Of course they are posted at the bottom of the hill where they really didn't do us any good.  (I know we told them we were in an 18 wheeler/tractor-trailer)

We couldn't have made this corner if we wanted to!

The endless stream of cars squeezing past us while we wait for a patrol car and more guards to control traffic so we can back out of this lovely little spot.

He had to back up the hill (about 7% grade) weaving back and forth between the low hanging branches (he did miss them both on the way down and up, but we took out several cones).  Then blind side the truck and trailer into the highway.  All of this while me, several guards and two patrol cars tried to control both the pedestrians and cars.  The cars where easy to control. They just blocked them from coming forward with the patrol cars.  The people on the other hand, kept darting around us and into the path of the truck!  You would think all the flashing lights and the big truck coming at them would make them think twice, but nope. (more Darwin Award candidates)

If only we had come in during the daylight after the fog had lifted a little, we never would have driven down into that horrible place!

Here one of the guards helping us is taking ANOTHER call from his superior yelling at him to get that truck out of that gate.  Apparently this gate is only open to vehicles for 45 minutes each morning so all the superior officers can get to work without waiting thru the lines at the main gate.  OOPS.  Of course they wanted the names of the people responsible.  We gladly spelled out the person's name very slowly so they could get all of the credit for this morning's fine adventures!

Since we had already had so much fine fun this morning and they were already there, the patrol cars decided to give us an escorted pass thru the correct gate and on to our destination.  This turned out to be a good suggestion, because they had to have us cross several coned areas and stop traffic for us to maneuver several times.  They also smoothed our way thru all the gates and check points.  Mind before we left with them on this little trip they told us not to worry about any cones, we would be driving over a few.  UNDERSTATEMENT!  We must have crushed over a hundred of the little buggers that morning.  But they were right, there was no other way in.

The funny thing is that we ended up right below where we got stuck that morning.  This bridge was the one we were first directed to.  Only it took 5 more miles of driving to get around to the other gate and finally end up where we needed to be.  Just a few hundred feet from where we started out.

Funny how things turn out some times isn't it?

Some Areas Just Aren't for Stopping!!!

I just couldn't resist taking a picture of this when on our return trip thru this area we actually saw a tractor trailer who had decided it was time to pull off of the road and take a nap!  YUP!  Right by two of these bright red 8' tall x 12' wide reflective signs! Maybe he will be on the Darwin Awards next time around?