Amusing factual stories - real life experiences in trucking

[magician_73]

Pete, I wish I could remember which items I wrote back when, before the hiccup, etc...I know there are several I 'think' I posted, but not certain, and don't know if I should redo them or what? You seem to have most of them in the 'archives'...ha ...suggestions?

[Doctor Who]

Wow it made page 17 Trumpets blaring, crowd cheering.... Yeah right!!!

Lest you forget oh wise and OLD Magician I have a few locked away on a floppy somewhere in the caves of Zebulon (NC, that is) and if you had noticed on page 16 there were two posted...

The past is still close at hand but it's still better than being whisked away into a Cyber Black Hole and.... Well you get the picture!!!!

[magician_73]

1048 to go, Doc!


Here I go again with the blue!

Way back when, during my years in the moving industry...I remember several events which stand out. One of which follows:
During the loading of a shipper, her calico cat kept coming into the trailer. It would jump up on a tier, lay down on the pads, in short it was a pain in the butt. It didn't do any good chasing the cat out, for it would only return a few minutes later. Anyway, as the loading progressed, it suddenly dawned on me that the cat had disappeared. I was overjoyed at the fact, I never mentioned it to anyone, shipper, helpers. Finally after finishing, I closed the doors, had the inventories signed, made arrangements with the shipper on a delivery date and as an after thought, I asked her if she had seen her cat lately. She replied 'no', she's probably over at one of the neighbors'.
Three days later, I pulled up in front of the shipper's new house at destination, waited for her to arrive. I went around to the back of the trailer and unlocked the doors, cracked them open and out like a bolt of lightening flew that damn calico cat - last seen headed for parts unknown.
I told the shipper, she laughed and said she had checked with the neighbors before leaving and hadn't found the cat. I said, 'I'll bet that's the last time that cat runs in and out of a trailer'. Apparently the cat, having all her possessions put on the truck, followed her instinct and crawled up on top of a tier (when my back was turned) and made herself comfortable. What a shock when she came flying out the back door. I called the shipper several days later and she informed me the cat finally came back to the house.

[magician_73]

Another little item from the years in the moving industry. I loaded a shipper in Riverside, and it was a COD which meant 99% of the cartons were PBO (packed by owner)...and we were not liable for any/all damages to them. When I got to destination, I started breaking down the tiers and upon grabbing a 3 cube carton, I could hear a strange noise inside - like gravel/glass. I had one of the helpers carry it carefully in to the shipper and had them open it. I got called in, and upon inspection, discovered one of their kids had pack (literally) their 10 gal aquarium with about an 1" of water/gravel in the bottom and naturally, the pet lizard and his tree stubs. I just shook my head and walked back to the trailer. The lizard suffered no ill effects apparently and the kids were happy, which all that matters.

[magician_73]

Only 1,014 to go Doc! :!:

[Doctor Who]

You're wrong, it'll be :rock: as the band plays

999 to go as I type this.

The FOG is coming!!!!!

[magician_73]

The FOG is coming!!!!!

What fog? And okay, we're at 976 - Hip, Hip, Hurrah :!: :!: :!: :!: :P

And no, don't have the laptop yet, but figured out a way with this 'toolbar'....elementary, my dear Watson! :!:

[Doctor Who]

The Fog!!! Not the movie either:

There are a few things that will unnerve me quicker than anything else; steer tyre blowouts, fire and FOG!!!!

I keep having a reoccurring dream about driving into a thick fog and not coming out; it?ll wake me up in a cold sweat each time?
I?m not sure when I developed a phobia to the big mist but I?m guessing it was back in the last century on Route 22 in Pennsylvania.

I was running a load of empty bottles out to the Strohs Brewery in Allentown, I was driving the ever trusty ?R? Model with the 2 sticks. I noticed the weather was taking a turn for the no good after I crossed the Delaware. At first there was slight mist in the air just enough to run the wipers every once in a while. The further west I drove the heavier the mist became, still nothing to be concerned about at least that is what I thought.

I was about 10 miles from Allentown when the fog got real thick; it looked as if someone dropped a huge blanket and covered the entire roadway. I slowed down, didn?t want to over drive the headlights. It seemed like every mile I drove the fog kept getting thicker.
I?m guessing I was about 5 miles from Allentown when a real cold chill swarmed over my body and the deep feeling something serious was wrong, I slowed down to about 35 miles an hour and put the emergency flashers on praying the whole time that no one ran into the back of me. It was at that time I was looking for a safe place to pull over when a flashing blue light popped up in the mirror. It scared me at first until the patrol car went past me. I slowed down even more not knowing what to expect. Finally the fog lifted just enough for me to see the highway patrol officer had pulled a Chevy van over that had no lights on it what so ever. I eased past them and found my to Stroh?s, I had just backed in the dock when the highway patrol officer pulled up and said I was lucky he saw the van go by. I admitted to the officer that I never saw the patrol car. He was parked on the side of the road and the white car blended real well into the fog. The officer also said I probably would have hit that van because the driver was driving at 10 miles an hour!!
Made me feel real insecure after that, my imagination went into overdrive working out different outcomes to the scenario!!! I waited until morning when the fog lifted to head back home!!!

it was misty rain, light fog and visibility not the best in the world.

This answer your question about the fog Magician????


The clock is still running......

Time for an Ice Cream run!!!

[Doctor Who]

Ice Cream, we all scream for Ice Cream!!!

Time for an ice cream run!

Back in the last century the boss?s wife was not to be believed, she was the most obnoxious human I had ever met. She was, what the boss considered, a $.25 Millionaire. Give ?em a quarter and they think they?re rich. His definition, not mine.
This chick had her hands in everything, well almost everything!

I had a run to Minnesota with a refrigerated trailer; this wagon had a Carrier not a Thermo king. Anyway, I had a load of frozen pizza dough to deliver in Saint Paul, odd, I thought, Saint Paul at certain times of the year gets as cold as a deep freezer, so why would I be delivering frozen dough. It was another one of those Mysteries of Trucking, in other words don?t try to figure out the logic.
I backed the wagon to the dock and walked inside only to be met by the dock boss, he told me to call dispatch ASAP. I called and was told in no uncertain terms I had to go to Moline, Illinois for a pick up. I didn?t question the command, wouldn?t have made any sense to.

The trailer was unloaded in two hours and I was on my way to Illinois. As I was rolling on to Moline I started thinking about the load and realized all I had was a phone number for the shipper, no address. I stopped, called the shipper; Whitey?s Ice Cream Company got directions and headed towards the plant. I pulled up in front of a store with that name and walked inside and asked the manager where the plant was. I soon discovered that there wasn?t a plant, they made the ice cream there and I was to pick up 2, yes 2, cases of ice cream for a Mrs. Mahan in North Brunswick, NJ. The manager looked out of the window and saw the W-900 and trailer and asked if that wasn?t a bit of ?overkill!? I just told him I never question anything dispatch gives me it would have been fruitless!!!
I loaded the two cases on the trailer, slid them all the way to the front and made sure they were secure. The store manager asked me if the trailer would be cold enough, I assured him it would but he had said they packed the boxes with dry ice just in case. I know it was a waste of fuel to run the reefer but I wanted to be sure the ?load? would be in good condition when I arrived back home.

Thinking there had to more than that I called dispatch and was told to get the ice cream back as soon as I could. Again, I didn?t dare argue I was getting paid for all of the mileage the truck went no matter how much was on the trailer!!!

For the record; I didn?t get any of the woman?s ice cream??

[magician_73]

Alright, fog question answered! I also share the same re: blowing out a steer, driving in fog and/or a white out because of blowing snow such as one can experience in Wyoming. Yucks!

Alright, time for a tomato run - I think this one should be in your archives cause I am almost positive I posted it way back when.....

Having unloaded in Florida, my broker sent me over to a little produce shed where I was met by a little Jewish broker. They proceeded to load the wagon with box after box of tomatoes. He threw a seal on the door and away I went - headed for good ole southern California. When I arrived at the destination broker, I bumped the dock and they proceeded to unload the wagon. The broker told me to stay put as they were going to reload me for the same broker that loaded this load. I walked in the cooler and watched as they dumped each box of tomatoes they had taken off my trailer and put the same tomatoes in a box labeled 'California tomatoes'. They then loaded the wagon and I headed right back to the very same broker I had left days earlier.

When I arrived back in Florida, I bumped the dock and there stood the little Jewish broker. As soon as I had the door open, he and a friend of his grabbed a box of tomatoes, opened it and took a nice plump tomato out and proceeded to cut it open with a penknife. Having done so, he nudged his friend and stated, 'see, I told you their tomatoes were better than ours'.....little did he know he cut open one of his own tomatoes shipped days previous. :shock:

[magician_73]

This chick had her hands in everything, well almost everything!

Boy, if that's not a leading statement, nothing is


Speaking of white outs, I remember distinctly one occasion when several of us were eastbound over Elk Mountain. We were in a blinding white out due to blowing snow, snow and high winds. The roads were snow covered and icy but passable. The three of us were navigating the mountain in what we figured to be a safe speed - probably around 35 to 40 mph and since we were using the reflective snow sticks on the shoulder as a guide to staying on the blvd, we made our way carefully. As we rounded a curve and started up another grade, two chicken haulers blew our doors off and one of them announced on the radio....'if you guys can't drive in this, then you should park it'.....not one of us issued a reply. We just kept plugging away up the hill in this nasty white out. About two miles up the road, we observed one of the chicken trucks in the median and the other off the right side headed down a nasty slope. The old boy having the front door, keyed his mike and announced, 'well, I see you guys took your own advice and parked them since you obviously can't drive in this stuff'......

Only 955 to go and this is reply #250 - how about them apples, Doc?Drumroll... :!: :!: :!: ........

[Doctor Who]

This chick had her hands in everything, well almost everything!

[color=green]Boy, if that's not a leading statement, nothing is




Only 955 to go and this is reply #250 - how about them apples, Doc?Drumroll... :!: :!: :!: ........

Actually it isn't, the boss was the one who was caught with his hands on the red haired secretary! The wife wanted the company but the boss closed it before the divorce was settled. Oh by the way the red haired girl wasn't the little one Charlie Brown was in love with, she was definately very "healthy" :shock:

The snow storm incident sounds real familiar but I don't think it was in Wyoming... Oh wait a similar incident occurred coming off of Snowshoe in Pa.

And the countdown continues!!!!

[Doctor Who]

Here's the rest of the boss and the red haired secretary...

The end of the line came in 1994 after the boss was caught with the red haired secretary, although no one knew what was going to transpire until they found the gate locked and no one in the old farm house we used as the office. I was one of the last to find out.

I met up with one of the few lease operators the company had at the Flying J in Haw River, NC. He asked me if I had noticed anything strange with the dispatches or the folks back in NJ. I told him I had given up trying to figure out dispatch years ago. He also said that his pay was not right either; now that was a surprise, in the entire time I was with the company the pay was always accurate and the lease operator was with them a few years before I started. I couldn?t give him an answer, I just suggested he call Chuk, the owner, and find out what was going on. ?Ron? said that he tried and the prevailing attitude had changed and the boss was never available to take any calls.

I didn?t know what to tell him. We finished fueling and went our separate ways; ?Ron? went on to Greensboro while I drove up to Henderson, NC unloaded at Variety Wholesale. I called dispatch and was told to make a pick up at Iams Pet Food, I asked if the load was for the boss?s wife, the dispatcher hung up on me. ?Not a good sign!? I thought as I drove to the plant. I called my wife and told her I was heading to NJ and I would be back home by Friday.

Trailer loaded I was on my way up 85 towards NJ, still not having any clue as to what was about to transpire. I delivered the pet food load to Super Markets General (Path-Mark) in Woodbridge, I called dispatch and no one answered the phone. I didn?t want to wait so I grabbed a bagel with cream cheese and a coffee and drove to the yard. I drove the truck up the dirt driveway only to find the gate closed and locked and a Middlesex County Sheriffs Deputy standing near the gate. He came up to the truck and told me to hand him the keys. I asked him why and I was told he was to take the keys from all the company trucks and I was the last of them to come in. Well, I couldn?t argue with someone with a gun so I stepped out and told him the truck was his. His partner and I stood near the patrol car and watched, no make that laugh, as the deputy proceeded to stall the Freightliner* 4 times. He finally gave up and asked me to drive the truck through the gate and then hand him the keys. I asked if I could have some time to take all my personal property out of the truck, he agreed and an hour later I had everything out. I called my brother from the yard phone. He came to get me and said he knew about the shut down.
?Fine!? I said ?Just when was he planning to let me know?? I ended up taking the train home and yes I did make it home on Friday!!!!

The boss did apologize and said it was something he had to do to keep his soon to be EX from getting the only possession he cared about. I told him he was not stable at all and that he owed me $1500 for the loads.
I never did get the money and the boss died earlier this year. The odd part about this I remained friends with him until the end?.

*Oh Yeah, he finally took the W-900 away from me in 1992 after a hard battle trying to get me to give it up

[Doctor Who]

Not sure how many ?freight? haulers have experienced the dreaded P.O. Box for a delivery address but at times it can be really annoying, especially when there isn?t a phone number to go along with the consignee?s name.
This is usually a plague amongst LTL carriers but over the years of truck load I had a few.

Not too long ago I had a 10 stop LTL run and out of the 10 three had P.O.Boxes as an address and one of them was a guaranteed type delivery, which meant the freight had to be there at a certain time. I managed to get addresses for two of the ?boxes? but number three was turning out to be a real pain in the steering wheel. (Bet you thought I was going to say ass, didn't you?)
Finally in a fit of frustration and a passion for oddball humour I pulled into a large postal complex and backed to the dock. I walked inside the building and found a postal employee and asked if she could take 8 skids of freight. She was not amused when she walked out to the dock and saw what was on the skids. I gave her the freight bill and explained that this was the address I was to deliver at. She immediately took the bill, made two phone calls and handed it back to me with a proper address and phone number, she also told me that the consignee was a real thrill to deal with but that was the first time a trucker actually attempted to deliver the freight to the post office. I asked her what made her so sure I was a trucker. Her response gave a whole new meaning to ?Going Postal!?
I didn?t get to ask her what the second phone call was for but I found out real quick when I got back in the cab and found an evil message on the Qual-Comm stating in so many words not to try a stunt like that again. I innocently sent a reply asking ?What stunt??
Needless to say I received two screens full of a response and a lot of it I can?t repeat.

There are times I really do miss running LTL, it always made for an interesting, if not, educational day!!!

[magician_73]

Only 670 to go Doc....clock's still ticking :!:

[Doctor Who]

OH WOW!!! THE CLOCK STOPPED....

It has to be the angry Gnomes again!!!! :shock: :shock:

HOT DAMN PAGE 18

[Doctor Who]

Just an addendum to the Post Office story: I also did the same thing with a tank trailer....


We are not all bad!

About a year or so ago I was riding with my daughter when she spotted a cat that had been hurt, we figured it had been hit by a car. Before I could say anything she whipped the car into the center turn lane and jumped out I looked behind me and saw a South Eastern Motor Freight truck behind us, he locked up his brakes and threw the four ways on. I thought he was going to go ballistic because of my daughter did, so I stepped out of the car to head him off but he was just as equally concerned about the poor cat. He talked with my daughter and handed her $25 to help with the Vet bills, she, in turn, gave him our phone number.

We took the cat to the Vet and got her all patched up and then we brought her home, unfortunately we already had three cats and they made sure they let the new cat know she was in the wrong neighbourhood.
Later that evening we got a call from the SEMF driver and he asked if we named the cat Lucky and I told him no we named her Lady Romanaveratrulunder and continued; besides you can name a cat anything you want they won?t come when you call them. He asked if we were going to keep her and I told him no we couldn?t. I gave him directions to my house and he and his daughter came and ?adopted? the cat.

I saw the driver yesterday and he told me ?Romana? was doing fine.

The above is an excerpt from an editorial/letter to the editor I had written in response to an Anti-Truck editorial in the local paper.

[magician_73]

Hey Doc, only 338 to go :!: :!: And the clock is ticking away ....tick...tick....tock!!!!

[Doctor Who]

Clocks.... That's a great song!!!!

[magician_73]

Clocks.... That's a great song!!!!

Never heard of it :!: Think we're down to 308 and at this rate, we'll hit the ' 10,000 before labor day :!: