Amusing factual stories - real life experiences in trucking

[Jackrabbit379]

Ive never been to New York,or well,anywhere up in that part of the country,but I hear that its a nightmare. :shock:

[OntheRoad2]

i love hearing all those wonderful stories.keep up the good work.......and thanks for sharing them.....see you all soon.

[badboy62]

I've been at the same company for six years. Now I need a change so I look for a better place. I decide to go back to OTR and run national for a new company. So I call, set up orientation, book my flight with North West. I go into the den to watch TV. Oh, another terroist threat, RED alert, no liqids in carry on, no big thing. North West's Flight Attendants are going to random strike but they put it on hold until the weekend of the 25th. Lets see... I fly out on the 27th, perfect! Now freight is slowing down, no end in sight. The Weather is stormy, and it's raining everyday. My Driver crashes out of the race... 30 minutes into my new life. It sucks as much as my old life! I hate CNN.

[Doctor Who]

Just about time to add a bit more to the topic at hand...

Stay tuned for: The Tale of Two Trailers and another visit to the... FOG!


Now for this!!!

Ive never been to New York,or well,anywhere up in that part of the country,but I hear that its a nightmare.

No, no, no, it's not a NIGHTMARE it's only a figment of an over-active imagination....

[yoopr]

Originally Posted by Doctor Who

Just about time to add a bit more to the topic at hand...

Stay tuned for: The Tale of Two Trailers and another visit to the... FOG!


Now for this!!!

No, no, no, it's not a NIGHTMARE it's only a figment of an over-active imagination....

Glad to see you're still kickin' Doc
Yeah-New York really sucked for driving in but it's blown out of Proportion.

[yeti]

Ok,I always loved trucker tales, and in the years I drove teams I was forced, numerous times to "shut up and go to your room" so maybe I can tell a few here with out being sent to bed.

I started my otr adventures in 1979 by taking my naive 21 yo self from beautiful downtown north Jersey to the trucking capital of the new world, metropolitan Fort Scott, Kansas. I arrived with a heart full of hope, a soul yearning for adventure and a bright new $1 bill in my wallet. I was gonna buy me a truck! Did I mention I was going to become an owner operator for Midwestern Distribution? Well I was, I'm gonna be a buck trucker!!! Little did I know what was going to happen to me in the next two years, had I known maybe I would have stayed home.

I arrived in the Fort and set up my HQ in the opulent Todd Motel. To call the Todd a flea bag would be exaggeration,as even the fleas wouldn't stay at the Todd. I could careless, I was going Tobe a trucker, I was staying in a real truckers motel, and I have 36 hours to get real salty before orientation begins on Monday. I can still remember the taste in my mouth of my building excitement.

Monday arrives and the Midwestern van pulls up to take the new meat to the yard to process. The usual dog and pony show, fill out this, sign that, wait in line, interview with Mr So&such, stand around, go take a road test, fill this out, wait in line, sign that, "congratulations you are a 90 day semi experienced second seat driver, be back in the morning for orientation." Woo-hoo I'm hired, 3 days of orientation, then 90 days as a second seat(at all of 8cpm), then for $1 down I could buy my very own White Freigtliner COE tractor, what more could this young lad ask for? Betcha I didn't sleep a wink that night.

3 days later I now know everything there is to know about trucking, how Midwestern operates, where to clip the retaining chain on the spare tire in the trailer rack, and how to buy a truck for a buck and make my fortune. I finally get to meet my first lead driver, and see my new home on wheels. The truck while newer than most was your standard buck truck,single stack bobbed bumper cab-over Freightshaker, 10 speed, shiny tiny 290, a/c, radio, air ride seat and a bed in back, that's all, definite o/o specs( oh and no trolly brake). I don't remember much about my driver, more from choosing not to than any other reason, other then he called himself Wagonmaster and was from some part of NY, Brooklyn I think. Oh and he was a skinny balding little twit! We talked for a few moments, he told me he had to see someone in the morning then we would leave out and start big riggin. I said I was going back to the Todd and asked if he would care to share a cab to the motel with me, he told me no, he would sleep in the truck and save a few bucks. That should have been my first tip off that all the world was not skittles and beer, the Todd only charged buck truckers $5 a night, shoulda known but I missed my first real clue that this was not fairytale land.

Dawn breaks and I make my way down to the truck, Waggonmaster greets me and shows me where to stow my gear - left side luggage box- and goes about his business while I get acquainted with his truck. A few hours later he returns with our first dispatch, deadhead to Legget & Platte in Nevada(pronounced na vade a)Mo. going to someplace in Texas I remember not. He starts out driving, across 54 to Nevada, telling me how my now much smaller world is to be lived in, more clues that I just didn't recognize at the time, but boy I wish I had know then what I know now.

Any who, we loaded and he drove till just before dark, somewhere just south of Joplin on US 71, time to switch. Ob boy, oh boy, I'm about to really do, its Ted's time to shine, and away we go.............

Perhaps I should explain that up to this point all my driving experience was one of those 70's trucking schools, you know spell truck - pronounce trailer - back straight up between those lines behind you - yes these B models are a bit ratty - congratulations here's you diploma, you are a trucker, good luck, may god have mercy on your soul. That, a few weeks pulling pier containers from Port Newark to Bush Terminals in Brooklyn, and a few more weeks as a fill in driver for a mail order household products company, going as far as Dracut, Mass. I never had more then 10,000#'s in a trailer before, cept once on a 20ft pier container, but that's a story unto its self. And now I have 40,000#'s (I guess that much, but it was 73,280 then so it could have been a little less, but it felt like a million tons to me at the time)

I start off down 71, its black as pitch, and I'm scared but excited, and Waggonmaster goes to bed!?!? He wasn't a trainer, we were running as a full team! Waggonmaster was a real anal opening but he sure had guts! All I really remember of that night was going down this dark skinny 2 lane road with big trucks either stacked up behind me or blowing by me in frustration giving me the salute. At some point I pulled onto the shoulder at a closed up general store gas station that looked like the place the kid from Deliverance played banjo at, got me a coke from a machine, took a deep breath and continued my adventure. Right about this point 71 seemed to turn into something that would make the Burma Road seem like an interstate highway.

I tried as best I could, but somewhere, on a hill, that resembled the Hillary Steps on Everest, I missed a gear. I couldn't catch it, I couldn't find a gear, and rather swiftly came to a gear grinding halt, in the travel lane , on a hill, in the middle of the night. I was %#$&.

I guess I got the front end to hop 3 feet off the pavement trying to get that beast going again, not once but several times, bouncing in the middle of the highway like a demented jack in the box, bouncing and going nowhere! Finally happy Wagonmaster flies from the bunk, says a few choice words, and mercifully ends my first day, of what is now approaching 28 years, of fun and adventure, yeah fun and adventure, shudda been a doctor like my momma wanted!

[yoopr]

LMAO-I started one year before you but I wish my memory was as good as yours :P

Remember back then the Old One-Eyed "Fuzzbuster" and Johnson Messenger Radio? :P
Back then if you had a Radio and was a Rookie you didn't dare say BOO over the radio in fear of them finding out that you didn't have a clue with what you were Doing :P

You're from the East Coast-Remember I-80 going through PA. with those wonderful spring ride Cab Overs? That's one of the reasons we could run so many miles back then-It was Impossible to fall asleep when you were driving in one of those and the DOT never messed with you(Unless you ran across that little B....... Montana DOT cop in Lowell, Montana, unless you did something Outrageous and 16,000 mile months were average rather than an exception.
Trucks now are just too damned Comfy :P

Great times though even though it was hard-Snowed in at Laramie at the old Snowy Range TS(Not sure if thats the right name now) and just having a ball with your fellow drivers. Waitresses back then were a hell of a lot friendlier too :wink:

Do you ever stop at the Iowa 80 truck stop in those days? They'd fuel you up and then park your truck for you and then you left a wake up call slip at the fuel desk and they'd wake you up when you wanted WITH a cup of coffee.
Wish we could bring those days back but Life goes on I guess.

[yeti]

Its not that my memory is all that good, its more like you never for get your first love, you never forget that first real drive.

I loved those old cyclops Fuzzbuster, when that light would slowly come on and it would make that sound like someone strangling a duck. Was cleaning out the basement Sunday and found my first old Escort, now that was a bird dog

Use to stop at a little truck stop in Overland Park, Kansas, they'd wake you up with a cup of coffee and a fresh baked Cinnamon bun big as a dinner plate, for no charge. I slept there when ever I could.

And in Laramie, Snowy Range doesn't sound wrong, but my mind keeps saying Out Rider. Do you remember a bar/truck stop in Montana, just before Lookout Pass,near Idaho, it was on one of those stretches where 90 was 2 lane, it had thousands of silver dollars embedded in the bar and seems like the walls also? They had a couple of dummies dressed as Indians sitting at one of there tables, you always caught your self nodding a greeting before you realized they weren't alive

And good old Wallace,Idaho, upstairs by the firehouse.....naw forget that, this is a family forum

Ever have a charcoal fire going in your trailer to keep the spuds from freezing. Oh yeah those were the days, and they paid me for doing it too,I would have payed for my first year.

I've said it before and I'll do it many times again, I feel so honored to have driven with the last of those old breed truckers. I still get chills when I think of one old timer I ran team with, he finally retired around '82, he took his gear out of our truck, and as he was getting set to go he came, shook my hand and said I was one damn fine chauffeur. Funny old term and the highest complement I ever got. Damn its been a good ride!

sometime I got to tell you about MY talk with KBR.

[yoopr]

but my mind keeps saying Out Rider.

Damned if you're right-It was the Out Rider and it was on the Snowy Range Exit in Laramie(Last exit heading west if I remember right).
we had it made when we hauled potato's up here-We put in a Crocodile heater in the Back of the Load to keep em from freezing.
I don't every remember being in Wallace, Idaho though.
My first Johnson Radio I fried because I had a Positive ground Truck or Radio-FOrgot which but anyway the Cord almost melted in my hand the first time I keyed it lol.

Geez-I never got a cinnamon bun with my coffee
Was Lookout pass on 90? If so that's near Continental Divide Pass and 4th of July.

If I ever get off disability I'll probably hit it again lol
We probably met each other at one time or another :P
My First handle was Wild Child and then I was Timber Wolf and then I was "Just Bill" lol

[Doctor Who]

From the WIHIT files or: More FOG fun!

A while back a friend called and asked me if I could take his truck and make a delivery or two for him since he had gotten hurt. He did clear everything with his boss and hoped that I would agree to do him this favour. Of course I said yes, I needed to get back out onto the highway since I had been grounded for a while.

Flashing forward:

I picked up the load of ice cream and proceeded on to the two delivery points. I should mention here that the weather prognosticators had prognosticated that the Dew Point was to be on the high side and in combination with the air temp.. well, there was a low lying FOG.

"Oh Joy!" I thought as I headed east on U.S. 64.

After running about 45 miles or so I saw something sitting in the travel lane. I swerved to avoid it and noticed that it was a "love" seat. Fortunately no one was behind me. I dialed *HP on my cell and told the dispatcher about the furniture. The dispatcher asked what kind of "love" seat and I told her that it could of been a Broy Hill or La-Z-Boy I wasn't too sure but it was still sitting in the middle of the right travel lane. By the way, I did stop the truck although, there really was no safe place to stop along this stretch of four lane, divided highway!

To my surprise a Highway Patrol LEO arrived in less than 5 minutes and we discussed the future of the piece of furniture as we moved it to the side of the road. The piece was not badly damaged so, someone could have had a nice "love" seat..

I finished the run without further incident. I ran back to the Cold Storage facility and rode by the scene of the "crime", so to speak, and noticed the seat was gone.

I wonder where the wayward "love" seat had wandered off to!!!

This is from the late 90's when my father and I were running team for Florilli and called the Fedex boys when it had to be there we got the call with a couple of colorful words thrown in. We were headed to Stockton CA out of Avon NY southern route via El Paso Tx had a load of Cool whip on and could not get it above 5000 feet. All of a sudden the Sat goes off and we get a message find this driver and relay his load and get it to Chicago ASAP like yesterday. We find the load and get it picked up on the AZ NM line switched drivers in Las Cruez and Pap hits the bunk. He wakes up we are sitting in Joplin MO for him to take us in to Chicago. Our travel agent said it is impossible for you guys to make it overnight from were you are to the windy we made it before she went home for the night. I cheated a little at the time the truck we were in had had its computer replaced and had not been turned back down to the company specs so I was able to let her rip and rt 54 in NM at night plus I-40 across OK you can make some serious time on it.

[yoopr]

I used to run 54 quite a bit from Ks to NM and that's gotta be the Boringest route there is :P

Yeah it is the worst one though is I-10 between San Antionio and El Paso. Try having a load satring in Birmingham AL going to Ontario Ca get to El Paso findo you are relaying and going to Winter Haven FL I had already spent 2 days in TX and now had 2 more ahead of me thanks to HOS problems.

[yoopr]

I've run I-10 all the way From Orange on the Eastern Tx. Border all the way to the NM line when Texas had that 55mph limit at night and Texas wasn't giving much leeway for anything more . That was a Killer :P

[Doctor Who]

Hey!!!! Who moved the CHEESE?!?!?!?

Stay tuned for MORE FLYING OBJECTS FUN... Just as soon as I can get this BLOODY SD-60 fueled.....

[Doctor Who]

I better put something here to keep the topic from floating off into cyber oblivion...

More fun with FLYING OBJECTS

It is almost a comedy scene watching folks ride down the highway with stuff stacked on the roofs of their vehicles or bouncing wildly in the backs of pick-ups and in poorly constructed cargo trailers...

During the week drivers can observe contractors riding around in beat to **** pick-ups and raggedy vans dumping stuff on the finest highways the U.S. has to offer!! On any given day one can observe the colour of the day spewed all over the asphalt or concrete, depending on what road surface the drivers are on at that given time or, a case of roofing nails comes flying off the back of a pick-up and causes a nightmare commute at the George Washington Bridge. That was fun to watch!!!

Plastic pipes scattered along the byways is always fun to see but the best is LADDERS that come bouncing off of poorly constructed ladder racks or, that are not tied down very secure, if at all!!!

However, the most entertaining FLYING OBJECT sightings occur during the weekend, holiday travel or vacation time...

The weekends filled with the DIY Army as they rush home from the Home Improvement warehouses with stacks of plywood attached to the roofs of their cars or SAV's with TWINE or very slim rope. Not to mention stacks of 2x4's staked the same way. It is fun to ponder what would happen if a strong gust of wind came up. Would the vehicle become a glider or helicopter and fly away?!?! The unfortunate part is due to the lack of intelligence innocent bystanders as well as drivers have been injured due to the insanity...

Ah yes! Vacation time brings out the best in roof tying escapades. During the summer it is interesting to watch as vehicles roll down the highways while luggage and other assorted vacation objects come flying off. On one trip I observed six plastic kiddie pools blow off the tops of vacationer vehicles. It does give the term "Defensive Driving" a whole new meaning.

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, luggage have been known to have blown open and clothes are scattered all over creation and on antennas and grills of large vehicles...

My observing has now become quite limited but it still is interesting to see the amount of objects strewn along the sides of the highways near the house...

[bullhauler]

The best I have seen, Ten port a potties in the ditch. two men trying in
high wind, to get them back on the three ton flatbed truck.

[Cacille]

I also had the experience of seeing something flying off a car.

I was coming off the highway, stopped at a red light to go onto a main street. A car, coming south on the main street, had plywood attached to the top of his SUV, pretty securely with twine given away at Home Depot.
Well, it was secure...until a guy coming northbound decided to turn onto the large street-offramp I was on. The hungry driver was apparently in a huge emergency hurry to go to White Castle (which was on the road I was on).

The hungry guy who turned in front of the southbound driver apparently did not think at all as to the cargo on top of the SUV...so when the southbound driver had to stop very suddenly to avoid the hungry driver, and I watched in horror as all of his plywood shot off the top and into heavy traffic!

I stopped and helped get most of the plywood out of the way, and a guy driving a small truck stopped as well and offered his assistance in getting the load to the SUV driver's house.

[Doctor Who]

What are those green conical shaped things flying off of vehicles???

More to come!!!

[bowslap]

Been enjoying the stories, figured I'd join on here and contribute!


*We don't get paid to diagnose, we get paid to change parts!*

My first driving job was with a OTR company from Tontitown, Arkansas.....won't mention the name, it's easy to figure out.

Dateline*West Memphis, Arkansas....04July 2001* Woke up at 0530 to an unbearable heat. The 1998 'shaker Century had an electrical malfunction, and had shut down during the night. A quick call place to the "glass house" had me assured of quick salvation....LOL

3 hours later, and after showing the tow truck driver how to hook up jumper cables(no joke....wish it was), I had it started.....but was not charging. The little rat at the "glass house" directed me back down the road aways to the Voss truckstop to have repairs made.

Having 9 years of diesel and heavy truck repair experience prior to getting behind the wheel, I had a pretty good idea was the problem was and what needed to be done to fix it. I relayed these thoughts inb a respectful way to the techs in the garage.


3 hours later, they call for me to sign the R.O......chatted with the service manager, asked him what they did. He mumbled something about changing batteries, and ran off. I went in the shop to get the truck, saw the tech that had been working on it. I asked himwhat they found to be the problem. "nothin' just changed the batteries". Didn't check the alternator to see if it was charging? Checke the cables? "Look buddy, we don't get paid to diagnose, we get paid to change parts. Get the h@ll outta here!"

Made it as far as the bridge.....down again. Spent the next 3 days waiting in a hotel room for the dealership to replace th alternator and all the cables....not to mention the batteries that were junk to start with.

Irritating at the time, but I get a chuckle out of it now.......