[Crete_drvr]

Drivers this is one serious storm. Be warned. There is 1 foot of snow in Santa Rosa, NM cars and big trucks in the ditches.

I'm currently sitting in a rest area in Hedley, TX and my truck is shaking from the wind. The visibility is less than 50 feet. We're talking a whiteout blizzard here folks.



I call in to night dispatch to advise them that this load is going to be late due to I-40 and US287 northbound being shutdown at Amarillo. The night dispatcher tells me to "find a detour" :lol: oh, I forgot to mention this is a hazmat load. Since this is a JIT account, the brass at Crete just want it there no matter what. I call back in to the safety dept. to ask if "find a detour" is an acceptable answer in these weather conditions and to advise they can call the Donley county sherrif if they don't believe me.

The moral of the story is: no load is worth your life, it doesnt matter if you carry chains or not, you can and will die if you don't have respect for 80,000lbs and sheets of ice on the road. I may be a newer driver but I'm not stupid. Sorry if this post is somewhat incomprehensible, it's late and I'm irritated. G'night!

[PackRatTDI]

The southern part of that storm was dumping light sleet on Las Cruces last night.

Currently the temperature is Las Cruces is 28F. First night of below freezing temperatures. Good thing my cats have nice fur coats! :shock:

I got stuck in OKC one day in winter due to a storm like that. Coated I-40 from OKC to Tucumcari in a sheet of ice. A lone truck came in from the west and all the drivers at the truckstops started asking him questions. He said it took them over 8 hours to drive from Amarillo to OKC and that the road was sheet ice. The whole T/A parking lot was a skating rink. :shock:

[GMAN]

Never let any company talk you into traveling in bad weather if you are not comfortable with it. If they insist, ask them to put in in writing on the qualcomm. I recall several years ago traveling through Kentucky on I-65. It started sleeting and snowing. The plows were not out yet. I kept going until the wind started moving my trailer around. I pulled off at the next truck stop. I called dispatch who told me that the weather channel didn't show anything. I told him that they were not were I was. I told him that I wasn't moving until the roads were clear. I had another instance with this same company in Ohio. It was a JIT load. I again came off the road due to bad weather. We parted company the next day. I won't work for any company who will put me in danger.

[Roadhog]

Good luck to you there Crete.
Hopefully this will move through quickly,
and you can roll without loosing too much time.
Let us know how you make out.

[PackRatTDI]

I once spend nearly two days with my trainer at the Bosslemans in Grand Island, NE waiting for I-80 to re-open.

[Malaki86]

The only time I've had a problem with dispatch telling me to roll in bad weather was early this year. It was the last snow/ice storm that hit the north-east. I was bobtailing out of Maine when it hit. It got to the point that the tractor wanted to drive sideways more than forward. I went to the closest rest area and called into dispatch to explain it to them, but she told me I needed to keep rolling. That's when I sent a message on the satelite that the roads were unsafe and I was shutting down until the next morning.

Amazingly, as soon as I sent that msg on the satelite, not 5 minutes later I got a message that the pickup time had been changed until the next morning.

I guess it scares them straight when it's in writing on the Qualcomm.

[yoopr]

wish we could get Up to 28-that would be nice :P

[ken_o]

y call in why not tell them on that qualcom. r you recording the call?
will they now give you a service failure for this?
will this service failure effect your bonus.
or did you get the load their on time aftr all?
if not how late was it?

[Roadhog]

Originally Posted by yoopr

wish we could get Up to 28-that would be nice :P

yoopr...I went out and looked Northwest
...and I see what you mean.

I got out of amarillo just in time yesterday. The receiver was dragging their feet on unloading these XMAS trees, so I explained to them that they could unload in the next 30 minutes or pick the trees up in Flagstaff.