When those Russian people came over to me, my truck was parked at the very back of this dirt parking lot across from Dairy Queen in the desert. It was parked in a way that made it a nice picture with the desert and mountains in the background. I at least remembered a little Russian and was able to say goodbye, "Das Vedonea". Not sure the spelling.
I dropped my load off yesterday and the customer was very nice but did not like the state that the crane parts showed up in. It was all cosmetic but they expected there not to be a single scratch on the nice yellow painted parts. Not easy when 10 chains are holding it down and many beams up against one another. It was dirty too from dust getting under the tarp and some parts were already rusting from the condensation that came from the hot and cold. Both wooden skids were crushed from the weight of the hoist motors. I did hit two dips in the road there were unbelievable and no warning and I'm sure that's what did it. The hoist motors are about 500 pounds a piece and should have been on 4x4's and not little skids. One of the motors slid into a steel girder and dented the side panel. When the motor crushed the skid the strap that was holding it down now had enough play that it was able to move. This is my 3rd crane for these people and the last thing to unload is to pick up all the loose pieces laying around. The shipped load a large crate with like 1000 pieces of odds and ends which should be shrink wrapped so everything flys out. I've mentioned this to the shipper but his response is always that it's tarped so it's fine. After dropping the load off I called the management and told them about the customer complaints and the next time a truck is loaded that they should look at it before the tarp is put on and common sense will tell them it's not right. We'll see.
I'm sitting in a Pilot somewhere off Rt 15 about 80 miles north of Carlsbad. I beat feet to the nearest truckstop I could find. It took about 4 hours to get here. 2pm and the traffic was incredible. 4 lanes of stop and go for hours and these people deal with this every day. I can only imagine what it's like at rush hour. All the truckers were telling jokes and being pretty good.
My truck is posted as available for today and we'll see what happens. If I don't get a load today chances are I'll be stuck here for the weekend. There was one load going from here to NY which is close to home so I bid $1.80 a mile. I got an email back with a "ha ha ha, not even close".
I have to tell you, there are a lot of OTR people out there with there own authority driving some of the biggest pieces of crap I've ever seen. I'm talking oil leaking left and right, engine making really bad sounds, smoke coming from the engine and all sorts of other stuff. So, you don't have to have a nice truck to be in this business.
My prepass has been great, get a green light on every weigh station and blow by. It blinks for 20 minutes after I go past and I mentioned it before and found out why. If for some reason the weigh station thinks I didn't get a green light and comes after me they will see that I did indeed get the green.
Not much else to report. It was a good trip all in all and enjoying my down time right now waiting for my next load. Time to clean, tighten, check, wash the truck and all that happy stuff. Had a mean Pepper Steak last night!!!
|
