I have been off a week and I failed to give an update on my last load with Davis. I picked up in Chicago steel tubing that was going to Tacoma. I was relaying the load in Missoula, cleaning out the company truck, and headed home to Oregon in my pickup.
The product was in to 2 24' sections that was loaded very quickly with a large forklift. The rear section extended 30" over the end of my trailer. This should have been my first clue that there was problem, but I didn't catch it. Second, when I scaled the load at the shipper I got 35,500 lbs on the trailer axles as I move forward on the scale adding one axle set at a time. When I moved forward and only had the trailer axles on the scale I as at 33,800 lbs. I guess in my rush to get out of there and tried to beat Chicago traffic(I didn't :sad: ), I thought I had a good weight.
When I came to the South Dakota POE, I was, you guess it, 1600 lbs over on the trailer. I cost me a $180 fine and $280 for the tow company to move 1 bundle from the rear section to the top of the front section. When I pulled my tarp off the load to prepared to shift the load, I saw my mistake clearly. The rear section had 9 bundles thou only 2 were a full 24' long; The rest were about 20'. The shipper to balance the load on their forklift had even out each bundle so that their was a more than a 2' space in middle of the trailer in front of the rear section. I had to have seen this as I was up on the deck tarping the load. If I had been paying more attention to detail, then I should have had the shipper moved the shorter bundles forward on the trailer which probably would have made the load legal. An expensive lesson I learned. :sad:
The other issue was since the load was 30" over the end of the trailer, my metal tarp did not fully cover the load. I had several bundles sticking out exposed to the weather. The weather was clear for the first 3 days, but last it was snowing going over Homestake Pass. By the time I got to Missoula, there was road spray all over the back of the load. The relay driver, the yard boss, and I had to clean up the product and put another short tarp on the back of the trailer to cover the load. I felt I really failed the company and the other driver since it was my last load. I will have to be more diligent in the future.
With the trailer and relay done, I turned to cleaning out the truck. It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in a truck. I spent all afternoon and that evening getting everything into my pickup. I strapped my ladder to the top of the shell. Everything was just piled into the shell, but I did get it all into the pickup.
On Saturday morning, the truck was inventoried, inspected, and I handed over the keys. I said my goodbyes and drove over to Spokane where I stayed with a friend. Sunday afternoon, I drove to Portland and home. It was snowing in Spokane Saturday night and Sunday, and in the Columbia River Gorge it was raining very hard. In fact, the wind was blowing so hard, that my driver side mirror bracket kept getting pushed backwards and I had to kept rolling down the window to adjust. Very frustrating. :evil:
Now, I have been home all week. I enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner at my friend's house, and on Christmas Day we deliver pies and had dinner at a home for those transitioning from living on the streets. I have repacked my pickup truck and it is ready to travel to my next job.
About my next job, I have an interview with a company on Monday. Based on how this interview goes, I will decide which offer to take. I have 2 other companies that want to me to start on January 7th, but I have been holding them off to meet with this other company. I will let everyone know my final decision.
After the interview on Monday, I am taking a roadtrip with my girlfriend to Vancouver Island in my Jeep Cherokee(The pickup truck is to move my personal effects and equipment to my job). We are going to take the ferry from Vancouver, BC to Nanaimo, BC and spend 3 nights on Vancouver Island. On the last day we will again take a ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, WA and back to Oregon. Hopefully the weather up there will be good as this is not best time of the year to go.
I suppose if I am going to not be working with DD and I keep hijacking his blog, maybe I should start my own. I have to give it some thoughts while I am traveling to Canada. Until then, have a Happy New Year!!!
