Last October, my company sent me with another driver from Dallas TX to Washington DC so I could recover a single-axle, 6-speed day cab from a Container Store location. We got there on a Monday morning and I pre-tripped the truck to make sure it was servicable. It ran! There were a few small problems, however- The inspection sticker had been expired 5 1/2 years, the instrument panel didn't work at all, no AC, the radio was busted, and there was a huge spiderweb crack across the entire right side of the windshield. In spite of all of this, I was instructed to "roll on it"
My instructions were to drive the daycab to Philadelphia, pick up a loaded trailer from a TJ Maxx DC and haul it back to Dallas. I got there a dusk, hooked up to the trailer and that's where the fun started. This little old daycab was way under-powered to be hauling a heavily loaded 53-ft trailer. I dreaded having to stop at traffic signals because the truck would stall-out everytime the lights turned green. I had idiots behind me blasting their horns at me because they didn't understand what was happening. This old crate wouldn't go over 50 mph and I knew it was going to be a LOOOOOOOOOOONG drive back to Dallas!
As soon as I got on the PA Turnpike, the truck started overheating. I called road rescue and waited on the side of the road for 4 hours before the tow truck arrived. The truck was towed to a International/Peterbilt service center in King of Prussia, PA. By this time, I had been up almost 20 hours, I was starvin cause I hadn't eaten all day and my cell phone was almost dead as I tried frantically to find a taxi service to take me to a hotel before my phone crapped out on me! I was near insanity as I screamed at the recording of the cab company that had me on hold for over 10 minutes.
Finally about half an hour later the taxi showed up and took me to a motel 6 nearby. It took another hour to get the comcheck approved to pay for my room. As I got to my room, I just dropped my 50 pounds of gear at the foot of the door as I fumbled with the key card to open the door. As I bent down to collect my gear from the hallway, my blue jeans split from the crotch to the knees. I was dirty, tired, mad and starving to death. By then, I didn't even care that I hadn't had any food whatsoever in over 15 hours, so I took a shower and went to bed.
The next morning me and my last surviving pair of jeans took a cab back to the service center. they told me the radiator was full of crud and they had to take it off and flush it out (my companies idea... because they were too cheap to buy a new radiator!) I walked a mile down the road (with no jacket in 40 degree drizzle) before I found a place to eat. I had a burger and fries and walked back to the service center. They told me that the truck wouldn't be ready that day so me and all my belongings took a taxi back to the hotel and another long call for a comcheck approval. The next morning I repeated my routine and by the grace of God they finally fixed the truck and I headed out around 4pm. This old crate fought me into every gear and the whole drive to Dallas consisted of me screaming obscenities at the truck for 3 days. People passing me must have thought I was a madman (and I was!)
Half way through Tennessee, I came to the sudden realization that I had no permit book... to add to the list of violations that would have surely cost me my CDL and a crap-load of fines were I to get pulled over. God was on my side, however, as I made the whole journey with no traffic stops! I finally rolled into my destination Saturday afternoon. 8 days after I set out to pick up that crapper! Our weekend operations manager turned ghost-white when I told him that I didn't have a permit book. I can look back on it now and laugh, but that was the worst week of my life!
Then maybe the co. would have thought about this move a little harder before hand and put the piece of junk on a rollback instead of making it my problem.
