Merry Christmas everyone on the road and those at the mother-ship that support us every day.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends on here and to those of you first reading this thread. For the guys/gals who have PM'ed or e-mailed me, it's been a great year for me so far and I remain a successful employee of TMC. Thanks for asking.
I am running on a dedicated account with a Peterbilt 379 daycab that gets me home daily. I hope everyone has a happy and healty holiday season!!!

 

Hmm... makes me worry. At first I thought you were referring to Passmore, but we don't have $hitty equipment. I know a company or two that does, though... :wink:

 

nahhhh not Passmore. I actually LIKE seeing you guys/gals out there. I often wave before realizing you are NOT a TMC truck. Your rigs are pretty darn nice!

 

You wouldn't think that about my truck if you saw it now after spending the past several days sloshing about in Colorado. Man, it's needs a bath!

 

Since a bunch of you have been asking for some new pics, I've posted a few new pictures posted on my "Truck 91832" page and also on my "Contributors" page. Time for bed (finally) goodnight all.

 

I am home for the holidays. My trainer is taking the week off so I get 9 days at home. We dropped our 5th load for the week Thursday morning at 8am and I was in a rental car at noon. :lol: This week was great, most receivers were happy to see us and unloaded us when we got there, and once night dispatch had a load for us so we could bounce and be ready to load at 7am when the place opened.

We didn't actually take that 7 stop fire hydrant load. It wasn't going to be ready until noon Monday, that would leave us with the 7th stop on Long Island NY Friday morning :evil: My trainer lives in Kentucky and didn't want to be coming home on Saturday leaving me to drive home then, so he got a different load.

The first load for the pay period was loaded 3pm Friday from the Menards (like home depot) Dist center to the Clive IA (Des Moines suburb) store that unloaded Saturday. Monday we hauled a load of plate steel from Montpelier IA to Norfolk Nebraska, Reloaded 5 miles away with some greasy bar headed to Topeka Kansas. Bounced to Kansas City to pick up some concrete blocks going to an under construction Lowes in Belleville IL. Bounced a little north and picked up a load of paper rolls destined for the Temple Inland drywall plant in Cumberland City, TN.

 

Got my first week up under my belt - whew! TMC is just like the military in regards to hurrying up to get somewhere only to wait. The first load had to be delivered in Alsip, IL, which got unloaded as soon as we were done untarping and unstrapping everything. My trainer was hoping that we might get a load out of Chicago since we weren't far - wrong. Four and a half hours later we had to bounce 137 miles into Indiana to get a load of paper rolls bound for W. Memphis, Arkansas. Unloaded in W. Memphis without a problem, but again had to wait 3-4 hours for another load, which was on the other side of the building. Left W. Memphis headed to Dallas Ft. Worth to drop a load of sheet rock, and pick up some scrap metal headed back towards Granite City, IL. The weather in Texas sucked! I didn't have any wet weather gear and got soaked untarping the sheet rock while a team of two forklift drivers got us unloaded quick. Again waited for a load headed back towards home. We had to hop over to a steel yard where no one had any idea about what we were talking about. Then, once we got a hold of someone who had an idea of our load, we had to wait for them to sort it out, which wound up taking up the entire day (11:30 arrival, 5:15 departure). Smack dab in the middle of Dallas rush hour traffic! TX driving is a bit dangerous as well. A driver fell asleep behind the wheel and closed down 30 going both ways for a while. An idiot in a pick up truck almost spun into our passenger side coming off an on ramp. The worst part of my training had to be swapping trailers with a driver in Mt.Vernon, IL. This guy absolutely sucked at tarping! He had a load of aluminum or steel roofing that he tarped very poorly and the screws which were in cardboard boxes on a small pallet were not tarped at all, and he drove through rain! Obviously by the time he made it to the TA where we were to meet him, the boxes had fallen apart and the screws were all over the trailer. We had to go and get some boxes from the TA, put them in the new boxes or bags, and put them in the side boxes. Then just as we were on our way, or so we thought - flat tire. At 1am expect no quick answers from TMC - 3 hours later, tire fixed, and back on the road. We had to stop 3 times to fix the tarp on the switched load - big pain!

Now, don't get me wrong about all the waiting. I know that the winter is slow, and from keeping in touch with some of my classmates while in Des Moines, I was grateful to be on the move. Especially after running into other TMC drivers who didn't have loads after sitting for 7-8 hours! After avoiding accidents, getting soaked, waiting at shippers, and folding tarps in the wind my only complaint is that of incompetent/lazy drivers who rely on the excuse "they said it didn't need to be tarped". Hopefully my next week out will be a bit better, but if not, I can deal with it. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYBODY!

 

The last two days before Christmas break were spent in Load Securement. There were four stations set up, we were divided into, you guessed it, four groups. The experienced drivers that left use the first day came back and were our team leaders. We secured our load and the instructors critiqued it. Our loads were:

1. Coiled rod.
2. Tar paper and shingles.
3. Sheet steel coils, one each of 40,000 loaded suicide, smaller coils loaded shotgun and eye to the sky.
4. Greasy rolled steel and angle iron.

After completing each load and being critiqued we became much better on the subsequent load. By the end of the second day we were almost getting it. I know that doesn't cover the entire spectrum of what TMC does and may carry in the future, but it is a good step in the right direction. Now, whenever I pass a flatbed load I am really examining it, if it isn't tarped.

Our class was cut short because of the holidays, so I'm not sure what we missed. We didn't get to through the tarps around or carry them up the ladder. We did get to throw the 4" strap over the 13' load. I'm sorry to say most of my class are a bunch of weaklings. ops: I was the first to throw it over. More than 2/3 of the class didn't get it over the first time. To be honest, it is good technique that gets it over, not strength.

We have to return on the 2nd for the driving portion. My luck, there will be snow on the ground by then. :cry:

 

terry lamar said:
We did not cover tarping in my class either. But there was a driver who was "recalled" to Des Moines for a refresher course in securement who sat next to me. He mentioned he had to re-tarp his load, so I gave him a hand during my off-hours and saw how the "mantle tarp" on a coil was done.

I don't think TMC permits anyone to carry the tarp up the ladder anymore. There were a few "injuries" and the practice was stopped. Fortunately at each location I've been to, the forklift will position the lumber tarp on top.

On Friday, I almost ran into a show stopper. Mendards (similar to Home Depot) placed sheets of plywood on the flatbed. The boards were almost 6 feet high from the flatbed floor and the sides were smooth. There were no handholds at the top so it made climbing the boards dangerous. Fortunately, they had a smaller pile at the back of the trailer, so I used that pile as a stepping stone to get to the top.

I was stuck in Albuquerque for 24 hours during the ice and snowstorm. I met another TMC driver (from the Yellowstone) division. He carried a extendable ladder on his flatbed to handle similar situations.