The War Path


How's the new job going, @Injun? Any updates?
So far, so good. First run out was a bit rocky because of scheduling and their mechanic isn't used to a professional who demands equipment be functional. He's a contractor and I can see already there will be issues there. I won't tolerate poor maintenance or BS rig-up jobs, especially on electrical stuff. Do it right or get out of my way and let me do it. And my expectations have nothing to do with what kind of anatomy in inside my pants. That sort of commentary won't be tolerated at all. But that's a different conversation for a later time.

I started out after a holiday weekend, so scheduling was all off. I was held up at a shipper near Ogden, UT, so had to spend the night there. The next day, I drove 670 miles to just west of Coeur d'Alene, ID and they sent another driver to bring it in because I stopped with one minute left on my 11. And the logs are down to the second with no option to edit On or Off Duty times. Can't say I'm particularly impressed with that. It's a system that is decidedly NOT user friendly.

The management seems to care about what the drivers need and want. We'll see..


How many cans of lysol did you use?
The truck was detailed before I got into it. I didn't have to supply my own Lysol.
 
I'm not a fan of hackjob maintenance either.

Hopefully it'll start going better for you.

At least they detailed your truck. Schneider handed me a disgusting Jersey filthball and said "here ya go. No washes until the next PM."
 
A couple years ago i went to work for a small 12 truck outfit out of moreno valley, ca. We ran paper logs and the trucks and trailers were old. They would fix em when they broke but they were always in the shop. I left after 9 months cause they didnt always get me home at the end of the week like they agreed on.
 
Except backing into a parking spot or a dock is damn near impossible. :rolleyes:

Exactly
Drove for Ploof in J-ville running sheet rock loads over to the railyard.

Just drop the trailer next to the tracks, no backing at all......until there was.

"just back it in over there driver"

This was 1992, my left leg quit shaking last week.....
 
This was 1992, my left leg quit shaking last week.....
Wuss! :taunt:

When I did it, it was all terminal to terminal, just pull up and stop and the yard jockies will take it from there.

Except this one time I took a short run up to this little satellite terminal in Rockford and nobody was there. A note was taped to the window in the office saying "put inbound in door 1" and it was stapled to the "bills" for a pre-strung set of empty pups to take back to Chicago Heights.

I had a 48 foot rail trailer.

I got it backed in. Crooked as hell but when I GOAL'd it was good enough to get the dock plate down.

It was a convertible "jifflox" system truck so to pull doubles I needed to remove the dolly that was jammed up the tractor's butt to serve as a 2nd "drive" axle.

Did that, grabbed the wiggle wagons and took off.

I never had no Chris Matthews shaking leg syndrome. o_O



Not long after that, I had a power steering pump blow up on a Sterling shortly after leaving the yard in St Paul. I pulled into the TA in Hudson, WI and looked at it. Pump was cracked. It wasn't just a bad hose.

I said the hell with it and ran it to Milwaukee.

THAT was hard. Having non-functional power steering is twice as bad as not having PS at all. Just holding it against the slight slope on the right lane for rain runoff took constant force. By the time I got to the Milwaukee yard my arms were about to fall off...

Yard jockey walked up as I arrived. I told him the power steering ain't working. He said "so? Half these trucks don't have power steering anyway".

He got in the truck, moved it about 50 feet, stopped, got out and unhooked. As I was fiddling with my log book I saw him hook to those trailers sideways with a yard truck and that Sterling was just sitting there in the middle of the yard. He couldn't turn it at all. :rolleyes:
 
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Today, I'll be on my way to Rexburg, ID to start a series of deliveries tomorrow that will finish the day (hopefully) in Pocatello, then head further down 15 toward Salt Lake City for another, shorter, series of deliveries plus a pickup in Ogden.

Been getting lots of overtime so far. Sounds funny coming from me.. an hourly paid gig with overtime.
 
550Bigbonelick.jpg
 
Today, I'll be on my way to Rexburg, ID to start a series of deliveries tomorrow that will finish the day (hopefully) in Pocatello, then head further down 15 toward Salt Lake City for another, shorter, series of deliveries plus a pickup in Ogden.

Been getting lots of overtime so far. Sounds funny coming from me.. an hourly paid gig with overtime.
So how are you likeing it so far? Paychecks good?
 
My first paycheck is still sitting in my mail slot at the office, so I dunno yet.

Company seems okay, fun people to work with, but they have to get on top of maintenance. I'm five for five on finding OOS issues on trailers.
 
Yes, trailers are loaded the day and evening before. That's okay. It's kind of a short run today, so I'm giving them time to fix the light.
 

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