Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Good ol horizon first 5 loads of flour we loaded got rejected, takes 15 minutes to load it and 2 hours to blow it off backinto the mill threw the sifter. Wow the whole plant must have been jacked up today.

 

I'm a little late to post, but Monday was a Monday I've just learned (quickly) to expect dumb things to happen. I'm making use of what I do have, and biding my time for now - changes are in order.

I off-loaded, washed out (nothing like hauling coal), and got my next assignment - 309 miles away....... I actually broke 1,000 miles of deadhead within 7 days! I'm laughing at this point, because I won't be around for too much more of this.

So I drive out the deadhead, being told that I can reload until 10pm that night. I ran the speed limit all the way up the main highways (throwing 2mpg into the trash), and then did the best I could running up the mountain the short route. The road was exactly what I thought it would be - tight enough to be able to check your own brake lights as the trailer comes around When I get there at 9:50, another driver at the scale tells me they're broken down, and I might as well park for the night.......

On the way up, I made good use of my time, and think I may have found a used trailer that could make even these loads profitable. I'd like to thank the person that posted the info, and I will once things work out. This forum really can be a lifesaver at times, when good people share useful information - I like to think of it as an info co-op of sorts. With a 3 year payment schedule on a good used trailer, I'd be pocketing over a grand a month more money to help me along.

So I park for the night about 30 feet from a very active rail line, lights and no gates at the crossing. As you can guess, I got woke up about every 2 hours by a train horn blowing 30 feet from my truck. Volvos have some great insulation, but a muffled train horn is still a train horn.

Shortly after I parked, the last truck loaded drove down and parked next to me. I called the guy on the radio, and warned him about some steel hiding in the dark behind him on the driver side, that I nearly found when I tried to hit that spot. He thanked me for that and avoided it, and then came over to shoot the breeze. Turns out he's on with a hopper carrier in the same town in NE that mine's in, but they're honest and treat drivers better, and actually give accurate info on the loads. After talking to the guy, I do believe what he had to say, and he gave me the contact names for the owner, his dispatcher, and his own name - with a "tell 'em I sent ya". He thought 1,000 miles of deadhead in 7 days, to get 1,700 loaded miles, was as crazy as it sounds to me, and told me his was nowhere near that number - and he's always rolling. I was glad to meet the guy, and it just makes you feel better when drivers can chat about things for a few minutes and make suggestions.

So the next day, it was 10:30 before they called me down to load - over a 12 hour wait..... I drive down their obstacle course to the tracks, to find out I'm waiting AGAIN for them to fix one of the chutes. Sure enough, there's a guy in the bucket of a front end loader - cutting and welding away. Now I can just barely tell from where I'm sitting, because I have to back about 500 feet down a set of old tracks, right next to the live rail line next to me - to get loaded. While I'm waiting there for another hour, 2 more trains go by and hit me with the train horns again - I know they're doing this for safety - but good grief!

They get done fixing their issue, and I back down the curved tracks along my side - keeping 6 feet from them for a train, and leaving about 10 feet between me and the towers next to me. At one point, I had to stop because a low looking chute disappeared in my mirrors and the guy was still backing me up. I waved to him and pointed up - and he had to climb up and raise that chute not to hit my roof.......

We load me out, and I notice that the trailer is leaking near both landing gear jacks, and covering the plates with sand. We tried foam, and then water, and the water held the leaks off (until it dried and I hit some bumps, as I found out later). They tell me I'm done, and at this point I'm just glad to get the heck out of there. I check my tractor gauges from the seat, and drive back out the obstacle course up to the scale. Now I say obstacle course, but really - this place was more than challenging for anyone - I run a 231"wb Volvo, and I still had to come within inches of a dropped tank trailer on one side, concrete barriers on the other, and an overhead rack about 6 inches off my roof - that runs downhill to one side.

When I come out, the next truck headed down - turns out after chatting with him earlier - he's with the same company I am - and the same dispatcher. We swapped numbers to chat about this stuff later. I hit the scales, and saw the tractor at 43,700 - kinda light.... Then I pulled forward and checked again - 71,800 gross - ###### - I knew I should've checked the gauges before I rolled.

It would've taken about 6 more hours to go back down and top off, and I know the mistake they made. The gauge on my Wilson trailer reads near 80 when full - and Timpte's show about 60. After all this, I was just more than sorry I took the run in the first place, and I won't make the mistake again.

They told me the best way out, and I followed it - across a 29 Ton bridge . There was no backing up and avoiding it, so I drove the next 30 miles wondering if I would be stopped by a "helpful official" and given a ticket - because there was only one place I could've come from - and the bill's on the dashboard. The route was no prize - it was nearly the same as the way I came in the night before - but on the opposite side of the mountain.

So anyway.... When I stopped for dinner, my trailer was leaking like an hourglass - building small sandpiles around the jacks. This would be a great system to have in the winter to keep the trailer from skidding LOL. The agent, or dispatcher, or whatever - asked me to fix it with duct tape or something to which I replied - it's up near the landing gear, and we've tried foam and water, and neither of those worked. I'd just like to give a shout out to the good folks that leased me this trailer LOL I hope they sleep at night the way they do things!

Hope things are well out there, and thanks again to all those who drop a line and help out - I'll return the favor anytime I can!

 

Dang HwyPilot, you get all the good loads! Sounds like your trailer has seen more abuse than a red headed step child.

We haven't been hauling any this week, got everything caught up and very little farmer selling right now due to the lousy market. The trucks are stranded in town because our gravel road is so soft right now a pickup cuts down. So since I can't do maintenance, I'm going to have to resort to the list of things that needs done at the house, cleaning the place being the #1 thing at the moment.

 

R.W.,you done with calves?

 

Hauled 2 loads of contracted corn this week with soy hulls back,met this ole boy at the elevator and he has got 16 loads of corn that has to go this month,82 miles round trip at $220/load,i think i am going to go down there and stay till saturday,he has a good place to load and can load me in 25 minutes so i think i can get 4/day and sleep in his office at night,if i am going to keep this up,i may need to get me a coffin sleeper added onto the 'ol Pete

 

####, got the last one off and got 4 more stacked on me.

 

HwyPilot, hope you get some good news from new company. Youve have a very rough go of it here lately.

Attempted to load beans this morning in Moundridge. The chute got stuck open, and the guy was standing on top of my trailer so I couldnt escape. I now know what my truck/trailer looks like burried in 5000 bushel of beans LMAOOOOOOO. All we could do was sit there and wait it out.

 

Got to hand it to you.youve got a good attitude.if it was me that had all those problems I would have opened opened a hopper of whoop ### on them... Walt

 

I know what exactly what you're going through - everything has been a swamp the last few weeks. Good thing I still have fresh drives, or I would've been stuck in mud and snow almost everywhere I've been lately.

So I get to my unload, and they say we're not taking it...... I'm stunned - even had a washed trailer when I picked it up. I hadn't even handed him the bill yet. I said - are you broken down? And he says no, that sand has iron in it and we can't take it (low-iron sand). I call my agent and get him on the phone, and stand around talking to another driver for awhile.

The guy comes back out about half an hour later, and says they need to pull a sample from the load, and dump it across a magnet - but I can unload. I called the agent back, and he'd already booked me a return trip and cancelled my other load - so now what? I'm waiting for the call now. I tell ya - this is something I've never seen before - maybe I'm just getting the odd stuff out of the way for clear sailing later.....

Incidentally, I was just glad their scale is broken and they're not going to fix it - this trailer has been leaking a small amount of sand for the last 24 hours. It's like a huge hourglass! My wife joked about it and told me if I get lost - just follow my trail back again She's half the reason I have the attitude I do - she's already talked me out of deadheading to the house about 3 times in the past week - and I'm set to be out a third week at this rate.