Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

There is stuff that's valuable. And then there's stuff that's irreplaceable. Don't ever let them force you to trade. Better to walk away if they even try.

 

Can't complain. Most of my gripes are weather related right now. I spent a few nights over the holidays waiting by the phone for a call from dispatch that never came, but tis the season. Not much freight moving when lots of businesses are shut down. Things will get back to normal now.

And of course the day after I post about how our unassigned trucks stay pretty clean inside, I found a horror show the very next day. Chicken bones on the floor. Who eats fried chicken while driving??? Grease from the chicken on the wheel and all the buttons. Sticky mess all around from a spilled drink, and lots of clean napkins in the floorboard. Apparently those were out of reach. I can't begin to imagine the thought process of whomever made that mess. He had to know it was completely unacceptable to leave it like that. Sent a couple of pictures to the linehaul supervisor. Not sure how it was handled, but precedent says he probably looked up who drove it last and that driver won't receive his next dispatch until that truck is spotless.

 

Call me what you like, this is why I am perfectly OK hauling potato chips! On another note, this guy is going to be out of work for a very long time, and quite frankly I am surprised he was even back working 2 months following a broken ankle. Unless it was a very minor fracture, I think that might be rushing it.

 

OK, first and foremost, DON'T GET UNDER IT! I am guessing that the controls for the lift gate are on the right rear of the truck. If they are, there is no excuse at all for not standing beside the truck, and reaching around with one hand to operate the lift! If something starts to turn loose there, whether it be the load coming off the lift, or the lift itself breaking you are not right in the path of it.
All it takes, is a moment of inattention, brought on by familiarity with what you are doing. Doesn't matter how many times, or how long you've been in the job, keep in mind that there are dangers awaiting a careless move on your part.
BTDT, when I got pinned to the inside of a pup, with a 2000+ pound pallet. I got darn lucky with that one though.

 

If they start to go, LET THEM GO. Never try to hold\stop a skid that is falling.
I have learned to wrap a strap around the outside of the product. Attached to the lowest slot at the rearmost logistics post in the trailer to hold things.
That way I can lower the L\G from inside the trailer (assuming I can reach the controls without placing myself in danger of falling out).

 

A few years ago i had a pallet of cast iron drain grates, delivering on a back slope, so one of the plumbers at the job site grabed the pallet jack, said ill help hold back, i told everyone stay clear and if it goes, let go of the jack. Were sliding towards the liftgate, and we needed a little umph to get over the water trench, it started to go on us, the jack wheels dropped off and the pallet starts tipping, i said let go! I did just as the wheels went off. He didn't. The pallet tipped, lifted the jack and the plumber 3 or 4 feet then the product slid off and the jack, complete with plumber came back down. Lucky s.o.b. i told him, next time i tell you let go, you let go.

 

When ever we have a load going off the ramp off the side were told to just let it go.

 

Yup. Cheaper to replace damaged product than to replace a skilled driver.
Sign on the wall in our bathroom at work reads
"If you think safety is expensive, Try an accident"

BTW, congratulations on the house, Mike.
You're about to REALLY know what it means to be BROKE.

 

Yea I didn't ahead to that line of thinking.... I was at my last stop with my last load had three cases of chicken and four big 80 lb boxes of beef ran my two wheeler on the side of the ramp and there it went with me behind it. Lol nothing that an ice cold beer and some icy hot can't fix i guess