Well I bet you'll have more than a snickers bar on the truck in the future huh?
Glad it wasn't worse than it was.
What would do you in this situation?
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by RedRover, Feb 9, 2017.
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Better yet, --- STOP before you get in that situation.
Chains are to get you out of a bad situation, not to get you through it.
You should have shut down and waited it out, miles not withstanding.
A little better trip planning is in order.
You were in a hurry, by your own statements. You slapped on the chains without making sure they were secure and tight and you got bit when a tire failed.
Poor planning.
Also, poor judgement.
You are really lucky that you didn't also cause an injury or death in the process.Dave_in_AZ, FerrissWheel and RedRover Thank this. -
I'll let my boss know that we are ceasing operations and will restart sometime in April or May.longbedGTs, spyder7723, Lepton1 and 7 others Thank this. -
Actually, could we extend this? Windshield wipers are to get you out of the rain, not to get you through it. If it starts raining, just shut er down.
Headlights are to get you out of the dark, not through it. If it starts getting dark, or if you see something dark ahead, like a tunnel, just shut er down.longbedGTs, bzinger, Lepton1 and 9 others Thank this. -
Really?
joesmoothdog, STexan and arubajim Thank this. -
Forced dispatch. So I ask for a to go box. Sorry we don't have any. 20 bucks down the drain. Go jump in my truck and haul ### with abs lights on both truck and trailer flashing. Get there to be loaded and turns out they weren't going to load me that day after all. No problem, just head to the nearest truck stop or rest area.... 150 miles away. Safety now calling about me being 2 hours over on my 14. Wake up the next day and drive 150 miles back to the shipper for free. They take 6 hours to load me. But I'm a day late of course, so no detention pay. 4 hours to drive from Ontario, Oregon to Lewiston. Ahah, but not without chaining first.
Aaaaaaaaand nothing but grade with a heavy ### load. So 30mph to Lewiston. DM saying I'm probably getting another service failure. Show up and it takes them 3 hours to unload me, but I'm late so no detention pay. Drive illegally to the terminal in Lewiston. Absolutely nothing there at all. Say #### this company, log off the Qualcomm and drop my trailer at the terminal and bobtail to Walmart to get something to eat after sitting at the terminal hungry for 8 hours until I'm dizzy and about to pass out. At Walmart I get another load in Spokane, so I haul ### back and a ####### in a daycab is rolling out with my trailer... Burn 2 hours driving around looking for an empty.
Start driving to Spokane. Roads are impassible. Park at a rest area and wake up at 3am to leave... Foot of snow on the ground. Chain back up. Haul ###. Pass the shipper, low clearances everywhere so I have to back up on a busy street to turn into the shipper. Stop to read their rules like a ####ing idiot. Can't make it up the hill to the shipper. Try to back down. Get stuck. Can't go up, can't go down. Call Onroad. Wait for 4 hours blocking the shipper entrance. Get winched out of that, hit the dock(late again of course) and they reject the trailer. So I'm sweeping God knows what out of this ####ing trailer. They reject it again. 2 hours later(unpaid of course) trailer is good to go. So they load it. Boy did they load it! Heavy. But the nearest cat scale that was open and didn't have trucks parked on it, around it, in front of and behind it, was 30 miles away in the wrong direction. Take it back and the dude pisses and moans about reworking it until I threaten to leave it sitting back at the entrance that I was stuck in earlier.
3 hours later and I'm on my way to Billings. Aaaaaand then I get stuck on 4th of July Pass.
Wish I could say my ####ty week ended there. What I didn't tell you is that I drove illegally to park at a Walmart after that ordeal and woke up the next day to freezing rain. Made it 9.5 miles from Kellog Walmart and blew a drive tire. 4 hours later I was moving again and chains mandatory over Lookout Pass. Blew the sign, because honestly everything I own is now cold and wet, from my gloves to my boots to my coveralls. Everything in my truck.
Cars and trucks all over the mountain, racked and stacked. So I barely make it up and as they are swinging the gate shut to close eastbound, my dumb ### guns it to make it through before I'm stuck on the mountain again for the day. Holy ####, Montana hasn't plowed or salted or sanded or anything.
Did I mention Swift switched me to an automatic a few weeks back? No chains, can't engine brake, can't do #### except spend the next two hours with one of the most breathtaking views all to myself, and I'm spending it in 2nd gear literally trying not to #### my pants and throw up at the same time, while every few seconds I try to counter steer a jackknifed trailer down a winding 6% grade.
I wish I could say that my bad week ended there. It didn't. I didn't stop until Billings at the shipper. Except to pick half of my bumper up off of the shoulder of the highway. A ####ing deer comes up and over a snow bank, trips down the snow bank and into my right fender and bumper.
So now I've got a broken convex mirror, half a ####ing bumper, 1200 miles, 3 service failures and a preventable. Well, I have 1200 miles after I deliver that load. So why not spend 3 hours there trying to do that, while I tell them I can't hit the dock because they all park their cars and #### where I need to 90 degree into the spot. "Other drivers do it just fine" and yes other drivers with little daycabs and pup trailers continued to deliver while I argued that it couldn't be done. So another driver with a 53 foot trailer tells me to watch and learn, then hits the suv that I told them they needed to move so we could get in there. Dude arguing with me? His suv. And he also refuses to unload me that day as a result.
Also I'm out of hours and can't stay there. So drive dirty as #### through the scale house there to the truck stop. Wake up and go back through the scale again, because why not have it between all the shippers and truck stops in Billings, right?
Finally get the load delivered. Ah, 1200 miles. So I immediately get on the phone with a planner and demand to be sent so far south that it makes the surface of the sun look like the frozen Tundra.
Yea we don't have anything. We will keep an eye out for you. So I tell them if they keep me sitting I'll drive my 70 out in the direction of my choice and leave the truck where it runs out of diesel.
Suddenly I have a 416 mile deadhead on my Qualcomm. But wherever is it to? Oh #### yea, drive an empty trailer across Wyoming and pick up a load in Green River. So I'm driving an empty through absolute white out and high winds. Like squinting with sunglasses on its so blindingly bright.
Take 3 hours to be loaded and scale the load. Heavy but I can work with it. Been pulling step decks a lot so my 5th wheel was pretty far back... Aaaaaaand it won't slide. Looked like a ####### at the truck stop while I'm trying to rock it loose and finally it comes loose... BAM! Almost left it and the trailer laying on the ground. Ah it's loose now, let me just inch it for... BAM!
Eventually I get it and limped my pride up the road to Wamsutter and parked at a Loves just in time to watch a trailer blow off the highway and CR England get stuck in the mud.
So now I'm in St Joseph, Missouri with just barely enough time if I don't sleep even 1 second too long. And it's also my fuel stop, so let me get in this 1.5 hour long line to fuel.
Some ####### thinks it's a good idea to blow through the do not enter side of the scale and hop the fuel line and I snapped on this dude. He was seconds away from myself and about 20 other dudes beating him like Reginald Denny during the LA Riots. Finally said #### it and left the fuel line and did what I never do, which is take a pull through parking spot. Figured with the week I am having, I probably shouldn't be allowed to back a trailer today.
So there you go. Yea it's all true. It's too #### embarrassing not to be true. And if that wasn't all ####ed up enough, while I was typing all of this and listening to the reefer grinding by my head on both sides, I realized that I'm like an abused spouse... Because I still love my job. "He will change. He's just under a lot of stress... He loves me, I know it." LollongbedGTs, bzinger, Friday and 12 others Thank this. -
I know the company line about chains to get out of trouble, not into trouble. My loyalty isn't to the company though. I don't work to support them. I work to support flesh and blood. I got my cdl because I can't support them on checks like I'm looking at if I don't chain up. I could flip burgers, drink beer and smoke weed all day long if that's all my time is worth. I can't pay bills like that though. I'm either stuck without food and fuel at the bottom of the pass for a day or I chain up and take my ### to food and fuel. Not to mention, I would have been the only truck not chained up.
If fat ### van drivers are out chaining up in shorts and crocs, I'm #### sure not sitting in my truck starving for a week with steel toes and coveralls.bzinger, Lepton1, coastietruckin' and 2 others Thank this. -
Rough week
Lepton1, G13Tomcat, RedRover and 1 other person Thank this. -
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You are with swift correct
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