Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Holy crap. I was there doing a relay at that time. Had no idea. Sitting here right now, too. No wonder the girls at the register were acting weird.

Body found at South Beloit gas station

 

Coca cola driver ran a red light...saw him coming and not planning on stopping. He wasnt even close to that yellow light.

 

Overdose.

Or, your typical trucker psycho killer preying on lot lizards. These days, I'm going with overdose.

I was doing a meet a couple months ago at the Meijer in Lafayette (where you guys also meet) and as I was walking back from the store, I noticed a pile of trash or something in the middle of the lot not far from my truck which wasn't there when I arrived. As I got closer, it looked like a pile of clothes. Then I realized it was a man, just laying there in the middle of the lot.

Tons of companies meet there (Dayton, OD, R&L, FedEx Ground, and more) and many of them fly through the lot, so I walked over to him and tried to get him to get up. He said something like, "It's cool, I got this." I asked if he was high and he slowly said, "Maaaybeeee," which was pretty funny. I told him semi trucks roll through there all the time and explained to him that he was laying in the middle of the lot, because he didn't seem to actually realize that (one of our drivers later told me he had seen an SUV stop on the other side of my truck for a second and peel off, apparently after dumping this guy out).

It didn't seem to concern him that he was in danger of getting run over, but then a FedEx Ground set pulled in and had to stop because he was going to spin around right in that area when he saw me talking to the guy on the ground. I told the guy, "if one of these drivers doesn't run you over, you can be sure they'll call the cops on you. You gotta get up and get outta here." That apparently got his attention, because when I walked over to tell the Ground driver what was going on, the guy got up and split.

It's crazy out there these days. As predicted, a cop came. He said in addition to heroin they had a bad problem there with some new synthetic drug I've never even heard of. Kids these days. Moral of the story: the middle of a grocery store parking lot is not a mellow place to chill.

 

Found this playing around. What you guys think?

 

I think I'd like more details! Some of the ideas of yesteryear fascinate me...

 

Just the info I found . Know there were also pusher trucks with bumpers made for the job.

 

I found a recent patent application for just such a powered converter dolly dated 2014. Looks like from the pics sdaniel posted, someone was way ahead of him.

Here's the link I found:

Patent US20140015223 - Powered converter dolly and securing device

I didn't read the lengthy physical description, just went straight to the pictures. Interesting, but not something I think I would want to deal with on a regular basis.

 

Freightliner worked with Cummins to develop that.

 

Every time I go to our West Chicago terminal in Crest Hill, I always almost turn into Dayton Freight's gate by accident. I get some funny looks for that sometimes.

Had some mega heavy trailers coming out of Chicago. Ran it over the scale so I could tell Central Dispatch how far I was over gross, and it came out at 79,980. Scaled it again just to be sure, and got 79,940. I'm skipping work tonight to go to the casino and play blackjack. If I can get that close without going over, my luck is running hot.