An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

Samsara is way off on addition today

 

Got to Arlington late last night and, holy crap, I have never seen so many trailers. There are a lot of new trailers. The whole front row of the parking area was full (a lot of the blanket trailers waiting delivery) the back side of the parking area was about 3/4 full, where a lot of the new conestoga trailers are parked. The perimeter empty row only had 3 or 4 empty spots and there are a lot of new trailers parked over in the middle area where they park the dry van blanket trailers. And there are a lot of trucks here, many are hooked to trailers, and a bunch of them are pulling Genie equipment.

I decided to do a 34 here. If I left today, I would have had enough hours to maybe make Cheyenne by tomorrow, but then I would be sitting there on a 34. Here, I can go get supplies and have free laundry and showers. And I need some stuff from Harbor Freight and Lowe's, so I will knock that out before I secure my load. I thought I was gonna be picking up 2 larger scissor lifts with the 2 boom lifts. Turns out I have 1 bigger one and a smaller one, so my weight won't be an issue. The last load I picked here had 3 scissor lifts (2 big, 1 small), and 2 boom lifts. So I am lighter this time, so no worries about weight.

 

Things could have been more challenging as far as the load. Another driver here had 14 scissor lifts (only 1 stop). The problem is, they're loaded on a step deck, so he has 2 on the upper deck and 12 on the lower and he only has the minimum amount of chains and binders (10) that SPD issues, which means he had to tripple up 12 of the 14. Generally, our size chains 2 lifts is the optimal number of lifts which means he should have had 14 chains/binders.

My load was a simple securement...and because I have recently slid the back axle on the last load I pulled on it, it slid easy this time. But, I found a tire with a leaking valve stem and cap, so one of my tires was down to 38 psi and our shop was closed for the week when I got there, so there isn't any outside air hose. I ended up going to Donna's on the way out, then switched valve caps so it stopped leaking until I can get it repaired. I haven't had a glad hand air line for a while, so I will have to pick up a new one the next chance I get. My old one is actually hooked up to my home air compressor so the wife can air up tires on the Gator or zero-turn.

 

Got some bad news from my travel agent...he is moving up the chain of command and after next next week, I get another new fleet manager. I am truly getting sick of this Not-so-Merry-Go-Round of dispatchers.

 

It's just the drivers on this one board that have to deal with it. Seems that all the other fleet managers have stayed since I arrived (for the most part, 2 came back within a few months after I got here).

 

So much for me slacking off





Made it from Arlington to just outside OKC, 2030 miles in 3 days with a 39,500 lb load.

 

70...nanny cam starts nagging if I coast over 74