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

We use to move empties like that too...and occasionally you would pass another empty going back the other way. We were told that when we were moving glass from one plant to the other, it was because the other plant was producing a different size glass and they had a shortage of inventory for the size we were bringing in and it was cheaper to bring it over from another plant rather than retool the production line for a limited run.

 

Spent 2+ hours yesterday afternoon, and used most of a 8 oz can of adhesive fixing all the holes on the worst tarp Toledo gave me. It looks like a patchwork quilt. The other tarps aren't nearly as 'holy'. I could have dropped it off at Wichita and picked up a replacement, but that's a crapshoot... sometimes they have tarps available, sometimes they don't. I figured that getting it fixed and being ready to go tomorrow was a safer bet than taking a chance of them not having a good replacement and having to fix it at the shipper. I also have some cheap plastic drop clothes I plan on using on the load just in case I missed a hole.

 

The last decent set I had, I had to donate to an oversize driver who had his load destroy his tarps(I was pulling construction equipment, so I wasn't using my tarp). Then I started pulling a conestoga until late last week when I picked up these Sunday preacher tarps (because they're holy). For us over here, many companies call dropping a loaded trailer at a drop yard or terminal for a later delivery a T-call. When we send in our loaded message, it's called a load call, empty is an empty call...so I guess the "T" refers to transfer. When we have a tarped load, it normally stays on the trailer so it has to be dropped secured and tarped. Hopefully when you're dropping at a terminal, you pick up tarps and equipment from the terminal if they have any available or, if you're meeting a driver, he/she swaps an equal amount of securement and tarps.

As far as keeping tarps on the deck behind the sleeper, my truck doesn't have the wheel base for 3 tarps, even with my 5th wheel slid back. Our 2023 aluminum trailers have 1 side box, but 3 - 8' drop tarps are a tight squeeze. Our 2024 aluminum trailers have 2 side boxes, so 3 tarps fit better. All our trailers before 2023 didn't have any side boxes, so your tarps had to strap to the deck.

 

Ok, ok, I hope I haven't broke the unspoken rule of flatbedding...this is the 3rd day in a row I have managed to take a shower.