Interesting phone call the other day....

Re: Beer Loads

Special instructions only say to use two load bars and a reminder that it is a beer load, no fast sharp turns or hard braking. Once it is sealed, must not break seal; only the receiver can do that.

 

only the guard at the receiver would care about the seal, this is what you do, the company give's you a box of seals, take the seal off the back and use a lock, put two straps in there, when you get to the receiver and you think the guard is a butt head put a seal on there put the number on the paper work and use your intials, done, now lets say you have a metal seal and you need to check that puppy but you have no sisscor's to cut the seal off, easy get something thin like another metal seal with the end cut off, or a finger nail file, slid it throu the slot of the seal on the trailer where the pin is and bingo the seal will unlock no problem when you put the seal back on don't put it all the way on just half way then bend the end so you can reopen the door even the gaurd won't now he'll just look at the number, if you see a millis driver just ask if they check there loads, your'l see, i know will ask the millis drivers thread

 

I just finished a beer load today. It was loaded way heavy to the front in fact I had to get 50 gallons of fuel about every 300 miles on this 1000 mile trip. Anyway when I broke the seal to open the doors to hit the dock, there were 4 kegs that had broken loose from their banding and were rolling around. The load lock was on the floor with a broken handle. Other than that the rest of the load was in fine shape. I was pretty proud of that because every hard bump or couple of sharp curves that caught me by surprise my imagination would run wild about my load (mostly canned beer) falling over spilling everywhere; being fired and riding a Greyhound for 49 hours back home lol.

BTW I hated this load! My 5th wheel is all the way forward which makes me look like a rookie when backing in the truck stops, my steers were 11980, drives 33640, which caused me to be called in to the weigh scale house after I fueled 55 gallons (sweating bullets there because I got a little greedy with the fuel--only needed 50 gallons to max out at 34000) but he let me go.

 

see i told ya, before you start millis management will tell you to throw the seal as far as you can across the street, load bars bite, straps are better if you have them and if your trailer could use them, also you said you where heavy up front, they loaded that trailer wrong big time, they should've loaded some single pallets up front and then side by side in the middle, the hole load should be in the middle of the trailer, on all millis transfers in front of the nose of trailer you can move a portable wall back about 5 or 6 feet then load double beer skids to the front of the rear tandems, perfect weight for the axles, say when you got there did then ask about the seal if theres a guard, if not your'l probably saying i wish i rip that seal off, also JB HUNT is real good at having the top of the beer skid touching the trailer wall and the bottom part in the middle of the trailer i see all the time, you have to learn these things, good luck, and drive careful, i'm back to looking to swift there runs are little longer and more drop and hook

 

Yes on the surface this was a cut and dry typical drop/hook. I was sitting at the Denver Swift terminal after getting new chains and sent a message on qualcomm "Got Freight?" lol. Beep, go to Golden drop your swept empty and pick up this loaded trailer number-- 14 miles away. I thought, 'cool' I have 2 hours left on my 14 hour day no problem, 2.5 days to go 1000 miles easy money. Hook into the loaded trailer bring it around to the guard shack to get papers, guy says go break the plastic seal and bring the steel seal and paperwork from inside the trailer in here. So I go do that but have to stand in line again (time is tickin tickin tickin). He says 'need to see your driver's license', ####, be right back. 'Don't forget to put your load locks on', he said. 'Scale your load over there and come back in here I will have your weight.' I was like dang lots of time is ticking by luckily the TA is 2.9 miles away no problem. Get on the scale says 35000+ drives. Slide trailer tandems all the way up but I have to use the ratchet strap trick to help hold out the release handle (more time tickin away). Get back on scale still over weight. Now I have to slide the 5th wheel but another Swift driver pulls up and blows his horn, 'yo can you help me slide my tandems?' So I help him with the ratchet strap trick and now I'm officially over my 14 but I figure oh well I'll log line 4 here on the shipper and stay here for 10. Get back on scale the guy says I'm good to go but I can't stay here for 10. So I drove over to the TA now it's dark and 15 degrees out found 1 of the last spots left. I wrote Safe Haven Rule on my log in the remarks section hopefully that will cover my violation there. Would have been so much nicer if they had loaded it correctly, I could have gotten out of there on time, the other Swift driver would have gotten help from someone else etc, I would not be in violation.

When this stuff happens I get chewed out like:
'Why did you take the load if you didn't have the hours?'
or 'You can't turn down the load if you have hours left' lol I can't win.

 

There can be advantages to sitting for 24 hours too like preserving your hours to keep you rolling day after day without the need for a 34. Sometimes it can be frustrating but try to look at it as a blessing if you can.