Winter Driving

I drive a regular route between Portland, Billings and Seattle, if I didn't chain up they'd can me and find another driver who will. I've been doing it for a few years now and anytime the chain law is up I throw on 6 singles in under 30 minutes and head on down the road, it takes 10-15 to take them back off. I carry a shovel on the truck so I can dig out around the tires before chaining so I'm not cold and wet when I climb back in the truck.

As far as safety? I don't find it any more dangerous than the hundreds of miles I rack up every week in the winter driving on snow covered roads, often with a nice wind thrown in just to keep you paying attention. When the chain law is up there is typically LESS traffic on the roads due to everyone who refuses to chain. I also set my schedule so I'm driving before most people wake up.

But I also unload my trailers by hand, box-by-box, all 40-49k lbs of it, so hanging some iron just doesn't seem like much work.

 

I chained up 5 times in a 6 day span last month going back and forth on I-90 and I-84 in WA and OR. I had no choice! I had to get over Snoqualmie and Cabbage, and chain laws were enforced.

I always hear these other company drivers (some from my co. and some from others) tell me, "I don't chain, if it's that bad I shut down." I don't see how these people keep their jobs! If I refused to deliver a load like that, I'd either end up not getting any future miles for several days due to my "lack of ambition" and going broke, or just getting fired altogether and really going broke.

I can have that truck chained and running in 30-45 minutes after all the practice I had this winter. I actually almost *like* doing it now.

 

Last winter we had a team that sat for almost a week waiting for the chain law to be lifted on Snoqualmie and they refused to drive around on the Columbia. One of the drivers on the dedicated account I run on had to take their load over Snoqualmie for them. They were then routed to Portland where they were instructed to clean out the truck and go home, and home wasn't in the northwest.

 

This is especially true with those who haul explosives. We are required to shut down if chains are required.

 

I think for the most part, people that say "I don't know how they keep their job" are refering to those that say "if it's too dangerous to run without chains, I'll just park it" or something to that effect. In other words, those that just flat refuse to chain. Obviously, if the company policy is to park and wait rather than chain and continue then you park and wait. Lumberman made an interesting point. It seems that alot of highway haulers aren't even carrying a full set of chains. It appears, from what I've seen on this forum, that most are only useing singles. I'm sorry but it's pretty sad if someone can't be bothered to throw on a few singles. Most guys around here feel blessed if they are allowed to use light triples. When I mentioned before that my dad often would chain and unchain half dozen times a day, I was talking about heavy triples. Hell, he was even hauling hay for my brother a few years ago (for free as a favour) and had to throw on a set of chains (heavy triples) in order to get threw a muddy spot coming into the hay yard. Put them on, go 100 yards, unload, go 100 yards and take them off and this was every load, 5-6 loads a day....and he was 70 years old at the time. There have been a few good arguments made in this thread for waiting rather than chaining at times and, at the end of the day, circumstances will dictate the proper course of action. The only course of action that is ALWAYS wrong is not chaining because you just don't WANT to do it. To me, that is about as acceptable as saying "I don't do a pretrip because I don't want to". For those that won't chain because they think it's too much work or they just don't WANT to, I hear McDonalds is hiring.

 

I think you need to read my post again or perhaps I just didn't make myself clear. I said
"There have been a few good arguments made in this thread for waiting rather than chaining at times and, at the end of the day, circumstances will dictate the proper course of action. The only course of action that is ALWAYS wrong is not chaining because you just don't WANT to do it. To me, that is about as acceptable as saying "I don't do a pretrip because I don't want to". For those that won't chain because they think it's too much work or they just don't WANT to, I hear McDonalds is hiring."

Perhaps I should have said To me, that is about as acceptable as saying "I don't check the oil because I don't want to". The point being that there is more to driving a truck than "driving a truck". Depending on what you haul, where you haul it etc, there are things that are required. You are required to strap/chain down your load if you haul flat deck. You are not required to strap/chain your load down if you are pulling a tanker. You can't pull flat beds and just say "I'm not strapping down my load because I DON'T WANT TO". There are jobs were chaining up is part of the program. It's not optional. In those cases, you can't just say "I don't chain". If a driver is not willing to do what is required for the job then, yes, McDonalds is hiring. This has nothing to do with drivers who's company policy is to not to chain or drivers that drive where it doesn't snow or anything like that. Like I said "There have been a few good arguments made in this thread for waiting rather than chaining at times and, at the end of the day, circumstances will dictate the proper course of action." I'm ONLY refering to drivers that don't chain simply because they don't WANT to. The job involves whatever it involves and it' is the drivers responsibility to do whatever is required to do the job safely and efficiently. With some jobs that requires chaining and if a driver doesn't WANT to do it , then they need to find alternate employment.