THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

Ended up finding a good per-mile but short run down to South Carolina that picks up not too far from home, doesn't pick up until later tomorrow afternoon so it should give me some time to get a little more rest and make sure I'm all over this bug, then swing by Cummins and grab my sensor before heading out for the pickup tomorrow. Oh, and of course the inevitable 4-hour battle with Schneider to get my location updated and find an empty trailer, LOL. Gonna take it slow and stay close to home until I'm sure I'm back to 100%, man this crap just knocked me flat on my face.

 

Never a dull day in trucking with DFO. First had to fight to get an empty trailer. Called in and explained I was at home (found my location code, gave it to them) and I needed a trailer. No problem, they put the box planner on it. So, do some laundry, pack up my stuff, etc., and keep checking my work assignment on Crossroads for it to update. Finally it does. Shows my home location. Also shows me picking up an empty trailer at my home location. WTF? Come on. Get on the phone with them, ask why I'm showing that I need to pick up a trailer at my house. "You need to send in the exception" she tells me. HOW ABOUT I SHOVE THAT EXCEPTION UP YOUR ***, I contemplate responding. So apparently, instead of assigning me a trailer stop like every other time I have ever requested a trailer from home, this time they planner just decided to add a stop to my house. My God. Out to the truck again, wake Qualcomm up again, send in the exception for no trailers from my house location workflow, wait again.

Finally, an hour later, got an empty assignment and off I go.

Not 10 miles down the 2-lane highway from home I see a TMC flatbed pulled over on the side, the tractor ####ed a bit out of alignment with the trailer, its been raining, I lay money hes stuck. Slow down a bit, he flags me down and sure enough this TMC driver pulled completely off the road into a rain-soaked shoulder and his super singles were doing super good at nothing. I keep a chain my truck and I'm just bobtailing, so I figure I'd see if I could give him a hand. He says "I missed my turn and decided to make a U-turn and then got stuck". I'm thinking in my head, man you've got to be kidding me. You missed your turn so you decided to pull off onto the (large) shoulder on a 55 MPH 2-lane highway with an empty trailer and a tractor with super singles so you could make a U-turn. GOOD JOB, DRIVER.

Anyway, at the risk of upsetting some safety person at Schneider who may be reading my forum posts, all I will say is my bobtail tractor was unable to get him free.

(tip that is or maybe is not related to my experiences today - tow hooks on Cascadias are bolted in to the bracker on the passenger frame rail under the hood. You have to remove the bolt to get the hooks out, only way. Carry a socket or wrench or you're gonna have to rely on someone else to have the tools)

So, at this point, I either leave and let the guy wait for the wrecker and get an accident put on his record for getting stuck, or I can really help him out. I could tell he was a new driver, he didn't have the power divider locked and his only motions to try to free himself were dumping the clutch in 4th gear. I tell him to put his triangles out and I'd be back in a few minutes with something that without any doubt would get him unstuck.

So, back to the house. Fire up the 1973 M35A2 "Deuce and a Half" 6x6. Reason #8124 to own a Deuce and a Half - resuce TMC flatbeds. Head back down the road towards TMC. I asked the driver to see if he had any kind of tow hooks or a place to mount a chain up front. He couldn't find anything. He wanted me to pull him out from the back. Hey, his deal, I just offered to help.

I told the sherrif our plan and knew that TMC's tractor would probably continue to slide for a bit in the shoulder before it caught enough traction to angle towards the road, so there was a good chance his trailer would block both lanes and we'd be all over the road. Traffic picks up this time of day so I asked him if he'd be willing to block traffic while I pulled him back on to the road. "IF you can pull him out" the sherrif corrects me. I just kinda looked at him for a second and then walked back to the driver and handed him his end of the chain. I never hook a chain to someone elses vehicle. Their vehicle, their responsibility.

So, blue lights go up and I quickly get i the Deuce and the driver gets in his truck. Throw the transmission down in low range, low gear and start pulling him out. No idea what the driver was thinking, but again, he was new, so this was all probably a bit overwhelming. Even once we get moving he makes no attempt to turn into the trailer so the trailer is crossing both lanes and the tractor is still in the muddy shoulder. I feel the rear end start hopping on the Deuce as I'm starting to drag his trailer sideways. I can almost see the sherrifs smug little smile thinking I wouldn't be able to pull him out.

Oh, but we aren't done yet. Throw over the air switch to engage the front axle. PSSSSHHHTT. ITS TIME. Let out the clutch again, all 3 axles give a few hops on the wet pavement along with a couple angry barks from the straight-pipe exhaust and then I start dragging his entire trailer sideways at a 45* angle along with his tractor still in the shoulder. Didn't have much of a choice, with both lanes on a busy 2 lane highway I wasn't about to reposition myself. Finally the tractor got out of the soggy stuff and I was able to get him back on the road. Jumped out, disconect my chain, driver thanks me and I jump back in. Wave at the sherrif with a smug little smile on my face as I drive by. "IF"....... PLEASE. This thing ain't no F-150 bud.

Anyway, headed back home, grabbed my tractor and went on with my day. Weather sucked and traffic got bad and between rescuing TMC and fighting traffic I was 2 hours late for my pickup. Thankfully the customer wasn't upset and I'm getting loaded now. Hopefully I saved that driver from getting an accident on his record, no damage was done to any of the equipment other than to his pride and a little mud here and there. Hopefully he has learned that making U-turns, especially on a 2-lane 55MPH highway, is just not an option. I wish I had a video of it, but that might get him in trouble so I'll just have a good story to tell about my old army truck.

 

After I finished getting loaded last night I headed south until I saw a truck stop and wanted to grab a bite to eat. Right after I parked before going inside I realized I was tired. Real tired. And eating wouldn't help it, only make it worse. I just decided to call it a night right there. Didn't even make it out of NC, lol. But, it was the safe thing for me to do.

So, today I finished up the 200 miles to the delivery down in SC. They didn't have any empties so I just bobtailed over to the Pilot nearby and took a break and got something to eat, then hopped on the load board. There was still a load I had seen yesterday that picked up out of the same customer that was headed up to Ohio, weather looks clear enough (but fricking cold) for me to get in and get out without much excitement. When I stopped through the Charlotte OC for fuel and to get a torn mudflap on the trailer replaced I did a little further trip planning and got back on the board and found a load that I can pick up nearby after delivering this one tomorrow that heads back down to NC. Cool!

Made it up to WV tonight. After seeing my temperature readout on the dashboard show 65* down in SC today, I was in for a rude awakening when I stepped out of my truck up here.

Still slowly getting over my bug, it catches up with me at night and I get tired really easily, luckily my loads have plenty of flexibility so I'm taking it slow and steady and giving myself plenty of time to rest. 450 miles for today.