The worst load ever...

I didn't know pot/cattle haulers wore shorts...

 

Give me a call next time - I'll help.

 

^^^ I went through Swift orientation early this year and as I was reading through the section regarding hauling beer loads it actually said that the procedure was you had to break the seal every day to check the load, then reseal the trailer. Then in bold letters it said, "No sampling!"....

.... that's no fun.

That policy changed. Not allowed to break the seal anymore. Can't imagine why...

 

Loaded gypsum in Spruce Pine NC from the south side, I got half way up the switchbacks and pulled over and called them.. " Are you really up here...... are you kidding me "?? When I got to the plant it was a 65' lot to turn around with a 20' retaining wall on one side and a guard rail on the other to keep you falling off the 40' ledge. @90 degrees jackknifed you have 2' from your door and 2' from your trailer getting turned around to hit the dock.

 

My worst load was a hot tub and 2 tanning beds to a bordello in Sparks...I'm a girl!!!

 

My most challenging load was in '77 with my brother. We were "bedbugger's" at the time, delivering a load of household goods in West Virginia. Everything was fine until we arrived at the delivery address, which was a large house up a few switchbacks on a driveway from a small two lane country road.

One thing that was essential in our truck was a chainsaw with a 20" blade. That came in real handy, along with my time spent as an arborist. It took us most of the mourning to "beautify" some of the customer's trees up the driveway, then back from the road all the way up a 400 yard driveway to the house.

By the time we finished unloading it was almost dark. My brother and I were invited to stay the night in freshly unpacked beds and had dinner and a breakfast in the morning before we departed to our next load.

Sometimes I miss bed bugging, but then I get over it....

 

My worst had to be the JD 1770 12 row corn planter. Picked up in Union, MI, going back to our shop near Harrisburg Pa. I was told it was only 8 feet wide so I wouldn't need permits. So I drive out there to see this monstrosity sitting in their parking lot all ready to go, and realize i'd been lied to. When they come from the factory, they are 11.5 feet wide, after they are put together, they're 12.5 feet wide and 11 ft tall. I was pulling a 48 ft step deck with a 3 ft high bottom deck, so I was 13 ft 11 inches high and 12.5 feet wide. I called my boss, politely explained I need permits to move this thing, and was promptly told "no you don't need a permit its farm machinery". So being young and stupid (we all were, weren't we?), I hit the road without permits. Now it had taken me around 9 hours to drive out there, I took my ten hours at a motel (daycab) and loaded the next morning. I drove through every little Podunk town on rt 20 through Ohio until darkness hit in Norwalk Ohio. Spent the night at The Dreamland Motel, a place you might take your best friends wife for a few hours. I was charged $3 to rent an alarm clock!!!! Next morning, I left Norwalk, ran over to I71, headed south to I76 and back to I80, and ran 80 across pa to 147 and down to our shop. Never got stopped by DOT, and learned a valuable lesson. Never trust anyone!

 

It wasn't a messy or hard to pull load, but it was by far the most annoying load I've pulled. Last summer the owner of a small steel company, who runs me once a month from Toledo to Central Florida and back, called to tell me that it was time for his company's yearly July shut down, and that he wouldnt have a load for me, and then he said, "but I do have a favor to ask.". Oh crap.

He had built a new house near his Florida factory, and wanted me to take his toys down to the house for him. He offered me the same rate I charged him for his usual load. I figured it would be a nice light load, and I knew I could find a load so I wouldn't have to deadhead back, not to mention that this guy's company accounts for about 25% of my income, so I said yes.

I show up at his house to load and he had built a makeshift loading ramp and had his sons there to help me, no problem. We load a Sea-Doo on a trailer, an ATV, a fancy golf cart, and last but not least, his prized restored Nash Metropolitan. I get few hours down the road and get stuck in traffic on the 71/75 bridge in Cincinnati. My phone rings, and he asks me where I am. I think he's just checking in on his stuff. I pull over at a rest stop at about 12 hours, and I get another call asking if I'm stopping for my break and if I wasn't sure I couldn't push on for a couple more hours. Then, at about nine and half hours into my break, I get a wake up call from him. Later I'm climbing in the Tennessee mountains, and he called to ask if Tennessee had lowered its truck speed limit. At this point, I was seriously annoyed.

It turned out he had some kind of Lo-Jack or GPS tracker on his car (which I did even know worked inside a trailer.). I swear to God, no more than 90 minutes passed between calls for the rest of the trip. Probably more than 20 calls. The entire way, I had to keep reminding myself that I didn't want to piss off this guy.

The best part was, when we were unloading at his loading dock, he jumped in to push the car out of the trailer. It got a little crooked and he ended up scraping it on the inside of the dock door and knocking a mirror off. Of course, I acted sorry that it happened, but I laughed my ### off as I drove off.

He is actually a really good guy, and went along on a ride along with me last Fall, but I could have reached through the phone and strangled him on that run.

 

Corn. Loose grains of feed grade corn. 40k of loose corn sliding around in the box. When I arrived they unloaded me by tipping the whole truck and trailer. I was not thrilled. Everything was covered in this corn 'dust' and all my things were everywhere in the bunk.

 

Worst load, based on product: scrap paper. I picked up at this paper printing faciilty. Apparently when they do mass printing, there's extra pieces cut off. Also, they 'mulch' the paper that is printed but unusable (improper print, etc). Also, all those little paper hole punches, etc. They get stacked into these 4'x2'x3' bundles and secured with wire. Now, it took a while to load. They had a scale on site. I was desperate to get the load rolling because I was going to stop at the house, have dinner, and then drive the rest of the way to the customer (200 mi trip total). I already dreaded taking the load, because I did it much cheaper than I normally would've priced myself. So, finally, they get it loaded. I think, still time to have my wife meet me at the truck stop, say hi, and then I'd have to leave to make the delivery location prior to running out of hours. Instead, they said I wasn't heavy enough, and made me go back to the dock for more paper. So, in order to make the delivery the next morning, I had to run straight through and didn't get a chance to stop. Not only was I at 79k, I also had the fun of sweeping out that nightmare. I had a reefer trailer. You know how those little circles from paperhole punchers stick to every surface almost no matter how much you sweep?

I do.

Luckily, I got most of it swept out at the receiver. Then, I had already booked a load out of foam a few miles away. So, they didn't really care about the traces of paper in the trailer. 12 blocks of foam, taking up the whole trailer, 8'x8'x4'. I still didn't need to wash out though, because my next load was coca-cola bottling, for a dry load. Wasn't until the next load I needed a washout. Went to my pickup (produce) and discovered... STILL PAPER PUNCHOUTS stuck to the walls. Glued there by the water.

Don't care. I will never haul paper scrap ever again.