Good Night From II

Sitting at the Gary terminal tonight after tcalling a load here. Picking up a load here also to get me home tomorrow. Finally got my truck fixed yesterday at the Edwardsville terminal. Hopefully this will have finally fixed the problem.

 

I'm pretty sure it wasn't, unless it was necessary to scroll down to see it.
It is pretty obvious now, maybe I just missed it?

You still have to list the dropped trailer in the loaded call, even if you list it in mac 1.
It seems the two programs are not linked, and they should be.

 

The trailer drop in Mac 1 had been there for a few years, at least. I used it once shortly after going solo, and screwed up my entire dispatch. Haven't used it since.

 

At the Love's in Fort Mill, SC. Dropped at the Ross DC nearby, and they wouldn't release an empty. At least I can find a place to park a bobtail at midnight...

Now that I've been mentoring for a short while, I must say that I'm more impressed with Swift Academy than ever. My current student went to Roadmasters; I have no complaints. My last student, however, went to Bob's Cut Rate Truck Driving School, where for $3000 they drove a day cab with a 40' flatbed around the DMV examination route until they could pass. No idea of how to couple or uncouple a trailer. Never saw the inside of a sleeper.The only reason that she got a job offer from Swift is bacause she and her husband were coming in as a team.

Give me an Academy graduate any day...

 

Last night, we delivered to the Harley Davidson plant in York, PA.

We pulled in on the main road. No idea where to go; the GPS put the address halfway down the exit road that would have put us back on Route 30.

Ah, trailers. Let's go down there.

Get down into the parking lot. It's Gate 3, and closed. The guard shack is unattended, with a sign saying that all deliveries go to Gate 1.

We backtrack, and there's a sign for All Deliveries. Pull up to Gate 1, and find another unattended guard shack, this one with a sign saying to go to Gate 5.

At least there's an exit lane to the left. That dumps us into an employee parking lot. Fortunately, we escape with no uprooted foliage, no signs changing their direction, and only a couple of tire tracks in the dirt.

Go past Gate 3, and around to Gate 5. Yes, someone in the guard shack. He checks us in, and tells us to go to Receiving. He's not sure exactly where Receiving is, but he thinks it's up on the far side of the building (the East side).

We head up there. The signs on the building are made with beautiful highly reflective materials, and my flashlight lights them up halfway down the building. Nothing saying Receiving. We end up at a closed gate, and turn around.

A couple of other drivers (with H-D logoed trucks) say that they think Receiving is on the other side of the building.

We head back around to the other side. Still no signs for Receiving. Get ot the far end of the building, and find that we are in a cul-de-sac that is too small for anything bigger than a Prius. Back out through the serpentine, find a wide spot, then go around the building again.

3/4 of the way down the East side, my student spots a sign (about 12" square, with 1.5" high letters, positioned behind a tree, and NOT made of the hyper-reflective stuff all the other signs are made of) that says Shipping and Receiving are at Man Door 31E. Pulled in, got bills signed, told where to drop, and all the other usual trucking stuff.

Total time from pulling off of Route 30 to getting the bills signed: Approximately 90 minutes, due entirely to a lack of signage at the plant.

The plant is the epitome of Harley Davidson engineering. Appearance (the place is beautiful to look at) and cost cutting (no signs, narrow roads) are top priority. Functionality (ability to navigate the place) is merely an afterthought.

 

Well, Jamie, I'm glad to hear you are still having some fun once in a while.

 

Hiding in Corsicans, I have the option to go on a Kohl's dedicated. Not sure if I would like it.

 

Not that long, I think.

I started out with the old text only QC, then we went to the fancy display about a year later.
I've been here just over 5 years, and it was a long time before that ever showed up.

I'm thinking maybe 2 years, at most, that the fields were put in for the dropped trailers.

And I still wonder, why so many?
How many trailers do we pull at one time?
There are fields for 5 dropped trailers in a single mac 1.
How many people have ever had 5 trailers hooked up?

 

Hi,

I was gonna say well with a set of Rocky Mtn Doubles, 2 trls and a dolly, then I realized that with 3 pup trl's and 2 dollies, that would add up to 5.

Ah-ha! Mystery solved.

 

And you need to remember that all Qualcomm (er, Omnitracs) does is put Swift specific modifications to the user interface; the underlying program is the same.

Someone needed 5 trailers on the arrival screen; everyone gets 5 trailers on it, even if the company doesn't use those fields.