Crazy securement you have seen?

Okay, I am guilty. Today I totally did not secure something on my deck. I delivered the first of a two stop pipe load, then drove to the nearest truck stop to wait until first thing tomorrow morning.

As I finished my post trip and started doing my paperwork I realized that I had left my locking clipboard with my BOL's and receipts for this load and for the last month on the deck. Sunnava #####!!!! I went out and saw the clipboard still on the deck, right up front, but the vortex off the tractor had sucked it up against a front pipe stake holder. Thank goodness for smooth driving.

 

You got darn lucky! I was crossing a state line a few weeks ago and grabbed my clip board with the mini legal pad in it to jot down the odometer reading, and when I opened it up the wind sucked the top page (with all of my notes for the day) right out the driver's side window. Oops. Luckily it was only that day's info I lost, and it was only the 3rd state line plus a pair of drop & hooks and a fuel stop that I had to figure out the odometer readings for. I added another clip to hold the bottom of the pad together so that can't happen again. 9+ years in my truck...15+ years on the road...and that was the first (and hopefully last) time that ever happens. Then again, with the elog crap coming out, those pads of paper will be obsolete in a few months.

 

Sure, I've got a few...and I'll sell 'em to you cheap for $100/ea. Why so much more than you could've bought them at the store? Because I have 'em, you need 'em, and you DIDN'T stop at the store to get them. If I sell you mine, I'll be in a bind myself if I need them again before I've had the chance to replace 'em. Take it or leave it. Offer expires as soon as I'm loaded and secured, because I've got a job to do and unlike you, I showed up prepared to do that job.

 

Shippers need to be held accountable for knowingly overloading a truck. DOT needs to s it just down the road and stop this B.S. now. S omeone will get hurt asnd only t he driver gets hung out to dry.

 

"But...but...but..then HOW are we supposed to hire cut rate trucks!!???"

 

Talking with a couple drivers last night, apparently the MOT in Ontario go after the shipper first if something is wrong with the load and how it was loaded.

 

I've never had a level 1. Never once had my load looked at or securement looked at. I don't go by too many scales any more, unless I know for sure the lights are out. Regardless I'm surprised no ones ever looked at the load on the deck.

 

If you're pulling an open deck, believe me they have looked if you've been stopped. It usually happens discreetly on the passenger side as they walk up to you, and the driver's side as they walk back to their car. If they don't see anything that jumps out at them, they won't dig much deeper.