From School to Superior Carriers

1/20-1/23

Typical paint load. I got to the plant about 6:00 PM and it wasn't ready until 10:00. This one was a 5 compartment tank so it took twice as long to get everything tightened down. I also had to spot an empty in the hole I pulled this tank out of. I finally got on the road about 11:00. The load was uneventful and I got back to the yard about 2:00 Friday. Right now I am hanging out in my truck since we have a safety meeting at 5:30. I am already hooked to my load to Denver and will head out in the morning.

 

I haven't asked. All I run in mine is a laptop with a usb TV tuner and a small cooler. I have considered looking into it for a fridge and microwave but have decided to wait until they retire my current truck. I know there are drivers on our yard with the front seat taken out of company trucks and refrigerators installed. Before they got me a truck I used a couple for local work that had large inverters installed in the side boxes. I don't believe there is a company policy against them.

We had a safety meeting last night and there was a slow speed rollover this month. Very little damage was done to the truck as it rolled into a snow bank. The only injuries the driver got was from a cooler hitting him in the knee and a microwave hitting him in the head. That may have something to do with the policy discussion.

 

1/24-1/30

Slept in Saturday morning, took my family out to breakfast, finished up some laundry and headed out about for Denver around 2:00. It was real nice sleeping in my bed one last time before what I expected to be an extended time out.

I was heading up I-77 in Virginia when I got a call from dispatch. He told me that the customer had called and wanted to delay my Tuesday delivery until Thursday. I told him I was 200 miles down the road and asked him if he wanted me to turn around and come back. He said no to continue on unless I heard from him. He told me they would be billed for every mile I drove and that they may have some totes for me to put what product their tanks wouldn't hold into. I drove until about Midnight and shut down at a rest area just inside Indianna after finding 2 truck stops completely full.

Got up Sunday and leisurely drove another 400 miles. I was a little tired so I shut it down early in Kingdom City Mo at the Perto. Monday morning I got an early start and made it out to Oakley Kansas. I stopped at the Mittens TA MM76 off I-70 there. It was a real nice place, very clean with a friendly staff. The showers were all tile with southwestern designs and the towels smelled like home because they were dried with fabric softener sheets. This truck stop was about 20 miles farther out than I had planned but it had started to snow pretty hard about 40 miles back. There was a front moving through that would be gone the next day so I went ahead and stopped. This was the same front that caused all that Ice in Misouri and snow in Ohio earlier this week.

I woke up Tuesday to about 2 inches on the ground and bitter cold. I headed out about 9:00 EST. The weather front had blown through and I had smoothe sailing all the way to Denver. There were only a few slick spots around Limon but they were treated. I got to the WWT plant and they sent an escort out who I followed to the scales and my delivery point. There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. The pipe I had to unload into was to an underground tank. The assured me that the tank would hold all of it so I aired up the tank, hooked up the hoses and let her rip. The product in the tanks was colder than normal and I expected a long unload. That wasn't the case. I was using a 3 inch hose. After examining the hose going into the ground I noticed a reducer fitting on the pipe. I was unloading into a 5 or 6 inch pipe dropping product straight into the ground.
I was on my way back down the road about 3 hours later and made it back to Mittens TA before running out of hours on my 70.

Dispatch routed me to Memphis 1090 miles away. I expected to get a load Friday or Saturday back to my home terminal in High Point. I was having some 70 hour rule issues and could only drive 5.25 hours Wednesday. I left early and ran out my hours shortly after noon. I called log ops asking if they wanted me to leave at midnight to get to Memphis earlier. They said there was no hurry, to leave in the morning and to give them a call then. I had 13.75 hours to drive and was actually glad because that ice storm was smashing Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee. I was running behind it and really wanted nothing to do with it.

Thursday I headed out and as soon as I got to I 40 I gave dispatch a call. He told me to give my terminal manager a call. It turned out that the load they were planning to put me on wouldn't be ready to load until Sunday. My boss said it wasn't worth paying me 3 days layover plus the cost of 3 nights in the hotel and to bring my empty to the house. My 70 hours hurt me again as I am shut down now about 120 miles from home. I will be home early Saturday after about 3400 miles in 7 days.

I am planned on a short 370 mile load for Monday up to the Baltimore area so we will see what the system has to offer from there next week.

 

Older equipment, underpowered trucks. Some of the terminals are old and pretty dumpy.

We do lots of Chicago and the Northeast. Thats to be expected living in NC though and getting this much home time.

 

Congrats. I made a 96 on the final. Don't know where that ranks. Another guy from our terminal was first in the class with a 100. I saw from the other board that you met Cyanide LOL.

What was your first experience with a loaded tank like?