Where is everyone #5

Yes sir. 5 years on the sticks! I guess I just never noticed the truck there. I know exactly where that wall is though.

 

The people of Wisconsin have got it figured out, this is great beer.

 

Well anyhow, middle of the night, I'm steppin across Missouri on 70...nearing St. Louis, scales are open (the ones just past the TA at Floristell or whatever it is) but I ain't worried. My log book is fresh, ya know cause we just took a 10 at the TA *wink wink.

Roll in. Red light special. Speaker blairs "pull around to the inspection building for me."

Well ####, felt like old Elmer Fudpucker just then. I wasnt in the mood for it either. Hes the only one person in the scalehouse. NOT GOOD.
He comes over, pulls me in, says we doin a level 1. First thing he does, "driver, go ahead and step on the brake pedal for me"

I proceeded...."yep, that's what I thought....ok let's check everything else out"

Everything good?

No says he.."I noticed when you were coming into the scales your tractor brake lights were lit up, but your trailer brake lights weren't. That's an OOS sir."

I took my pigtail loose, wiped the ice, water corrosion off, plugged it back in. Bam, worked fine. We good?

Nope says he. Pull out to the parking lot, come inside and bring all your paperwork.

Ticket time. We got into a real bad argument. That didn't help at all. He points to a road call service number on the wall. "I'm not letting you go until that pigtail is replaced, I dont feel comfortable with that one. Its Its obviously defective."

I was hot!

 

I feel ya. I-81 in northern NY state, 1986 359 Pete. Trooper Spak says step on the brakes. “Your Truck brake lights ain’t working”. He walks back to his SUV. The thing is the brake lights were on all the time but I knew the air just needed to build enough to release the spring brakes then the brake lights would go out. Few minutes go by and I was proven right. “Nope, you got a bad wire. have a mechanic look at it. Here’s your ticket.”

I hate that little beady eyed 5 ft 6 in MF’er

 

After raising hell, and doing everything i thought to do, I finally got the hell outta there. Made it home. Told the boss what happened. He said, "yeah I shoulda done something with that cord. I had to wiggle it the other day because the market lights were flickering. I'll take care of that ticket, dont worry bout it."

Fast forward 3 years later to 2010.

You guys remember when the FMCSA enacted this wonderful new system called CSA 2010??? This beautiful point system we have now?

Well you'll also remember people not being happy bout it. Worried that carriers, shippers, receivers, brokers and whatnot were gonna be able to use your "bad" scores against you. To many violations......you gonna pay the price boy. No load for you or maybe they wanted to cancel your lease. It was pretty tense that year because it was the new thing.

So.....3 years later. I got my dump trailer and my stepdeck. I'm leased on to a different company. The guy in Wilmington decided to give the trucks up, too much headaches with all the new regs and 2008 and 2009 being a total disaster with the economy, I couldn't blame him one bit. So I moved on. Another small outfit close to home. Owner owned a feed mill and had some customers. Seemed like a good deal, haul ingredients here and there, do some open deck stuff.

He had hired an idiot for one of his company trucks. He had 5 trucks total of his own. All good hands except that 1. This was a guy he knew as a neighbor and felt sorry for. Bad move. So, this one trip the dumbarse guy is somewhere in Jersy and has a flatbed with a loaded 40ft container, goes down a "no truck" road and hits a train trussle. Knocks the container off on to a pickup. No one killed, but it dinged out CSA score tied to our MC. Along with a few other mishaps, with a couple other guys, the CSA score wasnt good.

So guess what? The men in the scalehouse was all the time checking you out soon as they ran the DOT# or MC#

That brings me to Steele, MO at the scalehouse at mile marker 9 on 55, northbound side in the summer of 2010.

The end. not really lol

 

And you ended up being arrested for a iced over pigtail ?
That's it ?
You could use some help ghost writing this thing. This ain't gonna be exciting enough to make into Smokey and the Bandit 4 without some touch ups.
No high speed chase's ? Not even one ?
No contraband cargo ?
What kind of Trucking movie is that ?

 

Seriously though. That year was kinda ridiculous with all the new CSA talk. Got sick of it, but it was here to stay.

So I took a load down to Florida. Reload over around Mobile, AL to go to St. Louis. Nice trip. I had my woman with me that round. We were having a good time too. Riding around like a couple senior citizens in a dam RV.

Well, we head out of Mobile Friday morning. Gonna unload Saturday in St Louie and then deadhead home. Stop at some friends house Saturday evening in Indiana and stay a couple days on the way home. Had it all planned out. Except bail money. I didn't realize I'd need to be carrying any that particular dam day!

Who else in here carries bail money except @wore out ? LOL

 

I woulda rather got it outta the way in 2007 instead of the ########## waiting till 2010.

Remember I got a ticket the boss was SUPPOSED to take care of?

 

* sigh * .....
Ya gonna need a lot a polishin' ta get this story up ta Hollywood standards.
Luckily for you, there's some crazy ### talent in this room who can make a mountain outta a molehill and are probably already working on it now.
The Czar ( did y'all know that is a spin off of Caesar ? Several titles of Rulers are derived from the word Caesar ) kinda surprised me earlier with that X1 Fluffy story. Well done, @Czar_Zero .

 

So shortening it up here, we was rolling up 55, come into Missouri. It was about 2 or so n the afternoon, hot as hell that day. A line of trucks going northbound, scale rolls everyone in. I get to the scale. Red light. Speaker yells: " driver. Stay ON the scale, bring all of you're paperwork in. I mean ALL of it! DO NOT MOVE OFF THE SCALE. WALK IT IN TO ME."

I'm thinking dam, what's this guys problem. Bad part is, I was irresponsible that morning and didn't even draw the first line in my book. Very stupid thing to do on that day. Well, I throw my woman the book, I said "ok listen, draw this and write that. Make it look a little sloppy cause your handwriting looks like a professional, mine looks like a 3rd grader. Hurry, just do the best you can. "

I purposely walk in to the scale WITHOUT my book. Guess what he does. Hes instantly pissed completely off and asked if just what kinda game I'm playing. Cant I see I'm holding everything up. He gave me 1 simple dam thing to do and I was to dam ignorant to listen. So he walks me out to the truck, makes me hand him the book she just caught up (he obviously didnt know she did it) I didn't even get to see it. God knows what the hell it looks like.

He tells me to pull to the side of the scale now, time for a level 1. Hes tired of ####ing around.

So things, again , start heating up in Missouri