Know when to shut your mouth!

This happened today coming down I35. The weather was not real bad but had freezing rain earlier and salt shakers had just started to catch up.

Southbound on I 35 in Iowa around the 138 talk on the radio was about a tanker being pulled out of the ditch nb side. A few miles later someone was calling out a brake check on the s/b side. Stopped at the 134 or so it seems at the 132 a truck and several cars had found themselves in the ditch on either side and they were trying to clean it up. Back about where I was stopped a conversation was going on between 2 people about jumping out to check thier tail lights as they were stopped and it would be a good time to do it. A third person came on and said not a good idea just keep it moving and drive safe. Well one driver thought what can it hurt and explained this to the third person who in turn said you know if I wasn't sitting in the opposite lane I would ask you to pull over and we could discuss it. The first driver kept it up with well there are a lot of trucks and cars running 70 mph hour out here in the hammer lane. The third person says just keep it moving and drive safe. Well the first driver couldn't leave it alone and kept going on and on and finished with calling the third person a "good buddy".

Well it seems the third person on the radio was a Iowa Patrolman. (He was sitting on the median shoulder to get traffic into the slow lane. The driver was right next to him.) He informed the driver to just go ahead and park it on the shoulder and he would be right there to discuss it with him. The driver said ok but I have super singles on and hope I can get going again. The trouper replied "I am sure that I can find you a tow truck."

Later the driver is on the radio complaining because he got a ticket for stopping on the roadway. We were stopped what could it hurt.

I guess the point is know who you are around and know when to shut your mouth!

 

The dedicated account I am on recently had a fire. At the time I was in the Gaurd Shack waiting for paper work. The load was done at 07:00 but they had not done the paper work it is now 08:45 when I arrived. This will show you what 25 minutes can do to ya.

At 09:10 there was an alarm and the building was evacuated. My paper work delivered to the Guard however can't go into hook trailer until all clear given. At this point the Fire Department hadn't arrived yet.

In the mean time a Driver from the same company showed up to deliver as he does 3 times a week. Always parks right smack in the middle of the gate so that until he gets through no one can go in or out. When he came into the Gaurd to have paper work signed she informed him he would have to move his truck it was in the way. By now there were 3 people from the customer standing there discussing what needed to be done about the fire taking this spectacle all in. This Driver kept asking why and couldn't see what the problem was. Finally the Guard said the Fire Dept. was in route and he would need to move.

After moving the truck he came back into the shack to wait. The 3 people from the customer are still in the shack discussing a plan of attack and this jack ### keeps throwing comments into thier conversation. At this point they move on to handle the situation at hand. One of these turned out to be the Plant Mgr.

This Driver is well known at this location and in this instance not a good thing. Not placing safety stands under trailer, Driving in restricted area, insulting the gaurd(he had to call and apologize on that one or they wouldn't let him back), Not locking tandems after sliding.

The Plant Mgr. had finally had enough. Corporate was called and they were informed that this Driver is no longer allowed on the property.
Well the rules on this account are real simple, do as your asked. Get kicked out of a facility and your banned from the account. He is now on the outside looking in when times suck trying to find a job.

Sorry to be so long winded but thought I would share. Oh and I finally got to hook the load # 13:30 had the paper work been ready never would have seen any of this. Like I said shows ya what 25 minutes can do to ya.