A Day in the Life...?

Well, I don't pull a flatbed anymore. But what really and rack my nerves is the cars coming off of ramps at 80+ mph and expect me to stop or move over.

 

Start my day depending on where I'm at and when my eta delivers. Sometimes I can sleep in a little bit because con has set appt times. The early bird catches the worm doesnt apply to this industry. Plenty of times I've arrived a couple hours to an hour early and they still have me sit and wait til my appointment time exactly to take me to unload. Other times they accomodate me and let me drop or unload early. If I'm on a tight schedule then sometimes I drive through the night. Last week I started my day at 7:00 pm drove hour to get a preloaded van trailer, trailer wasn't started or even in the dock yet said it would be hours til ready, drop my empty bobtail to a parking spot and wait. I got there at 8:15 pm, left out with the load at 2:15 am, drove til 8:30 am. Parked at a rest area that was on my route that time. Rest areas can be good imo for easy on and off interstate travel. Truck stops are good for food if you have none, fuel, showers and whatever else. Depending on load and where it goes for me I find as I get close to running low on hours to find a place to park for the night and also depicts when I'll start time the next day. Could be early morning, late, afternoon or evening. Wake up, brush teeth, use the bathroom, start my log (electronic logs) Pre trip the truck and trailer, check tires, lights, fluids and condition of truck and trailer. Roll out drive no more that 11 hrs if I can depending on load where its going etc. Maybe neck or shoulder cramps and stretching legs from sitting from a long period of time only pains really caused in my days so far. I have fallen from the truck messing with a load bar. Trying to place it in between the truck and trailer, lost balance and shoulder hit the ground first. But I was ok, and getting out of the truck inproperly slipped and missed the last running board step and hit my elbow. Flat bedders probably have more hazards from injury's I assume climbing, tarping, strapping loads rather than van driver myself that's why I respect them for the work they do. Never be in a truck accident but close calls for sure can happen if you lose focus, get distracted by anything while driving. My biggest hazard daily in the inconsiderate, in a hurry, jocking for position 4-wheelers on the road that have no concern for nothing but themselves everyday, day in and day out. They talk, text on the phone, speed and change lanes carelessly, tailgate because they think the airflow cushion saves them fuel, pull out in front of my heavily loaded truck thinking I can stop on a dime, they dont know how to merge into traffic, etc etc. Hope this helps all I can really think of for now. Everyday is different, different routes, cities, loads, eta's, kinda hard really to say, only thing thats the same is driving, drop hook, live load or unload, other than that nothings the same

 

I got out of flatbedding for the previous stated reasons. I am currently working at one of the mega LTL carriers. One thing that I deal with is converter dollies that link up two or more trailers. These can weigh in excess of 1200 lbs and we often push them around by hand. Although some terminals are paved, there are a lot of ones that are not. This makes moving the con gear that much harder. Aside from the obvious weight issues that can cause back injuries, you also have to worry about the pinch points around the pintle hook that links everything together. Hope this helps.