Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

Heck all I know is I got my "B" in 1994 in an '84 4 speed POS Mercedes with rust holes in the floor pan. Could have Flintstoned the thing. I ran for NorthAmerican Van Lines then as my summer job in college. Played football so instead of running and lifting I just toted peoples nasty belongings up and down flights of steps covered in their filth. Then upgraded to my "A" a couple summers later and drove a beat up cab over that was missing at least every other gear in the tranny! It had to be older than me! I was driven up to DMV in it and told to pass my roadtest and Id get a $2hr raise. The lady that tested me at first refused to set foot inside the jalopy! Threatened to shut it down in the DMV parking lot. I passed and the rest is history. Glad I got the creds and hung on to them all these years! I need a tetanus booster shot just trying to remember that tractor!

 

I think our Fords came with pre-rusted roofs! They were actually pretty good trucks other than the Spring seats!

 

Does it help to have a passcard? I have my twic didn't if the other helps since I'm in se tn

 

It helps if you want to go to Canada

 

I would carry my passport/passcard before I would carry my TWIC card. I've used my passport more in tha last 4 years then my TWIC.

 

Which o/o drives a black freightliner classic xl?? Saw him/her heading n. bound on I-95 through my part of florida today.

KH

 

Not sure. I think he is new. I say that because I haven't seen any Classics floating around.

 

I'm home, still. I left the house yesterday at 10am to drive down to Miami to drop this trailer. My dispatch instructions said no live unload, drop trailer. I knew why. The way these HP loads work is very precise in their delivery schedule. More times than not we are meeting an installation crew at one of the Publix or Walmart stores, either late at night or early in the am. The only ones that are allowed to unload the coolers or parts are the people installing them.

We also on occasion, like in my delivery just drop the trailer. It's usually because there's no room in the store to house this stuff and the agreement is we drop the trailer and they use it as a storage container until they are done with it, sometimes a week later. The Publix store I delivered to was right in downtown Miami, on Brickell Ave. Not a good place to deliver, only because of space and room.

I get to the store and double park on the street to go in and find the GC in charge of the remodel. This is working out great so far. He walks with me around the back of the store and tells me to pull into the customer parking lot this way, get straightened out and to back up alongside these 2 construction containers and drop the trailer there. He said he would have his guys stop the cars from going in and out and get a few moved that were in my way. All worked out perfectly. I get back to my truck, drive around the store and pull into the parking lot. As big as I was, and as tight as it was, I never once went over a curb or ran over any bushes. I get lined up, back up and drop the trailer. At this point this is where it went south, quickly.

As I was pulling away from my trailer, that I dropped in the exact place I was told, the GM of the store and his District Manager come out and ask's the GC what is going on. I told him and the DM said the trailer cannot be left there for a few weeks. Then I'm told it can't be live unloaded because there's absolutely no room. After sitting there for 3 hours there's finally a resolution. I am to come back at 9pm on Wednesday night to deliver these 6 pallets at their only dock and they will have a storage truck there to put it in. All this time wasted and then at 3pm dispatch finally calls and tells me the same thing. Now the real problem.

Because I was told where to initially drop the trailer, I was going to be able to only bobtail out. When I was told to take the trailer with me it became apparent that was not going to happen. It was an in, but not an out. I had to move the trailer over to my right the 8 feet I had left, drop the trailer and go through the parking lot bobtail to hook back up to it on a ninety degree angle, slowly pull out of the space as to not hit the storage trailer on my left with the trailer overhang, then come to a stop so the landscape crew could dig out about 6 bushes planted in the parking lot curbing then finally dig out the stop sign that was at the exit so that when I made the right turn I wouldn't take the sign with me. Finally at 5pm I was finally getting back on 95 in the middle of downtown Miami rush hour traffic. I finally got home at 7pm last night with absolutely nothing accomplished, a total wasted day and nerves completely shot.

My reward? $150 layover pay while still under this load at the house and the extra 130 miles to drive home and back down. Oh, and one very good observation for the 4 hours I was sitting in my truck just watching the comings and goings in the customer parking lot. If you took every implant that got out of a car and walked inside and dropped them in the parking lot, there would not be a single place to park. I know this is Miami, South Beach. Lincoln Ave, and Brickell Ave, the South American influence and all the Arts and Entertainment, but really, this many women with vanity issues? Sorry if I have insulted anyone, but come on.

Oh and to make matters worse, I wake up this morning with a fever, sore throat and a cold.

 

JB,

Sorry to hear about you being sick. Get better and sleep well today. Can you pm me the address of the publix as I would like to see what kind of challenges your facing??

KH

 

Dang JB, that's one tight parking lot and an even smaller store. Have you been there before???

KH