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

Discussion in 'Discuss Your Favorite Trucking Company Here' started by JohnBoy, Apr 10, 2013.

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ExtremeUnction Road Train Member

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JohnBoy said: ↑

So, how did you spend the rest of your day?
Click to expand...

Hanging out with my mom and her kinda-sorta-but-not-really boyfriend. Turns out I can park in the grocery store parking lot that is two blocks from her house.

ExtremeUnction, Jun 12, 2019

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Silverdriver Road Train Member

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ExtremeUnction said: ↑

Here now, the tale of my trip to New Orleans.

First off, I'm from Louisiana, and I lived in New Orleans for a couple of years. So when I saw I was heading to New Orleans, I was pretty excited. Right up until I checked Google Maps to scout out the area around my delivery location.

View attachment 284858

There's my delivery location there on the left. When I lived in New Orleans, my girlfriend at the time lived not far from my delivery location. It's nothing but tiny streets serving neighborhoods that were built 80 years ago or more. And suddenly I began to become less enthused.

But hey, that's why they pay me the medium-sized bucks.

I spent a good while staring at the map, trying to figure out the best angle of approach. I called the receiver and asked him how to best deliver to his location. The answer was to come in from the south on Leake Ave. Except that there didn't seem to be a way to do that which didn't involve a sharp right turn.

Eventually I just said "screw it" and left it up to Walter, my GPS. I figured he'd get me most of the way there, and if there was a problem, I'd handle it at the scene.

So Walter routed me down Carrolton Avenue, which LOOKS on the map like it would be a major artery. And it is, but it's still REALLY tight for a truck. At one point the road becomes a single-lane road, with about 6 inches of clearance on either side of the vehicle. I saw several HUGE branches dangling down from the old oak trees lining the road which had visible scuff marks from other trucks before me.

Then I got to Leake Avenue, and Walter wanted me to turn right:

View attachment 284860

Friends, I am here to tell you that making that turn in an 18-wheeler is not possible. Leake Avenue is wider than the surrounding streets, but that's relative. It's not a truck-friendly road by any stretch. Two 18-wheelers passing each other in opposite directions can JUST BARELY clear side mirrors. So there certainly isn't room for the extra-wide turn you'd need to make to clear the building on the right. Especially since the street you're coming off of is an even narrower single-lane road.

Having no other alternative, I turned left and hoped for the best. Half a mile later, I got lucky and found a small, unused parking lot that was big enough for me to turn around, and got myself heading in the right direction.

A mile later, I turned on to the street the receiver had told me to use. They've got an angled dock, so IN THEORY it would be easy to back in. However, these streets are TINY. The phrase "not rated for full-sized 18-wheelers" doesn't even begin to cover it. And there are cars all over the place. Like, I've delivered in Brooklyn, and it wasn't this bad.

But even that might've been manageable thanks to the intersection past the gate giving me a little bit of room. Except that I also had to deal with this:

View attachment 284861

View attachment 284862

View attachment 284863

It's hard to tell due to the shadow, but the dropoff from the top of that storm drain to the bottom of the pothole next to it is about a foot-and-a-half. If you back your tires up against it, you're not going to pop over it like a curb. It's just going to stop you. Note also the sharp corners sticking out, just waiting to cause significant heartache if you catch one on your tires the wrong way.

And it was right square in the way.

So in addition to having to deal with narrow streets and cars everywhere, I also had to make sure I avoided that obstacle. Particularly with my steers.

I never did make it in the dock. Got close, but couldn't seal the deal. Fortunately, there was only one thing the receiver had to unload from the trailer, so he loaded a pallet jack onto the trailer and unloaded his equipment that way.

The receiver kept telling me "Other trucks come here all the time." Those kinds of statements always make me wonder if the dude making them knows the difference between a sleeper cab with a 53' trailer and a day cab with a 45' trailer. I'm not sure I'd want to go there in a 26' box truck.

I will spare you the gory details of my departure from this place, but it was every bit as obnoxious as was getting there in the first place. I had to knock on a couple of doors to get people to move their cars so I could clear a turn. Fortunately my fellow citizens were in an expansive mood that day and were happy to help.

Finally, after a lot of cursing and acrimony, I made it back to the freeway, and there was much rejoicing.

Stopped off at a place in Opelousas called Billy's Boudin, which has THE best boudin I've ever had, in addition to other cajun foods, and also conveniently has a reasonably truck-friendly place to park out front. I looked for alligator sausage for @RebelChick but sadly they don't carry it. I did, however, load up on a bunch of other stuff. Never know when I'll be back this way again, so gotta capitalize on this opportunity. Then I hit the road and headed northwards.

I was passing through Alexandria, and there was a guy ahead of me in a pick-up truck hauling a trailer of old furniture. And just as I started to pass him, some of it started to blow off his (poorly secured) trailer. Including a large wooden rocking chair, which blew right in front of my truck.

Absolutely no time or distance to slow down. Dude was literally 12 feet ahead of me and one lane over when it happened, and we were both doing highway speeds. Throwing on the brakes wouldn't have accomplished anything other than throwing the contents of my bunk all over my cab, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

This happened on an elevated portion of the freeway where the shoulders are narrow, so I couldn't pull over right away. But about a mile later the shoulder got big enough to accomodate my truck, so I stopped to inspect the damage.

The bull bars did their job.

I was expecting there to be a huge piece of wood sticking out of the radiator or something, but the only visible damage was a few scuff marks on the bull bars. The paint wasn't scuffed at all anywhere that I could see.

View attachment 284866

That's all that was left. Found it resting on the bottom of the bull bars and the top of the fender.

And then I wrapped up the day by seeing my mom, so it was a good ending to the day.

And that's the story of my trip to Louisiana.
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Was that a broker load from "CH Robinson"?

Silverdriver, Jun 12, 2019

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Silverdriver said: ↑

Was that a broker load from "CH Robinson"?
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Nope! Was a shipment from PDI, one of our semi-regular customers, and the source of at least two other lengthy tales of mirth and woe that I have posted to this thread in the past.

Which, given that I've only had four or five load assignments involving them, is really saying something.

ExtremeUnction, Jun 12, 2019

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ExtremeUnction said: ↑

Nope! Was a shipment from PDI, one of our semi-regular customers, and the source of at least two other lengthy tales of mirth and woe that I have posted to this thread in the past.

Which, given that I've only had four or five load assignments involving them, is really saying something.
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Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. PDI shipments test everything you have in the tank. My last one in Cheyenne at a new Data Storage center behind the WM DC had me dropping in a snowstorm last month that required a D-8 Caterpillar to pull me out.

JohnBoy, Jun 12, 2019

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ExtremeUnction said: ↑

Nope! Was a shipment from PDI, one of our semi-regular customers, and the source of at least two other lengthy tales of mirth and woe that I have posted to this thread in the past.

Which, given that I've only had four or five load assignments involving them, is really saying something.
Click to expand...

Oy vey! And I thought it was an adventure picking up from PDI. You have won the award for the most hassle getting to a receiver. Brooklyn isn’t even that bad. My hat is off to you!

RebelChick, Jun 12, 2019

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Coming off hometime,I scored a load to Phoenix,I haven't been out that way in a year,almost brings a tear to my eye thinking about it.

Finfn1372, Jun 13, 2019

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Finfn1372 said: ↑

Coming off hometime,I scored a load to Phoenix,I haven't been out that way in a year,almost brings a tear to my eye thinking about it.
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LOL!
That's great!
I got out of home time yesterday with a load going to Georgia.

Silverdriver, Jun 13, 2019

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Call the Pope, a miracle has occurred. Right here in the Wytheville yard.

I had dropped off a trailer here at the Wytheville yard, see? And was sitting bobtail waiting for my next load assignment to get me back to Richmond since hometime starts tomorrow. When suddenly, it happened: A deadhead load assignment with the specific empty trailer already assigned.

I was floored. I think that's the first time that's ever happened to me. I don't have many gripes about Abilene, but one thing that routinely vexes me is the fact that we as a company seem to have no idea how many empties we have on our lot, nor which ones. In my ideal world, dispatch would know the location of every empty trailer (if any) on our yard, and would be able to tell me in the load assignment to take empty trailer 6504 (or whatever) to Hill-Phoenix and pick up loaded trailer 7423 (or whatever) there.

Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in, so I routinely spend 20-30 minutes of my unpaid time walking the yard to find an empty, and just as often discovering that there actually aren't any on the yard and I could've bobtailed over 30 minutes ago and saved myself 30 minutes of wasted time.

Anyhow, today, for one glorious, shining moment, the planets and stars all aligned and I was directed at a specific empty trailer and did not have to spend any time looking for one. I'm sure that this is NOT a harbinger of things to come, and tomorrow the world will go back to the way it has always been. But I will enjoy today while it lasts.

ExtremeUnction, Jun 13, 2019

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Always such a deep sense of betrayal when you stop at a truck stop at 2:30 in the afternoon to get a shower without having to wait, only to discover that there's an hour-long wait.

I guess everybody else had the same idea I did.

ExtremeUnction, Jun 13, 2019

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ExtremeUnction said: ↑

Call the Pope, a miracle has occurred. Right here in the Wytheville yard.

I had dropped off a trailer here at the Wytheville yard, see? And was sitting bobtail waiting for my next load assignment to get me back to Richmond since hometime starts tomorrow. When suddenly, it happened: A deadhead load assignment with the specific empty trailer already assigned.

I was floored. I think that's the first time that's ever happened to me. I don't have many gripes about Abilene, but one thing that routinely vexes me is the fact that we as a company seem to have no idea how many empties we have on our lot, nor which ones. In my ideal world, dispatch would know the location of every empty trailer (if any) on our yard, and would be able to tell me in the load assignment to take empty trailer 6504 (or whatever) to Hill-Phoenix and pick up loaded trailer 7423 (or whatever) there.

Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in, so I routinely spend 20-30 minutes of my unpaid time walking the yard to find an empty, and just as often discovering that there actually aren't any on the yard and I could've bobtailed over 30 minutes ago and saved myself 30 minutes of wasted time.

Anyhow, today, for one glorious, shining moment, the planets and stars all aligned and I was directed at a specific empty trailer and did not have to spend any time looking for one. I'm sure that this is NOT a harbinger of things to come, and tomorrow the world will go back to the way it has always been. But I will enjoy today while it lasts.
Click to expand...

That’s because you were at the wytheville yard. They actually have it (mostly) together over there.

RebelChick, Jun 13, 2019

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