An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

Well, tomorrow is Friday...Chubby (and Kim).went after working all week. Travis departed on a Friday if I remember correctly...my 1st FM was asked to leave on a Friday. Kinda a-holey of them to work you all week then just before you are headed home for the weekend, you get a "don't bother coming back on Monday" from them...

 

Well I get a treat tomorrow. While my truck goes into the shop to get the nanny system installed, I will be driving a long wheelbase Mack daycab to pick up my next load in Renton and bring it back to the yard. They have me pulling a vintage KW to Ohio.

They finally called me and told me to head to the yard since the freight claim wasn't any fault of the company. But, it put me right in the worst of rush hour. Took me 3.5 hours to go from just outside Olympia to the Arlington yard. 99 miles. I understand that the boss who decides things like that was in meetings all day, that's part of being the boss. My issue is that there are 3 other people in the safety office and only 1 of those 3 knows how to handle freight claims...Why? Teach one of the other 2 to handle it when the other is out of the office.

 

I was wondering where the ramps and straps were. My DM said to talk to Dan about the ramps and straps, but I will check the trailer before I hunt him down in the morning. At the time they have me scheduled to pick up, I might have a hard time hitting the governor on that Puppy Dog truck, they want me down there around 10 am. Not looking forward to the western leg of this trip, I hope they have that KW winterized because I will be going thru the worst of the arctic blast and be in it for many days. I am picking up a fresh supply of fuel treatment before they close tomorrow. Hopefully this Volvo won't do what a friend of mine Volvo did when I was at Moore. He was hauling a load of glass across Iowa in similar temps when it started gelling up and died on the side of the road...and we used fuel treatment there as well.

 

Today was another one of those days. Went to start my day in the daycab, it was stone cold dead. The shop charged it for an hour, still would just barely roll over once then click. They swap me to another local drivers truck who is off today, it barely started but one of the brakes was froze. Both of the loaner trucks had already had the Samsara nanny system installed ...which I haven't gone thru the training for yet because I wanted to have it fresh in my brain when my truck got switched over. Got a crash course on how to use the new system and got the brakes freed up and moving, then picked up the necessary blocking and bracing for this antique truck I am hauling. Roll down to the pickup (without directions). Half way there, I see a red light pop on for the low fuel...which sucks because my fuel card is in my Volvo which is in the shop. They put me in an older T-660 that has so many places that let in outside air, it was like a wind tunnel. Sitting still, it will roast you out, driving down the road you need a snowmobile suit. Make it to the Kenworth plant, get to where the truck is stored...but it's an R & D facility so all doors are keycard locked. After freezing my ### off getting there, then freezing it off more trying to find how to check in, I headed back to the truck to warm up. A few minutes later the boss comes out and we chat about how this loading all goes down. Then he invites me in to see the vehicle and to warm up. Out of curiosity I asked him if this thing has been winterized since I am going to be going thru sub-0 temps...turns out, they never even thought about that. Opened up the radiator and it was just regular water. So now the one guy has to call an antique car mechanic to see if modern antifreeze will harm this old engine. While they're getting that settled, I proceeded back outside to set up my ramps and get my vehicle straps ready. Next thing I know, he is driving the truck around the lot to circulate the antifreeze, then drives it up the ramps and parks it. I did get several thank yous from the guys there at KW for catching that lack of coolant issue, that could have not only ruined a radiator but possibly messed up the block. We secure the straps, I block and brace the wheels then call my FM to see if this other truck is on my fuel card. He gets it swapped over, I head 20 miles to Tacoma and fuel up, then fight traffic to get to the yard before he goes home so I can get reassigned to my regular truck (which was completed before they closed). Froze my ### off all the way back to the yard. Now, back in my truck I seem my Samsara unit...hooked to the old Peoplenet mount and it's sticking 6" away from the dash where the Peoplenet would tuck in tight...on top of that, I can't connect an external wireless keyboard (touch screens and I don't get along). All in all, other than meeting some really nice folks at the shipper, I would like to forget the rest of the day.

This is what I am hauling



A 1923 KW...


Just noticed...they put new drive tires on my truck...and my old ones weren't all that bad. That's one positive SPD has over Creaffer...at Creaffer you almost have to be on barely legal slicks before they change treads. Here, I didn't even have to ask.