Bulkmatic, as it happens...

I see Detroit is still a smoldering pile of crap... nice to see some things never change.

 

Ouch!

 

My luck ran out this afternoon, I had to load a trailer for delivery Monday. Didn't have to do it today but figured I'd try and get ahead of the game. Although I can not figure it out, does someone know why a railcar has the hook up for the hot hose all the way on one end and the hook up for the bottom line (5 hopper car) all the way on the other end between the 4th and 5th hopper? What a pain in the ###, especially since I couldn't get to the proper side of the car, only the opposite side. I just can't figure that one out.

Have to make 2 deliveries tomorrow, both pre-loaded, then load another another trailer for my 2nd Monday delivery, hopefully it will go better then the 3 hours it took me today.

Other then that things have been fairly decent. Didn't make it back to the yard last night so got 10 hours of peace and quiet with unlimited shower privileges in a hotel.

Random thoughts from the week...

1) That expanded metal walkway on the top of trailers is great for your feet, not so much for your knees. I think I still have check marks on mine from being up there replacing a dome lid gasket.

2)When I am standing on top of one, like I was today, railcars are way higher then they look from the ground, and from what I remember from a past job.

3) Leaving your mallet propt up against a silo in Ohio makes it very hard to use when you're in Michigan

4)Hooking up and finding out one of your hose ends is out of round and won't connect and you have to drive 40 minutes in each direction to get another hose really pisses you off.

5) If you want to do 7 miles under the speed limit, I'm cool with that, but do it in the RIGHT LANE!

6) Michigan, please fix your roads or pay for my chiropractor appointments. Preferably the former.

7) After many hours of contemplation I have come to the conclusion that somewhere on my truck there is a a magnet that attracts other trucks. It is the only thing that explains the never ending onslaught this past week of people who insist on cutting back into the lane on front of me with only 8 or 10 feet of space. And more trucks then cars. I'm tellin' ya, I know I'm not the best at what I do, not even close, but I do try. Lately it seems like I'm surrounded by drivers I wouldn't trust to drag a stuffed animal down the sidewalk in a Radio Flyer let alone a 53 foot box with 40 some thousand pounds in it. (Rant Over)

For the week of 7/1/18 to 7/7/18 I did 10 loads for 1872 miles, used 62.25 of my 70 and grossed $1,794, or $28.81/hour.

@Steelersjunkie Here's one that I hope is around as long as next week's entry has been.




Not sure if I will keep updating this on a weekly basis. For the moment I'm pretty much doing the same thing most days and there isn't much about it to say at the moment. If things change or I get into new stuff/have some interesting stuff I will surely be on here with it but at the moment all I seem to be doing is tossing out the same info every week .

 

Correct on all points, the way the car was set up I did have to go right from the blower discharge, otherwise it was just barely to far with the hoses I had.

The out of round hose just pissed me off to no end because of what you said, the last driver that tried to use it didn't do jack except stick it back in the tube and put a seal on it. This trailer goes into/comes back out of a place where the company has enough of a presence that we actually have full time people there, including a place where it could have been dealt with in about all of 10 minutes, it isn't like it would have been a huge ordeal. My clock runs down faster then I want it to also, but I wouldn't knowing screw the next guy like that, it just irks me to no end.

Not sure about the rail yard and car placement. My understanding is that BNSF owns the yard and tracks and the company leases tracks from them. I am assuming that BNSF gets a list of what cars to put on what track but if the car is placed so that all the valves are on the road side or the opposite side it totally pot luck.

 

New one yesterday, unloading starch, trailer grounded, went to switch from 3rd to 4th hopper, grabbed valve on 4th hopper to open it and got shocked just like when you blow out a light bulb in a lamp then forget to turn it off before changing it and grab the base of said light bulb while unscrewing it.

Also, does anyone reading this load flour? Everyone thinks I'm nuts but the air discharging from the trailer during loading a flour load ALWAYS smells like tuna casserole to me.