Help with wide load!!

"Go! Go! Go! Gotta get miles! Gotta get miles"

 

it's not about "miles" it's ALL about $$$$ and the "challenge". miles is a very small part of HH. I'm done, starting to tear the truck apart to reconfigure it. see you all next year.

 

That statement there by Six is the biggest reason people fail in OD/Specialized. The hardest thing I have to deal with being a "Driver Mentor" is breaking the new drivers from the "gotta go" mindset. When you get into the bigger stuff you have to replace that mindset with one of "patience" because without patience the very least it's going to cost you is money and the most could be your own life or an innocent persons life.

 

Sometimes you gotta go go go.

Every OS I've hauled has had a crane appt. And that hourly rate you get docked from load pay if not on time. Is pretty steep.

 

appt. can be rescheduled. happens all the time. I have brokers always screaming "you have to be there at 8am" I say "says who is the fool that set the appt. because it wasn't me! I have wheels not wings".

 

@catalinaflyer, I know you frequent Ringgold. Every single time I'm in Georgia, I see OSOW loads running after curfew. Funny thing is, you warn someone, they look right at you, get in their truck and do exactly what you told them not to.

A few years back, I pulled an OSOW out on hwy 1472 in Laredo. A couple miles down the road, a black and white pulled me over."Driver, let me see your permit." I hand him the permit, he walks around my truck, hand me the permit back and takes off. The next week the same thing. The next week, the same thing.

I was on our yard in Laredo, talking to a group of drivers. I told all of them not to leave the yard without their permits. Many of our drivers will try to get to a truckstop without their permits. I told them of how I've been blue lighted 3 times in 3 weeks by 3 different black and whites.
Well this must have sounded like a challenge to one driver. He strode over to his rig, fired it up and drove out of there. 5 minutes later, another driver I knew comes rolling in. He tells me that a black and white pulled over one of our oversized loads 2 miles down the road. Another truck brings the load back. The driver that got caught bobtailed back. Texas wouldn't issue him another permit that day.

I ask him, "Did I not just tell you not to leave this yard without a permit?"

He said, "Yeah, but I thought that you were just telling trucker stories"

 

I'm the driver. I set the appointment with the consignee.

 

I could ABSOLUTELY care less about a "crane" appointment. One thing I have never done and will never do is push on doing something unsafe or illegal because of some appointment. I'll get it there as quickly as safely and legally possible, not a minute sooner and not a minute later. It's my livelihood on the line, the person who set up the crane appointment is not going to pay me the rest of my life if I loose my job because they made some appointment.

When someone asks me when I'll be there so they can schedule a crane, riggers etc. I figure a worst case scenario time then add a day. That way I'm not feeling rushed and they're not hounding me wanting to know why I'm running late. My job is to get said load moved in a safe and legal manner not make some salesman look like a hero because he promised something unrealistic.

 

You never want to get in a hurry hauling oversize loads. I agree that I prefer to set my own appointments. If someone has not been used to dealing with this type of freight, they have no idea how long it will take to do the load. What some don't realize is that you may not be able to take the most direct route. Some states have maximum speeds that you cannot legally exceed when hauling oversize. You are also restricted to daylight hours and in winter those hours are reduced. When there is construction oversize loads could be detoured around the construction. That could cost you time. But, you better not get caught hauling oversize on a route that is not on your permit. Texas has been checking oversize trucks to see if they are properly permitted. I was stopped a couple of years ago south of Houston. The DOT said a lot of people have been hauling oversize without getting permits, so they do check permits frequently, at least in some parts of the state. Oklahoma has also been checking oversize load for the same reason, although I have not been personally checked in Oklahoma. When you haul oversize freight you are a moving billboard. You need to make sure that everything is legal on your truck, including permits. If the permits are wrong or non existent they will look for other issues. I think most of us who do oversize freight do try to keep things legal.

 

You guys are correct READ YOUR PERMITS!!! And, read and learn the regulations!!!! I picked up a load out of Houston, I have a 53fl, picking up overlength pipe. I only have to permit TN and have an annual for VA. But, just this past Thursday an Eagle(Celadon) logistics came in there and got permits for every single state all the way to PA!!!!!! And they(Eagle) have been doing it for the past few weeks......their money not mine......

It just goes to show the mindset of some of these companies/drivers!!!