here comes another rant

Okay i never had a problem getting empty trls, becuse i made a notebook with all our customers in it, if i get with en range and i droped a loaded in the dock , i whip opean my book and see what customer was in striking distance and call them them too see if they a loaded or empty ready, so basicly , i was doing my boss job, and when everything was a go , i call the boss and get the okay, unless he had other plan's, i did lot's drop and hooks this way, and i learnt also too buy one those 50 footr air hose and back at the shop i grab a bag of lights for the trls, they like lights at lardo, our trls would be all stripped out , but i never went anywere for free, so i dont know or how you can run anywear for free if your on e - logs anyway, and any other time on paper , your suppse too be log on duty driving, so thats paid miles.

 

It always amazes me the people that do not carry an air hose rig and some spare lights.

I used to go check other customers but we do so many pre-loads half the time that trailer while empty is already dedicated to another load. About the only time we have a major problem is Sunday around here. well friday in Scottsville but we just BT home from there

 

look you people really want to have fun, try explaining this one:
Years ago I worked for a book wholesaler. We had a boxcar load ready to ship to PA. Ordered a boxcar on Weds., showed up Sunday night. 10pm (I worked the night shift) go to open the doors and start loading, lo and behold it's loaded with rolls of paper. Called railroad, give them the car number tell them it's loaded, they come back and tell me "oh no, that car is empty, it was emptied 3 weeks ago in Portland" I'm sorry, but it's loaded, rolls of newsprint.

Um, okay, if you say so, we'll send you a new one.

Three nights later, they deliver me a new empty boxcar and shove the other, loaded one, out of the way but don't take it or check it.

I load the new one and call it in as loaded, all the paperwork, etc. Following Sunday, I come into work and the boxcar that I called in loaded the previous Thursday morning is gone, however, the loaded one that they delivered by mistake is still there. A week goes by, we notify UPRR three times that they have a mis-delivered boxcar #XXXXXXXXX sitting behind our building. Oh no sir, that's impossible, we picked up that boxcar 4 days ago. Sorry, but it's still here.

Finally, after 3 weeks, we go out, open the boxcar, find the paperwork inside. It a load of newsprint, supposed to deliver to the Miami Herald, two weeks ago. It was loaded in Portland, Or. 3 weeks before they actually delivered it to us. Next morning, we call the newsprint receiving dept. for the Miami Herald. Give them the car number, PO numbers, etc., they confirm that they did in fact order it. They also said they had been in touch with the railroad and the railroad had no clue where the car was located, they weren't even sure if it had been picked up in Portland. But after calling Portland, they were told it had been picked up.

4 nights later, the UPRR finally picked up this boxcar, 2 weeks later it was delivered in Miami.

Excuse from UPRR: We lost it.
Wait, it's a boxcar, not a semi trailer, it rides on rails, it can't roll on pavement, and it has to be pulled by a locomotive, how in fact do you lose it?

I actually thought this was unpossible, until I started hauling containers, the UPRR and BNSF, on average, lose or mis-place 25 boxcars or flatcars (intermodal cars) every day. Sometimes, it takes them upto a month to find them. How do you lose something that rides on rails?
We had a container loaded with 46,000 lbs of Oreo cookies go missing for 3 weeks. The loaded it on the train in Chicago bound for Denver, but, when the train got to N. Platte and they swapped cars around, somehow, it got hooked to the train going to Savanah, Ga. Train departs Chicago on Friday, arrives in Denver on Monday, but that car/container isn't with it. I notify Dispatch as well as the gate clerk at the ramp, gate clerk looks in the computer and tells me I'm blind, the car in on the W. track, mid-way down and the container is on the top of the stack. OHHHHHKAY, I go and look, yep there is a train on the W. track, but that car number is not part of it, and neither is that container. Gate clerk tells supervisor to go look, he can't find it either. headscratcher.

Three days later, customer is still waiting for load. Finally, 15 days later, BNSF Denver gets notified that the missing container has been found, it's sitting on a siding outside Savanah, Ga., part of a train load of empty containers. They pull the train in, pull that can off and put it on the train going from Savanah to L.A. so that it will be switched out in Dallas and then go to Denver. WRONG!!! Never got swapped in Dallas, goes to L.A., where it sits for 3 more days waiting for enough containers to get loaded to make up a full train to ship to Denver. 27 days after it departed Chicago, it finally arrives in Denver. We could have walked that same distance faster.

 

Railroads....The wave of the future!

 

I believe that wave is stuck in the shallow end of the pool

 

And that is why you never send time sensitive freight on rail

 

And some drivers are worried about competition from the railroad.

 

it may not be a huge threat, but it does take allot of freight off the roads....




American Trucker

 

None that I want.

 

actually, you would be surprised the amount of HOT loads we get off the rail. The BNSF, to an extent do it right. They run a Z-train. One departs Chicago and L.A. every night every other night. In between, they only make stops in Omaha, Denver and L.A. The train that leaves Chicago on Sat. @ 7pm arrives in Denver Sunday between 8 pm and 10 pm, they have a 2.5 hr turn around time before it departs for L.A., and it'll be there on Tuesday morning. Generally this train is 90% LTL PIGS (UPS, OD, YRC, etc.) we some Schneider, JB, and misc. thrown in. When the economy was booming and during the holiday season, they run this every night.

Someday it might, but I think that day is still a ways off.