Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

Yeah, good ole Cargill. Ours around here have a safety meeting every Wed morning and don't open till 8. I would think a monthly or quarterly meeting would be enough, but what do I know? If I said what I really thought of them on here, they might see it and sue me.

I try not to push the closing time too close during the off season. During harvest however, if its one minute before closing, I consider it fair game. Or I call the place and let them know I'm on my way. Most of our stuff is short haul, coming out of the same elevators over and over, so if you're paying attention, you know almost exactly how much time it should take to make a round.

 

highside,that reminds me of a funny thing that happened at a river terminal elevator/processor a short while after i started pullin a hopper, i was a little late getting to the terminal with a load of beans one morning,so when i got there,there is a sign on the bean scalehouse that read,safety meeting this morning at 7,all employees are required to attend,signed Management,so i didn't pay much attention to it cause i'm not an employee of the plant,plus i was late enough getting there that i figured they were done anyway,no big deal,right? I get my load weighed and probed and run across the road and unload my beans,just as i was pulling back across to double weigh empty,cause i am picking up a load of soyhulls to bring back,i look over at the main office just as all the boys are exiting the safety meeting,smoke rolling out the door worse than the boys bathroom at highschool after the bell rings and everybody had their mid-morning Marlboro,you couldn't see for all the smoke.Well,i get double weighed and pull over to the main soyhull dump and one of these 'ol boys run up and jumps up on the side of my truck and says''main dump is down so we gots to put ya under the cross auger and run the hulls in your trailer direct out of it'', so ,i'm thinking ok,no big deal.He then instructs me to back under the cross auger,but before i do,he says''we gotta torch a slot out of the bottom of the auger trough,the sliding drop is rusted shut'',so i pull up,stop,and me and molly hop out of the truck 'cause after just talking to this 'ol boy for a minute,i'm thinking,i have got to watch this, so me and molly sit and watch this nucklehead as he tries to balance himself in the bobcat bucket as his ''partner in crime'' raises him up under the cross auger so he can get to torching,well,he cuts him a perfectly square 1ft x 2ft piece and, yep, you guessed it,he's standing directly underneath it when he makes his final cut,dang plate just about knocked him out of the bucket,so after he just about kills himself with the plate,he proceeds to direct me under the cross auger,i ask him,don't you want to run the auger a little so you can clean out the metal slag from the good torching you just gave that auger trough? ''Yeah,Yeah'',he says.So after he runs about 1000lbs of hulls on the ground,i tell him,''i think that's good enough'' Well,he gets me backed under and we start loading the hulls and i'm sitti'n square across 2 sets of RR tracks going around the mill and by now i'm thinking to myself,''whats next''. Well,i'm almost loaded and i'm up on top of the trailer counting piles cause i don't have any air gauges installed yet,and i hear,KaSplash,i turned around just in time to see the water ripples and sure enough,they have managed to drop a perfectly good bobcat skidloader into the Ohio River with the barge crane,i jumped down off the trailer and ran over with all the rest of the good 'ol boys to see what had caused the bobcat to fall into the water,and sure enough,guess who has the explaination as to what happened,yep,my 'ol torching buddy. As i was walking back to the truck,i see this big huge sign that says, No Trucks Are Allowed To Park On Tracks,Ever! Management I got back in my truck and thought,Geesh, they need to have more of these safety meeting.

 

Been running hard and thought I'd get a few quiet days of hometime.



27 inches or so, should have taken that load to Florida.

 

Good story, Dairyman!

 

Not so sure it's gotten that much easier. They pull much easier, about the same backing because of wheel spacing. Loading is usually much easier, unloading much more work. Vans usually hit the dock and go to sleep.

 

How's it going out there in hopperland? I'm on my way up to NE to pick up a trailer, and got an interesting surprise on the phone today. They were calling to get a progress report on my 1,000 mile bobtail (pilgrimage), and dropped a bomb on me.

All along we've been talking about new trailers they were getting in. So when I posted my insurance a few weeks ago, I used the last 2010 Timpte VIN and physical damage amount to pay forward my insurance. I get halfway up here, and find out all they've got right now is a 1999 Wilson...... Needless to say I almost turned around and headed back, which I may be doing if this trailer doesn't measure up tomorrow.

I'm not picky about the year of the trailer - just the condition. On one hand, it would be about half as much for physical damage insurance (too bad I already paid it, and I know a refund is out of the question). But I'm not going to take a trailer that's not roadworthy off the lot - and they're telling me they'll be getting new trailers in next month. DOT "Legal" is a joke - 2/32nds of an inch of tread will never be found on my truck or trailer, and things just wear out. I'm willing to bet that trailer has more miles on it than every truck I've ever driven put together!

So with CSA 2010 rolling out, and my new authority, I get to take a chance on an 11 year old rental hopper trailer? I'm insuring it, I'm pulling it under my authority, and it'll be hooked to my truck. Personally, I just hope they don't get the wrong impression if I walk away tomorrow - everything sounded good until now.

PharmPhails trailer (from them) is a year newer, and I had a bunch of issues with it - so it's not like I'm just running my mind. The tarp handle broke off in my hand - rusted through from the inside - and the 5th wheel skirt was buckled in. I just hope tomorrows my lucky day, and that 99 has been parked inside a barn and pulled on weekends! Now about that 1,000 mile deadhead turning into a round trip! YIKES! Even 10.4mpg doesn't make that sound doable.

 

Highway Pilot that doesn't sound good. Isn't there anybody else you could lease on w/?

 

Well... I'm not leasing on, I'm leasing the trailer and pulling it under my own authority as a contractor. But yeah, I've pulled a few other names out of a hat and I may just walk away and stick around in the midwest for part of the week next week and see what pans out - hard to say.

Honestly, this caught me totally off guard - I'd pulled for them Oct and Nov and had no issues with them other than dealing with an old trailer. The new trailer thing addressed that concern, and now back to this again. Unfortunately it took the state of Georgia almost 2 months to correct a screw up of theirs when I filed my LLC, and I can't wait for a new trailer to show up again. Don't you just love it when plan "E" turns into plan "F"?!