How all the concrete & asphalt drivers are coping with the hours.

HA! You say set my watch back like it's a bad thing. Oh, don't be fooled, I drove for some shady companies too. Just not for too long. It's true, modern drivers today would shiver in horror as to what we did, all in a Crackerbox Jimmy, to boot. You think California was wild, and I'm sure it was, apparently you never trucked in the upper Midwest. Companies like Wisconsin Express Lines, Anderson out of the cities, A&H out of Footville( my ex-BILs FIL) and the countless outlaw O/Os, KNOWN for some hefty loads and "get it there regardless" attitudes. I remember one trip lease, the guy said, "get it there, you can come back, if you get busted, we never met". It was not uncommon to "double stack" cheese loads, grossing well over 100K. Heck, the shadier ones even handed out "toothpicks"( not me, I was a local Joe mostly) going to YOUR fair state. So,,,don't under estimate where I've been. At least give me that.

 

I had a dispatcher at Apex Bulk that would give me 3 Los Angeles Loads. Gorman to Ventura, Simi Valley to Anahiem, Colton to Sun Valley then tell us you have Tehachapi to Lone Pine on the way home. back in the day you just didn't say no, which is why Im in favor of ELOGS now. Mostly to control the companies not the drivers

 

How do I cope with the hours hauling cement powder? Pfft...it's so slow right now for us, I dunno what to do with all the free time. But after the last 4 or 5 years of being run like a rented mule, it's kind of nice to only work 9-10 hour days. The problem i have with it all is I know there's plenty of work that's just waiting for the greenlight, which will probably happen during archery season

 

You've been there, I'll give you that. Your location and mine were different but the tasks were the same. @Powder Joints had it right too...if you didn't want to run they'd find somebody else who did.
The guy I worked for out of Yakima had really nice Pete cabovers with big power for those days and they were geared to run. Really nice seats in every truck, top of the line stereo, and the smallest and most uncomfortable sleeper that Pete made. The message was clear.

 

I'm not really sure I'm too proud of those days, but we all had a job to do. Thing is, I know that stuff because I was the company dude backed in the cold storage right next to these outlaws. There was a bit of shame with my Louisville day cab in amongst these large cars and saying I was a local Joe, but these guys ran. I knew a guy, Pigman was his handle, he and his fellow outlaw, "Niceboy", had their 3 digit Petes leased to a guy in Sheboygan Falls Wis. No rules, get that cheese to L.A., and bring those strawberries back to Roundys in Milwaukee, called "garbage" because it paid poorly, the cheese was the cheese, the berries just got you back, and this is no lie, they did 4 Wis./California turnarounds in a month, sometime FIVE! Naturally he had some "help", and 100 mph truck helped, but it's why we have laws against that today. Tell you one thing we can agree on, it was an exciting job back then.

 

We have always had laws, triple digit trucks do not help as much as keeping the door closed, I used to only stop to fuel, load or unload. And occasionally pass out for a few hours, days, something. When you finally slept a hurricane could blow through and you would not have noticed. IWX Edinburgh IN had a standing policy of not waking up the WestCoaster's sleeping in the yard. If we were dur for service they would pull the tractor in service and wash it, then park it back in the lot without waking us.

 

Oh, we all considered the local Joe's a god sent, without you guys we could not do ours jobs. I still get ahead of dispatchers. I ask to Tcall the load I have for Tuesday since I'm way early on it, weekend dispatch won't do anything, So I get to hang at home till Tuesday and go down into LA in the morning traffic to deliver to Vernon, on Fruitland.

 

My mom said that my grandfather did that every time he was home. He ran OD steel regionally, and when he was home he'd be sitting at the table, after dinner, with what she described as, "fixing" and "consolidating" his log book(s).