I'm baaaaaack!!!!!!!!

You are the consummate camper. I bet you know what a Zodi is.

 

I'm pretty sure we've all done that back road chugging at some point, Cap'n. It's just the ##### dispatchers haven't.
I drove for Matlack, Inc pulling chemical tankers, back in the mid-1990s. Matlack had just installed the Qualcomm units in all the trucks, and those dispatch drones couldn't keep their hands off their new toy. Seems they'd ping ya every 15 mins, usually with asinine messages.(TO ALL UNITS EAST OF MISSISSIPPI FRM SAFETY DEPT DONT CRASH TODAY)

So one fine winter day I leave the Sarnia, Ontario terminal and head west with a load. Can't remember exactly where it was going, but I had to get off the Indiana Tpk and do some bushwackin' to get to some little Indiana town. So I'm westbound on US 30 in Indiana, when all of a sudden it goes rain, sleet, snow flurries, snowfall, WHITE OUT, in like five minutes. Can't see the road, I'm creeping along in 4th, hoping the storm passes. After about 45 minutes my Qualcomm pings. I'm thinking it might be a diversion or cancellation or something, so for the next half hour I'm looking for a place to pull over. I finally find a spot and check my message:
(UNIT 4453 WE SHOW YOU IN INDIANA CALCULATED SPEED 17 MPH WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG?)
"BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. HOWS THE WEATHER IN WILMINGTON TODAY?"
(UNIT 4453 PROCEED WITH CAUTION)
Yah, thanks, pal.
Sorry that was so long, but your story touched an old, irritated nerve and I wanted to share that one.
Rubber side down.....

 

"Pipeline on Wheels"

RIP

 

Thanks for that. I miss 'em.
Still got my hat...

 

Knew a bunch of guys that worked for them out of the Pittsburgh terminal. Definitely one of my favorite "Fallen Flags".

 

Neville Island terminal? They treated me good there, always had a load for me to grab-n-go enroute back to Sarnia.