Indian River

I guess they are dedicated cuz they pay an extra five cents per mile loaded. Not sure if it is all year though.

 

Milk plant in Jerome across from darigold has us hooking up the hose and opening the plunger. Plunger was stuck due to pressure so I had the bright idea to unscrew the cap a bit to release pressure and it came off and milk gushing out of the tank….I got covered head to toe in milk getting the cap back on….at the Loves in Bliss, ID getting showered off….lol!

 

So I learned today that Indian River calls a load a pump load. If you connect any hoses. Even the customers. Because that makes sense.

 

I am starting to regret even doing pump. Been at the receiver since around 7:40am. Technically appointment is for 8pm. Got the call around 12:30 to head to the location to unload. They got their sample about 5 hours ago. Haven't started unloading yet. Though at one point looks like they evacuated the building and fire trucks arrived. Which I was told nothing about what happened.
My preplan after this doesn't deliver until Thursday....

 

It might just be a rare situation but if not can't you request to Winter Haven to turn in the pump truck for a regular truck? I feel that Indian River is very driver oriented by the posts from other drivers there.

 

I've never had a pump truck but from talking to drivers that did, actual pump loads where you run the PTO etc are few and far between. If you were told that you would be primarily doing pump off loads then I would question that.

Basically, having a pump tractor doesn't mean you won't be doing only pump loads...or even majority pump loads.

 

Long wait times are the nature of the beast. Any shipper or receiver I go to I just automatically expect to be there a couple hours. Occasionally I get surprised and I am out in less than one, but there have been times that I have waited more than a day.

I wasn't happy about it when I first started but eventually things start to click, miles increase and the money looks good enough to offset the annoyances.

 

This is why I avoid doing anything I haven't been trained and authorized to do by IRT.

On one occasion I went to a dairy plant where all the other drivers there (other companies) were hooking up their own hoses etc. I sat in the cab like I always do and one of them came over asking what was up with the IRT drivers never doing anything to help when they were there, basically implying we were lazy. It shouldn't have, but it got to me so I figured what the hell, so I go back hook up the hose open the valve and was feeling pretty proud of myself until the plant employee came running over and shut the valve. Turns out I was hooked to the washout drain and was just dumping milk.

He didn't say anything to me, just unscrewed my screw up and walked away. I slinked back to my cab and vowed never to volunteer again.

 

So my last delivery to Quebec was a "driver unload". But only thing I did was offer to the receiver one of my connectors. Because theirs wasn't connecting that tight. Was told even if not pumping off. They bill that load as a pump truck load.

My next load will be to St Louis. Which I'm told I'm required to get a harness.

 

Managed to cut a sliver of my left ring finger off reaching into my shower back….good thing I have EMT training and big first-aid kit personally stocked myself with better stuff than it came with.