My Experience with Lone Star Transportation

Delived today forgot to take pics, delivered 45,000lbs of copper. Then deadheaded north reloaded now headed south away from this stupid cold.


Again no time for a real post i'll be parked early tomorrow so i'll catch up then





American Trucker

 

Ok go get ya some coffee or a snack this is going to be a longggggg Post....


Soooo;



Monday:

Had a 8am appt, and this address was showing Desert on Google earth so i left early to make sure i'd find it. Sure enough is was another job site, got there at 730am and as i was comeing down the road another LST truck was right behind me (of course he had a much smaller load of the same crazy pipe)

So i check in at the gaurd shack, we're told (both of us) to pull off into the parking area and wait because they were "crowed" inside....ya ok 500 Acres of Desert for a solar farm and your "crowed"....whatever

So an hour later "our customer" the pipe fitter guy shows up and says it'll be at least 1-2 hours till you get in.


Meanwhile 50+ trucks come get unloaded and leave while we sit.....


Around 2pm guys comes back ok follow me. And we trek 4 MILES! into the freakin desert couldnt do more then 7mph ground was Wayyyy to rough, took forever.

Anyway i get to where im getting unloaded and he says "take your securement off and some one will be out to unload you" ok so i take everything off put it all away and wait and wait and wait. Then finally the convoy comes over to unload me took them like 2 hours to take 12 pices off did it with 2 boom lifts. Guys are makeing $27+ an hour and they said for the weeks they've been on this job all they have done is unload trucks for 8 hours a day 4 days a week #### union workers .


So finally im MT with 3 hours left on my 14 GREAT! So i call dispatch, i got ya a load picks up in the morning.

sweeeet

So its 5.5hours away...darn. So i hammer down and made it to the TA in Willcox, AZ did my 10.


Tuesday:

Next morning I hauled butt to this copper/gold mine. Way out in BFE in the mountains easy while MT. Get there all i know is im loading copper....copper what i donno..

Its stacks of 24" x 24" sheets of copper about 1/4" thick. 7 stacks 45,000lbs mmmmm and how much is copper worth a lbs? and you DONT want this tarped (covered/hidden)? "nope" ok......

I tried to load it how i thought would be best of course i messed it up, BUT i was still legal so i left. They tell you when you get there "2 straps MIN on each stack weather its a single or a double stack" So i put 3 on every one. it was loaded like this:

[] ........[] []
....[]
[] ........[] []

Except they were centerd (cant do that on here lol) So they wanted 8 straps for this, and thats what all the other drivers were doing. Idiots! Each double stack is 13,xxxlbs....my highest rated straps are only good for 5,500lbs....x 2 = 11,000.....ummmm thats not 13,xxx! So i put 3 over each for a total of 12 straps, guard said i wasted my time... i said ok and left.

They only had a single plate scale so i had to do math lol but i was legal, then headed back threw the moutains HEAVY 77,000lbs.

Made it down to NM, laughed at the "all trucks must continue to scales sign" and went to the Pilot, Cat scaled then fueled, and Headed north....Yuck = cold!

So i hammered down all 2 lanes, threw the hills of NM up to I-40 to Tacumacari, NM and fueled, did a 10


Wensday:

then hauled butt up Rt 54 ( hate this route but oh well)

Made it all the way to the TA in Oak Grove, MO, fueled then did a 10. Did 637 miles in 10.5 hours

Thursday:

Got up and headed to East Alton, IL to unload this copper. I get there pull in, scale, unsecure the load, and laughing at the LINE of vans waiting for a dock door...ahhh good times...

Got unloaded then got another load. Dispatch says, find a fax machine and call me with the number i'll send you 2 pages then call me for an explanation, its a 2 pickup 2 drop load......NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LTL WTF lol

So i head to the J, get my fax, turns out its 2 pickups and 1 receiver...ok thats better. BUT boths shippers are 2.5 hours north, im picking up 2 nearly identical orders 1 from the CAT factory and 1 from the KEEN Transport rail yard. CAT stops loading at 230 and KEEN at 330 but i need to go to KEEN first.

On my way up i ran into another LST driver on the CB (who had a horrible radio) so i couldnt really understand what he was saying except "ignore the 7 ton weight limit sign and something something both keen...."

WHAT?!!?!?!?

So i get to keen at 2pm. the 7 ton sign is at the end of their road, but it doesnt start till 50 feet past the keen rail yard.


BUT i remembered what the other driver kinda sorta said, so i asked the gaurd about my secound stop, which i had just so happend to bring their paper work in as well. She says "no thats not another keen yard thats the CAT plant". Ok so what time do they stop shipping (since i didnt have a good Phone #) she says 230....CRAP! ....(no way im makeing CAT ontime like i thought so i figure yay i'll load here, go sit in the wally world parking lot for 15 hours then get the other half THEN head south and NOT have time for a 34....shet!)

So I asked if she knew when they start shipping in the moring but she didnt know, but instead of saying i donno....She picked up here Nextel and called CAT

Good thing too because it turns out KEEN had went and picked up my other half and brought it to the KEEN yard too so my whole load was right there! Helllllllsssss Yea!

My fax had the product info....D6 Cat blade, parts, push arms... for each order....ok so im expecting this HUGE dozer blades and what not.....nope!








Easy! 4 chains, 4 straps and good to go!....well some carpet too. took me 2 hours from check in to check out.....14* outside! Freakin eskimos up there!


Anyway so i had a few hours left on my 14, so i hit the road, no need to scale 24,000-26,000lbs load. Made it to one of my Fav truck stops last night the Pilot in East St. Louis, IL. Fueled and did a 10.

Friday:

Got up and headed south, all 2 lanes....yay and made it to well quit in Texarkana, AR. I called to find out delivery date (to make sure it was monday and that i cant deliver tomorrow because when i asked yesterday i was told it depends if you can get loaded today or tomorrow) so i was told monday and i was planning on maxing my 11 out so i could be in San Antonio, TX by 7am Sat morning to deliver......never mind that mess, fueled at a TA on the way here just 50 Gal so i'll have some shower credits for my 34. Now im at this Sheety J, in the ONLY spot i can get in/out of once this place is full i tried the front row, and couldnt get out while this place was nearly MT so i moved. I wish the steers turned a bit more on this truck.


It was 13* this morning in IL, its 76* here!


Plan for tommorrow:

Head down south fuel when i get there so i'll be Full and ready for another load on monday as well as have enough shower credits for my 34.





American Trucker

 

oh and when i got to Tacumcari, NM and did my post trip.....Drivers Side 1/4 Fender was gone.....hmmm it was there 3 hours earlyer when i did my load check....WTF lol I know i didnt blow a tire or run anything over and i touched it when i did the load check so i KNOW it was there lol

It was rusted apparently where it conected to the frame and must have just broke off. So i then in the 20* got to inspect all my tires, brakes, air lines/bags, to make sure it didnt damage anything when it came off, which it didnt.




American Trucker

 

yes sir




American Trucker

 

cool deal, let me know what number you get so i can keep an eye out for you. Most places i've been there have been at LEAST 1 other LST truck there as well. Like that pipe, the customer told me we were bringing 80 more truck loads of it out to them




American Trucker

 

A little more info:

Yesterday I turned in paper work for trip #7 1600+ miles

For this load here that was suposed to be 2 pickups dispatch said i'm getting paid for both still (not sure how to do the paper work yet) in orientation Multistop loads was a 1 sec lesson, they said dont worry about those we almost never do them......ya ok ron! lol


And im starting to notice a pattern. Unload monday morning, reload and unload asap then load a weekend load for the next monday delivery. Mon-fri i seem to work 14 hrs with 10 off inbetween, then reset over the weekend. NOTE: this is just from these few weeks i've been here.

But i like running that way since every run i've had has been 1500+ miles. It's just going to take some time to get used to 10 hour breaks lol. 34's on the weekend and a fresh 70 every monday is the way to go IMO.





American Trucker

 

I just wanted to share/brag a lil I just got my 2nd YouTube Shout out, by our very own Donnerlivingstone


Here's the video its in, i'm mentioned as well as LST is mentioned at the 16:40 minute mark for those that want to skip ahead (if anyone cares)


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_kA6LNGQa0&feature=g-u-u&context=G29d4f5aFUAAAAAAAPAA[/ame]


Heres his channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/DoonerLivingstone?feature=g-u-u





American Trucker