Running With Watkins & Shepard

Well today was one of those days that fits in the "All in the life of a trucker" category...LOL

I get to the reciever in Littleton CO with my truck load of wine at 7:30 to find a line of trucks already there. Long story short, I left the dock at 12:30....... LOL Ok, so there's FIVE hours SHOT!! I promptly put in my empty and available and within 10 minutes or less, I have another load assignment. Head up to Busch and drop and hook a load goimg to Faiirfield CA. COOL I say!! I have until 15:00 to pick it up. PLENTY OF TIME!

Well first they send me to the Commerce City CO Pilot for 50 gallons of fuel. I really hate that place. It's tiny, tight and almost always packed. Today was no different but after an hour or so of waiting on truckers to finish doing...well...whatever it is they do while thier truck is BLOCKING THE FUEL ISLE, I get fueled up and head out. Still no problem making my pick up. I get to Busch at 14:00 and yep, they have one entry scale closed for callibration so there's another LONG line of trucks. An hour later I'm on the scale getting my empty weighed in.

I head into the yard, park and drop the empty and spend another half hour or so driving around in circles looking for my load. Find it, hook up and get in yet another line to get scaled out. An hour or so later I'm on the scale. I walk in the gaurd shack and the lady asks me if I had my bobtail wieghed in.....Ummmm...HUH? I tell her I came in with an empty and wieghed in. She tells me I have to take my load back into the yard, drop it, come back out, GET IN LINE and get it wieghed so I can go back in, hook up again and GET IN LINE to scale out!!.............

Needless to say Chris is not a happy camper at this point but, hey, whatever. So after all that and another FOUR HOURS of the day shot, I'm once again in Laramie WY at the Pilot for my second "Partial" fuel...LOL

Dispatch sees what's going on and decides to back off my delivery time by about 12 hours. So now I have untril Monday at 1:00 to deliver....LOL Oh well, at least I'm under load for the weekend and in no big rush to get there. So I'll do some paperwork, tidy up the house, catch a nap and head out in a few hours.

So all in all I had a WHOPPING 260 mile day.....

 

This is something I've been thinking about as I drive around this country and see some of the things folks in cars do out there. I wish I could put this on the back of every trailer I tow.
If 4 wheelers knew just this one thing, it might change how they see Big Rigs and how they drive around them.

If a Big Rig hits you it won't just slam into you like you see with cars. It WILL ROLL OVER YOU AND CRUSH YOU LIKE A BEER CAN!!

4 Wheelers, DON'T BE A BEER CAN!!

It takes more than a football field to stop a fully loaded Tractor Trailer doing 55 on a FLAT DRY ROAD. When you pass us, DON'T pull right back in front of us. If you hit your breaks suddenly we CAN'T Stop before CRUSHING YOU LIKE A BEER CAN.

When you're behind us and your exit is coming up, is it really worth risking your life (and the lives of others) to pass us and then dart across our bow to your exit to save .5 seconds?? Stay behind us for that half second longer and DON'T BE A BEER CAN!!

When coming onto a highway LOOK AS YOU APPROACH for an open spot and adjust your speed accordingly. We can't always move over. Get off the dam phone and pay attention because when you come up on our side and drive under our Tandems, YOU'VE JUST BECOME A BEER CAN!!

You're always complaining about how slow our trucks are and yet you'll pass us and then slow down. It takes a LONG time for us to get up to highway speeds when pulling 20 TONS on FLAT roads! Even longer on hills. Be patient because after all, we're more than likely hauling the products you're rushing to the store to buy!

You may wonder why we're doing 65 (or less) in a 70 or 75 MPH zone and even curse us for it when you can't get around us. MOST of our trucks are governed to those lowers speeds so we have no choice. We make our living by the mile. Do you really think we wouldn't go 70 or 75 when it's safe to do so if we could???

When traveling or stopped behind us at a light, PLEASE don't get so close that you can't see our mirrors. If you can't see them, we CAN'T see you. When starting off on a hill, if we roll back you've just become a BEER CAN! We're trained to not roll back but it can and does happen. How many of you that drive a manual transmission "never" rolled back a little when starting off on a hill?? Try it with 20 TONS pulling you backwards!!

That BIG SPACE you see in front of us between us and the next car is NOT FOR YOU TO FILL IN!! it's that FOOTBALL FIELD we need to stop so you DON'T BECOME A BEER CAN!!!

When you see two trucks taking up both lanes as one is SLOWLY passing another, be patient. One truck is governed at 62 and the other at 63 or one is hauling more weight than the other. It might not seem like much to you but WE MAKE OUR LIVING BY THE MILE bringing YOU your products. On a 2500 mile trip, YES that ONE mile an hour makes a difference and helps us provide for OUR families a little better.

We drive long hours and long miles to deliver EVERYTHING you'll ever buy. Many of us LIVE in these trucks for months on end and don't see OUR families for that time. PLEASE!! Try to have a little respect, a little patience and most of all, SAVE YOURSELVES FROM BECOMING A BEER CAN!!

You get to go home every night. If it takes a few minutes longer than you'd like, try to remember the driver of that BIG RIG probably hasn't seen their family for days, weeks or months!

Pat attention out there and stay alive when you drive!! We REALLY don't want you to BECOME A BEER CAN!!

 

Yea buddy, a few of them now and I'm under one right now. I've pulled kegs as well. Just delivered a wine load before this one too. I have to agree with the others here, the beer loads are heavy but the center of gravity is mid to low in the box so it's a pretty stable load IMHO.

Kind of funny...pull wine from CA to CO and beer from CO to CA.....

Been getting some good experience on Doner this past week. This makes my third trip in a row over it. Also getting the feel of the rig in less than favorable conditions as well. Nothing too drastic yet but that's good as I feel better "easing" into how this truck handles the icey roads. I set the tandems (with half a tank) on this load with a bit more weight on the drives for added traction. I'll slide them one notch though because with a full tank, it's 33840... legal but close...LOL

So I'm in Winnemucca <<(just love the sound of that...LOL) NV right now with roughly 300 miles to go. No rush so another good nights sleep is in the works. I'll have time to check and air up all the tires, check all the fluids and top em off if need be and clean all the glass...AGAIN...LOL

I'll also see if I can fix the license plate light on this trailer. It was dead when I hooked it yesterday but I've been running the daylight so it's not "too" big a deal. I'll feel better when it's fixed though.

But tonight it's a movie and a little relax time. I'll roll at around noon or so as this load isn't due until 01:00 Monday.

Warp, I'll be sure to watch the weight and thanks for the tip!