Snackbar's new adventure at Moore Freight Services

Been a fairly productive week for our slow season. Left Church Hill Thursday morning, delivered in Hialeah Friday just after noon (would have been there sooner except I got caught up in traffic jams south of Asheville and Columbia that added several hours each to my travels). Another outdoor delivery in Hialeah, dodging rain (raw glass can't get wet, or at least too wet). Then a 24 hr visit at home on the way back to Church Hill. Late Monday morning I get a transfer load from Church Hill to Spring Hill, KS that will deliver Tuesday morning. Any Creten drivers that recognize the town of Spring Hill, that's where you pick up the kitty litter, our yard is right next to the kitty litter plant's drop yard. Had one of those 'Dohh' moments yesterday. Knowing this latest batch of crappy weather was moving in, I had a choice of routes out of Church Hill. I could go up US25 to Corbin, then to Lexington, and take 64 to Mt. Vernon, or I could take 40 to 24 thru Paducah to 57 (after Mt. Vernon, the route stays the same). Looked at my weather radar app, and it was snowing between Mt Vernon and Louisville on 64, but looked fine thru Paducah on 24, so...I chose 24, which ended up being the wrong choice. Just about half way thru KY, it started snowing. Around Paducah it started sticking. Most of 24 from Paducah to 57 was down to 1 clear lane and 1 supertrucker lane. Once on 57, it was as if God drew a line on the map where to stop the snow, and the road was dry and 99.9% clear. I have a regular glass load on a single drop, and tried to snap some pic's, but my phone's camera is acting weird...some of the pic's came out like I was looking thru a night vision scope...will try to get some better ones before I drop the load.

I am coming up on my 90 day mark here...and still happy and relatively gripe free.

 

On a turn-n-burn load back out of Spring Hill to St. Louis for this a.m. then back to Spring Hill...560 miles, just under 3100 paid miles in 7 w/24 hrs at home.

Here are some pic's of a single drop load...kinda hard to see, most of our single drop trailers have regular tarp material for the rolltite system, some of our flats have the translucent roof.







This is what they call a wiper blade, a big aluminum beam with a rubber pad that really does look like a wiper blade



And that strap mounts to the foot of the A-frame goes up and over the top of the wiper blade and hooks to the top of the A-frame, and just horizontal pressure squeezes the glass against the A-frame



And that's pretty much all that holds glass on a single drop and flatbed...there is a double 2 x 6 header strapped to the deck in front of each A-frame as a "just in case" hold back, but they put 2 x 6 styrofoam pads between the glass and the wood, it helps under moderate braking, but a hard stop just breaks the glass

I am on a flatbed load with a mix of crate and flat glass, I'll snap some wider angle pic's of the load. Even though it's a flat, it uses the same type A-frame/wiper blade system, just a little shorter.

 

Thankfully I only do the delivery end of things, I wouldn't want to handle individual lites. Fortunately we haul it in packs or crates, and the way some of these places handle the crates during unload makes me stand back, it amazes me how a single piece of 2x6 nailed to each side of a crate handles the weight of that much glass. There are some customers that are unloading flat pack glass with a new kind of European rack attached to the crane instead of a web sling, seems a little more stable.

 

Here is what the wiper blade securement looks like from a wider angle



And this is the crate glass, small glass



And it's ready for unload



And here is how some places unload

 

They'll catch him. We have forward facing cameras that record and upload to a 3rd party reviewing company and they flag driving like that for the company safety people to review. If it's a cronic issue, they will haul his ### into corporate and attempt to correct his habits, if it happens again...bye-bye driver.

 

Hit a little snag on my way to Spring Hill the other day. I had the little orange engine light come on and off periodically last week. Having driven a Maxxforce engine in the past, that usually means that the computer got a weird reading from one of the sensors, and it would clear itself after a certain number of good reads. So, I used the same logic with my Mack, and it was working until I left Church Hill headed to KS, then the light just stayed on. Then I got into sub-zero temps, and the truck would start to miss when the rpms hit 1200 in high gear, but would run fine at rpms above that. Then, while idling in E. St. Louis before my delivery yesterday, I noticed a rougher than normal idle. Ever since I was assigned this truck, it has had a long start cycle most of the time (cranks a while before it fires), although not every time, which sounds like an injector leak. When I talked to our shop, they agreed that it sounded like an injector and to keep an eye on it. If it gets worse or I start seeing my oil level rise (from diesel getting in the crankcase) get it into a shop. When I started getting the 1200 rpm miss, I called the remote diagnostic hotline (we have Guard Dog on our Macks). At first they said no active codes, then a DEF system code, then a "hard shift" code from the mDrive (which is a software issue), then an injector #2 code...needless to say, I am in the KC Mack dealer getting it looked at. Couldn't have come at a better time, things at the KS plant are a little slow, so it's an ideal time for getting it fixed before busy season starts.
(See naysayers...even when problems arise, I don't ##### when I feel the company is taking care of me and I am still able to make a decent paycheck...so there )