The American Trucker language

I know a guy that unloaded a load of pipe in Joe D.Hughes yard He asked when they would unload him Smartmouth told him if he could do it better go ahead.Last time they told him that.

 

You are doing a very good job, KapiPL.

Here are a few other words you might encounter ---------

Donkey or Wagon ---- the semi-trailer.
Pickle Park --- rest area/scales
Chicken coup --- Scale House (where they weigh Big trucks and issue citations for overweight)
Ground pressure --- How much the truck and load weigh.
Rocking chair --- When several Big trucks run as a convoy -- the driver in or near the middle of the pack is in the "rocking chair".
Toothpicks or Sticks --- A load of logs or lumber.
Parking lot -- either a Big truck hauling automobiles, or a main highway with heavy traffic.
Covered wagon -- a trailer with canvas, roll-up sides.
Refer trailer/unit --- trailers with the ability to stay cold or warm.
Long nose --- Big trucks with long hoods.
COE --- Cab Over Engine.
Wiggle wagons, pups, doubles/triples --- combinations of two or more semi-trailers of various length combinations.


I'm sure others will come up with more trucker slang for you.
Shux Howdy!
We'll have you speaking truckerknees in NO time.

 

LOL...That's the way to do it.I've always been real quick to "school" a smartazz and have a low tolerance for somebody trying to lord over me when I'm in a bind of any kind.I was looking for work when I hooked on here is the way I look at it.No big deal to find another outfit hiring a GQ model like me.

 

Nothing like having easy saleable load or one they really need to cool the temper of the union dock boss. Two phrases:
You want it, grab it and growl .
It pays me the same going back as coming here.

Drop down off dock and start unhooking the trailer door hold backs or snapping a binder back on. (Lets you get the cheater pipe in your hand).
Music changes tone and action picks up. People who wanted me gone always seemed to workl faster.

 

After Shock;
Note the different deck material used in a livestock trailer. 2"thick by 10"-12" wide, trailer width length, sawmill run green oak boards. Haul cattle north with the decking stacked in the nose and a cut gate to head up the front end. Drop the cattle in an IL feedlot and cut across to E. St.Louis to load hogs. Wade up to the front, carry all the boards to the back. One side of the deck rail is slotted on top at the rear. Stick a board in the channel right side. drop in in the slot and push it 34 feet up to front. Repeat as needed to floor it or you give out. In a Buffalo, NY stockyard in 1957, at 28 degrees, it took two of us and a 5th of JD to deck out a trailer. Set the bottle on the 1st board in as incentive to bring on the rest. Move the bottle down within reach each board added.

"Bullhaulers are really gentle people, their passengers require it."

 

AMEN to that brutha'.....All the greenhorns always see the 85 mph runs and think bullhaulers are ruffians and don't even think about how long we took to get up to that speed to keep from putting stress on the cows or how far we are away from an off ramp when we start slowing down etc... etc.

 

DOT does seem to hire from.. um.. not the pick of the crop, shall we say? Coming into CA from OR the other day, running to Oakland to pick up a load, I had to hit the station on I-5.

Guy who should know better looks up at me and asks "northbound or southbound, and whatcher carrying?"

Can you get to that scale from the northbound side?

And when I told him "southbound, empty" he had me repeat it three times.

Finally, I said "We're coming FROM Oregon, TO California with NOTHING in the trailer"

For half a second, I thought he was gonna ask me again.

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KapiPL - just in case they weren't clear - Lizzard, Lot Lizzard, et al, refer to prostitutes - and generally not the most.. um.. appealing women, either. At least, the ones I've seen are the kind I'd leave town to avoid.

 

I had a scalemaster in K-Falls, Oregon ask me if I could
"levitate" ---- and he sounded serious.

He wanted to know why my log book showed me enter the "sleeper berth" in Ripon, California, and how, if so, could I now be on "his" scale in K-Falls.

How is that possible, driver?
Can you levitate?

I explained that the trip from Ripon to "his" scale in K-Falls was driven by my co-driver, who was now sleeping in the bunk --- after changing drivers about 30 minutes ago, as indicated in my log book, farther down the line.

I don't know if he was more disappointed that his questions made him look the fool,
or that I couldn't levitate.
Heaven knows I tried.

------ as a farmer with a straight truck and a water tank chained to the flatbed entered "his" scale from the wrong direction for a re-weigh, as another Big truck came uphill entering the scale from the correct direction.

They almost met.

I wonder if he asked them if they could levitate?
I know "his" buttox did --- right outta that reclining office chair --- yellin'
STOP!
STOP!

It's twue!
It's twue!

 

y'know - you just reminded me of a little exercise I tried the other day..

Was sitting waiting to be unloaded in Medford, Or.. had the super duper trucker atlas out, plotting my demise... er route to Oakland pickup.. and it struck me.. there's a LOT of red dots on the Oregon map.

I was bored.

I counted them.

Then I counted the red dots in Kalifornia.

Kalifornia has 42 or so weigh stations

Oregon - a much smaller state, in all respects - has 72

I'm not entirely sure what this says about Oregon.. but it's not good

 

Back in the day, when I wore the clothes of a younger newBee, a scale in Colorado asked me how much my empty weight was/is.

HuH!
I didn't know, ..... so my co-driver yelled the first number that came to his head, and it was waayyy off.

The scalemaster barked back over the PA,
WhAT?!
More like ____________ and he was right I learned later.
But I couldn't help but wonder why he even asked if he already knew?

Along those same lines, ----- after being detained for almost 20 hours by a shipper, --- when I finally got a door, they announced that I, Shakey AfterShock, would be required to physically count each piece of product loaded in my trailer.
And they figured the loading wouldn't take more than 5 hours --- 6 hours tops.

I informed them I wasn't about to do their counting for them, and retired to my Big truck.

When the loading was complete, and I was in the office for the paperwork, I was asked what count I got.
Hmmmmmmmmm

I didn't have ANY idea, so I blurted out the first number that came to my head.

Oh --- No driver.
That count is waayyy off.
The computer says __________
We'll just go with that number.

SaY WHaT?!
If they arent' gonna believe the driver,
why require them to count in the FIRST place?

Although, after they had talked to my irate dispatcher, I can well understand WHY that place was anxious to be shed of me.

BTW --- for the most part I liked Oregon scales.
Especially the ones that you could use after hours by peeking through the window and
reading the scale.
I thought that was pretty cool.