to all end dump haulers...

Made another round to Colorado this time with salt, and grabbed rock comin back to House of Rocks in KC. Made it home with 7 minutes to spare. 2 turns to Colorado and home twice this week and I’ll have an early day tomorrow. After I unload I preload more grinding balls for Climax CO Monday. How sweet it is.

 

I am going to load salt at lyons ks tomorrow afternoon. If ya can think of any helpful key points that I should be aware of, feel free to post them. Thx in advance.

 

Your GPS will have you turn on America Ln. This is incorrect it is the gravel drive just south of America Ln. They’ll be an exit lane on the far left and then 4 inbound lanes divided by Jersey barriers. You can go up any lane, when it’s not busy like this I just go up lane 1. They’ll be a stop light right before the scale. Each lane has a stop light, the one that coordinates with your lane is the one on the left. Wait for a green light even if no one is around or you’ll get a rash of attitude at the scale. Trust me. You’ll pull up on the scale when you get a green (it’ll just flash for a second so be watching). There’s a gal in the window next to you with a thick accent, who is really hard to understand and speaks quietly on top of it. She is not one for jokes or pleasantries. Again, trust me. She’ll slide you a clipboard with a piece of paper. Check mark all the PPE you have. Even if you don’t have it, they ain’t gonna check. You’ll write down your carrier, your destination and your pickup number. You’ll put it back in the slot, she’ll give you back a copy and tell you where you’re loading. I have only loaded at load point 2, and they are on channel 22. On her window will be a post it note saying what channel what load points are on. I think LP1 is channel 16. Anyway you’ll go off the scale and go to the stop sign and make a right. Then cross the tracks and make a right at the second drive they’ll be signs that point you. If you go to load point 2, you’ll stay to the right of barriers but hug them close to your driver side, and you’ll see loadpoint 2 and you’ll stop, the door will be shut don’t nose up to it or no one can get by. When they’re ready for you they’ll open the door and holler at you on the cb to come in. They’ll tell you to stop where they want you and ask how much you want and how you want it loaded. They’ll put it on loading off the ground then tell you to “hop on the scale” and they’ll top you off. When you’re done you go off the scale thru the garage door and make a right heading back to the road. Make a left and another left back to Cheery McHappy pant in the scale but this time you’ll be on the opposite side of the scale shack. Again wait for the light to turn green even if no one is around. You’ll get on the scales SLOWLY as in low-low crawling (trust me yet again). She’ll get you printed up, slide you out a clipboard, sign it and give it back. She’ll slide you out your bills, and will mumble something somewhere between “have a nice day” and wishing plague and misfortune on your entire family. This time of year it’s cake dude. I wasn’t even there 20 minutes Wednesday when I loaded.

Red in, blue out. Now like I said that’s LoadPoint 2, and road salt is all I’ve ever loaded from them. If you’re getting feed salt you might load somewhere else. Hope this helps. Lemme know how it goes! Good luck!

 

@Professor No-Name one more thing if you want to check your axles, ask the scale where you load, you won’t see a read out anywhere but they’ll tell you on the cb. They get kinda growly about it when they’re slammed busy, but since you’ll probably be the only truck in there, they won’t give you any grief. I usually just check my back axles cuz that’s all I’m worried about. The gate keeper up front will NOT let you check your axles. And if you ask you’d think you just asked her for a kidney, before she gives you a resounding “no way”.

 

I definitely appreciate it. I go to quite a lot of new an different places all the time with this gig. Sometimes I let my anxiety level get the best of me a wondering how things are gonna work.

 

No dude I totally get it. That’s my only complaint about hauling bulk is you get to these places, nothing is marked, there’s no signs saying what channel they’re on, nothing. Everyone in there has been goin there every day for 17 years and god forbid you go around the yard wrong or on the scale backwards. It used to stress me out too. Now if I don’t park and walk in and get the skinny, I just tell ‘em “ok I’ll know for next time”.

 

I’ll tell ya’ fellas, I used to get worked up like that, now I could care less. It’s funny how things change, I’m creeping up on 40 in October and my give a dang is simply non existent in situations like that, if I get turned around, oh well, if I’m where I’m not supposed to be, oh well, if I’m ticking off the regulars because it’s my first time there, oh well. I went in to a fertilizer place a few weeks back, 2 different scales running 2 different channels, first scale said go to the back scale, do you think they informed me they were on a different channel? Nah…….so after about 20 minutes of sitting, I was able to squint enough up to the window and read “channel 14” as opposed to channel 13 on the front scale, I laughed it off and proceeded to go around back to unload. I try to limit any stress about the unknown, it still happens occasionally, but the way I look at it, I’ll figure it out when I figure out. Helpful hints like @motocross25 is giving are always a good thing though. Stay safe.

 

Flatbed is just like that too. Show up to a place. No signs , nothing. Huge facility. Angry scale worker says ur doing everything wrong but doesn't tell ya the right way to do it.. Every worker is pissed off that ur asking questions where to go or who to talk to.. Other truck drivers talking #### on the radio.. God that stuff used to make me so angry..

 

To get feed salt you keep going south past the door for 2 and follow the curve around to the right. Next time you load road salt look to the left when you come out of the building and you’ll see where the feed salt trucks come out of their building.

 

Ah-ha. I thought this might be the case. Thank you for clarifying.