Guess that's happened to everybody at one time or another--It's pretty freaky feeling.

I have a story that happened to 2 buddies of mine(both truckers).
They were both going to the same place and one of the guys got ahead and told the other guy "I'll meet you at such and such truck stop for Coffee"

The guy who was behind finally gets to the truck stop and sees his buddy slumped over the steering wheel so he's gonna pull a fast one of his friend.
He turns his truck and turns off his lights and creeps in on his buddy head on and gets right up to his bumper-Turns on his lights-Hits his Air horn :shock: :P

Guy wanted to kill his A$$ :P
ahhhhhhh-the Good ole days of Trucking

 

My Hero wrote this and it jogged a bit of dusty memory:

Quite a few years ago during my 32 years of Interstate Road-running, I had the privilege of pulling a few pneumatic tanks.
On one such occasion I was dispatched to Union Carbide to pick up a tank load of plastic pellets. When I arrived at the plant I noticed three other tank lines picking up the same type load and soon discovered that we were all going to the same consignee. For the life of me I could never understand why a company would have several different truck lines deliver the same product to the same customer at the same time.

After the loading ceremony was completed I wound my way back to the interstate, pointed the KW south and hauled ass towards the destination about an hour behind a rather, green driver, from Matlack and as Mr. Murphy would have it ended up unloading after the same driver at the destination.

While I sat awaiting my turn to unload I kept watching the Matlack driver perform his unloading ritual, it soon turned into a boring ordeal. I grabbed my favourite book and started to read when I heard a muffled "POOM" and what sounded like hail falling upon the roof of the W-900. I looked out the windshield and saw a huge pile of plastic behind the Matllack tank and a very upset driver running for cover. The unloader person came running out of the control room waving his arms and yelling but I couldn't hear what the words were but suffice it to say he was extremely pissed.

When the excitement settled down and the clean up began, I wandered to a break room and called the boss, needless to say he was a bit upset, a 4 hour run was going to be an all day affair. I just took it all in stride and told him the detention time was going to look good in the pay check, he hung up on me, how rude!!!


Another trip, different company:

During the team days with my brother we were dispatched to pull another company's pneumatic tank to pull TPA from DuPont in Nashville, Tn to Cape Industries in Wilmington, NC an interesting dispatch to be sure and it did attract a lot of attention from the other company drivers. We just told them that Kenan bought Central, the reactions were priceless to say the least. One other thing to add, we outran Kenans teams which disturbed their terminal manager to the point that he asked us if we wanted to work for him, of course the answer was not appropriate to print!

The original dispatch was we drop and hook and haul ass back to Tennessee but someone at Cape demanded the trailer be unloaded, not a very wise decision, as it turned out.
Upon arrival my brother backed the trailer into the designated spot and went to unhook when a foreman came to him saying the tank was to be unloaded. The foreman was told that the tractor was not equipped with the necessary equipment to perform the task at hand. He insisted and provided the equipment despite the brothers objections. While the unloading ritual proceeded I went to the guard shack and called our dispatch person to get the matter cleared up. One quick phone call from our TM and the problem was rectified. I went back to confront the foreman when I saw a huge yellow cloud in the air. I did forget to ask the brother if he knew how to unload the tank, he didn't. The foreman came back, told us to unhook and he would see to it that we never came back. We thanked him and left forthwith but much to his dismay he was the one who didn't come back as we had found when we got back with the next load.

One thing to add here, DuPont also had Chemical Leaman hauling the same stuff which, lasted all of one round. I guess it had something to do with the CL team breaking a trailer axle leaving DuPont. The tank was quite a bit overweight...

 

Before I was grounded for a health issue see the Anything and Everything topic "Don't take your health for granted."

I was asked to park the tank wagon and drive a quad axle to help out with the repaving of I-95. I couldn't object too much, I needed a good laugh.

On one of the, many trips, to the paver I had backed up and got ready to unload when the operator jumped off the machine ran up to me and asked if I had seen what was going on in the car that had rolled by. I told him I hadn't seen a thing and he proceeded to tell me about the young lady in the passenger seat and what she was doing to the driver.
"Is that all?" I asked him
He did look a bit upset. "Dude!" I continued "It didn't surprise me, it happens all the time!"

He just shook his head,mumbled some odd words and climbed back up on the machine. I guess he had never been exposed to the finer scenes of interstate travel!!!

 

Well DOC I hope all is going well with you. Are you ever going to be able to get back in the saddle? Or are you sidelined permanantly.

 

I'm still grounded until Thursday the 28th, which may be a blessing for the folks in the control room. I only made one screw up, I dumped a pile of asphalt behind a truck. Pushed the wrong button!!

Been switching between the control room and helping the paving foreman out on 95 and to say it hasn't been enlightening and educational would be a falsehood!!!!

I did discover one other little fact: It is pretty damn easy to over load a truck.. :shock:

With all the time spent on the opposite side of the orange barrels, it has been rather entertaining to say the least. It looks as if another 100 pages could be written on the sights and sounds of construction traffic. Watch out Mr. Tolstoy I just may surpass your "War and Peace" novel!!!

 

Well doc I look forward to more stories.

 

After many hours of reading all I can say is WOW! You certaintly have some pretty awesome stories Doc!!! I also would like an autographed copy if you ever release these in book form! By the way, 33,796 views as I type this!

 

OK, you're on the list.....

 

Doctor Who wrote:

WOOHOO!!! now how bout some more stories??? :lol:

 

Oh COOL it's MAY DAY!!!!

I think I'll bake a cake, sing Russian drinking songs and whatever else one does on this festive day...

Oh yeah stay tuned Tales from the Interstate is coming along with.....