I had one of those experiences DOC it is kind of scary and calming at the same time

 

I was working for WH Transportation out of Wausau, WI. The trucks they had were Cornbinders with Cummins L-10. Not much there. I had a load that delivered in NJ and I-78 was a sheet of ice. I guess NJ ran out of salt, if they ever had any in the first place.

I delivered my load and they had me go to the marine terminal to pick up a load of plywood for Menard's in Eau Claire, WI. Dispatch said it came over on a ship from India and be sure to scale it before I run with it. I got word that there was a severe snow storm in PA, so I was going to try to go below it. If you remember that winter, the truck scales at Paulsboro and Pedricktown were iced up and useless. I got all the way down to Perryville, MD before I found the cat scale at the pilot in working order.

I don't know if they brought it over in the ship or behind it. A load that should have weighed forty-two thousand was more like fifty-two. I started looking at my atlas to see how I could get around the scales and be home for at least part of the weekend instead of waiting for Monday to get the load adjusted. I don't remember now, just what roads I was going to take, but the Fredrick Scale on I-70 was the only one I was worried about. Perryville was not open, so I headed down to Baltimore.

Going around the circle, about half way to the get-off for I-70, I started talking with a lady driver going the same way. "Bring it on up here, we'll run together. I can use the conversation." I told her that with the truck I had and the load I had, that was not likely to happen. She said she would slow down and I would be able to catch up. Well, I passed three Hum-Vees (weekend warriors out for a stroll) and there she was directly in front of them. "Bring it up front. I'm having a hard time with the hills". So I did. As I passed her, her truck (a Marmom) did not sound like it had a "little cummins" in it.

We headed west on I-70 and kept a running conversation, then as we got close to the scale, I was going to get off and go around. "Why? They're closed." What do you mean, they're closed? "I come this way all the time. They're never open before eight o'clock in the morning. This is Saturday and they may not open all day."

We got to the scale and they were waiting with wide-open arms. You know the routine. The guy comes out to the truck, "LOGBOOK". Hand it to him and he says to pull in around back and bring in my paperwork. I pull around back and as I'm looking for all my paperwork, I see her pull alongside me with a great big smile on her face. Then I see a Hum-Vee park on the left corner of my trailer. Through the mirror, I see the grill of another one parked behind both of us. Look in the left mirror again and see four men get out with weapons.

"I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL SOMEONE TELLS ME WHAT'S GOING ON!!! The plywood came from India. I'm seeing these guys tearing my load apart looking for hollows that contain who knows what. I look at the scale-house knowing that the guy inside is waiting on me and I see a military uniform go inside. Ten seconds later, he's coming back out with a logbook in each hand. He hands one to me, the other one to her, and disappears around the front of her truck. She smiles and waves me to lead out.

Okay. I know what just happened here. I just got a free ride at a scale and I'm not going to blow it. I waited till we got more than fifteen miles down the road before I talked about it with her. I don't know what you've got in there, AND I DON'T WANT TO KNOW, but I sure would like to know what it's got to do with me. "It's really not any real secret. The Navy lost a plane in the middle-east and they want to know why. There's not a lot of the plane in there, but you should see the crating. I was three thousand over gross before I put on three hundred gallons of fuel. I've been driving long enough to have paid a whole bunch of dues at these places, now it's time to collect some dividends. And these guys have just enough of a sense of humor to go along with it."

It was a Navy Captain that went into the scale house and demanded that his CARGO be released immediately. The weigh-master looked out the window and saw armed men behind both trucks, didn't say one word, and handed up both logbooks. I never crossed another scale all the way to Wisconsin. But when I got there, the sides of the trailer, just above the tandems, were beginning to curl down because of the weight. That trailer never hauled another load. The company parked it and used it to store parts in.

 

Hey Doc could you tell me what page the story is on were you helped save the little girl from getting hurt by her mothers boy friend.

 

Check this: This Just In.....

It is posted in Current Trucking Events on page 2 about half way or so down the page...

 

Now I am a new driver so I don't have many stories yet but this one happened to my co-driver. We were traveling west thru St. Louis just as the sun was beginning to set. The heavy commuter traffic coupled with the sun in our face made seeing the road difficult. The lane was going away so my co-driver had to change lanes. The wonderful road designers decided that this was also the optimum place for an on ramp. (you will see the significance of this soon) With the blinker on we slowly started to change to the right lane. About 3 miles down the road we see this white four-wheeler weaving in front of us like a crazy person. We started thinking, hijacker, guy on drugs, what? We changed lanes to get around this nut when we noticed a big dent on the side of his car that looked exactly like a tandem tire. :shock: We pulled over and the guys starts screaming you hit my car!!! In a few minutes the local police show up and directed us to a safer place to park. It seems that when we went to change lanes this guy came up the ramp, moved up to our tandems and stayed there. I have yet to figure out why he did not brake when he saw us moving into his lane. Our tandems were slid to the back and he only had to back off about 3-4 feet to keep from getting hit! No tickets were issued, (we actually had the right of way) and WE went happily on our way. The other driver wasn't so lucky since his wife was in the car. From the looks she was giving him, life was going to be very unpleasent for a long time. :twisted:

 

he was probly one of them guys that thought he saw oppertunity knocking to make a quick buck...trhought he'd be able to sue ya and get big bucks... speaking of sueing and making big bucks....anyone see that guy on headline news????the dad of the girl that got hurt by the light the balloon knocked down in the macy's parade.....he said(i have no intent on suing accidents happen this was an accident ) translated that probly means...(i have already received a large check and a larger one is not needed at this time :lol: ...i was glad to see everyone is ok....just some bruises....but poor red and yellow m&m's those guys never get a break....

thats just my 2 cents....after taxes i'll owe a nickle

 

Loading asphalt and a high wind

Back around October one of the 14 named storms paid a call on the coast of NC. I believe the name was Ophelia or, was it Oprah? Sorry!

I was dispatched to load asphalt in Wilmington, NC and transport it to Oxford, NC. Really not a bad paying load and it was a rather easy run on most occasions.

1900 arrival time and the named storm had yet to make its full presence felt as I pulled my wagon under the rack. The driver behind me was questioning all reason as to why anyone would load in a high wind, I told him it was part of the job description.

The rain was coming down horizontal as I set the meter and started loading. I will add here that the wind was strong enough to blow the dome lid back up. I got back on top of the tank to secure the lid when, a HUGE gust of wind attacked. I grabbed the safety rail to keep from becoming a human kite. The other driver swore he saw legs sticking straight out and that I looked like laundry on a clothes line.

When all had settled the control room operator came on the PA and informed me that the gust was 75mph. Real comforting, not too mention the rattling of the well frayed nerves!!

Both trucks loaded the ride to Oxford was not bad once we got away from Wilmington.
The Hurricane did hit the coast the next day with very little damage...

 

Did you set the brakes???

On the ride to Oxford the driver following me asked if I had thought about grabbing the fill pipe when the gust came up. I told him no, the thought of grabbing something that was 300 degrees was not my idea of fun however, I did tell him about a driver who grabbed a fill pipe as his truck rolled away:

Many years back I was sent to load Acetone to deliver somewhere in Pennsylvania. I pulled up behind a truck from Langer at GATX in Carteret, NJ. I will add here that the Langer driver was bound and determined to get in front of everyone, nothing new, I just finished up last minute paperwork and wrote a few more paragraphs in journal number 5.
I was just about finished with my creative writing when I heard a loud scream, I looked up and saw the Langer truck rolling away from the rack and the driver hanging on to the fill pipe. The driver waiting behind me and myself jumped out and went to help the hapless driver. I shut the emergency valve off while the other driver retrieved the runaway Mack.
GATX personnel came running and helped the poor driver off the fill pipe. Fortunately he was not hurt, he did piss his pants however!

It sure made for a fun day, didn't get to load, didn't have my camera but got to watch a major spill and what happens when a driver gets too impatient! It sure would have made a great safety film.

 

reminds me of what happened to me at a truck stop at the bottom of a Colorado mtn. Pass but I'm keeping it within for a bit longer ops:

 

while doc, magician i gotta thank ya for the good reading. think in the last few days ive fallen off my chair at least twice. Your stories make me consider doing otr instead doing regininal log run, Honestly thiers not many funny stories for what i do. best i would say is a nother guy who i work with once working about 24 hours straight ( not shure it was his 4th trip thou) and he ended up hitting a deer, while for a good laugh and since thier no such thing as cellular phones around here, he called us on the cb, while i showed up and asked what the problem was, as i saw him sitting on the ground having a power snooze, he turns aroudn and says he had a slight problem and to walk aorund the truck and take a look. As im walking around the truck (by the way its about 02:30) I walk around the frohnt of the truck expecting the somewhat normal damage broken light or something along those lines, when i walked around the front i litterly fell over laughing. while our boss paid some good money for bush guards (or as we call them cow catchers) and here as i stared at the truck all 4 hoofs of the deer planted thru the rad. i swear to god that it looked as thou the deer tried jumping off the truck. i approached dave and asked him wtf happened how fast were you going? he says witha perfectly straight face 40mph and makes a statement of now gonna give me a ride. later that afternoon witha full load and with my new co passenger we got back to the yard to inform the boss. sounds like a long time ( but takes on average 60 miuntes to load and still had 20 miles of bush road to cover before i got to the logging site. where im located is litterly in the middle of nowhere) while thats my 2 cents for a story, i thank ya for all the great laughs and looking forward to whenever the book comes out.