When I first went otr we hauled 2 secret service vehicles from Davis Monthan AFB, Tucson, to FBI facility in Quantico, VA. The boys who loaded in Tucson chocked the wheels, nailed to the bed but didn't set the brake or put it in park after maneuvering the suburbans into place. All was fine until VA where I came around a tight corner and the trucks were lined up for the scale. I slowed abruptly and heard a crunch come from the trailer. When I got out to inspect, the trailer nose was pushed out and the vehicles were piled up in the nose. Fortunately for me the suburbans were surrounded by a tubing cage welded to the frame. When I dropped them in Qauntico they didn't say boo.
I learned about double checking my load.

 

they didn't tie them down from the frame of the cars? They just used wheel chalks?

 

nope, thats how we hauled sprinter vans if they were hauled in trailers. they drove them up set wood blocks and nailed them. of course we at least had the parking brake on.

 

Weird isn't really a good word - interesting is more appropriate.

I once hauled a load from Miami to Tampa that filled a 53'er and it weighed in at just over 500 lbs. It was the filter material that goes in the household air filters. 6' tall rolls that weighed about 15 lbs each.

I remember a story in my first orientation class at May. The guy told me about walking back to his truck at a truck stop and saw this guy crying. He asked what was wrong. The guy just opened the back of his trailer and it was full of broken cardboard boxes containing burst potato chip bags, and potato chips everywhere. Evidently this guy who picked up the load somewhere up in New England was routed down I-95, then along I-10, and then up I-5 in California to Sacramento or somewere. Turns out this guy said "screw that, I'm going I-80. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, the dispatchers are correct - i guess. :hellno:

 

Well, this isn't the strangest load delivered, but rather the strangest box delivered. I knew this was bound to happen, given the way our trailers get loaded. At my first stop of the week, in Princeton, WV, I was sorting through the boxes of stuff that were loaded on top of the rolltainers, and one fell rather lightly onto the floor. It was marked "Empty Pallet Filler" or something like that. I just threw it onto the sidewalk and thought nothing of it, since it was so light. When I took into the store and showed it to the store manager, I noticed the label on it (Every case of freight we deliver to stores has a label on it, with store number, product description, and other info). It said "Always Tampon Display." The box was empty. Maybe that was one of the reasons why product fell out of the trailer when I opened the doors...

 

I took 6000 gallons of cow teat sanitizer up to a farm in Wisconsin, does that count ?

 

... and now that's an everyday thing, eh?

 

Once my co-driver and I had to pick up a load of women's undergarments from Vanity Fair in GA. Not really strange, but interresting. On my log sheets, I listed my cargo as "Panties"

 

Not really a strange load per se, but distance travelled with such low value load was perplexing; picked up polystyrene packaging(you know those corner pieces, protecting a new tv or pc) in Bo'ness, Scotland and took them to Santa Palomba di Roma, Italy.
Return load was flat pack kitchens(****e and cheap) so no money to be made there either
Transport management? Could not arrange a pish up in a brewery

Hope link works. My destination was on 'Via Ardeatina' which is on this map. Huge I.B.M factory there

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&...ed=0CB0Q8gEwAA

Just checked on google maps and a comparable journey in the U.S would be something like San Antonio to Washington DC

 

Besides the criminals that I haul, LOL, I have transported a Barbary Coast Lion cub in the backseat of my police car. And for those that ask why I am here, I used to drive a straight truck delivering ice (20+years ago) and hope to get my CDL in a year or two when I retire. Trying to get some inside knowledge of the business.