I would have done the same thing Novacane did, stop and get the sign.
One, you won't have to worry about getting stopped somewhere else by another DOT and them giving you a ticket for it.
Two, I would not take the chance that the DOT lady is just bluffing you. Is it worth a ticket over a $20 sign??

 

I really enjoy reading your posts Novacane. It's good to hear your getting more miles now.

 

Did Roehl forget to mention this to ya? Right off their web site....think you stayin' out of the Rockies for 90% of the time. :wink:

 

Yet another decent day. But that is about all I can say! Nothing really happened, just driving enjoying the mile markers passing by and the country behind them with all this perfect weather.

I got within an hour of my consignee, I was really wanting to deliver a day early, but I ran out of daylight, oh well, I have 3 hours to make a 1 hour trip. The door I had to bungee closed did well all day today, so that was cool.

I stopped at a flying hook to shut down for the night, but when I went to park, there were 3 trucks parked illegally, even though there was about 40 spaces left, most of them being easy "pull through" spaces, don't know why they were there.

But they were blocking the isle just enough that nobody could get through. Now this wouldn't have been a big deal, except that trucks pulling around the lot had to back up, and turn around instead of following the "road" through the parking lot, and when you have 3 trucks backing and trying to turn around all at the same time, well you can imagine, plus add to that the fact that there was a line of trucks waiting on them to move.

Well, by the time I got around to them, and realized what was going on(I was second in line) there was so many trucks behind me that we couldn't do anything. I get on the cb, "hey, driver, can you pull around and park somewhere else, you are blocking the road" and of course there was no answer. I wait and wait, and watch the parking lot start to fill up, no don't get me wrong, there is still PLENTY of parking left, so I wasn't worried or anything.

We(about 3 of us) sat there waiting for them to move about 5 minutes, and it was obvious it wasn't going to happen. So you got people on the cb talking trash, "I outta go up there and teach him a lesson" type stuff. But finally I had to go up myself and get the job done. The first 2 trucks were nice about it, they had been there since early in the am, and were asleep(they weren't blocking that bad) and had no problem pulling around.

But the 3rd was a real pain in the neck. I knocked on the door, and he came up, "what the he!! do you want" I asked if he could pull around and grab a spot, since he was blocking the way around. "I have been here since this morning and nobody has complained yet" I said that is probably because there hasn't been much traffic through, but now the lot is starting to fill up, and there is no other way around.

"Well, I ain't moving, and if you knock on the door again I will call the police" I said go ahead and call them, in fact that sounds like a good idea, I would love to hear their thoughts on your choice of parking when the lot was half empty. He decided to pull around and grab a legal place to park.

Now, I understand that sometimes you have to park where your not "supposed" to, even I have done it, but not when there was plenty of parking left. I was never rude, I simply asked if he could park in a place that wasn't blocking us coming through. I may not park in a specified for parking space 100% of the time, but I would never park where I was blocking traffic, that's just asking for a newbie to come along and tear the corner off your truck or trailer, and I believe I would be at fault in that situation, although I am not for sure.

Anyway, he moved and me and all the trucks behind me were parked in just a minute. No matter how nice you try to be, someone will almost always take offense to something you do, oh well, such is life, lol.

But that little thing was the highlight of my day, the most exciting thing to happen all day! Well, I take that back, I did have a moment where I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest, and this leads me to a question.

I was coming up on a weigh station, and noticed that the ramp was full, and trucks were on the shoulder. I didn't think it was safe to stop, so I kept going. As I passed I saw a officer going out to get in his car, and oh man, I almost died! I thought great, now here comes all the bad luck to even out the good luck I have been having here lately. But I never seen him again, so it turned out ok.

I am on the fence about the "proper" thing to do. On one hand it's the law to stop, but on the other, it wasn't safe. Do I sacrifice safety to obey the law? What if I had pulled on the shoulder, and someone hit me, I would probably get in trouble for that. On the other hand, if I am being safe, and passed it, I could be in trouble for that to.

I don't mind passing the scales when they have a sign telling you to bypass when the ramp is full, but this one didn't say that. So what would you all do, sacrifice safety for the law, or vice versa. I figured better to be safe than sorry, then if I got a ticket, when I went to court, I could explain what I did, and why I did it, and surely a judge would see that I was in the right. But with the way people are looking at truck drivers now a days, I don't know.

Just to add to the story, the station was around a curve, and I really thought that the first truck I seen on the shoulder was broke down, so I planned on passing him and stopping for the scales. It was after I passed him, and seen further around the curve that I realized he was the last truck in line, and he had his flashers on not because he was broke down, but because he was on the shoulder.

(boy for nothing to have happend, I sure did write a lot!)

 

I was taught if they are stacked up down the shoulder/on the road you can go around unless......you are in VA then you best be going through. VA doesn't care how far back you are stacked up or on the road....best be running across their scales.

 

Got that right BB. Though of late I'm not sure if VA has gotten lax on that or suddenly have Pre-Pass or what. I have noticed a lot of trucks going North and South on 95 at the 153 just blowing right by in the center and right lanes. Ramp isn't back up either. I thought maybe it was local drivers, but nope, it's every company out there hammering right on by.

 

Well, today was just ok, but it had the potential to be VERY bad. I got and running early as usual, and had the load at the consignee by 7:30 even though I was scheduled for a 10am arrival, so here I am ahead of schedule, cool. 8)

After I am finished up, dispatch says bobtail about 55 miles away to pick up a empty trailer, we will call this trailer one. I was to take it about 80 miles to another place to get loaded. Ok, here we go, I make my way there, find the trailer, hook up, and head to my shipper to get loaded. All is well.

I make it there, drop the trailer off so it can be getting loaded while I go and pick up another empty, lets see, what can we call this one, hmmm, how about trailer two, has a ring don't it? :wink:

I am to take this trailer to the same place as trailer one. I get back to the shipper, and they have one loaded, so I need to secure it, and take it back to the place where I picked up BOTH trailers about 80 miles away, so another driver could pick it up as a relay load.

But there is a snag here, you see I have 3 hours left of my day, and the 80 mile trip is on 2 lane highways going through small towns, 55 mph with 35 mph zones in the numerous towns, with all the red lights, well, you guys know. So this trip is a hour and 45 min trip, which means I won't be able to make it to the place, and return to pick up two.

I tell the shipper that I won't be able to get everything done, he says that Roehl said the trailers will be moved by today, and I have until midnight to get them off the property, or he would "fire" Roehl. Uh oh, so after hearing this, I call dispatch and ask what to do.

I tell them that I will have to drive illegally to make it, and they say that I can't do that. But at the same time, they say they don't want to lose this place as a client because they do major business with Roehl. So on one hand, I have a person telling me to move the stuff by midnight, which I can't do legally, and on the other hand Roehl is saying don't lose this client, but don't drive illegal either. Do ya see where this is going?

Dispatch hatches a plan to move trailer two to a field across the street to park it to get it off the property. Then I could hook to one, re-secure it, take it to the place 80 miles away, spend the night, come back here in the morning, secure two which will be off the property parked in the field, and then head home with this load due in Marshfield next week.

Ok, I had already been working on one, and was almost finished with it, but I had to pull everything back off to secure two so I could move it to the field before I head for my 80 mile trip.

So I pull everything off one, and start securing two. Bad news, they way they have the trailer loaded, my chains aren't long enough to make it work, so I pull everything off again, and have them reload it. Well, this eats up my time for the day, now I can't make it to drop the trailer off to be relayed, without doing it WAY illegally.

I try to talk with the shipper again, but he won't budge, and says he wants the trailers off the property. I asked him if he would get fired if I didn't get it done, he says nope, but my boss said to get them moved, so that's what I am doing. I say well, then it sounds like I need to talk with you're boss.

Well, I have been to this place many times in the past, but this guy was a new foreman(only days on the job according the guys hanging around) and not the usual one I am used to dealing with and talk with on a friendly level.(this will come into play later in the novel)

So here I am with 2 trailers needing to be moved, neither of them are secured. So I figure I will just move both trailers to the field, and spend the night there. But there is another problem, turns out the field is more of a swamp, and there is no doubt I will sink immediately and be stuck adding to all the other problems.

So I am stumped, ready to give up, I am darned if I do, and darned if I don't. Either drive illegally and go against what Roehl specifically told me not to do, or park in a swamp and know I will be stuck, or leave the trailers there and possibly lose a really good customer. Ah, decisions, decisions, decisions.

Well, then a shining ray of hope shows up, the old foreman whom I am friendly with(I think he likes my cell phone holder) turns out to be the boss! He got promoted, and the other guy took his place, so that is why he wasn't there like usual. I tell him the whole story and he says he will see what he can do.

He calls his boss, and asks him if he wants to pay the tow bill for the truck and trailers because if I move them to the field, I will get stuck. His boss says he doesn't want to pay for a tow, and tells him to take care of it. So he gets off the phone, and tells me he will go crunch some numbers and be right back.

True to his word, 10 minutes later he comes walking up, and asks if I can secure trailer 2 and get to a local truckstop less than 10 minutes away. Well, since I had been securing two this whole time, I was almost finished and said that it would be no problem. He says ok, just take two and leave one, and the other driver can come pick it up tomorrow, cool 8)

Come to find out, the first foreman didn't even have the authority to "fire" Roehl, and his boss laughed that he would say that. He said, he can't do that, I would have to, and I wouldn't do that, so don't worry. Turns out they need the trailer moved because they are doing inventory, and if the material is on the property, whether it's loaded on a trailer or not, it has to be counted and included in the inventory, even though it shouldn't be there. Plain and simple it would have been a lot of extra paperwork.

So in the end I lost 160 miles, but I didn't have to do anything illegal, unsafe, or go against Roehls policies, so I consider it a decent trade. I'm just glad I keep my cell phone in my bra for safe keeping. :wink:

 

Sounded like one fun day. Good job, especially not running illegal or any of that. Least the boss showed up to help out. BOL

Skills

 

Novacane,,, I'm LMAO :lol: here,, just how big is your "Cell Phone Holder"??? You know your starting to tranish that chior girl image I had of you :shock: !!!!! LOL,,,,

 

MORE PICS! :P