Day ten

We get into our destination and everything goes smoothly getting our load of paper rolls delivered. There's quite a few other drivers and trucks from my company there getting unloaded and I stop and chat with a few of them. I enjoy getting to meet the other drivers and can quickly recognize which ones get it and which ones don't. One was a "super trucker" complaining to me how slow one of the other drivers was about getting his load ready to be unloaded, another was quiet and unassuming. I went over to meet the fellow that "super trucker" was griping about, and found out that he was only on his third solo delivery. I talked with him a few moments to encourage him and see if there was any thing I could help him with. He was really almost finished and rolling his last few straps up, but saw my daughter using my strap roller and wanted to know where I got it - apparently he was unaware there was such a thing.

There is a camaraderie among flat-bedders that I enjoy - it's not what it used to be years ago, but there is still some evidence of it remaining, and it's one of the reasons I was drawn to flat-bedding. As I close out this final addition to this thread I'll return to this thought and share with you some of the reasons I chose to be a flat-bedder.

Do you remember when you were a kid how exciting it was to get to tear the paper off those Christmas presents? And if you got a really large present it made it that much more thrilling? Well as a flat-bedder you sometimes get to start your day doing just that. I'm saying all this because my friend Daniel B. kind of made a joke the other day in reference to flat-bedders having to wrap up their freight like it was a big old Christmas present. Well anything that has to be wrapped also has to be unwrapped. Now I realize that only a fellow flat-bedder understands my sentiments about this job, but I really do enjoy what I do and take a great deal of pride in how it's done. Very few dry van haulers, or refrigerated drivers understand this, and of course that's why they don't want to have anything to do with it, and there's nothing wrong with that. There's a popular song out now that says something like "ever since the beginning, to keep the world spinning it takes all kinds of kinds."

Here's a few photos of me unwrapping a very large "present".

Of course after you get finished tearing those presents open, you've got to clean up the area and put the wrapping paper away, it's just part of the job.

The flat-bedder usually gets to tell the loaders how he wants his trailer loaded. Things like where the load is centered, and how it should be stacked, or which pieces need to be loaded first are all things that the driver responsible for the load gets to have his say about. Not many dry van or refrigerated loads have that privilege - no you usually just have to take what you get. Of course we have to wait for live loads while the other guys may get quite a few drop and hooks. Each of the different forms of freight have their positives and negatives, but it's funny how in this business one person sees something as a positive while another sees the very same thing as a negative. It's a diverse industry with a diverse group of people comprising a very large group of people that are professional drivers.

Remember when I told you I requested my DM to try and get me to Texas so that I could get my daughter home? Well, he came through! Just as we got our paper rolls unloaded in Bridgeport Alabama my qualcomm received a message telling us to deadhead over to a Nucor Steel plant in Tuscaloosa Alabama to pick up a load of 8' x 55' steel plates bound for Fort Worth Texas. It isn't always that easy, but this time he really came through for me in a pinch. We do each other favors. That's the way a driver keeps up a good relationship with his DM. I go out of my way for him when he needs me to, and he will do the same for me because he knows that I am willing to help him when needed. If you don't cultivate this type of relationship with your DM you are only hurting yourself and making your job more difficult.

Our route took us through a scenic area on the outskirts of the smoky mountains which made this last leg of our journey together very rewarding in it's own way. My daughter snapped photos along the way of the scenery that she found interesting.

Okay, in order to complete this I will have to continue on another page.