"Be As Shrewd As Snakes And As Innocent As Doves"

The title for this post is the New International Version's rendering of Jesus's words in Matthew 10:16.  Forgive me for taking that masterfully crafted phrase from scripture and applying it to truck driving, but a series of events took place on a recent load which somehow brought them to my mind.  More on that in a few minutes, first let me apologize to those few people who are following along in here.  I have been really busy, and I have neglected this poor blog.  I have much to share with you, but I'm hoping I don't overload you.

First off we had an eclipse last week, and you would have thought the world had nothing else going on at all with the way it was talked about everywhere and all the time!  I mean for a two minute event, it was covered 24/7 for about a week straight.  I was in Virginia headed North on I-81 during the event, but I came into a sudden thunderstorm just about the time the Sun and Moon aligned with each other, and so even though it got a little dark for a little while, it really only seemed to me as though the darkness came about from the heavy cloud cover that was associated with the sudden rain storm I was going through.  It all took place very anticlimactically for me.  Just to give you an idea of the hype that was going on over this event, I ate breakfast the morning of the fateful day at a Denny's restaurant down in Wytheville, Virginia and here is an advertisement I found displayed on my table...

I was asked to rescue a load that had been abandoned by another driver during the week of the eclipse.  It seems the other driver fell out of his truck, and was now sitting at home on workman's comp.  I think I have shared this in here before, but falling out of the truck is one of the most common injurious accidents that happens to truck drivers.  This driver has been a "problem child" according to my dispatcher, and even though he came over to our fleet as an experienced driver, my dispatcher told me that he has yet to deliver a load on time during the first three weeks of his tenure with us.  Just prior to this accident, my dispatcher had requested permission to fire the driver, but the terminal manager said to give the guy some more time to prove himself.  So now he is recovering at home, and getting paid for it while I am out here trying to straighten out the mess that he left me to deal with.

When you rescue a load, especially a flat-bed load, you need to check the cargo and make sure it is safe for travel.  This one was definitely not secured properly, and it had already shifted to the point where I couldn't even get the Conestoga cover open because the freight was pushing against the side of it so tightly that it wouldn't slide open.  I had to spend several hours prying the curtain open with my breaker bar that we use to tighten the winches with.  Once I got it open I found out why it had shifted.  The front section of freight bundles were 24 foot lengths, and there was two straps on them right out in the middle of the bundles.  That means that the driver had roughly about 10,000 pounds working load limit in the securement devices he was using on about two times that amount of weight!  He really should have had about five straps on that section of the load.  Here is what happened to his load - take a look at this bundle on the very bottom of the stack.  It has collapsed, and therefore shifted the whole load above it into a dangerous situation...

Here is another look at it from a slightly different angle which gives you an idea of how far out it has shifted.  If you look at the bundles behind that section, it should be lined up with those.  When it was first loaded they lined up properly, but as you can see it has shifted a good six to eight inches to the left...

I added three more straps to that section, and three more to the rest of the load just to get it safe, but I still have the problem in that front section of the bundle at the bottom that has already failed.  When I take the straps off of that front section it is likely to fall right off the truck, and possibly onto me!  One of the issues with these multi-stop flat-bed loads is that you have got to remove and replace the straps at the various stops along the way so that folks can unload their freight from the top, and then you re-secure what is underneath it.  This load really should have also had what we call some belly straps on it, but that should have been done while it was being loaded.  There is no way to do it now, and to be honest with you, the load is not technically legal the way it is done.  A "belly strap" is just a strap that you would put across the load once you have stacked it three pieces high.  That way the driver can take off the straps over the whole load, and the lower section will remain secure while the material off of the top is being removed.  I was able to sort of winch the load over a little bit with my straps and winches just enough so that I was able to open and close the Conestoga cover with only a small amount of pry bar work.

One more look at the opposite side of the load here and I think it will be obvious to you how it is leaning to the other side...

Here is what happened when I removed the straps at my first stop in Connecticut, a machine shop called "Reed and Stefanow."  I've always thought that name sounded more like a Law Firm than a machine shop, but I digress.  As you can see I had to make a run for my life when I loosened the final strap from that section of freight.  It immediately came crashing down!  Thankfully the fork lift operator helped me to get it re-stacked and I was able to keep it moving onto it's final destination where they didn't seem to be too concerned after I told them it had already fallen off the truck, but I put it back on so I could deliver it to them.  They didn't even put anything down on my paper work about it possibly being damaged!

Okay, before I move onto the next adventure which gave me reason to title this post as I did, let me share just a couple of other things with you.  Life on the road is a visual menagerie of many things, and I try to document some of it for the folks who read this silly stuff I write down.  While I was on this trip, I stopped at "Uncle Pete's" truck stop cafe, a place that I've only visited once before, many years ago.  It is near Lebanon, Tennessee and it has a collection of coffee cups lining the walls.  I asked the waitress if she knew how many coffee cups there were on the wall, and she declared emphatically that there were 6,500 of them, as if she once had to dust them all off one time!  Take a look at what I could see from my table...

Here at "Uncle Pete's" truck stop they also sell some Barbecue sauce that I have been a little afraid to try.  If they hadn't given it such an incriminating name, I might have been tempted to make a purchase.  I do love barbecuing, and I have been known to experiment with sauces I find along my journeys, but the name on this one was just a little too daunting for me to part with my money and give it a try...

Okay, I have seriously squandered your time in here, so let's get down to the meat and potatoes of this post...

The back haul load I had after running this wonky jonked load up into Connecticut was interesting and educational for the folks who want to learn the secrets of success out here on the road.

The back haul loads for this dedicated account are not set up by my regular dispatcher. There is a group of folks (planners) in the corporate office in Phoenix that are dedicated to finding us back haul loads. These planners don't really take into consideration some of the many things that can go wrong out here, and they have typically already set my appointments long before I even have gotten the load info. That can be a good thing, because they don't really allow you much wiggle room, and that way you are constantly turning the big miles. You really don't want to let them down, or else you start sitting longer and waiting for loads. That is not their fault, they only have your track record to go by when assigning loads to drivers.

So here's how this one played out. My first stop is in Cressona, PA, where I am supposed to have a pre-loaded trailer waiting on me. Surprise! It wasn't ready. I got a ten hour break in while waiting here at this stop, and by the time they did get my load ready to go I needed to run the five hundred and twenty five miles to my fuel stop location and then take my next ten hour break there before proceeding to the customer for unloading. This fuel stop location is 30 to 40 minutes away from my next stop, which is a customer that I have visited before, so I know that they don't allow over night parking on the premises. It is 2200 (10:00 p.m.) when I am able to put my logs onto the sleeper berth line at my fuel stop. My appointment in the morning is at 0900. After running the 525 miles and stopping at my fuel stop for my break I am 45 minutes away from the customer, so I am going to sleep here and then roll out in the morning. There are several real problems with all this. My second stop for the day is 115 miles away and my appointment there is at 1100 and they stop receiving at noon. That is a problem. I can just barely make the 0900 appointment if I spend ten hours in the sleeper, and even though I can do that, there will be a minimum of an hour before they are done unloading me with those slow overhead cranes they use at this particular location. It is going to be impossible to make the second appointment! So... what are you to do?

The beauty of running these dedicated accounts is that I am familiar with these customers, and often times they are familiar with me. One thing often times misunderstood by professional drivers is the importance of being friendly and helpful, all while putting the icing on the cake with a perfect service record. Remember, your record of performance is critical to your success out here. You can be the friendliest nicest person in the world, but if you don't couple that with a competitive performance record you still don't have any advantages. I have often had customers do things for me that would be very much out of the ordinary, just because they not only know me, but because they appreciate they way that I sometimes go out of my way to serve their needs. I have that track record established not only with my dispatcher , but also with my customers. I know that sometimes this customer will receive you at 0700 if you are there at the gate and ready to go. They start setting their appointments at 0800, but if you are the type who is a "go getter" and you are set up and ready when they show up, they will get you in the gate and get started on you. That is my plan as I start this day, but wait... if I spend ten hours in the sleeper that means that I can't even get started until 0800! This is why you want to...

Learn The Log Book Rules

I have got to get unloaded early at that first stop for the day if I even have a prayer of making it to the second stop in time to get unloaded on the same day. I have been three years on this account without one service failure, and I am not about to get one now just because one of my stops was late in having my pre-loaded trailer ready to go.

Here is where my knowledge of the Log Book Rules saved my bacon on this load. I can finesse a split sleeper berth maneuver into this scenario and make everything look like it was a piece of cake! Here's how it worked. I logged myself on duty after eight hours in the sleeper and I had almost two hours on my eleven hour clock and just a little more on my 14 hour clock. Bingo, I can roll over to my customer after logging my fifteen minute pre-trip inspection and I get there at 0645. Hey, wait just a minute! There are two other flat-bed trucks ahead of me. There's a Montgomery driver sitting at the gate, and a Melton driver right behind him. I am third in line - Oh Boy, not what I was planning on.

Seven o'clock gets here and they open the gate. The Montgomery driver rolls in, and I go ahead and get out of my truck to walk in and check in with them. The fellow inside tells me I will have to wait for the other two guys ahead of me, and I say, "I understand that, but is it okay for me to go ahead and pull in the gate and start getting my straps loose and my Conestoga ready?" "Yes sir, by all means," is his reply. As I'm walking back to my truck I can see that the Melton driver hasn't budged yet, so I go over to his door to let him know that he can go ahead and roll on in. The truth is that I am trying to move every thing along so that I can get myself unloaded quicker. What I find upon getting to his door is that he has his curtains drawn shut and he is oblivious to what is going on out here.  This business is very competitive, but you don't have to wake up your competition, fix them a nice breakfast and tell them it's time to pull on your boots and get to work. No sir, out here if you snooze you lose! I rolled right on around that guy and got myself inside the gate, and parked behind the Montgomery driver.

I had my Conestoga cover loosened up and ready to open, and all my straps loose before the Montgomery driver had even finished getting the bungees off his tarps. So, in order to keep things moving along, I went right over and started helping him get his tarps off and folded. Once we had his tarps folded, I headed back to my truck as he profusely thanked me for my help and I sat down to wait my turn. About ten minutes later the Montgomery driver comes over to my door, dragging a strap that he is rolling up, and asks me, "Sir are you waiting on me to get inside the building?" "Yes sir, I am," I reply. To which he says, "Well you go on ahead of me, I sure do appreciate you helping me, and I still have forty five minutes worth of work to do before I will be ready to go inside.  It looks like you and that fancy roller system of yours are ready to go." It is at this point that I start thinking about that phrase in the Bible that I titled this with.  I shrewdly used the rules to get in here early, then I had to be a little shrewd to get past old "Sleepyhead" at the gate, and I was innocently helpful with the Montgomery driver, who kindly allowed me to go on in and get started on the unloading process. After I got inside the building and they were almost finished unloading me, the Melton driver came to consciousness and looked bewildered that I, the third driver in line, was the first one out of that place!

When they got done with me and I had everything put away and ready to roll, I had been on the sleeper berth (Waiting to be unloaded) for one hour and fifty nine minutes! One more minute and my two hours was up, and Bingo - I now have 10.5 hours on my clock. I made it to my next appointment ten minutes ahead of schedule, and then had plenty of drive time to keep running after they finished me up.

I share these stories of success with you in the hopes that for those of you who are aspiring truck drivers, a light bulb will go off as you read them. I was recently both humbled and happy to see where one of the Moderators at TruckingTruth.com, Rainy D, gave me the credit for much of her success, and attributed her ability to manage her time efficiently by reading and learning from the things that I share.