Cool Loads

We just delivered a few race engines to Toyota Racing Development in California, which got me thinking of some of the neat loads we have hauled.  We have hauled  envelopes to our box being completely full of tires.  We have hauled many things that have made us laugh and wonder why.

We delivered motors today which are slated to go in Michael Waltrip's car and also the Red Bull racing car.  We have hauled one pallet of pineapple chunks to a Dominoes Pizza warehouse, an 8 lb box of air conditioning parts for a school rebuilding project, we have hauled one microwave, and we have hauled equipment worth several thousand dollars.  The one common theme on anything we hauled is the freight is all treated the same.  Each piece is loaded onto our truck as if it is worth a million dollars and is very fragile.   Each of our customers consider their freight the most important event happening and that freight is somewhere quick.

We consider it our job to get their freight to the final destination in a quick and safe manner.

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Wind Wind Wind

We have been enjoying the sunny warm California weather for the past few weeks, but our luck has ended. We have been in the wind and the rain lately. We accepted a load leaving the Los Angeles area going up north and have had to leave with the roads flooded.

Wind and ice are two of the worst weather conditions for me out here on the road.

We left our customers in the pouring down rain and headed for I-5 but first we had to maneuver some very flooded side roads.  It appeared as if the storm drains were actually pumping the water out of them as they could not handle anymore water.  The sides of the streets had rivers that actually had what looked like some pretty severe rapids in them.  We finally made it to the Grapevine and started up over the pass.  Luckily all that we had on the pass was rain and no wind or snow.  We delivered our load up north in Eureka, CA and headed back down south towards Sacramento.  I felt lucky as when I came back I saw there had been some snow, but the roads were clear.  They we took a short load heading south and boy did we hit the wind.  Saw a few trailers that were laid over in the ditches and sure wished our load weighed more.  The wind really rocks the truck as other trucks go by and tries to pull you into them and then they get past and then they get past and the wind hits you again.  We made it through and delivered our load, and then off we went to a truck stop to wait out the storm.
 
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Stress

 My stress level starts to go up when we are on our way to pickup or unload for a customer. How hard with the customer be to find? Do we have accurate directions on roads a truck is legal to drive on? Are there low tree branches or overpasses?


We are constantly looking for new customers in a new town that we are not familiar with.  As I start to pull off of the ramp into a new I am watching my GPS for the next turn.  I am watching the road in front of me for the turning lanes.  If there are two turning lanes, I want to be in the outside lane so I can swing wide to make the turn.  I am also watching the traffic patterns, how narrow the lanes will be, how close are the signs and the trees to the street?  If the limbs of the trees are too low they can damage the truck or even poke a hole in the box.  then as we get closer to the customer, we start looking for what we hope we will find - the shipping and receiving sign with the customers name on it.  What often happens is there is an unmarked driveway and then the building with the name of the company.  We then know we have just missed the driveway to the docks and now we have to find a safe place to turn around and try the approach again.  Once we are on the customers property we still have to keep our guard up as some of the places have forklifts zipping all over the place.  Then we have to look for the shipping and receiving door that is often unmarked and we just have to start guessing which door to try.  We then are assigned a dock to back into and once we are backing into the dock we can breathe a sigh of relief till we take off for our next destination!

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Truck meets Plane

We finally had our first load where we were able to unload directly into a charter jet! One of the bonuses of having a lift gate and pallet jack is we were also able to save the day as there were no forklifts in the area to move our freight to the plane.

We picked up two skids that needed to be on the other side of the country ASAP and we needed to meet a charter jet. The charter jet was coming from miles away and we only had a few miles to go. We made it to the small airport and we were able to watch the planes coming and going. When our plane arrived we backed up to the loading door of the plane with our lift gate lowered and in the proper position to move the freight from the truck to the plane. The jet was really tight in the cargo bay area so our pallet jack was on no use except in the truck. We were able to get the pallet to the door and then they used their J bar and man power to move the pallet into place and secure the pallet within the plane. It was very interesting to talk to the pilots about their jobs and compare notes with what we do. We had fun with this load and the challenge of moving the freight from our truck to the cargo hold of the plane.

Middle of the night!

The phone rings at three in the morning and it is our custom ring for FedEx Custom Critical with a ASAP pickup and delivery. In ten minutes we wake up, get dressed, get our load information, get in the drivers seat, get our drivers logs updated, fill out our paperwork and get rolling.


t is a rude wake-up when the phone is ringing like that, but we are in the business of ASAP freight so we know we have to wake up fast and get moving. We each know what our job is to get the truck rolling and to the customers dock. Later we can take care of details. We do not get middle of the night loads often which is a good thing but we are prepared when the call comes in. This morning it was an air freight load which has a little more stress as we know we are going to have to a meet a plane and the plane does not really care about road conditions. We will have this load picked up and delivered within two hours of getting the call and and then we go back in service to wait for that next beep of the QUALCOMM. At night we change how we receive our load notifications to have our phone ring as we do not hear the beep of the QUALCOMM when we are asleep.

Just another reminder that while we are asleep the world is still hard at work and at any time they might need an expedite truck to help them out.


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Versatile Rice Cooker

My rice cooker is about worn out from being used almost daily in the truck. The rice cooker has maybe steamed rice twice in its lifetime. I use the rice cooker as a fry pan, a sauce pan, to bake with, and a steamer. It is an amazing piece of equipment in the truck.



The rice cooker a 2 qt Teflon lined with a high/warm switch. This can make cooking a few things a little tricky. I have used the rice cooker to first boil water and then cook my spaghetti noodles. Then if I need to I can brown some hamburger or sausage to add to my spaghetti sauce. I then heat the spaghetti sauce and pour over the cooked spaghetti. I have also made scalloped potatoes and ham which turned out very good. I cook a lot of fish in the rice cooker. I first brown the salmon, grouper, or tilapia and then put a little lemon juice on the fish, I then layer as much fresh spinach as I can on top and let all of this steam. After I finish cooking I add water to the pot, add a little dish soap and heat the cooker up. Wal-ha, a ready made pan to wash my dishes in hot water and then rinse. The rice cooker is very easy to wash and then dry off and put away till the next meal. The rice cooker has made Bob and I a lot of very tasty meal and it will continue to do so.

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Hurry Up and Wait

We often arrive at the consignee before they arrive at work or before our freight is ready. We are given a pickup time and if we are fifteen minutes late we can be dinged with a service failure. If we get a few service failures we can have our lease terminated. We are very careful about this as a matter of pride and customer service. Patience is essential when dealing with some of our customers as the product is often just being made or they are waiting on the correct paperwork. This is where having nice accommodations in the truck makes the wait much easier. I can easily cook a meal, we can watch a movie, work on the computer, or just read a book. Once loaded and we call in our departure call the adventure begins.

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Alarms at Night

The cold air really affects our tires and once we installed the Pressure Pro air monitoring system this lesson was really driven home. The Pressure Pro system had a very loud, obnoxious alarm that goes off when the air pressure get below twenty-five percent of the normal air pressure. The cold air really effects the air in the tires and this usually does not happen until about four in the morning. I then have to leap out of bed and open the curtains (we have curtains to keep the warm air inside the sleeper) and enter the freezing cab and unplug the Pressure Pro. By the time I return to bed, I am almost frozen. The temperature has to be very cold for this phenomenon to happen and luckily we are not often sleeping in this severe of weather. The alarm is very obnoxious, but the purpose for the Pressure Pro makes the leap out of bed worth it. The peace of mind of having this system coupled with the wide based singles makes all of this worth it.

If you are interested, here is the Pressure Pro web site:

http://www.tirepressuremonitor.com/

Pre Assignment for Monday

We were able to stop and see family wintering in Yuma, AZ. We were able to pull the truck right up to their camper which was really nice. They took us around town and showed us what snow birds do in the winter. We attended a HUGE flea market which I had never done before. It is an amazing place. We also went and checked out the RC Airplane Airfield with which they are heavily involved with. I can see why after coming from the cold of the Midwest they enjoy their time in Yuma as much as they do. As usual though our truck drew a lot of attention and many of the neighbors stopped by for a tour of the truck and to ask a lot of questions. A few of them wanted additional information on expediting and how to get into the trucking industry. We always keep extra copies of the Expedite Now magazine to hand out in these situations. We always enjoy showing off our truck and listening to new acquaintances on their amazement at how many miles are on the truck (696,000), how many miles are on our rear tires or drive tires (331,000). We will continue south on Sunday and have heard that another one of our trucking friends is picking up a load at the same location we are, so we plan on spending the evening with them- once again proving what a fun and goofy life style we lead.

Warm Weather

As we sit in Arizona in the warmth and talk to family in the Saint Louis area and they are talking snow, blizzard conditions and frigid cold we are truly glad to be out of that area. We were able to get our truck washed at the Triple T truck stop in Tucson AZ. The truck had so much road salt on it if you got near the truck you had white on your sleeves or whatever got close. The truck looked so much better all clean and shiny once again and it sure felt nice to not get out of the truck and not think your nose was going to freeze off before you get inside the truck stop. I was able to get outside and enjoy a nice walk today. We also found out we are not picking up our load till Monday so we are able to enjoy the weekend and stop and see family in Yuma. We also on the weekends have to catch up on laundry and odds and ends that need to be done on truck so we are ready for another week.

Family Member

We can see the truck sitting out by the shop from our front door and we are constantly reminded that due to our truck we are able to have our fun. We are proud of our truck and what we do for a living so we enjoy seeing it in the background of many of our pictures. Often we are asked how the truck is doing. Seems as we are not the only ones who think of the truck as a member of the family. We receive comments regarding how good the truck looks for its age. It really has aged well and shows how careful we are. As we meet new friends and they view the truck they ask us about the age of the truck and are amazed that the truck is 5 years old and has almost 700,000 miles. I have to write the truck has been good to us. For me the truck inspires confidence as it is easy to see out of the windshield and over the short sloped hood. The height of the truck makes it very easy to see over cars and so my visibility when driving is awesome. The mirrors are also placed well and easy to adjust so I can see all that is beside me or behind me. The truck has an automatic transmission and so you push a button and off we go. I have now become so accustomed to driving the truck a small car scares me. Instead of looking eye to eye with other trucks I see under them. We finally sold our car and bought a pickup which is much easier to drive in traffic. The truck is looked on fondly as it sits out in the cold waiting for us to finally come out and of the house and head it on down the road like it was built to do.
I am sure the truck will end up in many more of our “family” pictures and we continue to enjoy seeing the country through our trucks windshield!

Fisrt Load Out

We typically get load offers in the afternoon when someone figures out they are short on a much needed item. We had the truck loaded with all of the essential but we still needed to gather the last minute items. When the call came and we accepted the load we both hit the ground at a dead run trying to gather last minute things. In our mad dash I forgot the book I was reading, one headset charger and some awesome flavored vinegars I had purchased. If you could watch what happens after I hang up the phone from getting a load you would just have to laugh as we both go dashing about. After all of this time we do each know what we need to grab so we do not trip over each other as much as we used to. We finally made it to the truck loaded down with our last minute items and just threw them on the bed. It is now time to get the load information, get the GPS programmed, get the log books up to date and get on down the road to the shipper. The freight was ready but we had 196 miles to drive before we got there. After we arrive at our pickup I start putting the last minute things that were thrown onto the bed and try to make some semblance of order in the truck. By the time we are loaded and on the way to our delivery we are pretty much organized. After the first load we are back in truck mode and ready to make some money!

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Keep the sleeper warm while home

We have learned when we are at home that we need to keep the sleeper from freezing. It is pretty amazing how fast the temperature in our sleeper can drop below the freezing point. Bob spreads out an extension cord to a space heater in the truck from the shop. He then lifts up the bed and also opens the cupboard that has our water pump stored. We also fill our water tank as full as possible when we get home. The little space heater will just keep the sleeper above freezing and keeps everything in good working order. When on the road we do not have this problem as we keep the generator set at 65 and the sleeper stays pretty warm.

Keeping the water from Freezing

We have learned when we are at home that we need to keep the sleeper from freezing. It is pretty amazing how fast the temperature in our sleeper can drop below the freezing point. Bob spreads out an extension cord to a space heater in the truck from the shop. He then lifts up the bed and also opens the cupboard that has our water pump stored. We also fill our water tank as full as possible when we get home. The little space heater will just keep the sleeper above freezing and keeps everything in good working order. When on the road we do not have this problem as we keep the generator set at 65 and the sleeper stays pretty warm.

2010 Happy New Year

We have been home for awhile and are starting to get antsy wanting to get back on the road. We have started thinking of what we need to get put back in the truck, groceries to buy, and where the first load will take us. We have a lot of irons in the fire for 2010 and hope we will be able to balance all we have going on without to much stress. We are going to be involved with the Expediter Online Workshops which will be a new experience for us. Speakers we are not but there is not time like the present to start learning. It is relatively easy to talk one on one about something you truly enjoy but to put together a talk? Now that is pushing the comfort zone. I am sure we will stress but we will get it all pulled together and I hope give a good presentation. After that comes the Middle America Truckshow (MATS) which we always enjoy and catch up with a lot of friends at. This year we are on the planning committed on planning a 1.5 health walk. The symbol for our walk is 61+ which is the median age that is a truck drivers life expectancy. We hope to bring awareness to this number and start promoting exercise and making healthier choices starting in 2010. We have a great group of people working on this who are inspirational and fun. The list does not slow down but one thing right after another so we need to truck hard while we can and when the down time comes have as much fun as we can…