Snow and Ice

What a week after all of our sun in California!  We took a load into Wyoming and then headed for Minneapolis, but did not get that far.  We had a offer to run a short load over the weekend just south of Albert Lea, MN

We delivered Monday morning then were offered a load from Duluth, MN to Shreveport, LA, and the idea of warmth made us accept the load.  What we did not take into consideration was that we had to go north to Duluth and it was already snowing. What a mess snow, ice, and wind made for a slow treacherous trip.  We made it to our pickup and the shipper let us stay on the property for the night which was awesome as anyplace that would have had extra room to park had piles of snow.  In the morning it was snowing, but it was not a big deal on the roads and we had an easier time going south.

The ice really bothers me in a couple of ways.  It can be very slippery to walk into the truck stops and I always worry about slipping on the ice.  Broken bones and driving just do not go together.  I also learned one year that hot tires and ice do not go together.  I parked the truck and then in a few hours we got a load and the truck was stuck!  The hot tires had melted through the ice and formed a valley and it could not get out of it.  Bob had to get the chains out so we could get enough traction to pull ourselves out.  Now when I park on ice I let the truck sit for several minutes and then I pull slightly forward or backup a tad so if I do melt through I can get a running start at getting out of my rut.

Check out more blogs:
http://www.expeditersonline.com/trucking/writer1/index.html

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.

See more blogs at:

http://www.expeditersonline.com/trucking/writer1/index.html

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.
 
To see more blogs:
http://www.expeditersonline.com/trucking/writer1/index.html

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!

 To see newest blog:

http://www.expeditersonline.com/trucking/writer1/index.html

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.


http://www.expeditersonline.com/trucking/writer1/index.html

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.

More blogs at:
http://www.expeditersonline.com/