former preston drivers

bp3

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are there any former preston drivers out there? i just wanted to take the time and say hey. I have not really seen or talked to anyone since yellow put preston out of business

bp
 
There's a few of us lingering around here somewhere.
We used to have our own thread under "Gone but not forgotten"...unfortunately that thread appears to be gone and forgotten.
 
Greetings from Indy! I see quite a few at least weekly. We've also lost a few good men. Maybe we're just getting OLD.....
 
df_preston_akron_readyline_90.jpg

preston_wt1000.jpg

preston_dcp_terminal_05.jpg
 
What does the AK and RI mean on the edge of the air shields in the above pictures ?

The letters were the terminal ID markings for that particular tractor. Usually, when a tractor was downgraded from road to city, they put the domicile initials on the air shield. This way, if the tractor went over the road for some reason, it would then find it's way back home. At Roadway, we do something similar. In addition to the tractor number, we also put our terminal number on equipment that has been assigned to a particular terminal.

As for this picture, RI could mean Richmond, Va.....AK could have been Akron, Ohio.
Maybe Jimmy G. has better knowledge than me??
 
Hey Stan,

great pics. Brings back old memories. My tractor was one of those Whites, #25314, single screw.
Man those things could pull a house, and the AC was ice cold on the hottest day.


I miss that job....The best I ever had!!!:sadwavey:
 
It couldn't hurt.
Last month I wanted to post the annual Preston breakfast that the Brooklyn, NY drivers throw every year. Without the thread, I didn't even bother.

Can we get about 9 more former Preston drivers to request in this thread? That will probably be sufficient for the boss to get out his magic keyboard.
 
Maybe Jimmy G. has better knowledge than me??

Once upon a time I had all the terminals memorized. They were also assigned numbers. Like for instance, Indy was 233; York was 118; West Middlesex Pa was 125. I've forgotten almost all of them by now. There was a dividing line about the Pa/Ohio line that changed from 100 numbers to 200 numbers. I'm thinking Dayton was 225; Col 226?????

I remember the Alpha Code letters all ended in X. The pictures threw me for a loop-- the ones I remember all had the X on the end. (AKX; RIX; LIX was Long Island; INX was Indy; YOX was York,Pa; WMX was West Middlesex.)

Quick story about a foreman who came to Preston from Yellow shortly after we were bought:

We had become a short-haul LTL Carrier, to (looking back-- now it's obvious) work out the bugs in the Next Day System for Yellow. Basically, we were Gunia Pigs. Our best work was running skid loads so that we could move freight from Indy to York, Pa overnight!

Well, along came this new foreman (who I didn't know had been fired at Yellow). He beamed, swelled up his chest, and announced "I'm gonna train you guys to load like Yellow!" My job in those days was to load off the dock. This foreman had a load all picked out. Going to York, Pa. A conveyor system; we had picked it up and it was critical hot freight. Obviously we didn't want to load it high/tight or hold it up in any way.......

This guy took me into the trailer and showed me that this conveyor had air space between the rollers; between the parts, etc,etc. Out in the aisle to be loaded we had 15 different skids (all different 1 skid bills)of Rit Dye-- 4" x 4" x 4" square boxes-- all with barely legible stenciled names on each box. All going to the same consignee, but different store addresses in various towns thru the York Hub. This foreman had me break down each skid (15 skids times about 157 cartons per skid and strategically place them as top freight/bottom freight-- all thru the conveyor-- in the rollers-- in the control box area-- everywhere-- probably more than 1500 loose cartons to be matched up)-- in addition to probably about 20 bills of skids. And probably about 8 more bills of real top freight. Took me a full eight hours to load, and I wasn't matching anything. EVERY square inch was maxed to capacity-- for sure! Not a single inch of space did not have a Rit Box to fill it!

The Foreman was quite proud.




Probably took them at least a week to break the load and match it up in York........

I wonder how the conveyor turned out?
 
I worked out of west middlesex and then richfield ,I sure miss the good old days:smilie_132:I am now in akron with Roadway
 
Log in name say's it all !!!

Hey men, great to read about " 151 " Best years I had in the freight industry was with them. Started in 1977 in Landover Md.(112) till 1981 when I transfered to new terminal at Manassas,Va. (134) until Yellow finished us off. I believe all the terminals that began with the #2 were terminals they took over after the buyout of Shippers Dispatch around 76-77, but I could be wrong as that seems to happen a lot as I get older! Go figure !! Back in the heyday it was run by real freight people, who knew what they were doing, and their butts were held accountable for doing it. I never had the good fortune of going to college, but I like to think I have a little common sense. My first day at Preston they handed me a handful of bills, gave me a tractor and trailer number and told me to go make these deliveries and pickups and come back to the terminal when you are done. Pretty basic... After they closed up I was able to get hired on with Roadway. The first day they gave me a handful of bills, a tractor and trailer and told me go deliver this freight, make your pickups and come back to the terminal!!! The way I see things are, our jobs are still the same, but the white shirts sure as hell have screwed a lot up in 30 years. God bless all you 151 ers. sure miss them days .
 
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