I’ve been here at OD in Line Haul for 6 weeks now. I really do enjoy it and plan on staying for a long time. But there are some things I’ve experienced and seen that have made me think ‘wow’.
1. The yard drivers at the Indianapolis yard are VERY good. They can park those trailers with less than 2 inches between them. I mean that in a literal way because I actually measured it. But the only way to get the trailer dollied up once you hook to it is to drag it out from between the other trailers until the hand crank can be reached. That’s what some other drivers in the yard told me to do. So, if you’re in the yard and you hear a terrible screeching noise, I guess that’s normal.
2. When the truck I have been assigned needs oil, I go to the shop to get some. They have a plastic container on top of a barrel of oil in there. The hand crank in the oil barrel is amazing. It’s just short enough so that the plastic container cannot sit under it and when you crank it, it almost goes around, but not quite. It hits the barrel, so you have to lift it up slightly with the hand that was supposed to be holding the plastic jug.
3. I’m an average size guy at 5’11” and I weigh 180. I can still bench press about 200 lbs on a good day. But there are some jiff-locks that I can barely move. The ones that start with the numbers 844 or 842 seem to be really nice.
4. The variety of ways and positions of the air valves on the jiff-lock air tank is amazing.
5. The run from the Saint Louis terminal to the Nashville terminal is a nice one. The traffic is heavy around Nashville, but that’s no surprise. What is surprising is that the official minimal travel time there and back that is listed on the trip sheet is 11 hours and 10 minutes. Everyone speeds a mile or two over the speed limit; I’m just not sure I would have published it on a trip sheet for the world to see.
6. Pintle Hooks look easy enough to use and the mechanism seems simple. However, they can drive you crazy and smash your hand when they do not want to move.
7. I don’t think that truck drivers who smoke completely realize just how bad their truck cabs smell when someone else has to drive it for a night.
8. I can think of at least three systems or ways that the trailers could be parked so that it didn’t take so long to find them in the bigger yards.
9. The ‘Jack-and-follow’ method for backing that works well with the 53 foot trailers does not work well with the pups and it does not work at all with the dollies. I have no idea how some guys can actually back two trailers hooked together. My hat goes off to them. I’m afraid to even practice that maneuver.
10. One of my favorite mornings is when our terminal manager buys a bunch of doughnuts and puts them in the driver room. It’s amazing how little things like that make a difference.
11. Grease is magical. I can just barely bump my shoulder onto the bottom of the trailer as I unhook the king-pin. 10 minutes later that same grease is all over my clothes and there’s usually a spot somewhere on my face. Some terminals use hand soap that is 'gritty' and seems to clean the grease right off. Other terminals use soap that feels like the hand soak my wife uses. My hands feel soft after using it, but the grease is right there taunting me with an 'is that all you got' look.
12. I cannot always hold my pee for 5 hours, and finding a place to pull off the highway that can handle doubles is not as easy as it sounds.
13. The restrooms in Macdonald’s are cleaner than some of our terminal restrooms. I think some of us men need to practice our stream aim.
14. When it’s 4 in the morning and I’m told that my return load won’t be ready for about two hours, I want to go take a power nap. I have not been able to doze even for five minutes in those day cabs.
15. Things balance out. This morning I was given a lead trailer that was on the back side of the dock and told to get an empty trailer for my second trailer. I went and hooked to my lead and pulled it around to the ‘drop and hook’ section, then went and placed a dolly in front of an empty trailer. When I went back to get my lead, it was gone. It took me a while to find it, but it turns out a yard guy had been bored, and simply hooked to it and drove it away. I finally found it. I felt a little irritated at those yard guys. When I arrived at my terminal in Saint Louis, I backed my lead trailer into the bay they assigned me. When I went to put my back empty trailer away, it was gone. And when I looked around, one of the yard guys came over and told me he had grabbed and put it away just to help me out. I guess I still love those guys after all.
Kito in Saint Louis and loving this new job.
1. The yard drivers at the Indianapolis yard are VERY good. They can park those trailers with less than 2 inches between them. I mean that in a literal way because I actually measured it. But the only way to get the trailer dollied up once you hook to it is to drag it out from between the other trailers until the hand crank can be reached. That’s what some other drivers in the yard told me to do. So, if you’re in the yard and you hear a terrible screeching noise, I guess that’s normal.
2. When the truck I have been assigned needs oil, I go to the shop to get some. They have a plastic container on top of a barrel of oil in there. The hand crank in the oil barrel is amazing. It’s just short enough so that the plastic container cannot sit under it and when you crank it, it almost goes around, but not quite. It hits the barrel, so you have to lift it up slightly with the hand that was supposed to be holding the plastic jug.
3. I’m an average size guy at 5’11” and I weigh 180. I can still bench press about 200 lbs on a good day. But there are some jiff-locks that I can barely move. The ones that start with the numbers 844 or 842 seem to be really nice.
4. The variety of ways and positions of the air valves on the jiff-lock air tank is amazing.
5. The run from the Saint Louis terminal to the Nashville terminal is a nice one. The traffic is heavy around Nashville, but that’s no surprise. What is surprising is that the official minimal travel time there and back that is listed on the trip sheet is 11 hours and 10 minutes. Everyone speeds a mile or two over the speed limit; I’m just not sure I would have published it on a trip sheet for the world to see.
6. Pintle Hooks look easy enough to use and the mechanism seems simple. However, they can drive you crazy and smash your hand when they do not want to move.
7. I don’t think that truck drivers who smoke completely realize just how bad their truck cabs smell when someone else has to drive it for a night.
8. I can think of at least three systems or ways that the trailers could be parked so that it didn’t take so long to find them in the bigger yards.
9. The ‘Jack-and-follow’ method for backing that works well with the 53 foot trailers does not work well with the pups and it does not work at all with the dollies. I have no idea how some guys can actually back two trailers hooked together. My hat goes off to them. I’m afraid to even practice that maneuver.
10. One of my favorite mornings is when our terminal manager buys a bunch of doughnuts and puts them in the driver room. It’s amazing how little things like that make a difference.
11. Grease is magical. I can just barely bump my shoulder onto the bottom of the trailer as I unhook the king-pin. 10 minutes later that same grease is all over my clothes and there’s usually a spot somewhere on my face. Some terminals use hand soap that is 'gritty' and seems to clean the grease right off. Other terminals use soap that feels like the hand soak my wife uses. My hands feel soft after using it, but the grease is right there taunting me with an 'is that all you got' look.
12. I cannot always hold my pee for 5 hours, and finding a place to pull off the highway that can handle doubles is not as easy as it sounds.
13. The restrooms in Macdonald’s are cleaner than some of our terminal restrooms. I think some of us men need to practice our stream aim.
14. When it’s 4 in the morning and I’m told that my return load won’t be ready for about two hours, I want to go take a power nap. I have not been able to doze even for five minutes in those day cabs.
15. Things balance out. This morning I was given a lead trailer that was on the back side of the dock and told to get an empty trailer for my second trailer. I went and hooked to my lead and pulled it around to the ‘drop and hook’ section, then went and placed a dolly in front of an empty trailer. When I went back to get my lead, it was gone. It took me a while to find it, but it turns out a yard guy had been bored, and simply hooked to it and drove it away. I finally found it. I felt a little irritated at those yard guys. When I arrived at my terminal in Saint Louis, I backed my lead trailer into the bay they assigned me. When I went to put my back empty trailer away, it was gone. And when I looked around, one of the yard guys came over and told me he had grabbed and put it away just to help me out. I guess I still love those guys after all.
Kito in Saint Louis and loving this new job.
