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ABF | What a bunch of B.S.!

mud said:
Large LTL consolidation terminals would have a device built into the floor of the dock that would pull dock carts full of freight around the entire length of the dock. It was called a dragline.
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Okay, I've seen those in big distribution centers .
 
We had 1 forklift that came over on the Mayflower and a couple of spoons. Then we got a pallet roller and a pallet jack we were coming up in the world in 1973.
Everyone had their own hand truck and we pretty much hand trucked everything on and off the trailers.
Was over at Garrett picking up interline freight one day and watched them try to cross the drag line with a roll of carpet and it caught on a cart and cleared the dock for about 10 doors before they could shut it down. The noise of all those carts going round and round was making those hands loose their hearing.
 
I suspect the canary was exaggerating a bit, maybe sharing stories he heard from his mentors. Carolina still ran a drag line in the 1990's. Some kind of haz-mat sprung a leak, got into the drag line,caught fire and burned the place down.
 
Cab Lizzard said:
We had 1 forklift that came over on the Mayflower and a couple of spoons. Then we got a pallet roller and a pallet jack we were coming up in the world in 1973.
Everyone had their own hand truck and we pretty much hand trucked everything on and off the trailers.
Was over at Garrett picking up interline freight one day and watched them try to cross the drag line with a roll of carpet and it caught on a cart and cleared the dock for about 10 doors before they could shut it down. The noise of all those carts going round and round was making those hands loose their hearing.
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I'd bet there there are plenty of such drag line stories from over the years. Some downright hilarious stories.
 
I remember my father talking about breaking trailers with a 2 wheeler and a johnson bar. It was a big deal when they got a tow motor.
 
Alright,....I'm not trucking's version of the Ancient Mariner,..........I started with Gateway in 1976. Pallet jacks were heavy, cantankerous,...and few and far between. Diesel towmotors were the norm,...until propane became readily available,...the contract bars diesel towmotors,...which gives you an indication of how prevalent their use was. I worked casual at Consolidated Freightways in Harmarville, Pa., where they had a dragline system,.....dangerous as hell,...no master shutoff,...the guys that worked around it just knew what to do when things got jammed. Slept in a few bunkhouses under docks,.......wait,...."slept" was a relative term, there. I'm still pretty handy with a Johnson bar, though........
 
I dropped trailers at Harmarville back in the 70's. I can remember when abf in greensburg was a break bulk, not sure who it was back then, but it was a major break bulk back in its day. I never worked a dock that had a dragline, but I was present at several terminals that had them a long time ago. I stand to be corrected, but I'm not sure ABF didn't have a dragline at the dayton oh. terminal that opened in the mid 90's? I am probably wrong about that, but I seem to recall something about it?
Bunkhouses? Oh yes, I have stayed in the worst of them. So many terminals had them back in those days. We made the best of it, but by today;s standards, they would never be allowed. Just imagine sleeping in a closed terminal on the weekends, right next to a dock that had all kinds of haz mat as well as valuable freight that thieves might want. And you are sleeping right next to it. And I guess it was no better during the week when they were opened and moving freight all around as you tried to sleep. And the diesel tow motors! Wow, the fumes and smoke they created all across the dock. Thick black smoke. When we think the federal government doesn't do much, well, it was only through them that freight companies were forced to convert to propane. And only because of federal standards that we no longer breathe oil/diesel fumes inside the cabs all night. If it was left to the freight companies to correct these things, they would never have done it?
 
Motor Freight and CF shared the Harmarville terminal,...Motor Freight opened a satellite terminal in Greensburg in 1978 at the old Leonard Brothers dock....since I was laid off at Gateway, and Greensburg was closer to where I lived, I split my casual time between both docks.....in 1992, I was looking for a job, Yellow was in the Greensburg dock, sharing space with ABF and CF. The old operations supervisor from Motor Freight recognized me ,......bless you, Sal!,....and got me hired at ABF. Round and round and round we all spin. Trucking is really a tightly closed little community. If we could all see each other,.....we'd probably recognize at least half of each other,.......and the other half,...we probably heard about.....
 
I would be willing to bet that you and I have crossed paths several times and would recognize each other by sight, but never knew our names and we are a distant memory, probably not even recognizable anymore due to time. Maybe a truck stop, maybe a terminal while you waited while I dropped you out or the other way around. Maybe I saw you at CF, then later at Yellow and maybe again at ABF and we still may have never known each other's names, but might have had coffee together. If that is the case, it is good to meet you again. :)
 
canaryinthemine said:
Motor Freight and CF shared the Harmarville terminal,...Motor Freight opened a satellite terminal in Greensburg in 1978 at the old Leonard Brothers dock....since I was laid off at Gateway, and Greensburg was closer to where I lived, I split my casual time between both docks.....in 1992, I was looking for a job, Yellow was in the Greensburg dock, sharing space with ABF and CF. The old operations supervisor from Motor Freight recognized me ,......bless you, Sal!,....and got me hired at ABF. Round and round and round we all spin. Trucking is really a tightly closed little community. If we could all see each other,.....we'd probably recognize at least half of each other,.......and the other half,...we probably heard about.....
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I'm really enjoying reading these stories. It's hard to imagine nowadays when companies shared dock space in the same building. I've seen several terminals with the old drag line still embedded in the dock, but never saw one operational.
 
canaryinthemine said:
Ho-ho-Rollin,..my boy...it's them old, tired hands that'll run rings around you.....we learned how to move freight when there was no pallet jacks,...no shrink-wrap,..no PDA's,...no power steering, or air conditioning,....no GPS,.....and not many interstates, either. While you're working yourself into a sweaty lather trying to impress the minimum-wage dock supervisor,.....look over at the old hand, who'll be sitting on a pile of freight, giving you a cool breeze wave,.....he's already done three times more than you're going to do that day.....They didn't hire us for our looks,....we were smart enough to learn off the old hands while we were young,.......do you think you'll ever become smart enough to learn that lesson?....maybe by the time you become one of those tired old hands,.....shaking your head at the eager beaver dancing around the minimum-wage dispatcher telling him how much you've done that day, trying to impress him,.....Yup,....them old hands have seen about 10,964 of your type come and go,....maybe by that time,...IF you last that long,....you might understand that a cocky attitude moves no freight,.......and learns no lessons.......
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Canary, that is a great post. I’m 50yrs old and I remember working the drag line when I was casual with Yellow in 1983. I also remember when I-20 did not go all the way from Atlanta to Texas or when US 78 from Memphis to Birmingham was mostly a two lane road. I recall and feel the weariness in my shoulders from trying to get the manual steering to turn while hauling a 48ft trailer through downtown Atlanta. And now the young complain if they do not have GPS, air conditioning or when we go a little slower trying to plot the best way to get into a tight situation.

I wonder what the freight business will be like when Rollin is older and trying to explain to the young freight workers how hard it was with A/C, forklifts, GPS, and shrink wrap machines.
 
sandy38 said:
I would be willing to bet that you and I have crossed paths several times and would recognize each other by sight, but never knew our names and we are a distant memory, probably not even recognizable anymore due to time. Maybe a truck stop, maybe a terminal while you waited while I dropped you out or the other way around. Maybe I saw you at CF, then later at Yellow and maybe again at ABF and we still may have never known each other's names, but might have had coffee together. If that is the case, it is good to meet you again. :)
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Sandy, do you remember when truck drivers use to stop, sit in the truckstop, and actually have coffee together? I can’t remember the last time I stopped at a T/A, Petro, 76, etc. and had coffee and a meal with other truckers. I am starting to feel old.
 
canaryinthemine said:
Alright,....I'm not trucking's version of the Ancient Mariner,..........I started with Gateway in 1976. Pallet jacks were heavy, cantankerous,...and few and far between. Diesel towmotors were the norm,...until propane became readily available,...the contract bars diesel towmotors,...which gives you an indication of how prevalent their use was. I worked casual at Consolidated Freightways in Harmarville, Pa., where they had a dragline system,.....dangerous as hell,...no master shutoff,...the guys that worked around it just knew what to do when things got jammed. Slept in a few bunkhouses under docks,.......wait,...."slept" was a relative term, there. I'm still pretty handy with a Johnson bar, though........
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The stories are cool but I'm not sorry I missed those days. And how does your body ache today?
 
My first day I remember the old guys with a pint in their back pocket. Stop have a nip and keep on hand truckin. Lunch time came and they would have a can of beer with their lunch.
 
ABFer said:
The stories are cool but I'm not sorry I missed those days. And how does your body ache today?
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It only aches for the first 7 hours in the morning when I get up...........and for the last 2 hours before I go to sleep.........
 
Rollin62 said:
Don't kid yourself . I've driven a day cab, no power steering , no ac , brigadier
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My boy,....you're not in the same category as someone who's peddled city freight with a two stick B-model, and a city trailer with a chain-and-tarp door...........
 
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