What's new

ABF | Cold Weather..(warming-up Policy)

canaryinthemine said:
Woke up this morning to...snow on the ground in W. Penna. 29 degrees outside,...Wind chill about 10......

I think I'll sit inside and drink coffee today,......maybe wear my old insulated coveralls and Elmer Fudd hat,....just for nostalgia......
Click to expand...


We had 29 here on the Carolina coast this am,N E wind 18, watched ducks swim by, 2 beagles with jumper cables trying to get a rabbit started.
Snow? we get about an inch every 6 or 8 yrs, for this I am greatful.
 
Snow blowing across the dock,...and 5 towmotors trying to creep around.
Slam on the brakes, and slide 5 foot......

We had a couple of I-beam stanchions in the center of the dock.......that looked like wavy lasagna from about 4 foot down,...from all the inadvertent towmotor hits,........when the dock started sweating.......

I know of one instance where a towmotor went off the dock,.......no one got hurt,...(amazingly..)....and we were able to pick it up with another motor, set it upright,...and drive back up the ramp.

But, Hey! Let's work like we're in the 18th Century!
 
canaryinthemine said:
Snow blowing across the dock,...and 5 towmotors trying to creep around.
Slam on the brakes, and slide 5 foot......

We had a couple of I-beam stanchions in the center of the dock.......that looked like wavy lasagna from about 4 foot down,...from all the inadvertent towmotor hits,........when the dock started sweating.......

I know of one instance where a towmotor went off the dock,.......no one got hurt,...(amazingly..)....and we were able to pick it up with another motor, set it upright,...and drive back up the ramp.

But, Hey! Let's work like we're in the 18th Century!
Click to expand...
How is it that freight was always open air docks? I mean, everyone else seems to have always used climate-controlled docks? UPS, Amazon etc all have enclosed docks. IN new england, where I am from, we had (poorly) heated docks but from Pennsylvania south and west it is all open air. And cold. When I spent my first winter at carlisle for abf I was surprised to see someone had made a cardboard 'plow' to attach to the tow motor to plow the snow off the dock. Why I stayed there 24 years, I don't have an answer.
 
retired01776 said:
How is it that freight was always open air docks? I mean, everyone else seems to have always used climate-controlled docks? UPS, Amazon etc all have enclosed docks. IN new england, where I am from, we had (poorly) heated docks but from Pennsylvania south and west it is all open air. And cold. When I spent my first winter at carlisle for abf I was surprised to see someone had made a cardboard 'plow' to attach to the tow motor to plow the snow off the dock. Why I stayed there 24 years, I don't have an answer.
Click to expand...
LOL! Well, don’t beat yourself up over it. Why ANY of us do ANYTHING that long, except....wisely....stay married to our better halves, is a mystery.
 
retired01776 said:
How is it that freight was always open air docks? I mean, everyone else seems to have always used climate-controlled docks? UPS, Amazon etc all have enclosed docks. IN new england, where I am from, we had (poorly) heated docks but from Pennsylvania south and west it is all open air. And cold. When I spent my first winter at carlisle for abf I was surprised to see someone had made a cardboard 'plow' to attach to the tow motor to plow the snow off the dock. Why I stayed there 24 years, I don't have an answer.
Click to expand...
That always amazed me & still does that Pennsylvania or other cold weather states are any warmer then New England....Guess back then they had strong locals to push for that supplement....
 
At the Y or R for that matter
Doors are just something people tore up.
Not on purpose. But they never last.
That's one reason why they didn't have them on the two different docksI worked on.
Every pole. Post. Anything in the open had been hit. So no doors.
 
GO40 said:
That always amazed me & still does that Pennsylvania or other cold weather states are any warmer then New England....Guess back then they had strong locals to push for that supplement....
Click to expand...
I'm not real sure just how it all took place, but local 170 and local 25 were behind the original push for heated docks. I recall working at a red star terminal in worcester and half the dock was heated and the original half was not. (the had added onto the terminal back in the mid 80's.) Yellow was across the street and was heated. I was hired by Red Star in 1987 and I froze on the dock. The steward at the time said if the cold bothered me that much, I should go over to yellow because they had a heated dock and I could work in my shirtsleeves as opposed to being bundled up in layers to work the Red Star dock. Back then, along US 20 in worcester there were so many freight companies on that road. Some were heated, most were not. The local pushed it and by 1989 all the docks were (poorly) heated along route 20. But it was a start. I haven't been back up that way since I retired, but I am willing to bet as time has gone on and the heaters stopped working, I bet that they are now open air docks once again?
 
Down in W. Pa.......all the docks.....along the rivers and ridges and in the hollows........were open air.

Why? ....”Because we’ve always done it that way.......”

My wardrobe has included insulated coveralls, thermal underwear, and large furry hats,......since I was 21 years old......

And not because I was a......stylish trend-setter......
 
canaryinthemine said:
Down in W. Pa.......all the docks.....along the rivers and ridges and in the hollows........were open air.

Why? ....”Because we’ve always done it that way.......”

My wardrobe has included insulated coveralls, thermal underwear, and large furry hats,......since I was 21 years old......

And not because I was a......stylish trend-setter......
Click to expand...

I'd love to see your avatar changed to a photo of you in that furry hat! How many here agree with me? :hilarious:
 
Triplex said:
I'd love to see your avatar changed to a photo of you in that furry hat! How many here agree with me? :hilarious:
Click to expand...

afZqJyA.jpg

Canary sitting down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top