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ABF | Lost Accounts

Triplex said:
Thank you. Yes, I do live in the NJ/NY metro area. But I'm sure you realize that what you experience in any metropolitan area when driving TT on the usual truck routes is not an accurate indication of what the area has to offer. I made many trips to your area back 40 or so years ago when I was a road driver for the company we both worked for back then. My opinion of that area based on those trips was quite negative but yet I realize I wasn't getting a true indication of the place. Places we go with TT's aren't usually the most desirable in any area.

PS - Your comments didn't get under my skin. Selfish left lane hogs get under my skin. :smile new:
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Go fast or go slow,
I don’t care!
Just get outta my way!
 
Triplex said:
Thank you. Yes, I do live in the NJ/NY metro area. But I'm sure you realize that what you experience in any metropolitan area when driving TT on the usual truck routes is not an accurate indication of what the area has to offer. I made many trips to your area back 40 or so years ago when I was a road driver for the company we both worked for back then. My opinion of that area based on those trips was quite negative but yet I realize I wasn't getting a true indication of the place. Places we go with TT's aren't usually the most desirable in any area.

PS - Your comments didn't get under my skin. Selfish left lane hogs get under my skin. :smile new:
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Well,....Maybe I was a little harsh on the Big Apple area. Don't forget I was running NYC in the Beame/Koch/Dinkins era.........The same time they made the "Escape From New York" movie/documentary......
I worked for a window manufacturer in the early '80's where I was in downtown Manhattan twice a week,....curbside deliveries at jobsites......Academy of Music and such......Got some....peculiar tales to tell there.....
Hauled cars into downtown, too.........My first trip, I found out all about the..."real" height of the low underpass signs......

Only got mugged once,........and that was due to the crack addicts finding out about the low underpass signs and how they could be ...."moved"...to direct an unsuspecting truck driver into a......"bad"..area...

Had my windshield "washed" a couple of times......

But,....in all fairness, I could honestly say it's a....fascinating ...area. I never turned down a load going that way......

And,....in the spirit of fairness,........Western Penna. is really no beauty spot. It's only been in the last decade that mine drainage, and bright orange and bright blue streams and rivers have started to ...hold fish again. There's abandoned factories and mine sites all through the woods........
I live just north of Fayette County,...."Fayette-Nam",...known by the denizens....One of the top(?) Five Poorest Counties in America. Deer poaching to feed your family is still an...."occupation"....there.
And,....As a city driver for ABF,.......I've delivered barrels of sugar, and boxes of yeast to....junkyards, with guys with their hatbrims pulled down over their eyes.....

In retrospect,....I'll lay off calling NYC Metro area bad.......At least the street grid is....mostly square.....Unlike, say....Pittsburgh.....where every intersection is at odd angles and elevations......
We have daily news reports of trucks pulling lines down,..trying to make turns in the city......

Not to mention 10,000 bridges, tunnels, odd ledges, curious "holes" that are part of the Interstate System,.....and steep hillside staircases,...that the GPS lists as...."streets".......
(....and an incline or two,....or three...)....
......all in various states of...disrepair......

Yeah,.....Maybe my calling the NYC Metro area bad,....was a case of the "pot calling the kettle black".....
 
Canary, I'm originally from boston and I spent many years driving buses to new york city. So I was going there from the opposite direction that you were coming from. Since I grew up in that area it was 2nd nature to me. in 1989 I moved to central PA and started with ABF on the road and for the first time in my life I ran west and that was a whole new world to me. We may have had the traffic and congestion back east, but you had mountains and back roads out your way that scared the daylights out of me. Back east we were restricted to highways with our double trailers, in Pa and Ohio they wanted us to run little tiny back roads that I would have had white knuckles on the steering wheel of our ford station wagon. And we don't have to talk about trying to get into your greensburg terminal on a foggy, rainy night!
Take a guy out of his surroundings and it can be quite a challenge!
 
retired01776 said:
Canary, I'm originally from boston and I spent many years driving buses to new york city. So I was going there from the opposite direction that you were coming from. Since I grew up in that area it was 2nd nature to me. in 1989 I moved to central PA and started with ABF on the road and for the first time in my life I ran west and that was a whole new world to me. We may have had the traffic and congestion back east, but you had mountains and back roads out your way that scared the daylights out of me. Back east we were restricted to highways with our double trailers, in Pa and Ohio they wanted us to run little tiny back roads that I would have had white knuckles on the steering wheel of our ford station wagon. And we don't have to talk about trying to get into your greensburg terminal on a foggy, rainy night!
Take a guy out of his surroundings and it can be quite a challenge!
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Hah! The only time I had to put chains on a tractor trailer,....was with ABF, ...way up in Clymer, Pa...(..get your map and magnifying glass out...)....on a "city" route, with a set of doubles coming out of....Dixonville, Pa....(..smaller dot to the north of Clymer..).....
.....where , in a snowstorm, I couldn't get enough traction to get through an uphill grade to a traffic light....(.....only one for 15 miles in "downtown" Clymer...).....
.....in fading twilight. I had 20 miles of twisting, winding...hilly.... two-lane to get down to Rt.22......
.....Passed up a flatbed spun out into the ditch,....JB into a farmer's field,........coalbucket on it's side,...with a Pa. State trooper directing traffic around it,.......
.....He stopped me and said.......I quote: "You have Two Trailers!"......
....and I had the presence of mind to spin around in my seat, look out the window and say: "Sonofa b*tch! Did it again!..."

He looked disgusted and waved me through.......All legal roads with doubles......

Ask me how many times we had to get our chained-up yard tractor to pull road units up out of the alley going out of GBG-310.....
 
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retired01776 said:
Canary, I'm originally from boston and I spent many years driving buses to new york city. So I was going there from the opposite direction that you were coming from. Since I grew up in that area it was 2nd nature to me. in 1989 I moved to central PA and started with ABF on the road and for the first time in my life I ran west and that was a whole new world to me. We may have had the traffic and congestion back east, but you had mountains and back roads out your way that scared the daylights out of me. Back east we were restricted to highways with our double trailers, in Pa and Ohio they wanted us to run little tiny back roads that I would have had white knuckles on the steering wheel of our ford station wagon. And we don't have to talk about trying to get into your greensburg terminal on a foggy, rainy night!
Take a guy out of his surroundings and it can be quite a challenge!
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Oh,....and if you were in GBG-310 from 1995-2000,....I was the night dock crew.....so I'm sure you met me....

Tall, dyspeptic, opinionated,......glasses,.......inordinately good-looking........

Yeah,....you remember me.......
 
canaryinthemine said:
Hah! The only time I had to put chains on a tractor trailer,....was with ABF, ...way up in Clymer, Pa...(..get your map and magnifying glass out...)....on a "city" route, with a set of doubles coming out of....Dixonville, Pa....(..smaller dot to the north of Clymer..).....
.....where , in a snowstorm, I couldn't get enough traction to get through an uphill grade to a traffic light....(.....only one for 15 miles in "downtown" Clymer...).....
.....in fading twilight. I had 20 miles of twisting, winding...hilly.... two-lane to get down to Rt.22......
.....Passed up a flatbed spun out into the ditch,....JB into a farmer's field,........coalbucket on it's side,...with a Pa. State trooper directing traffic around it,.......
.....He stopped me and said.......I quote: "You have Two Trailers!"......
....and I had the presence of mind to spin around in my seat, look out the window and say: "Sonofa b*tch! Did it again!..."

He looked disgusted and waved me through.......All legal roads with doubles......

Ask me how many times we had to get our chained-up yard tractor to pull road units up out of the alley going out of GBG-310.....
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Ha! The two trailers. I went to some company in a small Pa town by the poconos, it was late at night and raining/foggy. I stopped at the guard shack to check in and he asked the trailer number and I gave him the 2 numbers and he said 'well, which one is it?'. I said both and he got a frustrated look and went outside to get it himself and came back in and said Jesus christ, you have 2 trailers there!. I still laugh about that.
 
canaryinthemine said:
Oh,....and if you were in GBG-310 from 1995-2000,....I was the night dock crew.....so I'm sure you met me....

Tall, dyspeptic, opinionated,......glasses,.......inordinately good-looking........

Yeah,....you remember me.......
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Back in april of 95 we got our first set of what they called ABA bids. What that involved was a start time and destination that went from carlisle to wherever and then returned the next day. I selected a west ABA at 4 am start time and I would always get a dayton destination but on the way back one time the bills said 042 and then it had 6b6 written next to it. I had no idea what that meant so I brought the set on home to 042 and they said I was supposed to stop at what was it, 310 (?) and I said where is that? Greensburg. I didn't see anything about greensburg on my papers and he pointed to the 6b6 which was GBG. Grrrr!
 
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We had an importer account in a small pa town, where they loaded dropped pups. Well we went in about the same time every day to drop a set and grab a loaded set. I guess it was the excitement of the day, because everyone sat out on the front porches to watch the parade go by.
 
wheelman1857 said:
We had an importer account in a small pa town, where they loaded dropped pups. Well we went in about the same time every day to drop a set and grab a loaded set. I guess it was the excitement of the day, because everyone sat out on the front porches to watch the parade go by.
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BY any chance was that Littlestown pa?
 
canaryinthemine said:
The demise of NEMF is the....elephant in the room. There are many accounts that are priced to.....stink. Amazon just happens to be a big, well-publicized, highly visible account.

And,.....WHO is responsible for companies low-balling freight accounts to the point of....company closure?
A sales force,...based on quantity rather than quality..........bonus-based on the number of accounts,...the size of accounts,.....but NOT the profitability of accounts.

ABF seems to be one of the last holdouts........a company who will not haul your freight unless there's at least a...little profit out of it. But, their "flirting" with accounts like Amazon.......shows me there's a few ....salespeople....who are doing an "in-house" sales job to ABF upper management........probably in their personal quest for "bonuses"....based on the size of the account....

And the reason they're doing it?....All the other low-ball, rat-ball carriers are sub-pricing their accounts too......WITHOUT regard to what LABOR force costs are.......Hey,....we can always cut the wages,...especially at the non-Unions.....

Is there such a thing as a freight salesman....living from paycheck to paycheck?

I can guarantee you that the people who ACTUALLY do the work,...have quite a few members who live that way......
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My son runs my company now days as I have retired. I have a costing program that tells me how much it costs me to perform any given work. It is very simple, if you know your cost.

We never did and today still do not perform any work for a loss. However large carriers do . I never understood why, perhaps lane balance or some other reason. I just think I did not need the exercise..
 
Songremainsthesame said:
One of the prettiest places I’ve been was US 101 out of Eugene south along the coast. CFI had a paper mill we picked up at that was off 101. There was a more direct route off I5 but you couldn’t take the road with a truck, curves so tight the nose of the tractor would be touching the rear corner of the trailer if you did.
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I don’t live far from where you’re talking about, song. What city was that mill in? That highway you’re talking about sounds like Highway 36! Lots of hairpin turns on it! Was up that way making a residential delivery one time while working for Conway...had to take up half of the opposite lane to avoid a cliff, and the subsequent 100-foot drop! The guy I almost hit called in one me!! TM called me into his office when I got back...said: “someone called in on you while on Highway 36.” I said: “Yeah? So?” He said: “have a good weekend!” End of story!
 
Trucker 206 said:
I don’t live far from where you’re talking about, song. What city was that mill in? That highway you’re talking about sounds like Highway 36! Lots of hairpin turns on it! Was up that way making a residential delivery one time while working for Conway...had to take up half of the opposite lane to avoid a cliff, and the subsequent 100-foot drop! The guy I almost hit called in one me!! TM called me into his office when I got back...said: “someone called in on you while on Highway 36.” I said: “Yeah? So?” He said: “have a good weekend!” End of story!
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It was Toledo off of US 20. I was in Portland and they ran me across out of Salem to US 101, not Eugene.
 
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