Are You Sure.....

that is what you want to do?............



With the local and short runs I have been delivering the past two weeks, I have had to work additional days to maintain a decent paycheck... So, after running Bama, Tennessee and Kentucky, I return to Georgia for an additional gravy run.



I leave the plant with a load of billets and deliver it to Burlington, North Carolina.



There, I drop my trailer and pick up a load of scrap to deliver to our plant in Carthage, Tennessee.




After dumping the load, I return home to Georgia... with the empty trailer.



Considering that all three locations are on a 24/7 schedule, it works out very well, paying over 1000 miles, two drops and can be done at the driver's convenience. Ohhhhh sweeeeeet gravy!!

Upon returning this week, I was offered this option. So I grabbed it. There were two loads of billets to ship and after glancing over the paperwork, I choose the lighter load. (Lighter by one ton)...The total weight was not the problem.(43,000) It was the axles.... The tandems had 35, 500, which is overweight by 1500lbs.


Last week, I made the same run, but it was my trailer that was over weight on the tandems by 2800 lbs... These are very old, worn trailers complete with decades old rust deposits.. After an hour of labor and sweat, I finally got the tandems to slide to a legal weight.

Not this week, baby! So I grabbed the paperwork and stuck it in my truck. Hooked to the load and did a quick pre-trip inspection. It pays to be anal sometimes, and I found TWO flat tires along with three lights that did not work. I informed the mechanic and headed home for a bit to eat and a nice hot shower.


While I was away, the driver of the second billet load arrived and discovered the weight problems with the trailer. But not only was it over weight on the tandems, but it was 82,000 gross. He had the same amount of fuel, an identical trailer, and only 2000lbs more on his load, yet he weighed in 5000lbs more than me... HUH?? So, he is one ton over the legal gross weight for these loads, as we are not permitted to run heavy loads. Because the plant was closed down on the production side for the evening, his load could not be fixed until the next morning.

He then proceeds to ask the boss if he can take the OTHER load. "Sure", the boss replies. The driver then asks for the spare keys to MY truck. After the boss realized what the driver was going to do , he told him that he could not take the second load, because I was leaving with it in an hour.


That driver was going to take my load!!! After I checked it out of the plant, had the repairs made and left for a shower, he was going to unhook my truck and leave with it!!!!! At least the boss stopped him from doing it. And the boss agrees with me that I work with a bunch of bastages!! They are sneaky and conniving!


Ha!!


The last time a driver stole my load, he ended up with two flat tires and other mechanical problems... It cost him an extra 2 days, to make the same trip!


So, yeah buddy!! Go ahead, and I hope Karma kicks your ass!!


Anywho, upon returning to the shop to pick up my repaired trailer (yeah right). I headed off to deliver, but not before I noticed the tires had not been replaced, only aired up!! By the time I got to my destination, they were extremely low again!!! Oh well, I tried, as I do every week. Those stinkin mechanics only halfway patch things anyway. No wonder I get a shitty trailer every week!!