Monday, February 26, 2007

Reefer Madness

"Light up, everybody! Join us in this celebration..." - Styx


Yeah, so, let me share with you my thoughts about reefers (refrigerated units). They're obviously a big part of the Food Service business. Naturally, customers would like to receive their refrigerated and frozen product at the proper temperature. Trouble is, it doesn't always happen like that. For you drivers who don't have to deal with them on a regular basis, let me just say "Congrats!" Also to guys/gals who just linehaul stuff from one warehouse to another, ya know, that's not terribly difficult. You just set your reefer to a particular temperature, put it on "start/stop" and go. However, for us poor bastards who have to really deal with them on a regular, continual basis, it can be kinda stressful. See, if you have nice new equipment, again, no biggie. But my company run these old ass trailers that are constantly breaking down - THAT'S
where the stress comes in. As a driver, I used to actually "care" about the customers getting their product in decent shape. Not any more. There is too much else for me to worry about out there these days; so, if the product comes in "f - ed up," oh well, at least ya got it, right? I've had sooo many problems with these things in the past, I can't even count them all - so I'll just relate a couple of them to you here.
This is what's supposed to happen: warehouse loads the frozen product into the nose of the trailer, hopefully leaving the side freezer door exposed. Often times they'll throw extra dry pieces in there they don't know what else to do with (flour, pizza boxes, etc.). That makes my
job more difficult because I have to either work around that stuff, or, more often than not, unload it first. Anyway, they (warehouse) then are supposed to put up a bulkhead (a plastic
"wall" that can be moved around inside the trailer, and which has a "door"), strap that puppy in place, then load the cooler product in the middle, another bulkhead, then the dry on the ass end.
The cooler, or "second" compartment, has a second cooling unit on the ceiling of the trailer, which can be separately turned on/off at the control panel outside. The freezer "main" unit is the important one, because if that ain't working, yer screwed. You can get by without the cooler compartment operating (just that in winter time the "fresh" veggies freeze - happens more than I care to admit), in fact sometimes you have to shut the second unit down, because it's preventing the thing from cycling properly. But I digress. The warehouse guy is then supposed to come outside, set both compartment temps, and wait there, making sure the unit is operating properly. Needless to say, this doesn't happen very often. Sometimes they just turn the thing on and walk away, or they'll set the wrong temp, or...I can't tell you how many times I've pulled up and seen either a reefer "raging" (running non-stop), or else not running at all. It blows my mind how some of these guys keep their jobs (I could go on and on about warehouse and their
screwed-up policies, behaviors, etc. - maybe in a future posting). You can set the reefer to either
run "continuously" or "start/stop" where the thing is supposed to "cycle." Cycling just means that when the "set point" is reached, the unit shuts off automatically, until the temperature climbs up to a pre-set level, where the unit then kicks in again. It's like your thermostat at home, just with two separate compartments. And it's supposed to run like that until you shut it off. The older units have a difficult time maintaining setpoints, especially in the warmer weather. They set the freezer at -4 degrees, and the cooler around 36 or so. The minus four I have a hard time with, unless you're hauling frozen yogurt and ice cream, which I can then understand (they sometimes have these thermal "boxes" to put the ice cream in, and put dry ice in a compartment inside the box - the boxes stand 6' tall, about 4' wide, and about 4' deep).
But for frozen meats and stuff, I've found that raising the temperature to 0 degrees often makes the unit run better - not as much stress, you know? Heck, I've even gone as high as 5-10 degrees, without any worries at all. My main concern is that the unit is running; only then do I
concern myself about whether it's cycling properly. Hey, as long as there's fuel in the reefer tank, it cool (no pun intended). But that's another area of concern: if you arrive for work, and you're doing a two or three-day route, and there's 1/2 tank of reefer fuel or less, then you know you're gonna have to make an extra stop for reefer fuel (that pisses me off).
I remember once being out in Iowa, and I had finished up for the day - I was shut down by Waterloo. So it's about 1:30 in the afternoon, and I go into the truckstop to have lunch. When I returned, the reefer was completely dead. I mean I tried EVERYTHING! No luck. So, I got on the phone and called her in. First, the leasing company sent out a local guy, who looked at it, then admitted to me he had no experience with this particular kind of unit. So I called again.
Basically, the only service centers were in Dubuque or Des Moines, and I'm halfway in between. They sent a guy from Des Moines. Now, understand this is like June, it's 75 degrees outside, and all my shit is melting. You could just see the water dripping out. Plus, I'm supposed to be resting, not babysitting this fucking thing. Anyway, the guy gets there about 7pm, diagnoses the problem (it was a switch or something) is there for an hour and leaves. But I'm a mess - you know, worrying about the cheese and the meat thawing out and everything. But I said absolutely nothing to my customers the next day. What they don't know (wont?) hurt them.
The other one that stands out in my mind was also up in Iowa - I had mad a delivery up in Charles City, and had stopped at the motel for the night. This was earlier in my career, so I was pretty "green" when it comes to these things. I remember I had stopped at the leasing co. maintenance shop, and the guy had looked at the reefer for some minor problem. Little did I know, he had switched the unit to run "continuously" without telling me. Now, a more seasoned driver would have caught this, but...So, I get to the motel, there's 5/8 tank of fuel, no problem, right? I go out the next morning, DEAD! The thing is out of fuel! So, I quick run down to Waterloo, and go to the nearest service center. They fucked around with that thing for hours; they had to prime the unit, ya know, and everything. I'm sitting there watching, and calling in to my guys, so they can tell the customers why I'm half a day late. I think they actually charged me with an accident (which they said they can do - "it's your job to make sure there's enough fuel, etc." BULLSHIT!)
Those are just two out of MANY incidents (most aren't that serious) in my experiences with reefers. If you're lucky, there's a service center in the general vicinity you can go to, if it's a serious problem. Sometimes, just shutting it off, and re-starting it will do the trick. You kind of learn how these things actually operate, without really knowing the mechanics, by experience, and by talking to the guys who work on them. I mean, the main unit is basically a diesel
motor with freon and a thermostat. It operates just like a regular diesel engine (battery, alternator, ignition, etc.). Not that I'm any expert on diesel engines, lol.

More soon,


Steve

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Back in the Saddle

"I'm back in the saddle again..." - Aerosmith


After four months of basically nightmarish trucking work, I decided to come back to the lesser
of the evils. Sure, I could have explored other "types" of trucking (and there are many), but I
chose to go back to the familiar, the comfortable. See, despite the "back-breaking" nature of this type of work, actually knowing where you're going every week is something very comforting. I
can't speak for other truck drivers out there, but my biggest fear while driving (besides a major accident) is getting lost. That was another headache with the P&D company: we were just given
addresses, no real directions, so we had to find the general location on our atlas, then just hope
the place is/was in the vicinity. Sometimes you could call the dispatcher, who, if he/she didn't know the location, could call the customer for you and get directions. But that's a real pain in the ass, you know? And, to be more efficient, you're trying to do all this while driving - not the safest situation in the world. At least in the foodservice joint, you know where the stores are, or have written directions to each location if you don't.
The other advantage to being in food service (and I've mentioned this before) is that much
of our work is done in the wee hours of the night/morning, so you don't have to deal with a million people on the roads. Sometimes coming back from the north shore to the southwest side at 6:00 - 7:00 in the evening was a complete nightmare. Those of you who have driven in and around Chicago can attest. I mean, the Edens southbound, to the Kennedy southbound, to the Stevenson southbound could sometimes take an hour and a half or more. Many, many cursewords would be flying out of my mouth as I witnessed one idiotic maneuver after another.
So I came back. My boss, Frank (not his real name) was able to get me a decent returning salary, but as far as seniority was concerned, I had to start at the bottom. That meant that
there were guys that I trained who were ahead of me on the "totem pole." Nothing I could do about it. I wasn't the only one who "came back," either; several guys were in the same boat (at different times) and, like me, discovered the grass wasn't greener on the other side. Hey, as long as you left the company on good terms (gave 2 weeks notice, etc.), they were happy to have you back. With a serious driver shortage approaching, guys who knew the system and the products were invaluable.
The other nice thing about coming back was that they had finally established some new leases
for some brand-new trucks and trailers; nice, new Freightliner and Volvo trucks (by different
leasing companies) and new 48' trailers with the company logo on the side. I actually noticed the new equipment four months before as I was leaving the company. Now I was able to operate the new trucks/trailers with a much lessened fear of breakdowns. It's a nice feeling to know your chances of a mechanical failure are diminished because you have some decent equipment!
The trucks were all 10-speeds; the Volvos acted a bit differently than the Freightliners, but you
learned to adapt to whatever truck you had. Probably the nicest thing was that the new trailers
had functioning interior lights, so you could see what the hell you were doing in the middle of the night, not to mention the reefers. I'll talk in detail about reefers in an upcoming post, so stay with me. The 48-footers were not much different than the older, 45-foot trailers, just as 53-footers aren't much different than 48'. So we can drive just about anything and feel comfortable.
The sleepers were still the "light" variety, with the bunk being pretty much directly behind the front seats. In this respect, the Freightliners offer a little more breathing room, but you still can't stand up in 'em. They aren't "condo" units, like most OTR drivers run (no upper bunk, etc).
Anyway, like when I first started, I had to do some B.S. stuff at first when I came back; primarily the "specials" that we ran in the straight trucks or maybe with a pup-trailer; doing backhauls of cheese, or tomato sauce or flour. Eventually I got a route (my old Iowa route, which I still do to this day), and I was satisfied. We also got new uniforms ("monkey suits" I like to call them), but it's better than wearing out your own clothes. Some guys just refuse to wear
them, like they're too good, or their shit don't stink, I dunno. I guess I just felt (like I'm sure we all do) a need to belong, you know? And, until I win the lottery, or someone pisses me off to the point of physical violence, I belong here...

More soon,

Steve

Sunday, February 11, 2007

The Other Side

I'm baaack! Jury duty is over...for a year, anyway

They say "The grass is always greener on the other side." Well, I've been there, and it ain't
pretty. Now we're at the end of 2004, and I'm pretty much miserable - frustrated with the back-breaking job I'm working, pissed off about the prospect of another winter in Michigan.
So, I polish up the ol' resume, and start looking around. That's the one thing about this business - there are always people looking for drivers, sometimes more than others. It's like nurses - there always seems to be a need for experienced pros. I went out on a couple of interviews; I
remember one was a union job driving dump trucks, hauling gravel out of the Thornton Quarry.
I went in at like 7:00am; it was cold as hell, and I remember firing up this old Kenworth (must have been 100 years old), backing up to a gravel trailer and taking off for the quarry, my "road tester" watching my every move. That road test didn't go so well, and I didn't get the job. But there was another outfit that did offer me a job - and I took it!
Looking back, it was probably a mistake to accept the first job that was offered to me, but I
felt a sense of desperation, so I went for it. This was a smaller, family-owned company based in the south (I won't mention their name here), that was doing local P&D (pick-up and delivery)
in the Chicago area. Like many of the larger outfits (Yellow, FedEx, Watkins, et al), they would send us out on deliveries in the morning, and once the deliveries were done, we would go do pickups in the afternoon. All the logistics were done from the warehouse. However, unlike the larger companies, we would make deliveries in some unusual locations (nursing homes, country
clubs, even at people's homes). Undestand I'm driving a day-cab pulling a 13'6" high, 48' trailer,
and trying to wedge myself into some of these places was, let's say, a "challenge." They had a
couple of pup trailers, and one straight truck, which were always busy. So, we were forced to attempt the deliveries best we could under the circumstances.
I was assigned the near North Shore area (Evanston, Skokie, Niles, Glenview, north side, etc),
which was no picnic, let me tell you. I was "filling in" for an older driver, who had been on sick leave due to surgey of some sort. We would arrive at the base about, I dunno, 7:30, mandatory meeting at 8:00, and then assigned a trailer, given our paperwork, etc. The trucks were basically permanently assigned to us, so that was no worry (although we did have to turn our keys in each day). The trailers were all supposed to be loaded and ready to go when our meeting broke about 8:30, but it was rare that they were. I remember days waiting hours before I had a load ready to go. They might have to wait for another truck/trailer to come in and get unloaded.
Needless to say, the warehouse operations wasn't the most efficient in the world.
Then we would take off. It was usually an hour or so for me to get from the near southwest side to my first stop up north. Don't get me wrong: most of our stops were at actual companies, with actual docks we could back up to. You just had to learn the "procedure" at each one; sometimes you'd have to check in first, sometimes you'd have to wait for other trucks that "beat" you there, you might have to back in from the right side, and so on. I actually became pretty good at "blind-side" backing, which is a helluva lot easier with a day cab, where you could look out the back window (you had to make sure the window was clean - in the winter, salt dirties it up bigtime). Nonetheless, I did get into a couple fender-bender type accidents (no injuries, minimal damage at low speeds). Once I took down a tree branch in front of some guy's house. It was a pretty substantial branch, and it fell right on top of the cab. The person wasn't home (Thank God), so I removed the branch and took off. I would make sure to call dispatch in cases like this,
to cover my ass. Another time I was backing down an alley, and brought down a telephone wire that was hanging too low. And on a couple of occasions, while backing in from the blind side I cracked up the driver's side front quarter panel, which included the headlight housing, because I was not paying attention to both sides. I remember duct taping the fuck out of that headlight and housing to keep it in position (the headlight still worked!) Another driver even lent me some packaging tape one time, so I could reinforce the taped area. Nice guy! I almost took out a traffic
light standard at Devon and Western trying to make a right turn, from the right turn lane! (silly motherfucker!) Those right turns in the city are always fun, as are the low overpasses. As a driver, you soon find out which streets are "friendly" and which aren't (Thank God for Foster Ave.) The south side boasts(?) of having a lot of them, but the north side has many also, especially the city of Evanston - a truck-driver's nightmare! There is really only one street (that I know of) to enter the town, and you must be aware of exactly what streets you're taking to arrive at your destination. The east-west streets are the ones that pose a danger, due to the north-south elevated train tracks. Those are the underpasses that cause problems. I was on Howard St., heading eastbound toward the lake, and passed my delivery address. Lo and behold directly in front of me was a 12'6' or something overpass. What to do? This is a busy city street, one lane each direction, with cars parked along both sides. Fortunately, I was able to pull into a gas station on the left, and, with the help of a "street person" holding up traffic, I managed to back across into the parking lot of the garden center across the street, then pull out heading the opposite direction. Not fun. I had a few situations like that. Of course, I'm, cursing and swearing the whole time. WTF!
Believe it or not, the tricky situations I was put into was not my biggest complaint with this outfit: no, it was that they did not pay overtime! Can you believe that? You go out there, put into a fucking meat grinder, and just get paid straight time for all hours worked. You worked until all the work was done, even if you had to double-stack pallets, cramming stuff in any way possible. I had taken a pay cut to move over to this company, and I remember the manager dude telling me they didn't pay overtime. And I still took the job! Now, I ask you, is that sane? My wife was, obviously, livid. We got paid weekly, and I was bringing home $400-500 checks. It was not a good situation, and I'm actually surprised I hung in there as long as I did. After three months, though I was, again, looking around. I had actually been back in touch with my former boss, Frank, who was looking to see if he could fit me back in...

More soon,

Steve

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Apologies

I've been on jury duty for the last week or so (Yayyyy!), and could be for a while longer. My bosses aren't too thrilled, but... I will get back to posting just as soon as possible.

Take Care,

Steve

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Michigan

"...fuck all you posers...and step into a world that you never seen..." - Limp Bizkit, "Gimme the Mic"

Just what is this "world you've never seen" that you speak of? Ahhh, it's the world of SAFE DRIVING! Find out about it!

So it's November of 2003, and I've been running out to Iowa the past couple 2-3 months. But now it's time to "re-bid," a process where the drivers, according to senority, get to choose or "bid on" the route(s) they want. The company does this every six months or so, or when they gain or lose business/stores, etc. It helps to keep the drivers "fresh," (at least in theory). Being towards the bottom of the totem pole, I don't even think I got to bid; I was just basically "stuck" with the leftovers that nobody wanted. Can you guess what that was? Grand Rapids, MI! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure Michigan is a lovely place (I know it is) in summer, anyway, but
here it is, winter approaching, and I'm headed off to "snow country." Not only that, they made me go there twice a week. Two different routes; the first one started Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning, back Thursday morning. The second one was Thursday night/Friday morning, back Saturday morning. I wound up doing both of these routes for a full year! What a pain in the ass!
Why a pain in the ass? Let me explain: my first real "troubles" started when I began the Michigan routes. I recall getting a flat tire on 80/94 near Burns Harbor, IN. Another time (in fact, twice) my air lines sprung a leak, locking up the brakes. The first occasion was around
South Haven, and I recall having to hoof it back towards the exit I had just passed. A friendly motorist stopped to give me a lift back to the gas station, which was a Godsend, because it had just started snowing, and was cold as hell. So I was 2-3 hours late on my route that particular day (oh, joy!). We, as drivers, are basically responsible for "handling" any mechanical problems that arise. The company doesn't really care/want to know. So, you get on the horn with the leasing company (Ryder, in this case), and they send someone out. I recall the guy had to come down from Holland. Then, they take a damn blow-torch to the air lines to warm them up. Same thing happened a few weeks later, but luckily, I had already made it to Grand Rapids. I remember pulling out of my first store, and the rear wheels not turning, just sliding along behind me in the snow. What a lovely feeling! But that's the life of a trucker; shit is going to happen - ya just got to make the best of a bad situation (like the song says).
Anyway, I guess the routes weren't tooo terrible. I was able to get my four (Wed.) or five (Fri.)
stores delivered, and make it to the truckstop within the 14-hour time limit (usually). This is leaving the south burbs at midnite, and getting up to Grand Rapids by what? 4-4:30am (5:30 their time - yes, you had to account for the time change also) So, I'd be done generally by noon
Central/1:00pm Eastern, take my 10-hour rest, then do the remaining 3 stops overnight, after the stores closed. We always had keys, and all the Grand Rapids stores were part of the same franchise, I believe. So the ordering "procedures," if you will, were pretty much uniform: in other words, they all got the same shit, just some more than others, depending on the volume of business.
But, man, they did like to order heavy. I remember having 40K PLUS loads going up there. And if you are over gross, Michigan is not the state you wanna be going through. The scales would invariably be open, and they don't have pre-pass, so it's basically praying time. Yes, you could stop at one of the many truckstops in Indiana, scale your load for 10-11 dollars, and hope you don't have to move the tandems. I recall having to slide those fuckers in the snowy parking lot of one truckstop, and, for the life of me could not get 'em to budge. The wheels just slid back and forth. And with the old-ass, rusted-out piece-of-shit trailers we were pulling...Look, I could talk all day about moving your tandems, but I'm not going to, because, first of all, there's lots of drivers more experienced than I, so I'm not saying anything new, or that they haven't already experienced. Second, after dicking around, wasting time on trying to get the weight just right (and failing) I would just give up, and jump on the toll road. That was the failsafe: you would take 80/94 to 65 north towards Gary, then jump on 90 east (Indiana toll road), and take that all the way out to South Bend. The toll was only like 7-8 bucks, if I remember correctly, which is less than the cost to weigh, and you didn't have to deal with the bullshit, ya know? Then you'd take U.S. 31 north, which basically merges right back onto 94 around Benton Harbor, and you've bypassed the New Buffalo scales. I figured it was about 30 minutes longer that way, but sooooo worth it to avoid the headaches. Since I haven't been back in a couple years, I wonder if they've figured it out (MI state police). Dunno. Don't care. Coming back was a snap (except for the lake-effect snowstorms - by the time you hit, say, Gary, you're OK) because you're empty, so no worries.
But the volume of product I had to deliver became the real issue. My back literally took a pounding, especially in the summer months. Why people eat more pizza in summer is anybody's guess, but I was paying the price big time. I would get to the truckstop, have a bite and just
fucking collapse. I think it was about this time I discovered those back heat wraps (I swear by those things! - what a livesaver!) As the months went by, though, I became more and more disillusioned. Summer 2004 has passed, and now winter is fast approaching. What to do?
Did I really want to go through that shit all over again? Like I said, I don't have anything against Michigan personally (although my theory is that, because Detroit is the "Motor City," people think they can drive like NASCAR drivers), but I was just getting more and more fed up with each passing week. Sooooooo...

More soon,


Steve