5-8-07 - I have a story for you!
I'm really sorry for not writing more here. I have been busy and happy. It's kinda funny that when everything is going well, there doesn't seem to be much to tell. Anyway, I do have a pretty interesting tail to tell from last Thursday.
First, I just want to answer a quick question that was asked in the comment section. The question was do I slip-seat. NO! I have my own truck!
Ok, about last Thursday. I had delivered near Orlando, FL on Wednesday afternoon and stopped in St. Augustine for the night. I drove up to Savanna, GA to pick up on Thursday morning. My shipper was located in the Port Of Georgia. It was a drop-hook, so I thought it was going to be no problem. Well, the directions said that when I got the a certain intersection, I would see the Port Of Georgia and I was to go 200 yards and turn into Gate 5. I got to the intersection and went 200 yards and found myself in the middle of about 300 container trucks. Now I knew something was wrong. I also knew that there was no way for me to get turned around and get out of there. I saw a sign that said Gate 4. Now I definatly knew I was in the wrong place, but there were about 15 lanes with more than 25 trucks in each of them lined up to go through the gate. I just figured the only way to get out was to go in and have the people running the place show me how to get out. I was in Lane 1, on the far right. I got to a scale in the lane, about 150 yards from the checkpoint and I pushed the button on the speaker to try to talk to some one. It took about 5 minutes, but a guy finally came on the speaker and said I was driving a "van" and that this gate was only for containers. Well, I told him that I had figured that out already and just needed to know how to get out. He said I needed to turn around and go back out through Lane 15. I asked him how I was supposed to do that and he said he didn't know, but that was what I needed to do. OK, so at least I knew what I needed to do. Cut across 14 lanes of trucks and just go out Lane 15. This was going to be fun. I started edging my was to the left and after about 10 minutes and pissing off about 20 other drivers I made it to the exit gate. The Police Officer there asked me for my pass. I told him I didn't have one because I never actually got in the gate. He the asked me for my troubld report saying I didn't get in the gate. I told him I didn't get in the gate to get one of those. He then told me I need to go get a trouble report. I asked where I was supposed to get on of those and he said at the gate. I asked him if I was supposed to go get in line again just to get to the gate to get a trouble report to get out. He looked at me in a confused way and told me to just go! I got out of Gate 4 and found that Gate 5 was up the street on the right about 1/8 of a mile. I got in there with no problem and was directed to a dropyard about 1 mile away. Interesting that I passed the other side of Gate 4 on my way to the drop. They could have let me in there, but I guess it really made a difference what gate I went in.
I found the dropyard, if that's what you want to call it. It was a huge dust pit with hundreds of trailers just parked every which way. I pulled up to a shack and a guy wanted to look at my empty to be sure it was clean and told me to slide my tandems all the way back before dropping my trailer. That was not fun at all. I was in a hole and the wheels just spun even with the differential lock in. What a pain in the ass! The entire dropyard was a dusty, hole ridden mess. I finally got the tandems back and stuffed the trailer back in one of the only empty slots there was. Not that there was any order to the dropyard. I found the loaded trailer I was supposed to pick up and it was nicely wedged against another trailer so I couldn't get to the landing gear crank. That was inportant because the right landing gear was in a hole causing the trailer to lean so much that when I tried to back under it, my drive wheels got stuck! So now I'm stuck under the trailer and I can't get to the crank to get unstuck. I found a yard driver and explained that he needed to move the trailer that was up against mine so I could crank the gear down and get unstuck. He looked at me like I was crazy. I explained it again and he finally moved the other trailer anout 3 inches. Gee, Thanks! I crawled under the trailers and got mine cranked up enough to get lout, but in the process, smashed my thumb. Damn! It was hot, humid, smokey, (from the wild fires), and I was a dusty mess.
I finally got out of the port after 2 hours of messing around. Just goes to show that drop & hook can sometimes be a real pain in the butt!
First, I just want to answer a quick question that was asked in the comment section. The question was do I slip-seat. NO! I have my own truck!
Ok, about last Thursday. I had delivered near Orlando, FL on Wednesday afternoon and stopped in St. Augustine for the night. I drove up to Savanna, GA to pick up on Thursday morning. My shipper was located in the Port Of Georgia. It was a drop-hook, so I thought it was going to be no problem. Well, the directions said that when I got the a certain intersection, I would see the Port Of Georgia and I was to go 200 yards and turn into Gate 5. I got to the intersection and went 200 yards and found myself in the middle of about 300 container trucks. Now I knew something was wrong. I also knew that there was no way for me to get turned around and get out of there. I saw a sign that said Gate 4. Now I definatly knew I was in the wrong place, but there were about 15 lanes with more than 25 trucks in each of them lined up to go through the gate. I just figured the only way to get out was to go in and have the people running the place show me how to get out. I was in Lane 1, on the far right. I got to a scale in the lane, about 150 yards from the checkpoint and I pushed the button on the speaker to try to talk to some one. It took about 5 minutes, but a guy finally came on the speaker and said I was driving a "van" and that this gate was only for containers. Well, I told him that I had figured that out already and just needed to know how to get out. He said I needed to turn around and go back out through Lane 15. I asked him how I was supposed to do that and he said he didn't know, but that was what I needed to do. OK, so at least I knew what I needed to do. Cut across 14 lanes of trucks and just go out Lane 15. This was going to be fun. I started edging my was to the left and after about 10 minutes and pissing off about 20 other drivers I made it to the exit gate. The Police Officer there asked me for my pass. I told him I didn't have one because I never actually got in the gate. He the asked me for my troubld report saying I didn't get in the gate. I told him I didn't get in the gate to get one of those. He then told me I need to go get a trouble report. I asked where I was supposed to get on of those and he said at the gate. I asked him if I was supposed to go get in line again just to get to the gate to get a trouble report to get out. He looked at me in a confused way and told me to just go! I got out of Gate 4 and found that Gate 5 was up the street on the right about 1/8 of a mile. I got in there with no problem and was directed to a dropyard about 1 mile away. Interesting that I passed the other side of Gate 4 on my way to the drop. They could have let me in there, but I guess it really made a difference what gate I went in.
I found the dropyard, if that's what you want to call it. It was a huge dust pit with hundreds of trailers just parked every which way. I pulled up to a shack and a guy wanted to look at my empty to be sure it was clean and told me to slide my tandems all the way back before dropping my trailer. That was not fun at all. I was in a hole and the wheels just spun even with the differential lock in. What a pain in the ass! The entire dropyard was a dusty, hole ridden mess. I finally got the tandems back and stuffed the trailer back in one of the only empty slots there was. Not that there was any order to the dropyard. I found the loaded trailer I was supposed to pick up and it was nicely wedged against another trailer so I couldn't get to the landing gear crank. That was inportant because the right landing gear was in a hole causing the trailer to lean so much that when I tried to back under it, my drive wheels got stuck! So now I'm stuck under the trailer and I can't get to the crank to get unstuck. I found a yard driver and explained that he needed to move the trailer that was up against mine so I could crank the gear down and get unstuck. He looked at me like I was crazy. I explained it again and he finally moved the other trailer anout 3 inches. Gee, Thanks! I crawled under the trailers and got mine cranked up enough to get lout, but in the process, smashed my thumb. Damn! It was hot, humid, smokey, (from the wild fires), and I was a dusty mess.
I finally got out of the port after 2 hours of messing around. Just goes to show that drop & hook can sometimes be a real pain in the butt!
posted by BigJohn at 7:22 AM
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