My First Long Haul Trips Dec 1985/Jan 1986 by Bev Plummer
Eastbound and Down Loaded up and Trucking,,,,, yep we were but we are not having nearly the fun The Bandit and Snowman had!
Freezing rain starts to fall and the highway is turning into a skating rink there is so much ice on the barbwire fences they look like rail fences and here we are out like Dumb and Dumber looking for a place to get the truck parked, finally near Cheyenne WY there’s a truck stop!
It’s a good thing the road into the truck stop is slanted a little downhill because the truck tires can hardly grip enough to pull the trailer anyway we get in and find a spot and this is going to be home till the ice is gone!
Since neither of us really knows anything about living on the road we are getting really stressed with the job the truck and each other, I don’t care how much two people care for each other truck cabs get really small after a week or so and the old General with its 27” Coffin bunk was not exactly spacious . We were still sitting there the next morning when a couple we’d met at Little America truck stop came in they had left just after us and were loaded light, they said they got stuck on the highway because the truck could not get traction and they too had no chains.
We head out again the roads are good and we are going to run team and get this trip done, lol.
Everything goes ok until we get almost to Omaha we hear a noise from under the hood we get off and check under the hood the fan is loose, this truck had a switch that could be used to shut off the fan so we did that and got into a truck stop where we called our Boss, he called a tow and also got us set up in a MOTEL ROOM!!! It was not 4 stars but it seemed like a palace after the truck, we were there for 3 days because we have a Canadian truck and all the nuts and bolts are metric and back then if you broke down in the U.S they would have to order parts in, usually by bus!
Finally we are rolling again heading for New Jersey, I had a bit of experience running in that area from my first border crossing job but I learned over the years that every trip to the Eastern Seaboard can be a whole new thing.
We find the customer and get unloaded and the boss tells us we have to wait while he finds us a load the truck stops in N.J were not first class back then no FJ’s or Petro’s, so we parked at The Sandman (it’s long gone) and waited, and waited, finally the next morning we have a load to pick up going to Buffalo, NY. We’ve been on the road almost 3 weeks
The load we picked up was a slip sheet load that required a special clamp on the fork lift to unload it another learning curve, the customer doesn’t have one so we are expected to hand bomb it off, we did . The good old days again, the saying education is expensive is so true.
We’re finally unloaded and call in, the Boss says he’s got a load of waste paper to pickup in Buffalo that’s going to Atlantic Packaging in Ajax at least we’re going to be home for Christmas.
I figured if I ever got back from this trip this was going to be it for me NO MORE LONG HAULING!
Ya right! The Boss calls the day after boxing day, he needed a load taken from Brampton to Houston TX and he said he had a reload right back out of Lake Charles , LA and he even had a truck with a bigger bunk a Western Star this trip has got to be better it’s all south bound. So we pack up and away we go. This was in my “Know nothing and trust everyone phase”.
Well we learned this dispatcher had been a Super Trucker (according to him) but his sense of direction and distance left much to be desired, I think he was the originator of the “but it’s only this far on the map”.
The load was going to Beaumont TX not Houston
This was Dec 1985 and there wasn’t all the truck stops that’s available now plus we had to call in from a payphone at least twice a day.
We got unloaded in Beaumont and went to the Spindle Top truck stop at Vidor to get reload info,,,, and we get put on the “Call back in an hour plan” its Dec 30/1986 and I’m beginning to think we’re stuck here till after New Years! The next day about noon we finally get the word that “Sorry no load until the day after New year’s day” It New Years eve and Gilley’s night club at Pasadena is having a big celebration. I decided the boss owes us something for this screw up we did our job when he couldn’t get anyone else so I told my Partner I’m going to call Gilley’s and see about tickets , it’s now mid afternoon and I didn’t think there would be any hope of getting tickets and I thought can I even afford them? I called, yes there were lots of tickets and they would hold a pair for us, the tickets were $10.00 each! Yes we could come in jeans, as the lady said “Honey, this is Texas everyone wears jeans” There was parking for tractor trailers too! We are going!! My partner is very unsure about running almost 90 miles one way out of route, I said “What’s he going to do? Fire us?” The truck was full of fuel and we could run 1500 miles on the over sized tanks so even if I was charged for the extra fuel we used it would be worth it! I was lead driver so my decisions would not affect him.
We get there about 6pm,park the rig, get supper at the Mexican buffet and go across the parking lot to the huge Quanset hut that is Gilley’s dance hall, it seats 4500 people and you have to check your guns at the door,,, yes there were lots of different kinds of hand guns, they were tagged just like a coat check.
I needn’t have worried about my mode of dress, there was even 2 older women there with rollers in their hair, (they took them out when the music started) and guess what band was playing Mickey Gilley imagine getting to see him for $10.00 ! It would have cost over $100 at home for New years eve.
It was amazing to see over 4000 Texans all going around the floor doing the Cotton Eyed Joe or the Texas 2step just as smooth as could be!
We even met a driver from Toronto. This was a once in a lifetime thing because a few years later the club burned down and is no more.
The next day we head back toward Lake Charles, LA to wait to pick up the load of rice.
We find a place to park and go into a restaurant to have breakfast, all of a sudden there is a big shot gun Blast someone is upset because a truck is parked in front of the restaurant on the street and this guy who doesn’t want the transport truck parked there went out and shot the front tire off the tractor, he came back into the restaurant and one of the waitresses took the shotgun away from him and called the police, the truck is sitting out there with the front tire blown off the driver is from Barrie and he was in having breakfast waiting to pick up at the same place we are loading. Thankfully the shooter didn’t shoot the rad or the truck would have been shut down for days waiting to get parts.
The police came and got the shooter, the driver calls a tire repair to get his truck wheel changed and we are all on our way to load.
Apparently the rice plant we loaded at was where Sammy Kershaw worked before his music career took off.
Because we did not have much OTR experience we were stuck with companies like this who ran a few rental trucks that were in disrepair and did not have a base of freight customers and basically just went day to day hunting low paying loads or buying extra loads that other companies or load brokers were trying to get rid of.
Even buying fuel was a challenge because the boss would only send us fuel money by com cheque and often there was no one on at night if anything happened we were on our own.
Sometimes I look back and I think we were just like Dumb and Dumber out here, we have almost 2 months OTR experience now but we still don’t really have any real idea of how to live on the road.
Back then it was here’s the keys and the load has to be where ever by a certain day!
Things were going pretty well on the way back,,,,, until my partner had his wallet stolen at one of the truck stop payphones, he had laid it down on the shelf while he talked and someone scooped it, all I.D is gone except for his border card he kept on the truck visor!
Anyway we get back home and he spends a couple of days getting Temporary copies of D.L and I.D and we get another load going from Brampton to Dallas and Houston. This is going to be a good trip its Friday afternoon and we have delivery Monday morning in Dallas and then 147 miles to Houston get unloaded by noon reload in Orange TX and right back to Brampton,,,,,, but isn’t there something about “The best laid plans’’? Well that little saying was about to come back to haunt us.
Friday evening we pull up to the U.S booth at Detroit MI and the officer has us park and come inside, he’s questioning my partners temporary I.D and D.L and this officer is on a power trip, he won’t let us go back to Canada he won’t let me go with the load we just have to sit on the bench till he decides what to do with us!
And we sat there ALL NIGHT LONG till his supervisor came in at 8 a.m Saturday morning!
The Super asked our guy why we are there and gets the rundown about temp I.D and then he asked about me he was told I was good to go but hadn’t released me for some unknown reason.
So I could go but my buddy had to go home! I decided to do the run because this is still only about the 3rd trip for this company and after the 3 week disaster with the first one I’m still trying to get things right.
Now I’ve been awake basically since Friday morning and I’m still at Detroit!
I get my release and I’m gone! I am so tired and angry but hey I’ve got a pretty fast truck and I can do this (besides I need to get a pay cheque ) I stop at the Tiki truck stop and get my big thermos filled and with a couple naps I reach Little Rock AR at about 3am Monday morning and I need fuel. I call in no one is answering the phone, I ask for wakeup call (knock on the door) for 7a.m. The fuel jockey came and woke me up at 7 (remember when they used to pump your fuel?) I go in to call my dispatch and the lady at the fuel desk says “No offense Hon but I’ve seen dead people who look better then you do right now, you need rest”
I told her I had to get unloaded in Dallas before they closed and it’s over 300 miles!
I made it and got unloaded but now I can’t make Houston but I will go and park at the gate and unload in the morning. Now that I have some extra time I can stop for a shower and a good meal and still get to customer and have a real rest before unloading in the morning,,,, besides running solo and sleeping single is kinda nice!
We drivers had to find our own directions back then, we called on pay phones and talked to our customers and wrote the directions down.
I got to Houston about 7pm and had a long sleep right until the dock foreman knocked on my door about 7 a.m.
He thought I might have a problem getting on the dock because it was set up for cabovers and I was driving a long nosed Western Star! Thank God the trailer was only 48’ .
Anyway it took me 45 min to get on the dock because I only had a few feet to maneuver and I was backing in between 2 trailers, I bumped the dock plate and run in to see if I’m square, the guy is standing there looking at the back of my trailer, he say’s “You know that’s just about perfect,,,, now if the doors were open!” I had been pulling trailers with roll up doors and had a brain lapse, lol. But I repositioned and got unloaded, picked up my reload in Orange TX , put the Star in the wind and I was back at my Brampton yard Thursday just after lunch!
If I had known what I was doing I would have been worried, but our log books were sort of an afterthought back then so everything was good.
Things are starting to go downhill with me and this company and I’m finding out I’m not cut out for the team thing I’m thinking about moving on and trying to get on with a better company.
I decide to stay till spring so I don’t leave my partner hanging during his first winter because he has even less experience then I do so we struggle forward trying to learn as much as we can about OTR hauling.
The company never offered any training what we learned was from other drivers who sometimes didn’t know the real story either so it was just hoping for the best day by day.
We didn’t even know about axel weights although I had driven local for a few years I had never had to worry about that and it was never mentioned.
We were pulled in at a scale somewhere in U.S mid west and the scale master said the load was overweight on an axel we had no idea what to do!
The scale master couldn’t believe that we didn’t understand about “shifting axels “ or had never been told about weight distribution, the alternative was to pay the fine and go on,,,,, or he could ask this other driver who happened to be listening to our predicament if he would go and show us how to shift the trailer bogies so that’s what we did
This stranger took the time to explain how to unpin and slide the wheels and how much weight each hole would move I learned more from him then from all my time OTR so far!
This is why as long as I long hauled whenever I saw a driver shifting bogies I always offered to help.
But I need to move on so I get a road test with a company hauling containers to Red Hook and Port Elizabeth NJ.
The thought “out of the frying pan into the fire” was running through my mind for some reason.
