Damn truckers

[Tobin S.]

It's a beautiful day here in the Seattle area as far as the temperature goes. It's a comfortable 68 degrees, but half the truckers at this truck stop are idling their engines including the guy right next to me. Diesel fuel costs about $3.45 a gallon here in Washington and the national average is probably somewhere around $3 a gallon. Even if you don't have to pay for the stuff it would still be in your interests to cut idling to a minimum. You don't have to be a trucker to understand that.

I've been sitting here for 24 hours and will be for another 14. I think I could use a 6 pack and a hotel room. I would get drunk here and then go around banging on doors and telling these morans to shut their engines off, but as fun as that might be, it probably wouldn't end well. We need a jail bird smiley.

[yewberry]

1. Well, it did stop raining.

Kinda damp day, though.

How come people are idling? And how come you're sitting for so long?

[Tobin S.]

2. I think they leave their trucks running out of habit

We do have to idle sometimes to be able to keep the cab comfortable enough to get some quality rest. In the extreme heat and cold it's a matter of staying healthy and even alive. But when it's as nice as it is right now, these guys don't need to be idling their engines.

I'm sitting here because I have three deliveries in Seattle on Monday and I had one delivery in Spokane on Friday. Nobody is working the docks where I have to deliver this weekend. So I'm kind of stuck for a little bit.

[ChoralScholar]

24. My dad used to tell me stories

of climbing up in a reefer trailer and sleeping on top of a load of lettuce, just to get some relief from the heat. This year makes his 45th year behind the wheel of a big truck.

[rrneck]

3. Heh. It's a movie quote day...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086960/quotes

Axel Foley: What? Y'all the second team?
Detective McCabe: We're the first team.
Detective Foster: Yeah, and we're not gonna fall for a banana in the tailpipe.
Axel Foley: You're not gonna fall for the banana in the tailpipe? It should be more natural, brother. It should flow out, like this - "Look, man, I ain't fallin' for no banana in my tailpipe!" See, that's more natural for us. You been hanging out with this dude too long.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear Tobin!

Can you lock up your truck, and go for a walk, or something?

That would get you away from the diesel idling...

It sounds awful.

Not to mention what it does to the immediate air quality!

I'm sorry you're stuck.

:hug:

[Tobin S.]

5. Yeah, and I did go for a walk earlier

It's really not that bad as far as my comfort goes. I just hate seeing all these drivers wasting their fuel.

[elleng]

6. So you're hanging like we are, except you're in your truck? OK comfort, I guess.

Glad you checked in with us! Always wondering!

[Tobin S.]

7. Yeah, I'm just chillin on a Sunday like the rest of you

I'd rather be getting this shit unloaded and grabbing another load, but it just didn't work out that way this time.

[Ikonoklast]

8. They would if it was *their* money they were wasting.

I agree with you 100%, Tobin, and it is really amazing that people will idle their trucks when the weather is perfect, with no reason for either heat or cooling. I have a set of those removeable screens for my door windows, and those things were about the best money I ever spent. If no one near you is idling, and you have any sort of a cross breeze, there's no need for the air conditioning to be on.

It has to get really cold for me to idle, as I sleep pretty well in cooler weather, but if the interior temperature of the cab gets much over eighty two degrees or thereabout, I usually idle at least until the sun goes down and things cool off a little.

Since I'm pulling a reefer, I also try to park away from everyone else, or near other reefers as they can be a tad noisy on run/stop mode, especially if no one is idling. I try to pull in head-first if I can, lessening the amount of noise I generate for others to deal with.

I'm getting ready to go out to the truck in an hour myself, I have a three-stopper starting at 0530 in Carlisle and ends in H'burg PA at 1830 that evening. Since it finals so late, instead of trying to fit a load in Tues. for Weds. delivery somewhere close to home, I'm going to DH back home and try to get the new ride lettered on Tues. morning.

Be safe.

[Tobin S.]

9. Hey, good to hear from you

Enjoy that new truck. You got a Volvo, right? I hear they ride pretty smooth.

I've seen those removeable screens at the truck stops and have been thinking about buying a set, but I haven't got around to it yet.

[Ikonoklast]

12. Yeah, a 670 'Polish Peterbilt'.

I went to Cincy on Tuesday and picked it up...not from Arrow, mind you, but from the Volvo dealer's shop where they took it because they still hadn't had the damn fuel shut-off switch fixed from two weeks before.

When I got there and asked the saless rep where my ride was, he turned beet red and told me that when he went to start it that morning to pull around front, it immediately threw a 'low fuel pressure' code.

I asked him if he hadn't access to a telephone to communicate this knowledge to me, and could have adjusted my schedule accordingly, instead of getting my folks out of bed at o dark thirty to give me a ride there.

He turned even redder.

Instead, I had to wait seven goddamn hours in the Volvo dealer's waiting room for them to put a new fuel manifold on, as Volvo, in their infinite engineering wisdom, decided that instead of using a sixty dollar electric solenoid cutoff switch, they machined the valve into the manifold itself, necessitating the removal and replacement of the entire assembly.

Gawd.

At least it happened there, and not ten minutes later on I-71 northbound.

But, it's sitting in the yard next to my old ride, anyway, it looks like next week before I get the white copy of the title, in order to transfer over my plates, and get her into service.

[Tobin S.]

14. That salesman just wasn't thinking

He definitely should have given you a call as soon as the truck needed to go into the shop and let you know what the deal was seeing as how you live about 4 hours away.

I'm hoping the repair didn't cost you anything.

[jmowreader]

18. I wouldn't pull in head-first if I were you

I went to the Pilot in Monroe, Michigan, to do a 10-hour and pulled in head-first. About an hour later I got a call from the safety department: "Some guy in (names the truck line and truck number) says you sideswiped him in the parking lot. Check it out and call me back."

I did check it out, and then I called the safety department: "Call that guy back and ask him this: if he got hit from the back by a white truck, how come his truck is covered in orange paint and his front bumper is bashed in?" Safety did so. That cleared me immediately. We finally figured it out: the only truck that was pulled in head-first was mine, and our company's phone number was painted on the trailer doors--so he just decided I was gonna be the guy who whacked him.

[Ikonoklast]

26. Keeps the hood on my tractor.

I've been struck twice while parked; I'd rather they hit the trailer than put me out of service with a smashed-up tractor again.

Trailers I got.

[alphafemale]

10. Don't they have to keep the engines on to keep things like their fridges running?

[Tobin S.]

11. No

Most truck accessories run off of 12 volt sockets that are active even when the truck is turned off. I have this laptop plugged into one right now. I'm also running a refigerated cooler, a satellite radio, my am/fm, and I could be running my CB and cell phone charger. I also have a printer that runs off of a power inverter that I can use when the truck is off.

You generally don't have to worry about killing the batteries (there are 4) unless you are going to be sitting for a very long period of time. I sometimes fire the truck up for a few minutes just to make sure.

[rug]

13. You may need this later.

[Tobin S.]

15. lol! Thank you. Now, will they let me have my laptop in jail?

I might have to hit you guys up for some bail money. :D

[jmowreader]

16. Hey Tobin...

Since you're working the Pacific Northwest, if you get a load of advertising circulars bound for the Coeur d'Alene Press PM me before you deliver and I'll take you for some good Coeur d'Alene coffee.

[Tobin S.]

19. Sounds good

I've been going through there frequently and I know there's a Flying J at exit 2. If I've got the time, I'll pm you and see what's happening. I remember you saying that you were moving up that way to do local work. Are you still driving for a living?

[jmowreader]

22. No, I'm back to printing

This is why I said to PM me if you were going to the CDA Press with a load of circulars--you will pull RIGHT into my building.

If you do get a load into here, you hit our loading dock by doing a REALLY fucked-up-looking back into the alley between the printing plant and the day care center next door. The real problem is getting onto 2nd--the corners in downtown CDA are really, really tight. I know it can be done because we get freight from guys with 53-foot trailers all the time, but it's real tight to turn off Sherman onto 2nd, and you can't turn off Lakeside onto 2nd at all. Sherman's a four-lane, so maybe put the truck so the gas pedal is right over the line between the two eastbound lanes.

[lunatica]

17. They live in those trucks and need to not only keep warm but

They use it to keep cool too. And to run the computers an refrigerators and to have light, etc. There are some progressive truck stops where they can hook up to built in electric charges and they don't need to run the engine.

[Tobin S.]

21. I am a trucker, lunitica

And there is no need to run a truck when it is 68 degrees outside. This computer, a light, my refrigerated cooler, and my am/fm and satellite radios are currently running off of my truck which is not running.

[lunatica]

25. Hi Tobin

I'm one of your fans! Thanks for the correction. I'm always happy to see your diaries and photos.

[jmowreader]

28. Those "progressive" truck stops aren't THAT fucking progressive

The system you are describing is IdleAire, and it costs $2 per hour to hook up to it.

I don't remember the trucking company that has this, but in Laredo, Texas, there are a LOT of truck yards for obvious reasons, and at least one of them BOUGHT an IdleAire system (it consists of a steel frame with air conditioners mounted on it at intervals; each one has a duct coming down that carries conditioned air, electricity, cable tv, internets, and just about anything else you'd want; it doesn't supply beer or deliver your spouse to the cab but you can't have everything) and installed it in their yard, which makes a hell of a lot more sense than letting sixty or seventy guys sit there and idle all the time.

[kimi]

20. Hey!!

Why dontcha get a hotel room and a 6 pack? Seems like a good idea to me!!

Sometimes you just gotta spoil yourself a little. :)

Oh, and BTW, I do enjoy your stories from the road. Am looking forward to hearing about what sorta pup you decide on.

[Kali]

23. I always wondered about that

makes sense for the big trucks if you are sleeping or hanging out, but why do all the yahoos that drive diesel pickups around here always leave them running? Is it bad to start them a lot? In the boonies you often stop in the middle of the road to catch up on gossip. I usually shut my vehicle off to save gas/keep it from overheating/for the peace and quiet - but guys with diesels always seem so reluctant to shut their trucks off. How come?

[Tobin S.]

27. Because they are morans :)

I really don't have any other explanation. :D

[jmowreader]

29. I asked a diesel pickup driver about this...

He claims that if you are going to stop for less than 15 minutes or so, it's more economical to leave the engine running than to waste the fuel to start it.

[RandomThoughts]

30. I live near Seattle.

Nice to have you in the area :)

Hope you enjoy your evening and have a safe and good night if you do have a few beers.

I like your posts also, and am glad you found something that both makes you happy, and that gives you stories to share here.


LOL although not a jail bird smile, let me see if I can find a jail bird smile.
Escape From Alcatraz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ5kuPslsoY

Ever wonder why nobody found them?

As metaphor, I should say though, breaking into prison is alot tougher. Although it was shown in a couple shows, one of them was slider, another B5, another the movie Book of Eli.