Icy Roads and Springtime Temperatures.

Nothing is worse than the end of the winter for deteriorating road conditions. All winter you battler the snow and icy conditions  with narrow roads and big snowbanks, then when the Springtime warmer temps come along your roads go from being bad to worse. The ice is nice and tacky first thing in the morning when you start cause the cold temp makes your tires stick to it, but once the sun comes out and puts a little power down the road can get slick in no time. I myself had a morning last winter where i went into the woods on flat ground and brought a load out with no problems but the second load i came out with was a little different. I came off the spur road and started out the main part of the woods road , just as i came around a corner i felt the back wheels break loose Dukes of Hazzard style , but when i corrected the truck traveled over to a spot in the road where the road grader had plowed the road about 3ft wider than it actually was. Once the front wheel got over there it sank down in the ditch and the rest of the truck and trailer followed before it came to an abrupt stop with the trailer wheels off the ground on the part of the trailer that was still in the road. Yeah it was a hairy ride and when it was over i couldn't get the drivers side door opened but it hadn't gone over YET anyway. I called out on the company radio and a skidder was sent out along with the crane that loaded me, and once the skidder hooked on and the crane grabbed the side of my loaded trailer to keep me upright i was easily towed back up into the road. To give you an idea how far out i was another loaded truck came out and easily went around me lol, oh well it was one of those days i guess we all have them.

Springtime Truck Roads

There are alot of nice things about woods work after getting back from spring break, but there are also somethings that aren't so plesant. The big push to get back to work can be rushed too much causing a not fully dried out road to cause many setbacks and also so hazzards. If a loaded truck should crowd the edge of the road it can risk the chance of the ground letting go and the truck rolling over into the ditch, also sinkholes become a large problem when the weight rolls over the top of it the truck can become buried in the soft ground. Some things that can give these areas away is if the road looks packed down but it has fairly large cracks in the ground. It is just an unwritten law that in the springtime you don't crowd the edges of a graveled road , or if your heading towards a soft spot keep the momentum up so if it does start to sink you can carry yourself through and not get yourself buried and in need of a tow.

Some People Can't see a Good Thing if They are Standing on it !

Why is it that there are always coworkers that try to make out that your employer is always out to get you? The Company i work for has been around for 20 plus years, But coworkers act like they are just getting started and have no idea what they are doing. I worked for this company when i owned my own truck and they have always treated me very good. Now i work directly for them and still find that i am treated very well. There are some however that call them crooks and thieves and say they aren't concerned with anyone else but themselves. Not true , if 1 of our truck have a breakdown that they cannot get fixed that day they will let you take a company vehicle home rather than call for a ride home as long as there's a vehicle available. They are very fair in their pay and always making sure there is work available in advance. I find they are one of the last companies to shut down in the mud season and try to be the first to start up again or to not shut down if they can help it.The other coworkers fail to see this i guess and just look for things to complain about. I'm not sure if it makes them feel better about how good they are or what the reason is but it gets tiresome listening to this day after day about how picked on they are,Oh well i guess there are some that are like that no matter where you work.

New Job New Locations

It's been a while since i posted anything here, but since my last time on here i have taken a new job with alot more benefits for me there. Now instead of driving 30 miles to go to work i can bring the truck home which is a big help as far as travel costs for me (saves about 200 a month at least). Now i am paid from the time i get into the truck in the morning until i get out at night,By the hour is the way to go definitely. I started hauling round wood for the first few months, then worked my way into hauling wood chips from the chipper to various paper mills and power plants in the northern part of Maine. It's definitely quite a change from hardly any work to all the hours that i want and it seems pretty good.

What happened to making a living trucking?

It used to be that a person could make a decent living trucking, what the hell happened? It has gotten to the point that you can't even put food on the table now , if you can afford the table to begin with. This is getting pretty sickening and i don't see it getting any better anytime soon.

Another Wonderful Monday

After having 3/4 of last week off and a wet 4th of July weekend we got word we could go back to work this morning. I had a feeling it was going to turn out to be a headache but didn't know to what extent. First off after leaving my house at 2:45 a.m. I made my way to the truck and then over to the job.I arrived at the road at 5:30 and made contact with the crane operator who was full of encouragement when he said get it really rolling and don't back out of it till you see me.Swinging the corner the road was covered in 2 inches of slimy muck,with all the wheel locks in but 1 I slipped and spun up the hill till i could see the boom in the air." That wasn't as bad as I thought", I told him as I topped the last part of the hill. "Wait till you get down here by me it gets alot worse" he laughed.Great i thought and as i got down where he was the road got softer and softer. I stopped by him and let him get half of my front tier on so I would have some weight on my drive tires for traction,slowly i made my way down to the turn around. After a few trys i finally got my self turned around and dug my way back up to the crane. After finishing off the load I tried to get started out but there was no way that truck was going to move. We ended up getting a skidder and pushing against the wood on my trailer to give me a push till i could go under my own power. When they got me to the top of the hill the road behind me was trashed. After strapping my load i headed to Bucksport with the load,but just before i made the half way point i met another truck that apparently was coming back from there. He asked me where i was headed and then informed me that the mill wasn't taking any treelength wood deliveries till Tuesday so i might want to find out what to do with it. I called the boss and he asked what the condition of the road was,when i told him it was a mess he told me to take the load home and take it down in the morning because he didn't want us on the road so it might dry out some.So here we go again playing the wait and see what happens game.What a wonderful Monday.

Well this Week They Dropped the Bomb

This week started off like last week in Shirley RAIN,and a lot of it. It is getting kind of sickening Monday hauled 2 loads but wasn't much because where the wood is put up is dam near impossible to get to because of the rain. So tuesday morning 2 of us came in and grabbed last loads on the main road with hopes that when we came back we would be going to try to get some of the other wood. Of course this was the day the forester decided to pay a visit to see how things were shaping up. Before i could make it back for my second load he decided we needed to leave the job to dry out so i got the call to go home and my favorite saying" I'll call ya when they will let us back in.Hmm that is looking like next monday now that work so very well for bill that come due wether or not your working.