Only in Virginia
This week has been a busy one doing round trips from Forest, VA to Glen Allen, VA, a trip of about 145 miles. These trips involve taking a chassis only, mostly GMC 7500 6-spd, no a/c, no radio, to Glen Allen, where I pick up the duplicate outfitted with boom and chipper bed. Believe it or not, the fully dressed ones are much easier to ride and handle than the chassis only.
Monday, October 2, 2006
Had the paperwork on Friday, so was ready to get to Forest and hit the road early. Forestry Equipment was ready and I would have been on the road extra early except they are no longer automatically outfitting their chassis only units with emergency triangles, and they are a requirement. So I had to go through a rather lengthy process to convince Emmet to let me "borrow" a set as long as I promised to bring them back. Naturally, all the other drivers are ignoring this requirement and leaving me out to dry.
After getting the required triangles, was on the road by about 8:30 AM. Uneventful trip to Glen Allen, which is immediately north of Richmond, on a beautiful fall day and arrived by
about 11:30 AM. There were 3 fully outfitted units ready to return to Forest and I was told I could take my pick. Did just that, and was headed out by a little after noon.
I had originally planned to make one round trip on Monday and do the same on Tuesday. Sometime during the return, change via dispatch, as is typical, came into the picture. They needed to line me up to take a truck somewhere beginning from Roanoke. So it was decided that I'd take the next chassis to Glen Allen Monday evening, bring the next truck back to Forest on Tuesday morning, then head to Roanoke to pick up the other truck. And that's what we did. At that time, dispatch didn't have the details on where I was picking up the next truck and where I was taking it.
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
I delivered the second chassis to Terex at 7:45 AM, picked up the next fully outfitted truck, and was heading back by 8:15 or so. Dispatch then told me I'd be picking up the truck in Roanoke at Bartlett Tree Service and taking it to Williamsburg. That sounded like a nice trip, but the more I thought about it, the more I became aware that it was a slight chance that the truck I'd be picking up wouldn't be junk given it would likely be a used truck. I sweated that the whole trip back.
Got this truck back to Forest a little after 11:00 AM, picked up my personal car that was already there from Monday, came by home to do some of the required paperwork and ge
t a change of clothes (ooops, I forgot to pick up a clean set of underwear), then straight on to Bartlett. Turned out I had a pleasant surprise. These used tree trucks are usually total junk within a few weeks of being placed in service. Turns out that the guys at Bartlett Tree Service in Roanoke take a lot of pride in their trucks, and when I arrived for pickup, I had a nice little Chevy 5500 automatic, A/C, radio, and it was spit polished. The truck had almost 2000 miles on it, but looked, and drove, like it was brand new. So I headed out with it and a very old chipper hooked behind for Williamsburg.
I was originally to deliver on Tuesday afternoon, but since I would not get there before 7:00 PM, it was decided that it would be best for me to bed down in Williamsburg for the night and deliver the truck for their use at 6:30 AM on Wednesday morning - which is what I did. Folks there were nice enough to take me to the Hertz rental place in Williamsburg, and I was driving a Toyota electric drive Prius by 7:30 AM. The Prius is a wierd animal to drive, but it was a lot of fun. Full of gadgets, it was sort of like using a cell phone, playing with the radio, messing with your PDA and Tom Tom all at the same time. Definitely dangerous.
Made it home by 11:30 AM. That was 4 trucks in a little over two days. Have bus duty tomorrow taking my wife's class on a field trip, then plan to do the final Forest to Glen Allen round trip on Friday.
Monday, October 2, 2006
Had the paperwork on Friday, so was ready to get to Forest and hit the road early. Forestry Equipment was ready and I would have been on the road extra early except they are no longer automatically outfitting their chassis only units with emergency triangles, and they are a requirement. So I had to go through a rather lengthy process to convince Emmet to let me "borrow" a set as long as I promised to bring them back. Naturally, all the other drivers are ignoring this requirement and leaving me out to dry.
After getting the required triangles, was on the road by about 8:30 AM. Uneventful trip to Glen Allen, which is immediately north of Richmond, on a beautiful fall day and arrived by
about 11:30 AM. There were 3 fully outfitted units ready to return to Forest and I was told I could take my pick. Did just that, and was headed out by a little after noon.I had originally planned to make one round trip on Monday and do the same on Tuesday. Sometime during the return, change via dispatch, as is typical, came into the picture. They needed to line me up to take a truck somewhere beginning from Roanoke. So it was decided that I'd take the next chassis to Glen Allen Monday evening, bring the next truck back to Forest on Tuesday morning, then head to Roanoke to pick up the other truck. And that's what we did. At that time, dispatch didn't have the details on where I was picking up the next truck and where I was taking it.
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
I delivered the second chassis to Terex at 7:45 AM, picked up the next fully outfitted truck, and was heading back by 8:15 or so. Dispatch then told me I'd be picking up the truck in Roanoke at Bartlett Tree Service and taking it to Williamsburg. That sounded like a nice trip, but the more I thought about it, the more I became aware that it was a slight chance that the truck I'd be picking up wouldn't be junk given it would likely be a used truck. I sweated that the whole trip back.
Got this truck back to Forest a little after 11:00 AM, picked up my personal car that was already there from Monday, came by home to do some of the required paperwork and ge
t a change of clothes (ooops, I forgot to pick up a clean set of underwear), then straight on to Bartlett. Turned out I had a pleasant surprise. These used tree trucks are usually total junk within a few weeks of being placed in service. Turns out that the guys at Bartlett Tree Service in Roanoke take a lot of pride in their trucks, and when I arrived for pickup, I had a nice little Chevy 5500 automatic, A/C, radio, and it was spit polished. The truck had almost 2000 miles on it, but looked, and drove, like it was brand new. So I headed out with it and a very old chipper hooked behind for Williamsburg.I was originally to deliver on Tuesday afternoon, but since I would not get there before 7:00 PM, it was decided that it would be best for me to bed down in Williamsburg for the night and deliver the truck for their use at 6:30 AM on Wednesday morning - which is what I did. Folks there were nice enough to take me to the Hertz rental place in Williamsburg, and I was driving a Toyota electric drive Prius by 7:30 AM. The Prius is a wierd animal to drive, but it was a lot of fun. Full of gadgets, it was sort of like using a cell phone, playing with the radio, messing with your PDA and Tom Tom all at the same time. Definitely dangerous.
Made it home by 11:30 AM. That was 4 trucks in a little over two days. Have bus duty tomorrow taking my wife's class on a field trip, then plan to do the final Forest to Glen Allen round trip on Friday.
posted by Harry | 8:18 PM
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