Cold New England
12/4/07
Always hate to have to head up I-81, expecially if it includes continuing through PA into New England. T
his trip involved taking a nice, small, bucket truck, a GMC C5500 from Altec in Daleville to Altec in Millbury, MA, a trip of about 650 miles. To complicate things, the weather was a bit dicey in PA with an Alberta Clipper coming across on Tuesday while I was driving thru the mountians into Scranton, and then PA, along with several other states got hit even harder on Weds. with a bigger clipper.
I traveld 500 + miles and ended up in Danbury, CT for the night. Always a guess on finding a motel where you can get a truck with a car in tow in and situated without having to back up, which means unhooking. It was cold up there, with several inches of snow in most locations.
I was on the road early Weds. morning to deliver in Millbury by 9:30 AM. When I called dispatch, they said they wanted me to do two short moves in MA/CT then they would try to get me a truck coming back south towards home. My deal had been that I would drop this truck and start back. I didn't have several days to stay out this time, but because I'm a nice guy I agreed to do these two short moves.
The first move involved going 14 miles to Westboro, MA and move a sizeable IHC 7400 tandum bucket truck from the electric utility to Altec in Millbury, where I had just dropped off. Got that done by about 12:30 and moved on to the International dealership in Worcester, MA, which is only 2 miles from the Altec drop, and picked up an IHC 4200 to go 75 miles to Berlin, CT (the states are very small, and crowded up there). I did that and delivered at a huge electric utility about 3:30 PM. Took a long time to find the drop point even after
finding the utility. Lots of buildings, with no one in them to help.
The deal with dispatch was they would then try to find something headed south. "Try" is the key word, because they didn't have anything, which meant I would start back on a 650 mile deadhead - much too long and expensive for my taste. We agreed that I would head back towards Scranton and maybe something would come up in Plains, PA or Frederick, MD. I didn't make it to Scranton that night.
It turned out I had actually been lucky that they assigned me the two moves in MA/CT because the bad weather was going below MA, so I just missed it by not heading back on Weds. I hit some of the leftovers of the bad weather along about Millford, PA and I decided to stop at a Red Roof for the night. Sort of a mistake because it was too expensive for my taste and the desk staff couldn't speak enough english to figure out I needed to do my faxing, which resulted in several stops and a $13 faxing bill the next morning. There were several inches of snow on the ground and it was 11 degrees there on Thurs. morning.
Dispatch still couldn't find anything to help make it a paid deadhead back to VA, so I just kept coming. Saw several wrecks left over from the previous night's storm, but I made it safely back by about 4:00 PM.
As always, glad to be safely home and promising myself this time I was done for the rest of this year. But something always comes up. But I am getting in the Christmas and Montana spirit - Choteau December 25 through January 5.
And to all - Merry Christmas and good night!
Always hate to have to head up I-81, expecially if it includes continuing through PA into New England. T
his trip involved taking a nice, small, bucket truck, a GMC C5500 from Altec in Daleville to Altec in Millbury, MA, a trip of about 650 miles. To complicate things, the weather was a bit dicey in PA with an Alberta Clipper coming across on Tuesday while I was driving thru the mountians into Scranton, and then PA, along with several other states got hit even harder on Weds. with a bigger clipper.I traveld 500 + miles and ended up in Danbury, CT for the night. Always a guess on finding a motel where you can get a truck with a car in tow in and situated without having to back up, which means unhooking. It was cold up there, with several inches of snow in most locations.
I was on the road early Weds. morning to deliver in Millbury by 9:30 AM. When I called dispatch, they said they wanted me to do two short moves in MA/CT then they would try to get me a truck coming back south towards home. My deal had been that I would drop this truck and start back. I didn't have several days to stay out this time, but because I'm a nice guy I agreed to do these two short moves.
The first move involved going 14 miles to Westboro, MA and move a sizeable IHC 7400 tandum bucket truck from the electric utility to Altec in Millbury, where I had just dropped off. Got that done by about 12:30 and moved on to the International dealership in Worcester, MA, which is only 2 miles from the Altec drop, and picked up an IHC 4200 to go 75 miles to Berlin, CT (the states are very small, and crowded up there). I did that and delivered at a huge electric utility about 3:30 PM. Took a long time to find the drop point even after
finding the utility. Lots of buildings, with no one in them to help.The deal with dispatch was they would then try to find something headed south. "Try" is the key word, because they didn't have anything, which meant I would start back on a 650 mile deadhead - much too long and expensive for my taste. We agreed that I would head back towards Scranton and maybe something would come up in Plains, PA or Frederick, MD. I didn't make it to Scranton that night.
It turned out I had actually been lucky that they assigned me the two moves in MA/CT because the bad weather was going below MA, so I just missed it by not heading back on Weds. I hit some of the leftovers of the bad weather along about Millford, PA and I decided to stop at a Red Roof for the night. Sort of a mistake because it was too expensive for my taste and the desk staff couldn't speak enough english to figure out I needed to do my faxing, which resulted in several stops and a $13 faxing bill the next morning. There were several inches of snow on the ground and it was 11 degrees there on Thurs. morning.
Dispatch still couldn't find anything to help make it a paid deadhead back to VA, so I just kept coming. Saw several wrecks left over from the previous night's storm, but I made it safely back by about 4:00 PM.
As always, glad to be safely home and promising myself this time I was done for the rest of this year. But something always comes up. But I am getting in the Christmas and Montana spirit - Choteau December 25 through January 5.
And to all - Merry Christmas and good night!
posted by Harry | 11:59 AM
2 Comments:
Dodgin' the weather - makes me wonder sometimes why I do this work also. My goal is to avoid anything coming close to conditions that would force a shutdown - just hate to get in a situation where i have to get off the road and take pot luck with finding a place to stay or even worse - be forced to keep going in the face of dangerous condtions. We don't make enough to do much of that.
Good job - any winter trip that ends safely was a trip well done. Enjoy the time off and the time in Montana.
Dick in KC
Hi,
My name is Mark, and I do Driveaway for AutoTruck. I really enjoy my job, but I've been laid off so much that I'm having to consider other work. IronTiger is trying to take over the Volvo account in Dublin, but that seems a long commute from Greenville, SC. My question is are you an IC, who is your company, and do they have any benefits? If you have this info in the blog I'll keep looking. If, you can tell me at qamarkos@yahoo.com it will make my life easier. Be careful and stay safe out there.
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