Trials and Tribulations

Things happen occassionally that make me wonder why I decided to go into trucking. Last night a few of those things happened. It was worse than getting stuck in a small bank parking lot that took me two hours to get out of when I first started driving. I never told anyone about that except for a few close friends. Oh there were a few tight spots that I had gotten into and had to figure out how to get out of them, but I always managed to get the truck out of them without damaging any property. I always made sure I took pictures just in case I ever had to prove anything.

Last night my trouble began when I arrived at a pick up point and the guard would not release the trailer to me because the delivery destination was different than what he had on file. The trailer was supposed to be going to Chagrin Falls according to our records, but the guards records indicated it was going to Bainbridge. I had to wait for an hour and a half for that problem to be resolved.

Once resolved I was given the trailer number I was to pick up. I proceeded back to locate the trailer. I found it wedged in between two other trailers. When I say wedged, I mean wedged. The trailers were right up against the one I was supposed to pull out. I figured oh well, I can just back up under it and pull it out. What happened next was the farthest thing from my mind.

Since I could not see well enough to determine if the fifth wheel was lined up and I could not get to the jack in order to lift/lower the trailer, the king pin jumped over top of the fifth wheel plate when I backed into it. I am not sure if the puddles of water were hiding holes that were bigger than I thought, which made the king pin too high as I back under it, or if the king pin was not lined up as good as I thought it was.

This really put me in a predicament. I found the yard dogs (slang for the people who pull the trailers in/out of the docks and store them in the yard) and asked them to please move the trailers so I could get mine out. I explained the problem and asked if they could help me. All they would do was move the trailers from each side of the one I was picking up. They did suggest that I just jack the trailer up high enough to get the tractor out from under it.

This was a feat, since the jack on the trailer was not functioning properly. It was way too tight to crank and the handle was bent. I thought about it for a while and remembered what another driver had told me he had done in a similar predicament. He had put wood under the jacks in order to get them up high enough to get his tractor out.

I looked around the yard and found a couple of brick blocks that I was able to use. I retracted the jacks enough to get the blocks under the jacks and then cranked them up high enough to get my tractor out. Then I let the jacks back down to the appropriate heighth, checking every few inches of backing that the king pin was going to line up this time and seat properly.

It took me nearly an hour to get the trailer connected properly to my tractor and it proved to be a valuable lesson to me. I will never attempt to get a trailer out again that is wedged in between two others like that. I will make certain that I can see the proper alignment and seating of the king pin onto the fifth wheel plate or I will not attempt to hook up.

Now I know why it was stressed so much in training to make certain that the proper height and alignment is set up before attempting to back into the king pin.

I will also be very leary of water puddles in the future, maybe pushing a stick or something down into them to see how deep they are before I back in under a trailer.

The lots that they park the trailers on are not always blacktop. A lot of them are gravel and mud. If you are not careful, you will bring all of that mud into your truck and then you have a mess to clean up.

When I got up to the gate to check out, one of the doors was not shut completely, so I had to get the guard to remove the seal, open and shut the door again in order to get the door shut properly. Then the guard had to put a new seal onto the door.

This trailer proved to be a real pain. I had taken it to the next stop and had it unloaded. I proceeded with it to my next pickup point. They had me sweep out the trailer before they would load it. While I was sweeping out the trailer, I noticed it had a wet floor. I thought this may have been from the door not shutting tightly and all the rain had gotten into the trailer that way.

Well, the customer refused the trailer because it was leaking. So then I had to ask operations fo find me another trailer, which they did. When I arrived at the place where I was supposed to pick up the trailer, somebody else had just hooked onto it and was getting ready to take it. I advised them that the trailer had been assigned to me and after a couple of phone calls he turned the trailer over to me.

I dropped the other trailer and wrote it up as leaking.

After sitting in the dock for three hours I was finally loaded and ready to go.