The Evolution of Trucker Logic
Trucker Logic is usually taught
by some guy named Murphy. It is most
often learned the hard way. If you are
lucky it is at someone else’s expense and not yours. Over the years I have had learning opportunities
both ways. Though I no longer drive my
experience continues to expand. Murphy
never quits and is always ready to teach. Murphy’s lessons are seldom forgotten
and often used as teaching models. I
heard Murphy mentioned often over the years.
The first couple times I saw him in action I was amazed at how something
that should be routine can become a teaching experience.
My first experience was in a lumber yard near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was early fall and cold. Another driver and I were removing our tarps
so the forklift could get at the load. Our loads were covered with our companies eight
foot boxed end tarps. The corners were
sewn to make them fit the load better.
Each tarp covered half the trailer.
Our company used rope ties on the tarps.
That is not usually a problem, but when they are wet and cold they can
be very hard to untie. I was struggling with mine but my buddy got his undone
quickly as he had bought his own rubber straps.
When we entered the lumber yard we drove along the fence on our left and
then turned and parked side by side with our back to the fence. We left about twenty feet between the back of
our trailers and the eight foot chain link fence so the fork lift could maneuver
while unloading us.
As I said my buddy was ahead of me and was on top of his load trying to
get the tarp off the load. It was windy
and he grabbed some of the ropes that the company had permanently attached to
the tarps and wrapped them around his hands.
He then whipped the tarp up to loosen it from the load. At the same instance a gust of wind rushed
under the tarp and lifted it clear of the load. The tarp snapped loudly and
inflated and lifted much like a sail.
When I heard the popping sound I turned just in time to see my buddy who
was standing on top of the lumber about twelve to fourteen feet in the air being
lifted up. He tried to let go but the
ropes tangled and suddenly he was airborne.
He resembled Mary Poppins as he sailed over the twenty foot open space
and cleared the eight foot fence. He
finally landed about twenty feet the other side of the fence. He stood there
and did not move. I ran to the gate and
back to him and he was still just standing there with the tarp ropes wrapped
around his hands. He seemed to be in a
trance. I think it may have been
shock. Anyhow once he regained his
composure we rolled up the tarp and carried it back to his truck. He said the landing was feather soft, but the
whole thing freaked him out. It taught
me a lesson and I never wrapped the ropes around my hands when unloading.
Some years later I got a refresher course in what can happen when material
is flapping in the wind. I now had my
own truck and was eastbound on I-70 in Indiana near Greencastle. The cars in front of me were swerving to the
shoulder and into the left lane for no apparent reason. Then suddenly I saw it. It was a blanket lying in the middle of the
right lane flapping around. It was just
a blanket what harm could it do. Evidently having forgotten the preceding story
I decided to straddle the blanket. As I
said what could it hurt.
I was about to find out it could hurt a lot. The flapping blanket was snatched up buy my
driveshaft and whipped around repeatedly.
The tail reached into my frame rails and somehow grabbed my air lines
and snatched the completely out and tore them off. I lost my air pressure suddenly and barely
had time to get to the shoulder and out of traffic before my brakes locked up. Fortunately I was near a truck stop with a shop.
A towing bill and repairs came to about seven hundred dollars. Getting it to the shop turned out to be
pretty simple. We backed off all the
brakes and the mechanic slowly towed me to the shop less than a mile away.
What I learned was that flapping things can be dangerous. Like the truck that passes you with the
loudly slapping casing that says he is about to pitch the treads off his
tire.
Another time traveling westbound on I-40 just east of Knoxville at night
a bread truck driver lost a complete pair of tandem wheels off the
passenger side of his vehicle. The tires rolled along the shoulder for some
distance before cutting between his vehicle and mine. Then they travelled across the interstate before
coming to rest on the south side shoulder.
They narrowly missed hitting some eastbound vehicles headon. The ironic part is it took us almost three
miles to convince the driver he had lost the tires. He thought we were trying to pull a joke on
him.
The point I am trying to make is that things that seem harmless can
suddenly become very dangerous in the right situation. The blessing in all these stories is that no
one was injured. That was strictly by
the Grace of God. They all could have caused
serious injury. My reason for sharing them is that they may help someone avoid
a similar situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment