10-4 Magazine September 2022

The Veteran’s View: By Dennis Mitchell This month’s Veteran’s View goes out to all the drivers who are sweltering in the warm weather. I am working up here in the north, so we don’t see too many days above 95 degrees. However, I hear from drivers who routinely work where it gets up to 115 degrees or more. I was in the Phoenix area last February taking time off to recover from some health issues when I got the opportunity to do some cross training and experience the life of open top car hauling. I never have been known for my brilliance, but I’m always up for a challenge. So, when Mr. Edward (Skip) Read called and asked if I was interested, I said, “Sure, sounds like fun. When and where?” The next day I found myself some place in the cold Arizona desert at zero dark thirty, and I’m trying to find a good route to the El Mirage train yard. What could possibly go wrong? I’ve made three left turns and we still aren’t going the correct direction. There’s a light on the horizon – maybe it’s a coffee shop. You know what they say: when all else fails, drink coffee. Three black coffees later and some help from the locals, and now I’m headed the right way. They weren’t all for me – just the first two. The other one was for my friend and teacher for today, Mr. Read. If you remember a few months ago, I wrote about a guy who slipped and fell while loading his car hauler. He is back to work now, and since I was close to his yard, he asked if I could help. I’ve done just about everything in trucking, but I’ve never hauled cars. I was to report at 7:30 AM at the train yard for our pre-inspection and to receive our pick sheet. All the information on the vehicles we were to load was listed, along with the location of where they are parked in the yard. Without the proper location, the chance of finding your car is slim to none. There are thousands of vehicles in the rail yard – rows and rows of them – of every size, color, and make. Not to mention a bunch of half crazed truck drivers trying to collect their group of vehicles and stage them in a pattern that will help in the loading process. This car-hauling deal is similar to most time sensitive jobs – if the wheels aren’t turning, they aren’t earning. But, unlike going to a warehouse, where a forklift driver finds your stuff and brings it to you, this loading experience is driver generated. Most of the time, loading cars is a one-man show, and it’s not for the lazy or the faint of heart. If you are scared of heights or don’t like working on a ladder, this job may not be in your future. After parking the transporter, we found a really cool four-door, long bed, one-ton pickup to ride around in. Having help to drive an extra vehicle saves tons of time when compared to walking. We will be okay, as long as the driver who is scheduled to pick up this truck doesn’t come looking for it! I never gave much thought to how cars got on a carrier or why they were arranged the way they were. All of us are vigilant about our axle weights and the bridge laws, depending on where we are and where we are going, and car haulers are no different. But since they can’t slide their axle or run wide axle configurations, theymust arrange the vehicles in amanner that displaces the weight correctly. Skip (AKAMr. Read) gave me a lesson on the types of vehicles that can be combined to make a load more profitable. I was thinking more small cars would generate more revenue, therefor making more money. I think his words were, “Hold up there, Hot Rod, a small car can be used as filler in a load of large, more valuable, or difficult vehicles.” Smaller cars can also be used to load the overhead rack in the front to distribute the weight more evenly. After we located all the equipment on our list, we then needed to inspect each vehicle for any damage or possible paperwork discrepancies. Things like right make, correct color, oops – wrong serial number (it does happen when there are thousands of cars on a blacktop lot). Sometimes, one gets put in the wrong spot. More importantly, we were looking for paint damage or broken glass, missing wheel covers, things like that. It does happen, and they need to document it before the vehicle is moved (I don’t know what they do if there is damage, because ours were okay). After each one was checked, we then relocated them to a row behind the carrier. But first I had to change my clothes. Not knowing any better, I showed up wearing my normal work clothes of jeans, boots, and an overcoat. Turns out these are all items that can cause damage when climbing around on the trailer during the loading process. I was given a pair of cotton coveralls to wear over my street clothes, just in case. The boots had to go, too, in favor of some deck shoes with soft gum soles. Guess they didn’t want me to fall off the top deck, either. Then, each vehicle was 64 10-4 Magazine / September 2022 UP FOR A CHALLENGE!