#3587 | TRAILERS ON TRAILERS | My Trucking Life

Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Yeah. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Good morning everybody. I'm here getting loaded Bristol, Indiana. Going to get these trailers thrown on my trailer. Going to secure them, tie them down real tight so they don't move. And then we'll be back on our way up to Canada. These have got to go to uh Winnipeg near where I live. Little crooked. Yeah. >> Tell me where that front end. Tell me when the front end's in the middle. >> Okay. Right about there. You're in the middle. >> Right there. >> Yeah. >> There you go. Oh, looks good on this side. Now, we're going to have to go back about 2 in. I think that's good. Yeah, that's good. You like it? Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. There we go. All wrapped up. Some of my new equipment that I've got here are these 2-in straps that can hold this down with the wheel in the air there. Right. Plus, I've got two 4-in straps, one facing that way, one that way. Also, one tongue wrapped on the tongue there. So, that is not going anywhere. And then we got this one. See this? How I tongue wrap it around there. So, this this strap is holding the tongue down. It's also holding it from going this way and this way cuz I winch it in on this side and I also winch it in on that side. So, it's it's zipped in right there. It ain't going nowhere. And on the back here for when the tires are on the deck, I've got these new straps that I've uh got for specifically these trailers. Holds this tire down. Again, one strap [snorts] on the axle underneath there. A strap on the axle underneath here that prevents the trailer from moving back and forth. I've never had one of these trailers shift on me. Never. Not even once. Not even a little bit. You do have to be careful with these cuz they're very, very light and even the slightest wind can take them away from you if you don't got them tied down nice and tight. So, we did the same thing on this side. I've got uh a protector underneath here to protect the rims that the rim doesn't get damaged. Also, the tire that the tire doesn't get damaged from my winch here. And I'm ready to go. I think we'll be hitting Chicago right at the prime time of rush hour. It's part of the job. It's what it is. But man, is it hot and humid out here tying this thing down, man. All sweating like a hooker in church. It was terrible. I'm all changed and cleaned up now, though. So, let's get back in the air conditioned cab. Let's get out of here. I don't know if it's me getting older, me getting fatter or what, but just seems like this summer is so much more [snorts] humid than past summers. Like I'm constantly sweating buckets. Like not just a little bit, but just like buckets where my shirt is just soaked. I have to change after I'm done working outside, man. But we got the work done and it's still better than minus30 in the winter time. Can't complain. And I'm not complaining. I'm just wondering if you guys notice this too or if it's just in my head or if I'm just getting older. I'm probably just getting fatter. I have more insulation now. And I've got to [snorts] I've got to rein that in again. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. Don't worry. Okay. I'm going to put my destination into my GPS here. It's going to be about a day and a half, day and a half to get back from here, I think. Man, I hope Chicago rush hour isn't bad. It will be. All right, it's official. We're leaving. sent in all my paperwork. Double checked the load securement. Double checked my route. Made sure my GPS was following my preferred route, not the toll route. Avoiding as many of them as I can. And now we just got to turn left once this parade is over here. You got one, two, three. Coming from the left and then it's our turn. We're going to go one, two, three. Let's go. Nice light load. That's why you got to be so careful with it. >> Use the right lane and turn right onto East Vistula Street and then turn left. You see that smoke haze around here still? It's still really smoky here from the Ontario fires. Here we are. Let the fun begin. Ah, we got a long way to go. Uh, we got about Well, GPS is saying 2 and 1 half kilometers. I could probably say probably went two miles and that it should only take five minutes to get through this. Oh, I'm pretty sure uh they're just trying to make me feel good. It'll take five minutes to get to the next overpass probably. probably. Well, what's going on here now? Don't tell me there's an accident or something ahead. Oh, there goes a fire truck on that side, too. Here's where that cop was going to. Uh, three cruisers here at least. Who knows? No idea what's going on there. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Traffic has been like this for quite a while now, but we're past Chicago, so uh I mean this is rush hour, so everybody's on their way home. Excuse me. Including me. I'm going home, too. I just have another thousand miles to go yet. Everyone on this road except the truckers are going to be home long before I get home. I wish they'd have a an a truck express highway or truck express lanes. You know, you know, buses get their own lanes sometimes. Why don't you get all the trucks in an express lane? Cuz they're the ones running the economy, right? We're the ones that need to get our goods to where they need to be in the market. That's how money exchanges hands. You make stuff at your job, right? We take that stuff to wherever it it's going, whoever bought it. So the faster it gets there, the faster you get your money. So you want the entire economy to move as fast as possible. There should be truck specific routes, like trucks only. I don't know why there's expressways that are like no trucks, cars only. What are you talking about? The only pe the only reason these guys got to get home is to what? Have supper, watch the game. That doesn't benefit the economy. That doesn't benefit anything. But every single one of these trucks has an appointment to keep. And the faster they get unloaded, the faster they get reloaded with new freight. You do that for all like however many 5 million trucks across the country, across the continent. Get them moving faster. Things start happening. I don't know. I don't know. That's that is my opinion. Truckonly expressways. That should be our new goal, our new vision for the future. The cars don't need their own expressways. They're cars. They're so agile. They can get get around people. They can that fast acceleration. They're not going very far. They're going what? 100 miles max, most of them. I don't know. But I got a good idea. Let me know. I need to get out of this lane. Nobody's letting me out of this lane. Not that it really matters at this point. Both lanes are plugged up. I don't even remember how I ended up in this lane. I got these new steer tires on my truck a couple of weeks ago, right? the smoothest ride I've ever had. I put Firestones on again. I haven't had Fire Stones on my truck in a little while, but I figured I'd give it a shot again. They were the right price now, so I threw them on there. And wow, I love that feeling of new rubber. So nice. Just gliding. Still hot outside. 27° C, 81 Fahrenheit here in Wisconsin. I'm going to be pulling into Black River Falls, Wisconsin. I could go a little further. I might still maybe, but I think I'm going to pull in there for the night and uh get a good rest and start in the morning, get on a good schedule. And my goal is to get home tomorrow before the kids go to bed. I'm going to try to get there way before they get go to bed cuz if I show up at home right before they go to bed, they're not going to bed. Micah might fall asleep. I might be able to get him sleeping. He's turning one year old. End of July. The big one. Get super excited. I can remember Theo's first birthday clearly. Remember I had to rush back from Matt's. I was there with House. Now my second boy is turning one already. Oh yeah, we're going to have a big party and everything. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. And Theo is three now. He's a big boy. Very chatty big boy. I love it. I love having conversations with him now. He's the coolest guy to talk to. Black River Falls is 50 miles ahead, 80 km. Hopefully there'll be a parking spot there for us. According to Trucker Path and my GPS here, they're saying there's some, but uh that's not always 100% reliable because I still got like an hour 45 minutes before I get there. Anything can happen, right? Might be full by the time we get there. I'm not going to be fueling up. Uh I'm going to fuel up in Drayton, North Dakota. So, my tanks are full of fuel. Got to deliver this load Monday. And then uh I'll go back home on Monday for the evening and then head back out go to Canora Monday night and one more week of work before my before my station for my holidays. Only booked off one week this year. I'm an owner off so I I don't get paid vacation pay. I got to pay myself vacation pay. And if I was a company driver, I think I'd have 6 weeks of vacation every year already. And I'm only taking one this year. So maybe I should take some more yet. I'm thinking about maybe taking another one in like September for our anniversary. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. I'll probably take another one at Christmas. I always take about a week off at Christmas. So there's that. We got some time. We have some time to take some time yet. I don't know if I want to though. I don't don't know if I can don't know if I want to take time off cuz like I said, I own my own truck. So, that means I'm self-employed. It's my own business. If my wheels ain't turning, doesn't matter if I'm I'm on vacation. I'm not making money. I'm spending money. So, I have to make that money up either the following week or the week before. for this week. I've been sort of putting away money the last couple of months just to cover us and carry us through without income for a week. That's just what you got to do, right? That's life. That's life. >> Center number 756, Black River Falls, WI. The stop is on your right. Now, turn left. >> It's actually on my left, but I get what you meant. It was on my right. You were just a little late to the game there, Karen. I think I'm going to park right over here behind that other truck beside the scale over here. This is my little spot. I haven't parked in my spot here in probably like a year. It's probably been about a year since I've been here. This is where I like to park if uh if it's open and available. Right. >> Ruth recalculated. >> Oh, shush. Karen, your job's over for the day. Go have a drink. You have my permission right over here. You're out of the way of the scale and uh no one's going to bump you or hit your hood or rip your hood off. And it's quiet. No one comes and parks beside you. But don't you all come here all at once and take my spot. Okay. And there we are. It's going to be a nice comfortable night right there. This place usually fills up. There's probably room enough here for oh, I'd say 100 trucks at least 100 to 150 somewhere in there. But surprised this spot was available. Usually someone parks here. Usually that person is me if I'm here. [laughter] If I get it, I'm just letting the AC turn the inside of my cab into an ice box right now. It is so hot and humid. It's midnight and it's it's sticky outside. It's so hot. So, I am just blasting the AC inside there right now. Cool it right down. I might get some icicles hanging off the roof. I don't know. That'd be nice. And then I'll go to sleep. Here's the load that I brought here. So far, everything has stayed very tight. I'll have to show you this during daylight hours, but maybe you can see it now a little bit. These are my new tire straps that I got. I showed you this already. What am I talking about? I'll show you again. I forgot I already talked about this before, right? They've been working really well. It holds the trailer down. It doesn't hold it from going front to back because there's only one winch here. But that's what this strap down here and the one in front is for. So going all the way through the bumpy roads of Chicago and all the way out here into Wisconsin, these things didn't move a millimeter. They stayed exactly where I put them, which is fantastic. That's exactly what I like to see. I've never had one of these shift yet. Knock on wood. Never had one shift, but uh I've seen guys that have had them shift because they didn't tie them down properly. It happens and uh happens fast and quick and the damage is usually pretty bad cuz these things they they they'll they'll damage if they bump together. Oh, yeah. And I only have I have three trailers here. So, I got one here and then I got one on the front and then there's a small one inside the front one. So, I do have three trailers. Uh sometimes it works out that you can put all three just on the deck if if I don't have like a big long one like this. But when we do that, they have to put them really close to each other, like within like an inch of each other. And if it shifts and it touches, both trailers are damaged. And you got two two claims on two trailers. I mean, I don't know how the paperwork works on that. It's never happened to me. Maybe it's all under one claim. But you got two damaged trailers now, which is a disaster. It's very bad. Makes the driver look bad. Makes the company look bad. Makes everyone involved look bad. So, you got to tie them down, right? You don't want to damage the freight. Oh, yes. Air conditioning. Because part of the job of a truck driver, part of the job that we have not is not it's not just getting the freight to the destination, point A to point B. A big part of the job is not damaging the freight from point A to point B, getting it on your trailer, transporting it, and getting it off your trailer. Very often, we're not responsible for the loading part or the unloading part. I don't unload my own freight. I don't load my own freight. So, they put it on the trailer. Once it's on the trailer, it's my responsibility. And then I get my straps off at the receiver and then it's their responsibility to get it off without damaging it. If they damage it while unloading it, that's not on me, thankfully. But you can't damage your freight. That's probably why I was so upset the other week. Was it last week? Yeah. When I went to pick up those shingles in Minneapolis and the guy damaged my trailer and it wasn't too bad. I could bend it back. It's not bad. But I found more damage that he did today while I was loading. He bent up uh some parts of my risers, too. I didn't notice that before. So, he did a little more damage than I thought he did. Kind of makes me pretty upset. But I I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and I didn't want to deal with his attitude. He had a really, really bad attitude and got super defensive and angry, and I I thought he was going to get violent. It was It was a big mess. I just wanted out of there. I didn't want to deal with it. I don't want an incident here. I don't want anything. just just don't do it again, man. And then I But anyways, he was uh damaging my trailer and the first thing he said to me was, "Well, it's a trailer. You should expect it to get damaged. We load trucks all day here and we always bump the trailer. You got to expect it to get damaged. If you don't want it to get damaged, maybe you should find another job." His exact words to me. And I'm like looking at him like I didn't say anything to that. I was like, I don't even know what to do with that. But my response now later on would be, well, no, that's not how it works. The way this works is you damaged my property. That's my property. Part of your job is getting the freight on my trailer without damaging my trailer. If you can't do your job without damaging someone else's property, maybe you should find another job, right? Why should I have to find another job? because I'm upset that you damaged my trailer. It was It was so backwards, right? That just It's like a week later already and I'm still baffled by that response. And he got really mad. Like he was mad mad. Like I said, I I didn't know if he was going to start swinging like and I was just calm the whole time. I'm like, "Dude, you don't need to freak out. I'm not mad." I kept saying that over and over. I said, "Dude, I'm not mad. I can bend it back. I just wanted to let you know that you damaged my trailer. that that's it's my responsibility to let you know you damaged my property. I'm not going [clears throat] to do anything about it. You don't have to pay me any money. I'm not even going to make a claim. Nothing. I just I'm I'm giving you a way out. I'm being super nice here, right? I'm being a super nice guy and letting you off the hook for paying to repair it. Maybe you should say thank you. No, no, no, no, no. It was all my fault. My fault for bringing it up with him. How dare I bring up the f I I don't want to get back into this again. It It's obviously still bothering me quite a bit. Especially since I found more damage on my trailer from that guy today that I didn't see last week. It's not that bad. Like I I'm still not that upset about it. It's whatever. I was going to let it slide. I'm more upset with his reaction and him telling me that I should just expect it that I should just expect him damaging my property. That that's what made me mad. I'm like that attitude. I was like, you know, it's like someone going up to you and being like, "Hey, I'm going to go key your car." And like, why are you going to key my car? How dare you ask me why? If if you don't expect your car to get scratched, you shouldn't buy a car. What? That's what's making me upset. H right before bed yet I'm getting myself all worked up. That's what I do every time. That's what I do because I'm sitting here in the cab all alone with my thoughts and all I can do is play these scenarios over and over and over in my head, right? Thinking like, why did he react that way? What happened? Should I have done something more? Like should I have filed a claim? I kind of felt like it after that attitude. I wasn't I I didn't maybe I should have just to be like, "Hey, like you can't treat people like that, but I did not want any part of that drama. I I did not want any part of that drama." So, I avoid confrontation when I can. I It's just not worth it to me. Know when to pick your battles. I'm trying to teach that to my kids, too. You know, people are going to upset you and they're going to act crazy like this guy. Was it worth causing a big stink over, writing up a claim, taking all this time? I could fix my trailer myself. It's okay. Not a big deal. I could have taught him a lesson. I I I could have filed a claim and made him pay for it and paid to fix the whole thing. It would have been like It probably would have been, for all the damage he did, $500 to $1,000 if I want it all replaced with brand new stuff. But no, I I chose to just be like, "Well, it's not that I It's aluminum. Okay, I I'll fix it." I just wanted him to know because I had specifically asked him to stop bumping my trailer and he wouldn't stop bumping it. I just wanted him to know. See, this is why I was telling you to stop bumping my trailer because you can damage it very easily. That's all I wanted to say. This is why I was asking you to stop. It's all good. Having a hard time letting it go. I got to let it go, right? I should just let it go. It's been a good day today, though. Let's change the topic right before we end here. It's It's been a good day. And uh the weather's been great. It's been hot, but it hasn't been cold, and that's a good day. I'm very thankful for that. The seat has been amazing. I My back has no more pain. I had no I've had no pain this week and it was getting so bad that I could barely walk some days, not every day, but some days it was so bad and uh it's gotten like I'd say 90% better just in the first week of having a new seat. Amazing. So, if you are struggling with back pains, mine was lower back pains like right on my tailbone. If you're struggling with stuff like that, consider a new seat. I got the Bostonramm Certa seat working great for me. There's lots of other great seats, too. I'm not sponsored by them or anything. I'm not trying to sell you a Boston. That's just the just the trailer that I the trailer that still still trying to get my mind off my trailer. That's the seat that I ended up buying and I'd recommend it. I'd recommend it for free. So, thanks for watching today, everybody. I really do appreciate it. And I hope I see you here tomorrow. [music] Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. I make new videos all the time and you don't want to miss one because then you're out of the loop and you missed part of the story. This is the story of my life. My trucking life. See what I did there? It's my trucking life. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music]