July 29, 1991, 2011

FIRST 5 YEARS:(Monday-Kansas City, Missouri)
I was stuck at the terminal all day and truly didn't do anything but talk to the other drivers, write and watch the terminal TV. I hope to get out of here tomorrow.

SECOND 5 YEARS:(disgust with Baltimore, Maryland)
I was a meat hauler, when I got a call to pick up a load of pork--I believe--in Columbus Junction, Iowa. I got to the meat plant and found it smaller then most meat plants I had picked up from. After getting the load, I had to weigh the load at a scale about a half mile from the plant. I was always irritated that some plants would not let us weigh our loads from them on their scales.

I was scheduled to unload on a Sunday night at 10:30 PM EST in the downtown area. I got there at 10 AM EST and parked in a parking lot of an empty warehouse across the street from where I was to deliver.

After the church service--next to where I was delivering--was over, a man came over to my tractor and introduced himself as an employee of the receiver of my load. We talked and he told me that theft was common in this area and that I shouldn't sleep or even take a nap. He told me that I need to back my trailer up against the empty warehouse and keep a watch on it. He said that the thieves had been known to cut holes in the top of the trailer and one fellow would get inside and pass the boxed meat up to the fellow on top of the trailer. I did what he said to do.

In the late afternoon, another fellow came to the tractor and we talked. He claimed to be the one who would be unloading me. After convincing me that he was going to unload me, he begged me for a cask advance. I let him have $60 and he was off up a street that rose in elevation as he continued. I watched him and as he walked, people would come out of the buildings and take something(money???) from him that he seemed willingly give. He later came back and unloaded me.

I was unloaded at 10:30 PM EST and when backed up to the dock, my tractor was sticking out into the street. There was little street lighting so I set out my safety triangles. Thank goodness when I was done there.

I hated this place so much that I told my dispatcher to put it on my computer screen never to send me back there. If I got another load to this place I would refuse it or, after picking it up, would take it to a truckstop, notify dispatch of my location, and then abandon the truck and load. A really bad idea but I hated this place so much that I would risk my career to stay away from it...I got two more loads from the Columbus Junction meat plant but the loads never went to Baltimore...