The other day was kind of a neat day for me, I got a special project at work. After doing the interline work between our terminal and USF Reddaway I got a dispatch to deliver a load in California. I haven’t been into California in a truck in about 14 years. And the consignee was going to be pretty interesting, at least for me. After looking up towards the mountains I figured I might need some chains, loaded those in the rear of the trailer, picked up the paperwork and away I went. California here I come…
Coming up on the state line.
After getting the red light and told to pull around to door 3, I got my stickers.
Cresting the summit.
The snow falling wasn’t sticking, the ground was much to warm. That suited me just fine.
The welcoming sight as I turned on to Railroad Ave. They gave me a map, but of course this railfan had been to this place many times, knew just where I was going.
This company normally picks up its freight at the dock, it is sent in to our terminal as a “Will Call” when they are in the region. Don’t no why they didn’t come get it, I’d guess they were too busy, so they called for a delivery and it was too late for the regular route. No it wasn’t my whole day’s work. But it did take about 5 hours, no need to bore folks with the rest of my day after this special railroad related delivery. Just under 100 miles from our terminal at Reno.
I don’t have a regular route, I “bid” a start time. So on this day I had the the interline work with Reddaway, I don’t do it everyday. Yes, YRCW purchased the USF companies back about March of 2005.
The California truck scale and inspection station was opened, when I rolled over the scale I got a red light and was instructed to pull around the back and enter door 3 for a truck inspection. The sticker for this quarter is yellow, its marked “CVSA” which stands for Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance. After the vehicle inspection I was asked to pull out and park, and walk in to see the highway patrol officer to get my DL back and my inspection report. Took about 25 minutes.
Ahhhh Truckee scales! I was only not pulled around back two times! Once when they were closed ( shocking) and the other time was when they saw all my placards and there was a major snow storm coming. Over the loud speaker I hear " Bay 3 CFI… Wait Wait… Never mind go go go get off my mountian!!"Ya dont has to tell me twice lol!
That was pretty cool I havent been out that far since 2003.I didnt leave anything out there so I havent been back lol.
Neat story, well-illustrated with the photos ! Thanks for taking the time to take them, compose into the story, and post. Took me a while to decide to look at this thread - glad I did !
One question: Weren’t you concerned about getting a flat from scrap spikes (or other metal) in the ballast there in the yard ? I would have been . . . [:-^]
I’m glad you decided to take a look. No, wasn’t concerned about that at all, but was watchful. The yard was much better than some of the constuction sites I’ve unload at…
LTL is interesting. I started out with LTL at 1601 S. Western Ave. in Chicago working at a freight forwarder.
Your delivery became an expensive shipment. By the time Yellow/Roadway gets done billing for the 5 hours and the 200 miles the receiver is going to wish they had made their own pick up at your terminal. Somebody’s gonna’ have some 'splainin to do.
Truckee CA scalehouse boy I loathed some of those guys. I had one perso there got mad because I was called in for a Level 1 during a Blizzard and my lights on the top of the trailer were SNOW COVERED however they were working he wanted me to climb up on my trailer and clear them off. I refused and he then tried to get my father for not having his logbook not up to change of duty status since he woke him up. His supervisior said give them their sticker and send them on their way. Then their was the time I was hauling a light I mean light load 15K over Donner they tried to say I was OVER GROSS. I had a Cat Scale ticket say I was at 50K they refused to believe it. I did not move til they pulled a set of Portables in and then weighed on them. They were trying to scam truckers by saying they were overwieght by making thier trucks as much as 3K over gross. Them and Banning were the 2 in CA I hated to cross and towards the end of my driving career they hated me just as much. Still will never forget that one idiot at Truckee that thought the CHP was higher than the USPS when it came to authority. We had a shipment of USMAIL on for San Fran and were told you are heavy 81K however have the scale call this number to clear it up. This idiot was cutting a Federal POSTAL SEAL. Last I saw of him he was thrown in the back of a squad car with his own cuffs doing their job.
Hi Jim, I do live in Ely. I travel a lot these days and am only home on weekends. Actually I am in Fraizer Park for a couple months on a project right now. It is cool being able to see the NN in action. It’s like a trip back in time.
Well, maybe. I doubt if the receiver’s guy works for free, or that his truck and fuel are much cheaper than anybody else’s, so the receiver would have incurred a cost to pick up the shipment anyway. Depending on where he had to come from - if the grinder wasn’t going anywhere’s near Truckee anytime in the past few days or soon enough - that could have been a pretty good run, too. Don’t know how heavy the shipment was, but it looks like it was more than a pick-up truck or maybe a single tandem axle could take, so it might have needed a 10-wheeler straight job anyway - not that much more expensive for the tractor-trtailer rig.
Depending on the lead time, it may have been a purchasing agent screw-up - or just an honest best guess that turned out wrong because the grinder didn’t get that far, or got diverted or delayed, or used up the staones faster than normal, etc.
Even for the special shipment: 5 hours at $100 per hour = $500; or, 200 miles @ $3.00 per mile (wild guess) = $600 or so. That may seems like a lot - esp. in an economy where shippers are beating down the trucker/ carrier over a couple of cents per hundred-weight or per mile - but the difference with the receiver pick-up would have to be deducted anyway per my 1st comment above for a fair calculation of the added expense.
Then, the bottom line question: Is it better to have those guys and that big piece of equipment sitting idle for a coupe of days (or even a couple of hours) waiting for the next regular scheduled delivery of the grinding stones - or to pay the couple hundred extra dol
My guess is there would have been no extra charges:
LTL freight is rated from the point of origin to the destination. It is the carrier’s responsibility to deliver to the consignee. The fact that Lorrain normally picked up at the terminal does not allow for extra charges for this shipment.
Most LTL carriers have full 48 state operating authority (I know YRC does).
The original poster has indicated he had other stops after the delivery, so it was part of a LTL peddle run.
BTW, I really enjoyed the photo essay, it was a great mix of trucking and railroading.
This delivery was too late for the regular run and it seemed to me that the driver had to do an exclusive use of trailer delivery 100 miles from the terminal on a very unplanned basis. If’n I was the terminal manager in Reno being judged on my revenue/expense ratio, I’d sure see an opportunity here.
I’ll guess that the shipment was originally consigned to Lorrain in Reno, since that receiver ususally picks up from the terminal there. So the California delivery was extra. Now if he’s in a bind and needs the stuff delivered 100 miles out in another state I’d additionally charge the full class LTL rate from Reno to destination plus charge for exclusive use of trailer, plus anything else I could think of.
The LTL rate from Reno, which is the only rate that would apply absent negotiation, would include a pick up expense. This expense didn’t exist because the freight was already at the Yellow Road Dog terminal in Reno. Money in the bank. And, a 100 mile LTL class rate on an unusual, non-negotiated lane, is going to be sky high.
With some time, Lorrain could have arranged a better option. They aparently didn’t have that time. I’ll agree that getting the freight delivered and preventing a sh
Didja ever see so much clutter, junk, and “stuff” as on the roof of this former bay-window caboose, now apparently a control unit of some kind - maybe a “cab car” or a “leader” car ?
The green “Sulla” air compressor on the right, and all kinds of 5 gal. drums/ pails of - ? lubricants, I guess - “POL” - on the left, with hoses on retrieval reels to dispense same. To what, though ? Are the hoses long enough to reach all the way back to the last grinder unit ? Or maybe they just uncouple the car on a sidetrack, and run the grinder units past it so that it can service each in turn ? Would be interesting to ask and find out, sometime.
Anybody up to scratch-building a model of this for a contest ? [:-,] (I know, go post that thought over on those other forums . . . . [:-^] )
This is fun thread, anyway. I really like the photos - they have a lot of “you are there” atmosphere to them !
