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helping fellow drivers
11 years ago
Just thought I'd share a little story with you guys.
The lower parking lot of the truck stop I shut down at last night was all mud ice and deep ass potholes. I spent about two hours pulling two different trucks out of places where they sunk and got stuck and nearly got myself stuck in the process. I saved two drivers tow truck bills. The second one wasnt sunk as deep so it was easy by comparison, first one took most of that time. I couldn't get enough grip on the ice/slush to get him out of the hole. Tried pulling, tried pushing, forward, backward...nothing. Finally with a combination of lots of rock salt and some pieces of scrap wood I was able to get my drive tires to grab well enough to get him out. Did I mention it was like 20 degrees outside? Yeah.
When I was growing up, my best friend's dad was over the road for 20+ years. He used to tell me stories, thats part of what made me wanna get into this career in the first place. He would describe a strong sense of brotherhood and comradery among drivers. Where is it these days? It doesn't exist anymore. I still try to maintain that spirit. We're all out here for the same reason. Thats why I'll help another flatbedder if they're having trouble with tarps, or if I see someone having a hard time getting into a parking spot I'll stop what I'm doing and spot for them, or in this case why I'll spend two hours of my time doing everything in my power to get these two trucks unstuck so they didn't have to call a tow truck. I doubt many others would've put that much time and effort into helping a fellow driver. Most don't care about anyone or anything but themselves.
I better have some good karma coming my way after this.
-luthoro
The lower parking lot of the truck stop I shut down at last night was all mud ice and deep ass potholes. I spent about two hours pulling two different trucks out of places where they sunk and got stuck and nearly got myself stuck in the process. I saved two drivers tow truck bills. The second one wasnt sunk as deep so it was easy by comparison, first one took most of that time. I couldn't get enough grip on the ice/slush to get him out of the hole. Tried pulling, tried pushing, forward, backward...nothing. Finally with a combination of lots of rock salt and some pieces of scrap wood I was able to get my drive tires to grab well enough to get him out. Did I mention it was like 20 degrees outside? Yeah.
When I was growing up, my best friend's dad was over the road for 20+ years. He used to tell me stories, thats part of what made me wanna get into this career in the first place. He would describe a strong sense of brotherhood and comradery among drivers. Where is it these days? It doesn't exist anymore. I still try to maintain that spirit. We're all out here for the same reason. Thats why I'll help another flatbedder if they're having trouble with tarps, or if I see someone having a hard time getting into a parking spot I'll stop what I'm doing and spot for them, or in this case why I'll spend two hours of my time doing everything in my power to get these two trucks unstuck so they didn't have to call a tow truck. I doubt many others would've put that much time and effort into helping a fellow driver. Most don't care about anyone or anything but themselves.
I better have some good karma coming my way after this.
-luthoro
But when I can, the wolf go and help for my colleagues, doesnt matter whats the actual stuff.
During the Christmas break, I was almost to the real backroads to my house when I saw a truck on the road I was on. The reason I noticed is because it's a road trucks have no business on, at least the part I was on. The only freeway access is truck restricted since it's all still under construction a mile up. There's a main highway like a mile east that runs parallel to the road we were on and this road has nothing but residential shit for a half mile til it runs into a tiny town.
So I'm behind him and he's headed in SORT OF right direction before he makes a left turn up a road. I know this road and I know what's up that road and I know that this dude wants no part of what's up that road, not in a semi at least. So I whip my car up past him and force him to stop. Get out of the car and let the dude know he can't get through on that road. There's no signs or anything saying truck restricted and the road DOES go to the highway...eventually, but you just physically can't get a rig through there. He says, yeah he's lost, knew he was in some shit when his GPS took him through the truck restricted area on the freeway, so he hopped off the first exit he could.
Now comes the fun part...We have to back this dude out back onto the main road headed the OTHER direction so he can access the highway. And it's been raining...hard...so the ground on either will grab him and slide him into a ravine. I end up pulling my car into the main road to block traffic and then spot him out. Takes a good ten minutes because he's gotta get the trailer aiming the other way and still miss the sides. We get him into the main road headed the right way and I give him turn by turn directions on how to get to the highway he was trying to reach. He thanked me and went about his merry way.
I shudder to think what would have happened to the poor guy if I hadn't happened across him. He would have been in a serious world of hurt if he'd gotten another half mile up that road.