Well I'm glad to see you're back. I trust that ole Santa Clause was as good to you as he was to us. Actually I feel kinda guilty because I can think of several naughty things I did this year and he still came through...
I had thought of several things I wanted to write about this time but decided that in the spirit of the holidays I would lighten up for just this once. Don't get used to it though, there is still a lot of spit and fire in this ole pen and I fully intend to release every bit of it..
I get a lot of mail asking who I am, who I drive for, what I drive, etc. I like the mail but thought it might be a good idea to answer some of the most common questions here..
Over the years I have driven just about everything there is to drive. Dump trucks, flatbeds, refer's, dry vans. I even drove a school bus for a year and believe it or not, that was one of my favorites. My worst was hauling furniture. Not because of the work but because of the customers.
In April of 1990, a new dray company opened in Salt Lake City called RT Systems. I happened to hear about them through a relative and I was sick of what I was doing, so on June 3, 1990 I went to talk to them. I was in one of their trucks that very same night. I turned a drop and hook with 48' railroad containers to Wamsutter Wyoming (pronounced Womsutter) and was back home and in my own bed 14 hours after leaving Salt Lake..
Shortly after that I started doing Denver turns out of Salt Lake. RT Systems is contracted to operate the Burlington Northern (BN) Intermodal Hub in Salt Lake City. The BN doesn't have a track into Salt Lake yet so we truck all of their freight out of the Denver Hub..
After a little over a year of making those Denver turns, I began to realize that it was not normal for a grown man to have cute little names for every yard stick (mile marker) on I-80 through Wyoming. Even worse than that was the fact that I had begun to wave at my favorite ones as I passed. When one of them finally waved back I realized it was time for a change.
My boss readily affirmed my suspicions that I might be in serious need of psychiatric treatment. I guess he felt a little guilty about it too because instead of firing me, he let me transfer from line haul to local. I spent the next year hauling piggyback trailers around Northern Utah. It was great! No log books, eating my wife's cooking and sleeping in my own bed every night. I was starting to feel like I had a "real job" for the first time in my life. The money wasn't as good but I wasn't spending it on the road either.
That's when the insanity reared its ugly head again and I moved into dispatch. A couple months after that I became the local operations manager as well as the local dispatcher. About 8 months after that I got into a dispute with a customer over some things he was doing which I felt were underhanded at best. I called the kettle black and I got fired. I never could hold my tongue just because someone with money thought I should.
I spent the next year dispatching for one of our competitors. Finally I got sick of being someones' boss and RT Systems let me come back as a driver. Of course I lost all of my seniority and benefits, which really sucks since I felt I was wrongfully terminated in the first place. The guy who got me fired has since been fired from his company. He got caught pulling the same crap on someone else that he had gotten away with pulling on me. Still, I felt like I had helped build RT Systems, plus they are about the only company I have ever worked for that didn't ask me to break the law or risk my life to please a customer. My boss had forgiven me enough to let me and I must also add that he broke a company policy by hiring me back after I had been fired, so I can't complain about benefits too much...
Anyway I have a pretty decent job now. I run Northern Utah, Southwestern Wyoming, Southern Idaho and once in a while eastern Nevada. I'm still home nearly every night. They make me dispatch when someone else is off but it is kind of a nice change from the truck when you know it is only temporary. The rest of the time I only have one driver to worry about, ME!!! And that's the way, uhhuh, I like it!!!!!!!!!!
Since I started this page I have had a few offers to dispatch for other companies in this area. None since my last article though, hmmmmm... For the record let me just lay it out front.. For $40k a year, full company paid benefits, including family medical and dental, and three weeks paid vacation a year with guaranteed nights and weekends off, I MIGHT consider it. Then my vwife would slap some sense into me and the answer would probably be no... But thanks for asking..
If you happen to find yourself in the Northern Utah area, try shouting for me on the C.B.. Just understand that my company slipseats and I don't always carry a radio.. When I am near Salt Lake I usually keep it turned off because of some of the idiots in town.. My handle since 1977 has been the Screamin Demon but there have been a few people ready to fight me for that one over the years. Just so you know, back when the fcc required a license for the C.B., that was my licensed handle.. but for the sake of saving an argument just call me by my name....
I would genuinely enjoy hearing from you. If I have time I'll even buy you a cup of coffee so holler.... In the meantime,