We did lighting for Mixfest last night and a few of the bands were Hanson, Backstreet Boys, and Train. It was a festival show with several bands, sound check, band gear, and tour buses. Lighting and audio production loaded in the day before to allow for several bands to sound check without lighting getting in the way on the stage. The day went incredibly smooth and the show started on time with all of the bands starting their sets on time. The load out was slow for lighting because it was a lot of lighting gear, but I have nothing to complain about because Showtime Sound had two 26' trucks vs. our single truck. Lighting looked really good and the audio was thumping which was necessary to overpower the screaming crowd - it was LOUD in the 99% sold out venue.
One of the benefits of being a company owner is the glory of being the truck driver. I had the distinguished honor of driving last night. Normally driving from Baltimore to our warehouse by BWI is a fairly simple task... not so last night. I was tired from a long day *out* of the office. I drove the normal route with minimal traffic after midnight on a Sunday night. I was moving right along and realized BWI, brakes, brakes, brakes. Um, I can't drive this to baggage pickup, the airport police don't like that sort of thing I'm sure. I've never seen a 26' box truck at the airport drop off or pickup, just short buses. Quick, think, what to do. Authorized Vehicles only, go to the security person and explain the error and request the method to not get police attention.
I slowly approached the secured gate thinking, it's 1:00 in the morning in a plain white box truck, nothing suspicious about this, no reason for alarm. Either this happens all the time, or it's really not a big deal. After explaining that I'm not lost, just tired the guy said - just drive "downstairs" around the airport. Don't drive upstairs!
Okay, I backed down the secured gate ramp and drove toward the airport arrivals. OH NO - clearance 13'-0". The truck is new, how tall is it? If I rip the roof off of the new company truck the second day we own it I'll never hear the end of it AND it would be quite expensive. Drive really slow, that makes you shorter. I guess I was 12'-something because I didn't scrape. So, you can drive an unmarked box truck through Arrivals without the police taking note - seems like a security problem but I'm happy to not get questioned.
I got back to the shop and was questioned as to where I was for the last 30 minutes. Oh, just driving the truck around the airport to check things out on a Sunday night. Maybe I should retire the truck driver job description?
Showing posts with label Freightliner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freightliner. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
ratified contract
We got a ratified contract on the sale of our house today. The house inspection is scheduled for this Sunday. I'll be working the Backstreet show on Sunday so I'll get a text message reporting on what the inspector is putting on his report. The list of pain in the ass things I'll have to repair, or pay for before the closing will break up my day nicely. But, the buyers have been very straight forward and professional so they might be less interested in nit picking and focus on just closing which is my hope. On Saturday I will go to Lowes to buy GFI receptacles for the three bathrooms in our 11-year old house that don't have them. That will be one less thing on the inspector's report.
Today at work we picked up our new Freightliner 26' box truck. When I say new, I mean new to us, it has 120k miles on the odometer, but as I'm told that is low mileage for a diesel truck. We went through the expense of having large aluminum lift gate installed, as well as the addition of two more rows of E-rail making a total of four rows. The frustration of rental trucks over the last two years caused me to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to get a large and safe lift gate, and additional E-track so securing the loads won't require so much planning and effort. We still have to take the truck back to the dealer on Monday to put it in to get the box painted. They will have it for at least 4-days for this simple process.
I didn't have a camera with me today, but if I did I would have taken a photo of the gaff tape US DOT number that I have currently on both cab doors. The posting of a DOT number is required on all big trucks (yup, that is how the law reads, it says "big") and they don't care how it's on there, it just needs to be readable from a specific distance (20'?).
Today at work we picked up our new Freightliner 26' box truck. When I say new, I mean new to us, it has 120k miles on the odometer, but as I'm told that is low mileage for a diesel truck. We went through the expense of having large aluminum lift gate installed, as well as the addition of two more rows of E-rail making a total of four rows. The frustration of rental trucks over the last two years caused me to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to get a large and safe lift gate, and additional E-track so securing the loads won't require so much planning and effort. We still have to take the truck back to the dealer on Monday to put it in to get the box painted. They will have it for at least 4-days for this simple process.
I didn't have a camera with me today, but if I did I would have taken a photo of the gaff tape US DOT number that I have currently on both cab doors. The posting of a DOT number is required on all big trucks (yup, that is how the law reads, it says "big") and they don't care how it's on there, it just needs to be readable from a specific distance (20'?).
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Double Air Bag Deployment
This was a big week for me. On Friday, 6/25/10 my house went on the market. Now I'm living ONE mile from work, but it's time to move to a nicer neighborhood and house, I'll leave it at that. The process of getting ready and paying for new carpet throughout the house, and getting all of the trim painted, and paying to have a few rooms and ceilings painted is stressful and expensive. But, we are now listed so the hard part is over?
On Wednesday, 6/23 I put a down payment on a 26' Freightliner M2 box truck (for the company obviously). The delivery date for the truck is four to five weeks from now due to the customizations to the truck. We are having the box painted to match the dark silver metallic color of the cab. We are switching out the steel lift gate for a larger aluminum self-leveling lift gate. Lastly we are extending the wheelbase and frame to properly fit the 26' box vs. the 24' box that is currently on the truck. All of the changes are adding up to the four to five week delivery time, but we'll have the truck in time for September when things get very busy again.
In getting prepared for the arrival of the truck we applied and were issued a US DOT number this week. That is the number you see on the doors of all large trucks on the roads that clearly identifies the company that owns the truck. I figured the application process would be slow and difficult but it took about four days, I was impressed.
On Tuesday, 6/22 I was a passenger in car crash this week. Yellow light, Honda accord in front of us hit the brakes, the driver of the car I was in hit the gas to make it through the yellow light and the collision occurred about two seconds later. Both air bags deployed on impact but thankfully nobody was seriously injured. Luckily enough we didn't make known contact with the airbags because my nose and/or glasses were not broken. The driver of the car I was in wasn't injured at all, but I had some cuts on my left leg from where the airbag hatch opened, and my pinky finger on my right hand was jammed on something and five days later is still swollen and sore. The driver of the Honda wasn't injured and was pretty relaxed considering the rear bumper and muffler of his car were messed up. The driver of the car I was in was pretty down about the incident because his car was totaled, and I did my best to push the fact that this was a best case accident - nobody was hurt, the totaled car has 201k miles on the odometer, the tires needed to be replaced, and the driver you hit wasn't a crazed madman at the accident site. Sure, it is never pleasant to be involved in an accident (especially with an injured Pinky!), but things could always be worse, you could have hit a new Mercedes or a dump truck.
When I rode my motorcycle home after work after the car crash I was a bit extra on edge regarding the cars around me. I couldn't help but to think about what an impact from a car or truck would be like on a motorcycle. I guess it would be as fast as the airbags deploying - BOOM, what just happened? I hope to never find out.
On Wednesday, 6/23 I put a down payment on a 26' Freightliner M2 box truck (for the company obviously). The delivery date for the truck is four to five weeks from now due to the customizations to the truck. We are having the box painted to match the dark silver metallic color of the cab. We are switching out the steel lift gate for a larger aluminum self-leveling lift gate. Lastly we are extending the wheelbase and frame to properly fit the 26' box vs. the 24' box that is currently on the truck. All of the changes are adding up to the four to five week delivery time, but we'll have the truck in time for September when things get very busy again.
In getting prepared for the arrival of the truck we applied and were issued a US DOT number this week. That is the number you see on the doors of all large trucks on the roads that clearly identifies the company that owns the truck. I figured the application process would be slow and difficult but it took about four days, I was impressed.
On Tuesday, 6/22 I was a passenger in car crash this week. Yellow light, Honda accord in front of us hit the brakes, the driver of the car I was in hit the gas to make it through the yellow light and the collision occurred about two seconds later. Both air bags deployed on impact but thankfully nobody was seriously injured. Luckily enough we didn't make known contact with the airbags because my nose and/or glasses were not broken. The driver of the car I was in wasn't injured at all, but I had some cuts on my left leg from where the airbag hatch opened, and my pinky finger on my right hand was jammed on something and five days later is still swollen and sore. The driver of the Honda wasn't injured and was pretty relaxed considering the rear bumper and muffler of his car were messed up. The driver of the car I was in was pretty down about the incident because his car was totaled, and I did my best to push the fact that this was a best case accident - nobody was hurt, the totaled car has 201k miles on the odometer, the tires needed to be replaced, and the driver you hit wasn't a crazed madman at the accident site. Sure, it is never pleasant to be involved in an accident (especially with an injured Pinky!), but things could always be worse, you could have hit a new Mercedes or a dump truck.
When I rode my motorcycle home after work after the car crash I was a bit extra on edge regarding the cars around me. I couldn't help but to think about what an impact from a car or truck would be like on a motorcycle. I guess it would be as fast as the airbags deploying - BOOM, what just happened? I hope to never find out.
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