Weird Loads

[Special K]

During the Chat on 12/5, someone asked for others to relate the weirdest load they've hauled. Would anyone have interest in starting a thread about that here?
I'd start by telling about the time (at Roberts) when we hauled a ton of dynamite from Anniston to Ft. Campbell, and when we got there, the receiving guy snarled at me "We're doin' inventory this week, we're not acceptin' anything!"...

 

[theoldprof]

What do you do if when you pull up to a delivery site, and they're not receiving, or the employees are on strike, or the delivery site is on fire. :+ :+

 

[raceman]

Well good thing you did not get mad and say, oh I don't know, Blow him up. When I was driving I don't recall any weird items but I had a cool one and a strange one. I once got to haul a custom bike made but the Chopper guys and I hauled cotton once. Not sure what I find odd about the cotton but I just find it strange. Maybe because it really did weigh as much as anything else when you got right down to it. Hospital beds are on my trucks now and then and for some reason that always takes me by surprise. When my drivers tell me they are hauling those it just flips me out. When I worked for P&G I ran a load of Pepto Bismol and had heart burn the entire time. Makes you wonder. I really did.

RaceMan

---Why Hug a tree when you can sit on a Diesle---

 

[Glen Rice]

I appreciate your interest in this subject. Unfortunately I don't believe that in this time in our history we should be publicly discussing what high profile loads we've transported. If we do discuss these loads please leave out the loads of national security interest. I hope that doesn't offend you or this anyone who wants to participate in this subject.
Now that I'm done with the down side of this discussion, my most interseting load had to be 11 years ago when I transported a frozen body for forensic research from University of Illinois to The Einstein Institute in NYC. We had generators running to maintain -80 degrees. My very next load for blood for AIDS Research that was infected, kinda sad. Thanks for the question of lifestyles of the weird and famous! Drive safe and be profitable!

 

[raceman]

Oh I have one more which was kind of weird. I went to a plant one time and backed up to the dock and the guy told me I could not unload at that door for some kind of safety reasons. Told me to pull down about four doors where the guy was standing. I pulled down there and backed up and that guy said you cant unload that truck at this door go back where you were. He explained he was the safety manager so I took his word for it and you guessed it, back to the other door only be told NOT HERE. At that point I let them fight with each other until they finally unloaded me at the first door. Now that was weird!RaceMan

---Why Hug a tree when you can sit on a Diesle---

 

[X1_SRH]

My most memorable load was taking a load of medical equipment to the NYC coroner the day after the 911 attacks. I got a police escort all the way to the temporary medical facilities near ground zero. That was my proudest day as an expediter.

Weirdest loads... that's a tossup between the circus peanuts and the fake eyeballs I took to new hampshire. (seriously)

Being an expediter just plain rocks!!! - X

- Don't sit on a diesel until you let it cool down a while.

 

[RichM]

Here is a couple. One time we took one nail from a place in Aiken SC to a testing lab in Chicago.
In Brooklyn NY we loaded over 10,000 cartons of cigarettes that had been essentially smuggled in from North Carolina to be resold without NY State Taxes involved.
The cigaerttes were on the 13th floor of a building but the elevator stopped on the 12th floor.Truck reeked of tobacco for weeks.

 

[Special K]

...and then there was the 35,000 lbs. of rice (obviously, we were an "E" unit then) that we delivered to a federal penitentiary, and wondered the whole way why it needed to go by expedited carrier...

 

[LDB]

I had one where I went to the dock to door 1 like the paperwork said and could tell that wasn't right because it wasn't a dock high dock and the freight required it. I went down the line and picked an empty door. Took my paperwork inside and they said go back to 1. I explained the height problem but they insisted. I went back to 1 and they said the height isn't correct. Then they sent me to a door toward the far end. Once I got in there I was told that isn't the right door and was sent back to the door I originally backed into about a half hour earlier. They were going to move me again and I refused. I told them if they want it take it off now or else I was leaving and dumping it. Then a guy comes up who's supposedly the safety director and tells me they won't drive a forklift into a single axle truck and they won't go inside to unload it. They gave me an electric pallet jack and I did it myself. That was the first time I ever used an electric pallet jack. I had fun playing with it while I took the stuff off. The few collisions I had with other stuff on the dock weren't too severe. This was all at a post office facility in h---, I mean purgatory a.k.a. Chicago.

Leo
truck 767

Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[RichM]

Can't have prisoners going hungry,poor guys need their nutrition for their gym workouts,or the Litigation starts Big Time.
On the Subject of food, we had 10 pallets of Frito Lay Potato chips one time, and once in Burlington VT picked up 8 skids of Molson Beer that had to go to Logan airport in Boston to be flown down to the Carribean somewhere where some of Lawrence's colleagues from up North were having a meeting. Nothing like an Island and Molsons to make a meeting successfull.

 

[RobA]

once in Burlington VT picked up 8
>skids of Molson Beer that had to go to Logan airport in
>Boston to be flown down to the Carribean somewhere where
>some of Lawrence's colleagues from up North were having a
>meeting. Nothing like an Island and Molsons to make a
>meeting successfull.



That wasn't a well prepared meeting was it?
Canadian beer via Vermont?
That sounds like a desperation move to me; maybe bordering on a Mission Of Mercy.

:+

 

[NB Trucker]

not truly a 'wierd' load, but one of my favorites was two pups worth of Vermont Teddy bears just before christmas one year. It was wierd having two doors filled, they loaded me up in a jiffy and then I got to go hook the silly things back together and truck on down to Jersey with them.
About a week later I saw a segment on QVC, you guessed it 'my' teddy bears.

 

[Draco]

Weirdest load I ever hauled was skins cells from a hospital. I also hauled a load on the day of 9/11. I've never gotten so many 'location' checks before that day. Heard from dispatchers every hour wanting to know if I was ok and such. I also an entire factory's payroll the day after 9/11.

 

[redytrk]

We carried a load of Gold Rope to the Naval Base at Norfolk. The rope was to be used the next day so the president wouldnt loose his way while visiting the ships.

 

[JeffJensen]

Actually, most of my weird loads were in my pre-expediting courier days in the late '80's - early '90's where we would take anything that would fit in the truck.(In this case, my trusty Astro cargo van).

*Got a load of a thousand pounds of frozen egg whites is cans out of central Ohio. The pallet wouldn't fit, so the cans were loaded loose. Took those to Minneapolis where it took some time to find someone to help me unload the formerly frozen cans. On the way back home, got a chance to stop at Wisconsin Dells and take a helicopter ride, so it wasn't that bad a run.

*Astro van again. A short run of 50 miles with a 2,000 pound granite table for a machine shop. Didn't run over 50 mph on the interstate because the little truck was wandering so badly. We got paid for extra weight with that company but not enough to justify a broken suspension. (Luckily, it was alright)

*A load from Cincinnati to Evansville, IN. A truck full of rubber ducks for a Rubber Duck Regatta, loaded with a coal shovel.

*A prototype computer chip that fit into my shirt pocket. I was warned by the shipper that it was worth hundreds of thousand of dollars (he felt compelled to tell me that it was worth more than me), so I felt badly when it later slipped out of my pocket and fell in a mud puddle. I washed it off and it was fine.

Jeff

 

[dieseldoctor]

How about a van full of one hour old baby chickens and on the other end of the scale how about a tombstone. Dieseldoctor

 

[Special K]

Sometimes with the White Glove art work loads from/to museums, when we had to carry a courier, the courier was wierder than the load. We hauled an Egyptian exhibit which included a mummy. I think the mummy had more personality than the courier.

 

[The Gibster]

These are all great posts! I felt compeled to add our casket handle story.

We loaded casket handles at an extruded aluminum plant - they are the same pieces to create storm doors and windows; and took them to a world famous casket company.

The factory had open caskets swinging by on assembly lines like cars at Detroit, but there were no industrial sounds at all! There were caskets sitting on the floor elsewhere, and materials around to complete the builds.

The real wierd part was my wife said to one of the workers as he slowly shuffled by, "Man, this place is weird!". The hunched over man replied real slow, "It's the weirdest place you'll ever be".




.

 

[Weave]

Like dieseldoctor, I have moved the baby chickens and chicken embryos on dry ice. Why? They go to labs to test for bacteria and other possible problems. The suppliers of chicken based food products really do try hard to make sure their products are safe
-Weave-

 

[jaminjim]

Well how about a load of toliet paper rolls... No not rolls of toliet paper, scented rolls. my truck stunk for a week, not because they were used, but lucky the scent was not of used things.