Respect to old timers

[toonertoo]

My shoulders, and me knees tell me I used to drive one of those. All the safety talk now is mute, as I need to use the handrail now, and I have a low step. When my car is going to be shopped, I stay home. Last one they gave me, I needed to have a football field to turn it around. No more, cant do it. There is not enough money or advil in the world.

 

[brown bomber]

1st route I drove, was one of the 1st p-1000 (78750), in the district...I used to deliver 500+ pcs./day...and pickup on some occasions 1000 pcs., this was in the early 1980's...I just wonder how I survived those days

 

[brown bomber]

we use to refer to the old P-4's as milk trucks....if I recall they did have a big shelf in the cab, where you could set up your next 5-10 stops...oops, don't tell MGT., I never did that...it was a rumor

 

[IVE GOTTA PACKAGE 4U]

we use to refer to the old P-4's as milk trucks....if I recall they did have a big shelf in the cab, where you could set up your next 5-10 stops...oops, don't tell MGT., I never did that...it was a rumor

One of our very old drivers used to put his false teeth on the shelf in the cab. It was funny as hell!!

 

[Rico]

We had a P600 in our center that had plywood shelves on top of the buckled and cracked metal ones. I think it had a plywood bulkhood door too. Spent most of its time parked up on the hill unless it was peak or we were shot cars. We also had a P1100 for a while too that I remember being a real beast.

 

[CaliforniaPaul]

We had a car in our center in North California, the car number was 190. It was like a miniture cabco that had only two shelves and a Hurst shifter!! This was in 1965.

 

[DS]

I feel young again after reading some of these posts.
I do remember dannyboy posting once about slamming the old wooden bulkhead door
​shut on his helpers hand.

 

[porkwagon]

loved the older 800 when the e/brake was up against your knee and the Shift stick was almost out the passenger door !!

I would release the brake with my left knee.

 

[porkwagon]

I still have a scar!

So do I.

 

[porkwagon]

I had the pleasure of delivering out of a 400 for a short time before they took it out of service, then they painted it yellow and it served as an automotive shop car for several years. But mostly when I started driving I had a late 60s early 70s 600 with wooden shelves, wooden bulkhead door with a padlock, and horrifying brakes!

 

[Dracula]

Remember those old rear doors that had had the lock mechanism with a small bar on the lock, and underneath that, it had an L shaped lock and a thick spike at the bottom of the mechanism, Both the L lock and the spike went into two holes in the floor of the truck below the lock. Anyone remember those?

One hot summer day, I grabbed the canvas cord attached to the door to pull the door shut, and jerked the door down and drove that spike right into my head. It knocked me out cold, and I bled like I was in a horror movie, and I got caught in that canvas cord and kind of just hung there until someone spotted me and helped me out. I went to the hospital, and of course UPS asked if I could finish out the day. Soem things never change.

 

[satellitedriver]

I just wanted to say I have a new found respect for the drivers who have been doing it for decades. My truck was red tagged and I came in to a 1989 GMC 800 today. I could get used to the high ass step, having to punch the bulkhead door at every stop to open it, bogging down to a crawl on hills in any gear; dealing with the transmission and break not holding on hills, the annoying cargo light that turns the cab light on too...etc but having to wrestle that manual steering all day long....I dont know how you guys did it for all these years. Much respect!

Thanks for even considering those that came before you.
I drove a P400 300 miles a day for 3yrs.
It was nicked named "the brown coffin".
Over the decades, I have driven every vehicle that has been named in this thread.
Just two years ago, I got a pkg car with power steering and automatic transmission, after 25yrs of muscling.
I got my P700 on a Wednesday, and when I got out of bed on Saturday I knew something was different with my body.
Nothing hurt on my body...........WOW...............!!!!!!!!
I am 60yrs old and I plan to stay for another 2yrs.

 

[Covemastah]

I remember the old 1100 's had power steering and air brakes !! we got rid of the last one when they first came out with the CDL license and no body was then qualified to drive them !!!
It was fun doing House Calls in that bad boy because the truck was higher than the normal package cars ...

 

[over9five]

I remember the old 1100 's had power steering and air brakes !! we got rid of the last one when they first came out with the CDL license and no body was then qualified to drive them !!!
It was fun doing House Calls in that bad boy because the truck was higher than the normal package cars ...

I just remember having a very tight industrial route. I would literally have to move the truck only 50 ft forward, and 50 ft backward to the next dock. It would run out of air all the time cuz it didn't run long enough to fill the tanks. Then you couldn't move it at all till you ran it at high idle for five minutes!

 

[cosmo1]

I just remember having a very tight industrial route. I would literally have to move the truck only 50 ft forward, and 50 ft backward to the next dock. It would run out of air all the time cuz it didn't run long enough to fill the tanks. Then you couldn't move it at all till you ran it at high idle for five minutes!

You would be so beat up on the telematics reports now! Back-first exceptions and excessive idle time.

​LMAO

 

[toonertoo]

Remember those old rear doors that had had the lock mechanism with a small bar on the lock, and underneath that, it had an L shaped lock and a thick spike at the bottom of the mechanism, Both the L lock and the spike went into two holes in the floor of the truck below the lock. Anyone remember those?

One hot summer day, I grabbed the canvas cord attached to the door to pull the door shut, and jerked the door down and drove that spike right into my head. It knocked me out cold, and I bled like I was in a horror movie, and I got caught in that canvas cord and kind of just hung there until someone spotted me and helped me out. I went to the hospital, and of course UPS asked if I could finish out the day. Soem things never change.

I didn't have the door open all the way stood up and put that spike right through my head.....didn't hurt the spike. I bled like awful, running down my face, and in my eyes. Next delivery stop was at o doc office. They cleaned it up, put some glue on my hole in my head, and called office to tell them why I was running late. Before telematics, and all. Before "safety" drillings. center manager asked for my doc bill. There is no bill.

 

[Covemastah]

You would be so beat up on the telematics reports now! Back-first exceptions and excessive idle time.

​LMAO

yes but he would have the ballz to file for feeder pay since it has air brakes lol

 

[satellitedriver]

I didn't have the door open all the way stood up and put that spike right through my head.....didn't hurt the spike.

Didn't hurt the spike....
Gotta Luv ya, June.
I remember when I forgot to duck while stepping up into the back of my 400.
It had two "spikes", and I drove them into the top of my skull.
I have never been knocked out in my life, but that brought me to my knees.
Blood ran, I washed it of with a garden hose and never told anyone.
Hell, I have been hit in the head with a baseball bat and a 4lb sledge hammer and they were nothing compared to those two spikes.
I hope I didn't bend the spikes, because that would be a reportable accident for damaging a pkg car.

 

[soberups]

I still deal with shoulder and neck pain that I attribute to over a decade of working out of "iron maiden" GMC P-10's and P-8's, as well as the P-6's and 4's that I started my career in.

Those GMC P-10's are solid rigs that run forever. With just a few basic ergonomic improvements (power steering, a better seat and a wider door/lower step) they could have at least been sort of decent. Power steering in particular would have paid for itself in the first 6 months of the package cars life simply by virtue of the increased productivity. Fighting the equipment all day is fatiguing and it really slows you down.

The other thing I hated about those GMC's was the engine governor. It would cut spark to the already underpowered 4.3 liter v-6 engine just as it was starting to get into its powerband. Trying to merge with traffic involved frantically rowing thru the 4 speed gearbox and burying your foot into the throttle in a desperate attempt to make that gutless turd move fast enough to get out of its own way. And it was even worse on steep hills; it couldnt pull them at all in 3rd gear, and 2nd was so low that it topped out at about 18 MPH with your foot to the floor and the motor screaming. Those cars could have really benefitted from a 5 speed gearbox like the Spicers that were installed in the Internationals a few years later.

 

[brownmonster]

I still deal with shoulder and neck pain that I attribute to over a decade of working out of "iron maiden" GMC P-10's and P-8's, as well as the P-6's and 4's that I started my career in.

Those GMC P-10's are solid rigs that run forever. With just a few basic ergonomic improvements (power steering, a better seat and a wider door/lower step) they could have at least been sort of decent. Power steering in particular would have paid for itself in the first 6 months of the package cars life simply by virtue of the increased productivity. Fighting the equipment all day is fatiguing and it really slows you down.

The other thing I hated about those GMC's was the engine governor. It would cut spark to the already underpowered 4.3 liter v-6 engine just as it was starting to get into its powerband. Trying to merge with traffic involved frantically rowing thru the 4 speed gearbox and burying your foot into the throttle in a desperate attempt to make that gutless turd move fast enough to get out of its own way. And it was even worse on steep hills; it couldnt pull them at all in 3rd gear, and 2nd was so low that it topped out at about 18 MPH with your foot to the floor and the motor screaming. Those cars could have really benefitted from a 5 speed gearbox like the Spicers that were installed in the Internationals a few years later.

When UPS Brass drove them around the factory parking lot they seemed like excellent vehicles.