Riding iron

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Today was a first for me....the snow was so bad that I had to chain up all four tires in order to deliver the hilly part of my route. We are in the midst of the worst snow and cold snap that this area has seen in many years. People in this area dont own snowplows and arent accustomed to dealing with this much snow.
I put chains on my back tires on Monday morning and I havent taken them off since. My hands, feet and butt are tingling from the constant ching-ching-ching-ching and the never ending rattling and vibration. Max speed with chains is 35 MPH so I'm going nowhere fast.
Even with the chains I wound up getting stuck today. Fortunately, one of my customers was just up the road with his 4x4 pickup, and he was able to pull me out of the ditch so I didnt have to call a tow truck.:happy-very:
I stopped at the top of a road that I knew I couldnt make it down, and called one of my customers to tell him I had his package. He came up to the top to meet me....in his tractor. I gave him his package, along with 5 other stops for his neighbors, and he delivered them for me. I had another customer meet me at the top of his driveway on a snowmobile!:happy-very:
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dillweed

Well-Known Member
Wow, and here you are up in the wee hours. Hope you're wearing yourself down by fretting!

During my feeble attempt at air driving I had a nasty snow day. Was amazed at how worthless that pkg car was in snow and how squirrely it was on slick roads. Log wagon on ice skates, it was.

How great, however, to hear how you got things delivered and how wonderful your customers are to help you out. It shows that they have respect and fondness for you and really appreciate what you do for them. They probably want those Christmas gifts too. :happy2:

No need to remind you to be safe but I am doing it anyway. Take it easy and remember that most important stop, OK? Will be rooting for you today.
 

JustTired

free at last.......
Looks like a typical midwest winter to me.

Where did you get those chains? We get a pair of single chains and they are only used to get you unstuck. If you drove down the road with them on, you'd slap the crap out of the fender wells.

I would have to say (by the looks of the pix) that I've delivered in much worse. Of course, it's (for the most part) a little flatter country around here.

Still....it's no fun wherever you are. Especially this time of year.
 

wornoutupser

Well-Known Member
And I was feeling sorry for myself because I had to get out in my shorts today and scoop sand away from my tires yesterday here in Florida........
 

wornoutupser

Well-Known Member
Wow!
I just re-read my post.
Peak has me more tired than I thought-my grammer and tenses were horrible!

Seriously, UPS wants it both ways here as well. They chew you out for over allowed to walk these long sand driveways-yet they are more than well armed with warning letters for getting stuck when you try to go down them. I have one daily customer that has a 310 yard long sugar sand driveway and I have to walk it every day. My truck wouldnt make it 10 feet before it buried itself.
 

Fnix

Well-Known Member
Wow!
I just re-read my post.
Peak has me more tired than I thought-my grammer and tenses were horrible!

Seriously, UPS wants it both ways here as well. They chew you out for over allowed to walk these long sand driveways-yet they are more than well armed with warning letters for getting stuck when you try to go down them. I have one daily customer that has a 310 yard long sugar sand driveway and I have to walk it every day. My truck wouldnt make it 10 feet before it buried itself.

You cant place the package somewhere at the entrance and have them get it?
 

brownrodster

Well-Known Member
Looks like a typical midwest winter to me.

Where did you get those chains? We get a pair of single chains and they are only used to get you unstuck. If you drove down the road with them on, you'd slap the crap out of the fender wells.

I would have to say (by the looks of the pix) that I've delivered in much worse. Of course, it's (for the most part) a little flatter country around here.

Still....it's no fun wherever you are. Especially this time of year.


Up here in the NW there are millions of brutal hills. I've got hills on routes that I know that I cannot drive up in nice conditions. Also this damn snow turns to ice very quickly. So underneath the layer of fresh snow is pure ice. Lots of towns won't use salt on roads because of the effect on the environment. And almost no town on the coast owns any snowplows. Add to this hundreds of cars abandoned everywhere because no one owns chains or good tires which makes the roads an obsticle course.

The snow is really not a huge problem in certain areas with a smart dispatch. However, they continue to build loads that would take 12 hours to deliver in nice conditions. But a proper dispatch with this weather would add too many routes and we have no more drivers or trucks available. UPS has failed to adjust for changing conditions.

Before this snow storm I was deliverong over 250 stops per day. When the snow hit my stop count increased but I was only able to deliver 150-175 of them per day. leaving me with 100 stops per day I didn't have the time to deliver. Those stops were deliverable but there wasn't anyone available to deliver them.


It wouldn't be this bad if we had those peak drivers and rental trucks they said we did not need this year.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
And I was feeling sorry for myself because I had to get out in my shorts today and scoop sand away from my tires yesterday here in Florida........


Tell us how nice Florida is next summer when it's 95 degrees and 100% humidity for 6 months in a row. :peaceful::happy2:
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
Come to California and experience moderation for 12 months out of the year ...........except in the political arena. :funny:
 

diesel96

Well-Known Member
Re: Riding iron

oops....All this snow talk....I entered this thread thinking it was about riding motorcycles.....Can't add much to this topic, another Floridian here, wouldn't began to know how to chain my tires. Good luck to you guys in the snow belts. Even my son called me from Vegas the other day (Nellis AFB) and told me it was snowing there as well. I didn't know it snows in the desert....:wink2:
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Looks like a typical midwest winter to me.

Where did you get those chains? We get a pair of single chains and they are only used to get you unstuck. If you drove down the road with them on, you'd slap the crap out of the fender wells.

I would have to say (by the looks of the pix) that I've delivered in much worse. Of course, it's (for the most part) a little flatter country around here.

Still....it's no fun wherever you are. Especially this time of year.

There arent as many hills in the Midwest.

I have driveways on my route that are a 12% grade, with multiple hairpin turns. I go from 175 feet above sea level up to 1200 feet....which means it can be raining down low and 8" of snow up high.

People in the Midwest are more accustomed to deep snow. They plow their driveways and salt the roads. The county I live in only has two snowplows, and it is illegal to salt the roads.

As far as the chains go, every package car in our fleet has a set, and there are several pallets of spare chains in the auto shop. I left the building yesterday with 6 sets of chains...1 installed on each tire, and two spares in case I broke any. We dispatched soemthing like 235 routes yesterday and every car chained up before leaving the building. It makes for quite the traffic jam in the AM.
 
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