Ice Road Truckers....

      I saw the promotional announcements for the TV
series 'Ice Road Truckers' and it got me to thinking
about the industry that I retired from in 2009. The 
trucking industry is responsible for everything in
your home at this exact moment. From furniture, 
appliances, lawn equipment, plumbing, to the 
groceries in the pantry,..a truck brought it to the
store where you purchased it. I did my share of
general merchandise hauling all over the country,
but when I got the chance to drive for Wal-Mart
I jumped at the opportunity.  I joined the WM
Private Fleet in 1997 and retired in 2009.
Now to the ice storm part of this story..  When the 
TV weather guy calls for an impending storm, you
can bet the customers will clean out the shelves of
essentials. It is up to the distribution center to refill
those empty shelves, and more importantly, the WM
driver to get the merchandise and food to the stores.
Wal-Mart is annually rated the safest fleet of trucks
in the country...and the most dependable. Even with 
ice and snow on the highways and roads, it is rare
when the load does not arrive at the store on time.
The stores usually clean the loading dock area after
the rest of the parking lot has been cleared of snow
and ice. This becomes another problem for the drivers
to contend with, and usually it comes down to an
argument with store management before the dock area
gets attention. A loaded truck is easier to handle in
snow conditions than an empty truck as the weight 
works to give the truck more traction. The loaded
trailer is easier to put against the loading dock as the
driver can just let the truck slowly idle down into the
pit. Without any weight on the drive axles it is a lot
harder to pull the empty trailer away from the dock.
The safe course of action would be to just park the
truck but when a store is in dire need of re-supplying
the load must go through.