The stuff in the back

One of my many* fans** suggested I comment on the products I haul. I'm not sure exactly what he meant, but I suspect he'll be disappointed by my answer regardless. Y'see, most of the time I never see what I'm carrying. Half the time I have no clue what it is.

Once upon a time, truck drivers loaded and unloaded their rigs most of the time. Some of them still do--car haulers and flatbed drivers, for instance, have to at least secure their loads. And local drivers frequently go "door-to-door" like a delivery truck, offloading part of their cargo at several locations.

Over-the-road drivers (in my company, at least) don't do much of that. We normally carry an entire trailer full of something from one single place to another single place. And as I mentioned in my discussion of "lumpers," loading those trailers has become a bit of an art--if you don't know how to run the forklift and distribute the weight properly, you have no business loading the trailer.

I've helped unload a few, but only a few. The usual run involves one of two things--at either end of the trip:

• You back up to a dock and sit in your truck while they load you (or unload you). When the truck stops rocking and bouncing, you go in, find the shipping/receiving office, and get your bills of lading (or get them to sign for what you've delivered). Often as not, you never see the inside of the warehouse.
• You find a place on the yard and drop the trailer (empty or loaded) you brought in. Then you find the trailer you're supposed to hook up to (pre-loaded with your assigned cargo or empty (so you have something to load at your next stop)). Once you've got your new trailer, you go in as above. Unless the other end of the trip is "option 1" (above), you never see the inside of your trailer.

So for many loads the only time you see what you're carrying is when you close (or open) your doors. Sometimes not even then.

You can look on your bill of lading and figure out what you're carrying, of course. Most of the time.*** But often as not you don't bother. You have to know how heavy it is, and whether there's any hazardous material.**** Other than that, you mostly think about where it's going. And getting it there.

All that said, I have hauled a fair variety of cargo. I've carried motorcycles and computers, bales of scrap cardboard and bales of dead soda bottles, beer and vitamin water, and a lot of things in between. My trainer once hauled the first car of the new model year to a private showing for a luxury automaker (and boy, was he watched!). Another driver I talked to pulled a trailer full of government checks (with massive police escort). We move a lot of different stuff.

But I, for one, don't spend much time thinking about what I'm moving. Sorry 'bout that.
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*More than two is many, right?
**Anyone who pays enough attention to have a comment is a fan. Right?
***If you just picked up a trailer from some major chain's regional warehouse, and you're carrying it to one of their stores, there could be a lot of different items in there. And the bill might just give you a list of order numbers or product codes.
****Now THERE's a subject for when I want to write a book. A very boring book...