This load was far more problematic than any with which I have been involved, and apparently the problems began LONG before I got involved.  They began moving this load back in September from Torrance, CA, through the state of Arizona.

I first got involved around the first of November when the dispatcher called to ask me to perform a route survey for this load.  I was in Las Vegas at the time, having just dropped a load there.

Typically, when I do a route survey, I make personal contact with the various utilities along the route.  That is time-consuming, so my rates reflect that.  It involves stopping and getting pole numbers, circuit numbers, etc., and then researching to find out who owns the utilities.  Then, I contact the line supervisor or operations manager for each utility, and if possible, meet nose-to-nose with that person.  If I believe we will need traffic control help while going through various communities, I personally contact the appropriate law enforcement agency.  During this process, I develop a contact list in the order we will need to call them.

The dispatcher asked me if I would give her a break if I let her do all the utility contacts.  She assured me that she would deal with them and they would know where all of their low road crossings were located.  Not having to do all that I normally do would have cut the time required to do this survey by half.  Since the load already was sitting because of the lack of NM permit, I was willing to accept her offer of help.  LITTLE DID I KNOW!  That will be the recurring theme of this blog.

On the first and second days of the survey, I broke my pole.  That should have been adequate warning to me.  After repairing my pole, I completed the survey and submitted it to the trucking company.  Later, they called and wanted me to research another potential route that involved 75 miles of dirt, rock and gravel road.  If it had worked out, it would have saved about 500 miles for the trucking company.  It took me five hours and two rear tires to survey that route, only to learn that it wouldn’t work because there were about a dozen cattleguards that were about 8 inches too narrow for the load.  I saw only three vehicles during that five hour period.

Days later, the permitting company called me and wanted me to run the route again, marking every low wire, about how high it was, and what type of wire (fiberoptic, telephone, power, etc.).  They said THEY would use that information to contact the various utilities along the way.  I did as they requested at my own expense, since I should have done it in the first place.  Unfortunately for me, I had relied upon the dispatcher to take care of that side of the survey.

Throughout this process, the dispatcher was contacting the utilities she could identify along our route, seeking letters of approval for the route from them.  In one specific case, a large telephone company responded in writing that they had no overhead wires along our route and there would be no problem.  I immediately saw that was erroneous and contacted the company representative myself with specific information.  After he went out and reviewed our route in person, he called me back to say that there was one particular fiberoptics line that was already as high as he could move it, and it was too tight to be lifted three feet by our bucket trucks.  That meant I had to review another route around that section of road.

Finally, we got our permit, letters of approval and a private bucket truck and began our move on December 3…one whole day.  On the second day, the lineman for the power company showed up to let us know that there was NO WAY we could travel the approved route because of multiple high voltage low wires.  So, we spent the entire day looking for a new way to get around El Paso.  Ultimately we had to have the El Paso police department shut down four miles of a four lane divided highway so we could get through El Paso.

On day three, we moved along quite well, until we neared the Ruidoso, NM, area.  About ten miles from Ruidoso, the head of the NM DOT permit office called me personally and said there was NO WAY we were going to get through Ruidoso, and to get the load to the nearest safe place and shut down.  Remember that we already had a permit approved by her office.  She informed me that we could not go through Ruidoso, despite the permit, because we had completely missed notifying a major telephone provider.  They had four low and tight fiberoptic lines that they would have had to cut to get us through on that day.  The director of the state permit office said that I needed to perform a route survey for a new route around Ruidoso and to request a new permit.  That process took another seven days and numerous phone calls on my part to work out varioius problems.

In the meantime, the trucking company repowered the load.  In other words, they replaced the initial driver with another one because he had lost his wallet, including CDL, medical card, fuel card, cash in various currencies, and etc.  The new driver had brought along his own escort.  Somehow, the state permit office thought I was going to be pulled from the load, and they were going to refuse to let the load move without either me, or a new route survey.  We got all that worked out and moved the following day with two high pole escorts.  We also picked up a new rear escort, an executive with the shipping company.

After that, we moved along fairly well.  I ran in front with the two bucket trucks (the executive ordered a second one for us).  When I hit a low wire, I stopped and one or both of the bucket trucks would pull up under the wire to lift it.  The second high pole came forward and stopped under the wire to let the bucket truck know how far up they needed to lift it, while I moved on to the next low wire.  We repeated that process for about 1400 miles.  Throughout this process, I was on the phone trying to identify the next utility company (primarily power companies) and notify them that we would need their help.  I also was calling the next community or political entity (county sheriff’s office or city police) to alert them that we would be coming through their area and would be having a negative impact on traffic.  It was a slow process.  We were averaging about 140 miles per day, and taking about ten hours to do that.  Do the math:  we were averaging about 14 mph.

Finally with the help of an outstanding Houston police motorcycle escort team, we delivered the load shipside at a Houston port late on December 16th.

As a result of this experience, I will NEVER EVER allow the customer to do the utility contacts.  Under about 18 feet, there are few problems, but for loads higher than 18 feet, prior coordination is critical!  I have found that if I give the utility companies adequate advance notice, they generally do not charge the trucking company to move their wires.  After all, it is in their interest that we notify them and involve them in the process.  That way, they do not suffer damage to their equipment by some company that sneaks through with an OD load, tears down wires and then disappears down the highway.  For those companies that DO charge, that is a reasonable expense of moving the load that the trucking company should expect to pay.

Here are the other problems we encountered:  there is no single source of information for identifying the above ground utilities that might be impacted by our load route.  There are “one call” centers in all the states, but their systems are not set  up to handle requests for above ground utilities.  For one to issue a list of utilities, their systems apparently automatically send out notices to every single utility, underground as well as above ground.  The end result is that we wind up getting letters of approval from everyone from private pipeline companies to city water departments and beyond.  During our second permit request in NM, the permit office abruptly changed the rules and REQUIRED us to go through the “one call center”.  I think they may have backed off of that requirement for the time being.

We also encountered utilitiy companies, and even some political entities (such as the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation), who approved our routes without actually traveling or at least specifically reviewing the requested routes.  The Mescalero reservation very quickly found us a new and better route through their area.  As I mentioned before, in some cases, the “worker bee”, that linesman who had to escort us, let us know that we couldn’t use those routes, despite letters of approval and permits.  That is the problem when dealing with the desk drivers and not directly with the “boots on the ground”.

I learned a lot of valuable lessons from this experience, and will apply them to all future route surveys for high loads.

Our load was 27 feet wide.  That means that on a typical two lane road, the load hung over each shoulder.  We ran with four escorts-two up front and two in the back.  The lead escort was out forward about 1/2 mile, while I ran about 200 yards directly in front of the load.  The other two escorts trailed the load, holding off traffic when we were approaching narrow sections, skinny bridges and the like, and advising the driver when traffic got too backed up.

Being the second front escort in a situation like this is VERY stressful.  As vehicles would approach, I weaved into the oncoming lane of traffic to get their attention and then moved back into our lane of travel.  As the vehicles got closer, I waved a bright orange flag out the driver’s door window and waved them to the shoulder.  Some of the bridges we crossed were so tight that there couldn’t have been more than one foot on either side of the load.  In those cases, I raced ahead and then pulled completely into the oncoming lane of traffic and stopped traffic or attempted to do so.

Occasionally, vehicles would go around me but very quickly came to a stop once they saw the load.  In one case, I could see that the woman driver was going to try to go around me, so I inched forward and forced her to stop.  Let’s just say she was QUITE demonstrative in her unhappiness with me, until her daughter pointed out that our load covered the entire bridge.  As I passed her, she was smiling at me and saying “thank you”.

We had one incident in which a little blue haired lady was on her cell phone as she passed me.  She actually drove UNDER the load.  I am not sure she ever saw it.  If her car had been just four inches higher, it would have become and instant convertible.

Then, there are the folks who absolutely hate escorts and oversize loads.  One guy flipped off every escort and the truck driver.  Several miles down the road, we were stopped by a highway patrol officer who said they had reports that our load was travelling without escorts or a permit.  It actually helped us because he provided us with police escort the last 30 miles of the trip and arranged for city/county escort through a couple of small towns along the way.

This is a new trailer for this driver.  Normally, he pulls trailers with hydraulic necks.  He forgot that this one didn’t have a hydraulic neck, so we dragged flat bottom right across the road at the intersection.  Fortunately, these two roads are not heavily traveled.  In the three hours we worked to free ourselves, we saw maybe six vehicles.  There is a gravel pulloff at that intersection, so traffic was able to get around us.  Finally, my friend and partner Dave Hibbard went into Del Rio to a hardware store and got some big timber.  With that, we were able to get backed up and approached the road from a different angle.  As bad as today was, tomorrow has GOT to be better!

Next up is the issue of how to get through NM.  We have about three options to get from El Paso to Cortez, CO.  The load actually is going to central California, by way of NM, CO, UT, NV and CA.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to complete this trip.  I have a medical appointment on Thursday in Big Spring, TX.  I will try to get them through the Albuquerque area, providing we can get through there on Tuesday…but I will have to break free after that. It is a shame.  This will wind up being about a 2800 mile trip…PLUS it is going to an area of California where I have never been before.  That’s life!  This is a medical appointment I’ve been waiting for about six weeks for.

We made it to Eldorado, TX.  There is one motel and it certainly is NOT the Fairmont!  We got in too late for the one known restaurant…so I had mystery meat (they called it chicken strips), and some milk.  Now, I’m heading for bed!  We leave at 6:30 AM.

When I first got into this business, I tried to figure out ways to get the attention of oncoming traffic when I was escorting an unusually wide load along a two lane road.  I came upon the idea of wearing orange gloves.  That was effective, up to a point.  At least people could see my hand (I usually direct traffic from my truck with my left hand).

I am always looking for new tools to use, and one day I came upon a product called GLO GLOVES.  It is a black nylon/spandex stretchable glove with highly reflective vinyl shapes sewn to the palm, back and back fingers.  There are three different versions of this product:  original, traffic control, and sports gloves.  I use the traffic control version for my work.

The vinyl shapes include the stop sign shape in red on the palms, and a yellow triangular shape on the backs.  The backs of the half fingers have reflective yellow rectangles.  The effect of the triangular shape is that of an arrow pointing in a certain direction.  Believe it or not, motorists see those shapes and seem to know immediately what you are trying to communicate to them:  stop, go in this direction, and etc.

I also use these gloves effectively when I am behind a load on a two lane road, in particular on a winding narrow two lane road.  I communicate with the lead escort, and if traffic is coming, I hold my palm (with the red stop sign shape) toward the vehicles behind me.  When traffic is clear, I turn the back of my hand toward them, thus indicating it is clear for them to pass.  When the weather is cold, I leave the window up and use the back of my right hand to signal oncoming traffic that they need to move to the shoulder.

These half finger gloves are stretchable and come in one-size-fits-all.  They comfortably fit from medium to XXL handes.  They even stretch over conventional gloves, so you don’t have to give up comfort for safety.  The down side is that they do not come in small or childrens and women’s sizes.

You can buy these GLO GLOVES at a variety of places.  If you go the the GLO GLOVES website (http://www.gloglov.com/index.html), they have a list of places where you can buy them.  The prices range from about $15.50 to $24 per pair.  These make excellent gifts for pilot car operators, bicycling enthusiasts, and runners.

We had one “near” incident.  Our load came upon a four wheeler only about 2 feet from the “fog line” at a time when traffic trying to get around him was intense.  Being the chase vehicle, it was my duty to grab the left lane immediately.   Unfortunately, “immediately” meant after three cars got by.  The driver jammed on his brakes while I got the left lane, and we made it around the obstruction…barely.  The good news is that the four wheelers that were near us during that m–lox moment suddenly realized that they needed to space themselves out as they tried to pass us.  Ultimately, the road for us tonight was safer after that incident.

Tomorrow, I probably will head toward home.

The other significant incident was the 48 miles of rough dirt road, one way , that we had to take our load down.  The road was alternately dusty, skinny, muddy, and rough as a cob.  I thought my truck was going to shake apart.  Once we got the load delivered, then we had to drive back over that same 48 miles of dirt road.  What fun!!

Now I am in Wendover, UT.  Tomorrow we have Utah State Police escorts to help us move an airplane from the west side of the state to the east side.  We are en route to Colorado Springs, CO, with this plane.  I can’t tell you what kind of plane it is, because I haven’t seen it yet.  That will change in the morning.

One of the biggest space users is our safety cones.  Three eighteen inch cones occupy 1.54 cubic feet.  Three twenty-eight inch cones occupy over 7 cubic feet.  I have found an alternative that takes up much less space:  collapsible traffic cones.   I purchased a set of four 28 inch collapsible cones that take up a little over 1/2 of a cubic foot.  That is a HUGE space savings, and yet the price per cone is comparable with the non-collapsible types.  Those of you who carry enough cones to conduct night moves in Utah, for example, could reduce the cubic footage needed for all your cones dramatically.  That equates to a savings in fuel economy, because they are not as heavy as the stiff cones, or the ability to carry more “stuff”.

Prices vary.  When i bought mine more than a year ago, they cost me about $140 for a set of four with a carrying case and no lights.  Today, when I googled “collapsible traffic cones”, I found more than 10 pages with some listings as low as about $12 each, including the LED lights.  Here is a word of caution, though:  be careful NOT to buy the inflatable cones.  In an emergency situation where you need the cones quickly, you will not be able to inflate them fast enough.