Talking about sleep deprivation in the last post reminded me of a job I had in Florida, soon after I moved there, that was really hard on the body, thank GOD it only lasted 2 weeks.
In Tampa there was a company that made tar based shingles [GRAF]' and why I don't know, they got the hot tar from a plant in Mobile, Ala. They usually had a barge that brought it down on the gulf but every year, for two weeks, the barge was down for repairs and Redwing Carriers had the insulated trailers that would keep the tar hot for the trip, so they got the job of moving a barge worth of tar in a short period of time.
They didn't have the drivers that would do it so it fell upon their one O/O, who I worked for, to do this two week job. "Hap", the O/O, had about 6 tractors and 5 drivers, so we all were tasked with this move.
The tractors were day cab GMC's with no sleeper and the V8 engine [known as the double breasted Yamaha], and a 13 speed trans that was governed for 70 mph. The trip up to Mobile empty was a 10 hour run as this was before I-10 was complete and we ran a lot of back roads. The trip back was 12 hours due to the time lost in Mobile loading and weighing, the loading port was on the south side of I-10 near downtown and the scales was on the north side of town.
Keeping in mind that the tar was loaded at around 110 degrees and would start loosing temp as soon as it was loaded and even though the insulated tank would keep the bulk of the trailer hot, the 2 foot 4 inch pipe at the back, bottom of the tank that was the discharge port, would get a plug in it, that if left to harden to long could not be freed at unloading, so you could sleep going up [across the seats or over the steering wheel] but once you had the load on it was non stop for 12 hours to get back to Tampa ASAP
For this round trip run we were paid a whopping $110, but you could do as many of these as you could stand, while they lasted and "Hap" would always have another unit fueled and ready to go when you got back, so all you had to do was slip out of one and into another, [called slip seating,] and off you go-- don't forget your drugs !
The last 7 day period that I did this for "Hap", I ran 5 trips to Mobile and a short round up to Jacksonville and back to Tampa for a nice check, at that time, of $600. Thanks to some really good speed [black beauties or west coast turn arounds] I was able to stay awake that whole week on very little sleep but I lost the next 3 days sleeping at home and that was the last time I used speed to that extent, ever !
As they say; "Keep the shinny side up and the dirty side down" Dutch
