New York City Insanity

NEW YORK CITY INSANITY!!!
Current mood: aggravated
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

No matter how many times I am dispatched to drive a 18 wheeler in New York City, it always feels as tho I am going there for the first time! I am just as terrified of getting lost or stuck under a low underpass as I was on my very first trip to the Big Apple back in 1996. Nothing has changed, except there are five times more vehicles, and still too many one way streets that you can't turn down. U-turn a big truck in New York City? GOOD LUCK! I don't think so!

Driving 70 feet worth of vehicle, in New York City, whether it be the Bronx, or Brooklyn, or Manhattan, can and WILL prematurely age you! Can anyone explain why, how it would take me 45 minutes to manuever my way to another part of Review Street, which was 1/2 mile away? Well, lets re-enact the nightmare, shall we? After delivering a load to 30-20 Review St...my next delivery was on 20-10 Review St. Sounds simple enuff, right? Well, I drive down to the corner and hang a right turn, narrowly avoiding a car that was parked too close to the corner, IE: parked ILLEGALLY....next corner, I need to make a right, but can't. It's a one way street. So, we go down another block....too narrow to turn unto. So, we go down another block, and see a "no trucks allowed" sign. OK....no big deal...I'll just make a left and another left....and well, to make a long story short...by the time I'm done lefting and righting and squeezing under a bridge marked 12'2 when I'm 13'6...good grief Gawd Almighty, I'm just plumb freakin' lost at this point, and our brave and spunky "Katwoman" has just become the poster child for road rage! PS....New York bridges are generally posted one foot lower than they actually are. This information is absolutely useless if you don't know it when you first go Big Apple bound. Ask any trucker about their first trip into the city, I'm sure you will get an earful. Grown men have been known to cry when dispatched to the City. Many companies will offer an "incentive", like $100.00 more in your paycheck to "cross the bridge"...your OTR (over the road) drivers see this extra moolah....most local drivers do not receive any extra pay for the extra hazards of driving in the city. We just get more wrinkles, gray hair, elevated blood pressure, and deep frown-y lines in our faces. Oh, and increased stress causes increased belly fat! aargh! Oh, and where the heck does a lady trucker go to pee??? Do the dispatchers ever take THAT INTO CONSIDERATION?????? You big dumb dummies!!!

(Hey "Katwoman"....is your truck empty?

Answer: "Hell No! I've got a trailer full of DISPATCHER BRAINS!!!"



Oh yeah, let's not forget that New Yorkers just park where they want. They just stop where they want...right in front of you....they don't use their turn signals....nobody gets tickets except the truckers trying to make the deliveries to these people who wanted their goods yesterday, if not sooner. NY transportation authorities circle around truck drivers like hungry buzzards looking to pick the bills out of our wallets.

PS....and for those of you who are really naive enough to think that looking at a map will actually help you navigate a big truck in The City, well, I have three words for you.

THEN WHY THE HELL DON'T YOU TRY IT!!!