A Letter To Main Roads Western Australia

Main Roads Western Australia

The following is a submission I made to Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA) via their website. As you can see, it started out as they probably expected but I couldn’t help myself the further I got in. I see a real problem developing on the roads I travel every day. Ok, I dont think MRWA have their head in the sand, but I think if they get some feedback from drivers like you and me they might be able to focus their efforts in areas that really count. If you read this and believe (legitmately) that MRWA might benefit from your observations then go to their website and let your views be known.

Submission as follows :

Potholes appearing on Gt Northern Hwy around SLK142, also at Bindi Bindi T intersection Gt Northern Hwy (unsure of SLK). My main concern is the lack of room at the Wubin roadtrain assembly area. I use the assembly area 2 to 4 times a week and am frequently frustrated by the lack of room despite the last upgrade.This is also a major problem at the Newman roadtrain assembly area-I have been unable to access this area on my last three trips to Newman and have utilised the Turf Club parking area as well as the first parking bay north of the Newman townsite (on the Gt Northern Hwy) for the purpose of splitting triple roadtrain trailers for the delivery of freight to the Newman townsite. I am aware that plans are in motion for upgrading the Newman roadtrain assembly area but are there plans to further extend the Wubin roadtrain assembly area? As I see it roadtrain traffic on the Gt Northern Hwy stands to increase by a significant amount before anyone could reasonably expect it to plateau and eventually decrease sometime in the far distant future when the iron ore mining boom finally loses it’s momentum. Until that time the road infrastructure must keep pace. That also includes the many inadequate parking areas dotted up and down the Gt Northern Hwy-inadequate because quite often only two or three trucks can fit in each of them. In fact, some of the parking areas are so restricted that if three trucks fit into them then they must leave in the precise order they arrived in – there is simply no room to get around the truck in front. Hopefully the first truck “in” doesn’t expect a sleep-in. This is an age when more and more responsibility is being forced upon the driver and as a driver I am being forced further and further into a corner. To get out of this corner I need the freedom to stop in a parking bay that has room for my truck when I need it, I need to have spacious roadtrain assembly areas (with night lighting-pretty please) to assemble and disassemble triple roadtrains, and I need to know that “those-who-must-be-obeyed” have some concept of the hurdles we face. Until then, catch phrases like “fatigue management” and “safe work practices” are just…well, they’re just bullshit.

Well, I hope that gives some context to my more recent tweets. If you want to follow me on Twitter there is a “Follow” link on the sidebar.

Cheers, Mike.

A Bird In The Hand…

Yeah, that old saying that goes “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” comes to mind as I call it a day and do a bit of prep for a early start tomorrow. A week after the release of the iPhone 4S, and even longer since I went on line and dutifully submitted my preorder, I still haven’t received my own little slice heaven in the shape of the aforementioned mobile phone.

So I picked up my trusty 3GS and spoke to a lovely lady in India and told her I was no long interested in waiting for Telstra to “get around to me” especially when another Telstra employee told me that “we’ll be getting some more in a couple of weeks”. A couple of weeks!? Isn’t the whole idea of preordering to tell someone that you are really interested and are prepared to take care of some of the paperwork and other hoop-jumping exercise well in advance of actually receiving said phone, in fact, to guarantee a sale?

Maybe that was my mistake. Telstra thought they had me. They thought that I would just sit by my letterbox day after day waiting for this mythical phone to turn up while what they where actually doing was SELLING IT TO SOMEONE ELSE! Yep, they reckoned they had my money in the bank so they looked about and thought “That fella over there looks like he’s the type to buy a new iPhone if we can wave it under his nose, we’ll sell him this preordered, pre sold phone and double our money!”

So I joined the ranks of people buying these preordered and already sold phones. I drove down to a local shop, got exactly the iPhone I was looking for and was home shortly after lunch. I pity the poor bastard that misses out on this phone…well, not really. Sucker!

Cheers, Mike.

Waiting For The Knock On The Door

Yep, I’m at home on the morning of the 14th of October 2011 and I’m waiting for the knock on the door…from the courier delivering my new iPhone. A few days ago I went online and preordered the new iPhone through the Telstra website in the belief I would be out on the road. Well, I’m home and wishing I had just decided to go to the Telstra shop to get my new phone because there is no guarantee it will be delivered to me today (release day) anyway.

When I purchased my current iPhone, the 3GS, I and one other person showed up at the Telstra shop in Carousel Cannington just before opening time and had our latest and greatest in hand in double quick time. It’s not that I’m impatient to get my hands on it, well ok-just a little, but I want time to set it up and make sure it syncs properly with all of my music and apps intact and to make sure my non-standard data plan transfers across undiminished. More importantly, I need to resize my SIM card to the smaller size used in the 4 and 4S with a device that looks like a stapler. If I stuff this up and damage the SIM card I have to be able to get to a Telstra shop pronto and get a new one-a feat next to impossible if I’m up the road in the truck. That would leave me without a phone, email or podcasts until I got home in five or six days time-hell on earth?

Ok, I can upgrade my 3GS to iOS5 as a consolation prize if the 4S doesn’t show up but I’m not sure some of the apps I use will work with the new OS yet. What I’ve got right now works and I don’t want to break it.

So I sit here twiddling my thumbs. If I go and do some food shopping the courier might turn up while I’m away. Who needs food anyway. If I go into work to wash the truck the courier will definitely turn up. Clean truck or new, shiny iPhone? That’s a hard one!

Cheers, Mike.

Customer Service Drama’s

Had a bit of trouble with the truck this run. A “Check Engine” light appeared briefly on my way back into Perth last trip and we put the little computer on her and checked out the error codes logged on the onboard computer and came up with a couple of turbo overspeed errors. There wasn’t a lot we could do at that stage so the descision was made to head out on the next run and monitor the engine and see what happened.
The run went alright, for the most part. The error came up again and the engine was derating but only enough to be a small inconvenience – fortunately for me. The problem really became apparent on hard climbs where the truck was really grunting. Arrangements where made, on the Monday, with Cummins in Perth for the truck to be looked at on Tuesday after I had got back. All the symptons were explained over the phone to Cummins in the hope they would have a bit of an idea what they would be dealing with and (maybe) be prepared with mechanics and parts to fix the problem.
Well, I got back a bit later than I had planned. I had been feeling pretty secondhand all day, not quite sick but definately not 100%, and I rocked in there late in the afternoon too find that no-one knew I was coming. Eventually I found someone who “remembered” someone else talking about it. For Christ’s sake – don’t people in the same organisation talk to to each other about their work, ie:services they are supplying to customers who are their bread and butter and without whom they wouldn’t have a job?! I didn’t take the truck into their workshop because I wanted THEM to work on it – I took it there because it had to have work done on it and it ended up being a warranty job anyway. They OWE me!

Wastegate similar to one I need

Ok, we get over that little hurdle, they promise to try and look at it that night. I tell them I will need it back by 4pm the next day at the latest, hoping that it will be ready and I can leave that night and do a run with it – you know, so I can feed myself and pay the bills.
This morning we discover that, yes, they know what the problem is and, no, they don’t have the parts and they will have to be flown in from Melbourne overnight and fitted tomorrow. Now it’s not as though I have some obscure type of turbo (actually, it’s the wastegate that is the problem) and I am asking the people that build and sell the motors to actually fix it so why haven’t they got sufficient spare parts warehoused in Perth? Why do they have get spares from the other side of the country for a motor that is as commonplace as duckshit around a pond?
While I am not going to knock back the opportunity for another night at home I am going to take a hit in the hip pocket because of lost wages, my boss is going to take a hit because the truck isn’t on the road and the company we subby to is going to have to find someone else to do the job I would normally do.
I ask you, would you be happy being screwed around like this because a major engine manufacturerer can’t (or wont) keep enough spares locally to be able to deliver a reliable and timely service to their customers? It’s not like I can just drive over to another Cummins branch and get the work done – this is Western Australia and the branch I’m at is the main one for the state.
So, I’m sitting at home looking out the window at a heap of leaves that I should put in the bin, cursing the cold weather and wishing I was up north somewhere where it was warmer. Oh well, I got another blog entry up.

At the doctors

Cheers, Mike.

PS : Just got off the phone 5mins after I posted this entry – Cummins have managed to “find” the parts somewhere and the truck will be ready shortly. Unfortunately it’s too late for me to organise a run tonight (it is 4:45pm) so the end result is the same. Cummins Fail!

Holidays-The Aftermath.

You know that sound that signals the return of reality? That really loud, discordant,crashing,unearthly sound of the alarm clock telling you to get up and get behind the wheel right now or you’re going to be late and you probably won’t be able to make up time for the rest of the week? Well, that happened to me last Monday and pretty much all I’ve done for the last week is eat/sleep/drive.

Welcome home. Welcome back from holidays. Welcome to work. Welcome to my reality. Now go away and let me mope around and complain about the unfairness of it all.

Ok, I’m not that heartbroken about it. It was a good break and if it had lasted longer I would have had to plan more stuff to do so I didn’t start climbing the walls or ring all my friends to find out what I was missing out on (although I did call twice to check up on my truck).

I will admit my first week back at work was a little rougher than ideal. A few issues with trailer light wiring, a faulty speed sensor (causing the cruise control to not work), a flat trailer tyre and the loss of power to the bunks interior lights. The trailer tyre is no big drama – considering that I have 62 tyres , not counting the 6 spares, and I haven’t had to change any on the side of the road for the last 6 months. I think I’m ahead of the game there. The bunk lights have proven to be more then just a blown fuse though, and I haven’t had the time to start tracking the problem down with the circuit tester. I’m not due home for 3 more days so I have to either make time to fix it or do without – it’s not a critical fault so my deliveries come first. The show must go on!

Cheers, Mike.

Holidays-The Middle

Five days into my holiday and I’ve re-learnt how to sleep in. Well, maybe. I think the time difference between here and home in the west has something to do with it. Getting up at 8:30am in Tasmania is like getting up at 6:30am at home. Does that count?
Went and annoyed the residents of Bruny Island yesterday. Nice place. Caught the ferry over there in the morning and drove around the whole island. Found and logged two geocaches, the second one was located at the Bruny Island lighthouse – worth the drive to go and have a look. I could see myself buying a few acres there and doing some navel gazing when I get old and decrepit.

I’m still not coming to grips with the cold though, too much time in the Pilbara I think. The Pilbara can get cold but at least it warms up when the sun appears and I haven’t heard of snow there either.
But holidays are supposed to take you out of “the everyday” and give you something to remember until to you manage to escape on the next little adventure.

Cheers, Mike.

Holidays-The Beginning

Well, I did it. I finally decided to go on holidays! As I write this I am sitting in the Melbourne airport sucking back a Corona while I wait for my connecting flight to Hobart.

Really it came down to “take a break or go batshit”. So I took a holiday. Also, it was a good excuse to visit my parents who moved to Tasmania a little while back. Keep my name in the Will and all

So here I am, finally separated from the truck and able to stand on my own two feet without having to rely on an air-ride seat to keep my arse off the ground. Strangely liberating. Can’t help wondering how the run is going without me. I did manage to leave the work phone at home though.

Oh, and Melbourne weather is atrocious

Cheers, Mike.

Run Over By A Triple

Just a quick post to show off a new video I made with my iPhone. Pretty amazing what you can do with a phone these days.

On The Level

Been having a constant problem with my trailers wandering all over the road this trip. At first I put it down to the strong winds we have experienced in the last couple of days. Then I was checking all my tyres with a pressure gauge (after I used a gimpie on them – see previous post) and I even put some extra grease on the fixed turntables. Nothing helped.

Then I realised all three trailers where traveling nose high and tail low. Now, I got to say that each trip I will have different trailers and different dollies and that slowly creeping (down) ride height adjustments on the fleet of trailers doesn’t seem to feature on the workshops “tick n flick”.

So, based on previous experience with saggy arsed trailers, I crawled under each in turn and adjusted the airbag ride height valve until they where sitting as close to level as I could make them by eye. And it worked.

Instead of shambling down the road looking like a train wreck that was at the “waiting for the dust to settle” stage of a truly spectacular event, they now tag along obediently and I’m not getting the cramps in my hands you get when nothing you do with the steering wheel up front can possibly explain why you can read ALL of the signwriting on the sides of all three trailers, first in one mirror – then in the other.

Leveling up the trailers didn’t just affect each individual trailers handling, it also had two separate flow-on effects on Dolly No.1 and to a greater degree on Dolly No.2 due to the “whip like” effect generated during the white knuckle moments.

How To Create Your Own White Knuckle Experience.

You will need :

3 x Saggy Arse Trailers
2 x Old Single Point Dollies (A-Frames must be high and slope down towards Saggy Arse Ringfeder when engaged)

Quote : “Remember : Trailers are long, dollies are the short ones.”
(Wise old transport manager)

Note : The values assigned to the measurement of Inches and Degrees are intended only to indicate greater and lesser values-they are not true values.

If the rear of a trailer sways 6 inches out of line with the front of that trailer and the direction of travel it might be, say, 3 degrees off that “straight down the middle” path of least resistance or drag. Now the dolly, being attached to the trailer, is also dragged out of line but it is at , say, 6 degrees out of line because it has to turn sharper to move over 6 inches due to it’s drastically shorter length. Ok, generally speaking, when objects like these move out of line they will quite often move back toward that center line and even swing out the other side of that line like a pendulum. If this doesn’t happen then you will more than likely be able to see in your mirror an impressive cloud of dust rising into the air and a lot of stuff getting very bent and twisted. Now don’t forget that something out of line by 6 deg is going to have a more violent return swing than the trailer that was only a little out at 3 deg.

Also, we have to start looking at the 2nd trailer which is hooked up to the dolly and has just been shoved further than 6 inches out of line due to the more aggressive turns the dolly was forced through and the higher inertia forces. Let’s say the dolly and 2nd trailer were forced 8 inches out of line at the furtherest point our of line on the first swing away.

What does this mean :

A) the angle the 2nd trailer will be at?

B) the distance the rear of the 2nd trailer will be from the center line?

C) the angle the 2nd dolly will have to turn at to follow the rear of the 2nd trailer and the effects of inertia on this equipment at this step in the process?

D) the 3rd trailer, hooked to the 2nd dolly, will be doing what?

Answers :

A) the 2nd trailer will be at a greater angle due to being forced further out of line than the 1st trailer but at a lesser angle than the 1st dolly because of it’s greater length. Let’s say 4 deg.

B) the greater angle of the 2nd trailer means more inertia but it’s length should still enable it to be less than or equal to the the 1st dolly and the front of the 2nd trailer. =< 8 inches.

C) the angle of the 2nd dolly will be 8 deg to keep up with the increased angle of the 2nd trailer over the 1st trailer. Inertia increasing forcing 2nd dolly and front of 3rd trailer out to 9 inches.

D) the 3rd trailer will be going bloody spastic! It's the cracker at the end of the whip – swing it hard enough and all that velocity and inertia will do something loud or bad or both.

Quote : "Always have an excuse ready. If possible, have more than one"
(From a screwup I used to know)

Dude, I have no idea which deep, dark recesses of my mind I pulled that from! It started out as a normal post and warped into this.

Mike.

Tyre Check Video

I was a little bored the other day, had plenty to do but none of it seemed very interesting. So I started mucking around with a video editing app I had bought for my iPhone 3GS. The app is called ReelDirector and I’d had it for a while – I just hadn’t been quite bored enough to try it out.

Anyway, have a look at the two video’s I put together as an experiment and a way to get a handle on the app. The topic of each video just “happened”, definately no planning or forethought involved.

Mike.