High Pole: Making Up My Mind
For the last month or so, Ms Pat and Kellie, the ladies I have my pilot car listed with, have been talking to me about running a high pole. They say that many people are getting out of doing it because there is a lot more risk and some just don’t want to bother with it any more. I thought about it for several weeks and aside I would. Then I ran with a high pole guy, talked to him and several others and was back on the fence about it. The events of today have made up my mind.
The load I am escorting is 14′ 9″ tall and 13′ 8″ wide. We didn’t need a high pole through Mississippi, Tennessee, or Kentucky. BUT when we got the Illinois permit this boring we found that they do require one. So I called Ms Pat and she called a lady in IL and we thought we were all set up and would be ready to when we got to the line. BUT OH NO! Jinx has hit again.
I call the guy that is supped to be our high pole car. He says “please, please, please” meet him at I 24 exit 16 instead of the state line. So I agree. When we get there, I call the guy again and ask him where he is. He tells me that it is going to be 45 minuets to an hour before he gets there. I tell him ok, we will grab some lunch. 75 minuets later, he still isn’t there. I call him, he says he is getting off the interstate. We pay for our lunch and my driver, Brian, goes to his truck while I go into the truck stop. When I come out and get to Brian’s truck, he come and asked me if I talked to “this guy” yet? I said no and he said I needed to. After a little chat, it really didn’t take long, I realize that this guy doesn’t know very much about escorting or high pole. Brian ask about the hight os the pole and I can see that it is way to high. I have him nose up to the load and we can see that it is 3 feet higher than the load. The IL permit requires it to be 3 in higher. We have hime pull it down and try to get it right. He and Brian work on it while I call Ms Pat and tell her about our concerns. Brian and this guy can’t get the singer in the pole to secure so that it will stay at the hight that we need it.
While all of this is going on, we find out that this is NOT the guy that the lady in IL called to be our high pole car. He is buddies with that guy she called. The guy she called is having marriage problems and doesn’t want to leave the house because he is scared his wife will run off with everything. We also find out that THIS guy has never escorted an oversize load…he has just ridden with his buddy for a while. After 3 hours and many, many, many, many, many calls later to many different people, we were told to send this guy out to get the guy that owns the car and that he will escort us. It’s 1500 and we have only another 2 1/2 hours to run. By the time this guy drives back 24 miles, get the guy and drives back, we are going to loose at least and hour. We are not happy campers.
At 1615, I call the lady from IL and tell her that the guy in not back yet. We chat for a bit and then I call the number I had been talking to him on. The guy that owns the car answers this time and tells me he is still an hour away. AN HOUR AWAY! I tell him that it is to late for us to leave now so why was he even bothering to come out. He says that he didn’t know if we wanted to get the rest of the way across Kentucky tonight or not. We are 16 miles from the IL line. What the hell would we go 16 miles to have to stop on the side of the interstate where there are no facilities and no place for him to park. I am thinking to myself, “What kind of IDIOT is this?” THEN, he starts getting rude and talking to me like I am out of line for asking the other guy where his dash mirror is so that he can see the tip on the pole and about how much he himself has done this and a bunch of other crap. I was at the point that I was glad he was on the pone talking to me like that and not there in front of me. I am afraid that it would have not been pretty thing if he had been. Anyway, I told him I was not going to debate all this with him. This is what we wanted and how we wanted it done and that he needed to be there at 0600 the next morning. He starts in on how he has had a bad day. I interrupted him and told him again to be there at 0600, then I said goodbye and hung up.
I then called the lady from IL and told her what had just happened. She and I talked and she tells me that she doesn’t want to trust this guy and is going to send someone else in to meet us in the morning. Thinking it is all settled, I go find a hotel room. A bit later, Brian call me and tells me that the guy finally showed up and has told whim that the lady from IL has told him to be there at 0600. I told him to give me a minuet and I will call him back. I cal the lady and she days she has not talked to him since she and I talked earlier. I call Brian back and tell him to tell the guy to call the lady and let her handle it.
So, as it stands right now, that guy is NOT going to be our high pole for tomorrow. I have talked with the gal coming it to do it. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and Jinx will go away. (keeping my fingers crossed) Below is a picture of the load.
I have ordered a high pole and it should be in soon. I don’t want to ever have another day like today because of something like this.
