How hard is intermodal, really?
So I got offered a regional intermodal run through the northern Midwest, and I know nothing about intermodal. What am I diving into?
Posted Sep 10, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC
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I can only speak from experience on one 53ft container carrier: takes some learning, some tricks and some tools and then it gets easy.
Northern midwest, huh? Chicago or St.Paul, or is there something else?
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Green Bay and then in-between northern Illinois and eastern Minnesota.
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The work is easy, only thing I hated about it was the large number of issues that had to be fixed on pool chassis. Lots of tires and lights. Oh and tube tires, lots of places will no longer touch tube tires, but I think they are moving away from them. If you’re pulling everything on private chassis the problems go down significantly.
Nail on the head. Intermodal is not hard at all, it's the tedious crap like you mentioned that gets annoying, beyond that it's a easy gig.
Same thing applies to the port, except there you deal with longshoremen that act like they shit their shorts and wanna throw a temper tantrum about it. Plus the possibility of being stuck in the terminal for 8 hours waiting in line, shift change, and a random "safety meeting" where they just stand around and do nothing for an hour.
Most railyard workers tend to be pretty chill about most things, while the longshoremen are the biggest crybabies I've ever worked alongside in any industry. Drama queens doesn't even begin to describe it, I've never seen so many grown "alpha" type men get so emotional over the smallest things.
I've often wondered who the hell is signing off the DOT inspection on some of the older chassis trailers. Most look like the rust is the only thing holding them together.
Hard pass on that shit.