Steel Behind the Wheel: Struck Truck
By: Lynn Bolster
Whenever I heard stories about steel haulers, the tales were always grand and legendary. A big, heavy, dangerous commodity, you can’t be shy about hauling steel. There are obviously bigger and badder loads out there, but Steel always intimidated me. It sounds silly I know, but once it was loaded on the trailer, I felt like I had reached the apex of what real trucking was all about.
We loaded out of Bethlehem Steel, Sparrows Point in Baltimore, and other steel mills on the East Coast. One thing certain with steel is waiting. You’re at the mercy of the mill and it might be ready and it might not. And do they care about your time? Nope. You might sit eight hours, you might sit three. Just be prepared with food, something to do, and patience. We waited eight hours at Nucor Steel in Darlington, SC, where they gave you hope when you entered in the sunshine but irritation when you left in darkness. After Little Debbie snacks and peanuts for dinner, only then could we begin chaining and tarping.
When we loaded steel used for tin can manufacture, it had to be tarped. Upon arrival at what used to be American Can, we backed alongside another flatbed trailer outside, not under a roof, and supervised the loader unloading our coils and placing them on their trailer. We questioned this since they are now untarped and sitting outside. “This is our practice,” he said and drove off. Two weeks later, we received a claim on the load because it was rusty. Well, it wasn’t rusty until they sat it outside uncovered during a thunderstorm. Fighting it fell on deaf ears, so we ended up getting nailed for the claim.
Steel trips to Chicago were always an iffy proposition. You never knew how long it would take to get a return load, and it surely got cold there while waiting. As we traveled I-90 on our way in during a blizzard, we treaded gingerly over the icy, snow-covered roads. We saw drivers pulling sets of doubles passing us in that snowstorm going fifty mph, changing lanes like it was sunny and dry, with no one in the ditch. Were they bold and fearless or foolish daredevils? You decide.
On the way home on I-70 in Maryland, we had a mechanical failure. In the single-digit cold at the truck stop in Chicago, I had heard an unusual slight banging sound in our Cummins motor but figured Bill heard the same thing, so I let it go since he let it go. At least we made it to Maryland before it came undone, and there we were with a flashlight, hood open on the side of the road, climbing this way and that in the frigid elements, diagnosing our sick engine.
When loading steel coils, the preferred way to do so is called shotgun, where the eye of the coil faces forward. If they are loaded with the eye facing the side of the trailer, it’s called suicide because, should the coil come loose, it would roll forward, possibly but probably killing the driver. One afternoon, driver Frank Campbell was in his car behind a flatbed that just loaded out of Beth Steel with suicide coils. While waiting at the red light, he witnessed chain links fastened to the coil breaking and saw the coil begin to wobble. He pulled his car around to block the driver from moving forward, putting himself at risk to prevent an even greater danger, should that coil move any further. The driver was grateful, but Baltimore’s finest was not. Frank got a ticket for his act of valor despite his eagle-eye explanation to the cop. When you need a cop you can’t find one; when you don’t, you do. Go figure.
Steel mills are massive buildings housing enormous furnaces and machinery, with incredibly hot, dusty, and dirty conditions but are amazing to see in action. These workers have it tough and, like truckers, take pride in what they do. Working with vats of molten metal all day is not for the faint of heart; talk about a fiery furnace for real! When I would see that furnace, I would think of the intense heat, suffering, and instant death if a worker were to ever fall into it. The same goes for all of us. Sometimes we fall into our own furnaces of intense pain, problems, and sorrow. That is when we have to remember we have a great God who guides us through those times. Or as one expression goes, with God’s help we can walk through our hell and come out holding the flames.
“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace” Daniel 3:17
