Winter fun!

[friendofjimmyk]

With the cold weather coming in and subsequent snow storms, vehicles tend to not run very well or go off the road or slide into other cars or just plain quit! They say, "It's too freakin' cold, I'm not working for you today!"

This is the most wonderful time of the year to be a dispatcher for a tow truck fleet! When it's cold and snowing, there are LOTS, LOTS of service calls! Sometimes, the only service we can provide is a taxi service. We will go and get the member off the road to a safe location and pick up the vehicle when the conditions are more favorable. Our members safety is our primary concern. Most of the time, the highway patrol has shut down the interstates and some other roadways - it's a safety issue. If you are off the road and stuck, chances are the truck will go off the road and get stuck. They are not magically little machines that are impervious to the elements!

Does this stop the SCism....of course not! They don't understand the whole safety thing...they are soooooo put out by the fact that our trucks cannot, by order of the highway patrol, enter the interstates!

Not too mention my digital dispatch screen. If I look away, or blink, or look down and pick a string off my sweater - when I look back up - I kid you not -there are 10 - 15 calls sitting in queue waiting for assignment! ALL I DID WAS BLINK!!! NEVER AGAIN! I must tape my eyes open and keep them locked on the screen at all times!!

This is just the beginning! And to think, I recently had my interview to be on the other side of all this madness! Dealing with SCs over the phone is one thing, but if I get the driver position, I'll have to deal with them on location! If that happens, y'all will hear about it!

[wagegoth]

I used to live near the Sierra Nevadas and the idiots with their brand-new 4-wheel-drives were the worst.

Now that SUVs are so popular, I'm so glad I don't live there anymore.

[counterjockey]

Four-wheel drive is a great invention. It allows you to get hopelessly stuck in places you'd have never been able to reach in a two-wheel drive vehicle. It gives you an extra set of drivetrain components to have to repair. And it invariably worsens the gas mileage of something that in most cases was a brick shithouse on wheels to begin with.

Nobody in my immediate family has had anything with four-wheel-drive. Outside of Dad's old (2wd, three-on-the-tree, slant-six powered) Dodge truck we've gotten by just fine with a few bigass old station wagons. I've had my Olds Cutlass Ciera through three winters in Iowa and one in Chicago and I've never ditched it once. I've never been too stuck to break out the cat litter and scraper. I guess I just figure that Sport Utility Vehicles are neither Sporty nor Utilitarian.

[Cia]

Every year there are those people who think that the barriers closing I-90 don't pertain to them and then the get stuck out in the middle of nowhere, which is most of South Dakota. What is fun is that the State HiPo fines and also charges them for their rescues.

There are some places you don't want to go off the road and get stuck - like the draws around the Cheyenne River and the Missouri River.

[Seshat]

My father used to work for the forestry department, and one of his jobs was to help pull cars out of the creek in a particular park. It took a total redesign of the parking area for people to stop driving there in the way that caused them to skid into the creek.

Nowadays he runs an advanced driving business - and one of the topics is 'how not to skid'.
(Another of the courses is a 4WD course: basically how NOT to need rescue when you're offroad.)

[Retail Associate]

We live on a busy 2 lane highway and as an added bonus, right smack-dab in the middle of a huge curve in the road. Every winter we are visited by anywhere from 2 - 10 vehicles who have lost control and end up in our front yard, in the ditch in front of the neighbors house or the ditch across the street. When they go in the ditch across the street they usually take my mailbox with them. It gets hit about every other year...I'm due this year.

Anyway, last night my son and I were watching TV in the livingroom when we hear "rooooomp-thud." We've gotten very used to that sound over the years. It sounded like someone had lost control and gone off the road but we couldn't see a car anywhere.

Several minutes later here comes the tow truck. The driver stopped across the street, got out of his truck and was looking into the ditch. Sure enough, there was a car down there. The ditch is deep enough to where we couldn't see the car. My son said he'd hate to be a tow-truck driver this time of year.

I will say thank goodness for cell phones. Since they've become so popular we no longer get knocks at the door at all hours of the day/night with, "Can I use your phone? My car's in the ditch."

[dispatch]

FOJK, I'm tellin ya, you should have waited until closer to the end of the winter to apply for that one, but don't worry, we'll make sure to laugh at you and send messages to your truck about how nice the central heating in the dispatch office is

Nebraska is a great state for stupid drivers, because we get rain, hail, heat, lightning, tornadoes, and strong wind. In the winter we have snow, ice, lightning, strong wind, and extreme cold. you'd think after growing up here and living here for years, that people would know to do proper maintinence to their vehicles and take caution when driving, but most never, ever do and always drive like a dry spring afternoon

[ditchdj]

Well didnt you know that SUV's and pickup trucks are invincible???? God, dont you watch the commercials on TV!

[Brighid45]

Those damn commercials! They (and natural stupidity) are responsible for so many eedjits flying down flooded, icy or snow-packed roads, convinced they are invincible gods of the highway.

I hated driving to work at night when I worked at the security call center, because it meant navigating Kansas City freeways. You haven't lived until you've had a Dodge Ram riding your ass with highbeams on because apparently you aren't going fast enough in driving rain or hail or whatever miserable weather conditions were in place at the time. Many's the night I wished long-range bowel disruptors really existed.

[karma_gypsy]

When I worked at a pizza place, this place had a huge delivery area, when it would start snowing, freezing rain, etc. we would stop delivering to certain areas of town due to the weather. I.E. we wouldn't deliver to folk who lives up hills or across the bridge or down the highway - leading to the outskirts of town (which ran parallel to a river).

And yes, we would get a lot of the whiners, wanting to know why a driver wouldn't drive up side of a hill or up a steep and treacherous driveway to deliver them a pizza in the safety and warmth of their home.

[Kogarashi]

I like my Jeep's 4WD, but then I try to be sensible about it. I use it for improved driveability in otherwise unfavorable conditions that its 2WD probably wouldn't be able to handle. I have no delusions that I could avoid getting stuck if I were to go off the road, which is why we have kitty litter and a scraper in the back.

I prefer to use the 4WD to help me maintain control when I'm pulling such stunts as driving up the La Sal Mountain loop over Thanksgiving break to show Hubby Lake Oowah (favorite family spot to stop and take photos near my grandparents' home). Even though the Moab valley was dry as a bone, the cutoff to Lake Oowah was shady and had two-inch snow packed down pretty good in some places. The 4WD really helped keep us on the trail there (so did driving at a reasonable 15 mph). I wouldn't have attempted that in a car. Of course, I wouldn't have attempted that in a nice, driving winter storm, either. I grew up in Upstate NY*. I'm not stupid.

*Gone skidding off the road at least three times with my parents driving, taking out a mailbox one of those times. Also gotten stuck, and seen our parked minivan (with emergency brake on and everything) go sliding down a steep driveway and into the ditch across the street.

[skeptic53]

With the cold weather coming in and subsequent snow storms, vehicles tend to not run very well or go off the road or slide into other cars or just plain quit! They say, "It's too freakin' cold, I'm not working for you today!"

This is the most wonderful time of the year to be a dispatcher for a tow truck fleet! When it's cold and snowing, there are LOTS, LOTS of service calls!

AHA!!!! Last week we had a short snowstorm here in the Puget Sound area, caused horrible traffic problems for a couple of days. You should have heard the sneering from Midwesterners (you're in Omaha, right?) about how wimpy the drivers are here, they don't know how to drive in snow, yadda yadda yadda.

A) I lived in Cleveland for 4 winters, drivers there are worse than here because they are more aggressive. Plenty of folks in the ditch, swappin' paint, etc.

B) We get snow maybe once every 3-4 years, unless you're a skier, you don't get any practice.

C) Hills and bridges. There are hardly *ANY* flat routes around here. Due to all the hills and bodies of water, there are many choke points where there are only a few bridges or roads that go through, and if they're icy, well you can figure it out.

D) No salt trucks and very few plows. The entire city of Seattle (550,00 people) has 11 snowplows. Urban midwesterners are totally used to dry, plowed, sanded & salted roads. If the plows or salt trucks can't keep up, they don't do any better than we do. Rural folks in the snow belt are different, they tend to know how to drive on snow and when to stay the heck off the road.

E) Ice. With no salt, no plows, lots of cars, the snow becomes solid water ice very, very quickly.

That said, we have our share of idiots. People who stick to their usual route no matter what, even if it's a hill covered with ice. People who abandon their cars in the middle of the street/highway/freeway. And lots & lots of SUV drivers who think that because they can accelerate, they can corner & stop on ice. NOT!

[AFpheonix]

Four-wheel drive is a great invention. It allows you to get hopelessly stuck in places you'd have never been able to reach in a two-wheel drive vehicle. It gives you an extra set of drivetrain components to have to repair. And it invariably worsens the gas mileage of something that in most cases was a brick shithouse on wheels to begin with.

I have to say that both the Subarus I've had have been fantabulous in bad driving conditions and haven't had to chain up in them, even when other people were sliding off all over everywhere. I have been able to go boldly where no one else could get traction, even in the old '83 GL.

We live on a busy 2 lane highway and as an added bonus, right smack-dab in the middle of a huge curve in the road. Every winter we are visited by anywhere from 2 - 10 vehicles who have lost control and end up in our front yard, in the ditch in front of the neighbors house or the ditch across the street. When they go in the ditch across the street they usually take my mailbox with them. It gets hit about every other year...I'm due this year.

Might I suggest something I know other people have had when they've had a target of a mailbox? Sink a large metal pipe in the ground, the kind used for parking barriers. Fill copiously with cement. Attach 4x6's or whatever size planks fit around the outside. Proceed to point and laugh at anyone that hits it and destroys the front end of their car.

[counterjockey]

I have to say that both the Subarus I've had have been fantabulous in bad driving conditions and haven't had to chain up in them, even when other people were sliding off all over everywhere.

I forgot about the Subaru Exemption. If my next car were a question of "What would I like, what would be the most practical and enjoyable for me?" and not "What the hell can I find around here that I can afford and that's not gonna die as quick as a tepid goldfish in a ziplock bag?" I'd get the Outback with the pickup bed. It's like the El Camino, only useful.

If you buy an SUV that sits way up high in the air, you're going to, in the words of Click 'N' Clack, "flip like a toilet seat." If you don't need three tons of steel and six miles per gallon to assert your gender identity, you'll get a Subaru or AWD Volvo or an old AMC Eagle wagon and make the most of a proper center of gravity.

[chainedbarista]

that subaru is called the baja; i love mine, it's comfy, rides better than anything else i've ever driven and does killer in bad weather when i have to drive in it.

i tend to stay home in bad weather, just because...