When I was a younger man I hauled cars. Worked for Anchor Motor Freight part of Leaseway who later became part of Penske. Union job, I never cracked the ‘A” board. On call. Worked two winters out of Buffalo area 1978-79. I would get called in and drive the 276 miles from my home in Central Pa to a small town called Lewiston NY just north of Buffalo NY. It was a “railhead” for mostly vans and pickup trucks manufactured in the GM plant in Oshawa Ontario. That’s what is was called when no actual manufacturing was at that spot.

Oh the good old days….

The Canadian “parking lots” would unload in our yard, we would reload on our “parking lots”, which was the slang for a car hauler rig. I would be bottom of the board and had little to pick from, no assigned equipment and already with 276 miles on me as I would load out. You got your paperwork, which had numbers, and the vehicles were in lines with numbers on them, staged. You had to make sure all the numbers jived because, people never fuck up, right? You also could only put certain cars and trucks in certain positions on the rig. You could not be above 13 feet 6 inches. Trying to chain down a 4 wheel drive 3/4 ton pickup truck down on the head rack in a snow squall with a 15 pound steel tie down bar is quite the experience. You stood on steel with nothing but your hands and guts and a metal tie down bar between you and a 10 foot drop to concrete. A reload was having to move one or more at a drop to get the proper vehicle off. Certain reloads were paid, most not. I would take every “Round Robin” I could because it kept me on the road for the longest. So I would load up in Lewiston for a 7 vehicle run which would end with me picking up 7 more in Tarrytown NY (for instance) and then deliver back out lower tier NY to Lordstown Oh to pick up to Lewiston NY or Edison NJ, etc. Book miles paid. So if I drove 435 for that run and was only paid 360 from “the book” I either had to eat that or put in a “cross mile” adjustment to collect. That meant I had to do my homework on why I put more miles on. Low bridge. Weight limits. Closed road. Etc.I tell you all this because that went away. Ain’t coming back. Sleepy Hollow NY also called Tarrytown. You can see the Tappen Zee bridge in the background. It was huge. Gone. Just like Wilmington De, Edison NJ, Baltimore MD, and on and on. Some things never change. Can Trump bring this back?