One gripe was the work involved when making and breaking, but then, I'm an hourly employee so the more time it took, the more I made!
I had a local route where I hooked up a set, drove about 10-15 miles, dropped those, hooked up another set of empties then headed about 45 miles away.
Upon arriving at the next stop, I would drop my rear pup and dolly, pull up and off to the side and drop my lead pup. Then, I pulled a loaded pup out of a dedicated door, backed that up to the dolly, hooked the dolly then the rear pup then put the empty in the dock, grab my set and go.
Then, I would head back towards home, stopping once more. I would do the same thing but if the second pickup was heavier then I had to make that my lead.
After that, I would head to the terminal and drop those, grab a van and head for another drop n' hook dedicated door. Once again, drop the empty, pull the loaded out, dock the empty van.
By then I was more than ready to go to the house.
Sets of pups allow a little more flexibility but are allowed on select routes.
When I used to make that second stop on the way back to the terminal, I was actually within city limits. Not far, just a half or so mile from a state road until we hit the first intersection with a red light. Going in, no problem. Coming out, you had to take the inititive and go into the oncoming lane to make a big button hook. With heavy oncoming traffic, you had to make your move just about the time you felt someone was not going too fast not to be able to stop. Forget waiting for the yellow. These idiots would keep on coming even into the red.
It was funny because even with people over the line on the perpendicular road I was making a right onto, you could make the turn with the pups. They did not know that and would be hopping the curb to get out of the way, lol!
I also did this turn with a van a few times and it was tougher than with pups. Not to mention, people would not move and would readily "salute you".
When a line haul position opened up, I thought I would take a shot at that. Big mistake! I would hook a set, drive to the next terminal, drop that set and hook up another. Then, I would head for my second stop and do the same. Then onto stop three for the same then back home. Eight sets a night, 410 mile round trip and my only stop was to grab a coffee along the PA pike and go. Not to mention that at each stop, they were inpatiently waiting on you. Ugh!
So, why a mistake? I went from doing drop n' hooks by the hour to a dollar a hook or four bucks a set, big whoop.
As a side note to all of that set work, we started seeing these dollies with super singles. Drivers would say, oh', stay away from those, you have a flat and you are going to sit for hours waiting on a spare. Of course, me being adventurous, grabbed one the first chance I got. Dang! First time I grabbed one and leaned into it, it about ran over me, it moved so easy!
After that, I used to try to put them in the back of the others or hide them at the home terminal so I had one to use. Eventually, everyone caught on.
Lastly, I want to comment on non commerial driving of doubles. As with any mobile application, we all know that there are quite capable drivers and some not so. While some people can readily handle an RV,I still feel that RV drivers should have at least some further education and license classification.
Doubles? For sure anyone pulling doubles, commercial or not should have more than a regular license.
