Flipping a chassis at BNSF Cicero Intermodal Rail Yard

Flipping a chassis at BNSF Cicero Intermodal Rail Yard

I have been avoiding having to do this for a long time, but I finally had to have a chassis "flipped" at the rail yard. It isn't hard or scary, but it's a hassle and time consuming. I was picking up a loaded container and as soon as I pushed in the trailer brakes, it was gushing air from the tandem air line on the chassis. Dang. It turns out that the air line had been dragging on the ground due to a weak spring and wore the line through.

Sooo..., I had to unhook, bobtail over to driver assistance, find out what to do (since I hadn't ever done it), find a good chassis (took three tries), take it back to driver assistance, inform them of the new number, and then wait on the lift line for someone to come take me to where they would do the flip. After about an hour and a half of messing around and waiting, they finally got me to the rail they wanted to do the flip on, and I had to wait as they dropped containers on to chassis as they came off the train.

All of this, of course, after I made it a point to start as early as possible to avoid as much traffic as I could. Yeah....didn't really avoid any traffic. But, I did get some cool video of the crane dropping containers on the chassis, and now I have experience doing it.

Overall, intermodal driving isn't a bad driving job, but there are added elements that can slow you down. The good thing is that JB Hunt pays me when I have a rail delay, so it sort of balances out in the pay area. The biggest loss is the loss of time on your driving day. That can add up to lost miles (which = $), and can run you into traffic and times of the day that you don't normally drive ( or don't want to drive).

I hope you enjoy the look at the lift line at Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Cicero, (Chicago) Illinois.