Truck Driving Stories About Chicago, IL

Truck driving jobs in Chicago, IL can be brutal, unless you absolutely love heavy traffic and terrible winter weather. A career as a truck driver wouldn't be complete without a lot of time sitting in traffic in the Windy City. Actually, I never felt getting around Chicago was all that bad. I grew up in Buffalo,NY and that city is more difficult to get around than Chicago. If I had to take a local trucking job, I would choose Chicago over Buffalo. Although I will admit there is a lot of people that would disagree with me in a big way.

Anyhow, Chicago is one of the largest trucking hubs in America. I have probably spent more time there than in any other city in the country. Fortunately, I kind of liked driving there. I felt comfortable for some reason. I haven't a clue why. It just seemed like a cool place to be.

So anyhow, one night I had to go right to the center of downtown to pick up a trailer off of one of the railroad yards. It was a Friday evening, around 6:00 or so. The traffic wasn't too horrible, surprisingly, because I came in on the tollway. That's the only way to go, believe me. So I get into downtown, sit in a bit of traffic, get off the interstate, and figured I had it made. I pick up the trailer, start cruisin out of the city, and get my delivery made the next day in Columbus, OH. And as always, right when you think you have it made, that's when it all went wrong.

There were two overpasses, one on either side of the entrance to the railyard. They were only about 300 feet apart. I went under the first one and began to make the left into the railyard. There was an incline going into the yard and the truck tried to downshift into 2nd gear - the truck was an automatic. Just then the engine revved and the truck came to a stop. I hit the gas - but nothing. I was halfway into the yard, blocking not only the entire roadway, but also the entrance into the yard. Traffic came to a stop in all directions.

OH MY GOD!

I had been driving for many years at that point so there was no panic, nor was there any surprise. Sh*t happens when you least expect it. Well, my company called a tow truck but that was gonna take a half an hour or so. Turns out there were two city buses full of people that were blocked in, along with about 150 cars and trucks.

Unbelievable.

So the Chicago Public Transportation Supervisor had to come down to see what was going on because of the buses. The railway supervisor had to come down because I was blocking the entrance to the railyard. The police had to come down because of all of the traffic being blocked. So after talking with all of the authorities on the matter, I did what any other driver would have done when blocking many hundreds of people from getting where they were going - I locked the doors to the truck and walked around, blending into the crowd like I was just another bystander wondering what was going on!

"What happened?" one person asked. "I guess something went out in the driveline I heard" was my reply - clearly implying I had no real way of knowing - and certainly not disclosing that is was my truck! Whose truck? My truck? No my truck!

Well, it all ended well anyhow. They towed the truck out of the way, and the tow truck driver figured out that an air line had let loose to the transmission and he was able to fix it on the spot. Lucky me.

The moral of the story? For one - don't hit anything. No matter what happens, dont run into anything. Eventually any situation will go away like it never happened. And secondly - lie. Don't ever tell anyone other than the authorities that you are the one clogging up downtown at rush hour and everything will be fine! :-)

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