Early this morning I accompanied my eldest son making a delivery of pre-formed rebar cages to a construction site in downtown Toronto. My day started a bit earlier than normal, leaving the house at 4:20 AM. All of the images in this article were captured handheld using the M.Zuiko PRO 12-100 mm f/4 IS zoom lens in available light.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
We started our morning driving out to Welland, where my son secured the load of pre-formed rebar cages with various straps.
While the cargo wasn’t particularly heavy, coming in at approximately 7,000 kilos, it was slightly oversized. This required special warnings to be affixed to the trailer.
Failure to affix the designated load warnings on a trailer can result in significant fines being levied by Ontario Ministry of Transportation inspectors.
I found the night time lighting to be quite interesting so I captured a few handheld images using a 1 second shutter speed.
With the load properly secured, we headed off to downtown Toronto focused on making a delivery at the designated crane time.
Once my son backed down the city street and into a narrow crane unloading area he unfastened the load of pre-formed rebar cages. Flat deck trucks drivers must know how to use a range of fasteners and follow specific safety guidelines.
Regular inspections of a commercial truck and trailer are required to be performed by drivers. These happen every time before a driver picks up a load, or after making a delivery.
If anything is found to be worn or damaged it is reported, then repaired or replaced. Regular inspections of various components are also done by service shop personnel of commercial fleets.
Tires are inspected daily, each time before a commercial truck takes to the road.
Driving a heavy-duty truck with a 53-foot loaded trailer attached takes a lot of skill and experience. Job sites are often hectic places. Sometimes this necessitates loaded trailers being moved to other locations on the job site. That was the case this morning.
After my son secured the load again, he drove it through city streets over to the other site of the job site as directed by site management. After unfastening the load, a large crane was used to reposition the pre-formed rebar cages on the job site.
With the task of making a delivery completed, it was time to call into dispatch to receive further instructions. From downtown Toronto, we headed off to Fort Erie.
Spending time with my eldest son doing a drive-along was a very enjoyable experience as it gave us some personal time to catch up face-to-face. It also brought back memories of my time spent working in the trucking industry.
I’m looking forward to the opportunity to do another drive-along with him the next time that he is assigned to transport an oversized load into downtown Toronto. That will require a safety escort, special permit, and police assistance. Moving 80 foot steel girders on highways and in city traffic requires special attention!
Technical Note:
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. This is the 1,102 article published on this website since its original inception.
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Tom,
Great photos, as usual. The 12-100mm f/4 lens is one I don’t have. It seems like a very useful lens.
I noticed that some of your shots at 100mm were at 1/25 and 1/400. It would be very informative if, in a future photo article, you could discuss the reason for your choice of subjects, composition, and camera/lens settings; perhaps using images from this photo article.
Jack
Hi Jack,
The M.Zuiko 12-100 mm f/4 IS is a very useful lens when flexibility is required. It is my primary travel type lens.
This wasn’t a ‘mission critic’ photo shoot so I didn’t pay that much attention to my camera settings, especially when we were under time pressure actually making the delivery. The lighting was quite variable so some of the faster shutter speeds were done simply to ensure that when I took a single photograph that it would be sharp and in-focus. I had a bit more time with the images taken before sunrise so I did some experimentation with slower shutter speeds. The difference in shutter speed at 100 mm likely had more to do with the time available to grab my photos than anything else.
Thanks for the suggestion about an article about how to select specific camera settings.
Tom
This is a wonderful pictorial article depicting your and your son’s adventures. The “night” photos are excellent, particularly so as they are hand held without any apparent additional lighting assists which is a tribute to both the camera capacities and the skill of the photographer. The photos of pieces of equipment like chains, clamps and truck components are especially pleasing. This is a thoroughly enjoyable photo story!
Thanks Ray… it was an enjoyable journey. During our drive in I learned quite about special hauling permits in Toronto and the various restrictions that apply to hauling loads into the city.
Tom
FYI, there’s a typo “directed my site” in the text under the shot of the loaded trailer on site in Toronto. I think I recognize the area around the ROM. I’ve done some fun photos of the architecture in that part of town during visits. Still want to pick up some Olympus gear to replace my sold Nikon 1 system, but haven’t been able to justify the cost, despite excellent pricing right now.
Thanks for spotting the typo Simon. I fixed it and noticed another one in the same passage. We were on the construction site for a new condo building. You have a good eye! We were in the Dundas Street W and Simcoe area.
Tom