This morning going through invoices from outside repairs I ran across this bill. A driver that is based in another town had a Freightliner dealer repair his dome light. On work order it said: Complaint-Dome light wont shut off. Repair: Checked the dome light-reached up and pushed to off position. Labor: $68.90 This is not unusual anymore. I bought 18 sets of quarter fenders to replace ones torn up by lousy chain ups. I have already replaced 4 of those again. I one week three drivers managed to forget to unhook the the 7 way and air lines. These drivers are talented.
Sometimes it's hard to believe how they manage fit so much stupid into one head.
As a species, the some of us are still standing on one of the lower limbs of that evolutionary tree.
Yep, just as some have been pushed up but should have fallen off.
I would refuse to pay it, put it back on the driver. Looks to me they got an arrangement going on with that shop, to hand the driver back $50 cash, shop pockets $18.90 for no work.
You would have to know these drivers {not that smart}. Plus I'm familiar with this dealer. It's the owners problem [he hired them}.
I cant imagine having alot of drivers to look after i had less than a 12 and some times it would have been a job for 3 mechanics to keep up with them. I think they would spend all their time driving thinking up stuff. We went through alot of quarter fenders because of the gravel roads and heavy lug tires throwing rocks.
Back in the mid to late 80's, business was slow in Texas. The company I worked for closed one of it's small rock crushing plants. They did not want to lose the longtime employees, so they rounded up 7 old truck tractors, had me find 7 end dump trailers, an they put them to work hauling rock and sand from other plants. I got the honor of running this small fleet of ragged out old trucks, to go along with my other duties as a plant manager. Let me tell you, between breakdowns, and wrecks, and mechanical issues, my 4 mechanics stayed busy with those old trucks. I remember 3 of the trucks had air starters, so overnight, you always parked them near an air supply line. All of them like to have you at least wave a can of starting fluid in front of them before cranking. What fun.
And then there are the ones standing in the mud around the trunk of that tree. Bob
Also known as politicians.
Just think about what I posted above when your surrounded by semi's on a four lane. It's a great feeling knowing some of the drivers are sharp as a marble.
Three years ago we had a driver at a freezer that hooked up to a loaded in a line of our trailers. the two next to it were empty, He cut it real short smacked the one he was pulling into the other trailers. Ruined landing gear, trailer skins, marker lights you name it. Professionals.
Just came back from a grocery store. Big hill on the freeway and I got a woman behind me with a kid in a seat less then half a car length behind me. Speed limit is 60 and I'm coasting at 65. Car behind her is about six cars back and semi behind that car is less than a car length. Wet roads and the other side of the road has a mud slide block the right two lanes and cars there backed up about two miles. People gawking at the excavator trying to clear the mud. All it would have taken is someone to slap a brake pedal and at least the ten cars on my side would have had a bad day. It not real funny anymore that people don't think the speed limit is fast enough and they are so important that no one else on the road exists.
John I look at it this way-every time a person gets behind the wheel it's a roll of the dice. And your right {it's not real funny anymore}. But we live in a {me me society}. I have told the boss several times {Your running this many trucks and you haven't had a fatality wreck, the odds are not in your favor with the miles and time}. Truck drivers are running too damn close behind other vehicles. The caliber of Truck drivers right now is extremely poor. Most not very well experienced or educated-plus educated about what they are driving, which in most cases is a 80,000 lb sledge hammer. The stupid is as stupid does comments that come out of the drivers when in the shop would flip a persons lid. I hear it constantly. But just in time deliveries and the constant push on drivers from dispatchers is unreal. So the problem has several prongs to it. There is a CDL examiner that gives the CDL tests right in our yard, As a mater of fact he is testing right now at 12:24 my time. None of these people he is testing have any clue about what a CDL really is nor can they speak English fluently. But the idiotic behavior is what's astounding-The owner had to fire a driver that had only been here one month-The driver was caught on camera at a truck stop walking around with no clothes on, walks up opens the passenger door of another truck-and that guy was in the sleeper-scared the hell out of him-called 911. This stupid crazy world we live in has gone bonkers. I quit driving years ago because I could see what was on the horizon, damn glad I did. I don't have long till I'm done--- But sometimes it looks like eternity before that takes place.
Saw this today…..wasn’t a whole lotta thought put into making that turn.
He was stopping in to get another trucker tattoo.
Or system is a mess to much demand for what there is to work with. I dont have the answers but as long as there are people that are getting a CDL that the first time they were in a truck was a year ago and there sounds like several that havent drove any thing much up to this point its not going to be good on the roads.
They could’ve made it if they had some more forward momentum. Usually if you’re in the high side of the transmission you’ll be ok.
At the main stop light in town there are just 2 you have to make a right hand turn to stay on the high way. You can always spot a local driver making the turn he will take up both lanes and then some the local guy has seen tires, rims and some axles destroyed he doesnt want to screw up the because the local and only hardware store is on the opposite corner it would be hard to hold your head high the next time you needed a bolt if you screwed up.
Most of the heavy haul drivers around here are decent some of the people we get delivering equipment from the ports are quite…special… one came in in a raggedy ass old freightliner literally held together with ducttape and zip ties, hauled a dump truck with undersized chains and no permit, oversized, at night to avoid the scalehouses, came in to the yard at the crack of dawn, smoked a joint in front of our Yard guy, had a whore pick him up, disappeared for six hours leaving his loaded truck blocking up the yard then came back, unloaded and finally left.
He probably loves life too
Makes you wonder how they find their way to work in the morning. Joe H
Most of them just make me wonder. Tail Stop lamp quit on the Truck I drive last Wednesday, no big deal popped it out ground was hanging loose, popped marker on side below it and spliced the leads with Shop parts and my loose tools I carry. Mekaniks from the shop were at lunch where I was In and Gone in fifteen minutes. Got back end of day, were working a similar issue on a trailer, had been at it two hours and still had not seen the parted ground wire as a problem.
When I worked for the electric utility one of the linemen phoned me from a community 40 miles away. Apparently when he parked the bucket truck Friday at the end of the day the taillights would not switch off. He unplugged them so the batteries would not drain over the weekend. He wanted to know If I had time to look at it. I told him to bring it to me at the shop. I plugged the taillights back in and they came on but too bright to be taillights. I climbed into the cab and pushed the hand valve forward and could hear air discharge and the lights went out. The hand valve would never have been used so it got stiff and didn't return after being accidentally bumped. The following Monday morning I get a call from the same guy with the same problem. I thought it must have been something else as he would have checked the hand valve. Nope it was the hand valve pulled slightly on again. To my surprise he had no recollection of the same problem a week prior. This guy works with high voltages that could fry him like a bug zapper light in a heart beat.
Most Lineman I knew could herd a wagon down the road, knew how to exercise booms and could set a pole Solid and True but as for Mechanic ability or comprehension, hit them with a board in the head worked better.
My uncle was a lineman. Drove the truck, ran the digger, hang a transformer on a pole with a crane, bucket truck, or block and tackle. Would not change a light switch or repair the dryer. Just the way he was built. He just called me.
This week a new crop driver {been with the company 5 five months} comes in for a full service and a few other issues. His first complaint the windshield washer on the drivers side stopped working. Jeff raised the hood, I moseyed around and poured two gallons of washer fluid in the reservoir.