What A Fool Believes (Pretrip)

Every morning before my students and I start our journey we practice our pre trips. Not before long students are reciting it like its a Shakespearean play and alls right in the world. Or is it?

Yesterday I wrote a little article about a driver replacing a valve stem in the parking lot of a receiver and it was taken out of context by some. The story wasn't the fact that the driver was doing this (even though it was damn cool). The story was all the knowledge I gained afterward that this driver/mechanic past on to me.

We all realize the cost of running a truck is high. And we falsely believe we are shifting the burden to the company when we become company drivers right? Heck if I breaks down someone comes and fixes it and no big deal. The fact remains 40% of repairs done could have been avoided by finding them before they happen. These are repairs and parts that showed signs of failure before they broke.

Want another statistic, effective preventative maintenance reduces emergency repairs by between 50 to 60%. Not only that the cost of emergency repairs tend to be 20 to 25 % higher than finding them at a shop before it happens. Not to mention the down time lost, revenue and such. As a company driver do you think that this cost isn't factored in on how much your paid?

Unfortunately the burden of teaching the pre trip has been left to instructors that in most cases don't practice or are ill equipt to train people on it. Shoot I realize now I certainly can use a few pointers. Having some knowledge of what and where to look for trouble can save an awful amount of grief before your stuck on Donners Pass in a blizzard on the side of I80.

If as a driver reduce your down time, the lost revenue you save your company reflects on the the bottom line. Not to mention the lost miles you saved from the week. Last year my truck was down 0 days due to downtime. I have approximately 260,000 miles on Betsy right now and I realize in order to keep that streak going I will have to be more vigilant on finding potential problems down the road.

So how to I accomplish this? Instead of just reading from my shakespherean play I actually preform the tasks I need to keep her up and running. So I challenge all of you to check your brake pads, tire pressure, and belts. Pull the darn dipstick out everyday. If you don't know what to look for ask someone who knows. Don't be the one who puts themselves on duty and grabs a cup of coffee and a donut just to get moving in the morning

The fact remains 40% of repairs done could have been avoided by finding them before they happen. These are repairs and parts that showed signs of failure before they broke.

So, Brian, are you saying you should bring your truck to the shop for some piddly thing like maybe you found a bit of oil on the side of a shock absorber?

I posted this 18 months ago in "Why do a pre-trip?", and I'll just quote it here:

Knott's Berry Farm is a theme amusement park a bit north of Disneyland. As a tourist attraction it predates the Magic Kingdom by a few decades.

In 1998, Knott's built the Ghost Rider roller coaster, the longest wooden coaster on the west coast.

On the death of Walter Knott, the family sold the property to Cedar Fair, the operators of Cedar Point in Ohio. As the new corporate owner, Cedar Fair examined park operations to find ways to make the park more efficient (read profitable). At one point, a Cedar Fair executive interviewed the mechanics who took care of the Ghost Rider.

"So you walk the entire coaster track every morning? Is it really necessary to check the track so thoroughly? How about we set you up with a twice a week schedule."

"Well, sir, we walk the track every single day so we can check all the fasteners and make adjustments and repairs before things get out of hand."

"But there have been no major incidents since the ride opened. So, is there a need to check the track on a daily basis?" the executive countered.

The mechanic replied, "Sir, I believe you have answered your own question there."

We do indeed check everything thorougly and in addition, if im ever really close to a company shop i stop by the inspection lane. Recently i did that when near our south chicago terminal. My codriver woke up and asked wby i had stopped. I told him since we were so close. Why not? They found the empty trailer we would be dropping at Romeoville IL had some problems in places we couldnt easily see and they put it out of service for repairs. Did it help us out directly, well no and yes. Sure we could have dropped it at the shipper grabbed our loaded trailer and gone on our way, however, by going 10 miles out of my way, i possibly saved another driver a failed inspection as well as saving my company a potential trailer service call. Money we all save as company drivers can indeed come back to us as increased pay and benefits as well as less aggravation for ourselves or a fellow company driver.

Kudos to you on calling this out.

Errol I do remember your post and it's still as great of a story now as it was back when I read it then. Thanks for sharing, truly a gem for our new members.

As for your question only if I can't do it myself. Unless it's under my warranty then they can have at it haha!

One thing I do is gauge all 8 on EVERY trailer I pick up. Tire pressure is probably the most neglected item on any trailer. Swift has thousands and thousands of them scattered across the Fruited Plain. It takes about 2 or 3 minutes. As Sue pointed out, it not only saves me from a potential DOT violation, but the next guy as well, who probably doesn't check the tire pressure anyways! I picked up a trailer several weeks ago that had 65psi in the RRO, and 145!!!!! in the LFI. That was 2 potential tire failures on 1 trailer.

Sue espouses taking care of things:

Sure we could have dropped it at the shipper grabbed our loaded trailer and gone on our way, however, by going 10 miles out of my way, i possibly saved another driver a failed inspection as well as saving my company a potential trailer service call

Tractor Man echoes:

As Sue pointed out, it not only saves me from a potential DOT violation, but the next guy as well, who probably doesn't check the tire pressure anyways!

Ladees and Gemin, yes, you can just say "I don't want to take my precious (unpaid) time to fix the trailer, I'll just get it to the next drop and the next driver can deal with it." Door hold-backs or tandem pins or low tire pressure, you can get away with it. But then suppose if the previous driver had that same attitude (and they probably did). If everybody took care of this business as if it was their own (and they won't), we wold all be rolling more and detouring and waiting less. End of Sermon.

Sue's moral of the story:

Money we all save as company drivers can indeed come back to us as increased pay and benefits as well as less aggravation for ourselves or a fellow company driver.

@Brian, the Knotts story is based on an article in a local Orange County paper. But I searched the Internet for it, and can't find it now. And my point about piddly things was for drivers to not be embarrassed to point things out to mechanics. It's part of the old sayings "Nip them in the bud", or "A stitch in time saves nine".

Yep.. Gotta protect those company CSA scores to avoid a DOT bullseye on the side of my truck.

Its all about doing the right thing every day, every time because face it..every company has drivers who dont check squat, dont scale loaded trailers etc. Ive got an awesome photo of a tire on a trailer we picked up AT OUR OWN COMPANY TERMINAL , no less!! I guess that driver is allergic to the inspection lane despite it being policy to bring all trucks and trailers thru every time we stop at one . if i can figure out how to post it i will.

Shoot it's hard to avoid at Prime. There all standing there like an Indy pit crew as soon as you get in. A couple months ago I had to stop in Springfield to protect a hi Val I was going to be early on only to find out they wanted to replace the brakes and tires. Because of the load instead of bringing it to the trailer shop the just replaced the axle and all in line up. Less than 30 minutes and out of there. That's service

Thank you Brian M for another great reminder.

. End of Sermon

I love your Sermons, Pastor Errol, keep em' comin'.