You And The Equipment... Don't Be That Guy!

"I have nothing but a ton of respect for mechanics, it looks like hard work most of the time and everyone loves to complain that they take too long." I agree, I have found mechanics and spotters are who you want on your side. I'm always as pleasant as possible with them. I can usually get the mechanics to level with me so to speak. I never go to them for anything minor. If they are able to take me immediately and are actively working on the problem. I dont complain about how long they take. To an extent anyways. Sometimes that's the name of the game.

My company doesn't allow drivers to do repairs, however since I rarely get by a terminal the awesome shop guys did gift me with a couple spare trailer lights. Cant change lights on my truck with those LEDs.

If I see trailers with issues I call them in to cedar rapids so they can get a service truck to that customer to fix our unroadworthy empties that I call in, hopefully before another driver needs that trailer. Most of our regular customers will red tag damaged empties for us, but they don't inform our company, so I do, when I see them.

When I was with Swift I would do the same Susan and now with Western Express I will too. Hopefully the mechanics are good. I think they will be.

My company doesn't allow drivers to do repairs, however since I rarely get by a terminal the awesome shop guys did gift me with a couple spare trailer lights. Cant change lights on my truck with those LEDs.

If I see trailers with issues I call them in to cedar rapids so they can get a service truck to that customer to fix our unroadworthy empties that I call in, hopefully before another driver needs that trailer. Most of our regular customers will red tag damaged empties for us, but they don't inform our company, so I do, when I see them.

Like Susan's, the company I work for doesn't want drivers to make ANY repairs, not even to change lightbulbs! Our mechanics at each location are the only ones to do any repairs. Thankfully, our lot mechanic is a reasonable person. "If we drivers happen to have a spare bulb/light or two, maybe a wiper blade hanging around (that he gives us) well, as Sergeant Shultz used to say, he "sees nothing, he knows nothing, he hears nothing." If not, we would be sitting around quite often. As for drivers reporting issues with trailers? Pfftt! It can get bad at times. Just two weeks ago, a driver did not want to run a load, so he actually broke (with what was suspected to be a hammer) the brake line connections under the trailer so he wouldn't have to. Unfortunately for him, our mechanic had just moved that trailer from the back lot to the loading bay at the factory after making a tire repair. He knew right away what that driver had done. Needless to say, that driver no longer works for the company. Anyhoo, we have some old trailers with various nagging issues. Thankfully, most of my issues have been with landing gear that requires a Man of Steel to crank on, and a couple flat tires.

I had another fine piece of equipment yesterday. Picked up a trailer with 3 lights out, and took it so it could be fixed at a TA, since the CFI terminal in Taylor, MI does not have a shop. Plenty of time on this load to not put me behind....751 miles to deliver in Alabama on Monday at 0800.

What a can of worms! Ended up with 8 hours in the shop, and replaced about 75 feet of wires and 6 lights. I called maintenance to see if this had been previously reported. NO. What a surprise.

I had another fine piece of equipment yesterday. Picked up a trailer with 3 lights out, and took it so it could be fixed at a TA, since the CFI terminal in Taylor, MI does not have a shop. Plenty of time on this load to not put me behind....751 miles to deliver in Alabama on Monday at 0800.

What a can of worms! Ended up with 8 hours in the shop, and replaced about 75 feet of wires and 6 lights. I called maintenance to see if this had been previously reported. NO. What a surprise.

Wait a minute! Is this @ the new company? The one you went to because the last one didn't maintain their stuff???

Yes! Pretty ironic, huh?

At least I didn't have to drive around for hours looking for an empty trailer.

Dropping a trailer that has a deficiency and leaving it for the next guy is what I call taking the easy wrong over the hard right. Most of the trailers that I have come across are out of annual service tollerence when I pick up one that needs to be serviced I'll Red Tag it and get it down to our service yard and drop it off. But sometimes I've picked up a trailer that is already loaded and is overdue service and I'm taking it to drop off at another location which will unload at a later time. A good example of this is we always drop loaded Trailers at West Rock paper in Solvay, NY and it might take a couple of days before the trailer is unloaded. I always red tag a trailer if it needs to go to the the shop after it's unloaded. I will also look for any red tagged empty trailers that I can take back to the shop to get repaired or service. I've been fortunate that I've only had one trailer issue while I've been on the road. Blew an inner tire on the left front tandem and I was only 30 miles away from our shop so they sent out their mechanic to change the flat thus avoiding a service call.

Yes! Pretty ironic, huh?

At least I didn't have to drive around for hours looking for an empty trailer.

Yes PackRat. Ironic indeed. But have no fear! There will ALWAYS be defective trailers for you to fix and get fixed!

Sounds like Veriha is very much about personal responsibility. They will go back and find the driver who left the trailer. Not sure of the consequences. For a relay load not properly scaled and overweight on any axle they will make the driver go back, get the trailer and have it reworked (in most cases, anyway).

Don't be that guy or gal!

I certainly appreciate the mechanics a lot but I am also thankful for the truckers who choose to help out and fix whatever they can fix. I want to go to school and get a certificate in Diesel Mechanics so that I can just fix the truck myself instead of waiting around for a day or two. Maybe thats impatience, on the bright side it would/will save a lot of money.

You will need those skills, due to the fact there are few mechanics out here any longer. We have plenty of parts changers, but they rarely ever fix anything. It is so bad, I chose to in frame my ISX in my buddies driveway rather than taking it to another Cummins certified dealer that botched the first one. They installed all of the wrong parts, and failed to machine the block to set the liners... $38,000 down the drain... They did send all of the correct parts, eventually, but this time, the job was done correctly.