Slip Seating

I've posted before how slip seating is usually a pain in the rear but it's quite common in local jobs. I'm #144 of 162 in seniority and we only have 125 tractors. That means I'm in a different truck all the time. I've got it figured out what trucks are usually available certain days so I've started taking the same one USUALLY 3 of the 4 days I work. It still sucks because other drivers have so much of their stuff in these daycabs that I gotta move things just to get my backpack in. You also have the guys that are unhappy someone drives their assigned truck when they're off so they frequently find the smallest things to complain about, and even create lies in hopes it deters anyone from taking it in the future. A few things I've heard complaints about are moving their GPS off the dash, moving phone mount, changing preset radio stations and stealing a pen. Personally I've been called in for throwing a pillow left in the truck on the floor (It was on the seat when I left it), leaving donut crumbs on the floor when I didn't eat anything in the truck that day, tying a seat belt in a knot, and changing the GPS on our ELD to metric units. Its pretty sad you're just waiting for a call to hear what the latest crying is about. After some discussion its usually revealed the driver is lying, particularly in the radio station situation.

Anyways, the reason I brought this up is also maintenance equipment. Its rare I have the same trailer multiple times in a week, or even a month! For the most part everybody is really great and getting issues addressed at the end of their day so its ready to go the following morning. Except yesterday I took a truck I usually dont and had 2 issues I needed taken care of. Due to starting at the DC daily our tractors are kept in one area of the property and trailers another. No big deal, I usually get logged in and yard move to hookup then pretrip tractor and trailer. I fired the truck up and immediately knew something was wrong. Truck was very sluggish at 500 RPM and sounded ready to die, oil pressure at 90. I immediately turned it off and sure enough the oil was so low it didn't even register anything on the dipstick. I got that resolved before hooking up. Then I discovered a problem with my trailer that was causing it to leak around the coupling and when you disconnected the gladhand there was a very noticeable stream of air coming out of the coupling that you could clearly feel and hear. Off to the shop again . I have no idea what the issue ended up being but both of these issues caused me a delay of about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Of course it happened on the day I had a 2 store 510 mile run with a Drop and hook backhaul 41k pounds of juice. I made it back with 2 minutes left on my 14 without stopping other than to scale my load. We're currently HOS exempt due to covid but if we weren't and I didn't have the 16 rule available another drivers laziness could have forced me to stay out overnight. There's absolutely no excuse that I should've ran into either issue because they would have been easily caught and resolved by the next day if the other drivers did a proper post trip. It's rare something like this happens but its frustrating when it does.

The only upside about slipseating is that I'm able to take the newest trucks even though I'm still considered a new guy. It'll be quite some time before I get my own truck considering I've been there nearly 2 years and bumped up only 1 spot. Our fleet is 2014 - 2021 and if I'm not in a 21 I'm in a 20. If I had my own truck it'd likely be a 2014 with close to 700k in it. No biggie as long as its safe but I'd prefer new trucks.

I was in the same situation for a couple of years. I moved up maybe 10 or 12 spots because of drivers leaving, but it didn’t make much difference. The driver at the top of the seniority list started driving for the company in April 1981. Anyway, one of my favorites was when I didn’t put a truck back in the exact same parking space I got it from. The spaces weren’t assigned or numbered or anything, the guy was just mad because it was 2 spaces over from where he usually parked.

ODs official policy is you take all your stuff out at the end of the day, anything left behind is fair game for next driver. If I leave my CB in the truck and someone else wants to pull it down and toss it in the corner, they are free to do so and its my fault for not taking it out.

I'm lucky I am assigned a 2019 and the P&D guy I share with is good at keeping the truck clean and pretty good at being back on time so I can take it. When I have to use another truck I try to respect the other drivers items, but at the same time I'm in there for 12 hours so I have to be comfortable too.

Unfortunately I've had problems with people not reporting issues with equipment, especially trailers and dollys. I had 2 tires that should have been seen by the previous driver on their post trip, so instead of reporting it and having the tires changed between runs I had to go get it done.

We don’t slip seat at my company and i very thankful for that. In the almost 3 years I’ve been with the company I’ve had 3 trucks. And those were all by my request. Been in the same one know for a year and a half. I’m curious though Rob how did you rectify the oil issue? Grab oil jugs and top it off? That would drive my nuts. The first lesson I ever got from my cdl instructor was to pop the hood and check the oil. He said if nothing else at least do that.

I’m curious though Rob how did you rectify the oil issue? Grab oil jugs and top it off?

I was parked real close to the shop so I limped it in and they filled it up with their nozzle. We have 4 bays that are long enough to fit the tractor and trailer that always have a minimum of 4 mechanics on duty with the exception of roughly 10pm to 7am Saturday night into Sunday. That's because we only have around 25 guys going out. Had this happened Sunday morning I'd have written it up but jumped in a different truck and had the warehouse load me on a different trailer. I couldn't do that Saturday because we had very few extra trucks, and the warehouse was so far behind it'd likely take longer to reload me than just wait. What's weird though is with the oil i didn't notice any kind of leaks at my stops, or during post trip. It makes me wonder just how long he ran the truck with little to no oil.

My current Peterbilt has a small leak somewhere in the rear of the engine. Bad seal. It will get fixed eventually but sometimes I’ve noticed it seems when I get an oil change I won’t notice the drip of the oil until a day or two after. Maybe something similar with the truck you had. Or maybe it’s just burning oil bad.

The key is to find an older truck no one wants to drive and make it known its yours. Park in same spot. Cone it off. It takes time but eventually you'll own a truck that isn't assigned to you but everyone knows its yours. This is what I did and I have been driving the same truck for 9 months without sharing it ever at OD.

The key is to find an older truck no one wants to drive and make it known its yours. Park in same spot. Cone it off. It takes time but eventually you'll own a truck that isn't assigned to you but everyone knows its yours. This is what I did and I have been driving the same truck for 9 months without sharing it ever at OD.

Exactly what my hubby did ... stepped back from #2029 (Mack Pinnacle AMT) to #1213 (Int'l 10sp) ... NOBODY wants the ole' manual, haha!

Exactly what my hubby did ... stepped back from #2029 (Mack Pinnacle AMT) to #1213 (Int'l 10sp) ... NOBODY wants the ole' manual, haha!

What’s funny is that it’s the opposite at my terminal , the new autos sit around because there’s too many old timers who don’t like them. It actually gets annoying since I do a lot of preloads at night, and we don’t drop our loaded trailers because they’re so heavy. So instead of just loading on my truck (an auto) for someone to run the next shift, I have to wait for a manual to get back to the yard because they won’t drive anything else. I also find it hilarious that every old timer we have complains at least once a week that their shoulder or knee is bothering them from spending 20+ years of shifting in local, city driving.

Exactly what my hubby did ... stepped back from #2029 (Mack Pinnacle AMT) to #1213 (Int'l 10sp) ... NOBODY wants the ole' manual, haha!

What’s funny is that it’s the opposite at my terminal , the new autos sit around because there’s too many old timers who don’t like them. It actually gets annoying since I do a lot of preloads at night, and we don’t drop our loaded trailers because they’re so heavy. So instead of just loading on my truck (an auto) for someone to run the next shift, I have to wait for a manual to get back to the yard because they won’t drive anything else. I also find it hilarious that every old timer we have complains at least once a week that their shoulder or knee is bothering them from spending 20+ years of shifting in local, city driving.

That's the difference, methinks.. You pull heavy; he pulls 'light.' He literally hauls 'boxes in boxes' hahaha! NOBODY wants to shift, pulling maybe 15k max in the box, LoL~!!!

That's the NEW (OLD?) truck . . . that he got 'traded' out of .. good thing I bought him that new CB for Xmas! The Uniden went with the #2029 . Int'l will be blessed w/ a Cobra 29 LTD, haha!

Personally. . . I'm missing 2029 . . . my opinion didn't count, however.