Rookies, What Would You Do?
Topic 5345 | Page 9
Daniel.....this "Rookie, What Would You Do" thing is awesome! I love this idea. We can come up with about a million of em. In fact, I'd like to post some of these situations as articles in the blog and have a link at the bottom to a discussion about it here in the forum (instead of comments at the end of the article).
So when you do a new one, start a new thread with the same title but maybe number them differently - "Rookie, What Would You Do #2"
We can do a huge series of these. They're a ton of fun and they really give people great insights into the everyday life of a driver. It will demonstrate just how many difficult decisions you have to make and how often you're in a really tough spot.
Awesome stuff!
I forgot about the APU exemption, couple weeks ago I was 200 pounds over on my drives and I moved my tarps to the tail of the trailer from my headache rack and ran the whole trip with my fuel under half a tank to stay under 34k, guess I learn the hard way.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
APU:
Auxiliary Power Unit
On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.
Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.
I forgot about the APU exemption, couple weeks ago I was 200 pounds over on my drives and I moved my tarps to the tail of the trailer from my headache rack and ran the whole trip with my fuel under half a tank to stay under 34k, guess I learn the hard way.
Yea I learned it the same way.. I put a post it note next to my in cab weight guage.
DAC:
Drive-A-Check Report
A truck drivers DAC report will contain detailed information about their job history of the last 10 years as a CDL driver (as required by the DOT).
It may also contain your criminal history, drug test results, DOT infractions and accident history. The program is strictly voluntary from a company standpoint, but most of the medium-to-large carriers will participate.
Most trucking companies use DAC reports as part of their hiring and background check process. It is extremely important that drivers verify that the information contained in it is correct, and have it fixed if it's not.
APU:
Auxiliary Power Unit
On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.
Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.
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The 400 lbs exemption is for the drives and there has to be an APU on the truck. So for a truck that has a APU the exemption would read like this.... 34,000 lbs is the legal weight for the drive tires and due to the exemption the legal weight would be 34400 lbs on the drives. This in turns gives an exemption to the over all gross weight of the truck and moves it to 80400 lbs. But the over weight exemption is only good for the drive tires.
APU:
Auxiliary Power Unit
On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.
Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.