Is it just me who's seen this?

I'm a 12 year driver. Hardly a veteran, but somewhere above greenie. I've got just above a million miles safe and accident free, and the only ticket I ever got, I fought and beat by forcing a state DOT to admit they screwed up. Part of having that spotless career is that I refuse to operate illegally for any carrier/customer. If I get caught, it's my rear on the line, they won't bail me out if I get caught running illegal.

I drive for a mega carrier right now on a dedicated account (economic instability drove me to choose a larger carrier after watching several middling ones go under), and I've noticed a marked decline in the quality of the equipment. It would be easy to dismiss this as the work of rooks, this company is revolving door after all, but I have the ability to see who dropped the equipment, and some of them have been driving longer than I have.

On a whim, I started doing pre-trips on other carriers equipment (not full, just thumping tires and looking at brakes), and I noticed a lot of them have the same issues my carrier does: flatspotted or blown tires, shattered brake drums, brake pad broken/shattered/below DOT spec, air tanks hanging off a broken bracket, etc.

Is this just an extension of the competency crisis? My dispatch is growing annoyed because I keep having to shut down to wait for repairs, but as I always take pictures and have evidence to back me up, there isn't much he can do about it as I'm on the legal side.

Am I alone in seeing this? Has anyone else noticed a dramatic decline in safe and legal equipment over the last couple of years?

 

Absolutely agreed, I did that while waiting for a repair on my equipment. I spend the majority of my time sitting these days.