Pre-trip and Post-trip

*smacks his forehead with the palm of his hand* Please read post #9!

 

how many threads are there here on this subject?

everyone does it differently,

i have always logged a 15min prretrip and flag the post (who actually does a post trip?) its time to go to bed

if its broke at night, it will be broke in the morning

 

I do a thorough post trip inspection and I fix anything I find wrong right then and there. This is where I show time. In the morning, I've got to get going....I have appointment times to make, and I can't be wasting time fixing things I should have found the night before.

My pretrip is simply flagged. I simply walk around the truck as it airs up...thump the tires, check the lights, listen for air leaks, and make sure my 5th wheel hasn't been pulled....basically make sure nothing has changed since my post trip.

Showing time for a pretrip starts your 14 hour clock...so if you find something wrong that SHOULD have been found and corrected the night before during your post trip, you're limiting how far you can get that day. You can't drive past the 14th hour...but you can stay on line 4 for as long as you need to in order to get the truck ready to roll again.

Another benefit to running a pneumatic tank is that I also have time to look my truck over while I'm unloading and fix any minor things I find then, too...or at least figure out what I need to pick up on the way home to fix it during my post trip.

Repairs aren't going to be an everyday thing...but if you don't pay attention to your truck and LOOK for potential problems every chance you get so that you find them when they are minor affairs, they will turn into major problems that cannot be ignored.

 

thank you for the good advice.

 

chico 50 says thanks for your good advise.

 

one more question, I am the only driver for this truck and the only one that does the inspections, being that do I sign the post trip sheet even though I do not find any issues with my truck.

 

Yup but in the morning it is costing you time while at night you can have it repaired while nicely tucked away in bed for your 10 hours. In the morning you have already done your 10 so it is costing you miles. Post trip for me is the one I go over the truck with a fine tooth comb, and fuel at the same time. Morning check lights wipe off any accumulated snow grab my coffee and hit the road. Fuel and post trip on the same time notation.

 

yes not signed not done

 

Wrong... we have an Ontario Driver Championship contest every year. One of the events is conducting a pre trip, Tractor & Trailer, within 8 minutes, while a DOT (We call MTO) officer shadows you. There are 5 pre-fabricated defects the drivers need to find - and they only have 8 minutes to do both tractor and trailer.

Now while this is a competition, in 2015 specially, I recall 3 drivers aced their tractor and trailer pretrips, finding all 5 defects, under 8 minutes, while under the supervision of an officer.

Not sure what the following years resulted in

 

Trucker W hasn’t been on the forum in 14 years..

It is an old thread from 2007