student driver questions on USA..

Oh marc and stephanie at the service counter are great. never had a problem with them. Even ashley is good to deal with. but now if you go in there with an attitude like some of these drivers do like its their fault their truck is messed up, you will have a long day. LOL. Treat the service people good and you will be done right, for the most part, other than carlisle.

 

Ashley can be forgetful, thats the ONLY thing I had a problem with haha. Marc was a very cool guy and was nice to talk and hang out with (when he wasn't busy). He was always helping me out with extra things that I needed; lights, truck updates, etc... Stephanie was also great, always greeted me with a smile .

The mechanics at Vandalia are another story though haha! I once walked by the shop and a mechanic was in a truck that was sitting outside of the bay. It had a battery charger on it and running, the mechanic started the the truck and the batteries caught on fire. I had to yell out FIRE! because he hadn't noticed.

 

ohh, the other day I walked back in the shop just a cussin. I put on my list for mechanic to check fluids. I knew it needed oil and knew it would be easier to have them fill it with the gun than for me. Truck was backing out of shop and I was just coming back from Kroger. He gets out and tells me all done. I asked him if he checked the fluids because I knew it needed oil. He says yes sure did, all good. I go around and hook back up to my trailer and am waiting for a load so I open hood to clean windshield. Said to myself let me check the oil. Sure enough it was still 1 gallon low. I filled it up and brought my jug in to get filled. Told Corwynn that I cant stand for someone to lie right to my face. If you didnt check it just say so. He pulls up my ticket and sure enough the lazy ####### even put on the ticket that he checked the fluids and all good. I talked pure t s hit. went out in the bay to fill up jug and as I walked past mechanic I held up my empty jug and said thanks for checking fluids I guess oil isnt a fluid. He didnt even say anything. just walked away.

 

No one would fix the alternator on my APU. The only people that would fix it was the guys in Phoenix. It sounds like it's starting to get alot worse around USA Truck. I am sensing conflict in Van Buren.

 

Several things going on here to address.

1. South Holland is still the BEST terminal for ANY repairs. And I don't mean the best of a bad lot. Nothing they've ever touched on my truck has had to go back to them or any other terminal. The mechanics are all good humoured and attentive and everybody there is cool except for the guy who works in the office that looks just like Seth from Superbad. And even he's not bad, just a little squirrely.

2. Vandalia is a good place to take a 10. Best driver facilities and some of the fuel pumps work....uhh...at least some of the time. Parts dept will give you literally whatever you want in any quantity you desire. I don't get repairs there anymore because like Van Buren, the truck/trailer went in with one problem and came out with 3.

3. APUs- Big surprise but I've found that Denton is actually the best terminal for APU repairs. Jose, the Guatemalan tech has completely gutted and rebuilt the one on my old Kenworth twice. Both times it ran smoother and quieter and blew colder when he got done with it. He usually can do basically an overhaul on one in one day if he can get the parts and start early. Other terminals, I don't trust with APUs aside from S Holland. Van Buren messed mine up worse than it was, as did Vandalia. W Memphis has a waiting list for repairs now and Roanoke I dunno. When my alternator went out this week Forest Park just sent me to Thermoking in Conley and it was fixed same day.

The maintenance confusion is coming from Van Buren telling W Memphis and Forest Park to turn away all walk in repairs and focus on doing TBAs on unassigned trucks for new hires for this entire week. That's not rumor, I didn't overhear that. The service manager at Forest Park told me that when I tried to call ahead to get my truck on the list for APU repair.

 

I know that they are starting to fix things other than DOT issues. I know that with that 72 hr dot push they were fixing so much stuff that they neglected because they didnt care about it. Like ABS lights on trailers. They had so many to fix in Ohio it wasnt even funny. Now with that over they are back to fixing regular things as long as your FM sends a message for you to get it fixed. All terminals now only do walk ups for DOT.

 

Yeah I've noticed the change too Sarge. It seems that now if you have an issue it's best to either call FM or Breakdown, let them determine the best en route terminal and then make the email/phone call to get you on the list as opposed to just driving in. I've done that once at Roanoke and twice at Denton and had little or no wait before they started repairs. I'll be due for the first PM on this new truck right after my home time this weekend. I'd rather my appt be for somewhere other than Van Buren but seeing as I'm getting that new modulating governor software installed by Fuel Exonomy, likely that's where they'll want me.

 

my fm keeps trying to get me a new truck or atleast a newer one, but every terminal I go to that has one, matt always tells her that that truck is being got ready for another driver. Im bout sick of this guy, and so is she it sounds like. LOL. She is also trying to get me to van buren, I have never been yet, and supposedly if I get there matt will get me out of this truck. But every time she gets me close to there, there is some load that has to be done and Im the only one around to do it. Im starting to think that I am one of only like 4 ppl that got a hazmat endorsemnt. LOL. I dont mind it because if I ever leave USA I made sure I had every endorsement so that I could go anywhere right away. Right now Im on a brand new trailer shuffle to NJ.

 

I love my truck, its an 09 KW but im tired of being in the shop all the time. There is nothing major wrong with it but just a bunch of annoying s hit that keeps me down. I have put over 35k on it and only had to put in 1 gal of oil and 1 gal of coolant, and it out pulls any other usa truck going up hills with a full box. But im a runner and my FM knows this and If I could get a newer one, not saying it will do any better but it might.

 

Yeah Matt is really stingy about the new truck assignments. Supposedly it's because the guy he replaced was just letting people swap into new trucks for the wrong reasons when they weren't supposed to. They ended up with a lot of older trucks with low mileage sitting around in random places. My advice to you is to just be wary at terminals. Watch to see if somebody has just quit or gotten fired and turned in a truck then request that specific truck. Once they TBA and clean it, it gets reported as available and the next driver in line gets assigned to it. That's how the new system works as it was explained to me. The key is getting into it before they report it vacant.