Voluntary OOS

dude, it's simple math. Wait four hours for breakdown repair tech, or five minutes yourself and your rolling. I made more money rolling, rather than sitting around saying I don't get paid to fix stuff. You also don't get paid to sit around at most companies. Now some union guy getting hourly not wanting to deal with a broken crank handle, diff situation.

 

I remember replacing a mudflap in Louisiana. Driver came by and asked what I was doing. I told him. He told me he would never get under a trailer to replace a mudflap, let the TA do it. In 10 minutes I had the mudflap replaced (I always carry a spare one) and off I went with fat body shaking his head at me. Guess he would have waited two hours in line for the TA to get him in and cost the company $100....

 

Lol, I could care less about the companies p&l, but I've done drop and hooks, found my loaded wagon on a curb, torn mud flap. Found another one laying in the parking lot. 4 holes with my knife and 4 zip ties and I was rolling. Dropped that wagon at my next delivery, next trailer had a bad bulb, fixed that and kept rolling.

Where is the common sense? I could have wasted 8 hours waiting around for someone else to fix what took me 5 minutes. Good luck to anyone that can't understand this...

 

By the way, my "soapbox" ain't done yet. Any driver worth his salt will carry mudflaps, spare lights and headlights, jumper cables, a small tool set and extra fluids, fuses, bungees, and light caps. Having items like these can mean the difference between a ticket or no ticket, and no trip to a shop for something minor, not to mention having to call breakdown at 3 am for these menial things. (My maintenance department goes to bed around 9). lol.

 

I save them money because they sign my paychecks, lol. But I do it moreso because of what you just said. Big difference between 8 hours and 10 minutes.

 

Lol..fat body shaking his head?? Awesome, maybe the reason he wouldn't crawl under a trailer is because he dont fit !😲😲😲

 

You would fit right into a union shop.

Where would we be no if most people had this attitude? Nothing would be fixed, built or maybe even invented. I call it an entitlement generation. I see that you have been driving for 20 years and you still have this attitude? I get paid more than most at my job BECAUSE they don't have to send someone out to get me back on the road unless it is larger than I have the tools for in my ammo can.

A month ago I had an air line break on my front trailer axle of the belly dump I was pulling at the time. Stuck in the middle of the road. It was one of the 1/4" plastic tubes but locked up the brakes for that axle. Vise grips on the air line, back off the brakes for that axle and drove it 15 miles to NAPA where I could get a new hose and compression fittings. Total time lost, about an hour and when the truck is paid hourly for the job, you do not get paid when broke down.

Most people that I suspect do not do any repairs but wait around for road side assistance while on their xbox are van pullers. I can see not climbing up on the van to fix the upper lights. I see guys that pull RGN's, Flats, tankers etc doing their own repairs all the time. Maybe more owner operators in that field than fleets?

 

So job market sucks in your area huh,and where is it you live?Is there a safety dept at your company?You're right you're getting lucky you hav'nt been put oos.Im surprised when DOT did a log check he didn't notice anything on your equipment.I understand where you're coming from but I don't buy the job market jazz.If you really wanted to find another company you could.I drove for a company like that and the last straw for me was when the trl axle split in half while driving.If not for yourself then for the sake of everyone else on the one get another job.Safety should ALWAYS come first.

 

I use to run containers from Phoenix to the port of Long Beach. Anyone that knows anything about doing this knows the chassis the containers sit on are often in need of several items when you hook to them to be legal and/or safe. If you sit around waiting for this to be done by the people whose job it is to do so, you would spend more time in a yard waiting than actually working in any given week. My first week on the job I went into our shop with 2 large plastic bags and proceeded to stock up on lights, wiring plugs to fit all the various lights, and a host of other parts necessary to fix whatever I i had to fix to get rolling. Not necessarily my job and at the ports you go thru a line where all this is checked and fixed by the union longshoremen and it wasn't allowed for you to fix it yourself. But what they didn't know didn't hurt them...or me. I'd find my chassis and/or box, hook up, check everything and fix it all before going thru that line so I wasn't side tracked to get it fixed by them. Used a maul to knock out mounted light fixtures that were bad, insert the rubber gasket, light, wire on a new plug in, and be gone. Point is, if it needs to be fixed, it's your responsibility to get it done. Either do it and get rolling, or sit there all day waiting for someone else to do it and ##### because you had no miles that week. Whatever it took to keep the wheels rolling, I was prepared. I'm an O/O now and I carry everything I can think of that could possibly break, a multitude of tools, and the know how to get it done roadside if at all humanly possible.

 

I've found some pretty good mudflaps just laying on the ground in drop lots. Still haven't found a set of Yosemite Sam Back Offs though...