Have you ever seen or heard of an experienced driver failing a pre employment road test?

I’m so sick of the pre trip talk. You all talk up and down about pre trips and how you do everything right, use your air gauge on all 18 tires each morning, crawl under that rig, etc and in 28 years I have yet to see a driver in the morning do it. Maybe a walk around and that’s it. If you all did what you say you’d see drivers doing pre and post trips all the time. Any time of the day really. I never see anyone doing anything. I don’t even see many of you pet owners out with your pup! What a #### lazy dog owner you are!

And what is this I know my truck has defects then taking a road test BS? So you use two trucks? You want me to pre trip one and drive another? I’d tell you to go F yourself. A pain in the ### hard ### know it all during a road test is going to SUCK to work for. So quit while you are ahead.

No wonder nobody stays in this industry. Except foreigners and they all do it better and cheaper than most of you!

 

Are you ok?

 

I have taken three road tests in my career, passed them all easily and got along great with the testers. The easiest one I took the guy even told me to not bother with the pretrip. After ten minutes of driving he said to head back to the yard and get your brand new truck and trailer.

 

Story time: (Long Post) Had to pick up a sprayer on the Illinois/Wisconsin border. Grabbed an RGN with slide out outriggers in Gary Indiana. Get to the farm in northern Illinois to pick up a sprayer. This was the biggest, widest sprayer I’d ever seen. I go to pull out the outriggers and realized parts of the outriggers didn’t make it back from a trip to Mexico. All of that stuff is irrelevant to my customer, I feel like an idiot. I apologize to the farmer and promise that I will return the next morning with another trailer.

I go to a shipper where our RGNs are staged and preloaded and grab an empty RGN with slide out outriggers. This time, I pull the outriggers out and inspect them. Never again would I go to a customer and play the fool.

Slide out outriggers are aluminum and the trailer is steel. Outriggers can seize. When I grab a new trailer, I inspect the neck, outriggers…etc. if I grab a stretch RGN, I will stretch it. The air fittings can seize up and you can’t unhook the air lines to stretch the trailer. The rear air suspension is adjustable so you can adjust the height of the load. I make absolutely sure when I hook a trailer, the trailer is fully functional. Mudflats, beacon lights, tires…everything gets checked the first day. It’s not the DOT I worry about, it’s the customer. I am picking up a million dollar machine. Showing up to a customer with a faulty trailer is bad business. The customer will know without a shadow of a doubt that I am competent.

What you don’t see is I bought my truck in 2008. It’s part of me. You might never see me checking tire pressure on 18 wheels. Or underneath the truck. Not in a truck stop. Too much piss. I will walk by with one of those thermostat lasers and check the wheel hub temperatures ant the end of my drive time. Only takes a few seconds, but now I know everything I need to know.


SO, the way I pre-trip will be much different than others. Mine doesn’t get thorough until I switch trailers. That won’t be in a truck stop. But this is how you make the money in OSOW. Truck is good, trailer is good. 11 tarps and hardwood dunnage. Flags, banners, beacon lights are all go. I know my equipment, I am ready to go. It may look as if I didn’t do anything but get out of bed, piss and take off, but I assure you I am prepared.

 

I inspect my truck and trailer everyday, not necessarily all at the same time. I use a airgauge once ot twice a week if something appears to be off, I also check tires and suspension a couple of times a day, not really a big deal if you know what your looking at and for. As far as crawling under a truck at a truckstop, not on your life, its dicusting, drivers pissing and worse all over.

 

Prehire roadtest, If Im going in for a prehire interview, I pretrip the truck and trailer, 1 it's expected, 2. I've never seen that piece of equipment before. Before I drive it I will do a complete pretrip. Just common sense.

 

Yes

 

I hear you, when you know your job and the equipment your going to need or be using it all goes fairly fast, such as always inspecting in general as you approach your equipment.

 

I happen to agree with most of this post. I'm not a gambler but if I was, I'd bet the coffin I could fail anyone on the pre trip alone. Heck, most of the folks conducting the road test couldn't pass a legit pre trip test. That was my experience. And, I include myself. I couldn't name half the crap I was looking at. ###### Jim, I'm a driver (retired), not a mechanic!

 

I concur with most of his message, but the delivery could've been a little softer. lol