BEWARE OF GORDON (GTI) TRUCKING...

I understand, we all need a job (I'm waiting to hear on one myself) but nothing is worth risking your safety or the safety of others over.

Just a small point for you (or anyone else), you send your concern about those breaks (or any other problem) over the QUALCOMM. If they insist you still drive it you have them send that back over it. You still don't drive it of course but at least that way it's on the record. Never have such conversations on the phone or it's just your word against theirs.

 

Glad you didn't die or hurt anyone else. Wish you a speedy recovery, driver. I wouldn't have drove the truck in the first place, but if I were In your shoes, think instead of putting out the fire I would have done some Nascar pit crew style action unhooking the truck from the trailer and let that thing burn. Especially since they cared so little.

 

I'm going to guess this happened on 5 someplace in Oregon, or near Shasta north of Dunsmuir.

 

Did you see that he put where he came from?...it wasn't the Northwest..

 

Its not a career ender. If u explain the situation to companies wanting to hire you one of them would overlook it.

 

When you talk about the brakes for example, you say the truck failed my brake pretrip inspection. Not safe to drive period. Communicate as much as you can via qualcomm so that it is documented and saved on the server. Telephone is he said she said.

A skilled driver can get down the grade without jakes but no amount of skill can overcome poor equipment.

To any other drivers out there reading this, don't be so quick to endanger your own life to put out that brake fire. You only have one little fire extinguisher, blast it empty but stay back and let it burn rather than risk your own health.

 

Lawyer up sooner, not later. Learned my lesson with the now defunct Vitran, insured by Liberty Mutual. Bastads!!!!

 

As somebody else mentioned, you must have been talking to a Heartland DM, not a Gordon DM. I just left Gordon/Heartland after working for them for 8 months. My only reasons for leaving were low miles/low pay, but they were always on top of safety issues and would never push me to drive, especially if there was a safety issue with the truck. On the contrary they're overly safety obsessed with drivers and their trucks. You can't pull into a terminal without a safety inspection and you now need to get an oil change/service inspection every 8,000 miles which is a big pain in the butt, so much so that a lot of drivers avoid terminals so they don't lose the driving hours.

A dm that is caught pushing a driver to move with bad equipment risks immediate termination, so I'm having a little trouble with all of this. All it takes is a short macro message to their OTR department and the truck will be taken out of service where it sits and the dm will need to find another driver for their hot load. I used qualcomm several times for problems with the truck and they were always on top of things and had me taken care of very quickly.

If your DM was in Phoenix, Pacific Washington or Lathrop/Rancho Cucamonga CA, it was a Gordon dm, and if it was anywhere east of there it was a Heartland dm.

 

Anyone else happens to...drive it into the nearest weigh station pull around back and start looking the truck and trailer over good...when the man with badge comes out...then you can get the out of service after explaining....the other is as the driver said above, truck stop for a inspection of the brakes, etc. Basically you do whatever you got to do to not drive if the equipment is unsafe. Remember there is a coercion DOT law in affect, and works especially well for safety. Don't drive or haul any equipment that you as the driver feel is in question or unsafe. I had a trailer that they had to come get with a wrecker and tow it to the trailer shop that I was at the customer to pickup, yes big ordeal they had to transload the freight into a good trailer, but hey whatever you got to do, let safety rule# 1. Sorry to hear of your injuries driver, thanks for sharing...I pray betterment of health for you.