Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Well this probably doesn't happen to any of you guys, but lately down at our yard we have been having trouble with people just taking what ever truck they please. Yesterday one of our lower on the totem poll guys just went and hopped in one of the newer trucks and just bebopped down the road. The truck he was driving was my old truck before I switched routes:

Well anyhow this morning the driver who drives that truck now left a voice mail this morning saying "Guy please do not take my truck 615### it is not a spare, please do not take it."

I don't blame him for being mad we have assigned units and some of these lower on the totem poll guys who by the way most of them have filthy trucks are busy trying to hijack newer trucks and that's not really allowed, I drove a beater International for a year and then we had some people quit and equipment was reassigned and I went from a beater to a 2015 Volvo, it was nice so for 2015 I had a new truck, but when I switched routes I had to give it up, however I got a decent 4 year old truck out of it and that trucks been fine as well, this is an older picture the bumper has been replaced and is new:


Any , how one of the newer guys tried to take one of our senior guys trucks he was actually going to go to the trouble of unhooking it and hooking it to his trailer just because he felt he should have a new truck to drive and that's actually, kind of a big no no. Now the people who are engaging in this behavior, one of them I'm not sure how long he's really going to be around, he's probably going to quit this year and the other guy, he's not well liked at all by our transit team or by the senior drivers.

Anyhow one of our senior drivers finally had enough and this morning when one of our trouble makers came in one of the top totem poll senior drivers said to him "Hey what truck are you driving?"
The trouble maker replied "I don't know what ever one they said 615XXX."
The senior driver said "Did, you not listen to voice mail this morning? That's not your truck that is S's truck go put it back."

The trouble maker then said "You mean I have to unhook get another truck and rehook?"
The senior driver said "Yes that's exactly what I'm saying now go do it."
And he did, he drove it back there and unhooked and re-hooked.

I'm always waiting for them to take mine, but since mine has the old logo's on it I think they think it's old and people aren't as drawn to it, but I'll say this though, that doesn't mean they won't ever take it, I know that usually if my route is cut or whatever and I'm on another route with another driver, I usually see it missing and gone which means someone took it.

Heck I let one guy barrow my hand held one day got it back it was all beat up and the stylist was missing, well that's how it goes I guess.

 

Wouldn't want to take someone else's truck at my shop, we dont have any beaters now, but we did, low man drove it. We keep our gear, (much of it personally owned) in our trucks....

 

Same with us as far as the gear goes and that's one of the big problems, the old division transport manager even said Do Not Take other people's trucks a lot of guys have there own gear and tools and stuff and your just asking for trouble taking other trucks.

 

Hmm, guess we're gonna have to start calling you "Michelle!"

Ah Ha! It's starting to make a bit more sense now. I know it seems ridiculous, but without any credit history, I'm surprised you got the loan! Most of us are not smart enough to stay completely out of debt, until it's time to make a big purchase, such as a house, or business, or even a vehicle.

The only problems we had with people taking someone's assigned tractors, would be if one of the higher ups, (read that the owner, or one of his kids,) decided to reassign the truck to a different terminal, for whatever reason. Almost always they would pull a driver's gear out, and leave it inside the dock. But sometimes they would miss something, if it wasn't in plain sight.
That didn't happen often, but seems like it was always the weekend, when they'd make the transfer. Never happened to me though.

 

I wouldn't know what its like to have the same truck day in and day out. Except for a couple routes, we seldom have the same truck everyday (it would make too much sense to do that).
We do have a problem with a couple lift gate trailers always seeming to be gone when the person who needs it gets to work.
Had that problem today, got dispatch so mad she called the driver back from an hour away and made him return the trailer, and start over with what was left of his route.

 

But but it was mt?! Why shouldn't i take the trailer i like?

 

We don't have assigned trucks. You take what you like, seniority does not factor into it at all. Our yard rule is CNG trucks leave the yard first, then if there are none left you may take a diesel. This winds up with the senior guys in diesels a lot because they tend to bid the runs leaving later in the morning. Of course, there's some flex on this, as some places we go don't have CNG fueling stations en route, or run more miles than our CNG trucks have the range for.

You trash your truck, you're likely to have the stuff left in your mailbox the next morning. Everyone knows exactly who drove the truck earlier, as we all have to sign off on the previous driver's DVIR. So it winds up being a self-policing situation.

 

Usually trailers are assigned to routes or certain jobs, usually never had a problem with trailers, because trailers were never at least for us a free for all system the dispatch and the warehouse managed the trailer fleet, however every operation runs differently.

 

OK, I know this is a bit off subject, but what kind of range and fuel mileage do those CNG units have?

 

Buddy of mine says they run smoother, but get 15 to 20 percent of the millage, but thats local work