Dispatchers ELD rant goes viral after driver sent her a video

I'm going to buy another truck and it will be what some call a "POS" but it will be put in the shop and slowly and lovingly bought back to life. Somethings are just worth saving in my book. Call me an idiot or a fool but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

You're probably right. Most have cracked fenders, headlights bouncing around, mirror heat wires dangling, and on and on. A few days ago, I could actually hear one "rattling" as I passed it. I can't imagine what it sounded like inside.

And don't get me started on the utter weakness of many of these really old trucks. Just their inability to maintain a safe speed up relatively minor grades is a crash waiting to happen.

 

LOL! Don't be so apocalyptic. My 2016 Volvo D13 has a quarter of a million miles on it. Not one problem related to emissions. I'm getting ready to change the dosing valve (7th injector) that I paid a little over a hundred bucks for just for maintenance.

The passive regen technology on these engines now (especially Volvo) is far superior to the first generation DPF motors. Even if there is a problem, my warranty covers it all until 500k.

Once the truck reaches 500k, I will flip it into another new one, leverage the depreciation schedule, reliability and excellent fuel economy all over again.

 

Up hill is slow because of weight. Unless you try to blow your engine. And how many cascadia have heater wires showing from a busted mirror mount?

 

A second ELD. Really how would that work? Going to put in a second data port to plug it into? Oh what about the last 7 days of logs? Don't kid yourself sitting for 8 hours is insane. While I understand you do some specialized loads and have the airport to deal with.

Be Safe Out There



Captain Dave

 

Definitely gonna need to get a cat for the truck for a stress relief animal.

 

I have had the pleasure of driving many old irons, there are a few however that should NEVER have been driven at all. One in particular was a 9800 International Pay star or similar (I forget exactly... long frame daycab...) out of B&B Concrete in Little Rock as a bulk tanker. That one had hundreds of rivets holding everything together in the cab. The floor finally fell down to the frame with me in it at 70 on 30 south one day. I consider that my second birthday or several anyhow. They added more rivets in three weeks and handed it back to me. The following week the rears failed to let go of the power at the driveshaft and it broke the truck again. They yelled and blamed me for it. HA... and handed it back to me in two weeks.

At that time there were day cabs all over the Little Rock metro area sitting waiting for a sale in those days. Way better than that one particular tractor will ever be. But did they buy or rent it? no. I moved on to better pastures. As if I needed to be clubbed on the head a third time by that POS iron.

I say this, that tractor ran ok. You just had to nurse it all the way down and all the way back. Always something wrong with it. It's totally unnecessary and unacceptable. It still is.

Before anyone thinks I am a whiner, consider this.

We had some tractors dating to the late 50's early 60's usually a short mack or a white or something else such as a Reo or autocar if we are really lucky. You could go over any of these vintage tractors in a proper formal pretrip touching every bolt and wire etc on that thing and find nothing out of order. Even the frames had a bit of surface rust where appropriate but not the cancer kind that eats through the steel. And those things drove exactly the way you would expect them to if you drive em right. If you tried to drive em wrong, they will shake, buck and over all beat you up. It's pretty simple really.

Today's trucks are plastic. They are nice yes but.. maybe too nice. I don't mind a little steel here and there. And pretty much all of them either complained of being half a gallon short on the overflow tank for coolant trying to get out of Death Valley or perhaps a auto matic transmission software fault that bricks the whole thing needing a tow. Or something else. All these somethings cost money in the newer equiptment where with the old iron you could wipe your face, have a sip of coffee and settle in to do battle the last however many miles left to where you need to put it. She will get it there. None of this computer stuff.

Now on the other hand, the new trucks do well on fuel mileage and are comfortable etc. If you are any kind of decent trucker you will know how to get it done with a minimum of fuss. If you look around the fleet and it's drivers you will notice the malcontents, the shirkers and lazies etc. The rest go about the day or night or both without being noticed. Nothing ever happens with the good ones.

 

We have had cats in the truck and one was a good cat the other was good also, loved the dash in the sun. But the first one when brought home displayed a inability to settle because it literally saw the nation and could not handle the peace and quiet. It got bad. I suppose. The shelter took it in, but I wonder due to it's mental state would it have been better to put it down or get it back on the road with another trucker. I cannot answer those questions today many years after the fact.

It is good to have a pet with you usually a dog or cat. Anything else becomes unnatural and difficult. How are you going to warm that snake when it's 45 below and 2 feet of snow outside? Or the bird taking in exhaust fumes, it will expire in the cage overnight. Not to mention a stiff headache for you come morning.

I have had drivers come to me for money trying to feed a too big pet like a Boxer a time or two. I don't understand why you have to have something like that in a tractor where space is at a premium. I have had Shepard in the past and am very good with them having been raised with one or should I dare say raised by one when father was preoccupied with his civil war stuff. So that is not a problem.

Those cats though. They will be in the exact spot under or on the bunk where the co driver thinks it's time to get some sleep. You have to account for it and see it's safe before you fall into that bunk for your time asleep. And wonder why you wake up with that thing on your face purring or claws etc.

I can go on but I think that's quite enough for one night.

Merry Christmas.

 

Not sure where you're driving, STexan, but I sure seem to see many more newer trucks broke down than the older trucks. Older trucks don't have near the number of failure points as the newer ones. In fact, my 2007 has left me stranded a couple times where none of the older trucks I've had in the past would have.

 

Okay fine. I can see my argument is not going to fly with those in "older trucks" but I stand by my comments related to 90% of the trucks older than 1999 don't belong on the road today but if you have one, more power and luck to you.

If a Mexican based carrier didn't want to buy it off the wholesale yard to refurbish, I sure as hell wouldn't.