What to do when you get your truck assigned to you

This goes out to all of you rookies out there. And some of you older drivers also!

You have made it through orientation and you are now assigned a new truck. I will put a quote at the end which you will read and understand why I made this thread! I'm covering mainly the Freightliner Columbia and century as this is the main truck most fleece and driver companies use. But it is still good for any other truck out there just follow the same route around the truck to cover everything.

I hope you have a camera digital or film or a GOOD cell phone camera.
Don't even get into the truck yet! There is a lot of metal, fiberglass and equipment you need to look at and DOCUMENT before you climb into the cab! If the outside is looking like the truck was driven in the demolition derby, I guarantee you wouldn't want to see the inside! Just turn around and go inside to see if there is something that DOT wouldn't pull over every time they see it!

Just as you would do a PTI start at the front of the truck and and look at the surfaces, see any dings, dents, scratches, paint peeling, chrome missing or damaged? Look at the exhaust, tires depth ok and the wheels. Are all of the lights attached and working, Windshield have ANY chips. Wiper blades in GOOD condition (I recommend changing blades every 50,000 miles when truck is used out west due to drying!) Take picture of any little thing you have an issue with and put it on the inspection sheet.

Open the hood and do a thorough PTI of the engine. If any mechanical parts do not look good to you then ask the shop but DOCUMENT what you find.

When you are finished with the outside it's time to risk opening the door of your "new" home!

Stand on the running board and look at the FLOOR first and take a picture! Most trucks I've EVER looked into looked like most of the dirt from outside is now inside! Take a picture or two! Now the drivers seat does air go in and out? covering look good or worn? does the lumbar support work?

Now look at the dash. Clean or greasy and cruddy? Take a picture. Look at the overhead consoles. Is the mesh netting most FL's have sagging? how dirty is the over head? If you have a bottle of cleaner like Windex spray a small section and clean it then take a picture!

This is a major problem area in Freightliners: Now look at the center overhead console where the CB goes. There should be a cover plate that covers the hole and trim work held in with 2 screws on the bottom. Most of the morons who just have to have those larger radios remove the trim and only God knows where they put it! The plate alone costs $30! IDK the cost of the trim! Take a picture! Now look inside. can you find the CB coax or the power connector? If the trim is gone I'll bet good money the idiot cut the CB coaxial! Why again IDK! Take a picture and document everything.

Now to the rest of the truck. How does the dash look? Any worn places on the dash? Any HOLES been drilled? (yep I've seen it from CB Rambo's with their linears and big radios they mounted on the dash!) Picture time! Now look at the passenger seat and document how nice it looks!

Sleeper Time: Start behind the drivers seat but first look at the "B" pillar which is to the left of the drivers seat where the seat belt goes up to the hangar. There is a door panel in most of the FL's that holds some electronics. Is it closed or just open? Use a nickel and try to close it and if it doesn't lock let the shop know.

Now look at the desk and closet or over head compartment. Trim work in place? and cuts or holes? If there is a drawer does it work or is it even there? If there is a slot there then LOOK under the top of the desk and look and see if there are any tracks left on each side? If so, note missing desk! If you aren't sure ask the shop. Is there a funny looking plastic bottom in the bottom of the desk at the floor? This is made for a refrigerator and most drivers will pull it out so they can put stuff on the floor. Take a picture and note it as missing. How does the sides of the desk mount to the floor? Look around the inside of the side panels and where the screws mount it to the floor are they broken and the sides loose? Document it.

Now look at the mattress. Look clean to you? Or does it have a lot of"pills" all over the top and dirty from drivers just sleeping on top of it with no mattress cover? Ask for a new mattress as you have NO idea what might be lurking on it!

Are the window covers in place and the correct ones? All of the snaps will fit the ones mounted in the wall of the sleeper! Look at the top bunk if there is one and check the matterss there and if sad take a picture and document.

Note the passenger side closet and storage cabinets. Look ok? Any holes broken or worn trim? Is the TV antenna still there with the fitting on the end? Is the power plug still there and operational? And in ALL of the cabinets is the bottom carpet cover still there and fairly clean? Now look at your feet. Is the carpet clean and still glued to the floor or is it the rubber pad all the way through the truck? Look ok? If filthy document and I'll tell you later what to clean it with!

Now open the bunk by lifting it open. Will it stay up? No? Get the shop to fix the shocks. Is it clean? Do you have a CPU (tripack) unit under the bunk? Is the front air filter a pretty blue or look like it needs to be changed? AND are the outlets into the cab of the truck for both the AC and the Espar heater still present? NO picture and document or tell the shop to replace them!

Check all lights, switches and gauges, AM/FM/whatever radio if it works and everything else you can think of. If the Radio doesn't work very well look at the mirrors. Freightliner and the rest that went with the AM/FM/CB (junk) combination radio system with the internal splitter made a matching CB Antennas set. There should be two antennas ISSUED with your truck!

Regular CB antenna work fair with your CB, BUT if you are like me and rely on AM radio for ACTUAL up to the minute traffic reports in any major city then they work like CRAPOLA! Tell them you want the original issue CB antennas or document that they are missing! They are High Dollar $25 ea. at FL! You want GOOD CB reception then get a good CB antenna, coax and mirror mount and install! The JUNK that all of these manufactures put in their trucks these days isn't worth the money they wasted on it!

And I'll argue to my last breath that XM radio traffic reports are 15 to 30 minutes BEHIND the local stations! You want factual not old information when running a major metro city! I sat next to a guy at the Vince Lombardi one day and he was on this XM traffic report for NYC and I had on ABC and he finally realized that if he had been driving he would have been screwed! Go with the LOCAL!

For cleaning carpets in your truck I use either Prestone carpet cleaner or Trutle Wax Carpet cleaner! They both will get out 5th wheel grease! Then follow with Scotch Guard! When you clean your carpet take a picture before and after to doucment that you cleaned and keep the receipts! tax deductable!


now that post from Jqacksdad: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...e/51816-k-b-transportation-will-lie-give.html

Do you see the reason for a thorough inspection of the truck you are issued or leased? His wasn't the only story on The Truckers Report like this!

A Few tips while I'm in a generous mood! ROFL

When you decide that the bottom feeder you're driving for isn't worth the time ask to go home and clean out your truck first! Don't tell them you're quitting until AFTER you made it home! AS soon as you get home then send in your notice! Reason is you acquired a lot of "stuff" that you might not want to part with and it's a lot easier to clean it out to your garage than on a company yard or out on the road when they tell you to get out of their equipment! And it has happened!

​

CLEAN the truck to better standards that you got it but I sure hope you did that in the first week or so that you started to live in it! YECH! Then go around and DOCUMENT every thing again! Hopefully you took pictures of the POS while you cleaned it so that you have Before and After pictures!

Another piece of advice

​

This has become a COVER YOUR ARSE business! CYA as much as you can from coping every piece of paper that goes through your hands so that if something is "missing" from your Trip Pack you have a copy! I had this problem when I worked for Trans AM! It just seemed to squeeze out of the envelope! If you have a laptop then get a scanner. You don't need a printer but if you do Cannon makes both a scanner and printer made for traveling. They both cost about $80-$100 and are small! Copies at the truck stop cost $.25 each and then you have to store them which is more wasted space in the truck. When the company says that "they didn't get your paper work" Email it to them! Most of these companies have a scanner so they also have the means to receive emails with attachments! Don't fall for the fax it deal unless they PAY the fax which of course they can "loose" that receipt too! Such a vicious cycle!

Learn to do your paper work the same way every time! As soon as you get into the truck from fueling, scaling, loading, unloading or repairs DOT inspections, DO YOUR PAPER WORK! (Unless you took to much time in the truck stop googling at everything do it when you get back in the truck or move to the lot and do it! Do NOT throw it on the floor or dash or folded in your pockets! Write it down in it's proper place on your paperwork then put it in your envelope! Always have a medium to large envelope or your companies prescribed method envelope to put paper work in to send! It CAN'T get lost like paper work just thrown around the cab! And believe me Murphy's Law says it will! When time t sent it in pull out that wonderful scanner and scan it to the computer and THEN to a flash drive! Back up - back up - back up!

Hope this helps and I just might do another thread sometime in the future!

Good Luck
Rollover

 

I'm just trying to give the newbies a helping hand in all of this insanity with these bottom feeders that are taking way to much advantage of the kids (and older newbies) and I find it offensive that they continue to do so!

This story is going to change after Jan 1st when CSA 2010 goes into effect and 175,000 of us are gone! THEN these scum bag companies that take advantage of the newer drivers will have to bite the bullet as life as THEY know it is going to change!

I just wish everyone out there would quit falling for the fleece programs and refuse to take the job to force them to go back to being company driver companies but we all know that the need to keep our families supported makes us do things we know to be dangerous to our well being!

I just hope they all can read this thread and at least CYA as much as possible!

When the truck is dropped where they have to sign for it and verify that it's in the same or better condition when dropped off and when assigned to the driver,then when that company does a false DAC/USIS report on them they can just photocopy the signed inspection put a few pictures attached to the USIS Consumer Report Dispute Form and mail it in and bingo USIS will repair the report and maybe look at that company a little closer when they get the Abandoned or trashed the truck reports! To bad our law makers can't set the standards higher on USIS for the companies that when they make a report on a driver they have to do more than click a few buttons to file! I think than a company that is going to file with USIS and get paid for each of these reports should have to take at least 30 minutes on each one! Do you think they will be posting anything else to them when it's going to cost them about as much in payroll as they get from USIS for each report? NOPE! Meaning the death of bottom feeder USIS! Besides where does USIS have a report for us to file on trucking companies? HMMM? That's what I thought!

Good luck and Google me!
RolloverRiderPGR