Swapping trailers on the truck stops . . .

Tmc and ruan, tiny companies that i should assume are fly by night companies not adhering to common industry practice?

But then again, perhaps door swinging megacarriers have more rigid money wasting policies because they dont trust their drivers.

Like i said, when in doubt, scale it, why bother otherwise? Waste of time and money

 

Don't forget if u own a hood truck to drive around truck stop at 2 am with full engine brake on

 

We call that a re-power. There are many reasons:

1- The load is hot and the driver might not have enough HOS to complete it on time.
2- One driver may need to be somewhere at a specific time (home time, court date, etc.) and switching loads may facilitate that.
3- A dispatcher might want to screw you out of a 2,000 mile load to give it to a lease operator.
4- A driver might have been summoned back to the home terminal.

There are a few other reasons but they fall along the same lines.

In my rookie year driving for Stevens, I was on a 2400 mile load going to Pennsylvania. I get a call from another driver manager telling me that I needed to re-power because another driver (a lease operator making 89 cpm) had to go home to PA because his mother was sick! Lol.

I said, "PA is almost 5 days away. How sick IS she? Because if my Mom was really sick I would be there tomorrow."

(Crickets) Then he said, "Well, she's not really THAT sick, but he needs to be there."

Me: "Well, tell him that it'll cost him $200 to get that load and I need it sent to me on the Qualcomm beforehand."

The DM couldn't believe he was hearing this from a driver that had been with the company for only 5 months.

He says, "Well, I could force you to take the re-power."

I say, "Yeah? Good luck getting the BOLs from me."

If his mother was really that sick he would have paid it right? Well, they told me to go pound sand, so I guess it was all just a ruse. And that was that.

I don't mind being a company guy or taking one for the team, but making only 30 cpm at the time, I would have to be a moron to give up that load so some DM could take care of one of his "boys" (and maybe get his palm greased afterwards).

 

Been doing switches with a truck from west for 25 years at a company terminal. The little companies switching at truck stop across the road gets to be a comedy of errors when they cant park or find their way out of a lot packed tight. Or they let their mutt out off leash and for the next hour fat truck driver trying to retrieve his untrained pooch..

And dont forget the ones who dont check their pin lock and drop trailer at the entrance

 

And if you drive for a mega or are an o/o with a raggedy old hooptie truck, definitely leave your fog lights and improperly-aimed LED headlights on, preferably the high-beams, when you're parked.

 

In many LTL(less-than-truckload) trucking companies, most drivers are local and return home daily. They will meet another driver coming from another direction at a place that is roughly halfway between the two terminals. Each driver will do a "power slide" meaning they unhook the trailers and swap, keeping the same truck. This allows freight to move 1000 miles or more in 1 business day and allows each driver to be home each day for a rest break.
Some truck stops are hot spots for "meet and turns", and you will see several drivers from the same company doing this daily.
I hope this helps!

 

The method we do it depends on the time of day. Meaning how crowded the lot is. If it's fairly clear, we just each take a parking spot, un hook, then hook to each other's trailer.

If there's no other places when the second guy arrives it's a little tricky. If I'm the one staying I ask the other guy to let me pull out then have him back in to the slot in a hurry. I drop my box in the clearest place in the drive way area then have him hook up to it. I help him with cranking up the landing gear, hooking up the lines etc.
And must not forget, trading paperwork.