Abilene Motor Express....A New Place To Call Home

One of these days I'm going to learn to NOT pull in to a rest area on I-40 in Arkansas before, say, 10:00am local time.

But that day was not today.

 

Come on now, driver! That’s trucking 101!

 

I think the only solution to fix the problems with the messed up trailers is to dock drivers' pay 20$ an hour up to 150$ a day for layover if stuck a whole day for every hour another driver is stuck waiting to get a trailer fixed because it was dropped messed up one way or another. I think the whole reason they drop trailers that are messed up is because it will hurt their pay for the week if they gotta stop to fix stuff and possibly lose a good reload because of waiting in a shop. So the solution is to hit them in the bank account anyway because they will either fix the trailer or they will quit and go elsewhere so they can get away with dropping bad trailers. Heck, I worked for a company once that made you pay the insurance deductible if you had a preventable accident, drivers were a lot more careful knowing that.

 

Some drivers sometimes, sure. But I've seen countless short haul drivers do it, and they get paid by the day, not the mile. I don't think they're even looking. I see drivers hook up to a trailer and all they've seen is the landing gear and glad hands. Seen them pull off the yard with a wheel locked up

Drivers drop trailers at the Richmond yard without just writing them up and red tagging

 

I agree with you, that is what a company should want, responsible professional drivers that pay attention and not tear things up.

 

So I had lunch today with an Abilene driver I trained when I worked there, he took 5 days off, put his truck in Richmond to get a PM and a few other things fixed while off. Went to leave the yard yesterday and didn’t even make it to 95 before the truck started throwing codes and derated, after several hours they finally figured out some mechanic apprentice mixed up the fuel filters, and put the wrong one in the davco water separator, and that one in the main fuel should have been in the davco. You can’t make this stuff up.

 

Turns out there was a truck with a couple of freaked-out newbie drivers stuck trying to get their truck through the maze without damaging anything (on their truck or anybody else's). Two more trucks behind 'em, then me. None of us could leave until the newbies got themselves out of their jam.

So I went up and helped 'em. They weren't too bad off, really. Told 'em to turn the steering wheel all the way THIS way and move forward a bit to straighten out the truck, then once their trailer tires cleared the truck behind 'em, turn the tires a little bit THAT way and edge forward. Took about 5 minutes to get 'em straight. And there was much rejoicing.

 

Anybody ever been to lineage cold storage off 115th ave in Miami?

 

Parked next to this guy last night.



That's some real Old School Cool(ing) right there.