Climate Express

I just cleared St Louis my brother. I'm in the home stretch man 177 Mi to home.

 

Ended up getting sent to the southern tire mart in Warrenton. It's a 3 hour wait, but not much choice lol. I worry that by the time I make the trip to East STL, they'll have a 3 hour wait stacked up too. I'll have to do a split to get home tonight anyways, so it is what it is. I give the benefit of the doubt on mudflaps at Coke and Hershey because of how many yard dogs use the curb as a bumper lol.

Yeah, there's really no good option. I understand where they're at with keeping drivers because it is a business after all -- a company has to maintain the capacity to handle their customer demands. I understand a driver occasionally pawning off trailers with issues as well -- if you have to pick up the only empty from Craftsmen to drop at Coke for a hot load going to Houston, there's not much option at that point. Its a perpetual cycle though if theres no incentive or disincentiv. The one thing that makes it not so bad is I've never been asked to run anything actually unsafe or gotten any grief for getting things fixed. And the tractors are new and pretty well maintained, so that eases things a bit. At least minor trailer repairs can be fit into a schedule easily on most loads.

GP had a system that seemed to work decently well. We were required to take walk around pictures for every pre trip and post trip. Super obvious things like lights, mudflaps, damages like the landing gear Bryan picked up, etc. couldn't be hidden or pawned off. It also guaranteed a driver at least did a bare minimum walk around. It also guaranteed a driver couldn't get blamed for a hit and run at a truck stop. Of course, company tablets were provided for ELD/pictures.

 

This actually makes sense and is a really good policy.

 

Way back when I worked at sharkey they made us record our findings during pre trips an post trips and any in between drop an hooks in a canned inspection form on the mobile max ( their version of Qualcomm ). Then if you picked something up that cost you breakdown time an that should've already been fixed, they would trace back the inspection records an charge the driver that failed to do his or her job the breakdown pay they had to pay you for any excessive down time.

 

Meh, that's trucking 101 right there. Going home then come to find that Malarkey on a pre-trip. Don't let 1 bad apple spoil the bunch. From what I'm reading this is a pretty good company to work for. Enjoy your time if you guys are home, and as always stay safe when you return back in the saddle.

 

Really good people, nice tractors with APU, and decent lanes make it worthwhile for sure. At the end of the week, my pay is decent so I guess a couple hours scrolling on my phone for a trailer repair isn't too bad.

 

Just make sure that ya get on dispatch if it becomes an excessive issue so ya can try an get some breakdown pay. Robert was always real decent about making sure the wife an I were compensated fairly for unexpected delays and layovers.