Company Drivers, it doesn't mean you can abuse it

The outfit i roll with makes you fill in the blanks on what they call a "daily vehicle inspection report" I have never had anything come back to me on my end because i do a proper PTI anyways,but i have seen some guys come real close to being let go because they didn't report something they thought was minor.

 

Very glad I to read that I am not the only guy that feels the way I do about my company truck,,,, I spend the $50 every so often to wash my company truck, I keep track of her milege, do proper PMI's and get pissed when maint won't fix her like I want.

SheepDog

 

Diselgypsy as a company driver I'm the same way. I also have couple of reasons to keep the truck clean and well maintaned. First is a clean truck doesn't inspected by DOT as much. Second is if I'm broke down I'm not making any money. Granted DOT can find something wrong with the truck where they put it OOS if they wanted to look hard enough. The trick is not to give them a reason to look any harder than is required. Also it not if the truck will break down,but when. A well maintained truck breaks down less often.

 

Many years ago, I was sent to pick up a trailer from a rental company. We did the usual walkaround, and noted a few minor scuffs here and there, nothing out of the ordinary. I took off, loaded, and did my trip. Not once on that trip did I drop the trailer. At the end of the trip, I was told to take the trailer back to the rental company. The sales guy came out to do the walkaround. He immediately squatted down next to the landing gear, and exclaimed, "Wow. You've bent the legs!" The rest of the walkaround was promptly forgotten about. Existing damage, which he already knew about, and which I didn't notice, suddenly became my problem.

Funny thing was, the guy was so blatant about it, otherwise I might have thought I'd done it without noticing. He was too fast. As soon as he saw the trailer number, he knew what his next move was, because he was waiting for the driver that was either too trusting, or too lazy to do a proper inspection. I was that driver.

 

my work truck has been used and abused and looks like it's been run through hell and back,but I still try to take care of it.

 

My truck is a 06 KW and has no chipping,peeling or fading. we keep them in the shop every night and are strongly encouraged (with a wash bonus) to wash it every week. Most morning when I pop the hood I go over it with a duster to knock the dust off, keep it looking good all week. Now that winter is coming and the slow season, I will get the polish out and do the tanks and headache rack. Need to do the wheels too, but I hate doing wheels.

 

Same here, I hate polishing wheels with a passion. I'll put hours into doing them and then the nice "tire wash" at the quarry ruins them for me. ########.

 

I hate to admit it, but at USA we were more scared of getting a "Preventable Accident" within the first 6 months than anything else. Plus if you did have truck damage, they never wanted to fix things. (I was a 9400 driver and they were phasing them out so this might be a factor, and things might have changed)

I tore the door off a trailer in my 1st year and thought I was fired. (I wasn't)

Still, if I had done something (stupid) like this, I'd probably try to pay for it out of pocket rather than have the company safety guy rip me a new one.