This is just amazing....

Now you better not be whining about this when it happens to you...

I get the whole idea about dropping trailers when in a yard, but I don't get it.....

IMO, if I came in with an empty, I'm keeping it!

Why should I have to go hunt an empty trailer down just cause someone else bobtailed in.....?

I'm so thankful I own all my stuff!

 

Maybe he just dropped it to go get some dinner..

 

Many places will have you drop your empty trailer. Those places that do make you drop require their planners to find an empty for you when you get a preplan. Often, it's easier for the driver with this arrangement. It stops a lot of running around hunting for one in the yard where someone put seals on trailers to hoard them. Sumner is famous for this. Since most of what they do is heavy haul and reefers, regular trailers can be a real bear to find. Especially when their drivers get into the yard for home time, park their tractor still hooked to the empty and go away for three days. The trailers don't belong to the drivers. They belong to Swift.

This may sound snooty, but if I am taking a few days off and me giving up that trailer is going to save us a customer, I will give it up. I'd rather go looking for a trailer and know there will be something to put in it than sit there with an empty and nothing to load it with because a new customer was trying out Swift's service and wanted a trailer dropped...it could really be that mine was the closest that was in good repair...could have been to that customer in 10 minutes. But I refused to give it up and they had to find another one. Meanwhile, JB Hunt was sitting next door to the customer with an empty ready to go. Customer gets tired of waiting around and calls JB. That's how I see it.

It's different when you personally own the equipment. There are advantages...like never having to hunt down an empty and knowing the maintenance history of the trailer. But there are advantages to fleet trailers as well: not having to pay for the upkeep and the convenience of not having to sit around waiting to load and unload all the time. Drop, hook, move on. Big advantage.

But for them to ask Mr. Jones what the truck number is? Ludicrous.

 

where I am presently working, we come in with a mt trailer, we stay hooked to it unless the truck is going into the shop. We tell them when we arrive that mt, and keeping for now because they know that unless we are picking up a loaded trailer on the yard, there is a very good chance that we are going to need that one to go and load. Now if we are dropping a load, then a good chance, we will be running to find a mt unless at one of our larger terminals. Also, at this company, it is not our job to hunt for one, that is the CSR,s. They tell us what mt and where, unless at a large terminal like Dallas. Dallas will give us a list of 3 mt. We checked them out then tell Green Bay. They then still tell us which one of the 3 to take.

 

You are so right about Sumner. The yard was flooded with HH, heavy reefers (3 axle), IMODs and dedicated Penny's clothes hanger trailers. On the rare occaissions they wanted me to get a "normal" MT, the hunt could take hours.

Heck, even when they wanted me to find a decent 4 axle for water loads, I found easier to sneak one from the Costco yard next door. I'd just hold up a fake red tag as I went thru the exit gate so they thought I was getting the trailer repaired.....

 

you would think a company as large as swift would have some kind of trailer control system--it sounds like cluster f trying to find a trailer--and that is something i cant stand,driving from yard to yard trying to find an mt

 

It's gotten better, but still room for improvement.

 

Your a prime example of why trucking has went down the tube. Your generation, your all about me attitude has put trucking in the arm pit of America. This is what I despise about schools that turn out this steering wheel holder mentality.