No APU, 5 minute idle, 90+ degrees - is this legal?

Two thoughts here...

For one, with fuel at $3.90-4.00 a gallon, and idling a gallon an hour away, that's $32 in 8 hours. Multiply that by a lot of trucks and that's a lot of money.

Second, I was born and raised on the Texas Gulf Coast, 5 miles from the water, 98% humidity year round... many older folks had swamp coolers and fans, or air conditioning, but my parents, being teenagers during the depression, wouldn't consider a fan or swamp cooler, and forget air conditioning. In fact, we didn't have a car with air conditioning until I was in high school, and only because a dealer in Texas wouldn't order a car in without it. Every night, you'd sweat through your sheets, sleeping on a matress with a plastic cover...

I swore to God that when I grew up, I'd have AC in my house and car and not put my kids through those crapy nights. This isn't the 1800s. We have a choice where we can live more civilized. I have nothing to prove about how tough I am, what I can put up with or deal with... I've already proven it all 10 times over.

Give me working AC or I'll get my own.

 

Not to sound callous, but the trucking regs were written in the '30's when there was no AC in trucks, motels or restaurants, and the mindset hasn't changed much.

Perhaps if they will not respond to your pleas you need to ultimatum them with motel room reimbursement, or where to find the truck and trailer for somebody else to deliver.

 

392.4 (I think!) It is illegal for you to drive if fatigued, illegal for them to make you drive if fatigued. Send that and all messages on the Qualcom.

 

I would stab the clutch or fuel pedal for 10hrs everyday,
Lay a brick on the pedals from stabbing anyone !

 

Last I checked, A dog can't open the door.

Plus, like my dog much more than I do most people.

 

If you can't sleep, you can't drive. Regardless of why, they can't make you.

Just make it clear to them what will correct the problem.

 

Ok, here IS what you need to do to get their(your company's) attention.

If your AC doesn't work there should be no reasonable expectation that the Qualcom should work... Here is what you do. Get a wire snip, small latter, and snip all wires coming from the little dome on the top of your truck. Turn off your cell phone, wait a couple of hours... Then go to a pay phone and call your dispatch's 800 #.

They(dispatch) likely will be freaking out that they cannot see you with their tracker system... Calmly, state that you AC doesn't work either and it appears that we will need to do things 'old school' for a while until they both can be fixed...(the AC and the Qualcom).

The dispach will likely ask, 'what is that suppose to mean'? Simply tell him, "old school" means you will contact him when you need something via a truck stop pay phone.... Just like they did back when big trucks had NO AC in them.

 

That's great advice, have fun getting fired. Ask for a freakin hotel, or pay for one yourself. Willfully damaging company equipment is great idea.

 

Who cares about being fired? Just make sure you have a full tank so you can drive the sucker home if they do(loaded or not). If the company cared why don't they fix the freaken AC?

Why should he pay for a motel? If the company cared they would, but it's quite obvious they don't, or they would fix the freaken AC in the first place.

However, what I suggested can be done without damage(cutting wires). Just takes a little more work and time. Something I certainly wouldn't give them.

 

Please don't give out advice like this, it's just irresponsible, and I'm being nice.

If they sabotage the truck and do wire cutter repairs, they're going to be fired, their DACs hit badly, and rightfully so, and they'll never work again in the industry, thanks to following some internet forum/trucker lawyer's advice... and very bad advice at that.