US Xpress = Back Stabbers!!!!

Yes I was seduced by a Volvo....As I lay in the spacious bunk with the large panel windows open the cool breeze whisped across my body as if to induce a pie in the sky coma...the truck is a wonderful unit to operate except that the automatic transmission lags and people just want to run under your trailer....I was nevr checked on my logbooks....idletime was to infinity with no complaints....why?....because they pay short miles in conjunction of a sliding scale....anything over 900 miles only paid me 27 cpm....yes....27 cpm....I was only there 3 months and other drivers continued to walk up to my truck and ask a lead question about my miles and then they would complain that they were only getting about 2500 miles per week....I was slipping further and further into debt as each mile passed...weekends were dead....faceless company....my phone bill was astronomical.....

I think constant idling can cause many problems....but what I say is....more run time is less idle time.



Automatic Transmission changes everything you think you know bout a truck....I dont think it should be in a truck....it is so important to manually control the power train....the lag time on the trans was terrible....maual trany....jakes and brakes all together make a safer truck.

 

Any time I see a big pool of oil under my vehicle I won't tell them its leaking I'll tell them its broke because it is. Any time you lose a significant amount of any fluid from your truck something is badly wrong. I wouldn't have argued with safety or breakdown if they told me to push on, I would have called the local DOT to come put me OOS cause I promise they won't want you moving and its your responsibility to be safe.
As for your DAC, you can try challenging it, its possible you might beat it but it was a preventable incident and it was your fault. You learned a tough lesson without killing yourself or anybody else, now its time to move on to wherever go next.

 

I think you need to go back to your trainer and ask him why he didn't train you properly. 80 mph?

 

I've never driven a truck with an auto tranny, so I don't know what you can and can not do with them.

I think you should be able to shift it like a manual when you want to. If you want to overide the automatic and drive it manually, you should be able to do that. Maybe you can already. Don't know. Never driven one. I'd like to try one, but only if I can use it as a manual when I want/need to.

 

Some you can; some you can't. Had one several years ago that you had to shift it yourself. The one I have now I can do either, but I choose to shift it myself. It is nice not having the clutch. Saves the wear and tear on the ole left knee in those traffic jams.

 

When in 3-4 hrs of L.A. rush hour traffic, trying to keep 'moving' so can float gears and save on knee is a challenge! I've got a little tendonitis on my left knee that can kickoff if I dont do!!

 

A driver must learn to shift without the clutch no matter his tranny type. On my first trip to downtown NYC (I've been twice), I decided to learn to float. I'm not wearing out my knee for anybody's freight.

 

My first trip to NYC and I was floating gears. My left leg got tired.

 

when you say you were between 9th and 10th on that autoshift,your truck was not in gear.thats like being in nuetral-no wonder it got away from you.i own an old USX truck(2002) and if you put the truck in manual mode and select your grade descent gear prior to starting down the hill an use the jakes,you should not have had an issue.just don't let it get above 2100 rpm to prevent the forced upshift.i go down hills loaded at 80000 all the time with mine and i pick my gear before i start down the hill.if you saw that leak before you went down that hill,well i can see why someone blamed you.it don't matter what a DM says,if the truck is leaking fluids(oil,trans oil,coolant,etc) enough to make a good size puddle after sitting a few hours-THEN YOU DONT DRIVE THE TRUCK-PERIOD!! you dont know when that leak could soak your drive tires causing complete loss of control. all too often guys go ahead and drive, knowing something ain't right and when something happens the first thing they say is "they told me to drive it anyways". if your car was pissing out tranny fluid,brake fluid,motor oil,etc-would you put your wife in the car and go for it anyways?? didn't think so-why did you do it in the truck!

 

Man, stuff like that scares the mess outta me. Crashing and burning alive sucks, homie, and knowing me, after that you couldn't have paid me to get in a truck.