Road Unworthy

My carrier is big on keep the trucks safe. We have just recently lowered our vehicle Safe-Stat score to 57.85, which is down from a mid 80s score just 4 years ago. Prior to my coming to work for this company, they had much older trucks/trailers and a shoddy maintenance team. After the DOT cited the company nearly $200,000 in one year for OOS equipment, the HMFIC (pm me for acronym description, if needed) decided to terminate all maintenance team members, up to and including the manager and replace them along with trucks and trailers. Now it is company policy that all drivers run both truck and trailer through the safety lane whenever picking up any load. Not doing so could result in termination of the driver. My company is a dedicated carrier for a plastics manufacturer and every facility has a shop manned 24 hrs a day 7 days a week.

 

i picked up a load one time, the trailer's brakelights were questionable, right turnsignal on teh trailer was malfuctioning, the one spring brake chamber was questionable and a few of the rims didnt look so hot. they had me drag it to the nearest maintiance facility which happened to be 10 minutes away to get it repaired.

right now i got a trailer that is past due inspection and they just got me a live load goin to marshfeild, well somewhere nearabouts, to get it in for inspection. (althou there is nothing wrong with the trailer they want to make sure it gets inspected. period.)

 

That was precisely my question a couple of years ago. They simply hire someone else who will drive it. This is an epidemic in the farming communities. Last year I had to pull in anothers drivers truck (can't mention names) and it wasn't moving until the exhaust leak was fixed. I have to tell ya I had some people upset with me! It took us a few hours to get it fixed after someone had to run grab parts. The other driver had been getting very sick and I just happened to be using his truck on one of his sick days off.. The smell about knocked me out! The problem being they dont care about the drivers safety nor anyone elses on the road.

There will always be someone who will drive those trucks and and the "hush hush" thing around here keeps DOT from stopping them. As I said in an earlier thread, the best I can do is remain hypervigilant when driving, be grateful my truck won't run fast (or they'd be really upset) and be grateful this will be the last few months coming up of ever having to drive for them again before going O/O.

Now I have a question for you Why is it so many hands are tied in rural communities? I get the "jist" of it, but it never changes, so maybe it's more about why doesn't it ever change??

 

P.S. DOT is also very close to us and we pass the station/them frequently

 

The topic brings up a god question. I am a new driver with a little bi of confusion on it as well. A recent experience showed me that company policy doesnt really mean anything.

A little background before I get into it. Before becoming a driver I managed tire stores. Goodyear (during the police pursuit tire recall), Firestone (during the ford issues), Fletchers tire, and a few others. My background is very heavy in tires and suspension.

We hook to a trailer and start our VI. I find a right front outer tire that has heavy damage from being run low on air. The sidewall looked like someone took a cheese grader to it. The inner tire on the same axle had entirely too many flat spots and low tread areas over its surface. Left side read outer tire had a 12 inch gash in it that was less than 1/4 inch from being a full puncture. I called these issues to my trainer, so we could send the qualcomm message in to request service. The respone I got?

"Those tires are safe, but you can send in a request if you want. I'll tell you now they wont replace them though!".

And he was right. They asked us to run them as is. I unhooked and refused the load. I am not going to put my life in danger for a load. I am not a seasoned driver by any means and I know I have a lot to learn yet. But I do know tires very well. I am confidant if I dont trust a tire that is enough cause for me to refuse to pull it. And like it or not I will continue to do exactly that.

Now I spent a couple hours in a debate with my dispatch over it. Why would he hound me so badly to pull an unsafe trailer? What if I gave in and someone got hurt? Bottom line is he let us sit there another day to 'punish' us for not taking an unsafe trailer. So we loose money for wanting to be safe? I ask you how exactly that makes sense? In most businesses thinking safety will usually get you some reward will it not? Yet as a driver it gets you parked, while a dispatcher wants you to think he controls your decisions? I guess your original question still remains.

Who really makes the calls?

 

They may punish you, but I would much rather miss a day than lose my life, and/or take someone elses because of faulty equipment. There is the whistleblower law. Yes I know, they will most likely find a reason to fire you for another reason so they don't get in trouble for retribution, but at least you can go somewhere else instead of a small box underground.

 

The only time the company puts an emphasis on fixing things is if the truck or trailer won't roll.

Beyond that, if it's something that a driver can reasonably expect to last until unloaded or can live with till he/she gets back to the yard, it will generally not be repaired on the road.

With some driving experience, you get a pretty good idea of what you can safely get away with as far as equipment malfuntions.

A tire just below the limits is not actually unsafe & as long as you're not abusing it on hot roads & high heat, it'll be fine till you get back or at least unloaded.

A bad brake cannister is not all that unsafe as long as it's not loosing air.

Sure, you've lost a little braking power but, again, you can safely move around as long as you compensate for the lost bit of braking.

There's some things that can be safely dealt with without panicking the boss or overly frustrating yourself because the shop mngr won't move.

There's a ying & yang to it all.
Some drivers think the sky is falling if a bulb isn't working.
Some think that as long as the top of the tire is round, the flat spot on the bottom is ok.

Then there's diesel cops.
You get two kinds.
There's ones who know trucks & can tell when something is well beyond a casual, "If I take it easy, It'll last till I get back or unload".
To the the ones that think the sky is falling because a bulb is out.

 

Good post Bob!