Road Unworthy

LOL! I would have done the same. Also, in my post, there's no way I referring to you nor all officers. Sadly we're living in a world where corruption abounds. My daughter is going into law enforcement. Her being able to see and know beforehand of some officers that are not always honest will be in her favor.

I really do wish there was more funding. And that the companys were checked on the spot at random.

 

I thought they were clear lol. He did the right thing! That took guts.

 

Why don't they do it instead of making you waste your time taking care of this? These companies out here seem to demand more and more as time goes on. 10 years from now, it will be the drivers responsibility to do all minor and major repairs to a truck at this rate.

 

At the risk of sounding pro-mngt, I don't see anything terribly wrong the driver taking the trailer someplace to get it fixed.

I say this to the extent that the trailer is in reasonable enough shape to be moved a few miles safely...& that a trooper won't bust you for doing it.

That's the rub right there isn't it?

You're doing the company, yourself & the driving public a service by gimping your truck or trailer to a place that fixes gimping trucks & trailers only to get a ticket for bringing a gimped truck or trailer to the shop.

Kind of a catch22 isn't it?

The only thing that irks me is they expect you to drag it there & babysit it for free.

 

whtline and bob make good points also. More and more they it seems we are expected to be the driver, the repairman, and sometimes even the lumper and do it all within our 14 hours a day. Oh well at least here on this forum we have drivers commited to safety and helping each other out. It seems like once you are out there not many people sem to care much about safety. So it is good to be able top come home, relax a little and hear that it really does matter. A safe driver isnt a dieing breed!!

I have to wonder tho. Some of you saw my topic on my trainer and his laptop. He did get fired over it. But I was supposed to be back out Friday. And yet here I am still waiting on the powers that be to get me moving again. "Call us Monday we'll see what we got for you". Makes ya wonder if even tho he was fired they somehow still feel the need to make me sit. Oh well another weekend with my kids! Never gonna complain about that!!

 

After reading this thread, I have to share what happened to me last week...

I currently drive for a "temp firm" that specializes in placing CDL drivers. I had a local driving job for a number of years which I left in June. (BTW, local jobs are not always so heavenly, but that's another post for another time).

I get a call from the temp firm, "Do I want to run a trailer down to South Carolina from Ohio later that night?" Figuring I can pick up a nice chunk of change for about 36 hours of work, I take it. I have to pick up the paperwork at one location, the tractor at a Penske rental yard, and then grab the trailer at the customer location. The tractor is making funny noises on every clutch and shift and every acceleration, but the Penske shop is closed (only the yard is open) as it's after 11:00 p.m. Too late to call anyone over this, I figure if the truck moves, it's o.k. All lights, tires, hoses, etc. are fine on the tractor, so I go to pick up the trailer. I hook up to the trailer, do a walkaround on it. The lights, signals, etc. are fine on the trailer. Dual tires on one side of one axle are a little thin (ok, almost bald) - but here it's "judgement call" time: since it's after midnight, do I take the trailer? All other tires are o.k. This is not a "sky is falling" deal-breaker, but the tires could definitely stand replacement. Most drivers would roll away, knowing that refusing to pull a trailer with questionable tires (and only 2 of 8 tires are questionable, at that) would put them into the "complainer" category (and therefore not at the top of the list for future runs). So I drive away.

I had been driving for about 10 hours with a couple of stops. As I had been though the Virginias and lots of hills, I pulled over an hour north of Charlotte, N.C. to check things out. I could smell brakes, but that isn't abnormal after leaving the mountains. So I continue on. About five minutes from downtown Charlotte on I-85 two guys in a pickup truck pull alongside me, and are pointing to the back of the trailer. I can't hear what they are saying, but they look plenty concerned. I wave to them and pull over. Only after I get out of the truck do I realize the entire wheel assembly (tires, hubs, everything except for brake assembly) have left the trailer's front driver-side axle! I didn't feel anything, see anything (yes, I check my mirrors frequently), or smell anything amiss. I had my windows up, A/C and radio on, but I should have felt something. I have no idea where the tires/wheels wound up, and yes - someone could have been hurt or worse.

A North Carolina trooper pulled up (I had no intentions of going anywhere anyway). He fined me for log violations (my fault - I have no excuses for that one). He placed the trailer OOS (obviously). I ended up hanging around Charlotte for over a day and a half waiting for the trailer to be repaired. BTW the wheels that came off were not the ones that I noticed which had thin treads.

Moral: should I have pulled the trailer? Not really black or white. Was the trailer unsafe? Of course, but a DOT inspection at the customer/owner's location (as mentioned in an earlier post) would have prevented the trailer ever leaving that location, and possibly jeopardizing other motorist's lives.

BTW the N.C. state trooper was very professional and could have been a real pain, but wasn't. Star Leasing owns the trailer. I've since learned that Star isn't at the top of the heap for equipment maintenance. Did I say that STAR LEASING is responsible for the trailer? Yep. That's right. Star Leasing.

P.S. - after this little nightmare, I never made it to the S.C. destination. Was told to bring the trailer back to Ohio after it was repaired in N.C. Halfway through West Virginia, one of the tires that the repair shop tossed onto the repaired wheel blew and shredded. I pulled over to inspect the damage. I was inside of Charleston, a metro area, so I couldn't really get off of I-77 very easily, and had no idea where a nearby truckstop was. I decided to pull the trailer (at 55 mph) about 70 miles or so to outside of Parkersburg, where I dropped the trailer at a truckstop. Told the temp firm where the trailer was after dropping off the tractor, then went home to get a good night's sleep.

Don't know how I could have handled the whole thing differently (I know - "keep log book updated"; let's skip this in your responses, OK?) Enter your comments, suggestions, or general whippings below...

 

It's been many years since I have worked for a company that has asked me to take a load when there is a mechanical problem...MANY years.

Most companies now days realize the cost of replacing a bad tire or brake, is much cheaper than the multi-million dollar pay out that will come with a law suit.

I report a defect, I'm refered to the nearest repair shop. Period.

That said, you have to also realize that many of us are aware of some "defects" that need the work done ASAP. But, if that defect is a trailer brake. It is just as simple, and much cheaper to drive that defect to the shop, than to tow it. The brake will still be OOS behind a tow truck, which is now pulling a set of doubles (tractor/trailer combo) without proper brakes.

I am aware that many trucks on the road are dangerous. But check the source...local, older models, and underpayed. These same crews/drivers spend a lot of time "hiding" their money to avoid the tax man.

 

Fork,
You didn't do anything wrong by taking the trailer.
The failure you endured is not something readily found during a pretrip.
There's a sign or two but even those don't need to be there to have that problem.
"Stuff" just happens sometimes that no one could possibly predict.

 

My boss just canned our trailer mechanic at work. Example why: he did a full brake job (shoes, drums, chambers, hardware--everything) on one of our pups. He didn't fill the hubs with oil.

Some of the leased trailers we get are horrible...bald tires, holes in the sides/roof, bad brakes (we got one that had the brakes on the front axle caged & the air lines capped off, and judging by the crud on the bolts, they had been that way for a while), radials & bias-ply on the same trailer, different sizes on the same axle, bad door tracks...the list goes on. We have a couple that don't air up properly.

I'm pretty serious about equipment. if it's unsasfe, I don't drive it, period. However, I don't have a problem with, say, a bad marker light, or even a bad headlight if it's summer (I'm done long before dusk). Heck, I took a truck with a leaking hub last month (it was all that was available)--I just made sure the oil was topped up, brought a couple bottles, and checked it at every stop (it turned out to be minor--it lost less than half a cup all day, just flung all over the wheel by centrifugal force). Too bad, because otherwise, that was a well-worn (2002 with 295K) but nice International 4300. And, it wasn't governed to 65MPH like most of our loaners.

Any problems with the tires, brakes, suspension, air lines--no way, not driving it. My left steer tire is legal, but just barely...if it's not replaced this weekend, I'm gonna start making noise.

 

Thanks BobC; but I'll probably be more "picky" with trailers (esp. leased ones) in the future. Fortunately, most companies seem to be "getting it" on equipment. Like a previous poster said, better to spend a couple hundred on repairs than a couple mil on a lawsuit.

I find it odd that I haven't heard from either the temp firm OR their client over this situation since the whole adventure happened about five days ago. I made it very clear (repeatedly) that I expect to be paid for my downtime. Could it be that they know they dodged a huge bullet, and want me to forget about it? I'd really like to hear some responses from the troopers out there over what I coulda/woulda/shoulda done...there's enough gray area where a few opinions might help other drivers who run into similar situations.