Schneider chat room - Closed see new thread linked in the last post

The first person that gets stuck somewhere in the middle of nowhere and the bunk heater shuts off because the battery switch flipped and he cant idle his truck to stay warm and gets hypothermia and sues SNI they will see all there savings plus some go flying out the window. The first poor driver that has his truck shut off idling down an off ramp in Chicago or where ever and gets rear ended and causes a pile up because he came to a sudden stop with no brake lights and without warning which I imagine would be pretty violent stop if the truck died in gear at that low speed and 7 people sue SNI and the driver there goes there profit again. 11k drivers so thats a minimum of 11k units costs how much a piece? Then the man hours to put in 11K units costs how much? then add in a couple of million dollar law suits to that tab. I wonder if they will ever see an extra penny in there pocket from this.

Now lets think for a second if all the good drivers with experience bail because of this kinda of stuff then all you have to replace them is new drivers. So a bunch of new drivers hit the road banging around the streets of america and bam SNI's CSA score goes up. They loose customers causing them to drop there rates to get work and a year or two time SNI is just another bottom feeder starter mill I wonder how that will effect there bottom line. The two companies they stated as there direct competition says it all. Why are we competing with them in the first place? There is a reason there rates are so low because of how the operate and treat drivers. I don't think we should be competing with them I know plenty of business people who watch there bottom line that would pay a little more for great on time service.

Anyway I did plan on staying here awhile I didn't want to be the guy who got his experience and run and I like staying places for long periods of time I'm a loyal dedicated person that's just who I am. But if this is the future direction I guess I just might have to consider packing up as well. Like now I'm at a pilot its 1700 been here an hour already don't plan to move till 0800 because of appt time and I want to get back starting during the day again. So that's 16hrs only can run the bunk heater for 10hrs and its cold out side. So I will wake up freezing because the battery thing shut down or wake up freezing to a dead truck LOL either way I'm freezing and I told them point blank when I hired on as long as I don't freeze I'm fine. So I will idle the crap out of my truck for at least 4hrs. Now if I had this sensor already I'd be F'd or start driving at 0200 which I'm tired of doing been doing it all week. Sorry I'm off my soap box now

Oh and a big thank you to the SNI driver that gave me a trailer light I appreciated it thanks for helping out.

 

Not the bugs I'd be worried about. It's a trend...a trend toward feeding drivers the line "...we've talked with drivers and taken their input into consideration...". Baloney.

An individual act (such as the initiation of Workflow) can have the bugs worked out. Policy decisions such as this indicate a trend toward moving drivers further and further down the list of important company assets.

And a trend such as this is bad for drivers, IMHO. Not to say the whole industry isn't heading in that general direction, but when you get down to specifics, this decision by SNI absolutely stinks to high heaven. I really hope they have a mass exodous of drivers.

 

More drivers will have to stay ON the soapbox over this matter. You've stated what I think will be the most common occurrence clearly and precisely.

 

The sensor doesn't kill your battery. Go get your truck looked at, you may have weak batteries.

 

Next time, fully understand and pay attention to how new equipment works. It's not you paying for fuel. Have you seen the prices lately? I keep my truck shutoff, Coleman cooler running, XM radio plugged in, and my TV playing all night for ten hours and my truck still starts after having my Webasco heater running also.

 

You're right it doesn't, but running the Bunk Heater for 10 hours along with a cooler and any lights you may turn on inside before going to bed will kill a battery.

I drained mine to the point of hitting the Low Voltage Disconnect a few nights ago during a 12 hour break. Turned the lights on in the morning before getting out of bed and 5 minutes later the lights died. Had to start the engine to charge the batteries and turn the lights back on. Not being able to charge the batteries by idling for even 20-30 minutes during a 34 is going to become an issue. My batteries are just fine, the truck is only 6 months old.

 

Would this new idle policy apply to the bulk division? Don't they use the idling engine to run the compressor that supplies air pressure for an air offload?

 

Never said the sensor killed the battery. I said the bunk heater will drain my batteries and then I can't idle to charge them back up and stay warm. Once the batteries get to that point the truck kills power with the sensor installed you only have two options and that's freeze or drive and if you can't drive then I guess just sit there and freeze.

I know how the equipment works and you can only run so many amp hours before you're truck kills the power to save enough for start up. For just ten hour breaks none of this is an issue but we don't live in such a perfect world do we. I'm on a 16hr break I have ten hours of heat when and if the truck shuts the heat off to save power I will idle, run the heat and charge the batteries. I have seen the prices and I do keep them in mind and I shut my truck off every chance I get. I even parked facing the sun to keep the cab warm for free today.

 

Start packing extra blankets people its gonna be a long winter lol

 

I don't see how they can do this to bulk trucks, for the reason you mentioned (yes, compressor and pump run on PTO) .. AND heat in transit which is required on some loads (tank is warmed with engine coolant and truck must always be running, even with no idle laws).

also, there aren't that many bulk trucks, so i doubt the savings would be significant.

good luck to the van peeps, the concept totally sucks. Should have just tried taking idle time out of pay as a preliminary test. That would suck too, but not as bad as stalling in traffic on a steep hill, right when traffic starts moving.