When is the right time to shut down due to bad weather.

There is no certain time.Its up to you.If you feel it's not safe then park it.It doesn't have to be weather you could be sick.The main thing is to communicate with your dispatch.They can change appointment times.

 

When i didnt feel safe i pulled over and told dispatch. They usually whined and complained and id tell them to shove it. If you dont have a healthy amount of common sense and a full grown pair of balls you have no business being in a tractor-trailer driving 48 states.

 

When I spoke to young drivers being forced by their company to run either in bad weather or when they physically did not feel well. I always told them to grow a pair and refuse to be bullied. Get your safety departments phone number and have it on speed dial. Back in the early part of 2011 I was in Van Buren Arkansas inside the USA Truck operations room. As I sit speaking to my Fleet Manager the head safety man came in. He walked over to one of the Fleet Managers and in a very loud voice crawled up into said FM's rectum. Because this FM I later heard had bullied a driver over (get this) the Qualcomm to run in icy conditions and the driver wrecked. Trust me on this. The larger carriers safety departments will back you up. In fact most safety departments will give you an official order to not drive. You say well I might get fired. That's true. But look at it this way. Say your looking for a job. Would you rather be saying I got fired because I refused to run in ice or I got fired because I had a wreck. Just saying.

 

If you use the word "safety" or the phrase "I don't feel safe driving in these conditions" you are untouchable. However, if 95% of the truckers are on the road you may have some explaining to do.

There will be times when you will be driving "over your head". It will happen when it gets dicey and there isn't a safe place to pull over. Those are the times when you will that you can extend your limitations a little bit. Stay well within the speed you feel comfortable and make SURE all movements of the steering wheel and changes in speed are gradual.

 

When i was OTR i didnt have the security of a safey manager backing me up. Small company. It was just the owner of the company and dispatcher teaming up on me. And i battled it out with both of them every time. I do not feel comfortable knowing such indecisive beta male wusses are out there on our highways operating big rigs.

 

I guess I got a lot of my father in me. Once I say no, its over no further debate. I don't care who what when or where. I will clean out my truck and go get a hotel and a rental car if that's what the company wants. There are two situations I always refused to drive in. Icy conditions or a serious threat of impending ice and if I physically was not able to drive. Generally speaking I had no real issues with this, but I have had them try to bully me. First rule of thumb is get as much of the bullying you can on the Qualcomm. Never discuss this via a phone. If dispatch calls don't answer the phone. Keep it on the Qualcomm. If you have spoken to safety and refuse to speak on the phone before too long you should get a message telling you to park. I respected the Fleet Managers and the load planners and did my best to make my pickups and deliveries on time. All I ever asked of them was to respect my situation.

 

Look at it from the company point of view. Depending on the amount of trucks on the road a winter weather system can snarl up anywhere from 1 or 2 trucks to several hundred. When this happens operations gets paralyzed. Customers start screaming for their loads and in general company operations sometimes just about shuts down. If your in dispatch your trying to get as much as you can moved. If Mack the supertrucker is out moving you don't understand why new man Johnny is not. This is when tempers can get high. Now you see why this situation has no easy answer.