Trailer Hell

I do our local stuff. We have drivers all the time drop trailers with defects. Sometimes multiple. They all have some BS excuse.

Weight definitely effects slidability ( just made that word up ).
Sometimes the brakes will be out of adjustment, and the wheels will still roll when your trying to slide. Sometimes the tandem tracks are just rusty, trailer heavy, and your literally just dragging the trailer.
Carry a big can of WD40. Spray entire tandem rails. Work the pins, rock it back and forth.

I've taken trailers to shop before when out OTR like the one you have described. Send in QC message. Ask WTF? Put the ball in operations court so your not charged with a late load.

It's your driving record and ticket. The only guarantee of no citation is everything is working as advertised.

Drivers will always leave you holding the bag though. That's one of the benefits of being an O/O, it's your gear. I worked for one company as an O/O, and pulled the same trailer everywhere, that's good too.

So many don't give a crap, the other night I had 6 pick ups to do. I told the kid in dispatch to make sure we had 7 trailers, cause I know one would be broke.

 

What's cheaper for the company, getting a truck rolled out to fix the lights or losing clients due to bad csa scores?
Yea it sucks, but it's (almost) always a better idea to get a truck sent out instead of moving a trailer with several things wrong. One light, can't slide the tandems, or most single items sure I might try for a shop if it's not too far. If the trailer has several issues, one is begging to get a full level 3 from any dot officer that sees it.

 

Every company has this problem with drivers dropping trailers that are in need of repair. Is it your place to try talk management into firing someone? No, it's not. You give your report on what happened and let them decide for themselves. How would you feel if you were fired because another driver talked the boss into firing you? Should have those problems been fixed before being dropped? Yes. The driver might not even known about the issue with the tandems not sliding. They could of picked up empty somewhere and took it there to drop and hook the next load. Or they could have slid just fine being empty, therefore, driver thinks the slide function is fine. The lights being out is just a driver being lazy and not checking or caring. The door hinge should have been fixed before it was dropped there. So, now you get the wonderful job of getting fixed after your emptied out. The other two or three should hold it just fine til then.

 

Well...

Im going to stone the driver that gave this trailer from hell to you. But you seemed to redeem yourself by doing what you can with it.

As far as the defects, they go to the shop and get fixed. Loaded or empty means nothing except to a mechanic who has a jack for it if necessary.

You do not want to meet mr scale with that trailer. Mr scale will start writing very expensive papers for you to sign.

If it's too heavy, take it back to shipper and have him take the frieght off. OR.. call your company to dig up a empty, back to back with yours and transfer enough freight to get light and legal again. Now you are two trailers and two drivers delivering.

Smile and be happy. Days like this are the reason why you are a Trucker and will be telling this story someday to your children. And it started one day when you picked up a trailer from hell.

 

I drove a trailer with no functioning lights for 50 miles to a ta for repair only to find out it was a wiring harness they could not fix and drove another 90 miles to a dealership.

I will not do this again. Mostly because it was not a safe thing to do. No one likes to call a wrecker, but I would have got a giant ticket if I'd been caught, and no brake lights or signals, that's just not safe. Not for 140 miles.

After thinking about it later that day I realized this was poor judgement in my part. It could have caused a serious accident and cost me many times anything I was going to make off the load. It's always your option to call the trailer out of service and refuse to take it. Not something to do lightly, but you're the one who has to deal with the repercussions, not dispatch, not the shop. For your situation, I would have taken it to a shop as long as I didn't have to pass a scale.

 

We all have to learn sometime. Don't stress about it.

I once had a trailer which dragged air lines in addition to tandems all the way back (53 footer) up in MN. To this day Ive wondered how stupid I was. It's not one of my best moments and I would prefer not to have to describe that particular trip. But we all do something once in a while and how we move forward and do better defines a good driver who learns.

 

Just one hinge is not a OOS issue.

Any one of the three lights could be depending on what lights they are.

It is cheaper for the office staff to always not fix the trailer. Shop fees, especially road service costs money.

The goal of the desk jockeys is always to fix as few things as possible and then blame the ticket, the bad CSA, or the lack of customers on the driver.

Middle management desk jockeys call the shots in these companies. The more issues the lay blame on the driver for, the sweeter they look in their jobs. Most drivers will not ever realize a lot of these trailer issues they run into were written up in DVIRs or work orders while these trailers sat a company terminal or service center.

In turn middle management likes to lay the blame on the 'other driver.' This strokes the ego of the driver who is complaining. It makes them feel better then the rest, and diverts attention from the lack of effort management puts into assuring safe equipment.

 

Reading through this happened to remind me of when I first started out years ago with SWIFT... (Ugh, just typing the name makes me disgusted...) Seems like I was heading in between Salt Lake City to Denver. I was barely out of training. I had a problem with the 7 way plug or something; the rear lights on the trailer wouldn't stay lit, so I drove down the interstate with nothing but four-ways on for many, many miles. I guess I was just a dumb kid that didn't know any better. Should have pulled over right away. It is a good thing I didn't get busted.