How many dead/zombie trailers and vans are out there?

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by TexasKGB, Nov 5, 2019.

  1. TexasKGB

    TexasKGB Light Load Member

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    Just victims of a one bad digit, or a fired driver/dispatcher, or a glitch in tracking software?

    Curious. And curious what the recovery options are. Are there bounties to return them? Can they be legally designated as abandoned/scrap?

    Thanks for your time.
     
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  3. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    Many disappear when companies suddenly go bankrupt and leave 100's of drivers stranded all over the country.
     
  4. starmac

    starmac Road Train Member

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    I don't think they can legally be taken over.
    I know of one case where a T600 and nearly new stretch dro[deck, sat at a truckstop for over a year, then for some reason it went to the KW dealer for around a year, then was stored on a trucking companies yard for a couple of years. The owner passed away at some point while it was just sitting. Another company started using the trailer a little bit here and there when they needed a stretch.
    Finally where it was stored gave the truck to a friend of mine to haul off, he sold it to another friend of mine, who found both titles in the truck, somehow he got them in his name and retrieved the trailer and sold it, he still has the truck.

    I know of a swift trailer that sat in a storage yard for 3 years or so before somehow swift found it, they recovered it and since they used the shop that owned the yard, they got out of paying all the storage fees, because the shop had never notified them that it was there collecting storage fees.
     
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  5. SteveScott

    SteveScott Road Train Member

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    Many end up in fields as billboards. Then the tires go flat, and a wind storm blows them over where they sit forever.
     
  6. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    There was a family living in an abandoned truck at a truck stop in Tennessee. The company had gone bankrupt and the driver just walked away. Truck stop owner finally figured it out and did something with it.
    If the family had moved the truck somewhere in the boonies, probably could have lived in it for decades.
     
  7. Flat Earth Trucker

    Flat Earth Trucker Road Train Member

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    When I drove for Western Express, I was sent to some backwoods shop in New York state to have repairs done to my trailer.

    I was astonished at what I saw there.

    This is no exaggeration, there were 20 Western Express trailers sitting on their lot. Having some free time while waiting for repairs, I jotted down every trailer number on that lot and painstakingly entered and sent those numbers in a Qualcomm message.

    Was I paid or even thanked? No.

    Hopefully, what I did do was help get 20 more trailers back on the road, which means more trailers available to be loaded ahead of being picked up.

    Too bad 11 out of 10 Western Express drivers could never figure this out. :angry7:
     
  8. TexasKGB

    TexasKGB Light Load Member

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    If going to be towed due to abandonment, would moving them constitute theft?
     
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  9. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    I don't know. I quit a flatbed company when I saw the writing on the wall. Within 2 weeks after quitting the company closed the doors and cut off fuel cards. There were tractors and flatbed trailers scattered all over the USA. Some drivers sold parts, tires, etc. to get the money for bus or plane fare back home.
     
  10. JC1971

    JC1971 Road Train Member

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    I laugh whenever I see an old Mervyn's (a long-closed department store chain) trailer abandoned on Hwy 58 just west of Kramer Junction, CA. I think I've seen a CF trailer sitting in a dirt lot in Baker, CA. I'll be going by there in a couple of days.

    When I drove through Texas on 287 yesterday there was a yard with a lot of old trailers sitting there. I wondered why someone would store them and not cut them up for the scrap metal at least.
     
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  11. drivingmissdaisy

    drivingmissdaisy Road Train Member

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    There is an old flatbed trailer at the old abandoned truck stop (Fernwood) across the street from the Loves at exit 13 on I-55 in Mississippi. That truck stop has been closed for at least 10 years and it just sits there, abandoned.
     
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