Adventures in Trucking

Well, you could have been pulled around back at a scale house for a dot inspection. They could have found it for you and place you out of service.it may have cost you less for the road repair. But the fines and points could be much more. When you do your pretrip steering and brakes are my top priority. Any time you go for service plan on spending the day.

 

You hit it spot on. But the op needs his hand held and hes in the right industry for that. Oh well. You cant explain to people these days. Just let them learn it and figure it out. Like I said, lucky he didnt get towed in from the coop. That would have been a very expensive lesson to learn.

 

The problem is good in a way. These schools and companies have a check list that includes everything you're going to check on your pre-trip. Even some DOT inspectors will write you for not inspecting a certain item. When the truth is all the is required is the driver being satisfied that certain items are working. You can find what's required in the FMCSR's 392.7. The big inspection is done at the end of your day or post-trip inspection.

Pre-trip inspections are not even required to be written out. All you need to do is record the time and the fact that you did a pre-trip inspection. You need to sign the inspection report or post-trip in addition that you did it. Even if it's you still driving the truck it shows you had no repairs to make and you're good to go. If you have a problem with the truck then you sign the report and give an explanation why the item did not get repaired. Have the one that did the repairs do the signing and make sure you let them know why they are signing this report. I know it's regurgitated information but the way I see it is not standard and it should be.

 

Blah blah blah blah blah

 

I don't see this thread lasting too much longer.

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but.

There were a million things your school didn't teach you. There were a hundred things they told you wrong. Some of it you have to learn yourself, so stop getting all prickly and take the advise given. Check your tie rods, if you had been injured or killed there wouldn't have been anyone to argue with about being a mechanic. Sometimes you have to be realistic, you are not a mechanic but you will have to do some things.

For what it's worth, half of the guys or more harping you about the pretrip probably sit in the cab and clock one (I know all of you have seen the guys in the cab crank up, walk into the store, rub their faces and take off without so much as a light test) but the bottom line is YOUR safety and life are on the line. If ever there was a reason to give 110% it would be in service of your own life.

 

If I had a dollar for every time a driver grabbed tie rods during a PTI, I'd be broke. And for those who do, I'd be surprised how often they can actually wiggle one, given the weight involved. Nobody knows when stuff like that is going to let go, and I would be willing to bet 99.9% of us wouldn't have caught it and the same thing would've happened to us. Sometimes stuff just breaks. The OP, a new driver, was just sharing his experience and was immediately and mercilessly attacked. Granted, he got defensive, but what does anyone expect?

I wasn't around for the "glory days" of trucking, but I do know that any sense of helpful brotherhood in this industry has largely disappeared in the last decade. Add to that the anonymity of being online, and people feel free to beat up on others in ways they'd never do (I hope) face-to-face. Any helpful spirit that used to be there is gone. I don't get it. I won't be surprised if @Locke stops posting on this forum, or if people decide to refrain from sharing their experiences based on threads like this.

Can't we all just get along? Can't we just help out the new guys, without judging and attacking them? Can't we bring back some of the brotherhood of the glory days, rather than just complain about how the industry sucks and nobody cares anymore?