APU/heat unit broken in truck

My trucker has not had heat in his truck since last February.

He works the NorthEast and has been to the Allentown, PA terminal about 5 times and to the ThermoKing once. Each time he goes he waits [unpaid] for days while they attempt to fix it but they've never fixed it. After each failed attempt he just leaves frustrated because he's got to make money! But usually in a month he comes back and they try again and fail.

He msgs the "road breakdown' code in the qualcomm but they send him to either the terminal or thermoking, neither have been able to figure out how to fix his heat in almost a year!

He's just become a trainer, which works well for him because when they're confident enough to run as a team the truck stays most of the day/night so he can sleep with the heat on while the trainee drives.

But routinely Friday afternoons work slows down and he doesn't get an assignment until Saturday afternoon. So Friday nights he/they sleep in the truck, but the truck is not moving = no heat.

And it's only going to get colder and colder.

This Friday, like usual, he has downtime until Saturday afternoon but it's a little chilly. He asked his dispatch for a hotel room for him and his trainee so they don't sleep in the cold tonight and dispatch said NO!

They said that they only get hotel rooms on hometime weekends, which this is not.

Are they allowed to do this?

I know right now it's not below freezing or anything but it plans to go down to 30 tonight [where he parks the truck] and it's only going to get worse.

What is he supposed to do? Freeze because they can't figure out how to fix his heat for him?

It doesn't seem like dispatch saying no to a hotel should be allowed or legal but we don't know what to do.

Any input would be helpful, esp before tonight!

 

nope he can't idle. Not allowed so the truck can't even do it. He's tried.

 

He once bought a 12 volt heater but it did nothing really. But it was super cheap so I guess that's why.

The truck cannot idle, it shuts itself off. Believe me, before the trainer phase I was alone with him many cold nights last winter, if there was a way to idle or have heat at all he would have done it.

When he goes to the terminal in PA, they don't give him a hotel room - I don't even know if there is a hotel nearby. In the past he's slept on the chairs in the lobby or waiting room or whatever it is, I don't know. Which is what I guess him and his trainee will be doing tonight. I don't know yet what will happen!

We assume the APU is very expensive and that's why they don't replace it but who knows.

I don't know what to do but if nothing changes he'll just freeze all winter, every year until he finds another job - and we all know how easy that is or they assign him another truck but he's no where near the miliage amount to get another truck.

 

And yes Roadmedic - my coldest night in the truck was 18 degrees INSIDE the truck. He has many blankets, since this problem has been going on since last winter but his trainee didn't know what he was getting into on his truck and did not bring a lot of heavy blankets, assuming the cab they'd be living in would be heated. He assumed wrong..