Climate Express

Headed the opposite direction as you. Waiting on a loaded trailer to get dropped at Craftsmen and then headed down to Statesboro, GA. Routing through home and then delivering Wednesday at 07:00

 

Just gets more pathetic every day here lol. This is how this trailer was dropped at Craftsmen. Never got out from under a trailer so quick. And 2 minutes later, it blew. Luckily it passed a 'DOT Inspection' just a couple weeks ago. Just another great example of why most respectable companies don't run 9 year Olds trailers.. and if they do, they at least believe in basic maintenance. This airbag didn't start cracking and going to hell just 2 days ago, but it somehow passed an inspection conducted courtesy of Climate... what a joke.

 

Air bag got fixed -- once it quieted down a bit, a leaking brake chamber was found, so that got fixed too. Of course, there are still multiple air leaks because this company runs raggedy POS's and fraudulent says they passed a DOT inspection. But oh well, gotta risk your PSP if you ever want to roll 5 miles down the road here, so I rolled on.

Make it home and then find this gem. If anyone has any company recommendations that are a little lenient on hiring requirements, please feel free to share. My peace of mind isn't worth this job. I'll go back through this thread and tally up my 5 month total for trailer issues. I don't operate on 'it's not that serious' and 'it can make it back to the yard'. When it's every single trailer, that's basically saying 'risk your CDL every day to make someone extra money'.

 

To be honest, I’m at the point where every time I see you post in here I’m expecting trailer / truck gore LOL. I’ll miss it.

 

I am not trying to sound rude so please don't take this wrong. I've been out here 30 yrs an this that you're experiencing at a drop an hook operation is normal. Other drivers always are passing the buck on to the next guy. Most tire issues will make it to the next shop or the yard. If it's bad enough then stand firm on getting it done at the 1st shop ya can. Other stuff if it's not dot compliant get it fixed an if the shop don't wanna get it done on the road then involve safety in the matter. This back an forth between shop, safety, an dispatch has been happening forever. They're not gonna pay an expensive road call when it can make it to a shop. An they don't wanna pay truck stop gauging labor rates if they can count on a reliable driver to get it back to the yard. Every company I've ever worked at has operated that way.

 

That's fair -- it might just be an industry issue getting worse more so than Climate itself. I do think it's a lot more common of an issue here than previous carriers, but maybe the freight downturn the last year or two has really tightened their budget, idk. Maybe it'll turn around. Doubtful.

I can and have made most any issue make it to a shop or yard. It's resulted in zero dollars added on my paycheck and a handful of smart*** comments by a certain person at the office. I don't want 50/hr breakdown or drivers to be fired for missing a nail in a tire, but I feel like there's a middle ground between that and what it currently is. Majority of companies have found that middle ground.

It's a stable check, so I'm not throwing down my keys tomorrow, and almost certainly won't until the holidays are over, but I'm not going to ignore opportunities that may be better fit for me. If I rack up 6 equipment violations here, I don't think Climate will be giving me a pay increase to offset being unhireable, so why do I owe the inverse so a millionaire can make a few more dollars?

 

I had said something about equipment being left for everybody else to take care of when I worked there. The safety man himself said don't let it drive you nuts cuz it just going to keep happening cuz there's that kind of drivers out there that don't take care of stuff. There's a lot of people out here buddy that just care about themselves and themselves only. No one else matters in their world. I've seen guys hook up a trailer at Coke n i n right City Missouri and they didn't look at nothing I mean they just hooked it Dolly it up got the paperwork walked inside come back out jumped in and Off to the Races they went they didn't thump a tire they didn't look at light they just don't care. And it's a shame that there's people out here like that but there are and all they care about is getting down the road as long as they don't have a flat tire and the trailer will move that's all they care about. And that's just not just at climate that's industry-wide.

 

My question is: Is it truly unprofitable to knock out needed repairs? Or did they take the extra profits at some point and now there are so many issues with equipment in the fleet that it's just now 'normal' and unaffordable to knock out repairs?

And the only time I haven't run an issue to Climate's terminal is upon direction from maintenance to go ahead and get it taken care of. That's excluding the tire completely without a casing from the other day. I've seen them call mobile tire service to Craftsmen before -- I'm absolutely not doing that one for free, for any company. That one's a little hard to miss and justify lol.

I don't think I'm God's gift to trucking. In fact, I'm kind of an idiot lol, but I'm not a rookie. I was offered a 4cpm pay raise to stay on at GP during the middle of this freight recession, a rehire offer from every other carrier except one, my last employer regularly asks me to come back for higher pay, and I have heard zero complaints from Climate, except Larry. If my way of operating was truly bad for business, I don't think that would be the case. If I can maintain a profitable truck and help make other trucks more profitable, well, I don't think I have unreasonable standards. I don't think company's need standards quite as high as mine on a wide, 200 truck scale, but no one should be bear crawling away from air bags that are about to explode and then sitting for 3 hours with it for free.