Driver Equipment

That quote is a famous misquote. It was first said in 'Treasure of the Sierra Madre' in 1948. Mel Brooks either misquoted it or changed it in 1974.

 

FWIW. I work at a refrigerated outfit. Our trucks have remote battery jumper posts behind the cab near the frame. We all sign for issued 10' jumper cables. Used in the event a reefer battery is bad or weak.

Some things make sense to issue to some drivers at some carriers, some not so much.

 

Makes a lot more sense for guys pulling a cold box.

 

It makes a lot of sense but it seems to make even more sense to most drivers to have the company buy it for them. They'd rather sit on the side of the road or the middle of nowhere.

I'm a reefer driver. I have a 20 foot jumper cable to jumpstart the reefer or to jumpstart the truck off the reefer. It is easier and faster than calling for help. I can also jumpstart other trucks or get jumpstarted by other trucks.

I'm a reefer driver but I also have chains and binders. I've chained up a trailer axle that had a busted hub and took it 100 miles to the closest shop. I've pulled stuck trucks with it and I've been pulled with it when I've gotten stuck. I've pullstarted trucks with it.

There are drivers that have been out here for 20+ years and still haven't learned anything. One of the first things you should learn in trucking is to learn to take care of yourself. After that,you can learn to help a fellow driver.

 

I've jumpstarted 10-11 dry vans and a couple of flatbed. One had been there for eight hours asking if anybody could jump start him. Nobody had cables.

 

I just mean it makes more sense for the company to provide it with reefer units.

 

It does but it is something else that could walk off. As dumb as the new generation is,they may not know how to work jumper cables. Military style slave cables would be nice. Nothing to go wrong.

 

This topic about reefers and jumper cables in some ways infuriates me. The solution to this issue 99% of the time is not jumper cables. It is drivers that need to stop just looking out for themselves and actually take the time to get a reefer fixed. Yes there are times when a reefer will sit and the battery discharge. I understand this. I used to drive for WSE. This company is now part of MCT. When I drove for them OVER 50% of their reefer units were pure junk. I can't tell you how many times I would crank up or try to crank a reefer and have it start throwing codes. I have had to do a drop and hook and during my walk around and getting the bills notice the unit throwing a code. IN most of these situations jumper cables are useless. The reason for the unit not cranking is either a bad charging system or a totally dead battery. Jump this reefer off and when it cycles through it's going to just sit and throw a code. Another reason a reefer won't crank is it was parked loaded and it was allowed to run out of fuel. This almost always causes the fuel intake filter to clog and the reefer will start trying to crank and repeat this process until the battery finally gives up the ghost. Jumper Cables are OK, but i'm telling you from experience if that unit won't crank most of the time a simple jump won't fix it.

Edited: This concept also applies to general van. Drivers will drop or will see while walking around trailers with flat tires. Bad air leaks, busted or missing lights. No permits or license plates and NEVER take the time to make a simple QC message to the company. Then said drivers will gripe and moan about how their company screws them over and won't take care of the equipment. I once dropped a trailer at a DC near Front Royal Va. While looking for an empty I noticed one of our trailers sitting there with a missing door. To this day that bothers me. Yes I called my company gave them the number and location. I got a call back several hours later by the man over breakdown asking me how in the name of everything holy did that trailer get in there like that. Then thanked me for calling it in. One of the worse problems in trucking is drivers that are so selfish they won't even take the time to call in something wrong with a trailer.

 

Gotta call bull on this one guys...haven't seen a blinker in a long #### time...lol

 

Haha strap stretchers. In the oilfield we used to get the new guys to ask one of the rig hands for the "hose stretcher". Almost everyone would fall for it