FCC--Fremont Contract Carriers

I did notice when I was in Fremont that new Sioux Honey trailer was red tagged so it will probably be getting wrapped soon. None of you will be able to sneak around with a plain white trailer anymore.

 

Delivered my load of granite slabs in Denver yesterday morning, then bounced (all the way) to Fremont for a service. During the service, Travis informed me that the APUs are under a recall due to fires and that they will be disconnected until further notice. (He said he had 160 of us to get in, so might not be every person/truck)

Next load, valley to Brenham Texas for Monday. Already pre planned on a Houston to Lincoln run, with potentially more granite slabs.

 

So you're saying my truck could be burned to a crisp right now? That's a lovely thought

On a more serious note, this just proves that these Carrier APU's are ####ing jokes. My new Carrier Aspen seems to be better at least, but the older ones? FCC thought their T680's were unreliable? Those older Carrier units are some the biggest piles of junk I've ever had the displeasure of using. The two trucks I drove with them had nothing but constant problems that actually resulted in a road call a couple times. I had one of our spare trucks, 1465, for a few weeks and that APU decided to dump all the coolant all over some customers lot in the Denver area

I'll step off my soap box now

 

I don't get it...for the 7 year's I worked there 2 used 3new trucks and I never had a problem with any Apu very little mechanical problems with any truck......guess I was lucky..

 

I'll get back on my soap box again.

I had 1645 for 4 months. I had a few minor issues at first but it seemed fairly okay. Then July rolled around. Went to go back to work and noticed a big puddle of coolant under the truck. One of the APU hoses had came apart and of course it was ahead of the shut off valve so breakdown had to send someone out and fix the hose before I could go anywhere. Not even two weeks later, I was on hometime and apparently the alternator on the APU completely seized up and threw the belt at some point. Came back to a truck that was deader than a door nail. I was able to jump it with my own car but the alternator on said car very coincidentally went out shortly after that 45 miles from home. At only 80k miles.

I got into my Peterbilt not long after and that #### thing NEVER worked correctly. It constantly threw an HVAC breaker code while on A/C mode. I was not amused at all waking up several times in the night because it was 85 degrees in the sleeper. I don't know how many times I had it in either shop for that problem and they apparently tried different stuff but it never got fixed. Then winter came around and I found out that the APU refused to start if it even looked like it was going to be below 45 that night. Again, I was not very amused of having to take time out of my day while at home just to start the truck so it wouldn't be dead when I went back to work. And again, neither shop was of any help. At one point it just stopped working entirely, and the heat also went out at some point as well. I got so fed up with that particular unit that I very seriously considered at one point ripping it off the truck because it was such a headache and a pain in the ### to deal with.

And that's not even starting on the fact that they're useless when the ambient temperature is above 85-90. And the heat ain't too hot either.

I have a genuine hatred for those vile things. And by the sounds of it, these Carrier Aspens aren't doing too hot either. I've already had it in the shop because something wasn't welded correctly, and then yet another APU hose struck again just this past week

Okay I'll step off the soap box again to get some deep breaths

 

Then you can just idol, as far as the ap&u go's.....ifn you are worried about the bonus. The bonus is fake it's just mileage pay you've already earned they just deduct per category..no company can pay out hundreds of thousands dollars a quarter think about it can't be plausible or profitable. Just saying.

 

I did idle, but the whole point of an APU is that you shouldn't have to. Thank god there's no sort of idle shutdown on their trucks

I had two trucks with ThermoKing TriPac's before I came here and I never had anywhere near that many problems with them. And they could keep up in 110 degree Texas heat without a hitch

 

Yup, pretty much sums that place up.

 

FWIW the one time in my trucking career I was on the side of the road with an APU issue it was a Tri-Pac. Dumped the coolant in Michigan, the road repair shop that had it wanted to thousands of dollars of repairs and then went radio silent. Had to hike 7 miles from the hotel to get the truck (this was back before Uber). We did pay them, but just for a road call and a couple gallons of antifreeze.

 

Not sure where I left off on my travel log.
Got a load Thursday that was a pickup appointment 150 miles from Cullman exactly at my ETA. It’s strange because I don’t think Bridgestone in Morrison has ever been by appointment .
But it was all for naught as they unassigned me 15 minutes later. That’s one of the really unlovely things about the load planners is they will send a load and then yank it ten minutes later. Almost always when they do it’s to replace a drop and hook with some live load/live unload broker mess.
This one followed the pattern, picking up in Villa Rica, Georgia at a place where the Google reviews report 3-17 hours loading time and delivering Monday in Wichita.
Truck will be due for service by then so I assume I will be heading North from there. I hope my APU isn’t among the recalled ones.