hard braking

Sounds to me like your carrier might need to adjust your settings. I had one event my first year where I was bobtailing in the early am. Stoplight 100yards ahead was red so I was just idling to it in 7th. It changed to green when I was 75 yards away so I sped up to the 35 mph seed limit. At about 15 yards it turned yellow and I opted to stop, doing so without issue except for the red triangle going off. If I had a trailer I would have not attempted to stop. Safety dept about read me the riot act anyway.

The funny thing is there had been a handful of times I felt the trailer ABS engaging when slowing briskly (usually on a deceivingly sloped downhill stop). I even had a teammate do a full brake application with 80,000lbs and blow half-way into an intersection without setting it off. So it was set at a deceleration rate that safety figured meant you hit someone/something.


Current company seems to have similiar settngs -- havent set off an alert yet, but I have felt abs once or twice.

 

If a company can't recognize your driving talent after 12 years of driving for them, 22 years driving total, and had just awarded you a safety award, and they still threaten firing you because of "hard braking", and this threat is coming from some desk-jockey who has probably never driven something larger than a pick-up, its not a company worth working for in my opinion.

Talk with some higher-ups. Propose that the safety manager, the dispatchers, anyone in that office who is directly related to the operation of the trucks, ride in the truck at some point as part of their job training, so they understand what it takes, and what it's like to drive a truck.

And, if they keep giving you gruff about it, I'd look at leaving.

 

The hard braking attitude comes from Corporate Policy. I'm sure their insurance company offers substantial discounts which helps drive disciplinary actions. The office personnel are only following the policy trying to protect their own jobs. Companies today are using an array of available technology from in cab cameras aimed at not only the road but also the driver, blind spot sensors, sensors that record when you cross over on the shoulder, go around a curve to fast and the jake brake will engage automatically or the same thing will happen if there is a sensor on the front bumper and you tailgate, along with the Qualcomm sending messages on idle time, how long you are parked or moving, rpm shift points or any number of things they care to set up. The choice is to either accept it or move to another company.

 

When there is heavy stop-n-go traffic I always keep my engine brake on.

 

Coming from one who has spent time hiring, firing, and managing drivers as well as other types of employees, people change. Marriage falls apart, a kid strays, financial problems, health issues, whatever, can lead to an individual with an other wise flawless, long-standing work history to quickly become a problem, and in the trucking world, they become a dangerous problem. I'm saying this because work history only means so much up against what the work patterns HERE and NOW say. Accidents and incidents don't happen in the past, they happen in the future, and current style is indicative of future actions.

 

I made safety insane, all by myself. I said, give dispatch an Etch A Sketch, take there phone away, & LET ME drive my truck. You command from an office, I Command on the street. When this left door closes, I'm the BOSS.

 

I had never heard of these hard brake readings.lol

haven't worked for a company using Quaalcom in about 10 yrs.

don't think I will in the future either.

 

If you drive a newer engine, you're subject to this monitoring whether you realize it or not. It's not part of the Qualcomm system, Qualcomm simply interrogates the engine and submits the data back to the office. Get in a serious accident, the engine (tractor) recorded data will be pulled and submitted to accompany the official accident report in most cases.

From Cummins Engines
I'm sure Cat and Detroit have the same technology imbedded in their engines, like it or not.

 

These things suck. Never in my career have I received a company warning, ticket, violation, etc. by any law enforcement, DOT, etc. This week I received my first written warning about hard braking. I was doing a whopping 34 mph when a woman making a right turn in the turn lane to my right decided not to make the turn, cut in front of me (which is when I hard-braked but only for a split second), paused for a second and shot across three lanes of traffic in to make a left turn at the light I was passing under. She had three kids in the car and didn't even see me let alone look. Time for me to purchase one of those video cameras that record such incidents.