How much grease monkey stuff you have to know as a new company driver

They dont want a new company driver touching anything except the oil dipstick!
Thats all I did, they wouldnt even let me put on new wipers.

 

Unless I'm stuck a hundred miles from nowhere and trying to get home, I ain't touching a thing on my truck.

 

nothing, nothing at all. if i have to change a light bulb on the road, fine i'll do that, otherwise i wait till i get back to my home terminal and drop it off at the shop. my company forbids us to do anything other than say, a light bulb change, and i fully agree with that concept.

 

So if you pick up a trailer with brakes far out of adjustment (do you even check that on a new trailer?) like the one I got the other day with the pads almost a quarter inch away from the drum, are you going to just run it and hope you don't get inspected, or are you going to take the 45 seconds to adjust it properly, or are you going to wait for the service truck?

 

Even when I worked places with "official policy" stating drivers aren't to work on their trucks, I never received any complaints about the various things I did to get the truck back to their shop if/when something went wrong.

These days, it's my truck. If I can fix it where it sits, it's cheaper than a hook back to the house where I'll be the one fixing it anyway. Usually a phone call to Napa (or any other parts store with delivery trucks to run parts to local shops) will have what I need delivered...as long as I'm not TOO far out in the boonies. Even then, you can usually find SOMEONE sympathetic to your situation (once had a hose and some water delivered personally by an Auto Zone district manager in his personal car...he just happened to be in the store when I called and I was a couple miles farther than they usually send their drivers).

Point is, you get paid to move the freight, and if the truck is broke the freight ain't moving. Wreckers are expensive, and service calls can be ridiculous. If you CAN fix it, you'll save time and money...and everybody likes to save time and money. If you don't think you can fix it, don't attempt...because if you try and come up short (or cause more damage in the process), the company will pull the "drivers aren't to work of their trucks" card out of the employee handbook and fire you.

 

Great attitude. That's the way it's supposed to be. Keep it up, man.

 

Nothing. Just hold the wheel and inspect as you should and you'll be fine.

 

I've never had to change filterThat is normally don't at the terminals shop.You basically need to know how to change lites,fuses stuff that takes like five minutes to fix.

 

what part of, my company forbids us to do anything, did YOU NOT understand.?????????

i call them, they tell me hold tight, while they make a call.

i get paid to sit, and sit i will, is that hard for you to understand as well?????????

 

Your company must be rich calling a mechanic all the time to come adjust the brakes.