I am a driver not a mechanic...!!

I work for a small 25 truck outfit. I am NOT mechanically inclined at ALL. This is reason number 15,000,000 why I would never buy my own truck. I digress. The ABS light on our trailers (tanker) face forward.

I guess a rock or something flew up an shattered mine. I thought I’d be a sport and change it. It has some plastic bracket that’s riveted to the trailer and the. There’s this rubber grommet thing that holds the light.

Well, by the time I failed to replace the light, the grommet and the bracket were destroyed. I told the owner I tried to fix the light, but it didn’t go so well.

He looked at it and said (without missing a beat) “I’m glad you didn’t try to add oil to the engine”. Lol

 

p.s. The title reminds of a line out of one of my favorite TV shows from the ‘60s.

“###### Jim, I’m a doctor, not a magician!”

 

I could work for a boss like that, sure could...

 

I used to fix things, but it was rare and saved me time an aggravation when I hauled feed.

 

Very nice; top heavy. lady who cuts my hair has a similar sign in her beauty shop.
It says: I'm a beautician, not a magician.

 

I was a company driver for 10 years. If we wanted to do minor repairs we could, but it wasn’t forced on us. Usually if it would get me rolling quicker I would, but there were also times I went to a shop and let the boss pay to fix it.

I’d say talk to the boss and find out exactly what the expectations are for doing minor repairs.

 

You guys and this idea drivers can or should or could do simple repairs like change a light bulb must live under a rock.

I have had drivers replace lightbulbs and totally screw it up, from losing lens screws to putting in the bulb in backwards to busting the bulb trying to get it into the socket that wasn’t made for that bulb.

the same goes for wipers, I’ve replaced wiper arms because they were twisted up thanks to a driver with a pair of pliers. I still can’t figure out how the hell he managed to get the wiper on the arm but it wasn’t going anywhere.

I could go on about this subject, it is just turned into a truth, if the driver is clueless or unsure about something, get it into a shop.

 

Getting paid expressly to make small repairs is not always cut and dry. I get paid by the mile for a mega. I always make small repairs myself when possible. I carry spare trailer lights, wire, basic tools, etc. If I can make a repair in 30 minutes, versus losing much more time, then I'm making more money considering that for a given day I can drive more miles if I'm not wasting my clock waiting on a mobile repair. So, no, I'm not getting paid to make a repair directly, but I do come out ahead almost every time.

 

If your drivers are that clueless, how can you even trust them to do a proper pretrip? But, yeah, I'd tell them to stick to being steering wheel holders too, if they can't put a new wiper on.

 

That's something he could really regret saying.