Is swift going downhill? Losing momentum?

I pulled a two month old trailer a few weeks ago that doglegged worse than most and had door latches that didn't latch at the top without doing gymnastics. I also believe the new side skirted trailers are more prone to wild handling in strong, gusty crosswinds than the naked ones. I recently pulled a T trailer and it was sweet; tracked straight, easy tandem release, doors easy to latch and all of the lights worked. I like the older trailers. Over all when I have a choice of mt's I first check the tandem release. If the rod is bent or it won't release sitting still I don't want it. (The next time I see a Swift driver bending the tandem release rod at a truck stop because he's too cheap or lazy to buy a pair of vise grips, I will plant my size 13 boot up his butt.) The next thing I check is for door handles that work smoothly.

Moose mentioned taking a problem trailer to the shop which is what we should do when we find one that needs attention. However, the company policy that forces the driver to stay with the trailer, effectively putting his truck in shop status and therefore putting himself not available for dispatch, is flawed at best. It actively prevents maintenance and minor repairs on the trailers with an inevitable call to OnRoad when it finally breaks under a load.

My truck is a 2010 Prostar that is great. Its got good hill guts and everything on it works. The 4th gear synchro and the clutch brake are shot but it had 292,000 miles when I got it so I'm sure it has had many drivers that abused it.
Frank

 

What is this policy of which you speak wherein a driver delivers a trailer needing repairs must stay with it til the repair is done?
I brought a trailer into the terminal the other day that had weak brakes and 1 year old inspection. Shop was very busy, I called my terminal and told them the trailer was red tagged, could they hook me to this brand new shiny 13 series trailer that has never had a load. No problem.

But I agree, people better start filling out their macro 32 honestly and if in the vicinity of a terminal, take the dang trailer in and get it fixed! I wasted 30 miles on my own dime to take that trailer in but I knew my next load was live and 44,000 pounds. I had picked that trailer up preloaded 39,000 and realized too late when I finally got stopped halfway out in an intersection that the brakes were shot.
There's a lot of miles-hungry drivers out there that don't care if a light is burned out up top, tire(s) is flat spotted, or inspection out of date etc and drop these trailers at customers for the next guy. I even had one that only 2 of the 4 pins were engaged on the slides, the rears were blown out, forensic evidence showed somebody hit the brakes and freeway speeds and the tandems slammed all the way back against the weld stops and bent everything preventing the back 2 pins to engage. The rust indicated it had been that way for quite some time, driver after driver dropping and hooking it down the line, leaving it for someone else to worry about. Customer didn't know nor care, loaded anyway. I refused to haul that trailer and caused me to be 1 day late for hometime.

 

The trailer I just picked up has a locking pin missing.
Not just 'won't work', but missing - everything. Just an empty hole.

3 working pins and you are legal, I was told by both DM and on-road.
So I will go with it to the t-call in Memphis, and put it in for repair.

 

I just had to have four tires replaced on the trailer I have hooked to now...

 

I think we should be able to report a trailer needing repairs and its location, e.g. Walmart DC, and Swift should have mobile repair guys working out of every terminal available to go take care of it. Maybe not fully practical, but... I had a trailer pre-loaded going to a d&h that, as soon as my l-call went in, popped up a message that the tracking gizmo was afu and to take it by a terminal with a Qualcomm tech. My DM told me to finish the run and drop it. She said it had been that way for over 8 months and it had never seen a terminal that whole time.
Frank

 

That message comes up a lot.

And, you know, terminals are few are far between - especially when you really need one.

Tracking system and anti-lock brake system lights are the most common for me.

Well, if the trailer can't be tracked by QCom - it will be tracked by loaded and empty calls. And every time I have called it in I am told 'don't worry about it'.
So, I don't anymore.

Anti-lock brake system not working?
Then keep a little more distance so you don't have to lock them up.
Or do it the old fashioned way, by watching your rear and letting up if they lock.
And once I found a loose wire, re-attached it, and problem solved.

Sometimes it is the pig-tail.
Reseat both ends and see if a problem is solved.

I have a brand new 2013 Volvo, and I get a warning that I have a trailer marker light out.
All lights are working, however.
Last time I got the warning I jiggled the pig-tail at the cab end, and it fixed the problem.
Well, for a few days. It came back on for a few minutes today.

 

Frank ... you can. Just fill out the maintenance macro and follow up with a call to on road and tag the trailer ...

Same thing with repair. There isn't too much that can't be fixed on a trailer at a T/A or a Petro.

Picked up a preload last week where the brakes were so bad I couldn't slide the tandems, the wheels just rolled. On road sent out a service guy, adjusted the slack adjusters so the brakes were functional. Ran the load for 1000 miles, unloaded, then took it over to a Central yard and red tagged it.

If a trailer is bad it doesn't have to go to a terminal. We have drop yards as well as the Central terminals all over the country, where we can stash a trailer that needs attention.

And scottie ... don't move a trailer on your own dime. Minimum you are entitled to mt miles for a trailer move.

 

You can report trailers that our at shippers and such. There is a macro for it just send it in when you see a bad trailer. Many times customers have asked me to call swift to report broken trailers and I just send the macro.

Don't know if they actually get fixed but at least I reported them. As far as trailers go if I stopped and fixed every trailer I pulled I would be in shop status the entire time. Light out here up high and so on and so on. Safety issues are fixed immediately but lights gonna have to wait unless I have time to stop at terminal.

Normally I do not. Pulled a sweet trailer the other day that had the air knob to Unlock tandems. Student was out running around truck trying to find latch to pull for tandems and he was completely lost.

Nice trailer

 

Usually I can fix a light issue before even calling on road... Depends on what light and what time of day weather I'll run and fix it when I stop for the night. Tires are an other monster...