Pretrip during orientation

I have been through several orientations in which they do a pretrip test before their road test. As a professional driver you should know how to do this. You should know the basic mechanics of the truck and if you do not you shouldn't be driving! You're not a "soccer mom" driving a mini van! You are a professional driver responsible for the safety and up keep of your equipment. If something is wrong with the truck you should be able to diagnose the problem and even sometimes fix or make repairs on a small scale. Headlights, hoses, airlines, brake adjustments etc... should all be something you are capable of repairing yourself with the tools you have aboard on the side of the road if need be. You should absolutely at least know what parts are what and what they are designed to do.

If you do not know this then you need to study up and either teach yourself or get help until you do. If you cannot this line of work is not for you.

 

It is better to know as much as you can, even if you don't use it. It will also help you be able to identify things on the truck and trailer that might pop up on a test.

 

Do ur pre trip or I can bet u won't last too long. U will rack up tickets for things being missing broken. Yes ppl will take ur tail lights if they need em..

 

I'm at Schneider orientation and we have to do a thorough pre-trip every time we get in the truck. We also have to do the TIV after every stop. Schneider is very safety conscious and they want all of their drivers to be the same way. Must be wearing gloves, safety helmet, etc. If you have to do it on the job, do it in orientation.

 

If you do try to repair something and make it worse, won't your company make an issue of it since you aren't a mechanic? I'm sure it's pretty easy to change a light but doing anything under the hood besides what is required in the pretrip should be done by whoever is paid and qualified to do so, imho. If you're not qualified on paper to make even minor repairs and something happens, it's your fault.

I do think, however, that drivers should at least be able to do and understand the pretrip to the point of being able to recognize any issues. It's one thing to know that you're allowed so much play in the steering column but if you don't know what that actually means and looks like, then how do you know if there's a problem. I say that if you even think there is an issue according to pretrip standards, it should be checked by a mechanic, again imho.

 

CRE, Werner, etc...