Proposed maintenance cycle questions

Waiting on that message, never gonna happen.

This thread is every drunken JBHunt Logistics Xmas party conversation since 2002....

 

Going to be tough to make a Monday morning delivery when all the trucks are parked on Sunday because you want to run the 60/7 rule.

There’s no need to reinvent trucking. There’s no need to reinvent a maintenance schedule. If you’re keeping trucks much past 500k you’re going to have problems finding and keeping drivers. Drivers don’t care about your maintenance schedule, they’ll see 800k on the odometer and walk away. Get new trucks, get out of them before the warranty is up, and replace with new trucks. You and your “associates” can thank me later.

 

I am going to add this, seeing the OP never asked on question about my post.

It seems there are all these ideas floating around from people who are ignorant of how this all works (No one here in this thread by the way). Many never had to manage more than one truck, while others never got out of the seat to even look at the costs of running it, but think they know everything.

What attracts people to this as a business is the allure of money, big bucks, but per truck, most fleet owners make less than the driver does, sometimes a lot less. Many fleet owners or "partnerships" take the money first, and this is where they screw the drivers; bad things happen then.

Economy of scale comes into play, but it only happens when there is capital and good decision-making involved, which seems to be lacking in most of these schemes. Most fleet owners who are new want instant results, and they are the reason why failure rates are in the 80 to 90% bracket.

The biggest expense is the driver, not the truck, not the fuel, but the driver. The driver can make or break a company or fleet in no time, trashing the truck or causing loss of revenue through insobrodination, and another 1000 reasons.

I am selective when it comes to drivers. Good drivers are very hard to find; we have many of them in this thread speaking up. A good driver asks for things that a crap driver will never think of asking for. In my experience, freedom is number one. A good driver will also demand money for their time and return performance in getting the job done without hand-holding or calling up crying about it snowing (I have had a couple of drivers stuck in Eire and Buffalo with a few feet of snow, literally crying they need to go deliver the load). I expect them to perform, but I have problems with a few, and those are the hand-holding PIA types that I see. The only way to get rid of them from this industry is to become a professional industry.

Micromanaging the driver is the worst thing to do; this is the feeling I get with this OP he wants an aviation-type safety system for the driver, which won't work. Two different worlds and two different management protocols are needed. Burnout happens when the drivers are being paid by the mile and not by the work or a percentage of the work; this has been proven too many times.

The use of ELDs, a devil's tool, has been used against drivers since its inception, but on the other hand, it can really be used to manage the load to the driver's advantage. Many times, I or someone in the office has to call the customer/broker to tell them their delivery will be a few hours late because of delays that can not be avoided, and can show them where the driver is and what his hours are to shut them up. Brokers are the worst, by the way.

So the OP can do what he wants, I don't care, he isn't competition for me. He will dump a lot of money into experimenting and trying to fix things that are not broken, not engaging people who are actually doing this, and will see a crap load more cascadias on the repo market within a year.

OK I'm out. You all stay safe out there.

 

No DD is for raw power, a CAT is for raw power.

 

Yes but the 16 is marketed for heavy haul and vocational like dump trucks and cement mixers ....