Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

Haha! Good one! The sign on their truck should say "our most valuable idiot 63 ft ahead."

 

Unfortunately typical of our shop. We had a coolant leak on the DEF tank heater on one of our little Freightliners. They put a vise grip on the coolant inlet hose. Not sure how much that wound up costing all in.

 

so, go in monday morning, another guy says he wants a different truck (slip seat, they are assigned each day, ya never know what you are going to get), and the supervisor says 197. I say Hey, wait a minute, that already came back from the shop? Cuz I did a huge writeup on that when I got back saturday morning.

uhhhh, nothing here, no paper seen and nothing from ryder.

go out, the book is still in the truck, unsigned by mechanic, tractor EXACTLY where i left it.

yeah, they tossed the inspection and didn't fix a thing.

guy still took it. I am SO GLAD I am now saving copies of my DVIR's.

 

Good idea. I used to take a cell phone pic of my dvir sheets..

At the old job, I wrote up a reefer trailer that was spewing oil all over the place and throwing a tk code. No problem, they'll fix it, right? Wrong.. They sent it out on a backhaul for a load of hamburger patties and the reefer caught on fire from the inside out when the driver returning to the whse. 34000# of beef burnt to a crisp. The had to unload all 22 pallets into the yard and take pics for insurance claims, rent 2 rolloff dumpsters to get rid of everything, the whole nine yards.. My terminal manager called me immediately after it happened and asked me why I didn't write it up, I said I did, give a minute and I'll send you a pic of the dvir.. Im pretty sure the hard copy of my dvir ended up in the trash can in the trans or whse managers' office.

 

So speaking of high hooks and stuff like that. I don't get how someone can go 70 miles. Or all the way out to the street and then it drop. That's always baffled me.

Would one day it's safe to look at the handle and make sure it's all the way in. And that be a good way to know you are hooked. Or is the only "100%" for sure way to know you're hooked to look at the jaws underneath.

 

Look at the jaws! Don't be lazy, be SAFE!

 

^^^this. One company I worked for made you look at jaws or your fired. They had a driver high hook and drive 250 miles without dropping it then it fell off at a job site lucky for him. Owner had a big window upstairs and would watch to see if you pop the hood and looked at jaws. If he saw you not do this instant termination. Personally I would do the same if I owned a company. He paid cash for all the equipment couldn't blame him. Guess that's why I have a habit of looking at the jaws every time. You need a flashlight even in daylight.

 

I am amazed at how few drivers carry flashlights. My $20 is on my hip everyday and still going strong. Use it every day.