Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

they would back up better for hooking up, less likely to turn
be harder to get it hooked to the front trailer though if you were off just a little.
probably went thru tires at an amazing rate.
it's really odd.

 

GFS ran that style of converter for probably close to 40 years. I bet the only reason they stopped was because they probably couldn't buy them any more.
That style of converter is way hard toove by hand and our transit drivers never cared for them.

Word is there's still a few left floating around Michigan.

 

Yesterday I washed my truck, these zero admissions trucks are filthy, filthy in the sense of that they pollute all over them selves. These trucks are always covered in this brown dust in the cab you should see all my dirty towels that I'm washing after a year of not washing the truck there was plenty of dirt inside of the cab.

 

My tractor has been getting passed around for some reason... It's been a mess. As soon as I clean it, it's trashed again. We have an auto and a manual wash bay. And a vacuum. I wish they'd clean the #### thing when they're done

 

We have some guy that comes and uses a power washer every other week on our trucks if the weather is nice. Personally they don't pay him a whole lot and he's got 16 trucks to wash and his job is mainly just to knock the lose dirt off.

Our trucks at Imperial used to get passed around like crazy as well, and it actually became a big enough problem to where management had to find a way to knock it off. One of the problems was we were short on power units and it would get stupid like our transit trucks would come in and get hooked drive over to fuel and some idiot would be unhooking a hooked set of transit trucks under the guise of I need a tractor.

One of our transit drivers saw someone doing that to his truck ran over and said "What the heck do you think your doing?" The guy went "I need a tractor to drive." Our transit driver said "Get the heck out of here and don't let me ever see you doing that again."

Now our warehouse did end up getting a couple batches of new trucks in 2015 and 2016 and that alleviated the power shortage and stories like the one above don't happen as much anymore.

At the yards it's not a big deal we all pretty much drive our own trucks if we have to share or swap for what ever reason we all pretty much talk to each other about it. We don't do to much passing around at the yards however I am well aware of trucks coming back dirty I've had it happen. Sent my International that was my regular truck down for maintenance it's at the garage all summer and comes back with a bunch of trash and road maps from New York State buried under the seat. However that was some time ago so things have changed since then.

 

That's ridiculous. Just up and tried to jack someone's tractor??? I'd be pretty mad lol
I'd go crazy if I was at a yard and had no way to wash or fuel my truck up. It's just so convenient.. 2 manual wash bays, and automatic drive thru and 3 fuel pumps

 

Imperial has an auto drive through and one manual and a couple fuel lanes. At the outlying yards or even the main yards there's none of that. I have to go to the truck stop to fill up my truck so like what ever day it was Thursday I think, at the end of my day I drove to the truck stop there's one semi close to our yard and filled up my truck. We do have a hose and a spigot so if were so inclined we can hand wash our trucks our selves, but I'm the only one that does.

Yes that was true some just up and tried to jack a tractor, those were sad times, however once some new trucks came in some of that stopped.

However if your at an outyling yard like Pitt-East or something your there on your own, you have a shed and that's about it. I've run out of the outlying yards they really are just yards, truck gets washed in the rain and you have to go to the truck stop for fuel and what not.

If something needs fixed they call in road service if it's an emergency out here at the yards especially the outlying yards it's a whole different ball game you are on your own.

 

Yeah that's crazy. I'm glad I'm at a DC. So much easier. I've heard about some small yards.. literally an old GFS 28' trailer stripped of everything but the shell to drop paperwork and a dolly or two. No boss or anything. Just get your dolly and go. The biggest thing for me is, I have access to the shop if I need something.
I was parking at a decent sized drop yard then walking across the street to a hotel which was super convenient. Had a driver cover my route the following week and he did the same. Came out and the moved his truck across the lot and reset his 10 hour break timer. He ran the following night illegal since it got reset lol.. I don't go there anymore.

 

We've got sheds one shed has roof made of screen and wire the other is more of a shed, shed but when I cover out of Lorain which is a 5 truck yard that's all it is a shed and that's it no nothing. I bring my wheeler from the yard or one from my house and that's pretty much that, your far away on your own with no back up or anything. They only put the real competent guys out at the outlying yards they don't put just anyone at the yards. We have guys at my yard which is a main yard we have an office and bosses and sales people and 2 vans and a bathroom and vending machine and all that jazz and we have guys at the main yard who they will not send to cover at the outlying yards. We have guys who even if they had the seniority or the rest of it they wouldn't allow to bid on a route at an outlying yard.

To be at a far away yard you have to be proven and dependable and organized and know how the system works and be able to get going and go on your own without any hand holding.

 

That appears to be a standard tandem axle dolly, with the wheels on each axle singled out. They could put duals on them like they do for the heavy turnpike stuff (or super singles, like Pepsi does). They track straight better, and they darn sure back better than the singles do. Nearly everyone running LCV doubles back east runs those, except for UPS, and us, and a few other super-light haulers like Serta (mattresses).

Next time I'm on a doubles bid, I'll snap a few pics of them. Pepsi seems to have the nicest ones...everyone else's are varying degrees of rough. Some even have the old Dayton split-rim setups on them (rare, but they are around).