Random LTL Rants (all are welcomed)

It's so ridiculous that it's almost funny. They wrecker at least two trucks in each day. As a matter of fact, one of my coworkers got wreckered in and told me that he broke down twice. They thru took his old truck and brought him a new truck that broke down 5 miles later down the road.

 

I am not making this up. I'm not embellishing things. Hell, I am not even exaggerating things a bit. They seemed serious but I also knew they couldn't force me on the road or punish me for refusing, so I held my ground.

You ever heard of Deja-Moo? It's the feeling you've dealt this with bullcrap before?

Well that's what was going on yesterday. Something similar happened last Fall/Winter. They gave me a truck and said that it had an open write-up and that a mechanic was on the way to clear it. The truck was written up two times already for a coolant leak, and each time it was cleared.

I got to my truck and sure enough there is a massive puddle underneath it. I pop the hood and to no surprise, coolant reservoir is almost completely empty. Mechanic shows up.

"Oh hey, I heard this truck was overheating. Huh, look at that. There is your problem right there. It doesn't have any fluids in it"

- hey man, it has a leak (he completely ignores me of course).

"It's always the same with you drivers. Always griping and complaining about defective equipment, then it's usually something as simple as you guys not doing a proper pretrip"

He is pouring in a massive jug of coolant, as the tank fills up, you can clearly see the coolant dripping back out from the bottom.

-. Dude, like seriously, look at it dripping out from the bottom.

He then gives me this passive aggressive response. I forgot the exact wording but the context was for me to stay in my lane. He then signs off that the repairs are made and tosses my DVIR over the driver's seat on to the passenger seat before he just leaves.

I tried to explain things to my supervisor, but they just give me the two thumbs up since my DVIR shows I am good to go. Welp, if this is how it's gonna be, I am gonna go ahead and let them have it. I check to make sure I have triangles. I already know how this day will end.

I head out and two hours into my drive down, the inevitable happens. *Beeeeeep-beeeeeeep-beeeeeeeeep*. Every fault light turns on as the truck loses power and I coast to the shoulder of the road. I set the brakes, grab and set up my triangles outside and pop the hood. Of course the coolant tank is empty. Call up dispatch to explain the situation. First question he asked "did you top off your fluids before you left?"

- yup

"Hmmmm... I'm no mechanic, but it sounds like you have a coolant leak".

- yup, it was written up three times for the same issue, and each time the mechanic just topped off the tank.

It took them three hours to send me a wrecker. The funny thing was, even when I was broke down, I still got three out of seven stops done. I had a short liftgate and was supposed to peddle a residential route. Three of the customers ended up meeting me on the side of the road and I just helped them load up their bumpers and furniture right there where my triangles sat.

Anyway, for those still reading, I am telling this story to give more context to yesterday. When I broke down last year, it was nice and cool out. Plus I was near a gas station where I could get some heat lamp cuisine. Yesterday was well within the 90s and it would have been miserable to be broken down, waiting to get towed.