The Food Service Rant thread

Is McLane switching over to Automatics fully? I know Dayton Freight is all automatic and Saia is as well and Sysco has been buying new trucks that are all autos.

 

Maybe. It's kinda the new wave. YRC is converting to all auto and from what I understand our next batch of trucks for Reddaway are gonna be autos from what I'm hearing. With lack of driver exp out there think they want to yank a person out of school and into a truck right away or make their own training CDL programs easier without tearing up manual transmissions from noobs. It's a bad direction in my eyes cause drivers won't know how to really drive.

 

It appears to be the case. Hopefully they keep the Volvos coming. Most everybody hates driving the Freightliners. It's all done at the corporate level though, so it doesn't really matter how we feel.

I think it's about fuel economy. Other than the occasional warehouse guy they send to trucker school, we don't hire inexperienced drivers.

 

That's what I figured McLane doesn't hire inexperienced people and probably between Freightliner, Volvo and International it's probably who ever they can get a deal from price wise at the time and fuel economy is a big thing too. I know GFS has never bought Freightliners and seems to be extremely loyal to Volvo that's like all GFS buys is Volvo anymore nothing else.

 

I'll be the first one to tell you I was probably the worst shifter you ever saw when I started doing this, I am totally amazed at how far I have come in a years time at GFS. I was plain awful when it came to shifting by far the absolute worst in my opinion I was terrified of driving standard shift trucks however I knew I had to get over it, working at it everyday I got a little better and a little better and a little better and a little better and my last coaching trip he asked me where I learned to shift and I said right here from working here at Gordon's this year. They wrote up that I was a fine shifter and had no problems at all. That doesn't mean I don't grind a gear now and then or miss a gear now and then or what ever lately I've been starting off in the wrong gear usually 2nd when I want 4th, but I can recover and perform shifting miracles now that I never would have been able to do a year ago.

If I can learn to shift then so can others. What it is, is it just takes a lot of time 40-50 hours a week of shifting week in and week out and you get better at it. I think what it is now is now that automatics are becoming more and more mainstream it's why teach people to shift when we don't have to anymore and I've said this and I stand by it, with in 10 years manual transmission trucks will be in the minority and mostly on the way out. The bus industry got away from standard shift busses 24+ years ago. Lets face it US Xpress was all autos in the early 2000s when they were in there infancy they had trouble with the autos but they didn't give up on them and they are now all auto shift again.

Most of you're Class B straight trucks are automatics, the only stick shift straight trucks there really are, are dump trucks and even then like you're newer snow plows and stuff those are all autos well depending on who the buyer is a what not, usually a city or state snow plow is probably an auto unless it's some special 6x6 Western Star that's all decked out with a 13 speed transmission for some special job, but it's only a matter of time now. Heck the garbage truck industry is automatics, but with a front load garbage truck that's a different story all those controls in the cab there is no room for a shifter. It is what it is and that's how it goes. Technology marches on they work the kinks out as time goes by and that's pretty much it.

Like if I was a transportation big wig for a company and in charge of putting a fleet together we would have everything at my fleet we would have a mixed fleet of all kinds of stuff depending on what we were doing. However if I did expedited truck I would have something like this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/granitefan713/8761324184/?ytcheck=1

 

Sitting here in the yard waiting for my trailer. Already late I already put out the white flag on one stop already.

 

Oh man what a day for the other guys (Thursday). I was on skips today so my load was in early in the morning, but the other guys who ran express, boy did they get kind of screwed. Typical bad weather night transit came to an almost stand still last night out in Pennsylvania. The gentleman who I share a truck with called me up at about 6:30pm last night said he hit the PA boarder and boom white out conditions in the dark down to 20 miles an hour. He saw a Penn DOT salt truck out that he passed up and that was about that.



Voice Mail Messages were all red alert major weather delays. We had one truck break down on transit it was a spare or something. Any how major system wide delays and emergency alert messages from dispatch it was pandemonium 2016...okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but all that stuff did happen, lets say it was more major delays for certain routes.



So I get to the yard and on the way there at about 3 something this morning I see ODOT out on I-90 doing some snow removal work. Any of you guys ever work for the State DOT driving snow plows on the highway? I want to do it, but I really don't have any time to be avaliable to do it. ODOT always has a big hiring session over the winter time and the city I live in is always looking for part time snow plow guys and actually the city I live in there part time snow plow gig is actually a pretty sweet gig and if I was retired or something I would work for ODOT or the city part time as a snow plow driver. The city I live in I tried to work for them full time, but they said I made to much money as a beer truck driver and now that I make even more money working for one of the big 5 I'll never have a shot there. However the city does have a very generous retirement and vacation policy and there health insurance isn't to bad, it's just the pay is a little on the low side, but they have plenty of overtime cities love paying over time.



Actually ODOT when it gets snowy they'll run you're wheels off, but they drive cool trucks with cool green, white and amber lighting. Actually ODOT has a pretty big fleet of trucks 1500 trucks and that includes 3 tow plows which run out in Eastern North East, Ohio they do not use the tow plow here in Cuyahoga County, one of these days I'll have to travel out east to see it they use it a lot in Ashtabula where they have one stationed.





Anyhow I get to the yard where it was dark and snowy, but not lonely, a snow plow from the company that owns the property where we parked was busy at work, plowing some snow away and there was probably someone with a snow blower out running around plowing all the walk ways. So I get another call from my night transit driver it was 4am he said he wasn't even in Pennsylvania yet and was still headed to the warehouse on his second run I said no biggie there was no way I could wait for him, my trailer was sitting there in the upper corner of the lot ready to go.



So I did what any of you would have done I got out my snow brush and knocked some snow off an old International clunker (my old truck) and I climbed inside of it's cold dimly lit dark cab which was also not the cleanest and put my foot on the clutch and turned the key and Chug Chug Chug Chug Chug very slowly is how it went and then Sputter, Vromm , Sputter Vrooom angrily the truck came to life and it started beeping telling me it was out of air which is no big deal just had to let it build up some air. The truck didn't appreciate the early wake up, but I knew it would come around to my way of thinking. Anyhow the old International eventually woke up and I put it into gear and hooked to my trailer. Then I took off to the office to meet up with my help for the day who ended up showing up late. Not knowing any better I turned my truck off, which is something I normally do because they don't like us idling.



Anyhow once my helper showed up we got in the truck and I went to start it up and nothing D-E-A-D dead. Great now I'm late it's dark times ticking away the whole branch is already going down the toilet with late running transit trucks and I got a dead corn binder with a 19,000 lbs load and 965 cases that I need to get out.



Well one of the assistant bosses was able stab at the clutch and the truck started up never acted that way when I drove it, but now I'm all spoiled with my 2015 Volvo with satalite radio and wireless telephone and cruse control, but the Internationals are not the pride of the fleet at all there just spares and some our route trucks. The company doesn't like them, but they paid for them and they own them so they aren't all that hot to get rid of them. I mean lets face it an old dirty International that still works and can do a city route is worth a little bit, you're not going to buy a brand new $70,000+ Volvo to do city routes.



Most of the newer trucks do Chains, Volume or Transit, the newer trucks do not sit like the Volvo I drive on Tuesday that truck probably sat in the yard for a total of 25 minutes for the whole day. They run those trucks 24 hours a day 5 days a week and then at about the 4 year mark they knock them down to city status or that's what it seems like, usually around 400,000 something thousand miles they become city route trucks and do 4-5 years as city route trucks it seems to me about the 9-10 year mark they start thinking about selling them off. Actually we had a 2000 Volvo in our yard last year although it didn't stay long fleet said that the truck was to old and somehow escaped the sell list, but it's time at our yard was only a month or two and it was gone quickly and we never saw it again. Most of our trucks are 2007 or newer. GFS I think bought a lot of Volvo's in 2007 because there are a lot of 2007 Volvos in the GFS fleet and actually the 2007 Volvo's are good I like them.



Anyhow rest of the day went pretty normal we got done about noonish I got home around 13:40 can't really beat that.

 

Long day yesterday god it went on and on and on. Today was great by comparison compared to yesterday ha-ha. Still had 17 stops though and that was a lot. Any how I'm kind of tired all trucked out ha-ha!

 

I want my Volvo back. I was trapped in a Freightliner for the last two days.

Besides the Freightliner, this is how my day started yesterday.




That's both sides, if you can't tell.