To drive or not to drive!

I did try to repair with no luck. Won't even blink once.

It is hard to carry all the extras cause I have to clean out my truck at days end. But will see what I can do. Thanks for the tips...

 

Always hated drop and hook because you don't know what you're gonna get next. There comes a point where getting trailers fixed cuts into income.

 

Well there are some good points here. Yet where people are calling the last driver interesting expletives, we should remember. Some companies will put you on the back burner if you are constantly writing up their equipment. Not all companies out there are willing / understanding over a indiscretion. The better practice is to haul it down the road, get the part at some place that has the parts. Notify your company of the defect before you get that trailer is probably the most important issue, this way if your a little late they will know it is because of the defect. The police will understand if you tell them you just got the trailer and are going to get it repaired. You might even have them tell you where the closest part supplier is located. Remember to keep the receipt and copy it, send the copy with the last load.

To outright refuse the load because of a light out or some minor defect will eventually equal less loads. Companies respect their drivers more when the driver takes care of the equipment and keeps the loads rolling. The only time I had a issue with a drop and hook was for a furniture company. I got a load out of New York and hauled it to some mega warehouse in Connecticut. Halfway there it sounded like a piano taking a nose dive off a 2 story building. I was only cruising up I-95, no braking, nothing special. Thankfully the wife was with me and she wrote it to the DM that we just hear a horrendous crashing noise on a sealed load. Companies need to know this. That way they are not the ones responsible for the receiver whom tries to welch out.

 

I am actually at a laundry and on my smart phone. But I felt the need to make this reply. I disagree with almost everything you wrote. I would never work for a company that practiced punishment for refusing to run illegal. I will have more to say when I get back home.

 

Everyone has the right to an opinion. The statement made above is from the companies I have driven for and seen what happened to those whom refused loads because the trailer wasnt up to their standards. I was not trying to out you in particular. It was just a observation from when I had been on the road.

 

OK, done!

 

OK, now I am home and can better put my thoughts down. The thing is you are trivializing a horrible practice. I never refused to haul any piece of equipment in a simple situation because I was a professional and always came prepared. A bad fuse I had one. I had a marker light etc etc. I'm not talking about simple things. I'm talking about things like no permits or registrations and at 3AM you can't get one faxed to you. Flat tires or bad tires. I had several trailers with tandem locking pins that won't engage. Major problems that can't be easily fixed in just a few minutes and with the defective trailer loaded it complicates things. THIS IS WHY I CALL PEOPLE THAT LEAVE TRAILERS THIS WAY HUMAN GARBAGE. There is NO excuse for this. Most drivers leave trailers this way because they are lazy and don't want to put a little effort into reporting it. I am not a driver that just came in on a load of turnips. I have been in and around trucking most all of my life. My father was a trucker.

I had a good working relationship with all the Dispatchers/Fleet Managers I ever had. They knew I was a professional and acted like it. I respected my company and I never put up with disrespect from them. My company always knew if and when I contacted them about defective equipment I was serious about it. I have had both the President and Safety Director of my company to stop me in a hall and thank me. This is one reason I never desired to work for a large company.

One more thing. It is the epitome of un-professionalism to knowingly allow yourself to be put into a situation where you are at the mercy of a DOT or General Law enforcement officer! Professionals DON'T DO IT! Also please don't advise drivers in these forums to do this. There are far too many Cops out there that hate truckers. A professional will never do that!

 

My afternoon pick up. Where was the other driver's give-a-hoot? Put me 4 hours behind schedule.

Stuck with another unpre-tripped trailer by miss elvee posted Feb 2, 2016 at 3:43 PM

 

Oh that reminds me of a bad situation I got into with USA Truck back in april of 2011. The idiot before me had dropped a loaded trailer about a 30 thousand pound loaded trailer in mud. Nothing put mud. The company had to send out a wrecker to lift it and pull the load out. There was so much mud under that trailer I could not get under it with my tractor till another guy came out and pressure washed it. It was several hours from the time I got there till I could leave. Also Mud got into the landing gear gears and I had a bad problem getting it up and down I finally left the trailer at the west Memphis terminal.

 

Just to let everybody know. You can search these forums backward and forward and you will not find anyplace where I called someone a name or disrespected them. I try to say please and don't use fighting words in my replies. So when you see me call a driver an idiot or human trash you know I am passionate about my feelings. This is how I feel about someone that will leave a ticking time bomb like this for another driver to fix. I also feel about the same for a driver that will live load and drop the load and not CAT scale it first. If there is a problem with the load it is almost impossible to fix.