What is a "real life" pretrip?

It may not look like much when I'm doing it, but as I'm going around my truck checking fluids, lights, thumping tires, checking glass, etc., I'm also checking components for anything that doesn't seem right. With enough time, and familiarity with your equipment, you develop an eye for potential or actual issues. If you're using new equipment, or slipseating, you want to do a much more thorough job. You never know how that truck has been maintained. Especially if it's a spare vehicle in a fleet, odds are it hasn't been maintained well.

 

I once had a ATS trailer with busted bags.

Called shop. Busted bags on such a such a trailer. now what?

Busted bags? Eh? What's that now?

I said all 4 air bags blown up, trailer cannot move very well at all. What part of busted bags don't you under...

Oh that... go to KORD (Chicago airfield airfreight and stand by to recieve a shipment of airbag assembly for trailer.)

Wait.. me sit at airport for how long. When is this thing coming?

Don't know it will get there when it gets there.

Dispatch.

No go on trailer shop sending parts future appt blown and not going anywhere until air freight arrives chicago Kord airfield.

*&^%$$ Not happening. Get moving.

No sir, what part of busted and cannot move trailer don't you understand?

Now see here you little*&%

Click.

Qualcomm *Beep Call me.

 

JReding is right you want to check spares much more carefully because they are generally older and not maintaiened well and usually break down and have been driven by anyone and everyone. Like for instance the NYPD's "Fleet Services" has a bunch of spare police cars usually those spare police cars are older units that have been pulled from regular service and just go out to replace cars that are in for maintenance.

Well trucking is the same thing the good trucks are in normal service and the older crappier trucks that they held onto are in spare service usually the older crappier trucks were the trucks that somehow avoided the sell list like our Internationals they avoided the sell list and are used as spares.

Usually though you work for a big fleet you will find most big fleets only buy for 1,2 maybe 3 manufactures at the most if that much.
Dayton Freight there Kenworth and International
GFS they are almost 100% Volvo here in the United States.

Werner is all of it they have Freightliner, International, Kenworth and Peterbuilt but sleeper cab outfits a little different.

Day cab out fits though usually have a lot of the same trucks even if they do have a couple different makes you'll see some warehouses or terminals have more of one make then the other and you'll know like oh my yard we have mostly Freightliners and generally if you look at the numbering system you'll see like 4-5 from 2011 and 4-5 from 2007 and so on and so fourth so you'll see you'll have clusters of trucks all from the same P.O. at your terminal. The company at the corporate level may buy 30 trucks and they send trucks 1-5 to terminal 431 and trucks 5-10 to terminal 520 and trucks 10-15 to yard 6 and you get the idea.

The longer you stay at an outfit you'll figure out there equipment and buying pattern and what they like to buy and you'll be able to spot the differences between a 2007 truck a 2011 truck and a 2016 truck.

 

We are looking for anomalies.

Get used to just looking at everything. Then, when something is out of place, you'll spot it. I usually find something once or twice a week, and that's at a company with very good equipment and a very good maintenance program. I usually pull 3 or 4 trailers per night, and I check them all, looking for anomalies.

In my line of work, a delay of an hour or more for repairs or to swing the freight to another trailer can snowball down the line and cost a ton of money. So I check stuff and try to prevent putting the next driver in a bad predicament.

 

At my previous company, they would place a small tag on a place that should be pre tripped
About 4 of them a week randomly
If you turned in a tag you found on your tractor or trailer, you got a gift certificate.
Almost none got turned in
The program quietly disappeared.

 

For what ever reason and they got away from this GFS had 2 different kinds of 50ft trailers ones for the market places and ones for chains the market place store 50ft trailers only had one side door and no ramp. Sure enough as you can imagine they have loaded market place 50ft trailers with chain route goods. Now you have a 50 ft trailer with 40,000lbs in it that's floor loaded that can't be unloaded when it gets out on it's route that's not a drivers error it's a yard spotter error but still you talk about a costly mistake.

Most of our trouble comes from trailers specifically tire blow outs we get a lot of those. If you work for a company and your pulling one of there trailers that like where I work isn't really suited to do a certain job make sure you park it in the yard where it's supposed to be parked you do need to know your companies equipment if you know I have an older trailer that doesn't have XYZ equipped to it then when I get back to the yard I need to park it out in no mans land with the other off shoots that way the yard jockeys in there haste won't grab that trailer and load it and then have to have the dock or warehouse unload it. This is all a big fight against the clock want to keep things in order 28' trailers go where they go, 50' warehouse trailers go where they go lift gate trailers go where they go so on and so fourth.

 

When I worked LTL, I would have a different trailer on my route literally every day, sometimes up to 10 per day. I ended up in the shop every. stinkin'. day. Lights, door issues, brakes, tires, you name it. I used to get harassed mercilessly by our shop: "Hey, look who's here. Imagine that." It was all in good fun, the mechanics actually appreciated me doing my job and getting the equipment in to them.

 

Not to toot my own horn by the OP may appreciate this thread:
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ft-gate-familiarization-your-priority.322450/

 

Standard real life trucker pretrip --

1. Pull open curtain and sit in driver's seat wearing boxer shorts, flip flops and wifebeater Tshirt.

2. Start truck. No Check Engine Light, must be good to go.

3. Light up first cigarette of the day.

4. Turn on CB and ask for a Radio Check.

5. Put truck in gear and ease on out of the parking spot while throwing last night's trash and pouring out urine bottle out the window onto the ground.

 

This made me cry a little