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ABF | Breakdown

canaryinthemine said:
Here I sit at a customer's dock
Twiddling my thumbs and watching the clock.
The Ol' Mack's broke...
And so's the dispatcher's heart...
All those pickups he'll miss....
Now he don't feel so smart....

I talked about maintenance
Til I was blue in the face.....
Now I sit like an anchor...
Stuck in this place.

Plenty of time for rhyme.. .
No reason....
I'm only glad it's warm..
No freezin'.....

How Long Oh Lord?
Will they keep pushing their luck?
About preventative maintenance,
They don't know...

Ahhh, dang it..,lost my train of thought....
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Right there with you the old Volvo just took a dump. Starter motor sized up already phoned in a mayday to customer service told them to call up all the customers and let them know we're 1-2 hours behind.
 
canaryinthemine said:
You must be with Cassens. I'm an old car hauler myself,......'79 to '82 with M & G Convoy..........

Now there was good maintenance. Any Ryder shop in the country.......Anything you wanted,......within reason, of course......

Since each trailer had their own "personality" as it were,.......and it was all about how many different combinations of vehicles you could load,..........any sort of modification on a trailer,......cut pockets here,..put cylinders and a ramp bar there,.........you just whipped into a Ryder shop, explained what you wanted,...and went to the motel.......

I did that at Janesville,....got the shop to add a ramp bar,.....so I could load seven huge Cadillacs on an old Delavan....(modified for nine VW's...)....I think I was grossing just a little under 73,280 when I came swaying out of that plant....,...That ol' screaming 238 Detroit practically had a hernia.......but luckily it was all downhill from Janesville Wisc. to Pittsburgh......
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Old time thought. I used to haul quarter panels out of truck & bus in Indy to Janesville, WI 3 times a week for Jackson Transportation out of Plainfield, IN a burb of Indy. GM final assembly plant in Janesville had the best cafeteria food up stairs in the front of the plant I have ever had. It was run by a guy who had a couple of restaurants in town. About the best food I ever had the pleasure of eating while on the road. The panels were in load racks that had to be delivered in what they called a ‘Wedge Trailer’. I think the trailer was like 13-9’ or 13-10’. I believe @ the time the plant did final assembly for the GMC Pick-Up & the Chevy Impala. That was a good gig while it lasted.
 
MikeJ said:
Right there with you the old Volvo just took a dump. Starter motor sized up already phoned in a mayday to customer service told them to call up all the customers and let them know we're 1-2 hours behind.
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I hear ya Mike ,the starters in our Volvo's don't seem to last very long, The '15 I had before had 3 put in within 4 month's. But it may have been because the shop used "aresol overhaul" starters (paint them black and send them back) finally they changed to putting new ones instead of overhauled, haven't had any problems with the'16 frtliner I have now except the seat is a little thin on cushion. (I'm sure this will get some remarks started) "nuff said time for bed
 
MikeJ said:
Right there with you the old Volvo just took a dump. Starter motor sized up already phoned in a mayday to customer service told them to call up all the customers and let them know we're 1-2 hours behind.
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Yep, Mike,....and they called FleetNet , and they're frantically searching the phone book for the cheapest vendor they can find within 100 miles of you........Get ready for either a young guy with tattoos on his neck and earrings in his nose..........or a replica of Poop Deck Pappy,...who'll tell you he's been doing this since " '58......or '68..... can't remember.."...

You'll have to help him open the hood.......

Good luck , Brother. I hope you're warm, and close to a restaurant........and maybe a library......
 
ABFer said:
Aaaaa, I sure do enjoy yous old timers' stories of old but I am glad that I didn't have to experience them first hand. I don't think that I have the stomach to haul cars, but that's good for you or I'd come cut your rates! Way back when I was young (like ten years ago) I watched a Nu-Car driver loading or unloading cars for a couple of minutes. He was at the back end of the trailer and the car wasn't 100% centered (I guess it was close enough). That ramp was all twisted up like an 8 track ribbon in the wind on the side of the road. Of course he couldn't see it from his vantage point but that was all I needed to see to say, "You can count me out of that". And that was before I had talks with guys about loading vehicles in the rain...oh the things you don't even think about if you don't have to do it yourself.
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Hah! .. Someday I'll tell you the story about how I was loading brand new Porsches off the ground at Port Wilmington in the rain.....

And it was so slippery I had to get a running start backwards to get up the ramps........

Everything was fine as I powered up the ramps.......tires spinning.....onto the trailer..across the top....

Then I made a sharp left hand turn...
 
ABFer said:
OOohhh boy, do they fire you for that? I mean...a Porche? I hope it was only a 914.
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Well, I didn't get fired,.......probably because they felt sorry for me after the two broken ribs I suffered.....

But I did get barred from loading Porsches at Port Wilmington for life......No problem.....right across the pier was Mercedes Benz.....

But , I'm probably the only person who could tell you that they wrecked a brand new Porsche,............and my car insurance didn't get cancelled.......
 
canaryinthemine said:
But I did get barred from loading Porsches at Port Wilmington for life
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Banned for life? What's your picture on the wall there or what? A 'NOT WANTED' poster or something? I hear that broken ribs hurt bad, how'd your head make out?
 
canaryinthemine said:
Yep, Mike,....and they called FleetNet , and they're frantically searching the phone book for the cheapest vendor they can find within 100 miles of you........Get ready for either a young guy with tattoos on his neck and earrings in his nose..........or a replica of Poop Deck Pappy,...who'll tell you he's been doing this since " '58......or '68..... can't remember.."...

You'll have to help him open the hood.......

Good luck , Brother. I hope you're warm, and close to a restaurant........and maybe a library......
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We did even better, they brought out a donor truck we aired my truck up with the donor truck and then did a pull start and then swapped tractors, what was the icing on the cake was my boss called our fleet shop because my company tries to do most of there maintenance in house and our fleet shop all the mechanics are brand new my boss calls them for tech support and they said "Oh geeze that's to much for us call Springfield Warehouses fleet shop instead." He called them and talked to 3 different mechanics and every single one of them had a different opinion of the proper way to use one truck to air up another.

Last time my truck was in the shop for maintenance our shop looked at it and said "To much for us." They got in it and drove it straight to the Volvo dealership and had them figure it all out. GFS does actually try to do PM's on stuff they legitimatly actually do try to do them, there very good abut tires actually that's the one thing they try very hard to keep up on, anyhow they do try, I can't imagine what our fleet maintenance budget is the amount of money must be astronomical, fuel, tires, other pieces parts cause GFS does fix stuff you tell them something is broken they will fix it. Cosmetic stuff too, my truck was in an accident over the summer and they did, they replaced my front bumper didn't think they would do that, but they did.
 
MikeJ said:
We did even better, they brought out a donor truck we aired my truck up with the donor truck and then did a pull start and then swapped tractors, what was the icing on the cake was my boss called our fleet shop because my company tries to do most of there maintenance in house and our fleet shop all the mechanics are brand new my boss calls them for tech support and they said "Oh geeze that's to much for us call Springfield Warehouses fleet shop instead." He called them and talked to 3 different mechanics and every single one of them had a different opinion of the proper way to use one truck to air up another.

Last time my truck was in the shop for maintenance our shop looked at it and said "To much for us." They got in it and drove it straight to the Volvo dealership and had them figure it all out. GFS does actually try to do PM's on stuff they legitimatly actually do try to do them, there very good abut tires actually that's the one thing they try very hard to keep up on, anyhow they do try, I can't imagine what our fleet maintenance budget is the amount of money must be astronomical, fuel, tires, other pieces parts cause GFS does fix stuff you tell them something is broken they will fix it. Cosmetic stuff too, my truck was in an accident over the summer and they did, they replaced my front bumper didn't think they would do that, but they did.
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They've got to, Mike,.......for both esthetic and legal reasons. All trucking companies have a moral and legal obligation to the public to provide a safe piece of machinery..

The only difference between good companies is how much of the responsibility of reporting and repairing they place on the driver.

I always tell our guys that the only reason they pay us the.....ahem..."big"..,bucks in trucking,.....has nothing to do with our driving skills........and everything to do with our willingness to take responsibility for everything once we cross onto public streets and property.......

You've probably been at a food warehouse and watched some 300 lb. young lady driving for an .....unnamed trucking company, whose initials start with "J.B."........take a half-hour to back into a wide open dock?......Well that "J.B." company could care less about her driving skills.......all they care about is.......did she deliver the load, and did she incur any liability? ......Other than that, they could care less if she wobbled down the road weaving from side to side at 45 mph with her high beams on......(...and we all know many companies employ people just like her...).....

Esthetically,......to repair the cosmetics, signals to all the ambulance-chasing lawyers out there, that your company does have some sort of a maintenance program...

To drive a large truck down the road with fenders flapping.,...or missing...and smoke pouring out from underneath........well,.....that truck is " low hanging fruit" to a lawyer with a client involved with that company for a claim....
 
ABFer said:
Banned for life? What's your picture on the wall there or what? A 'NOT WANTED' poster or something? I hear that broken ribs hurt bad, how'd your head make out?
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Yeah, broken ribs hurt.......

But my head?.... I've been hit on the head with tie-down bars , sandstone rocks, boxes of glass Lenox figurines,.......spare tires, spare change, and spare ether bottles......

Other than a battered , damaged and weathered appearance.......my head is fully functional.........solid as iron.......
 
canaryinthemine said:
Yeah, broken ribs hurt.......

But my head?.... I've been hit on the head with tie-down bars , sandstone rocks, boxes of glass Lenox figurines,.......spare tires, spare change, and spare ether bottles......

Other than a battered , damaged and weathered appearance.......my head is fully functional.........solid as iron.......
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That's why the call him "Iron man" or in my case "Rockhead" lol
 
canaryinthemine said:
Yeah, broken ribs hurt.......

But my head?.... I've been hit on the head with tie-down bars , sandstone rocks, boxes of glass Lenox figurines,.......spare tires, spare change, and spare ether bottles......

Other than a battered , damaged and weathered appearance.......my head is fully functional.........solid as iron.......
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After all those hits to the head you need to enter my Protocol Leave Program. 1st you have to mark off sick & apply for the Family Protocol Leave Act. Once you have completed said paperwork, go home, fluff the pillows, pour some Knob Creek over ice & look for the check in the mail box each day, Sunday being your only day off from that chore. After 3 weeks or when the bottle is empty, you will have successfully completed my Family Protocol Leave Program. You may now return to work. von
 
vongrimmenstein said:
After all those hits to the head you need to enter my Protocol Leave Program. 1st you have to mark off sick & apply for the Family Protocol Leave Act. Once you have completed said paperwork, go home, fluff the pillows, pour some Knob Creek over ice & look for the check in the mail box each day, Sunday being your only day off from that chore. After 3 weeks or when the bottle is empty, you will have successfully completed my Family Protocol Leave Program. You may now return to work. von
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If I'm home with my family three weeks straight,.....they may leave me,... no protocol needed,...especially if I'm being my old curmudgeonly self.....

We're trying to work out the details of my impending retirement..........High-level negotiations similar to the Arab Peace Accord.....
 
canaryinthemine said:
If I'm home with my family three weeks straight,.....they may leave me,... no protocol needed,...especially if I'm being my old curmudgeonly self.....

We're trying to work out the details of my impending retirement..........High-level negotiations similar to the Arab Peace Accord.....
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Now this is funny. How did that peace accord turn out?
 
Last night we had a snow storm blow in to our east side suburbs and it was a mess on route 2 and I-90 and I-271 merge.
Anyhow, one of our drivers was finishing up his route and was stuck kind of at his second last stop, but managed to get him self free, then going to his last stop he, was concerned he wouldn't make it through the customers lot, because it wouldn't be snow plowed properly.

Well I told him "Do not pull onto a lot, you can't get out of and if it's too snowy don't pull in and get your self stuck."
Well he pulled into that lot and got him self stuck. Then he couldn't raise anyone in management on the phone, until about 6:45pm when he was finally able to get someone. Then one of the bosses called me and said he was far away in Akron, Ohio and asked me to go out there and try and get our man and truck free and he would be on his way as well.

Well long story short the truck is still out there all plowed in and I extracted our driver. Of course it took all night, I left my house at 7:00pm and got our driver back to our yard after midnight. The bosses had to call there boss and ask if we could tie the truck down till Monday when the bosses will go out and free it.

It's all part of the fun!
 
MikeJ said:
Last night we had a snow storm blow in to our east side suburbs and it was a mess on route 2 and I-90 and I-271 merge.
Anyhow, one of our drivers was finishing up his route and was stuck kind of at his second last stop, but managed to get him self free, then going to his last stop he, was concerned he wouldn't make it through the customers lot, because it wouldn't be snow plowed properly.

Well I told him "Do not pull onto a lot, you can't get out of and if it's too snowy don't pull in and get your self stuck."
Well he pulled into that lot and got him self stuck. Then he couldn't raise anyone in management on the phone, until about 6:45pm when he was finally able to get someone. Then one of the bosses called me and said he was far away in Akron, Ohio and asked me to go out there and try and get our man and truck free and he would be on his way as well.

Well long story short the truck is still out there all plowed in and I extracted our driver. Of course it took all night, I left my house at 7:00pm and got our driver back to our yard after midnight. The bosses had to call there boss and ask if we could tie the truck down till Monday when the bosses will go out and free it.

It's all part of the fun!
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Sometimes things just need to be learned the hard way. On one hand he should have heeded the advice, on the other hand how does one really figure out what a truck will go through and what will stop it?
 
MikeJ said:
Last night we had a snow storm blow in to our east side suburbs and it was a mess on route 2 and I-90 and I-271 merge.
Anyhow, one of our drivers was finishing up his route and was stuck kind of at his second last stop, but managed to get him self free, then going to his last stop he, was concerned he wouldn't make it through the customers lot, because it wouldn't be snow plowed properly.

Well I told him "Do not pull onto a lot, you can't get out of and if it's too snowy don't pull in and get your self stuck."
Well he pulled into that lot and got him self stuck. Then he couldn't raise anyone in management on the phone, until about 6:45pm when he was finally able to get someone. Then one of the bosses called me and said he was far away in Akron, Ohio and asked me to go out there and try and get our man and truck free and he would be on his way as well.

Well long story short the truck is still out there all plowed in and I extracted our driver. Of course it took all night, I left my house at 7:00pm and got our driver back to our yard after midnight. The bosses had to call there boss and ask if we could tie the truck down till Monday when the bosses will go out and free it.

It's all part of the fun!
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I've always wondered why trucking rhymed so closely with a dirty word.......
 
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