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FedEx Freight | City Drivers - How New is Your Tractor

Crazy Trucker said:
Yes I have only had the same run for 2 and a half years, before that i ran a different route every day. I run 300-365 miles every day most of which is on 2 lane back roads in mountains. The city tractors would not suit me very well I haul a lot of weight mostly mining stuff. I don't know what any of this has to do with this discussion. :scratchhead:
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You don't understand the difference between running the same customers day after day and running a different route everyday and how tractor configuration could impact that?
 
dsh69 said:
You don't understand the difference between running the same customers day after day and running a different route everyday and how tractor configuration could impact that?
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I do understand what you're talking about I did it for years in different tractors running different routes before I got my own tractor, then I still ran wild before I got my own route. It takes time to earn it. Like others have mentioned it's not cost effective to buy a bunch of city tractors.
 
Crazy Trucker said:
I do understand what you're talking about I did it for years in different tractors running different routes before I got my own tractor, then I still ran wild before I got my own route. It takes time to earn it. Like others have mentioned it's not cost effective to buy a bunch of city tractors.
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Sorry, I'm trying not to be an ******* but it seems to me that driving a different route everyday has a lot to do with tractor configuration. For the City, the smaller, the shorter the better. At least that's my credo :)
 
When I was in the city (a loooong time ago) I preferred a city unit (an L international) over the road units (smurfs) regardless of where I went...a lot easier to maneuver in tight spaces. To me the city units were like small sports cars while the road units were like a 70’s Cadillac!!
 
Redracer3136 said:
When I was in the city (a loooong time ago) I preferred a city unit (an L international) over the road units (smurfs) regardless of where I went...a lot easier to maneuver in tight spaces. To me the city units were like small sports cars while the road units were like a 70’s Cadillac!!
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EXCEPT, back then, A/C was a huge factor in favor of the road unit... But only in the summer.
 
SwampRatt said:
EXCEPT, back then, A/C was a huge factor in favor of the road unit... But only in the summer.
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That depends, when they first reclassed the smurfs our shop removed the a/c belts per HO, was told the smurfs weren’t allowed to have a/c since the old L units didn’t!! :17113: Around 98/99 they quit removing the a/c belts but they wouldn’t replace the ones they’d already removed either.
Even with that said, I still preferred the L units...if I was gonna be hot I wanted to be hot all day. Hot/cold, hot/cold all day didn’t work for me.
 
Redracer3136 said:
When I was in the city (a loooong time ago) I preferred a city unit (an L international) over the road units (smurfs) regardless of where I went...a lot easier to maneuver in tight spaces. To me the city units were like small sports cars while the road units were like a 70’s Cadillac!!
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We were still running a few L 200s in 1955 or 56 as road units, the L model was replaced by the R model in 1954,
they were good driving trucks.
Sounds like to me, I'm not the only old one in the crowd.
 
seabreeze said:
We were still running a few L 200s in 1955 or 56 as road units, the L model was replaced by the R model in 1954,
they were good driving trucks.
Sounds like to me, I'm not the only old one in the crowd.
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I think you have your terminologies muddled up, breeze. Red is referring to an L-class tractor in AF/FXFE parlance.

AF prefixed all their equipment numbers with a letter that classified the equipment. FedEx continued this tradition. L = Local Tractor. R = Road Tractor. P = Pup Trailer. D = Dolly. G = Single Axle Van. X = Tandem Axle Van*. U = Used Trailer. I'm excluding the PW and PE prefixes because one is obsolete and the other is rare, but there may be others I missed.

*This classification doesn't include 53' vans, as AF never had any, nor does it include vans with pintle hitches for the same reason. 53' vans use Watkins' 70000-series numbering system, while RMD vans use the FXFW prefix 490. There's also a few converted low height pups among the G fleet, which was otherwise being slowly obsoleted until recently. I recall seeing pictures somewhere of a new G van a year or two ago.
 
Canadian Flyer said:
I think you have your terminologies muddled up, breeze. Red is referring to an L-class tractor in AF/FXFE parlance.

AF prefixed all their equipment numbers with a letter that classified the equipment. FedEx continued this tradition. L = Local Tractor. R = Road Tractor. P = Pup Trailer. D = Dolly. G = Single Axle Van. X = Tandem Axle Van*. U = Used Trailer. I'm excluding the PW and PE prefixes because one is obsolete and the other is rare, but there may be others I missed.

*This classification doesn't include 53' vans, as AF never had any, nor does it include vans with pintle hitches for the same reason. 53' vans use Watkins' 70000-series numbering system, while RMD vans use the FXFW prefix 490. There's also a few converted low height pups among the G fleet, which was otherwise being slowly obsoleted until recently. I recall seeing pictures somewhere of a new G van a year or two ago.
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Sorry CF, I'll plead a case of dumbass on that, didn't think an outfit would keep the old L model IHCs in service
that long, but I still think Red may be old as kerosene.
 
Canadian Flyer said:
The wheelbase on both is within half a foot, and at about ten feet long apiece for two axle units I really don't think it's that bad. It's really not that hard to widen out a turn or wiggle forward if you need to.

Why buy Class 7 city units for some barns and not others? The Class 7's are less versatile overall, however in areas with low obstacles a tractor with no fairings and a low-height trailer may be required. They are also more fuel efficient for doing what they do. That said, it's not a practical expense to purchase separate city units for every single terminal in a 300+ terminal network.

LTL carriers have been doing this for years. There are city guys at YRC driving road tractors that were retired 13 years ago. CF had road tractors from the 1980's in their city fleet when they went out. But in metropolitan areas LTL carriers try to have some dedicated city units.

Frankly, the only city drivers I have ever heard whine about not having a new, dedicated city tractor because road tractors are too big and too clumsy work at FedEx Freight. Most are happy to have a tractor less than five years old with less than 600,000 miles on it. Sorry if maybe nobody's taking you super seriously, but you have it pretty good here where equipment is concerned.
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I do not work at FedEx Freight but as a P&D driver I prefer a city tractor. Typically , they have a better turning radius and ( at least at my company ) no fairings to crunch if you do make a tight turn. Also , slip seating is not a problem since you usually don't have to share with a road driver. ( Translation: you can keep the tractor clean and keep things you may need inside )
 
icuicp said:
I do not work at FedEx Freight but as a P&D driver I prefer a city tractor. Typically , they have a better turning radius and ( at least at my company ) no fairings to crunch if you do make a tight turn. Also , slip seating is not a problem since you usually don't have to share with a road driver. ( Translation: you can keep the tractor clean and keep things you may need inside )
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No disagreement there. But it's not practical to have literally half the fleet sitting half of the time, which is why road tractors are used like they are.
 
icuicp said:
I do not work at FedEx Freight but as a P&D driver I prefer a city tractor. Typically , they have a better turning radius and ( at least at my company ) no fairings to crunch if you do make a tight turn. Also , slip seating is not a problem since you usually don't have to share with a road driver. ( Translation: you can keep the tractor clean and keep things you may need inside )
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Thank you. FXF is realizing this too as each center is even getting a few little 16' box trucks for residential deliveries. Oh, wow. You mean sending a tractor with a 48' trailer could mean accidents doing residentials?
 
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