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ABF | Swing Doors

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Tater Chip

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When will the swing door trailers all be gone? I try to get them all out of our barn at night when I do outbound, but they all seem to come back:nutkick: . I can't wait till they are all gone out of our system
 
We just met with a road team driver at our barn a couple of weeks ago and he told us that they were going to start ordering trailers with swingback doors again instead of rollup doors. The reason being that they can put more freight on swingbacks than rollups. I've heard in the past that they like the swingback doors because it forces a driver to get out and open them before bumping a dock, supposedly reducing backing accidents. But, statistics did'nt back up their theory.
 
Just think of all that sunshine for you to work on your tan, and not to mention all of that exercise. You will get a big belly with those roll doors. Besides that if you have all roll doors there will be no overtime!!!
 
We have alot accounts the we need the swingdoor tlrs. But I try to load all the heavy routes with the roll ups. We have alot of rain and wind and the swing doors can make for a long day.
 
for a long time ABF would never have overhead doors only swing doors reason was to much maintanice. If they can make more money with swing doors you can bet we will have them back
 
Do th math....aprox.two minutes to stop,get out open doors get back in and then back to dock.Multiply that by two when you leave.That gives you about four minutes per stop to open and close dooes.And now add that by lets say on averege fifteen picks and deliverys,that gives you one hour more per day opening and closing doors.Just putting my spin on it.Something to think about guys!
 
The Big Picture

I used to work at Standard Forwarding Co Inc. and all I ever saw was swing doors, they only ran 53 footers. I used to weigh 180 lbs. and now since I started at Holland I am up to 210 lbs.

The moral of my story is that you got to look at the positives. You run mostly 28 footers right? So you are really only walking maybe an extra mile a day. Get some fresh air and stretch the legs a little. Don't mind the rain or snow or that a Conway notches by you to get that last recieving door or that Saia that squeezes by to get that last shipping door with his automatic transmission. At least us Teamsters don't have twin sticks anymore....:hide:
 
I must agree with pipe layer,the barn doors don't break as much as roll doors do.
At UPS Freight most of our fleet of trailers have roll up doors.
Being I live,and work in the cold snowy northern NEW YORK,these roll door tracks get snow,and ice on them and make for a real back breaker to get them open.
A lot of the time in the winter season we have to use fork lifts to raise them up when our inbound loads come in.
Then when we have to go out to do deliveries we sometimes need crow bars to get them up enough to get our fingers under them to raise them the rest of the way.
These roll doors also have the door cable,or cables break.
You can get away with one broken cable,but if the other one lets go,the door weighs about 900 lbs,and it can become a giant gilatine coming down,best get out of the way if you know whats good for you.

Like everything in the trucking industry,there are good and bad issues.
Barn doors take more time to open,and close but in my opinion they are better dealling with in the winter season,then the roll doors.
 
I work roughly 150 miles from you and snow and ice has not hampered opening or closing the door. Poorly loaded freight that has fallen against the door has, because of improper loading. The only place that I have worked that this has occurred was at CF, and yes there was some junk, the lift plats on the door got used a lot. One broken cable is a tough day like you said, two broken cables I am heading for terminal for a different trailer. My two cents have a nice day, keep cool!!!!
Stimpy
 
Well ok Stimpy we must have more junk at UPS Freight then you have.

I've come across a lot of these back breaking roll doors,so I'm telling it like it is here.
My terminal is very small,and we are shopless so we flag these bad trailers when the inbound is unloaded,and send them down the road to our hub with outbound freight.
But every now,and then ,one of our dock workers loads city freight on them,and us drivers are in for a very hard time of it,untill we get it empty,then we tell dispatch to load it outbound,and get rid of it.

Now as far as working with the barn doors you must know I'm well into my 44th year as a city driver in,and around Rochester NY.
Most of my career I worked with barn door trailers,so with what I know about both,I still say its far less hassle have swing door blues,then breaking your back lifting some of these junky roll doors.

This may just be my opinion being I'm a very old city,gear jamming steering, wheel holder?
 
Well I am in my 28th year and don’t consider my self a newbie to the industry either. There is a place for swing doors when there is wide freight, and I see swing doors holding back freight better than roll doors. All I was saying about tough doors is if it will cause a back injury I will not take it. There usually is another trailer there to reload in; if you do this enough they will check the doors before they load them. Again just my two cents from a 28-year vet!!!
 
Ok Stimpy,point taken.
I'm not trying to get into an argument with you.
We both have our opinions on whats best for our given sistuations.

We are both doing the best we can with what we have to work with.

I can agree to disagree with you given my experience,with both ways to open trailers.
You have your reasons for what you've learned,so no big deal.
As far as I can see on this issue,we can still be truckingboard friends,even though we don't happen to share the same opinions.

But we do have a lot of junky roll doors to deal with that come through my terminal,and we drivers just do what we have to,so's our supervisors,and TM don't go totally ballistic on us when we come to them whinning about the trailer doors.

Now heres the big difference between you,and me my truckingboard friend.
Its called the Teamsters union.
You have a greivence process,and I have (ZIP).
We both have to do what we have to do,but you can get help from the union,and I've got to do my best,by whinning,and hope I can get a break,if not I've got to just deal with it.
 
Apo, don’t take me wrong; I am just venting my opinions also. I mean no harm, and don’t want to fight either. Just my opinions. To get back on subject, ABF has on one run or area that I go a three axle I think 40- footer. The driver tells me that it is hard to steer when you are backing with a load on. I think it too is a swing door, double pain in the …..
 
Yes I will admit,another down side to barn doors on a longer trailer.
If you have a load you have to be on level ground to get the door closer dog ears to line up,so you can get both doors to shut.

Every once in a while I'll run across a new bee truck load driver trying to get the doors to shut.
I tell them they've got to get off the hill,or out of the pot holes to a more level spot.
They do it and are always smiling,and waving at me when I'm driving off.

Just an old timer helping out a new bee,it gives you a good feeling,even though their company is cutting our throats for the freight they are hauling.

But then again its not their fault,they are just learning.
 
our swing door trailers are getting old and I could see ABF buying some to replace our old trailers. Our 45 foot tri-axle trailers are swing door and are a pain using them as a pedel trailer
 
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