Maybe it's just me, but it seems that the fleet is starting to look worse and worse. I may be mistaken but many years ago if there was a cosmetic problem with a truck they wanted that eyesore repaired immediately. Now I'm seeing trucks missing bumpers, different colored body parts, bungee cords holding side fairings if they aren't missing and or bent in, mirrors are taped up with black tape, sleeper windows leak and are duct taped closed, trailers with big patches, one of the 2 doors replaced with a white door, 1/2 the decal missing, a yellow loves truck stop mudflap and could go on and on. You go to the shop and they want you to park it for days and because they are undermanned trucks are parked 2 or 3 deep because they have more trucks to repair than spots to park them in, you can't get a steer tire because they want to align it, but they only have one guy who does alignments and he only works day shift, it will take days to get this part or that part, the trailer guy is covered up, or we can't work on a loaded trailer. You can go to get something repaired and they send you to go find the mechanic, you don't even know who john doe is but you have to find him to work on your truck, then you find out he goes on break in 10 mins and he will do it after break, all the while your clock is running, you have places to go, customers to take care of. Think I'm making this up? It happens on a daily basis. Meanwhile they have their own soap opera going on in the shop, they can't keep good mechanics, they are afraid to give you a part or tool to do it yourself, you may have been driving and working on a truck longer than the mechanic has been in the world but he has to do the job..... If many of our shops were privately owned maintenance facilities they'd be out of business. Not all of our shops are like this, it seems the smaller the shop the better the service, the larger the shop the more unorganized.
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