What's new

Estes | equipment issues

H

highvoltage

TB Lurker
Credits
15
been here little over 7 months now running xtra board, was told by tm when hired in new trucks coming soon.i have been driving an old 8600 beater international with 850,000 miles since I started.it's cramped, it's loud and it's a tired truck.what's a guy gotta do to get a decent piece of equipment to drive around here?don't get me wrong, i like the job central runs me good but this beater is starting to get old fast, any suggestions, running outta 109
 
Central is the key. They decide who gets what truck in the end. If your a good runner, they will listen and act. That's what I did when in your shoes. Next thing I knew, there was a new truck waiting for me back at my barn. Be tactful, you have a Central dispatcher who is appreciative of your effort, bring it up. They will put in the word for you, which can go alot farther, faster, than your TM. Two individuals at Central, decide, by region, all truck assignments for Estes.
 
Last edited:
I want you to do whatever you can to get out of that 8600.

The very thought of them with such a short wheel base and a smushed front end deisgned to be as sort as possible is unacceptable. If I wanted a truck tractor that can do that kind of work, its a Ford 9000 without hesitation. Especially the 2006 model with the 350 cummins. Those are beautiful for that work and have heaters and acs that wont quit. Plus airride too.

My body is a testiment to tractors badly spec'ed and owned by several companies and then badly managed and issued to drivers who hired on in good health and left disabled like I did from driving them. One tractor had it's floor fall through at highway speed once.

There are certain older iron I do not mind at all. But those internationals the daycabs they are intentionally too short for humans. And so they become beaters, abused, unloved and hated. I think sometimes tractors know when you hate it and will seek a way to hurt you or kill you.

The previous poster is very good with his thought on people and tact. What I usually did is take my dispatcher to lunch, my treat regardless of cost (Usually Red Lobster) and we go over everything. Not so much the crappy tractor he had to bounce around in there and back. (Some companies use a driver-dispatcher lunch meet and greet for orientation, but I social engineer it to a later date if I did have a big problem like a crappy truck. They are always more than happy to go on that drier meet and greet meal with me, especially if I am paying.

One company was a absolute failure because its run by three individuals. It is their way by collective or the highway to unemployment (Good luck you mick...) They had a Pete Airride daycab and short nose. The other truck they had was a old 9400 international from the mid 70's

The aged trainer quit his pete tractor told them to give it to me and junk the international.

They failed to do so. A month later the international floor failed. They had it back in 6 weeks with 10,000 more rivets. That was my last morning there ever.
 
highvoltage said:
been here little over 7 months now running xtra board, was told by tm when hired in new trucks coming soon.i have been driving an old 8600 beater international with 850,000 miles since I started.it's cramped, it's loud and it's a tired truck.what's a guy gotta do to get a decent piece of equipment to drive around here?don't get me wrong, i like the job central runs me good but this beater is starting to get old fast, any suggestions, running outta 109
Click to expand...
There was once a time when guys were fist fighting for that tractor ,a new tractor is nice ,showing up to an empty parking spot is not ,many tractor thieves at estes
 
I think just like everything else, it's related to supply issues. New tractors are slow in coming because the manufacturers can't get parts. We have a new tractor that's been at the Navistar dealer for going on 3 months waiting on parts. My tractor's been down for over a week waiting on a carrier bearing. We have a salvage yard full of those 8600's so parts are no problem to get.
 
There is a older short nose Pete daycab that has big fuel tanks that can probably fire up and be sold for a sum of dollars in Searcy next to the freeway. It only took them about 20 years to transfer some of the rusting older iron over further away from the highway because to some its a eye problem. To others like me its a memory visit.
 
Usually the road and XB guys get the newest tractors. At my old terminal it seemed like as soon as a new guy was hired for a XB position he was getting a brand new twin screw a week or two later. I haven't seen a new tractor pull into the yard in a month or two. I'm sure one is coming your way eventually. If you ever break down and get towed into a terminal with no shop do what all the other drivers do and find the newest/cleanest truck in the lot and take it.
 
M3ATY said:
Usually the road and XB guys get the newest tractors. At my old terminal it seemed like as soon as a new guy was hired for a XB position he was getting a brand new twin screw a week or two later. I haven't seen a new tractor pull into the yard in a month or two. I'm sure one is coming your way eventually. If you ever break down and get towed into a terminal with no shop do what all the other drivers do and find the newest/cleanest truck in the lot and take it.
Click to expand...
You saying the truck with the most antennas
 
1984Sideways said:
There is a older short nose Pete daycab that has big fuel tanks that can probably fire up and be sold for a sum of dollars in Searcy next to the freeway. It only took them about 20 years to transfer some of the rusting older iron over further away from the highway because to some its a eye problem. To others like me its a memory visit.
Click to expand...
Oh man I enjoy snooping around the wrecking yard I was looking at a limo that a bar was running to football games , man was that thing thrashed
 
ED FORCE ONE said:
Oh man I enjoy snooping around the wrecking yard I was looking at a limo that a bar was running to football games , man was that thing thrashed
Click to expand...
This one was a pair. It was open, all I needed to do was make myself known. They had it wall to wall in everything from Chain Drive on. Im not exactly sure how those two lots got cleared that well, however the trees beyond is the clue.

Across the freeway which would be about the 44 marker give or take you had a retail truck dealer that sometimes are able to resell used tractors and trucks that somehow has find a new life and ready to do some more work for someone.
 
highvoltage said:
been here little over 7 months now running xtra board, was told by tm when hired in new trucks coming soon.i have been driving an old 8600 beater international with 850,000 miles since I started.it's cramped, it's loud and it's a tired truck.what's a guy gotta do to get a decent piece of equipment to drive around here?don't get me wrong, i like the job central runs me good but this beater is starting to get old fast, any suggestions, running outta 109
Click to expand...
It's a timing issue, This is a very unique time probably in the history of the company and for that matter, the world as a whole. Semi conductors shortage is causing havoc across the automotive industry. Trucks are ordered but they can't get any because of parts it takes to build them and parts to keep them running.
Be patient it may get worse for a while.
 
M3ATY said:
Usually the road and XB guys get the newest tractors. At my old terminal it seemed like as soon as a new guy was hired for a XB position he was getting a brand new twin screw a week or two later. I haven't seen a new tractor pull into the yard in a month or two. I'm sure one is coming your way eventually. If you ever break down and get towed into a terminal with no shop do what all the other drivers do and find the newest/cleanest truck in the lot and take it.
Click to expand...
One of our drivers kept getting his new tractor taken by other drivers. After repeated attempts to stop it he told dispatch one morning he could not drive a different truck because his CDL was in his assigned tractor. So they made him work the dock. Any box or other type of freight that had a wrinkle or was pushed in a little he showed it damaged in the PDA. They were not happy about that. He told them to have his assigned tractor ready for him in the morning & he would not write up any damaged freight because he was on his route, not the dock. Unless his tractor was in the shop, his tractor was there every morning. von.
 
Another one. We had a city driver that kept asking for a 2 wheel dolly which the TM said he would provide for them. Many times he had to deliver without a dolly. One day he delivered to a downtown sky scraper having to use the elevators. It was his first stop. 62 cartons to the 14th floor, 1 BOX @ A TIME. The very next day our TM went to Sams club & purchased10 2 wheel dollys, preventing 1 box @ a time delivery's. von.
 
1984Sideways said:
This one was a pair. It was open, all I needed to do was make myself known. They had it wall to wall in everything from Chain Drive on. Im not exactly sure how those two lots got cleared that well, however the trees beyond is the clue.

Across the freeway which would be about the 44 marker give or take you had a retail truck dealer that sometimes are able to resell used tractors and trucks that somehow has find a new life and ready to do some more work for someone.
Click to expand...
Yes , shortage of new tractors ,not shortage of tractors
 
vongrimmenstein said:
Another one. We had a city driver that kept asking for a 2 wheel dolly which the TM said he would provide for them. Many times he had to deliver without a dolly. One day he delivered to a downtown sky scraper having to use the elevators. It was his first stop. 62 cartons to the 14th floor, 1 BOX @ A TIME. The very next day our TM went to Sams club & purchased10 2 wheel dollys, preventing 1 box @ a time delivery's. von.
Click to expand...
Must have found a good parking spot
 
vongrimmenstein said:
Another one. We had a city driver that kept asking for a 2 wheel dolly which the TM said he would provide for them. Many times he had to deliver without a dolly. One day he delivered to a downtown sky scraper having to use the elevators. It was his first stop. 62 cartons to the 14th floor, 1 BOX @ A TIME. The very next day our TM went to Sams club & purchased10 2 wheel dollys, preventing 1 box @ a time delivery's. von.
Click to expand...
that's how it's done
 
put the 8600 in the shop last week for an oil change, adjust the clutch brake(grinds when u put it gear)they gave me an older frieghtliner loaner to drive that's in better shape than the 8600,ok I can do that. The frieghtliner blew an inner wheel seal few days later, put it in the shop while I was on my 10. Mechanic says it'll b ready when you roll out, that didn't happen all they had was a kentworth glider spring ride loaner don't know how anybody can drive one of these trucks otr. The second roughest truck I have driven in my 30plus career first being a 1988 cabover daycab for saia back in the 90's. drove the kw to my domicile and parked it, they got a bid run up 352 miles a night, not enough miles but puts me in a decent Volvo but cuts my pay 69.5 to 66.5 just to get a decent truck. It's my call,don't know how its gonna shake out,I do know I'm not driving a kw that throws me in the floor ever time I hit a bump in the road(literally if you drove one you know)out of all the trucks we have sleeper or daycab stick or auto(I've done em all) why would you not put your driver in the best piece of equipment you have available in your fleet not just the drivers barn. Again I like the job, want to work here and retire here, but somethings gotta b done with this equipment issue. IMA GO EAT SOME CHEESE NOW LOL
 
mildew said:
Crazy!
When I worked the city, a few places wouldn't allow anything with wheels on the floor. Nothing to do about that but carry 1 or 2 boxes in the building at a time
Click to expand...
After the second injury WITHOUT a 2 wheel dolly That rule might have changed. Or that stop given to another driver. von.
 
highvoltage said:
put the 8600 in the shop last week for an oil change, adjust the clutch brake(grinds when u put it gear)they gave me an older frieghtliner loaner to drive that's in better shape than the 8600,ok I can do that. The frieghtliner blew an inner wheel seal few days later, put it in the shop while I was on my 10. Mechanic says it'll b ready when you roll out, that didn't happen all they had was a kentworth glider spring ride loaner don't know how anybody can drive one of these trucks otr. The second roughest truck I have driven in my 30plus career first being a 1988 cabover daycab for saia back in the 90's. drove the kw to my domicile and parked it, they got a bid run up 352 miles a night, not enough miles but puts me in a decent Volvo but cuts my pay 69.5 to 66.5 just to get a decent truck. It's my call,don't know how its gonna shake out,I do know I'm not driving a kw that throws me in the floor ever time I hit a bump in the road(literally if you drove one you know)out of all the trucks we have sleeper or daycab stick or auto(I've done em all) why would you not put your driver in the best piece of equipment you have available in your fleet not just the drivers barn. Again I like the job, want to work here and retire here, but somethings gotta b done with this equipment issue. IMA GO EAT SOME CHEESE NOW LOL
Click to expand...
Ya like the 352 Volvo will be there when you show up ha ha
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top