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ODFL | What do you do when running out of time?

Piano Man said:
Did the guy call central dispatch or the closest terminal? I was at motel going to bed in 11 hours sooner than knw local dispatcher said with a quick call to central dispatch. Cut from 12 hours waiting to only 1 all after a 3 minute phone call.

They weren’t super stoked, but brought a city driver out to bring in unit and pick me up nonetheless.

In my head when I walked in to get a tractor to take to motel, I wanted to tell the guy who I talked to on the phone (like that scene from Blazing Sadles, but wording changed a little) “**** on you! I work for Central Dispatch!”
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And of course you did all this for FREE !
 
MidnightRider said:
What do you do about running out time when you are close to a terminal? I’m talking about driving time or going over your 14. Management, dispatchers, and everyone in between has a different opinion on what we should do wether it’s sit and wait, use PC, use adverse conditions, etc. OD really needs to get everyone on the same page about this. There is no clear defined policy and procedure for what we are supposed to do.

By the way, if you say to park and wait to be rescued, good luck with that. Some coworkers have been told it would be 6 hours or 12 hours before they were helped. That is unacceptable. OD needs to do better than that.
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You may want to read the FMCSA rule on the 2 hours, adverse weather exemption. Can be used once in a 7 day period.
 
We actually kept a board big enough to fit between the seats in the day cab. Throw that on there across them, curl up and go beddy bye in z land with the engine purring at 1000.

It will be a while. Back then the trick was to find a spot that no one will be around to hammer on the damn door.
 
1984Sideways said:
We actually kept a board big enough to fit between the seats in the day cab. Throw that on there across them, curl up and go beddy bye in z land with the engine purring at 1000.

It will be a while. Back then the trick was to find a spot that no one will be around to hammer on the damn door.
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I also did that many moons ago before they started buying tractors with only 1 seat.
 
1984Sideways said:
We actually kept a board big enough to fit between the seats in the day cab. Throw that on there across them, curl up and go beddy bye in z land with the engine purring at 1000.

It will be a while. Back then the trick was to find a spot that no one will be around to hammer on the damn door.
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I used a particle board I found in a dumpster when I was stranded , the board snapped into a mess of busted up small pieces and made a mess the next driver to use the truck must have wondered what the heck do these people do in here
 
MidnightRider said:
Linehaul has daycabs so you can’t just crawl into the sleeper and call it a day. You can’t go to a hotel until you get to a terminal.
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What!!!!! Due to the wrecks, breakdowns and any other delays such as late meets I have no problem with telling them that this is how far I will make it and this is what hotel I will be at. I might have to pay for it, but you’ll get reimbursed once you’re done. I refuse to go against what the law states. OD doesn’t make the choices for me from behind a desk
 
seabreeze said:
So I hear.
At one time we had 3406 Cats that revved up every 5 minutes if left idling.
I guess they can't make up their minds.
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Oh yes.

We used to get a half inch stick of wood. Measure more or less exactly where the fuel pedal will be at 1000.

Mark that length, saw it.

It never really idled at 1000 through the night or day, it varied. Usually tried to keep enough on there to keep it from choking and filling the area with blue exhaust. (Especially weed burners)

Weed Burner, a tractor with the main exhaust pointing down just behind the cab under the cat walk. All the exhaust spread out on the ground and sometimes tried to kill you some days if you had a inversion layer above you.

We usually did not sleep with or near weed burners for that reason where possible. We also slept in the upwind corner so the gases wont poison while you sleep in the truckstop.

What I really hated was the old Detriots. There were some models of those engines that tried to run away on you. Rev until destruction. You had to cover the air intake and starve the thing before it did a couple of times.

The company always tried to shaft the drivers by carefully not buying things that we find useful.
 
BIG R GUY said:
You may want to read the FMCSA rule on the 2 hours, adverse weather exemption. Can be used once in a 7 day period.
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The 2 hr adverse weather exemption is different than the 16 hr short haul exemption. There is no limit on the 2 hr adverse weather conditions and the 16 hr rule can be used more than once in a 7 day period has long has there was a 34 hr restart.
 
And there is no point in doing a 34 because the company wont sanction or support that action.

They will write you up for it.

Usually when there is horrible winter weather with wet new ice and all sorts of stuff coming down, I get the call. Depending on the tractor, there were a few that were very good on that stuff and I'll go anywhere and did.

Just one limit. If I tried to walk on it, and fall down... its not going anywhere. Insufficent traction. So wait for sun to come up and get mr Drip. Then its time to go. Im one of those strange people that NEED adverse conditons to be motivated and happy. Flat and dry is so boring.
 
flybynite said:
What!!!!! Due to the wrecks, breakdowns and any other delays such as late meets I have no problem with telling them that this is how far I will make it and this is what hotel I will be at. I might have to pay for it, but you’ll get reimbursed once you’re done. I refuse to go against what the law states. OD doesn’t make the choices for me from behind a desk
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On a snow call off they told me " what's your problem it just stopped snowing ,"
 
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