Nervous newbie

Gear_Grinder

Rookie Expediter
Researching
Gear_Grinder when you attend WG and TVAL training you will be required to take a temp assured load and run it like a TVAL load. Setting up Ameriscan, setting a Journey Marker, printing said journey marker to prove box is right temp, and printing a Journey ticket at completion. They give you the paperwork to send in. When you complete it and it is sent in and approved you receive a message that say your truck is approved for TVAL loads. We completed it out first load and it was a piece of cake. No worries you got this!

Thanks for that info. Looking forward to getting into WG/Tval but still thankful we are going the slower route and not jumping right into everything at once. Tomorrow we should be going into service and finally getting out there. Of course we are nervous, but ready.

Josh if you are reading this also... Be safe on them roads. They look horrible. Along with everyone else. Drive safe.
 

Josh

Active Expediter
Driver
Being as safe as possible. We're 1 of about 50 trucks on the side of the interstate right now. All for the same reason I imagine ..out of hours and need to take a break.

Side note: it would appear hell itself has froze over and our APu started! The other josh will understand, I'll update everyone else once we get to bolt. About 7 days from now judging by our current speed.

Also: everyone seriously be safe. We were in the middle of the Oklahoma/Missouri :censoredsign: show and the turnpike being closed down. Seen some bad accidents.
 
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Hansen Josif

Rookie Expediter
Driver
Hello driver does Fedex cc have any temperature control straight truck in how is it doing on loads how busy it is any info thanks


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Gear_Grinder

Rookie Expediter
Researching
Being as safe as possible. We're 1 of about 50 trucks on the side of the interstate right now. All for the same reason I imagine ..out of hours and need to take a break.

Side note: it would appear hell itself has froze over and our APu started! The other josh will understand, I'll update everyone else once we get to bolt. About 7 days from now judging by our current speed.

Also: everyone seriously be safe. We were in the middle of the Oklahoma/Missouri :censoredsign: show and the turnpike being closed down. Seen some bad accidents.

Good you are safe and imagine that The APU started lol. Of course it would now but at least it did now while taking a break so you two wouldn’t have to keep her running every 3 minutes. Stay warm you two and be safe going home them Pictures you sent look treacherous. Enjoy your home time.
 

DBenton

Rookie Expediter
Driver
Hello All!
Our trip to MA was nasty and snowy. We picked up our load out of MA yesterday and only made it 70 miles in 3 hours. Pulled over and let it pass. Made it to Up State New York and the truck entering the Hwy lost a pallet of manhole risers off the back if truck and one slide under my truck and got stuck, one hit a state trooper and one shot to the opposite side of ride. Fun filled day but dropped load and picked up another!!!! Good day! We were blessed!
 

Josh

Active Expediter
Driver
Might be a long update but here goes..

I debated weather or not to even make this post because I wasn't sure I wanted to hear any negative comments about our truck, then I realized I really don't care.

For those of you following along. We have had issues with our apu starting or running when its cold out. Or the truck in general not starting when its cold out. The last you guys heard from what I remember is our truck will not idle when it is below the "cold set point" (when it is cold enough the clean idle setting should be bypassed and allow the truck to idle without shutting off) and our apu got taken care of (thermoking did the service on it and replaced the fuel pump)

We had taken our truck to a freightliner in TN to get the idle issue taken care of on the truck. They said they were unable to fix it becuause they could not duplicate a cold environment. Bunch of idiots...

Everything kinda took a :censoredsign: when we were in Texas. We were waiting over the weekend to grab a load heading to Minnesota. It picked up on Sunday. On Saturday, a belt on our apu started to squeal pretty bad (alternator belt im assuming since it changed with electrical load). At the same time we noticed there was coolant leaking from the bunk heater (the one that functions with the truck running, not the espar). This made me nervous but I wasn't open to the option of canceling our load.

So, we pick up our load and head to Minnesota. We hit some pretty bad weather once we got to Oklahoma and Missouri. The turnpike (I44?) was closed and we got routed off. I was following the map and sticking to highways near the interstate to get back on further down the road. We drove for about a half hour and I thought the interstate would have been open when we got back to it (thought we had gone around the section with the accdents). Well, I found an on ramp that was not closed, and we got back onto the interstate, however, it was not open. We were the only vehicle on the road. Lmao, kinda creepy. We pulled up on the first accident and slowed for the officer (we were only going 30mph anyway). I yelled out the window and asked if we were allowed to keep going or if we had to get off. He said just keep going, take it slow. So we did. We seen some gnarly accidents. Semis in the ditch, stalled and stuck in the road, travel trailer rolled over, ect. We hit Missouri and stopped at a rest area. I checked the coolant and fed the dog. We debated stopping until the roads got better. This quickly got eliminated as an option.. Our coolant leak was getting worse which made running the truck nerve racking, and our apu would not start. The interstates got better as soon as we entered Missouri so we decided to keep going. The rest of the night went well from what I remember and we delivered on time. Before we left the delivery location I called expeditors (it was now Monday, I did not want to call their emergency line over the weekend as I feel this wasn't an "emergency" I explained we need to go to a thermoking, freightliner, and to bolt. The freightliner and thermokings in the area were booked solid for the week and would not be able to get to us for days, and the only bolt there is, is in fort Wayne Indiana. They offered us a hotel room and everything we would need to wait for the truck to get finished in Minnesota. While that is fine with me, I would rather be able to go home while the truck is being worked on. They said that is perfectly fine. We will pay for fuel for you to go home (550 miles). So that's what we did.

I posted that update above while we were on the way home. We hit bad weather in Illinois on the way home and had to stop for the night, thankfully the weather was warmer and our apu started and didn't give us any issues the rest of the night. The next morning we finished the trip and dumped the truck off at Bolt, they replaced the heater valve and hoses, then we dropped it off at freightliner down the street. They fixed the idle issue (IT WAS SET AT -40 DEGREES!!!), they also checked the air system for me (had some excessive leakage before, maybe frozen relief valve?) and replaced the sender for the fuel gauge, (it only worked 50% of the time). I dropped the truck at thermoking the day before yesterday and said I would be back Monday to grab it.

Now, I try to be a very patient person, and consistently have all my friends and family say "get a new truck". The issues typically don't get to me. :censoredsign: is gonna happen and I'm not paying for it. However, I lost it over the weekend when the issues came up. I was done. I was stressed out and very irritated. I have since calmed down but will be discussing our options for a different truck if issues keep coming up.

I am glad to sit at home and relax though, we'll hopefully bypass all the snow from winter storm "whatever" and start fresh come Monday.
 

Josh

Active Expediter
Driver
Hello All!
Our trip to MA was nasty and snowy. We picked up our load out of MA yesterday and only made it 70 miles in 3 hours. Pulled over and let it pass. Made it to Up State New York and the truck entering the Hwy lost a pallet of manhole risers off the back if truck and one slide under my truck and got stuck, one hit a state trooper and one shot to the opposite side of ride. Fun filled day but dropped load and picked up another!!!! Good day! We were blessed!

Sounds like that could have been a disaster. Glad it doesn't appear to have gone that way.
 

RoadSaint

Expert Expediter
I have since calmed down but will be discussing our options for a different truck if issues keep coming up.

Sometimes a new truck might be the answer, but living this life you're going to run into issues with trucks. And when it rains, it pours. Even with a brand new truck. My company has a brand new truck with 4000 miles on it that I had to send back to the dealer this past week to replace a thousand dollar part. It's pretty much unavoidable.

Imagine if you were the owner of the truck and had to pay for all those repairs while losing the time and opportunity to make money with the truck while the repairs were taking place. Being an O/O is an entirely new level of stress in those situations. Whenever your truck is down you're bleeding money.
 

Boatcat

Seasoned Expediter
Owner/Operator
US Navy
Want to read about how bad it can get?
See the posts under Money Pit.
Should have called it "Owner Operator Hell".
Things are better now, even though I just spent 3 Grand on a new clutch.

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Josh

Active Expediter
Driver
So what does everyone else do when you are not able to supervise a shipper loading you, and never actually see the person loading you, and they load everything all the way to the front of the truck despite your load bars being set up at the half way point?

This is what happened to us today. Our 5,000lb load was loaded all the way in the truck even though there was plenty of room behind the load bars, they removed all three of them.

I did not see this until I pulled out of the dock. I backed back up to the dock and made them pull everything off and put it on the tail. Better way to handle this? Or did I do the correct thing?
 

Ragman

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
So what does everyone else do when you are not able to supervise a shipper loading you, and never actually see the person loading you....
This does not happen.... If i can not be present while loading, it will not be put on my truck in the first place.
 

BigStickJr

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
This is common.
Some food/pharmaceutical shippers do not allow you on dock. Safety/sanitation issues.
Some high value security issues.
I’ve seen loads loaded where they didn’t want drivers to get a visual.
They’ll secure freight and close/seal doors.

You’re the captain of the ship. Anything done should have your input.
Dispatch generally knows of the above issues and approves them when taking the Load.
And odd practices are generally notated on the bills.

This is generally your higher value, better paying stuff.

How do you think the military ships dead bodies in bulk ? ( this may be urban legend, but I find it believable .)
 

ucfd608

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
This is common.
Some food/pharmaceutical shippers do not allow you on dock. Safety/sanitation issues.
Some high value security issues.
I’ve seen loads loaded where they didn’t want drivers to get a visual.
They’ll secure freight and close/seal doors.

You’re the captain of the ship. Anything done should have your input.
Dispatch generally knows of the above issues and approves them when taking the Load.
And odd practices are generally notated on the bills.

This is generally your higher value, better paying stuff.

How do you think the military ships dead bodies in bulk ? ( this may be urban legend, but I find it believable .)

I would like to be able to haul the militarys bodies I know that sounds morbid but I work in the funeral home industry now an transports pay good an they don’t talk back or anything


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Josh

Active Expediter
Driver
I think I'm gonna write in big bold letters "DO NOT LOAD PAST THIS POINT" on one of my load bars. That way when it's up they will know not to move it.

I'd say maybe %10 of our loads we cannot go on the dock. They don't secure it either. So I pull forward and jump in the back and secure it after the fact. This is also why my straps get stored at the tail of the box. That way I can get to them easier.

I could prolly make a fuss about being present while loading but it's not worth the effort to me. I just want to get loaded and get the hell out of there as soon as possible. An hour spent at the shipper bickering is an hour earlier I could have delivered.

I've also found you can decently gauge how accurate the weight is on the bol by watching how much the truck drops when you bring up the stabilizer jacks, before the rear air bags air back up.
 

Josh

Active Expediter
Driver
If people are still reading then yea. Just been too tired the past few weeks. Some pain in the ass shipper and receivers. It was also tax time, so that was fun.

Does anyone else use quickbooks? It gave me my estimated taxes due so far this year and the number was pretty low (under $1,000) and that seems off to me.
 

ucfd608

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
People r still reading josh a lot of wondered where u went to as well as gear grinder


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BigStickJr

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I think I'm gonna write in big bold letters "DO NOT LOAD PAST THIS POINT" on one of my load bars. That way when it's up they will know not to move it.
QUOTE]


I saw a guy that put a pin/padlock through his bar and placed it at the rear.
The loader then had to contact the driver to remove it.
I always tried to get the dimensions of the Load and have my forward bars in place.
I’d then ask them politely to load up to the bars in place.
Never a problem.
 
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