Freezing to death would teach that owner a lesson.
Our experience with C&M Transport so far...
- Thread starter Dedic8edDave
- Start date
Falligator
Expert Expediter
Last night around 11 Candy and I are sitting in the restaurant here at the TA in Monroe, MI. I'm on my laptop reading everyones posts here on EO when Candy decided to go back out to the van to lay down and watch some TV. After about 45 minutes to an hour I get a text from her saying, "It's still freezing in this van." I texted her back saying it's probably so cold the engine is struggling to warm up. I packed up my laptop, paid my tab at the restaurant and walked back out to the van. She's in the bunk and I hop in the driver's seat to see what's up. The battery light is on, the temp gauge is around 200 and the vents are blowing ice cold air. I shut the van off and text our fleet owner. Since his dedicated run with C&M brings him to this truck stop for refueling daily, he took a look at the problem around 7:30 this morning. The serpentine belt was off and just kinda laying there. The mechanic here at the TA said he'd take a look at it so I fired the van back up and drove it into the bay without any power steering which was quite the work out. I believe the part that needed to be replaced is called a tensioner. Our fleet owner asked the mechanic to fix it and took off in his T/T. The mechanic told us we were welcome to stay in the van while he fixed it. Since it was so cold last night, we had trouble sleeping and since the bay was heated, we decided to sleep in the van. At 12:58 my phone rings. I look at the caller ID and it says, "C&M Transport".
Dispatcher: Hey Dave, this is so & so at C&M. We have a load picking up about 75 miles from you and delivering somewhere in Missouri. Total paid miles for the run would be 710.
I told him we'd take it but the van is currently being repaired and I checked under the hood to find the mechanic and all I found was about a dozen van pieces scattered out on the floor of the bay. With dispatch still on the phone I scramble to find the mechanic. In a panic I ask him, "We got a load, how long til it's fixed?" He said, "The parts just got here. It's gonna take me at least an hour to put it back together." I asked dispatch how soon the load needs to be picked up. "ASAP" he says. Then the dispatcher says, "Let me see what I can do and I'll call you back." We never got a call back so the load was lost to us. Just another example of bad luck I guess. LOL!!
The van was fixed and ready to go around 2:30 this afternoon. Right now we're sitting at the TA in Monroe, Mi waiting for the call.
I had the same problem with my van in Laredo, TX. I found the tensioner pulley was about to fall off. No power steering, water pump wasn't working, but at least I had heat.
guido4475
Not a Member
If it was to the point of falling off, or close to it, you should of been able to hear the noises beforehand of squealing, dry bearing noise, etc. Always carry a spare tensioner and idler pulley with you, they don't take up much room. And a 10mm socket/ratchet, and a breaker bar to loosen the tension on the belt,a 15 minute job on a Ford.
I guess there are certain consequences to just about anything...lol
Realized afterwards the O/P was not the van owner. Question is how close to .35 -.45 a mile dose a driver only make? puts you in the $20 - $25 per hr range I did a quick redo on the the math. If the owner pays the bills then you still make money unfortunately you have allot of your time into it.
Bob Wolf.
Bob Wolf.
Most drivers likely work on linehaul %.... the flat rate number I've heard is .30/mile for van drivers. Obviously, that probably varies from driver to driver, fleet owner to fleet owner. I don't know any specifics....never done it.
For what it's worth...the $1.50/mile is probably close to accurate when you look at what the carrier actually charges for a van (which is the category you would fall into)...even a little low in some cases probably. But, by the time the carrier takes their cut, your down to the $1 to $1.10 that most try to run for.
It's me being picky I guess. I just like to clarify the specifics of the numbers for when others read these threads over the years.
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Hey....I try to get $1.50/mile
Have succeeded a time or two...and more even. But, for the most part, it's a pipe dream in the van world.
Since your life kinda depends on it, I believe that that's something you should make an effort to find out. It will depend on the battery's capacity, number of amp hours drawn, and the number of amp hours the alternator is putting back into the battery (since as the battery becomes more and more full the amount of amps being put in will drop way off), but as an example, if you draw 100 amp hours out of a battery, and the alternator is putting 20 amps per hour back into it, it won't take 5 hours as the math might suggest, but more like 12-16 hours to fully recharge the battery.
That's known as chronically undercharging the batteries. Letting the van idle for a few hours and then shutting it off before the batteries are fully charged results in sulfation buildup. Discharging the batteries too low, like when lights dim and inverters start screaming, also produces a lot of sulfation. Sulfation robs the battery of its capacity, and its lifespan.
The idling for a few hours to get some battery juice for a while, then repeating that scenario, is a common one. It's also the perfect method of killing your batteries. It's why the old saying of, "Batteries don't die, their owners kill them," is so true.
You need to know how many amps your are drawing from your batteries, and how many you are putting in while charging them back up. Battery age, discharge current, and battery temperature all influence the actual battery capacity. The best way to know all that is to use a Battery Monitor, which monitors those very things. Or, you could just guess.
As for idling and the belt tensioner... Yes, idling will cause premature failure of the belt tensioner, but "premature failure" means it'll fail after 70,000, 80,000 or 100,000 miles instead of after 150,000. Trust me, short of a well placed whack with a sledge hammer, there is nothing you could have done in three weeks that had any discernible affect on that failed tensioner.
I suppose there are, but I've never heard of one. I've had a gas can sitting right there in plain site in the back of my van since I've had the van, and nary a peep out of anyone. It is either empty or has the fruits of an oil change inside of it, but it says "Gasoline" on the outside of it.
Another point, when you break down, don't wait until dispatch calls you with a load to inform them that you are Out of Service. They've just booked a load on your truck, and now you've put them in the position of scrambling to find another truck to put it on, or worse, of having to call the customer back to tell them they can't run that load. Carriers want drivers they can count on, just like shippers want carriers they can count on. If you break down and don't see an immediate 15-20 minute fix, your first item on the agenda is to inform dispatch so they don't waste their time in looking for loads for you.
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Communication is everything! Well, it's at least pretty darn important. Just imagine yourself in the dispatchers chair, you'd probably be just a tad ticked off.
You're new, having a tough time, I suspect that'll be taken into consideration. But, you really don't want to do that again.
purgoose10
Veteran Expediter
Doesn't mean much really but as a fleet operator I wouldn't dare ask one of my drivers to sleep cold no matter how much an hour it costs. It's doesn't take much to put a propane heater in a van for your drivers. I've found if you take care of your equipment and your drivers they tend to repay you in the long run with hard work. Just my two cents worth.
That's true. In a Sprinter you can hear the noises before the tensioner fails, about 5 seconds worth.
They're cheap when you buy them online (Europarts). Half the price of a dealer, and most of the time the dealer doesn't have one. If you have a spare serpentine belt, tensioner, and spare pulleys with you, then any competent mechanic can replace it.
It may be a 15 minute job on a Ford, but on a Sprinter it'll take weeks with a 10mm socket.
The serpentine belt tensioner can be retracted using a conventional 17mm 12-point deep socket OR a T-60 male torx bit. It's a good idea to always have one or the other with you (along with your spare serpentine belt) and best if they are 1/2inch drive and mated to a relatively long flex-head breaker bar. The tensioner is mounted to the engine by 2 bolts accessed by a T-10 torx socket.
I kind of blame the fleet owner for that too. They were obviously in communication with the FO. He should have, at minimum, reminded them to notify dispatch. As new drivers, it would be easy to underestimate the importance of that communication. They should have had better guidance...imo.
Haven't heard from them today. Hopefully their on a round trip to California and back!
RLENT
Veteran Expediter
Now after having experienced this little episode, my questions are:
1. Is any provision being made to stock said vehicle with a small handtool set, to handle such minor mechanical emergencies ?
2. Is any provision being made to stock said vehicle with a small inventory of replacement parts (serpentine belt, tensioner, fuel filter, light bulbs) which are commonly known to fail ?
The cost of the belt is roughly $30, same for the fuel filter, and maybe around $90 for the tensioner ... an adequate, fairly nice handtool set could be cobbled together at Harbor Freight for say maybe $100 ...
Might be money well spent ...
True dat!!
