Is it me or do people do not seem to care about pre/post-tripping? I cannot count the number of times I have hooked up to a trailer and had an issue that is grounds for taking the trailer OOS.

I have picked up trailers where I have had to fix the mudflaps as they have been almost completely torn off or because they have duct taped the mudflaps up so they could get going. Or, this one is priceless, having the ICC bumper hanging by 1/4" of metal and letting the bumper hang from that small amount of metal.

I guess what I am wondering is how you can miss things that obvious when you are pre/post-tripping your vehicle or trailer? How can someone not care enough about their safety or the safety of the people on the road by not taking care of things.

Yes, I have been in a hurry to get going, but, even if it is a basic pre/post-trip I can see the problems and have it fixed even if it means putting me behind.

 

There are a lot of drivers...that simply don't give a "flip".... Once they get done with a trailer, they don't care, and the DOT didn't catch them by inspecting it, and the companies often don't pursue the issue.....so the "douchebags", and moron's who are either too stupid or lazy to do their job, just leave the mess to be cleaned up by someone else.

Me, I have a personal policy of physically inspecting each and every trailer I pull. I do it before I hook it, and I will fill out a damage report and make a phone call. If I have to put a trailer out of service, I will. I've had more than one road service call done to get a trailer repaired before hooking it.

A "Professional" Driver will do 100% of his/her job, and not leave a mess in their wake that has to be cleaned up by someone else!!

 

Just to play devil's advocate a bit, I wonder how many drivers get the rap for leaving a problem with a trailer when it actually happened while the unit was in the care of a customer.

I have seen plenty of damage happen at warehouses that was caused by the yard jockeys rushing around and they just drop the trailer and rush off to the next one.

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Now as far as the original post goes, I know there are plenty of drivers who either ignore a problem or does not know one exists because they do not inspect the unit at any time during a trip.

If you asked them why they do not get it fixed, or even look for issues that need fixing, many will tell you it is because they do not get paid to baby sit a trailer while it is in the shop being repaired. While they do have a point it still shows an extreme lack of professionalism on their part.

 

I do admit that you pick up trailers where there is damage that was done at the customer, I've had trailers which I have run all the way into a terminal that have had issues, purposely parked the truck in front of the safety office so that I get their attention, and get the ball rolling.

Our company is getting to a point where they are going to start charging drivers for unreported damage to trailers. Personally, if there is any damage to the trailer, I take pictures, put them on my PDA, and also e-mail (or walk them in) to the head of our shop/breakdown department.

It covers my butt, and gets the driver who doesn't give a rats patooty into some hot water, especially when it could get someone killed. I have had trailers that I have picked up where I pulled them OOS before even leaving the customer or drop yard.

Since we are required by D.O.T. to do a proper inspection on our equipment, there is no excuse for not doing our job. I can understand not babysitting the trailer while it is in the shop, but I personally watch them work on my truck and/or trailer when it is at a shop outside of a terminal.

It almost sounds like someones life is not worth 15 minutes of preventative inspection.

 

Honestly, I dont post trip. I dont see the reason.
TO me its more important to pre-trip, which I do everyday, before I get rolling.
No reason to check after I've shut down for the day.

 

As a local LTL city p/d driver, some weeks I get a different trailer every day. But whether I have the same trailer or a different one, I do a pre-trip every day--no matter if it's 10-degrees-below-zero (it might be a tad quicker though :lol: ). I'm still amazed at the number of drivers at my barn who don't do a pre-trip inspection on both the tractor and trailer. They just hop in the truck and go--that goes for city and linehaul drivers.

My post-trip is fairly quick--checking tires, eyeballing stuff, any fluids leaking, etc. I want to make sure the line haul driver knows about a potential tractor/trailer problem before he starts down the road.

 

Sorry, but I totally disagree....
Wouldnt it be better to discover problems with equipment before you need to use the equipment, and have it repaired while its not in use??
Post-trip is just as important as the pre-trip, as it is the best time to discover problems that occurred while the you were responsible for the equipment. Write it up and have it fixed before it is needed.
I really do not like discovering problems during a pre-trip, as it is at this time I am ready to use the equipment. Especially if somebody else was using it before me.

Unfortunitly, Drop and Hook operations has its bad points along with the good points. You never know when you are about to hook somebody elses problem, and that problem has just become yours.
Sometimes I wish we could just stop drop and hooks and preloaded trailers just for this reasons alone (not really). If we were assign permenant trailers, Id bet they would be better cared for and maintained.

I was waiting in one of our drop yards, for an empty trailer to arrive. Each time a driver showed up Id ask him if its empty. Finally one showed he said yes its empty, I said good just drop it here and Ill get under it. As he was disconnecting, I was pretriping. I found two flat tires, one off the bead and starting to shred. I called him back and pointed it out to him, He was clueless about the flats. I told him I cant believe youve been dragging this trailer around unaware of the flats. I told him no thanks Ill wait for the next one that comes in, and you better get ahold of breakdown to get that trailor repaired. If I hadnt been there to take the trailer, Im sure as I am can be that he would have just dropped that trailer in the yard and left. A simple post trip inspection and he would have discovered the tires and he could have "red tagged the trailer" and advised breakdown. He wouldnt even have had to wait around. The will send out road service and do the repair.

 

Well I can do a post trip, but it is rather irrelevant. So lets see, I stop for the night after a long day. I find a bad tire on the trailer. It has to be changed, no doubt about it. Yet, I have about 2 hours left on my 14 for the day. Now I have so spend 30 min on the phone (hopefully) to get someone to come out to fix the tire. Of course this has to be logged as "on duty, not driving" And lets hope that Mr. Tireguy gets there before I go over my hours and lets hope he gets there before I go to sleep.

I have discovered that problems at the end of the day can easily be remedied at the beginning of the day. And since a**holes like to pull the handles on 5th wheels and tandems (which has happened to me) its wayyyyyy more important to check these things before I hit the road (which I do) and put the public at peril. I am not putting anyone at peril if I'm parked for the night so therefore I do not do Post-trips.

When I'm stopped for the night I dont have to worry about DOT inspections or placing anyone at risk because the truck is NOT moving.

 

To be legal the rules require a post trip inspection See: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regul...ction_toc=1953 with the interpretation at http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regul...953&guidence=Y See questions 1 and 2.

kc0iv

 

You cannot run out of hours when you are sitting still. All of that would be on-duty and therefor not be effected by the14 hour rule. It would be smarter to get the work done during the post trip period because it would not effect your next day in the least.

Our fleet had a rash of bad problems the last couple of days. Since the rain has been never ending (19 inches in the area in the last couple of days). We hada driver call up talking about vibrations under power.. turned out to be the rear most U-joint. Either the combination of not enough maintanence or the greaseworms are really bad this year! The rear U- joint was burned to a crisp! Then last night another less attenive driver had the same U-joint (different truck) actually burned up, came apart and destroyed the driveshaft, airlines, and three airbags... :roll: