Question:
I copied this from a post I made on the RT main board. At RABELAMS suggestion. I am hoping newbies will understand I do not believe my company to be an exception to the rule. As I have seen and read in many policy books. Most of my companies policies are in direct relation to those of most major companies. I believe the same thing could easily happen at all the big and many small companies. Why, becasue they don't care. It's simple.
"I'll try to keep it short.
A while back I went to a bigger company for a little bit of job security, organization and benefits. Today I'm sorry I did. Smaller is definatly better.
Thursday night I had a drop and hook at our Jax, Fl. yard. For some reason many drivers at our company have a need when dropping empties to jack it up and off the fifth wheel. Easy to do when empty but not so easy to get down when loaded. It happens all the time. You have to lower your loaded trailer so it contacts the fifth wheel so you can hook up. Well Thurs. evening this trailer was up a good 8 inches off the fifth wheel. The landing gear also seemed to be in a bind making it near impossible to lower even in the small gears.
I got it to lower using both hands and my body strength. But with slight cost. I pulled some muscles doing it. That hurts a bit, right across my right chest and abdomen.
Night dispatch is completely incompetent so I only tried once to call. Yes I know their busy with lots of excuses. Incompetence is the best description. I did however send a QC message and of course no response. So I drove to Tampa and dropped. The place I dropped sent an employee out to help open the doors. I wasn't feeling very well at that time.
So I parked at a nearby TS and sent a QC message again. Then I receive a preplan headed to In. I went in and tried calling. Then a message for me to accept preplan, Macro 10. I went and tried calling some more. Then more and more messages for me to take the load. I again sent a message about my problem and went and tried to call. Then I received 2 messages with new phone numbers to call. Tried them with no answer.
Starting at 0800 Friday morning I must have called 60 and probably more times throughout the day. The calls either just wrang and wrang, had a busy signal or picked up and hung up. Never dreamt they would hang up on a drivers line. But they do. At 1615 that afternoon I received a QC message telling me "If you call right now I will answer". I called within a minute, no answer.
I called 3 main and 2 special numbers so many times it was rediculous and never an answer. I never once received an acknowledgement of my QC messages asking for assistance with my problem. I really wasn't sure what to do. Never an answer to the question. But repeated messages for me to take a load.
I did however contact Iowa and was told how to proceed. I went to an emergency room. Believe me fear of ending up with a large ER bill for doing things wrong was a main concern.
My last QC message to Atlanta was at 1845 that evening. When I finally get home I have repeated messages on my home phone. All were telling me I was "not relieved of duty", I was "to accept the load" and just because I was "in Tampa doesn't mean you can just go home". These messages started in the early afternoon and went to around 1630 in the afternoon. I saved them for later. Unbelievable. I cannot reach them for any reason and I am sending QC messages all day long from my truck and they think I went home. They are warning me about job loss on my phone but unable to talk to me about it in person. Their doing this knowing I have an injury?
I honestly never had an idea of how low a company such as this ones opinion of drivers can be. No acknowledgement ever of my problem and threats about my job if I dont take a load. Even the Iowa guy wanted me to wait til Monday to get checked. He him-hawed around so bad it was rediculous. I was told I could go to an ER but they prefeered I didn't. Absolutely no one at the company gave one rats azz what was wrong with me. Just the load, the truck and the cost of an ER visit is all they were concerned about. Other than Iowa I never did talk to anyone at my Terminal.
Now I am hoping they fire me. I am also hoping they read this and my opinion they are one of the lowest forms of scum I know of. Heartland Exp is truly heart-less."
"There is just something about fresh winter snow and a river. The day is bright even if it is cloudy, the water is friendly even if it is cold and the fish are there even if they are not biting."

Answer:
What he said.
Sad but true, it can happen.............

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Couldn't you just send in word that the trailer is busted, instead of dropping your nuts trying to mess with it?

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Gearjammer I guess you haven't done alot of drop and hooks. It happens all the time. This hook up was no different than most. You can't just call for repairs when the job gets tough. Something newbies may want to think about.
"There is just something about fresh winter snow and a river. The day is bright even if it is cloudy, the water is friendly even if it is cold and the fish are there even if they are not biting."

Answer:
A lot of people - newbies and old-timers alike - don't know how to drop an airride trailer, to make it easy on the next person to pick it up.
Next time, try this...
Back to where you are going to drop the trailer. Set the trailer brakes, and back up just a little to take the tension off of the fifth wheel. As you do this, you will be pushing the trailer back, and off of the trailer air bags (lifting it on the air suspension).
Set the tractor brakes, unhook the airlines & the pigtail, unlatch the fifth wheel, and crank the landing gear down until it is about 1"-2" above the ground - do not let the gear touch the ground!
Get back in the truck, put your foot on the brake, and release the tractor brakes. At the same time, dump the airride for the tractor, and take your foot off of the tractor brake. The trailer will push the tractor forward about 4" as it returns to a normal position.
When the tractor airride is fully deflated, drive out from underneath the trailer, and re-inflate the tractor airride.
This will keep the trailer suspension from binding up the landing gear, and make it much easier on the next person who picks up the trailer.
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The Donnas

Answer:
Originally posted by SpotsCat:
A lot of people - newbies and old-timers alike - don't know how to drop an airride trailer, to make it easy on the next person to pick it up.
Next time, try this...
Back to where you are going to drop the trailer. Set the trailer brakes, and back up just a little to take the tension off of the fifth wheel. As you do this, you will be pushing the trailer back, and off of the trailer air bags (lifting it on the air suspension).
Set the tractor brakes, unhook the airlines & the pigtail, unlatch the fifth wheel, and crank the landing gear down until it is about 1"-2" above the ground - do not let the gear touch the ground!
Get back in the truck, put your foot on the brake, and release the tractor brakes. At the same time, dump the airride for the tractor, and take your foot off of the tractor brake. The trailer will push the tractor forward about 4" as it returns to a normal position.
When the tractor airride is fully deflated, drive out from underneath the trailer, and re-inflate the tractor airride.
This will keep the trailer suspension from binding up the landing gear, and make it much easier on the next person who picks up the trailer.
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__http://www.thedonnas.com __
Good info, except that Heartlands trailers are not airride, and their tractors do not have dump valves.
The only explanation I can come up with as to why these trailers get dropped so high is that drivers are taught to crank the sucker up on high gear until they cannot do it anymore, then switch to low gear and crank some more. That works for a spring ride tractor, but with airride tractors, as soon as teh tractor pulls away from the trailer, the air is dumped from the rear suspension. So now when a bobtail backs up under a trailer, the 5th wheel is too low.
I guess it takes a brain surgeon to figure this out, because obviously most drivers have not.
The way I drop these trailers is, I crank the sucker in high gear until I cant easily crank it anymore, then I give it one more crank in low gear and that is it. When I pull out SLOWLY, the trailer does drop a bit as the tractor is pulled out from underneath. This is good, because then when someone else backs under it to hitch it up, the trailer will be at the correct height.
Better to drop the trailer an inch or two too low than an inch or two too high.
But this is of course too complicated for truck drivers to figure out apparently...
@#*!%$^@!
Answer:
Hold on one second!!!
Sometimes, i have found out that the problem is tire size.. Not all the time but it happens..
Tire size on the tractor can cause the next driver to have problems hooking up to the trailer if his drive tire's are different from the driver who dropped the trailer..
"The Mirrow Holds The Answer"

Answer:
I drop my trailers much the same way as highwayman. I have never had a problem getting back under one I dropped after it's been loaded. I think also Highwayman is right in that it's to much for these drivers to figure out. They also must have the same problems when hooking up as we do. But it is a constant problem and they constantly do it.
Tire size could be a problem at some companies I suppose. But our tractors and trailers all run the same size. Often the same type and make. Owner operators have their 5th wheels measure in the Atlanta shop. Probably other company shops also but I'm not sure. They must also be uniform, not to high or low.
But dropping trailers lead to the real problem in the first post. It would be nice to actually get some help from the fleet manager and Terminal when you get injured.
"There is just something about fresh winter snow and a river. The day is bright even if it is cloudy, the water is friendly even if it is cold and the fish are there even if they are not biting."

Answer:
Originally posted by Stuffs:
Gearjammer I guess you haven't done alot of drop and hooks. It happens all the time. This hook up was no different than most. You can't just call for repairs when the job gets tough. Something newbies may want to think about.
You're absolutely right, I've yet to do a single drop and hook under dispatch. I've done 35 of them so far in school, but none in the "real world". It just seemed that the dispatcher is going to respond faster to a broken trailer call, than an "ow, my liver just dropped out my butt" call. It's not their liver... it doesn't hurt them one bit. The broken trailer is obviously of more concern to them because it increases their stress level.

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Gearjammer,
I cranked one up and noticed the right leg was still on the ground. I called breakdown on my cell phone and they said, "try putting your vice grips on the connecting rod and turnign the other side manually..." Yeah right, like 1300 half-turns and one hour later I'll have it up, and then what about when I drop it? I told them I couldn't and they sent a repair truck out to fix it.
So sometimes you can do this, but Stuffs is talking about the same common thing we all deal with. Sometimes they're spotted so poorly (quickly) that the landing gear is twisted or bent enough that it pinches the legs. It isn't damaged, it's just difficult to operate until you get it off the ground again....hell, this is pre- power steering technology. Drivers used to have muscles big enough to hanle it....
Stuffs,
Why didn't you hook-up the red hose, release the trailer brakes and see if that changed the forward/backward pressure on the legs? Sometimes this loosens the legs -- centers them in their frame piece -- so they can slide up more normally.....
.
[This message was edited by Shuffler on October 06, 2003 at 7:25.]

Answer:
Originally posted by Stuffs:
I think also Highwayman is right in that it's to much for these drivers to figure out. They also must have the same problems when hooking up as we do. But it is a constant problem and they constantly do it.
And what do you want ot bet that they complain about it, yet can't figure out that it is their own actions that they are complaining about??
But dropping trailers lead to the real problem in the first post. It would be nice to actually get some help from the fleet manager and Terminal when you get injured.
Your situation is yet another example of why it is stupid to hire college graduates with ZERO driving experience as dispatchers. The best dispatchers I have ever had were former drivers. The only exception to that was once I had a lady dispatcher who was married to a current driver. So of course, she heard about the crap from him and adjusted her dispatch style accordingly.
As I alluded to a bit ago, it is rumored that the head of Heartland is a former driver-I have yet to see evidence of that. You'd think he would be able to impart a greater level of understanding of the business among his office employees...
@#*!%$^@!
Answer:
Originally posted by Shuffler:
Gearjammer,
I cranked one up and noticed the right leg was still on the ground. I called breakdown on my cell phone and they said, "try putting your vice grips on the connecting rod and turnign the other side manually..." Yeah right, like 1300 half-turns and one hour later I'll have it up, and then what about when I drop it? I told them I couldn't and they sent a repair truck out to fix it.
They keep doing things like that to us in school. Like dropping the trailers we use to practice drop and hooks in a giant mud puddle, tucking it back into the weeds, cutting air lines, etc. Yesterday I found that someone had exchanged the pristine crank handle on one for one with holes rusted through the end. If you didn't have gloves you got the cheesegrater effect on your hands as you tried to raise or lower the landing gear.