I start feeder next week any advice

P

pickup

Guest
yup stay off the phone when hooking up or breaking down the trailers.you get so wraped up in your call you forget to unhook the air lines/lower the landing.when you go to the shop to explain the busted out back window[ from the air lines] or have to call the shiffter because trailer was droped on its nose[ landing gear not down] see were this is going.also your boss as heard all the excuses before if you screw up just be honest. good luck an enjoy the ride.:happy2:

yeah, about dropping trailer on the nose, did that a year ago in the yard, don't know what I was thinking, . I backed up to a bay door in the yard. Did the walk around and for some reason, walked back to the tractor without touching the landing gear crank lever. Got distracted with some ivis work and pulled out(with a feeling of gee, did I forget something?. Should have known something was up when the trailer dropped a little bit down onto back rails of tractor, but I thought I just left the landing gear up a little high. BOOM! Thankfully, the trailer was empty and more thankfully, nobody was in it as there was a slight gap between ending and starting times of the sort personnel. Thankfully empty because I was able to raise trailer up in low gear,. If trailer were full, it would have been much harder. Was able to get it up enough to get back of tractor under it again. and whew! , was able to get the landing gear down all the way. Incident was never mentioned to me or from me, so god sometimes helps the fool. Now that I think about it, I was getting close to 14 hours on clock and rushing to punch out on before I turned into a pumpkin and was thinking about getting home to go to sleep when I should have been thinking about putting down the landing gear
 

Quagmire

feeder
we tell em its hot so they won't take meal on the way back or so they won't grab another load or empty when they turn the yard or so they won't lolly gag when they are getting the load. There are other reasons to call it a hot load then to encourage them to speed.

Does bring up a question though. Do you get talked with about speeding when the tractors have governors on them? Or do you have tractors without the govs on them?
How about "Hook and Book", "Turn and Burn", or some of the other Ghey phrases they so love to use, some on here might not agree that these phrases are even in use but they are, and trust 18 yrs have taught me 1 thing, Its not worth it. As far as lunch or break, I do try to let em know if I'm planning on stopping as a courtesy and usually its never a problem.
 

bluehdmc

Well-Known Member
Does bring up a question though. Do you get talked with about speeding when the tractors have governors on them? Or do you have tractors without the govs on them?

All diesel engines have governors. (it's the nature of the beast). Most UPS tractors will only do about 68, more down a hill :wink2:. Some of the older ones would do 70-74 but most of them seem to be ADA or they have 1 million+ miles on them and are just used locally.

Another tip, always look out the back window when dropping trailer. This way you might notice not removing glad hands or forgetting to crank landing gear. Although everyone seems to drop one. After cranking the landing gear in low range, (even empty), you shouldn't forget for awhile.
 

City Driver

Well-Known Member
yeah, about dropping trailer on the nose, did that a year ago in the yard, don't know what I was thinking, . I backed up to a bay door in the yard. Did the walk around and for some reason, walked back to the tractor without touching the landing gear crank lever. Got distracted with some ivis work and pulled out(with a feeling of gee, did I forget something?. Should have known something was up when the trailer dropped a little bit down onto back rails of tractor, but I thought I just left the landing gear up a little high. BOOM! Thankfully, the trailer was empty and more thankfully, nobody was in it as there was a slight gap between ending and starting times of the sort personnel. Thankfully empty because I was able to raise trailer up in low gear,. If trailer were full, it would have been much harder. Was able to get it up enough to get back of tractor under it again. and whew! , was able to get the landing gear down all the way. Incident was never mentioned to me or from me, so god sometimes helps the fool. Now that I think about it, I was getting close to 14 hours on clock and rushing to punch out on before I turned into a pumpkin and was thinking about getting home to go to sleep when I should have been thinking about putting down the landing gear

i never done that before but i got a story....

i had a fully loaded 53 footer a heavy load, and i was in a yard tractor witha hydraulic fifth wheel control........well i back it into the door......get out take the hoses/electrical lines out....next thing i do is hit the 5th wheel release and pull out


and BOOM

forgot to lower the 5th wheel....it didnt tip or anything but it was loud as hell and i was just glad the landing gear held
 

NEFARIOUS

BOTTOM FEEDER
I just got back from my first week had to stay down in Sac. It was cool last time I'll see daylight in the rig... Next week I will be running the route out of Angels and my teacher will stay up here and ride with me all week. It is a lot to take in and I still miss some of the key phrases on the pre-trip (Ie cut out at 120) but I'm getting better.


Richie
 

trickpony1

Well-Known Member
Don't forget to get under your trailer and check the fifth wheel latch and assure there is no space between the trailer and fifth wheel. A false hook up (trailer too high) can cause you to lose your trailer further down the road.

Another driver hooked up my set once and the back trailer was too high but the latch did latch anyway. I found it right before I left property.
 
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Dutch Dawg

Well-Known Member
It's encouraging to see the company has a need for new feeder drivers somewhere. Here between the great lakes, they're currently making every attempt possible to cut runs out of centers. I wish you well.
 

feederdriver06

former monkey slave
I just got back from my first week had to stay down in Sac. It was cool last time I'll see daylight in the rig... Next week I will be running the route out of Angels and my teacher will stay up here and ride with me all week. It is a lot to take in and I still miss some of the key phrases on the pre-trip (Ie cut out at 120) but I'm getting better.


Richie
The amount of info thrown at you in the feeder school crash course is overwhelming. You won't remember it all at first. A learning curve of a year or two I would say is normal. Its just like anything else-it just comes with time. When you make mistakes just try to learn from them to not repeat in the future.
 
I''ll throw a few words out based on my limited experience:1. Just because a sealed load says on the seal control 100%-doesnt mean it is. 2. Do not let anyone or anything cause you to deviate from your methods regarding hooking up or breaking down. 3. If you dont carry anything else, carry a good flashlight, a roll of paper towels, a few tools,gloves, and your jacket-regardless. 4. And Over9five said it best: YOU MUST ACCOMODATE THE MORONS--THINK FOR THEM!
 

Pickles

Well-Known Member
I signed a feeder driver school bid over a year ago. I got my CDL at the DMV and then have been waiting for the 40 hour school. They kept pushing it back over and over again. Right before peak they told me that any training has been put on lock. Guess thats not nation-wide?
 

NEFARIOUS

BOTTOM FEEDER
Well just an update I did my production week last week with no problems. Went down to Sac hub today and did my final driving test and passed so as of today I finally made it into feeders....Thank you to everyone for all the advice and tips.
 
P

pickup

Guest
Well just an update I did my production week last week with no problems. Went down to Sac hub today and did my final driving test and passed so as of today I finally made it into feeders....Thank you to everyone for all the advice and tips.

my heart felt congratulations to you nefarious. Keep up the good work, work safe , stay safe , god bless you.
 
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