Freight tractors????

[TRUCKER298]

WHEN WILL WE GET MORE NEW TRACTORS? We communicate to run from CHP checkpoints. We have families to come home to also. What's up with this?????

[JimJimmyJames]

I'll beat everyone to the punch here. Don't you know we are in a recession! The company is cutting costs everywhere, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada!

Seriously, I feel your pain but we will not be seeing big purchases of equipment until the economy starts to improve. Besides, I don't know if UPS is making a ton of dough on the Freight side of the company. Heck, they might be regretting their purchase of Overnite, considering the state of the freight industry right now.

Then again, with our money we should be able to hold out while a lot of our smaller competitors fold up. We should be in a righteous postion when things improve, at least I hope so.

Take comfort knowing I drive a 9 year old tractor with a million miles on it. And that is one of our newer ones!

[raceanoncr]

Originally Posted by TRUCKER298

WHEN WILL WE GET MORE NEW TRACTORS? We communicate to run from CHP checkpoints. We have families to come home to also. What's up with this?????

I guess one problem I have with this one is...why do you communicate to run from CHP checkpoints? Are you driving with safety violations? If so, you shouldn't be driving it at all. You will not get disciplined for refusing to drive anything that is not safe, according to DOT.

You run by the mile? When you get stopped, you go on the clock, right? I know, you're gonna say that you hafta give the first hour but it has been grieved many times and won that if you have to be in control of that machine for any reason, then you are on the clock. It ain't like yer sitting at a turn point just waiting. If you're at a check point, you're on log time, right? On-duty-not driving? Well, then you get paid.

You got families to get home to. Well, we all do. But this is a job and we signed up for it. I've been on the parcel side for over 31 yrs now and there has been no family action for all of those 31 years except what you make it.

Sorry, but as previous poster said, these are rough economic times. Many people would love to be stuck at a check point making ANY $ right now. My advice: Chill out. Do the job the way UPSF wants you to do it. You know what? You'll make more money than you could ever imagine and have more peace of mind.

Now, flame on!!

[City Driver]

are u a road driver????? all the road tractors i ever saw are nice and newer mostly volvos but theres still a few of the old 61 series internationals on the road

the city has some of the biggest rust buckets you will ever lay eyes on...atleast here in IND

[bluehdmc]

UPS keeps every piece of equipment till the only thing it's good for is the junkyard. Of course most of these decisions are made by people who drive a desk and wouldn't know a fifth wheel from a steering wheel and don't spend 8-10hrs in a junkyard refugee. Although the chairs in the dispatch office also have missing or chewed armrests, etc.
If it has an out of service problem note it on your pre-trip and don't drive it.
I'm driving a 15yr old Mack with over 1 million miles on it, as I understand it they don't plan on getting rid of it soon, they just painted it, (I ask what's the saying about lipstick on a pig?). It sure looks pretty from 50ft away, up close you can see the overspray, etc. I kinda wish they spent the money on repairs but that wouldn't help our image, and my tractor wouldn't look so pretty. It seems they've painted a few of them lately. They do seem to have gotten rid of some of the older internationals with the long noses and a lot of short nose internationals, neither one you wanted to bobtail with.

[JimJimmyJames]

Hmm, seems we have more snub nose Intl.s now where I am at. Could it be....