Heat in package car

oldngray

nowhere special
At our building, we are lucky enough to have a newer Dodge Caravan that I occasionally get to drive to deliver Airs or EAMs. Those fans come standard from the factory with A/C. When we first got it, I noticed an invoice in the glove compartment from some company they sent it to to have the radio, A/C, and passenger side airbag removed. There is still a button on the climate controls that says A/C, but it has been painted over with black paint and no longer functions. Like someone mentioned earlier, even if they could make our job more comfortable for free, they wouldn't do it....they even paid someone to make it worse in this case!

I have seen UPS pull the fuses from standard equipment they don't want people to use "because its a bigger load on the electrical system". Back then it was just things like radios ( and its amazing how many other fuses in the fuse box are the same size as the missing radio fuse ... not that I would have ever swapped fuses of course) but I have no doubt they would do the same thing for a/c.
 

preload1

Well-Known Member
When I started driving back in the mid-80's we had that 2-60 air system. 2 doors opened and doing sixty MPH on the way to area. Worked well.
 

bleedinbrown58

That’s Craptacular
(I think he was trying to head off the rudeness before giving a younger, lesser informed person a chance to speak out. May've been a bit misguided but I think the good intention was there nonetheless.)
Sorry man, i jumped to conclusions. My apologies, it's all good.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
Next time you go to the store and pay $1 for 3 cucumbers or a head of lettuce, renember that it was probably picked by someone who was doing 10 hrs a day of stoop labor outdoors in 100 degree heat. For minimum wage. I did that work when I was 12 yrs old to earn money for school clothes. Driving a package car on a hot day for $33 an hour? Pretty easy by comparison.
 

Johney

Well-Known Member
Next time you go to the store and pay $1 for 3 cucumbers or a head of lettuce, renember that it was probably picked by someone who was doing 10 hrs a day of stoop labor outdoors in 100 degree heat. For minimum wage.
Probably more like $10 a day.
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
I would love to have AC but the fact of the matter is that there is no realistic way to cool down the interior of a package car. Harsh, miserable working conditions are part of what we signed on for when we accepted employment as drivers and they are a big part of why we get paid what we do.

The bottom line is that heat is like any other extreme weather condition; it slows us down and requires us to take added precautions for our own safety. Instead of trying to get the company to put AC in the cars...which will never happen...we should pursue contract language limiting the number of hours we can be required to work once the heat index reaches a certain point. This would be a far more realistic and beneficial goal.
 

Cementups

Box Monkey
^ Have you ever noticed that it seems we work the most hours during the summer when it's the hottest? I'm off by 6 most days......until sumer......then all of a sudden I'm working till 7 or later on almost a daly basis. Never has made sense to me. But some idiot upstairs is sitting at his desk, in his air conditioned office, with his big scissors yelling, "CUT, CUT, CUT!!!!!!"
 

didyousheetit

Well-Known Member
When I started driving back in the mid-80's we had that 2-60 air system. 2 doors opened and doing sixty MPH on the way to area. Worked well.
you still have the same system just now with orion you only go 30 because you cant go on freeway and your stopped waiting to make left hand turn in heavy traffic
 

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
It would make no sense for our pkg cars to have A/C.


Let's take out the heater in the package car also. It would not make sense.

You cant defrost the windshield in the winter without a heater. Its a legitimate safety issue. Like it or not, AC is about comfort, nothing more. I've been driving for over 25 years now so I have sweated my way thru many a hot day, but the reality is that there is no realistic way to air condition a package car and retrofitting AC to our entire fleet would cost the company many millions of dollars. It aint gonna happen.
 

oldngray

nowhere special
Maybe a/c isn't a safety issue but a vent fan in cab IS because it can blow across a fogged windshield in the summer to clear it. You can try writing it up as a safety issue and eventually it will have to be addressed. I kept doing that and kept being promised I would have one installed then eventually got brushed off. I persisted and eventually had one installed . It was an old broken one from another package car it looked like with a cracked base held together with a hose clamp. It lasted about 2 weeks before it broke again.. When I was on vacation the driver running my route wrote it up and the mechanic just removed it and said he couldn't order a new one. And I was unable to get anything done about it again.
 

What'dyabringmetoday???

Well-Known Member
Being from the southern Midwest I never understood "dry heat". Well last year we got some. 104-107 for a few weeks with almost no humidity.

Ill take that any day over 95 with 90% humidity. I believe hank said it best " that hot old summer sun. Will make you beg for your next breath"
"...so you best be on the creek bed a layin' in the shade..."
 
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