Getting Very Frustrated...

Hey all,

Let me start this by saying this is only my second week solo driving, however I'm not an idiot ;-p. For the past two weeks I've only made two trips because my truck has been in the shop. There's a problem with the low voltage detector that keeps kicking off the bunk heater, and Of course the truck has an anti-idle on unless it's 25 or below outside. So needless to say it gets very cold in the cab without heat. So I have to wake up every hour or two to turn the truck on to warm it up then go back to bed. Everytime I bring it to the shop they keep telling me there's nothing wrong with it...I don't need all the bells and whistles some trucks have, all I ask is for a little heat when I'm trying to sleep haha.

I got into the business to be out there covering miles and making money, not sitting at the shop.

I'm thinking of finding another company but I know how important it is to stick with your first company for your first year. Any suggestions of what to do?

Hey all,

Let me start this by saying this is only my second week solo driving, however I'm not an idiot ;-p. For the past two weeks I've only made two trips because my truck has been in the shop. There's a problem with the low voltage detector that keeps kicking off the bunk heater, and Of course the truck has an anti-idle on unless it's 25 or below outside. So needless to say it gets very cold in the cab without heat. So I have to wake up every hour or two to turn the truck on to warm it up then go back to bed. Everytime I bring it to the shop they keep telling me there's nothing wrong with it...I don't need all the bells and whistles some trucks have, all I ask is for a little heat when I'm trying to sleep haha.

I got into the business to be out there covering miles and making money, not sitting at the shop.

I'm thinking of finding another company but I know how important it is to stick with your first company for your first year. Any suggestions of what to do?

Welcome to trucking Travis!! I started with Prime early this summer and when I got my truck assigned, I didn't even make it out of the yard before the APU went out and I turned the truck over to the shop. They couldn't even look at it for 3 days and when they did look at it, the freaking APU worked fine for them. So they did nothing! Mind you Primes company trucks only idle for 5 minutes unless the temp is above 80 or below 20 as well.

A couple weeks go by and now the APU quit blowing cold air. A different problem then not starting like it did before. This time they sent me to an outside vendor and they fixed the problem.

Now a couple more weeks go by and the original problem came back! This time I took the APU to our SLC terminal and they replaced the computer board and changed the glow plug. It's been 2 weeks since then and it's still working fine.

Bottom line is no matter where you go, trucks are gonna be trucks and stuff is gonna breakdown. It's not just a company thing. Hang in there bud!

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

What kind of truck do you have? There are some tricks that work on some trucks. For instance, in the international and kenworth I could turn the cruise on and bump it up a little and it would run constantly. If you're hooked to a trailer you can try setting your trailer brakes and releasing the tractor brakes. Be sure to test the brakes well beforehand.

I still haven't figured out how to keep my Volvo running...

Hang in there, Travis. My son got a 2015 T-680 for his first truck. Almost new with only 22K miles. Flew to Wisconsin and picked it up...spent the better part of two weeks running one day and then getting towed or limping to a KW dealership. We decided this DEF/SCR "problems" was the reason a nearly new truck was available for a rookie. Finally got to a shop that looked at the symptom and treated the problem and not just the symptom. Turns out is was a bad electrical component under the hood and not the emissions system itself. Breakdowns and gremlins are part of life and trucking. He's been running with the big dawgs ever since.

Its a 2012 peterbilt. Its really frustrating the shop keeps saying everything is working fine on it, but waking up every two hours to start the truck and warm it up is starting to get really old.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, sounds like it might be just another struggle of starting in the industry, maybe I'll throw some extra blankets in the truck haha or an arctic sleeping bag

The peterbilt and kenworth are similar... Try turning the cruise on, then press set, then hold resume for a second or so. if it has a cummins i set it at 1000 because the manual said if idling for long periods to be at least 1000 rpm.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, sounds like it might be just another struggle of starting in the industry, maybe I'll throw some extra blankets in the truck haha or an arctic sleeping bag

I used to do a lot of cold weather camping. Why not just pick up a 0 degree sleeping bag and you should be fine for all but the most extreme of conditions. At least your struggles are happening in cold weather as it's so much easier to warm up than it is to cool down. Keep your chin up, bud!

Like was already said, it doesn`t matter which company you go to, a truck is a truck and they will break. Mine is in the shop now for the same reason. My FM is awesome and gave me the go ahead to idle as much as I needed to, which, I did. We have profit sharing so I kept it to a minimum.

Hey man, i just had this same situation happen. Been OTR for 4 months and truck finally gives out. Exhaust system and Cali inspection. I turn it in, shop says 3 days. Company gives me a loaner. The loaner is so bad I don't pass it on pretrip. Get my old truck back after wrestling with the office for 2 days about loaner. Get my first dispatch, 25 miles out airbreak pressure drops below 50 and wont rise past it. So back in the shop and they say another 3 days. At this point I call my DM and tell her I'm headed home for 7 days. She says they will take the truck, I say fine just have another one ready when I come back. Will see how that goes this Monday. You will have weeks like this. Good news is I had 16 solid weeks prior with good miles.