From the road...

A lot of the big megas are self-insured. This is just another example of rules that favor the large carriers that have the lobbyist while the small carriers always get screwed with some dumbass rules.

 

When my step daughter first starting driving on her own, we had to put one of those monitoring devices on to get an insurance discount on her. After is was removed, she told me that she would just go through every intersection that had a yellow light because she didn't want to get tagged with a hard breaking infraction. Stupid arse shiiiit that big brother is forcing on everyone...yet those without insurance couldn't give 2 shiiits about anyone else on the road.

 

We just had this conversation in our safety meeting few weeks ago. Had a driver run the living SHIT out of a red light. They asked him why, well he got a talking to for too many camera "hard braking" events so he didn't want to trigger another one by stoppig for the light.

Safety guy actually said that it was their fault, they were reinforcing the wrong wrong behavior.

This whole "safety culture" completely ignores unintended concequences.

 

Regular brakes can't stop y'all in time when the light turns yellow?

 

Most of the time they can, so long as you don't get in trouble for hitting the brakes too hard...

I have no idea why yellow light timing differs with every intersection but that's a topic for another day.

 

So the loud brake would typically be for situations like going downhill, I imagine?

 

You're going to have to translate this into English.

 

"be for," motherfucker.

 

Jake brake?

Yeah, pretty much any time you're loaded its on. You turn it off at low speed so it doesn't jerk the truck back and forth. Unless you have a long hood Pete with a 18 speed and you are rolling thru a truck stop. At that point it a requirment to leave it on so everybody knows a cool truck just pulled in.

It also kinda depends too because not all jake brake system work the same, some are pretty weak and don't seem to do shit. And some will about rip your head off your shoulders at low speed/empty.

 

Hey man, I don't know what it's called. I just read in here that it's loud and pisses people off.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compression_release_engine_brake

 

when I drove my semi the “loud” brake was mostly used to keep the brake temps lower… like long declines

and it would stop in half the distance that the diesel pusher would at double the weight

it always surprised me how nimble something so big could feel compared to an RV

 

They might, if you don’t mind smoking the brakes, shifting the load, flat-spotting tires ($700-$1K each), etc. At 30mph, we’re looking at ~100’, plus reaction time. At 60mph, it’s over 350’, plus reaction time. Yellow lights aren’t timed for trucks. Every time I’ve tried stopping for the yellow, I’ve ended up part way in the intersection. It’s just not worth it.

As for what “418” is referring to, ~2006 and later trucks have an ELD (Electronic Logging Device). As part of its function, it records all the data going on with the truck. As part of its capabilities, cameras can be tied into them, providing real-time data overlay on the camera footage. In addition, parameters within the system can be set to activate the cameras and alarms, for braking too harshly, turning a corner too quickly, speeding, following too close, etc. When any of those parameters are exceeded, the event goes onto the driver’s record and can/will be addressed by the company’s safety department. To compound things, trucks with active mitigation systems will sound off alarms and all their systems are tied into the ELD, as well. These events go against our safety bonuses, as well. Companies will hold hold it against the driver for a month, quarter, or even the whole year, depending on how cheap they are. Paying a driver is the last thing the industry wants to do. Anyway, there’s so much bullshit going on within the truck it has become difficult to focus on what’s going on outside the truck. These company safety departments have actually created a more hazardous environment. This is much like planes going down and alarms going off causing pilots to lose focus on their situation. So, for the sake of NOT exceeding parameters in these ELD’s, us company drivers have to sometimes do things against our desires.

 

The disc brakes on our new Pete are pretty damn impressive. I'm actually glad it has ABS on cold wet days....you'll forget you're in a semi on a long tired drive.

 

Boy!!! That hard braking one still chaps my ass something fierce!! I told ya'll about getting written up for a supposed hard braking.No tire smoke/no lock up.Well just before Christmas sitting in traffic on the 101 probably going 30 mph,car in front of me slammed brakes to let a car over.I in turn hit brakes hard
no lock up,and sensor alerts yet again to hard braking alert.Im cussing,cause I know this prick is gonna put me pen to paper Monday morning.
Sure enough,new supervisor wants Paul in his office for a talk.I yelled across the warehouse I had to take a shit first.
I go into bathroom,have a talk with myself in mirror about signing papers,yet again for something I've never agreed with,as opposed to getting in my car,and
telling this guy to go Fuck his self. I chose car,and go Fuck yourself,and that write up!!
It wasn't the best thing financially,or week before Christmas,but i just couldnt do it!!! I hate that shit,and he never could tell me what the setting was for sensitivity level.The truck constantly set off faults for following too closely,and objects that didnt exist.It was a lease truck,and it was amazing they overlooked all the false alerts except the hard braking ones.

 

Disc brakes are good. Until you crack a rotor and can't get replacements for months like we couldn't get on our Freightliners...

 

All this to say, I'm so glad I chose picking up dawg shit instead of going to truck driving school several years ago like I really wanted to.

Yeah, I *could* afford to buy a tractor and be an O/O but it sounds like there's way too much bullshit all the way around no matter what.

 

Here’s a disc brake story. In the presence of the safety mgr, I ask the fleet mgr why we were not getting disc brakes on all the new equipment rolling in. He tells me he doesn’t know how disc brakes will integrate with drum brake equipment. I tell him integration started more than two decades ago and there’s been no issues with all the mixed equipment I’ve driven, since then. I looked at the safety mgr, shook my head, and walked off. I seriously work for some of the stupidest, most underqualified people in the industry. Yet, praise is heaped upon these people, by the ownership.

I’m happy for you and happy you stood up for yourself and every other driver. These people will only get the message, when there isn’t any other drivers to work for them. The idiots I work for went from 103 to 8, at the HQ location. They can’t get a qualified driver or mechanic to save their lives. If that isn’t telling, I don’t know what is.

When we switched from PeopleNet to Samsara, the shop monkey put my windshield camera to the right of the truck’s collision mitigation/lane departure camera. Of course, that angles its field of effectiveness toward the adjacent lane. That fucking thing was constantly going off. After a few days, I get a call from the safety mgr, asking me what’s going on with it. He tells me there are more than 270 recorded events and they’re accruing faster than he can clear them from the system. I started laughing, because of the ignorance of these people and it being their system helping me, a driver, get back at them. I explained to him what the monkey did and told him I’d fix it, right quick. I smacked the bottom of the camera, which tweaked it downward, so the only thing they could see was my hood, until I got back to the shop.

These desk drivers need to stick to driving their keyboards and let us truck drivers truck.

I was headed into town, this afternoon. Looked like one of Chicago’s finest immigrants managed to plow into the overpass. I saw the carcass coming into town, as I was headed out. The whole right side of the truck was peeled open.

 

Yea,this is the 2nd time I've quit because of this kinda shit. I had a dispatcher at Cardinal logistics that loved to spend the night watching me on camera drive to Nashville every night.One night while the light was on,I hauled ass down Mt.Eagle,and started asking him on camera,If he enjoyed watching that shit? The light went off,and of course he wanted to talk to me the next morning when I got back to Buford Ga.I was telling him,Nah! You drive the fucking thing,Im going somewhere Im allowed to drive a truck without some prick watching me from a desk.I still don't regret it! Some drivers can tolerate it,I started out driving without it,and Im not content with all that shit.I've never had a DOT recorded accident! knock on wood lol!

 

What is that? Truck is a 2023 Peterbilt.