Do you ever call in and report other drivers?
I'm not talking about calling the number on the back of the trailer because the other driver is an a-hole or makes a little mistake. I'm talking about obvious unsafe driving or unsafe loads.
Example 1:
The other day I was in my POV. It was before dawn with a light rain and a big truck barrelled down on me hard enough that I literally flinched. I managed to get out of the lane and for the next 15 minutes I watched the Swift O/O tailgate and weave through traffic, sometimes with less than a car length between him and cars in front.
As soon as I got to work and into my truck, I e-mailed Swift via their website with the truck and trailer number, the location, time, and details.
Example 2:
A Southern Refrigerated Transport truck was ahead of me for a good while on I-45 northbound towards Dallas in the middle of a weekday. He was really pinballing it- zipper to rumble strips, jerking back straight again. This went on for a good while. We entered a construction zone and the pinballing contiued- he brushed five of the orange barrels, and clobbered one. I tried to get him on the radio a number of times -other trucks did too- to no avail. The final straw was when he drifted towards some constuction workers and their equipment. I actually backed waaaaaaaaay off and cringed, expecting the Big One. He managed to miss them- barely.
That was it, I called information and got conected and asked for the safety department. I got bounced around a couple of times and finally got someone. I told them they had a driver either falling asleep or drunk or seizing out. The safety guy kept me on the line while he got with dispatch to figure out what truck it was based on the trailer number. In the meantime, the truck continued drifting out of its lane. After 5 or 10 minutes the SRT safety guy told me they found the truck and were contacting him and telling him to get off the road ASAP.
Sure enough, the truck immediately pulled over into the northbound picnic area near Dew, which was right there. I was due for a trip-check and pulled in behind him. He curbed it parking the truck. As I passed I saw him go into the sleeper. I dunno what happened from there.
Example 3)
An Arrow O/O was easbound out of Houston on I-10 near the Beltway. He had a strip-n-stack pipe load. The load had either settled significantly or he had lost some pipe, because all ten straps were slack-flapping in the wind. I tried to get him on the CB, but he wasn't listening.
I called Arrow in Tulsa and asked for Dave Turner (safety manager). They transferred me to his line but I got the voicemail. I left a voicemail but called back and told the receptionist that they had an unsafe truck and someone needed to get Dave out of orientation ASAP and get that truck off the road. I gave her the truck number, trailer number, and mile marker and she said she'd take care of it herself.
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I know that some drivers will get in pissing matches with other drivers and will call in with BS reports on the other drivers that can ruin a career- that obviously sucks. But I have no problem with someone calling on me if I have something wrong with my truck that I don't know about.
-p.