Again, A Few Questions on Transportation

Warehouse and Operations as a Career

Here we are, it’s that time again. I’m Marty with Warehouse and Operations as a Career! I’ve gotten behind on questions that’s been sent in again so let’s see if we can get a few of those answered or brought up for discussion today. A gentleman named Kevin has been looking into or thinking about becoming a driver and maybe launching a career in transportation. He asked what was meant by doubles and triples in transportation. He states that being from the warehouse he’s heard of double jacks and triple jacks but certainly they don’t mean 2 and three trailers? Well, Kevin, that’s exactly what it means. You’ve probably seen sets of doubles on the highway before. Most LTL carriers utilize 2 shorter trailers, maybe 28 ft or 36ft trailers, and that’s kind of the norm in most states. Several states like

Triples https://www.quora.com/Are-triple-trailer-semi-trucks-legal-in-all-48-contiguous-US-states

• Arizona
• Colorado
• Idaho

• Indiana
• Kansas
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada

• North Dakota
• South Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Oregon and,
• Utah

• Ohio

Can, in certain instances and byways carry triples! I’ll add a really good link, well several actually today in the show notes regarding some of the lesser known transportation rules across the country. And all the states .gov sites have some really up to date and great information on their individual rules and regulations too, some good down time reading if you will!

Oh, and, A couple of states will allow two 53 footers as well, mainly only on the interstates where we can utilize shuttle points or drop and hook yards to meet up with delivery drivers for those final miles.

That leads us into another question sent in by Mark, what is a trailer dolly? I believe he is referring to a converter dolly that’s used to connect or couple the trailers together. I’ve seen one, two or even three axle dolly’s depending on their use. They have like a A frame construction with a coupler or pindle hitch on one end to connect to the first trailer and a fifth wheel hook up on the other so you can connect the next trailer. I’ve seen them with spring brakes and air brakes.

In my experience it’s important to complete a good precheck when using a dolly, check that pindle hitch and the fifth wheel closely and make sure the locking jaw is securely around the king pin.

Here’s a question from a las Vegas gentleman, I think I saw this on a local job board out there, anyway he was asking what does drop and hook mean? https://www.truck-drivers-money-saving-tips.com/glossary.html

This simply means the driver will carry a load to the consignee or a yard and unhook it at a door or staging area and pick up another load or empty trailer. He or she never has to unload or touch the freight. They’re just dropping off and picking up trailers. That’s much different than a live load where the driver is connected to the trailer while he or she waits on the warehouse to load the trailer or a live unload where their waiting for the trailer to be unloaded by themselves or maybe a lumper service!

He also asked what is a comcheck? Comdata services is probably the most know electronic payment platform for the transportation industry. A comcheck is a paper check issued by Comdata Services, which is connected to a credit account and requires additional authorization such as a purchase order number or authorization code, most often used by some professional drivers to buy lumper services, but also can be used to purchase other goods and services.

Another question that came up in a conversation recently was how do you know if a trailer has maintained a certain temperature thru-out its travels? Way back when we used something called a rytech graph chart recorder. It was an orange or red box about 4 by 5 inches and maybe 3 inches thick that had battery and a roll of graph paper in it that a needle would chart the load. They did a really good job and the receiver had documentation to attach to his or her receiving P.O. that the load was of quality and safe. We’d gather them up until we had 10 or 20 units, box’em up and send them back to the manufacturer to be reloaded. Today most devices are about the size of a credit card. You turn it on and place it somewhere in the middle or end of the load and it records the entire trip. When the driver arrives at their designation the receiver simply waves it across a reader and the data is sent to their computer. Much easier and cost effective, but that’s what technology is all about right?

Oh, and here’s one I’ve gotten 3 or 4 times, what is a jake brake and why is it illegal? A compression brake or engine brake is sometimes referred to as a jake brake. It is a separate component installed on diesel engines, that when engaged, releases stored, compressed air from the cylinder at the top of the piston’s stroke, preventing it from returning it’s energy to the crankshaft and powering the down-stroke, and slowing the vehicle as the air is compressed. When we depress the clutch, if we have it switched on it will activate with which ever setting, we have it set too. Usually there is a low med and high setting. Its purpose is to aid in braking of our unit. It helps prevent our brakes heating up and I guess can extend the life of the braking systems. It’s just a switch on and switch off system. The signs that say it’s illegal is telling us that due to the noise all that compression makes they cannot be used in the city or on those streets, sometimes just during certain hours of the day or night even. https://www.truckingtruth.com/wiki/topic-91/jake-brake

Most of the questions we receive about transportation come in from people considering a career in the field or wanting to get their commercial driver’s license. I’d encourage you to check out the many transportation groups on Facebook and the thousands of Instagram post from the professional drivers out there. Driving is a great and rewarding profession and every driver I’ve ever met is more than willing to share their knowledge and opinions with you! And with transportation being the profession it is, so much written information is out there about the industry. Whither we’re looking to just become a driver or maybe even an owner operator, shoot maybe we’ll eventually open our own hauling company who knows! I’ve found some great books on the business of trucking and I use to subscribe to several trucking magazines, talk about hearing from the pros, check out those kinds of articles. A couple of my favorites we’re https://www.topmarkfunding.com/best-trucking-magazines/

10-4 magazine, Roadking, what else did I used to subscribe too, American Trucker was a good one and I think another one was named Overdrive. Talk about a short cut to learning the way drivers talk and all the lingo! You ought to check those out and see if there still around, I bet most of them have an on-line magazine now too!

Speaking of knowledge. If your one of the many of us working with reduced hours right now or maybe even been furloughed for a week or two what better time to get some research done and learn about other companies we may be interested in and that could possibly help our careers! I’ve joined a couple of networking Facebook groups I didn’t even know existed and found a couple of job boards online that are catering to the light industrial fields right now. And don’t forget about those free or low-cost classes we can take on-line too, I’ve taken 4 free courses on supervision, and excel and word! Everything is going to get back to normal shortly and look how much more we’ll know! If you’d like to know more about where to find any of that type of information just send us an email to [e-mail] and I’ll make sure we send you some links to look up. And don’t forget about all the knowledge roaming around on our Facebook and Twitter feeds where you can find us using that little @whseandops or maybe stop in the warehouse equipment operator’s community group. Who better to answer our questions than all those doing the job!

Until next week everyone be Safe out there and please take all our safety training home and share it with those we care about and for!