Incompetence has no limits

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EX-PAT BRITISH TRUCKERS (INTERACTIVE)
1

A friend of mine has a small mechanical problem on his truck, it does require some new parts and the replacement of them is a 9hr job, however it’s not a VOR situation, it is possible to drive the truck still.

The problem is with the injector cups, it’s a common enough fault on the Volvo engine, I had them go on the one I had, some have gone multiple times, they’ve become such a problem that Volvo now make them from a different material to make them, hopefully, last a little longer. They crack, this causes a loss of the capillary effect in the fuel lines when the engine is shut down, basically your fuel runs back into the tanks, so starting is like trying to get a 1976 Transit diesel going on a cold morning, lots of key turning, not a lot of starting :open_mouth:

The new injector cups are on back order, two days delivery has been quoted, as it happened on a Thursday and the shop is closed at weekends it means that the earliest time the truck can be back on the road is Monday night, the truck in question is empty, so when/if it leaves the shop Monday, it will be Tuesday morning at least before the thing has a revenue paying load on it’s back, if one is even booked, after all it may not be ready when the shop says it ‘might’ be, hard to book a load in this instance.

The company in question, guess who :laughing: have now got a truck sitting in a dealership 1200miles from home, the driver is being put up in a hotel for the next 4/5 days and being paid layover for this time, so that’s a truck, that has a slight problem, out of service for 5 days, not earning a single cent, a driver in a hotel costing, with pay, a couple of hundred dollars a day/night, all for what basically amounts to SFA when all things are considered.

Now faced with a similar situation, I would use the hand primer to get the fuel back up into the injectors, then get the truck home where it could be repaired at everyone’s convienience, even if it was a real PITA to start, you can always leave it idling overnight to avoid the issue again, it would be booked in for repair on its return, no extra costs would be incurred, no revenue would be lost, nobody would be stuck in a hotel room 1200miles away from their family when it’s totally unnecessary :unamused:

Some may say that it’s better to get it done before it gets worse, maybe, but that’s not the usual procedure at this place, usually everything is done on the cheap, but when it comes to some free warranty work they have no problem with sitting drivers around for days and even weeks at a time, I know, I’ve been there, done that :unamused:

2

Would this happen to be C627?

3

bobthedog:
Would this happen to be C627?

Yep :wink:

The driver is not complaining, this is my own personal rant, I just think it’s ridiculous, the breakdown part of it is one of those things, it’s the way that the company leaves a driver stranded and wastes money that has got my goat about it, Rob, you and I have both run our own trucks, like you, I had new decent equipment, I had a pretty well organised operation, I never ran on a shoestring, but no way would I leave a motor for a week when it was something that could’ve still got back for one, and more importantly could go to a shop of my choosing for the remedial work, rather than taking pot luck out on the road :unamused:

They have a person in charge of their workshop, he’s the man you call when you have a problem, he never tries to do any kind of ‘triage’ all you get is ‘call KW assist’ :unamused: Volvos, trailers, whatever, it’s the same response, he must be costing the company ten’s of thousand’s of dollars with this method :bulb:

I was speaking to some people about this company, they said that 10yrs ago it was the best job in MB, there was a huge waiting list, I can only presume that was during the reign of the company founder, since he stepped down it appears that all hell has broken loose within those gates :unamused:

4

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: I know the truck well, it was in for injectors about 2 months ago lost a 2000 mile trip for it. The mental midget had it at the shop for 4 days did nothing and the day before I was to leave sent it into Volvo for the valves. I drove it back to the yard the last time having to add power steering fluid 3 times a day the cooler was leaking, the repair shop was able to stop the coolent leak but could do nothing with the pressure lines. He will find there is a small glitch with the transmission shifter as well sitting at a stop light it sometimes likes to shift up and down for no reason. The air line from the compressior to the tank at the flair end likes to come loose at times if he starts having air build up problems that is where it will be. Take the line off and flair the end a bit more. You can do that with a ball peen hammer. I lost a bottle of perfume in there as well he can keep it when it rattles out. Have him avoid even the smallest grade when empty or he has a light load I was having serious problems with those tires and traction. Heavy there is no problem at all. ANOTHER instance where hiring the village idiot to run a shop as a manager is not a good idea, that man cant manage to get out of bed without help.

5

Brentanna:
:lol: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: I know the truck well, it was in for injectors about 2 months ago lost a 2000 mile trip for it. The mental midget had it at the shop for 4 days did nothing and the day before I was to leave sent it into Volvo for the valves. I drove it back to the yard the last time having to add power steering fluid 3 times a day the cooler was leaking, the repair shop was able to stop the coolent leak but could do nothing with the pressure lines. He will find there is a small glitch with the transmission shifter as well sitting at a stop light it sometimes likes to shift up and down for no reason. The air line from the compressior to the tank at the flair end likes to come loose at times if he starts having air build up problems that is where it will be. Take the line off and flair the end a bit more. You can do that with a ball peen hammer. I lost a bottle of perfume in there as well he can keep it when it rattles out. Have him avoid even the smallest grade when empty or he has a light load I was having serious problems with those tires and traction. Heavy there is no problem at all. ANOTHER instance where hiring the village idiot to run a shop as a manager is not a good idea, that man cant manage to get out of bed without help.

That’s the kind of thing we want on here, keep it up :wink:

6

That’s the kind of thing we want on here, keep it up

Its the truth you havent seen the award hanging on his office wall have you.

7

Brentanna:

That’s the kind of thing we want on here, keep it up

Its the truth you havent seen the award hanging on his office wall have you.

I was always blind with rage whenever I dealt with that fool, never noticed any signs :laughing:

I had to apologise to him for calling him a C word, so I did, then asked if anyone had a problem with me thinking that he was a C word, I was told that was ok, so I told him that I thought he was a C word, you should’ve seen the look on their faces :laughing:

He’s like one of the puppets with a pull string that speaks when you pull it out and release it, he only says’ Call Kenworth assist’ :unamused:

It came about over injector cups :laughing: I had my truck booked in for service on a Saturday, I was under a load from Montreal to Northern Alberta, anyway I came back in on Monday and my truck wouldn’t start, I went to the shop and the puppet told me that they couldn’t start it and that I needed to take it to Volvos, I said ‘WTF? you should’ve done that Saturday morning’ Long story short, I ended up taking it up to the peg, they had no knowledge that it had a problem and couldn’t get onto it until Tuesday night, I phone dispatch and they told me to get a motel room! Yeah right, I live in Steinbach, no way am I staying in a motel an hour up the road, I asked them to send one of the drivers that was imprisoned in the driver’s lounge, but they refused, I would’ve come back in the truck, but then I would’ve been off the road, so I got a ride up to KWs and appropriated a BFS truck that was waiting for some work to be done on it from there and came home in that, never did tell anybody, I bet they wondered how it got back to the yard, well now they know, mystery solved :laughing:

8

I was speaking to some people about this company, they said that 10yrs ago it was the best job in MB, there was a huge waiting list, I can only presume that was during the reign of the company founder, since he stepped down it appears that all hell has broken loose within those gates

Pauly just walked in he worked at BFS when Red was still the one making the calls, It is a classic example of where a man busts his ■■■■ to build up a company from nothing more than an old truck into what was a great place to work only to give it to the kids who turn it into a pile of ■■■■. There is a big difference between working for someone who has been there and done it and someone who was born with a silver spoon. The boys have no clue they can barely spell truck never mind drive one.

9

That I’m afraid is an old story, the old boy works his nuts off (no pun intended :wink: :laughing: ) and gives his kids the best start in life, they want for nothing, then they take over the company and run it into the ground :unamused: I’ve seen it happen at many places, but it’s not always the case, my company was started by one man, his three sons have taken over since his untimely departure from this mortal coil, I wasn’t around during the founder’s time, but he built up a decent business, his son’s have taken it to another level, the company as it stands today bears little resemblance to the one started all those years ago, the boys have worked hard to get there, but they’ve also remebered the important things…the people that work there that helped them do it, a different world to the one that BFS occupy.

I met Red in the yard once, I was looking for some Polaris bars, we searched high and low for them and could find none, I said that we should bring a load back from Roseau, there’s a huge pile of them there, Red said he would tell somebody, later on I went to Roseau myself and on both loads I topped the load off with the bars, when I got back they were going mad, saying that Polaris charge them for the bars (how I don’t know, because nobody saw them being put on the crates, not in a dishonest way, just that you’re out of sight in the strapping area, where coincidentally the pile of bars is kept!) the next empty trailer that went to Polaris had a stack of bars on it, how are you supposed to strap an odd one, or one next to a stack of artic Cat without bars FFS?

I did get on ok with Earl Coleman, I found him very pleasant and he seemed quite genuine, I doubt he knows what goes on beyond the glass screens, I reckon there’s a part of his old man in him, he just needs to get out and get his hands dirty once in a while, it may make a big difference to some of their ridiculous procedures :bulb:

10

Common problem on Volvos that or was, I had it on a 98 model. Cost me a good few quid but had the top end re-set at the same time.

A story of old second generation money like you say very rarely do the silver spoon brigade do any good. Sad really I met The Old Fella @ BFS one time he came across as a decent stick as is often the case, never met The Sons though or did’nt know if I had.

That truck should have been got going & left running untill it got back to base end of story, it would have if I’d been The Jockey but thats drivers for you the world over some have got it some have’nt. Thats the difference between A Lorry Driver & A Truck Driver IMHO.

Fly sheet

11

Canuck tire 40.00 small electric fuel pump had one for my electric generator hook it into the fuel line couple seconds fuel is back at the top they have a one way valve wont bleed back old 671’s had the same problem you could keep taking them in once a year get the injectors done or hook up a pump and rum them til they needed more help. I recall one time dead of winter one fellow went to fire up his rig ugliest sound coming from the right side that was an 871, thats when we use to use the old gas powered hot boxes none of these wabascos on timers. Dam thing had dropped a couple valves we field stripped the head off called in to have the parts hot shot out to us I have never been so dam dirty in my life I was the only one who would fit in without taking the whole engine cover off.

12

Brentanna:
Canuck tire 40.00 small electric fuel pump had one for my electric generator hook it into the fuel line couple seconds fuel is back at the top they have a one way valve wont bleed back old 671’s had the same problem you could keep taking them in once a year get the injectors done or hook up a pump and rum them til they needed more help.

Did a similar thing myself when a lift pump packed up or almost packed up, it wouldn’t pull the fuel from the tank to the injector pump, 20 litre drum of fuel on the cab roof with a gravity feed got it running until I could get a new diaphragm. Needs must when you are heading home :laughing:

13

newmercman:

bobthedog:
Would this happen to be C627?

Yep :wink:

The driver is not complaining, this is my own personal rant, I just think it’s ridiculous, the breakdown part of it is one of those things, it’s the way that the company leaves a driver stranded and wastes money that has got my goat about it, Rob, you and I have both run our own trucks, like you, I had new decent equipment, I had a pretty well organised operation, I never ran on a shoestring, but no way would I leave a motor for a week when it was something that could’ve still got back for one, and more importantly could go to a shop of my choosing for the remedial work, rather than taking pot luck out on the road :unamused: I was speaking to some people about this company, they said that 10yrs ago it was the best job in MB, there was a huge waiting list, I can only presume that was during the reign of the company founder, since he stepped down it appears that all hell has broken loose within those gates

They have a person in charge of their workshop, he’s the man you call when you have a problem, he never tries to do any kind of ‘triage’ all you get is ‘call KW assist’ :unamused: Volvos, trailers, whatever, it’s the same response, he must be costing the company ten’s of thousand’s of dollars with this method :bulb:

:unamused:

In my time there I met Red twice, even though he had nothing to do with the company at this point, and a nicer man you couldn’t meet. The second time I had the pleasure of meeting him he was dressed in his boiler suit picking up litter and rubbish around the yard.

Shame he didn’t continue into the office doing that :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

14

Pauly has said the same thing nicer fellow you could not find, spent more time out about the yard helping out than he did in the office. Actually cared about he drivers that worked there. Shame that the boys didnt pay more attention to how he ran the show.

15

I have had a similar problem all week ! I had a fuel line break sunday night outside my house, next day some snotty kid comes out and changes it but does abad job, my truck re-starts after an hour or so turned off but 10 hours and it needed priming because the crap replacment let in small amounts of air seeping in, each time a shot of ether in the air filter will prime the engine when the key is turned. I ran till yesterday afternoon using this method then got a proper replacment line fitted.

Mark … How can you be old enough to remember a 1976 transit ? :smiley:

16

not highly recommended but it does work if you can do it some of the older rigs you could pressurize the tank with 5 lbs or so of air. need the threaded caps for that one.

17

There was a trick at BFS. You had to get the shop man nervous of you and he left you alone. I used to tell him exactly what was wrong, and I would tell KW assist the same. It covered me really well in Moncton that time. I never had to wait though. He was cautious when it came to me…

No way would any truck of mine be sat like that. My local dealership would have their bunker doors shut if the fault was anything to do with them, and they would be in serious trouble if they said they didn’t have such a common part in stock. But I always had a personal grudge against main dealers anyway. I always did most of the work myself.

18

Brentanna:
not highly recommended but it does work if you can do it some of the older rigs you could pressurize the tank with 5 lbs or so of air. need the threaded caps for that one.

Back in the dark old day’s of transcontinental trucking in Europe we used to carry auxillary tanks on the trailers, some were as big as 2000ltrs, we used to pressurise them to blow the dieseasal over to the running tank on the truck, I’ve also had to use that method to get a twin tank/single stack pipe set up to get enough fuel into the running tank when low on fuel, the truck in question used to drink from the main tank quicker than gravity would equalise the fuel levels, especially at night in France when Les Flics were sleeping :sunglasses: :laughing:

Oh and Pat, your younger brother told me all about 1976, he reckons that when you started going grey :open_mouth: :laughing:

19

oh the tricks we could teach these kids they call mechanics

20

newmercman:
Back in the dark old day’s of transcontinental trucking in Europe we used to carry auxillary tanks on the trailers, some were as big as 2000ltrs, we used to pressurise them to blow the dieseasal over to the running tank on the truck, I’ve also had to use that method to get a twin tank/single stack pipe set up to get enough fuel into the running tank when low on fuel, the truck in question used to drink from the main tank quicker than gravity would equalise the fuel levels, especially at night in France when Les Flics were sleeping :sunglasses: :laughing:

Oh and Pat, your younger brother told me all about 1976, he reckons that when you started going grey :open_mouth: :laughing:

Oh, how we laughed when a clever ■■■■ decided to “blow some fuel” and the pressure was about 3 BAR :laughing: It was hilarious as we stood pointing fingers as the BAG arrived with their handcuffs and clean up squad :laughing: