What do truckers like to do best? The obvious answer: they like to drive. After all, that’s how they make their money.
And what do they dislike most? I’m sure you will get different answers from different drivers. A likely answer would be: unnecessary waiting. Sure, they are used to spend time waiting, waiting for a load, waiting at the dock, waiting in traffic. There are many scenarios where a trucker can do nothing else but wait. As far as I’m concerned, I can deal with waiting, over the years I have learned to be patient.

It’s a whole different story when I have to wait for no apparent good reason and it gets even worse when it happens at a facility owned by the company I work for. I always get somewhat scared when I have to take my truck or trailer to shop, especially in the middle of a run. While I had some excellent experiences with mechanics that worked fast and had me rolling again in a short while I also had to deal with situations where I was met with disinterest and ndifference. Let me give you a few examples.

When I pulled into the terminal in Salt Lake City, I was told that I had mismatched tires on the trailer. It was red tagged and I had to get two tires replaced. I went to the tire shop where three mechanics were on duty. “We’ll get to it as soon as possible”, said the guy at the desk. It seems to be the standard answer at every shop. “I’m under a load and don’t have much time” I said. hat statement made no impression what so ever.

I didn’t expect it to take long; the place was very quiet. Only one truck was sitting in one of the two bays. The driver, an owner-operator, was pacing back and forth and he looked at his watch every couple of minutes. Those are the gestures of a person who is impatient and in a hurry to go.

The mechanics were not in a hurry to say the least. They walked back and forth, with and without tools. They talked to each other, disappeared for while and then came back with the same attitude. What they didn’t do was getting some work done. Finally two of them started pulling the wheels off the truck in a slow motion kind of way. After an hour or so they finally got that job done, the driver jumped behind a wheel and for a second I feared that he was going to pull out before the door had been opened.

So now it was my turn and I was pleased to see that they pulled my rig in right away. Unfortunately that was all they did for a while. “My colleague is looking for the right tires” said the man who was in charge. I had seen one mechanic leave but for all I knew he was off to the break room. Finally he returned rolling 2 tires and he leaned them against the trailer. Then he disappeared into thin air and so did the others.

My blood pressure went up, my patience wore out. Two and a half hours of waiting and still no tires, precious time was being taken away from me.
I am not the kind of person who likes to make threats or start arguments. But at this point I had all I could take and I decided to do something about it. When the man in charge reappeared I confronted him in a cool and decisive way: “I have been here for two and a half hours now and still waiting to get a job done that shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes. If you don’t get my trailer fixed within the next 30 minutes I will pay a visit to the terminal manager and tell him what I think about this outfit”

For a second he didn’t what to say or to do. Then he called one of his co-workers and told him to get to it. Fifteen minutes later I was good to go.

You would assume that when you work for the same company you have a common interest. Unfortunately some people think they should have their own agenda. More than once I had to deal with mechanics that didn’t care at all about getting the driver rolling again in a timely fashion. All they worried about was how to get to the end of their shift with a minimum of effort.

It’s not all gloom and doom. On several occasions I was in and out of the shop in record time. I very well remember the time I took a trailer to the shop in Richmond, VA. “No need to pull in” said the man, “We’ll take care of it outside”. When I got back to the truck a friendly black guy was already inspecting the tires. He waved a big hand and said: “Don’t worry, won’t take long”.
That was an understatement. He retuned a few minutes later with a new tire; next he rolled out the jack and the air wrench and set a record for changing tires on a trailer. “You’re good to go”, he said after he moved the tools out of the way. I didn’t leave with thanking him for the excellent service. A mechanic like him is priceless.