Are you enjoying the weather change?

[Daren Todd]

We're at -4 this morning, but getting to +6 for a high today. Ground covered with a couple inches of snow and wind at 20-25 MPH.

Suppose to warm up gradually as time goes on, but I can't imagine paying $150 for a game ticket and parking is $65 and it's going to be +2 deg tomorrow at noon when the Chief's play. I guess that's where the term "fan" came from ..... "fanatic"!! And you get to set in it for three hours. See, using an open tractor in the snow isn't so bad!

I think more fans are gonna prefer watching the game at the local bar then in some windy chilly stands

 

[The Evil Twin]

As David Bowie once sung....Ch ch ch changes...

 

[johnjk]

Had to head in to town to get a prescription this afternoon. Roads were icy and mostly snow covered. Winds gusting up to 45mph and a balmy -7. Drifts across the road where 3’ in places. On the ride home the cross gusts of wind pushed me off the road. I was only going 35 and luckily the gravel shoulder stopped the slide. I’ll stay holed up for a while longer.

 

[Daren Todd]

Had to head in to town to get a prescription this afternoon. Roads were icy and mostly snow covered. Winds gusting up to 45mph and a balmy -7. Drifts across the road where 3’ in places. On the ride home the cross gusts of wind pushed me off the road. I was only going 35 and luckily the gravel shoulder stopped the slide. I’ll stay holed up for a while longer.

We had rain here yesterday then turned to snow. The driveways, sidewalks, and street were solid ice last night at 4:30. Had to dig out my ice cleats to walk the dog.

This morning was colder then the dickens, wind blowing pretty bad. But all the ice was gone

I figure that the heavy wind with the extreme cold actually evaporated it.

 

[MOOTS]

Ain't that the truth 1.5 hrs on the block heater and it fired up like it was a nice spring day. Kicked the Pto in on it so it would stay at a high idle. Man that sounded like it was chewing on gravel Smoothed out after the hydraulic oil warmed up a touch

Got a few neighbors out of their houses to see what the racket was

View attachment 92677

Drove for them for a year or so. Hope the mechanics are treated better than the drivers.

 

[B737]

having tons of fun out here in Seattle!

 

[Flintknapper]

having tons of fun out here in Seattle!

Oh man..............!

Looks like a few hundred gallons of de-icer needed there?

Remember the golden rule of flying: "An equal number of takeoffs and Landings".

 

[B737]

funny you mention it, they did not have enough deice fluid, so its still sitting there, encased in ice lol

 

[Daren Todd]

Drove for them for a year or so. Hope the mechanics are treated better than the drivers.

It really depends on where your at and who the manager is. A crap manager can really bring the moral down at a location. And i have seen a few doozies at locations I've helped out with.

They instituted a branch survey a few years back. Management gets graded based on that survey. Two hot topics are employee retention and moral.

I work for the fluid solutions division so our structure is way different then equipment rental. The company I worked for was bought by them 8 years ago. I've seen the same drivers and techs from equipment rental with a couple additions over the years. So they are doing decent with employee retention and moral. But that's just locally. I can't speak to what I don't see.

I probably have a little more autonomy then the equipment rental side. But them I'm also service manager, shop mechanic, road tech, yard dude, equipment operator, delivery driver, tech support, and installer I'm also up to 4 weeks paid vacation. That's probably the single biggest reason why I stick it out where I'm at

 

[lugbolt]

Ain't that the truth 1.5 hrs on the block heater and it fired up like it was a nice spring day. Kicked the Pto in on it so it would stay at a high idle. Man that sounded like it was chewing on gravel Smoothed out after the hydraulic oil warmed up a touch

Got a few neighbors out of their houses to see what the racket was

View attachment 92677

where you working out of? The Conway United Rentals place or?

 

[Daren Todd]

where you working out of? The Conway United Rentals place or?

Used to. They shut that location down a few years ago. Wished we were still in Conway. Commute to work would be 10 minutes and a tank of gas would last me 3 weeks in the truck

Location is now in the river port by the airport in Little Rock.

 

[MOOTS]

It really depends on where your at and who the manager is. A crap manager can really bring the moral down at a location. And i have seen a few doozies at locations I've helped out with.

They instituted a branch survey a few years back. Management gets graded based on that survey. Two hot topics are employee retention and moral.

I work for the fluid solutions division so our structure is way different then equipment rental. The company I worked for was bought by them 8 years ago. I've seen the same drivers and techs from equipment rental with a couple additions over the years. So they are doing decent with employee retention and moral. But that's just locally. I can't speak to what I don't see.

I probably have a little more autonomy then the equipment rental side. But them I'm also service manager, shop mechanic, road tech, yard dude, equipment operator, delivery driver, tech support, and installer I'm also up to 4 weeks paid vacation. That's probably the single biggest reason why I stick it out where I'm at

I think the drivers need a good dispatcher to be happy. As I didn’t see anyone from my branch daily, but I talked to my dispatch every hour it seemed.

 

[Daren Todd]

I think the drivers need a good dispatcher to be happy. As I didn’t see anyone from my branch daily, but I talked to my dispatch every hour it seemed.

They have actually changed it now. Dispatching for drivers and field service is done through an app on your work phone. Same with contract and signing.

 

[Sparky Prep]

Not as bad here in South Florida as most of you. Got down to 36 last night. Might freeze tonight. I've got thin blood, and I hate this weather. Had to close up the chicken coop, put the cats inside, and cover a few young fruit trees. No thank you.

 

[MOOTS]

They have actually changed it now. Dispatching for drivers and field service is done through an app on your work phone. Same with contract and signing.

Maybe, but I’d bet there is still a human punching buttons somewhere.

I remember a few days I had a young buck dispatcher, he was a steering wheel holder for a whole week, before moving to dispatch. He was always overloading me by weight, or just dumb amount of units. Like , I can’t get an 10T excavator, 4 scissors, a skid steer and a stick boom lift all on the same truck.(I forget the actual units, as it happened multiple times but just imagine some obscene amount.)But don’t you worry, he assured me he’d done it! Lol.

Good riddance.

 

[Daren Todd]

Maybe, but I’d bet there is still a human punching buttons somewhere.

I remember a few days I had a young buck dispatcher, he was a steering wheel holder for a whole week, before moving to dispatch. He was always overloading me by weight, or just dumb amount of units. Like , I can’t get an 10T excavator, 4 scissors, a skid steer and a stick boom lift all on the same truck.(I forget the actual units, as it happened multiple times.)But don’t you worry, he assured me he’d done it! Lol.

Good riddance.

You have the authority and requirement per company policy to make sure your load is safe, under legal weight limits, height requirements, ect... You simply tell the dispatcher that it won't fit, puts me over weight, ect... and it will take multiple trips.

If he doesn't like it, he has a life time to get over it.

Just because he says he's done it, doesn't mean it's ok and jibes with company policy. If he throws a fit, you escalate it above him. If need be, get the regional safety director involved.

As an employee, you able and encouraged to stop someone from doing something unsafe or illegal.

 

[dlsmith]

When I had trucks running, I always deferred to the drivers on what was safe and legal to haul. If the driver thought it wasn't safe, but the shipper of broker said it was, we didn't haul it. Pissed some people off, but that's not our problem. We solved the problem of over weight loads, I had air scales on all the trucks and trailers that were accurate to within a couple of hundred pounds. If the load was heavy, either enough came off to make it legal, or it all came off.

 

[MOOTS]

You have the authority and requirement per company policy to make sure your load is safe, under legal weight limits, height requirements, ect... You simply tell the dispatcher that it won't fit, puts me over weight, ect... and it will take multiple trips.

If he doesn't like it, he has a life time to get over it.

Just because he says he's done it, doesn't mean it's ok and jibes with company policy. If he throws a fit, you escalate it above him. If need be, get the regional safety director involved.

As an employee, you able and encouraged to stop someone from doing something unsafe or illegal.

Maybe that didn’t come across right. Correct, I never hauled anything I wasn’t comfortable with. Told him to pound sand multiple times.

 

[Flintknapper]

Question: "Are you enjoying the weather change"?

Answer: About as much as I enjoy walking on broken glass!

Hoping things warm up here soon.

 

[BT3101]

Southern Indiana here. We had 3 days with highs below 10 degrees. It's starting to rebound today. We're at 18F right now. Our 3" snow was so dry I didn't bother to try and remove with tractor. Used the Echo backpack blower to clean porches and walkways. We have light snow overnight, then Tues gradual warmup to near 60F.

I don't care for Winter. We usually have 5-10 day cold stretches throughout the Dec-Feb months and rebound to around 45-50F after them. Not bad really.