The Truth About Expediting in Severe Weather

[ATeam]

A major winter storm is hitting much of the country as I write this. That is nothing new to expediters who have been out here for a while. This post is for newer expediters and expediter wannabees who might think it important to get that expedited load through no matter what.

The truth is, safety is more important than anything and it is OK to park your loaded truck and wait out bad weather if, in your judgement, it is too dangerous to drive. The call is yours.

Most if not all expedite carriers, and all of the major carriers, have a "force majeure" provision in their contracts with their customers. It means that any penalties that might otherwise be assessed for late delivery of a load will not be assessed if conditions out of the carrier's control (like severe weather) delay delivery. An over-eager dispatcher may suggest that it would be a good thing to keep going but you are on solid ground if you stop.

When you are new in the business, you want to show your stuff and prove your worth. While that is an understandable desire, expediters who have done a few hundred or even few thousand loads know the wisdom of letting Mother Nature have her way when she wants it.

When it comes to severe weather, you are the captain of the ship and the call is yours whether to stop or keep going.

Keep in mind that when the weather is severe, another hazard source is the idiot drivers with whom you are sharing the road. You might be OK driving in the weather but you will encounter 10,000 clueless motorists on your trek. It's bad enough sharing the road with them in fair weather. Severe weather increases the risks.

It's OK to stop a truck that is under load in severe weather, and it is the right thing to do if you do not feel you can safely proceed.

 

[TeamCaffee]

I could not agree more! We came across on I-20 last night going into Fort Worth and it was a mess. The interstate was shut down in several places due to accidents and we were directed onto side roads.

The good of all of this is that the traffic we were in was moving slow and cautious and we continued on to Fort Worth where we planned on stopping for the night.

Each storm is different and the road conditions are different. We were far enough behind the storm that traffic had to move slow which is why we proceeded on. The traffic that was a few hours ahead of us would probably been better off stopping for a bit to let the people go who do not slow down for slick road conditions.

We are very cautious of our truck as one vehicle sliding around that bumps us can put us out of our income stream.

We have the OnSpot Auto Chains which we did not use last night on the interstate. We knew if we got off of the interstate onto a slick parking area we would not slide around getting parked as we could easily deploy our chains.

 

[Lawrence]

Great post - going to share this with our Facebook followers.

 

[layoutshooter]

Severe weather, ice, snow, high winds, hail, tornadoes, etc, are a threat to your truck, your income and your life. Be safe, be wise. Let no dispatcher, or any one else for that matter, bully you into doing something that is unsafe.

Our truck has been badly damaged, twice, by severe weather. Nothing is worth putting your life at risk.

Some severe weather is easier to avoid. Hurricanes and blizzards, for example you normally get ample warning, head it. Stay away from those storms. Tornadoes, hail storms etc can be more hit and miss, they are much harder to avoid.

Always defer to the weather.

 

[geo]

it's alway important to watch weather at all times so you will be able to get off road a head of time
before all hotels or truck stop are full and you have no place to go
alway keep your tanks fuel you may need that extra fuel
if you had stop and filled up and didn't try to beat storm you wouldn't be thinking will i make
have a safe margnial to ride out the storm

never let dispatcher this load has to go
have been told you got go
told them a trooper just told me to get off highway now , before you can't get off the road in a safe place

 

[cheri1122]

When the weather outside is frightful, the only judgement that matters is the driver's. Use it responsibly, and don't delegate it to anyone else [such as a dispatcher in an office hundreds of miles away.] If you don't feel safe to drive, park it until you do.
How hard is that?

 

[redytrk]

A favorite dispatcher trick, is to lay a guilt trip on you. "I don`t understand, everyone else is running O K". My response is always "Put it in writing on the QC". They don`t want any record of urging you to run in unsafe conditions.

 

[davekc]

A favorite dispatcher trick, is to lay a guilt trip on you. "I don`t understand, everyone else is running O K". My response is always "Put it in writing on the QC". They don`t want any record of urging you to run in unsafe conditions.

That is a dispatcher that should be fired. Probably the closest that person has been to a truck is leaning on it.

 

[Mailer]

Good advice Phil After a spun out on an icey interstate the other night, I tried to figure what went wrong. The next morning, I decided to invest in 4 new tires. Even though, there are still threads left for another 30, 000 miles. I was told that tire becomes hardened during the summer heat, it may not provide a good traction on ice and snow. Of course, I would agree that parking is always better that driving in a bad weather. Thanks.

 

[iceroadtrucker]

Was back in 2007 during an Ice Storm right after thanksgiving. I DH all the way up the East Coast to PNH. for a load that just had to be done. I orginaly said no to it 6 times finaly I got mad and called and said u give me this load and send it over the qual com and confirm it Ill go do the load through that ICE Strom. Done deal so I thought, YES ME and SAL were gona get the Big one after we do the Ice Storm one.. Yes indeed I counted 17 WG tractors that were closer all beded down for that storm. Yet I had to DH all the way out VA. Well as u guessed I made it safely to the Pickup but while comming around the horn of Boston I got a call from a dispatcher that was mad as you know what and accused me of twisting the dispatchers arm the day before and that I was being removed from my predispatch. Well needles to say yup I lost the big one but I dubbed the nick name ICEROADTRUCKER from the dispatcher that I made the deal with as she said I was a real ICEROADTRUCKER. Needles to say when she found out latter what happend she said she was sorry. I told her it wasnt her fault. But I learned a lesson from that. So that is when I started going by IRT. Yup and I will tell u here and now bad weather shut her down and be safe no matter what its not worth the risk or the heart ache. Be safe so u can run another day.

 

[tknight]

My friend Derrick Gable from Cleveland oh, tour rigger and tt tour truck driver was killed in a rollover accident driving from Boston to ny last night , god speed Derrick! Stay safe out there, all of you! I have no details yet what happened.

 

[zorry]

Tour Drivers have a lot of pressure to keep moving..
Usually moving as a group with little time to spare, there's plenty of pressure to be sure The Show Goes On.
You may have 2-8, 10 or more other trucks doing the exact same route at basically the same time.
How do you look if you don't make it but a dozen others do ?

Sad about your friend , TK

 

[Moot]

I drove the "mostly ice road" yesterday. Sunny, windy, 3º and the trees and road coated in ice. No sign of IRT along my route. He must have been taking out the garbage.

 

[TruckingSurv]

Good advice Phil, I am a newbie to commercial driving, BUT have hundreds of thousands of miles four wheeler driving, much of it in a work travel environment, much of it in bad weather since I live in the NW. Last Sunday I shut the straight truck down in NE after only three hours on I-80, it wasn't worth continuing in the conditions, mostly visibility, however the next day I noticed evidence of accidents further east around Lincoln, so it was a good decision. Why fight it and expose you and your equipment to potentially bad things? The next day, I rolled at 65 all the way to Kansas City. I called the boss and told him I was shutting down, it is ultimately up to the driver and he accepted my choice.

Edit to add I don't mind the snow and ice as long as I can take it easy which is learned from many years of driving in the stuff, what scares me is all the other traffic thinking they can still roll at dry pavement speeds, if you also aren't rolling fast you became a target to be involved in an accident, I would rather park it, I don't want to be the last one involved in an accident, instead I would rather be the first to come upon it if I must be involved at all.

One issue I see is too many drivers think it is a race, including most commercial drivers sad to say. If you are driving a governed truck at either 62 or 65, if you happen to be able to go 1/2 mile a year faster than that, do you really need to pull out and try and pass creating a hazard for 2-3 miles? I usually pace a slower truck a bit to see what their actual speed is going to be, if I think I can or need to pass I wait until their is plenty of room and then make a try, if I can't I quickly concede, I will also purposely back out of it if another truck is attempting to pass when they obviously should of thought it though a bit better, you win, I don't want to be stuck in the NO ZONE for miles, in my short time out here I don't see these courtesies extended much if at all, but this is a different thread topic

TS

 

[Ragman]

One issue I see is too many drivers think it is a race, including most commercial drivers sad to say. If you are driving a governed truck at either 62 or 65, if you happen to be able to go 1/2 mile a year faster than that, do you really need to pull out and try and pass creating a hazard for 2-3 miles? I usually pace a slower truck a bit to see what their actual speed is going to be, if I think I can or need to pass I wait until their is plenty of room and then make a try, if I can't I quickly concede, I will also purposely back out of it if another truck is attempting to pass when they obviously should of thought it though a bit better, you win, I don't want to be stuck in the NO ZONE for miles, in my short time out here I don't see these courtesies extended much if at all, but this is a different thread topic

TS

Just to add to the "They should know better" file . . . Drivers that pass on the right, and drivers not using headlights at dawn, dusk and when weather requires.

It just boils my blood when I see so called professional drivers playing into the stereotype of truckers.

 

[Ragman]

I know this is an old thread, and most of the posters have left the friendly confines of EOville, but the feds have issued a ruling supporting a truckers right to shut down in bad weather.

https://cdllife.com/2019/feds-say-company-must-re-hire-trucker-fired-for-refusing-to-drive-in-bad-weather/