mopardriver

As a dispatcher for a city company, thanks for doing this. I think the general public really doesn't have much knowledge if any for what you gents do. Also, as a dispatcher, I would like to apologize to all the craptastic places we send you where you don't belong with a 53' and a sleeper.

My only question for you, especially as a local driver and this is something I deal with daily, how can I as a dispatcher make your jobs in general easier?

Edit:: As a follow up what do you drive? As a guess it looks like a 2010-2012 Freightliner Cab in the picture.

Nothing more than a tri axle. We're primarily food safe hauler, so Frozen Fish loads (Tuna) can weigh in around 55 000lbs, which is the legal limit where I'm at for a tridem. Also costal mountains can be a huge pain.

I do try to give my guys choices where possible. Most of the guys in my fleet are running 16 speed, Mack 2013 12L CNG at the moment. Thanks for the answer!

Actually, while we do have some automatics, they are mostly manuals like the Macks I mentioned above. Autos never really worked well until recently as the belt driven automatics of cars don't handle the weight well. Our newest automatics that I have in our 2010-2012 Macks, their M-Drive unit, is a computer controlled clutch. So it functions the same a manual transmission, and actually better in some cases at it will shift in the optimal fuel range to ensure best MPG. Also of course there is the possibility of overriding the system if the driver believes in his professional opinion that he needs to be in a lower gear (ex. a hill).

Tri Axle and Tridem are the same thing. They normally refer to the type of trailer being pulled and how many axle of wheels it has. The more axles the more overall weight you're allowed to pull providing it is loaded properly. However that only takes you to a point. After that you need to add axles to the powerunit (in NA we call this a tractor/Truck, Britain like the word lorry sp?). Generally though that requires special permits after that.