That's funny but I know what your talking about. Out here in CA it's big farming. Very rarely if ever, the owner or manager of the equipment is the actual one who's driving. It's always some hired hand but it IS him that drops off a disassembled engine in my yard to be fixed. Many times I see where the crankshaft is literally cooked blue it has gotten that hot. There is absolutly no reason for this and when I do see it, I have a standard question/statement. Whenever I see this, I then tell the owner/mgr that "I bet this engine just started knocking right at the end of the field just as he was making the turn into the next row". The guys looks at me and says Yeah, but how did you know that?
It's then that I explain that the engine had to be knocking LONG BEFORE the end of the field and his operator had to have known it. It's only until just then I made him realise his own operator was just too lazy to stop the engine and get out and walk to his truck. I'll confess that I love to see the look on thier faces, I swear I can see a little cloud and lightbulb hovering above his head. My customer just got schooled. Some operators are just to dumb to hear, and if they do they dont care they just reach down and turn that radio up a little bit louder until it stops and won't go any further. On more then one occasion I get a cooked engine in and it has brand new oil in it too.