Check Your Back Door - ALWAYS

I mentioned in another thread that I lost a tool off the back of my truck one time, because I hadn't closed the door. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for this, and it could have very easily killed someone, or at least caused a serious accident. I guess God was with me that day, because there was no one injured or killed, and it did NOT cause a crash.

My only reason for throwing this out here, is to just kind of remind drivers, (new/old/experienced/rookie) that it CAN happen.

OK, so I had this one customer that we all just hated to deliver to. A real PITA every time we went there. Today was no exception, and it went just about like normal. It was a freight COD account for an inferior er interior decorator outfit. You get the idea, it was a freight COD account. . .

Anyway, I get in there with two pallets of FAC. Go in, and as usual, the only person in the joint was an old lady, (mother of owner,) who answered the phone, and worked the sales floor, in the unlikely event that they had walk in customers. She was also the office "girl."

I contact her, and find out that for once, the owner, (her son,) remembered that we would be delivering, and actually left a check with her for the freight charges. (This in itself was sort of a landmark occasion.)

So I go into their warehouse, where their fork lift had the "stinger" (used for handling rolls of carpet) on it. (Naturally.) So I change the stinger for the forks. Then tailgate the two pallets, (I wasn't even going to screw with them, if they didn't have a check ready and waiting.) Get out of the truck and unload the pallets.

Go into the office to get the check, and she is with a walk in customer. Half hour later, customer finally left, she came back into office, and the phone rang. She answered the phone and immediately got into a deep personal conversation about one of her rotten grand kids.

Eventually, she got into the (locked) desk drawer and handed me the check. Of course, it was for the wrong amount. (My bad, should have collected the check and made sure the amount was right, BEFORE unload the freight.)

So then she starts yelling at me that we had changed the amount of the freight bill, from what the shipper had told her. I headed for the warehouse to reload the freight. She calmed down and asked me to wait, and she called her son to find out what he wanted to do.

Anyway, calls flew back and forth between her, her son, me, my dispatch, and the shipper. Long and short of it was that we accepted the check as written and would bill (though unlikely collect until we held their next delivery hostage,) for the difference.

By now, I'd been about an hour and a half on what should have been a no more than ten minute stop. We were busy, I was pissed, my dispatch was pissed, the old broad with the check was pissed, and the son was pissed.

Anyway, I left, got about a mile and a half away, and this old beater car with a couple of Mexican guys pulls up beside me at a stop light. Passenger is yelling at me and driver is honking his horn to get my attention. (Typical hot summer day, my A/C was on and window rolled up.)

When I finally realized they were yelling at me, I rolled down my window to see just what the hell THEIR little problem might be. (Obviously, I was still pissed over the whole thing.) Anyway the passenger yells at me, "YOUR BACK DOOR IS OPEN AND YOU LOST SOMETHING OFF YOUR TRUCK BACK THERE!"

Several things happened virtually at once. My jaw hit the steering wheel, my rectum slammed shut, my heart went through the top of my head.

I get out and look and sure enough, back door is open and pallet jack is missing. By now, light has changed and traffic is behind me, honking, people yelling and flipping me the bird etc.

I secure the door and find a place to get out of traffic. Of course in my mind, I'm picturing worst case scenario. Either the pallet jack came off and went through the windshield of a mini van, or killed a mother with her baby in a stroller, etc.

I retrace my route back to my last stop. NO PALLET JACK. Went back over it again. STILL NO PALLET JACK. Called my dispatcher and explained situation. (By now, I realized what had happened. I was so pissed when I left last stop, that I had developed total tunnel vision and had never checked that darn door.)

The whole point of this post, is that IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANY OF US. I was an experienced driver, and had been on the job with this same company for years. But a bit of an upset, and a few moments of having an anal/cranium inversion, could have cost someone their life.

Just on a note to close. The pallet jack was recovered about two months later when the dirt bag that found it, took it to the local repair place. They saw the company name welded into it and called us.