Torquing Wheels

Is it a requirement to get them retorqued in Canada? It is just a shop recommendation down in the US. You might be able to punish him by putting him on a safety hold til he comes up with the odometer readings. What you do is have him come back to the yard where the wheels are retorqued, put him OOS til he comes up with the right ODO reading. After 3 days you hire another driver if he does not respond.

 

The carrier should have a clear, written policy which discusses the requirement for the re-torque procedure, the potential ramifications of not doing it (65% of known wheel separation incidents are due to the wheel fasteners*) and consequences to the driver if the policy is not adhered to. A copy should be made available to all drivers and they should all be required to sign off as having read it. This is an issue that can have very serious ramifications for all involved.

Does the carrier currently have a safety award program? If so, then this policy should form part of the requirement for achieving the award. If not, is the owner amenable to starting one? As the saying goes, "honey attracts more bees than vinegar," so it is better to reward drivers in a positive manner for following policy rather than punish them... unless they are habitual offenders / non-conformists.

Of course there is no legal requirement to have the information noted on a driver's log, although you may institute a company requirement to do so if you wish. The information should be noted on that day's Schedule 1, however.

Is it your job to create / enforce such a policy? If it is, then do it and get the boss to sign off on it. If it isn't, you should pass that information along to whomever is responsible in a written format while keeping a copy of the correspondence for yourself (a bcc of the email you send internally to your personal email, for example).

*Wheel Separations from Commercial Vehicles: Experiences in Ontario

 

no matter what the issue if you are the employer and a driver does not follow your rules or instructions fire him..I fired a driver 3 days before Christmas for not following my orders after 2 previous warnings,, You make the rules it is your company or truck,

 

Does the driver carry a torque wrench ? If stopping at a shop their work order should include the odometer reading. Demand the copy. Also most shops charge a minimum fee. Occasionally a shop will do a courtesy check but you should demand paperwork.

 

Get problem drivers to supply a name as well if you suspect he's not getting it retorqued .. We had driver who lost wheels after a safety was just done . Turns out the young lad a trailer shop started taking off wrong wheels on a tri axle and forgot to tighten them again . Driver swore he retorqued them but the shop he had it done at never saw him because they were closed .. Luckily it was in middle of nowhere and no one got hurt and opp never found out 50k fine would've hurt

 

Boss may regret if cvor points get too high and dot is checking every truck .. Bad drivers are short term gain but long term pain .. We are still suffering from a couple of wing nuts company had a year ago