Opinion on damage to truck

Discussion in 'LTL and Local Delivery Trucking Forum' started by Evie3, Nov 12, 2020.

  1. Evie3

    Evie3 Light Load Member

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    Mar 22, 2017
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    My son called me and asked if I could post on his behalf because he just got to his hotel and has to go to sleep now. He has been doing linehaul for an ltl company for just shy of 4 years and has never been involved in a preventable accident. His truck is used by a p&d driver during the day. He did not look closely at everything on the truck before leaving yesterday, just did a pretrip on the essential parts and started his day. He had a long night and drove 600 miles. When he ended the day he noticed the attached damage on the bumper. The bumper on the inside is cracked and the outside there are scrapes and yellow colored abrasions into the plastic. He said there is also a white material on one or 2 places on the bumper that you can see if you look close enough. He said that he did a thorough pre and post trip on his trailers and they touched nothing. He can’t recall anything of concern that happened when he was working. He said it was raining all night and visibility was bad, though, and just because he didn’t see anything that doesn’t guarantee that nothing happened. He wanted opinions about what could this be from - a car or another type of vehicle or from hitting some kind of concrete barrier or other object of some kind. He is very worried about this and was saying that he would rather leave trucking than hurt someone on the road. Obviously no one can say for sure what caused this after the fact but any thoughts from experienced people would be appreciated. Thank you.

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  3. scott180

    scott180 Road Train Member

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    He missed it so he owns it.
    Totally unfair but true.
    Had a night driver do that to me once. It had been raining so the road dirt covered the scratches so I didn't notice them. I got lucky. The place he hit was my first dispatch but it got changed at the last minute or I would have been held responsible and fired. If I was in a damaged truck next to a damaged pole who would belive I didn't do it? Worst part is that I thought highly of the guy.

    Bad situation, I wish your son well.
     
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  4. Evie3

    Evie3 Light Load Member

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    Thank you, is it really possible to have damage to the bumper of a truck without being aware that you had hit something? I think that is what is bothering him the most, he is worried about having hit or hurt someone and being unaware of it. I have a hard tine imagining that, but I've never driven a truck.
     
  5. Brettj3876

    Brettj3876 Road Train Member

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    Looks like maybe the driver struck a bollard or something similar in size
     
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  6. Brettj3876

    Brettj3876 Road Train Member

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    That's pretty big to miss on a pre trip. Really no excuse to miss that
     
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  7. Evie3

    Evie3 Light Load Member

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    Thanks, I'll let him know when I speak to him tonight. I had to look up what a bollard is LOL, but that sounds like something that would be p&d-ish to me what with backing up to loading docks all day. Even though he may be held at least partly responsible, and he should have caught this on his pre-trip assuming it was already there, I think he will be relieved by this observation.
     
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  8. buddyd157

    buddyd157 Road Train Member

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    a bollard is a huge yellow pole, you see at many areas so that people hit that, instead of the building.

    he owns it, he did not catch it on hs pre-trip.

    he could try to explain this to his company, but i'd venture to guess he'll still own it.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. Chinatown

    Chinatown Road Train Member

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    Does the truck have forward facing camera?
    If so, that will show what happened.
     
  10. MACK E-6

    MACK E-6 Moderator Staff Member

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    You’d be surprised what lies the rejects we have would try and pass off as excuses for wrecking a truck.
     
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  11. mpd240

    mpd240 Road Train Member

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    Hit and run while he was sleeping at hotel room. Ask hotel to see parking lot cameras. If they have none he’s golden.
     
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