I didn't know running over a curb counts as a preventable accident

Yea they have a view of the world they typically don't get when their head is in their ###.

 

I agree on all points.

I would even go as far as to say possibly he dropped the trailer with a busted tire and “it was like that when I picked it up”. Most company’s only make an issue out of curbing if a tire or wheel is damaged.

 

I am a professional and I have seen some very unprofessional curb placements

 

Here's a scary part to this, go back to the discussion about "What container haulers make" and my comments about tires. We've had the chassis pool bill us for tire repairs/replacement because the sidewall showed evidence it had been curbed, even though it wasn't curbed by us, and that could have led to the blowout, when more than likely the blowout was caused by the railroad failing to properly air up tires.

 

Doesn't look like that turn can be made with that length of a vehicle without jumping up onto the sidewalk... You can see the tire marks from other trucks on the sidewalk before this one rolls over them... Sometimes in a big rig, you gotta do whatcha gotta do, as long as you can do it safely without harming people, or property. This is what the suits who make the rules don't get, because they have never been in that type of situation.
Edit:
That power unit is also a daycab, with another 6-8' of sleeper he would have had to encroach more of the sidewalk...

 

Looking at trailer tire sidewalls is the easiest way to tell if someone can actually drive. If you really have to, cut back tight and hit it square

counting it is a preventable is just ridiculous though

 

It’s not the idea of curbing the tire that pisses me off, it is when a driver go over rocks and other debris in a turn that they can avoid then the tire goes flat or blows out. Many drivers working on the road don’t get that tires cost. A single tire for me costs $435 each if the truck is close to any yard but if it is stuck on the road, then that’s double with the labor added in, not to mention the downtime for the driver and truck.

So yes avoid it if you can and it isn’t a joke.

 

I never said it was a joke, Tires are expensive and I'm well aware of that. I'm also well aware of what road calls cost. I know better than most that there's nothing even remotely funny about operating expenses.
The point I was trying to make is that hitting a curb isn't always a sign of driver negligence. You can get as pissed off as you want but even good drivers have bad days. You've been in this business long enough to know that.
If there's a continuing pattern of hitting curbs and ruined tires and bent rims I'd have to ask myself why I hadn't spotted it before and done something about either correcting the driver or getting rid of him.
Blaming a driver is easy. Firing a driver is easy. It's not always the best solution to the problem.
If I get a driver with an "I don't give a ####" attitude he won't be here any longer than it takes for him to clean out his truck and my office to make out his last check.
If he scuffs a tire and 'fesses up to what he did and doesn't let it happen again any time soon I just mark it down to experience and move on.
But making the driver the scape-goat in every instance is just stupid. And counter productive.

 

Thats fair