backing

thats probabely the reason--want to save a bit of money by not installing them
i think i will invent a couple--one is a hillbilly style where you just toss a stray cat out the window while backing up--and you hear it yowl when its tail gets run over

the other is the recording of meg ryan in "when harry met sally" and she is having the fake orgasm---now dont tell me that wont get peoples attention when you back up

 

&#%$ing rookies. Think they know everything.

 

It's really simple...
I Just back up back up fast enough that the wake of air displaced by my trailer pushes any non-stationary objects out of my way before they can be hit

 

In my opinion and this is only my opinion which dont really count but I feel as though the whole company of drivers shouldn't be punished for what some are doing. I can see the ones bumping into stuff having to send the goal message to remind them maybe but the horn is a bit much. I dont feel everyone should have to do it. It isn't all of us hitting stuff. Thats just my 2 cents. Maybe they need to do a more thorough training with the mentors to help them in backing incidents or something--idk but dont think we all should be punished.

 

What you have Lady, is some "Risk Management" weenie sitting at his desk, crunching numbers and trying to figure out how to justify his position within the company. And just about EVERY company has one or more of these folks.

Just my opinion, but sometimes I think these folks actually end up costing the company more money than they save.

 

I agree with you here--its not like we dont have enough to do.LOL I forgot bout doing it a few times--but no one said nothing yet.

 

put the back up alarms on the truck if thats what they want

 

They could put those (I don't know what they are really called) back up bells on the trailer wheels. This way the sound is closer to the point of the back of the backing trailer where the sound will do more good.

 

Here is what is weird. I was talking to a safety guy the other day. Backing accidents have dropped dramatically since this stupid thing started. Including the GOAL thing. Said not one accident where someone had sent that, and accidents dropped from about 1 or 2 a day to 1 or 2 a week.

I dont get it, I dont understand it... Also, they are looking at the beep beep backup alarms for the trucks, so its a matter of time.

How I managed to do 8 years and almost a million miles behind the wheel without backing into anything seems like a miracle now...

 

I respectfully submit that it's not a stupid thing if it has greatly reduced backing collisions and, therefore, claims. If I still held stock in Swift, I'd have to support management on this one. At earnings calls, I've heard Jerry Moyes repeatedly state that Swift is a training company with high newbie turnover (surely, this is not news and it doesn't say that there are not safe drivers who've been with Swift for a long time). Newbies are, by definition, inexperienced and often a little too sure of themselves; that, along with the Spokane preventable (I'd hesitate to call it an accident, which implies that it just sort of happened) is why management issued its decree. Again: money, claims, and lawsuits. At a time when the carrier's debt exceeds one billion dollars and debt service weighs on the bottom line.

Backup alarms are common on construction and service equipment, fire trucks, and many school busses. They're a good idea.

BigShrek72, you did eight years/almost a million miles w/o bumping anything but docks for a very good reason: you were careful. Salute.