Is an owner operator responsible to pay for damages to company trailer?

First, INSURANCE. This claim should have been made as soon as you heard about this. Most deductibles are only $1000. Work with driver, politely, to get him to pay deductable. Offer to take $100 a week out of settlement. If he refuses then stay polite and tell him next time he will be responsible.
Then, get him home without making it seem like you are bringing him home and fire him. But be polite or the next post is going to be you asking about trailer recovery and what to do about a driver that is holding a load hostage.
And remember, these are the reasons that you are making $400-$500 a week on his work. You are taking risks and being rewarded for this risk.

 

Thanks for everyone's input. I am not going to sue him for the money I just want to know if he can sue me if I let him voluntarily pay for the damages and then I let him go. I am not terminating his contract with us for this one incident either just so everyone knows, this is the 3rd time damage has been done and he lied to us about it until we were able to see it in person, sometimes weeks later after more damage is caused by hauling loads with a messed up trailer. He has also gotten DOT road inspections and not turned in the reports to hide the things that he should have fixed. And then we find out a couple months later when the points show up on our fmsca score. All in all the guy's gotta go but I don't want to have to be out 4 grand on top of it. I would report it to my insurance company but he apparently isn't going to tell me when, where or how it happened so it's kinda hard to place a claim without any info. The estimate for the repair is over 4 grand so it isn't like he just curbed it and the worst thing is that he has been flat out lying to us about what happened and how bad it actually was until we made him take it to a repair shop so we could get a real idea of what was going on. He still has not told us how the axle/suspension and rims are all bent....it seems to be a mystery to him but he is saying he will pay for it but he doesn't think we are going to let him go. Anyway, for all the haters, we ARE a small company who are more than fair with our owner ops. We pay them very well and care about their bottom line just as much as ours if not more than ours because we want happy people working for us...but we have learned that most people just don't care about the person they work for and just assume they are making them all kinds of money so it doesn't matter if they are careless with equipment. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a major problem but we shall see....

 

I think you should talk to an lawyer for the following reasons. You need a new lease agreement, You don't know how the damage happened. He has been less than truthful in the past. I mean he could have damaged someone elses property and they are waiting for you to contact them about the damage. He has hit and run and the law is looking for the trailer. You have no idea what could be sitting out there and the consequences that they may bring. In short you need to cover your butt.

 

What on God's green earth were you thinking when you hired a driver who was only 3-1/2 years old??

 

No input on the legal matter but I'm trying to think how in the hell he could bend an axle and rims and damage the suspension. Is it an air-ride trailer? Old junky leaf spring trailer or newer? Van, reefer, flat? What do you haul? The only scenario I can imagine that wouldn't have also damaged his tractor would be to curb it really hard, with tandems all the way forward, heavy load, air bags deflated for some reason. Does it have air dump? My company's trailers automatically dump when you set the brakes, and sometimes, especially in cold weather when there's ice in the valves, it takes like 10 minutes to re-inflate. Did you have any claims for damaged cargo that you could use as a "clue" as to WHEN the incident happened and how heavy it was at the time? Does he send in CAT scale receipts for reimbursement?

Slot Car Racer's post is kind of scary though and raises a valid point. What if the damage was caused by running over a motorcyle in an intersection after running a red light or something?

 

Sorry, i meant the mental age

 

2nd for contacting a lawyer and find out how you need to report the accident. Just because YOU can't get the details from him does not mean a cop or lawyer can't get them. This is clearly an accident and needs to be reported. If it was just a hard curbing, and I have seen a lot of damage from someone doing 20 mph with full load curbing a trailer, then he made it worse by not being forth coming.

 

Something doesn't seem right with this story. That type of damage requires a HUGE amount of energy. Something like a high speed collision or sideswipe with an unmovable object or barrier. Is the trailer shop close by? Or, can you get photos? I would want to get a second estimate. It may just need new rims and an alignment job.

 

You showed up.

My computer screen went blank.

Everyone disappeared.

Wonder what the connection is?

 

those big rocks that are put in front of entrances like t/s and business can do a lot of damage if the trailer goes over them---had to fix more than one from drivers forgetting they had a trailer and taking the corner like talledega