Reality - Safety Geeks Vs. How The World Works

If you're so heavy you'd pop a steer by climbing on it I doubt you'd be able to get up there anyways.

 

Before I was a truck driver, I was very active in industrial safety. Ya know, OSHA stuff. I've come to respect safety stuff that seems stupid and common sense on a first look. That big thick OSHA book that shows all the industrial safety regs is often referred to as the book of blood. All those regs about bollards, safety rails, ladder heights and use, etc. came about because someone got killed or seriously hurt, when the accidents were evaluated the deficiencies in design and/or process were codified in an attempt to save others from the serious or fatal mistakes of others.. So, a lot of blood was spilled in developing that book.
Safety is about not getting hurt and breaking things. It is worth your time, even if you think it stupid or silly.
My opinion anyway.

 

Want to know what’s going on? Trying to figure out why you are having to watch Braindead videos?

They outlawed chewing gum so that people who are too stupid to walk and chew gum can now walk without hurting themselves and qualify to work at the company. Forget about the ambulance chasers, the trucking company needs people who are stupid enough to pay for their job and pay for the company trucks with the various lease purchase deals but have enough brain power to hold the steering.

If it REALLY were about safety, they would be handing out chewing gum at orientation.

 

I could go on and on about the guys telling me what they have done, and got away with it, over my years of driver training. The best was checking out a potential 'old hand' who was teaching at the trucking school we were using as a source for potential drivers to enter our training program.

He had already quizzed me about a lot of his questions and I could see this wasn't going to work the way my boss wanted.

So we are coming down from Rt 17 heading east on I 80 and making the exit, that tiny little exit to get to the turnpike when he points at the overpass abutment and says the damaged area was his fault.

I wondered how he ended up teaching when he was a 'old union guy'. Thankfully he had decided he didn't like yanking a tank.

 

Could be wrong,I don't think OSHA applies to trucking. You have the lumber tarps and high wind. Or the places that You will not get on the deck for any reason.

 

You ain't kidding. I tried to warn a ####hole lumber mill in Seely lake MT about the hazardous conditions they expected drivers to tarp in. He gave me a sarcastic remark and I had a few words for him right back. Surprised I didn't get a call from my fleet manager on that one.
Then you've got the complete opposite where some places want you in a harness and hard hat to spread two tarps on a sunny day with no wind.
There is no standard. Its all about the insurance money.

 

I use the 3 point method while getting out, back to cab, but they tell me it's not 3 points of contact and I showed them how it certainly is. They didn't like it but I always had 3 points touching truck at all times so they kinda gave up.
I'm sure I'll hear about it again as soon as they run out of redundant work.

 

I usually do a back flip when getting out of the cab. That usually shuts them up.

 

Hey.....it's Carl Edwards! Welcome to the trucking world. Didn't think you would take up truck driving after retiring from NASCAR!

 

Same #### since 1988. Doesn’t sound like it’s changed any. Not sure I could ever be a company driver and watch that ####. They want it to prove you were trained and then when something happens they can tell the insurance company you knew better