Paying cash for repairs to a company truck to avoid backlash?

McLane considers them avoidable as well "you should have been driving slower when wildlife may be active".

 

My first reaction would be why in the hell was he test driving a car he put brakes on?

brakes are parking lot testing unless it is a performance brakes that have to be “set” or run in.

if he has to test drive the car after brakes, then I would never trust him to do good work.

 

Tell them and let them pay for it. If it’s minor like a mirror off, just say it was like that when you came out of the showers. Problem solved! Just because you tell them doesn’t mean you have to admit fault! Lol They put enough on us!!!

 

Nothing leaves our shop with out a complete and thorough test drive.
This is even more critical when we work on any safety items.
It is also helpful for stopping power and longevity if the brakes are burnished in correctly before returning the vehicle to the owner.
Also many repairs done on cars today need recalibration with a test drive and a scan tool.
The only thing we might not road test is maybe changing a set of wipers or a light bulb.

 

Question 1: If you were the next guy to use that equipment, would you worry that there was some unseen damage that would put you into the morgue? If so, REPORT.

Question 2: What would you say to a driver who handed off equipment to you that this had been done to, leaving you holding the bag?

Question 3: Is this the first time you've screwed up like that? If so, imagine yourself in your boss's chair. Does this qualify as "Stupid trick = funny" or "Stupid trick = can't drive" . . ? If the second, maybe you should reconsider your choice of career.

Question 4: COULD you have prevented it?

I'm always amused when a driver thinks that something stupid done with a 74-foot-long truck can be kept secret. The OP mentioned being winched out -- I had the fun of watching a driver have to explain a YouTube video showing his rig being winched out of a marked "Keep Out" mud hole, weeks after he had failed to report it. Net result? He not only had paid the big rig tow guy out of his own pocket, but he lost what had been a sweet job that had paid well, gotten him plenty of home time, light loads and full benefits for his family. Worse, every trucking company in 100 miles had seen the video, and the story had circulated, so the guy ended up having to go with an out of state outfit that had him doing reefers in the Northeast. The big screwup wasn't going into the mud, the big screwup was that he wasn't a grownup about it. You have to be able to TRUST the guy you hand a quarter of a million dollars' worth of truck, trailer and load to.

 

"the boss, who is self-insured, claimed, "you should know where the deer are"

. . .to which you reply "Well, sure, there's one right here, stuck halfway into the front of my truck!"

 

Like the screen name by the way.

 

It used to be a really obscure reference, before YouTube. It was Sonny and Will who got me interested in this, way back when. My first experience was as a swamper on a cabover Ford with a sleeper the size of an apple box.

I've spent a lot of time going out to do it to it like Pruit used to do it to it.