Should I pay for my mistake?

Great advice and words of encouragement everyone.Thank you very much.I assume my company reports to DAC,as they checked it when they hired me.I'll have to ask my terminal manager,who was very understanding when I explained the incident to him this morning.

Just to clarify,I was never thinking about not reporting the incident(which the customer would probably have never agreed to),I wanted to make a deal with my company to pay for it.But after much thought and your sage advice,I think that would be fruitless.

And much to my delight(not),I had another delivery to this customer this morning.So on my fourth stop this morning I roll up in front of their place and am hoping I don't see the same one dock only open and I honk my horn(usually they open the door for whatever dock is open)but no door opens and I start thinking maybe they don't want me on their dock anymore.

So I go in the office and the boss that I dealt with last Thursday is laughing and says-"oh no,you again".I laughed and said "Yeah,I'm gettin' back on that horse".We walk out to the docks and to my delight I see 2 docks open this time,and he asks me which one I want to use.

I tell him I want the dock closest to us,which is not the one I had the accident in.He laughs and says"I don't blame you".By the way,the truck I hit thursday is still in the same dock,but now it's loaded with deliveries(it was empty thursday),and I got to see the crack in the fender again before I back in.

Then I go back out to my truck and very carefully back into the dock with no problem(okay,I was a bit nervous)

It's funny,I was a yard jockey for about a year many years ago and I never thought I would get nervous about backing after that.I used to back 25 to 50 trailers a day and I would get mad if I had to do a pull-up,and these were all inside docks with pillars between every 2 docks.I never had an incident there,but backing with an Ottowa yard tractor is much easier than even my day cab.Ottowas have much better manueverability with their shorter wheelbase,lots of windows,auto tranny,and suicide knob on steering wheel.

Anyways,I felt much better pulling out of that dock this morning.

 

Well,I got the estimate for my boo-boo and Kittyfoot,you were spot on.

I was hoping for $250.00-$750.00 but the grand total comes to $1,483.13!!!

I'm no body repairman,but it looked to me like the damage could have been fixed by grinding down the splintered 6" crack and filling in with new fiberglass.But I guess that would be too easy,as this company sees this as an opportunity to fix all the previous damage done to their 1998 International.

Their body shop quoted a price of $380.00 for the 2' by 1'fiberglass fender extension,$10.00 each for mudflap and mudflap retainer,$60.00 for body materials,and of course $8.00 for haz-mat disposal.

So about $460.00 in parts and 12 hours of labor totaling $780.00,and $190.00 in materials,and $45.00 to Uncle Sam of course.

At the time of the accident the customer and I agreed the only damage I did was the crack in the fender extension,and the customer confirmed this on my accident report.

This 12 year old truck had previous scratches on the hood and that were obviously not done by me,but the estimate shows about 5 hours of labor to repair damage to these areas that were untouched by me.

The truck has not been repaired yet and my company is disputing this padding of the bill.I guess only time will tell what happens,but my fellow drivers have told me I will probably get a "write-up"for my incident.

 

Great idea with the flashlights.I always carry one so I can read labels on my freight inside the trailer.

This dock was so tight I could not see the truck I hit on my passenger side until after I had done a couple pull-ups,and by then the damage was done.I knew it was there,but misjudged my distance from it.There were no yellow lines on the floor or even bumpers on the dock.It's a very old building and the dock has railroad ties for bumpers.

It ticks me off that a lot of places can't even put reflector tape or a 50 cent round reflector on the dock to help their own and other drivers backing into these black holes.Even under the worst conditions I can always see these reflectors on the docks that have them.

Not that reflectors or lines would have done me any good in this situation.I should have done a pull-up sooner than I did.

I learned a long time ago it also helps to turns on your lights on your truck to help see where the back of your trailer is by the side marker lights.