Driver abandoned truck and trailer.

If you and your one truck operation are based in FL why on earth would you hire someone from halfway across the country to drive for you? If they bring the truck back to you when they quit then it’s on them to get home. Common sense would’ve said when they quit it will be wherever it’s easiest for them to get home and you’ll be recovering your truck.

 

I’ll give some advice, FOLLOW IT!

contact truck movers or a truck recovery company and have them recover the truck.

Have them photograph everything, inspect it for damage from sitting there and making sure it is road worthy.

do not ******* around and have someone go get it, it is now a legal issue that can affect your business.

then get a hold of your lawyer and tell him/her, you want to recover the losses of the truck by suing the driver for the recovery and other loses.

the real problem is you sat on your hands for a month, when you should have engaged a recovery service to track the truck down, you now can’t claim the lost revenue for the truck which would have been part of the lawsuit.

And if you don’t go after the driver, you should not be in this business at all.

 

I wish I had some advice for you, but it sounds like you have done all that you can short of hiring a private investigator to try to track down your truck. The fact is very few auto thefts are solved. A quick google search shows that less than 5% of all auto thefts in the Houston area are every cleared, so your truck is most likely gone for good if it were actually stolen from the truck stop.

My best advice is to hire a lawyer to pursue a claim against your insurance to compel them to cover the loss of use and loss of the vehicle. This will likely result in your policy being cancelled, so be prepared to find another insurance company if you decide to stay in business. My next best piece of advice is not to have a driver so far away from where you are based without some extreme controls in place to prevent this from happening again.

The police will not be able to tell if it was towed away for private property impound. Texas does not require the towing company to report PPI tows to law enforcement so the only way the police would know it was towed from private property is if they ordered it impounded from an arrest, crash, etc.

I'm sorry that the driver disabled your GPS, it is hard to stop some people from being dishonest. That said, as a business owner, the first time the driver had any problems following directions, especially depositing money into the bank, he would have been gone.

In #4 above, you say you had a family member go look at the truck stop and it was there. I assume you meant to say it wasn't there, otherwise why wouldn't you have had it picked up immediately if it had been there?

I am surprised the police took a stolen vehicle report since this is usually not treated as theft when a driver abandons a truck. This is why large fleets have entire departments dedicated to recovery of abandoned trucks. This is also likely why your insurance won't cover it since it doesn't meet the true definition of theft. That said, read you policy language really carefully as the agent or claims rep is not always going to do the right thing.

 

How’s that working out for you?

Once you made the decision to fire him and take possession of the equipment you should have shut your mouth and gotten on a flight to get it.

Now you are screwed. Your truck has been stolen and I wouldn’t be surprised if your good driver had something to do with it. Probably got a pocket full of cash for it.
Unfortunately you’ll never see the truck and trailer again. Not sure what to tell you other than get an attorney and maybe they can find a solution.

Take it from someone who lost everything..reality blows. Police aren’t going to do squat, they just figure your insurance will take care of it.

Ask your attorney if you can hire a private investigator to follow your driver around..

 

so, 34 years in the business with more than half of them as a fleet owner with trucks based in three states (PA, NY and NM) isn't enough experience to be giving advice? How about the 250+ truck fleet with 19 terminals I was Director of Safety and Security for? I have seen all of this before and it sucks but there really is very little you can do if you don't know where your truck is.

We all have given you advice, you just don't like the advice! There is very little you can do legally, it is not unlawful to abandon a truck, meaning it is not theft it is only a violation of company policy to return the truck to a place of your choice. Hell, in most cases you can't even legally deduct the costs of recovering the truck form the employee's final paycheck in most states. It is a cost of doing business and a risk a fleet owner assumes.

Police don't take auto theft seriously, it happens too often for them to have any real resources dedicated to it. Houston has the 4th highest auto theft rate in the nation, and it rose by 16% in 2023-2024. Texas leads the nation overall in auto thefts so I would not expect the police to actually recover anything!

Why did you let a month go by between when the driver failed to show up in Florida and your wife got in contact with him? You should have immediately went to Texas, or hired a company in Texas, to recover your equipment. Actually, this should have been done the moment the driver failed to communicate with you, 10 days before you demanded he come to Florida.

 

I second this part. Simply having a policy that says your insurance company will do "x" when "Z" happens doesn't mean they will do it without a fight. Uninsured motorist coverage almost never pays out without suing your own insurance company, just for example.

 

Saw a dually that was pulling a 5 car loaded trailer on the 23rd of December. Was in West Texas on I-10 near the border checkpoint. Was completely upside down in the median..

Maybe it was yours?

 

Wonder if the equipment is South of the Border by now. Just saying…..