Forklift Driver Damaged My Trailer

I had something similar happen to one of my drivers, they where unloading some tractors in southern illinois but the bonehead forklift operator forgot he was inside a trailer and put a whole tractor through my trailer, the shipper started with his hogwash telling me my driver was supposed to be assisting in the unloading process, but in the BOL it clearly said no touch. After about 2 hours of not hearing from the owner i called the police made a police report, called my attorney and had him fax a letter to the owner so he could sign and make himself responsible for my trailer. I had the driver take the trailer back to Great Dane in Milwaukee bill came out to $2213.15 i paid because i cant have a trailer sitting because the lady was gonna put the check in the mail. After two weeks of waiting i unloaded in peoria and gave them a visit to get my check,

 

Had a similar deal with a produce house in Hartford. I had gotten there early and they told me to back in but stay closed up. Pretty well shot, so I passed out, only to be woke up but what felt like someone backing into my trailer. Sit up in a fog, then realize I'm against the dock, so I pull up to open the doors. I had my Enforcer on (not sure why now) and as I start to remove it I notice that my trailer door was damaged, and it was obviously by a forklift tine.

I turned to look at the dock guys, and of course, all I see there is a bunch of guys finding somewhere else to look. About this time I'm awake enough to realize that the idiot on the lift had pushed on my Enforcer to jar the truck and wake me, and that the fork had popped over the top of the lock and cratered the inner edge of the door. I tell them to "Get the boss out here, now!"

He looks it over, tells me "we'll take care of it, take a nap after you're unloaded and come back in around eight, the boss will be here... yadda, yadda, yadda..."

Back inside around eight, leaves me standing around forever while he disappears to "talk to the boss." Finally comes back after 45 minutes or so, hands me a sheet of paper with a name, phone number and fax number on it. Fair enough.

Back home, a few days later, after getting an estimate on repairs, I try to fax the estimate to CT. Wrong number. Call the phone, nobody here by that name. Call the other number I had from delivery, right business, nobody by that name. Call back and ask for the foreman, and all I get is, " Who the hell are you? I don't know what you're talking about!"

End result? An insurance claim, me paying my deductible, and them telling the adjuster that "I've got five dock guys who will swear that we didn't do that to his trailer, so get ####### lost!"

Because they knew the insurance would pay rather than fight such a small (to them,) claim. Just business as usual in the scumbag world of east coast produce! (And one of the reasons I quit the reefer business...)

 

Years ago a watched a forklift driver do a similar thing. But in this case when he was done unloading he backed into the trailer and kept banging the front of the trailer with forklift to get the driver to come inside. Well, he not only busted up the plywood but dented the front so bad it popped rivits.

He closed up the dock door and took off. I was just standing there shocked with my load locks in my hand. Another guy comes up to me and says if I say anything I will never get unloaded. About that time here comes the driver with steam coming out his ears. As he trys to roll the door open the guy that talked to me starts yelling that he can't do that.

I tell the driver what happened and the dock guy says "your F'd".

To keep a long story from getting longer. While sitting in my truck and talking to this driver waiting on the police for three hours. Trucks came and went and I sat. Police report taken, insurance company called, driver leaves. Going on 8 hours for me. Driver shows up with pizza for me as thank you.

All total it took 12 hours to get unloaded after my company finally got a hold of someone that was will to yell at someone else. And when I got my bills I was told by the manager that I should have kept my mouth shut.

Stayed in touch with that driver. Took him a little over a year to get his money.

 

To answer your original question of what you should have done in the first place to avoid all of this, let me tell you what I learned the hard way in a similar situation.

When you asked for their insurance and they refused, you (and I at the time) should have stopped everything and called the state police. So for now, take it as a lesson learned the hard way, that's what I did. Still sucks I know.

 

Don't you have physical damage insurance on your trailer? Pay your deductible and let your insurance company pay the rest and they'll recover what they can from the responsible party.