Safety Dept and Recruiting Dept

I don't know how long you have been in trucking but by your question I'm guessing it is not very long. I worked for a company called Willis Shaw based in Elm Springs Arkansas my last year driving. This company does not exist anymore as their parent company Comcar merged them into WCT not long after I retired. The Head over HR and Safety there was a man named Richard Crook. (I know but it is the truth it was his real name). Mr Crook was a fine person that I know for a fact pulled more then one drivers fat out of the fire. Honestly though as a trucker you have more important things to be concerned with. As long as your checks are good and your fuel card works I would not give the home office politics any thought.

 

If you think about it, it kinda works out. Does the Safety person really want to recruit someone who is gonna have them filling out safety mishap reports later on?

 

I was just going to say the same thing.

 

Some companies are so small that people have multiple jobs.

 

I'd say theres more small companies throughout the country running that way compared to large ones with separate depts.

 

It's a very common setup with smaller companies.

 

What you describe is NOT common. In fact, the recruiters I know get a fat bonus if their hires stay 1 year.

It's true that the last person with a trailer with reported damage will get blamed for that damage if they didn't file a condition report on that damage when they picked it up.

And SOME companies will hammer drivers with basically made-up "damage" to kill the safety bonuses. I've never heard of a driver getting terminated over trailer damage that was reported when they picked it up. And I would question the veracity of what your friend told you.

I've picked up a damaged trailer and didn't report the damage til my Pre-trip the next day because it was dark, the trailer was 6-inches from another at the dock and I didn't catch it on my pre-trip when I picked it up. Turns out, they already knew about it, but the safety office told me it was an understandable miss, given the circumstances of the pickup, regsardless. That seems pretty typical of most companies.

It's pretty hard to get fired in most places barring something outrageous because drivers are a hot commodity. I'm guessing your friend was already on thin ice over some other issue.

 

One place I was a field tech at this one woman ran safety, fleet management and HR. Poor girl had the responsibilities of 5 different jobs at one point.