Abandonment?!

Funny how the O/P is "signed on" atm, yet never returned to receive her requested information, eh?

 

it has nothing to do with the load, it has to do with the property. The driver is in charge of that property and has a liability of making sure it is secured until they are relieved of that duty, they can't just drop it off and then say "oh well, it isn't my problem". The reason for the regulations are about who is responsible and who isn't.

 

I have to agree with this one here. Nailed it!

 

I understand; I am just trying to help. Often times these issues will be even unclear to someone who is a trucker.

OK. That is very important to say when you describe this situation to anyone. Both you and your husband have to be clear on that. It may sound like a matter of fact detail, but is very important in trucking that the trucking company, and therefore the driver, is responsible for a load that he agrees too.

You may think that delivering the load would be a given, but drivers all the time come up to the day they are going to leave the company and let the truck sit right where it is, with the load still in it. Often times, that truck with the load will be sitting in route somewhere between the consignee and their home; they think since they are no longer with the company they are no longer responsible for the load, which is only the case when other arrangements are made. That is the situation were abandonment claims originally started. So you have to be clear on that.

OK how you want to express this is, "he (you husband) parked the unladen truck as directed by dispatch in a secure company terminal. " You will want to be simple and clear about this because is a the heart of their allegations.

Here is the situation. The woman in the office, weekend dispatch, is nothing but paper weight for those in the office that make decisions, and those decision makers often live charmed lives and never work weekends. Just so you know, her primary job is to lie to customers when loads are late. How she handles this situation is anybodies guess. Chances are if she should have noted something about the driver showing up and turning the truck, she didn't do it. If their is some ### covering need by anybody in the office, she will do it. So, just for future reference turning in a truck on the weekend bad for just that reason.

Yes, the lock is confusing the situation. Some drivers that abandon a truck and a load will insist their is no real issue with their actions because the trailer is locked.

Really the lock is either here nor there for your story at this point. The chances of another drivers stealing load locks or rollers from company truck on company property are slim. If it was a concern, their are a dozen different ways they could secure that trailer without a lock. The lock issue is on them.

This information should be relayed as: "Truck, trailer, load locks, rollers and all other supplies were turned in the same condition received at the direction of the the woman in charge at the time." If she didn't have a lock and that was the company directive; her problem.

. Yes. very important.

Let me tell you why weekday dispatch is upset so you and other drivers can understand this situation. This appears that was a dedicated trailer for a dedicated account and is only loaded up at that dedicated customer. So now, that dispatcher has to have a deadhead load created to move that trailer back to the customer. It is really that simple and petty. It is less effort then both of us have put into this situation. But, now he has to find a bobtail truck at the terminal some time this week to run this trailer over to the customer. This will add 100 or so deadhead miles to the planners stats. That will make the planner look slightly worse until he backs those miles out of the computer and dumps them on the driver as out-of-route miles. The driver taking the trailer back will likely go unpaid and non of this will really cost the company anything. So really it is a minimal inconvenience and some chicken-#### spite that had this dispatcher make his false allegations. Kind of typical.

My guess this allegation is just an empty threat and dispatch is getting their kicks trying to get a truck driver to jump through some hoops on their command. Again, pretty common BS.

Having a lawyer send a certified letter will cost you a least a couple of hundred if you already have a good lawyer you work with - more if you don't. I myself, would consider this an empty threat and take it up the food chain in the company long before I hire a lawyer. You will find most of these dispatcher are nothing but BS artists and most of the time back down when challenged.

If not, you still have the lawyer option available in the near future. If the job he is going to dismiss him because of it, you have a real case and need for a lawyer, but as of yet I would save my money and review my DAC in six weeks before hiring a lawyer. But it is an option available to do now.