Damage. Who pays?

#1) Agree 100% we should have had an agreement covering this sort of thing in advance.

#2) Yes, I have known him for awhile. I'm the 1 he calls every time he has a mechanical issue so I can teach him, usually over the phone, how to fix it. I'm also the 1 he called to go retrieve 1 of his rigs 600 miles from home after another driver walked away and left it sitting.

#3a) I ran a load for him a couple weeks ago. (His load, my rig) He has not paid me yet. Said he would leave the $ in his truck for me when I picked it up to make this run.

#3b) He did not leave the money. Or fuel money for the trip or a credit card. I paid for the fuel ($570) out of my pocket with the understanding that I would get the last load pay and fuel $ immediately upon my return.

#3c) I returned predawn on Monday. Waited until about 9am for him to come get the truck and bring said load and fuel money. He showed up with neither but gave me a EFS check (Like a COM check) and said to write it out for the load and fuel amount and he would call me later in the day with the authorization number. I waited until about 7pm and contacted him. Having (at his instructions) already made out the check. I was told he would have to pay me "most of" the fuel money now, the rest in a couple days. then followed by my previous load money and then (after he decides about the tire) the pay for this trip.

I think you can see where this is going.

I sent a text message listing all $ owed by him in detail and the total. From that I subtracted 50% of the cost of what he told me a tire is (almost $300 for a Dodge ram) and asked him "When can you get me a check for the total"? His answer is sometime this weekend he will make a direct deposit into my account... Which because of the way banks work, will not show up until TUESDAY.

So he already owed me for a load, I paid out of pocket for the fuel, I'm paying half of the tire and I'll potentially actually have the money show up in my account 8 days after I completed my run for him.

30 whole minutes after that conversation he texted me to ask about yet another mechanical problem he is having...

Pretty sure I'll not be behind the wheel of his truck ever again....

Thanks all for the responses. If nothing else, this was a real learning experience.

Everybody drive alert and remain safe.

 

Fair question. And I have done so.

I provided an envelope with what I estimated to be 150% of the cost of fuel for the trip in cash. Instructions to keep receipts and at end of trip turn in receipts and left over cash. I also hid another envelope in the truck with $500 cash in case of some sort of problem.

On the trip I took as described above, no fuel money or credit card was left, no problem money. Fuel money was "supposed" to have been left but he "forgot". He could not bring me fuel money because he was "to busy" (packing for vacation). I was to have been repaid for the fuel IMMEDIATELY upon my return. It has been 4 days since I returned and as of yet I have received zero.

As for the tire issue; if my driver does something neglegant (backs into a car, drives up on a curb and damages something...) Then he pays. Something that is unforseen and unavoidable like this tire deal the company (me) would have directed the driver to the closest place to have a replacement purchased/installed and I would have given the driver the location of the emergency money envelope to pay for said new tire. No problem.

I also paid him for the run immediately upon his return. Whereas, like the fuel money I fronted, I have yet to see a penny. I also have yet to see a penny of the money for the car I moved for him almost 4 weeks ago now.

He also said I was to be paid 30% of the run. Upon return he decided to change it to 20%. He said the reason was because the trailer was full when I got it and full when I returned it and since he "filled it for me" and then "emptied it for me" he deserved the 10% reduction. Of course I drove 1400 miles, unloading and then reloading the trailer and his contribution was less than 200 miles or 12.5% of the driving for which he took 33.33% of my pay. (We both loaded and unloaded the trailer. I did 87.5% of the driving he did 12.5% and reduced my pay 33.33% to compensate him for his 12.5% contribution.

Initially he had said it would be loaded and ready, he never mentioned that loaded and ready would result in a full 10% reduction of my pay until after I returned.

His response to me when I expressed my displeasure with this after the fact change was, "You Gotta work hard to make real money" (that is actually a copy/paste of his exact text message to me)

When he asked me to do this run for him I asked what sort of paycheck I should expect. His response was $800-1,000. After I paid for his fuel and did the full run staying an extra night on the road to be able to get another car (sleeping in the back seat of a Dodge pick up truck) he told me that my 20% was $480.

Minus of course the tire which he says he paid $300 for. ($300 for a pick up truck tire, not a semi tire).

So as of tonight I have been repaid nothing for the fuel and paid nothing for the previous vehicle transport and nothing for this trip.

But he, his wife and child had a very nice 3 day weekend in his 2017 Mercedes down on the Gulf coast so I guess everything is good and square.

Exactly the way a friend treats another friend. Especially a friend that routinely helps out, fixes broken things on your rig, goes hundreds of miles to retrieve an abandoned rig for you... And did I mention payed for the fuel for the trip out of his own pocket so the owner would not be inconvenienced while packing for his trip by having to stop packing, go to the bank get and bring money to buy HIS fuel.... (Which he SHOULD have left in the truck in the first place!)

So in answer to your question of how would I as an OO Handel it, I guess the simple answer would have been "Exactly opposite of the way he has".

Yeah, it's all good..