$1900 Tow Bill

Swift gets a discount because they purchase recoveries in bulk.

 

I’ve had 100’s if not 1000’s of employee drivers and laborers in my time. Not one time have I held an employee financially accountable.

I have terminated many an employee. Upper management has requested that I fine or withhold funds but, I never have.

That is a employer’s expense plain a simple.

If someone wanted to hold out money from me for damages and I was a W2 employee they’d have a fight on there hands.

Leased on to a company with my truck n trailer I had a recovery I was responsible for. Tow bill was $12,000.00. I paid it that day. No questions asked.

I did get reimbursement for most of it from the insurance company about 3 weeks later.

 

That’s the first thing I was thinking when I saw these pictures.

 

I'm surprised the steel stayed on the trailer. I can't see any edge protection under those straps. And no twist means they've been flapping all day long if he didn't ream them into guitar strings.

 

An employer would be foolish to try withhold wages... Or desperate to prove a point, no matter the cost. I've only done business in Minnesota so I can't speak for anywhere else, but I'm aware of one case that happened, and the employer was fined many times the amount of the paycheck withheld. The employee could have gotten much more if they wanted to.

If it was my truck, its on me. Either my training for the driver was inadequate, or my assessment of his skills came up short. Or... like its been mentioned earlier, maybe he's a ###### good driver, that had a bad day. Knee jerk reaction would be to fire him... But if he's a good driver, over time, he'll do more than pay that back...

 

A good driver has a bad day and clips a fire hydrant or stop sign on the corner. He doesnt put his trailer 15 feet off the road in a 6 foot deep ditch.

 

Devils advocate maybe... He's not 15 feet off the road. Seriously doubt he would have felt the first axle leave the road, especially in the middle of the turn, with a pretty light load.. His rear axle is just off the bank.

He needs to be taken out back and ##### slapped and tarred and feathered... but... Its not much worse than clipping a hydrant or a stop sign.

 

Story time.
I had a guy do near $10 grand in two different screwups on the same morning.

#1 He rolled my truck face forward into a parked reefer and kinked the hood while sitting in the drivers seat.

#2 Deer ran out in front of him. He locked it up for several hundred yards and took 8 brand new virgin trailer tires down to the cords. (Trucks got a moose bumper on it)...

On the outside it looks pretty dumb don't it.

#1 He happened when he was sitting in it getting his log book started for the day. Truck running building air. My fully aluminated genuine accessory air knobs have the writing wore off. He pushed the trailer knob to get the trailer started airing up and went back to telling lies. Problem was this ain't his old 359 and the valves are backwards from what he's used to. Trailer was already charged and he released the tractor brakes instead. Sitting on a ever so slight incline, he didn't feel the truck roll till it was to late.

#2 Well what can I say #### happens. Glad he kept it on the road.

Best hand I ever known. My Father.
Run any man into the ground without trying.

Just saying crap happens to everybody.
Steel can be fixed or replaced. What I dread is "The phone call" in the middle of the night for something that can't.

 

Old iron and Charlie said it we don’t know what happened. Raining?Dark? On the phone with his wife dealing with a problem? Came up on the road to quick and didn’t swing wide enough? The fact is #### happens even to great drivers. I also agree with Charlie let’s not exaggerate he’s not 15 feet off the road. In the dark this could look a lot like the driveway, it’s flat and deceiving. I have personally misjudged a surface and been stuck

 

So if he had ELOGs and a full 10 hour break he wouldn’t have rolled across the parking lot.

ELOGs saves lives and hoods!