Am i at fault for using common sense.

Yeah I don't think you will get abandonment, but you'll be listed as not eligible for rehire & will most likely have a "violation of company policy" notation for the u-turn.

Still better than terminated & violation of company policy, but I wouldn't expect a clean DAC report.


For what its worth, I probably would have done the exact same thing.

 

I hope you can find a new home. It probably would have been better to call the police to make sure you had help to pull this off, then it wouldn't have been a violation it sounds like of company policy.

Also google map on the old google map whatever route you are going and watch out for RR lines on the map in the area, esp in old towns.

Yup GPS can get you into trouble in a heartbeat.

And the USA event is just one of many in the last 2 yrs of wrecks caused by u-turns. Some of these have killed people in the cars, luckily on this wreck no one was killed considering they weren't wearing seatbelts.

 

don't nit pick.excellent verbage sb. i am sure the op has relived the scenario a hundred times and did not come here to get told what he should have done.I too would have pulled a u'ie.drivers have to do what they have to do.had it not been for the straight up company prikk dime dropping,OP would be hung up on chasing skirts like a normal younger driver or telling the forum what he did to extricate himself from that one ordeal or whatever.

instead he has to post about a bad situation made worse by one that is job scared.right or wrong,the other driver could have handled it differently..i am not sure regarding Karma but--------

 

I sincerely hope that this doesn't happen to me, cuz they're not gonna like my answer. No u-turn? Fine, I'll drop the trailer here on the side of the road and you can send someone who is licensed to make u-turns to come get it. I'm not blindly backing down a road just because some desk jockey says I can't make a u-turn LOL.

If it had been me, I would've gone and met with whoever it was they wanted me to meet with. Sometimes explaining something face to face to someone with authority can get more understanding about the situation.

Either way, I'm sorry this happened to you, and I hope you can find a better home. I'll be 100% honest and come right out and say that I wouldn't be a company driver here! I've just heard too many bad stories. As an IC, I do my own thing and they leave me alone for the most part. But this is borderline ridiculous.

 

Oh ok, I was talking about the guy who rides around in TN and GA filming trucks and then reporting them to their company (STAT or something like that). I wasn't referring to the video that was posted here- just Dryvers post about a swift driver doing that (figured it might have been the Swift Driver doing the STAT videos). Ive seen the one posted here before today and yes the guy who was filming it did everything he could do to help that USA driver.

 

I think the OP did the correct, and safest, thing.

I've had no choice but to pull a U-turn a couple times.
If done safely there is usually no problem.

I think the problem is that there have been too many accidents because the driver made a U, so many companies say never ever do it.
But f faced wit the choice between a safe U-turn vs. a low clearance, I'm pretty sure I would always choose the u-turn.

 

That camera man from TN. GA. went to state jail some years ago,

 

If the OP had done this he would still be employed. That was my point with regards to this specific situation.

I am a driver, and I do drive and train for Schneider. How is it "Common Sense" to knowingly do something that will cause you to be terminated? There are only two things that will guarantee termination at Schneider - high hook/drop a trailer and pull a uturn on a public roadway (unless at the direction of police). Everything else is done on a case by case basis. You would not believe how many second, third, and fourth chances we give drivers who have incidents. As long as a driver is self aware and can admit his own culpability Schneider will work with them to correct skill issues. Behavioral issues are a different matter. If you notice the OP was not fired on the spot and told to leave the truck where ever it was. There was still a chance, however slim, that he might have walked out of the meeting with the OSR with his job (if he could prove his decision was the only or best option available).

We are quick to come to the defense of those we feel have been wronged by a large company, and quicker to cast blame on that compnay when we see one of it's drivers behaving in a manor we deem unacceptable. Where do you draw the line between what's acceptable behavior for one of your employees and what is not acceptable? How much of your own money are you willing to risk for someone who is unwilling to adhere to your rules?

These are not questions I need an answer to. Rather I ask them in the hopes that we as drivers will ponder them, and then be the change we want to see in the world.

 

Re: SNI, I'm an independent trucker w/ my own authority. Been trucking over 40 years. A few years back I took a load from Schneider that involved pulling their trailer. No problem until while it was being unloaded I noticed a sign inside the trailer saying that if a driver noticed anything wrong w/ the trailer to call the number below and report it. That particular trailer had 8 worn-out tires in it (1/16th of an inch average w/ a few spots w/ less) so I called the number to say that when I got the trailer back to its origin point that it shouldn't be dispatched again w/o some tire work being done first. Simple, right? Not hardly! By the time I was thru being interrogated about what I did to the tires (I said they're just worn-out) and accused of everything under the sun by some young woman who sounded like she did in fact know Jack S***, especially about trucking, I ended up telling her that that I wasn't one of her 6 week wonders and had been trucking for 35 years or so at that point and was trying to help, not hurt their operation. I told her that I was there looking at the tires and that if she'd only be quiet long enough to listen to what she was being told she would understand the situation. She couldn't seem to understand and was still ranting when I hung up. Point being if I had to put up w/ crap like that to drive a truck, it wouldn't be happening...