Are tire blowouts considered preventable?

No! If you did your job reasonably. It's not your fault. Was it a virgin, recap? Was the casing old? Last 2 numbers on DOT tells you the year. Any quality recap facility brands cap date in side wall. If they wanna put a recap blowout on you. Look for a new job.

 

You can never tell if the trailer tires run on curb or who know what happens when other driver pull them

 

#### happens. Ive had brand new tires with less then 50 miles on them blow. Ive had tires at 105 PSI while empty but someone barked a curb with blow. Ive had tires catch a nail or something and blow going down the road.

Long as you pretrip its just a part of the job. Best bet is shrug and move on with your life. Most carriers unless your blowing a tire every week are going to just shrug cuse it happens.

 

When I read the OP I’m like WTF? Why is Safety even calling you? Then down farther I saw you drove for Prime and understood.

My advice, find another carrier. Preferably one that has less than 250 trucks in the fleet. Their safety departments don’t tend to annoy drivers with nonsense like that.

However, many of those companies CAN’T hire you with less than 24 months verifiable experience due to requirements set forth by their insurance company.

 

In my unprofessional opinion tires are considered a maintenance item and a consumable item. Safety should only be involved if you reported a curb event or some other type of damage.

 

Most of the blowouts I’ve had were shortly after leaving a truck stop. I’d go around checking tires, everything good. Then an hour later boom.
If you look around the parking lot you will see lots of bolts and screws that other truckers have just left lying on the ground after doing some kind of repairs to their trucks. Then you’d come along later and park right on top of the debris they left behind. It would then lodge into the tire and cause a leak after you leave the parking lot.

 

Brand new tires can have issues

4000+ Freightliner trucks recalled for defective steer tires (cdllife.com)

 

Prime Inc is a really scummy company that used social media to convince a lot of people they are better than others. Just be careful and expect a big bill when you leave if you're leasing with them.

 

Today thankfully "blowouts" don't happen like they did 40+ years ago. Tire tech has gotten much better. I have mentioned this before, I do know some old hands who have injured their thumbs because of a blowout on a steer. I would highly recommend finding another carrier if your present carrier holds a blowout against you. Several years ago I was walking alongside one of the highways where I lived then. I remember seeing things like nails and screws. Back in the '90s I broke down on I20 in Jackson Mississippi while waiting on service I was walking to place my triangles and noticed things I think were front-end parts. Years ago this junk could cause explosive blowouts. Today generally it just causes a flat. This is why at a minimum you should walk around your rig at least once every hundred or so miles.