Do you have to pay ....

It depends what it is and something that could have been very preventable.For example you enter a no truck road and make a turn and you land in the ditch a driver should pay for the wrecker not the company.Certain things the driver should be 100% responsible to pay..

 

Unless you have signed an authorization, nothing can be deducted from you pay. You even sign for taxes to be deducted. Now if you have signed, giving the trucking company the "right", then yes they can , but the answer is a big, big NO if you have never signed an authorization. Now, they can fire you, but they cannot make you pay.

 

I'll give you another example where the driver should have to pay.He drops a trailer and as he's backing in he damaged one of his steers where it was unfixable.He hit construction cement beams and kept forcing it.He paid for a new steer tire.Minor stuff like damaging a mirror as you mentioned that just depends on how it was damaged.

 

Mujibar getting his check book out to pay for the paint scuffing he caused making his own road through the Boreal forest

 

Doesn't the company have insurance for this type of stuff?

 

My 14 year old daughter got her first hostess job in a restaurant in a tourist town. The owner expects all the employees to pay for walk outs. Needless to say she didn't work there long.

 

I imagine but the company I was at kept it off the drivers record.An example of where the driver shouldn't have to pay is if he's backing into a tight spot like an inside dock and only an inch on both sides for error and hits his mirror on the pole and bends or brakes it that's different just don't keep forcing it making things worse.

 

I guess in your mind there's zero benefit to being a company driver over an O/O then as you still have to pay for the same #### but one is comped for it and one is not.

It's not a confusing concept.
EMPLOYEES are LIABILITIES.
Just like equipment breaks an employee makes mistakes. These are things that cost companies money and their business plans account for these expenses.

Companies take risks hiring people. That's why they try to hire good people. They're taking on risk with every employee. It is a business expense.

But whoever you worked for that convinced you that this is how it all should work must have loved having you as an employee. Shoot he could probably charge you retail for that steer tire and then get his fleet discount on it. Now he's paying himself out of your check too.

 

I [had to] hit a big tire gator that cracked some of the front bumper assembly where it bolts on to the frame, and was kind of iffy on one side. They replaced entire bumper assembly no questions asked.

But where I work, a driver is expected to not smash and ruin a mirror at a toll booth or object along a narrow construction area, or bend a trailer rim on a curb. I suspect if this were to happen, the driver would pay for at least half of it if not all of it. If I ever did something like that, I'd be so embarrassed and ashamed, I'd pay for it myself and get it fixed then turn in the keys then go sit in the corner for 5 years.

Best thing to do is not hit crap and you don't have to wonder.

 

The company will probably pay for any damage, but they will consider it a preventable accident and report it as such.

Broken mirrors, curb damage to tires/rims, a fender ding... they are all preventable because you should really be watching what you are doing.

So consider this...
Is it in the drivers best interest to pay for these things out of their own pocket, just so they can avoid reporting it to the company?
I've done it, and considered the cost as part of the lesson learned.