Help, shipper destroyed my trailer

I cannot remember the receiving company But they required me to have tandem all the way forward but most want them all the way in the back.
If they don' t tell me.. I always have them at the back

 

Post the pictures so we can see them.

 

Forgive my ignorance on this, I've only ever pulled a dry van about three times in my life. Otherwise it's been all tanker and open deck stuff.

When you guys pull into a shipper, is it not standard to slide the tandems back all the way, so the forklift doesn't break the back of the trailer?

 

Rolling tandems to the back was relatively new to me 20+ years ago even with a reefer. With tandems back, the forklift can roll onto the trailer and not risk being dropped between trailer and dock.

In my day we just left the tractor attached to it it's not going anywhere. Particularly when there is a building dock hook engaged on a red light for that dock for us. When the trailer is finished we get the green and pull out etc.

When a good forklift driver takes it easy going onto and off the trailer it's a good blessing. However when you get a dumkoft that pounds his forklift full speed onto the trailer it's going to be damaged.

Thats all I have, when my last jockey work between two buildings of a single business all the trailers had tandems set normally and did not have to deal with them. Just one of me and 25 trailers to migrate between the assembly and the packing buildings so that the packing makes a load ready to ship via a outside tractor trailer in his trailer. This would be about the 2006 time period. The business failed some years ago and is quietly rusting in place to this day behind barbed wire. Judging by the sycamore tree growing in the number two dock I think it's been out of business since about the 2010 time period.

 

Why did you even leave the dock if he damaged the trailer I dont care what anyone tells me if you damage my stuff I'm not moving a inch until we come to some kind of signed agreement about the damage and no way am I going to listen to the kid that did it there has to be a manager around somewhere if work is happening to supervise

 

Not really. At least not at any place I've ever been.
What is standard, is sliding the tandems back so the fork truck doesn't bounce going in and out. Bouncing equals holes in the roof.
At least that's what I've always been told.

 

Question for you van guys.
Say you drop your trailer to have loaded and leave the tandems forward, (about the only way possible to bend the back 5 feet down) and it bends it.
Now the side rail has to bow somewhere for it to do that,and this one was already slightly bowed.
Unless the shipper told you to slide the tandems forward, why would the shipper be responsible?
Do they usually hook on to one and slide the tandems when someone else drops it?
Do they just wait till the driver comes back and changes it before they load it?

Just thinking aloud and little experience with vans, more than I ever wanted, but very limited none the less.
If the trailer was slightly bowed or bulged before this happened, wouldn't it already be weakened?

I had one of them multiforked forklifts at budweiser that carried several pallets of beer at a time make a hole in the floor of my van. I was not happy, but just told them to get their junk out of my van and left, should I have tried to get them to do something about it?

 

I never slide my tandems when loading in LA because the docks I go to are level, but in Phoenix they are dock wells and I have to slide tandems back to make trailer level with the dock.

The forklifts that go inside my trailer are only 5K lb units, not that big.

 

I am having to pull vans and reefers now and bump the dock up north with the loaded ones. I do not mess with he tandems, they get parked the way I pick them up. They have signs to chock the wheels, but I rarely do that even, unless the chocks are right there, especially in the winter, I am not going to dig in the snow looking for them.

 

The only reason I have ever slide the tandems is so the forklift can get out of the trailer. Its not going to hurt the trailer loading it with the tandems forward. The trailer can handle the weight, its just about keeping the back of the trailer at a close level to the dock.

I have picked up a lot of damaged trailers, but the damage was always so far caused because person on a forklift drove the forks thru the side of the trailer, I don't think the axle position had anything to do with it.

When I slide its to adjust the weight distribution between the tandems and the drives. I generally do not move the axles, unless requested buy the loader.