my USXpress experience

Chocks are pretty easy to run over. Just to get the clear picture exactly what part of the trailer did the forklift driver hit to transfer enough "energy"(if you will) to move the entire rig? Was it like slamming his forklift with a loaded pallet into a bunch of pallets already in the truck that didn't move? I imagine the forklift must have stopped short against something solid.

 

Try backing up against the dock and setting the truck brakes *before* pushing in the clutch. This will prevent the rig from rolling forward a little and free up the chock. The chock will not move backward towards the dock during loading/unloading.

No forklift is going to slam into your trailer hard enough to make the trailer roll over a chock. If they do, they've more than likely damaged your trailer and you have a whole other issue to worry about.

 

I guess maybe I got lost in the thread somewhere, but this is supposedly a failing tractor brake issue, but if you were getting loaded why weren't both the tractor and trailer brakes set, if the tractor brakes had failed like you said, were the trailer brakes not functioning properly either, sounds like you didn't have them set. I could be missing some info so excuse me if I have, but another thing I've seen is the air tanks filling up with water and getting in to the lines and causing the parking brake not to set immediately due to lack of air getting through the lines, but again on a pretrip you would have drained the air tanks avoiding that problem completely. Anyhow, just my two cents I wasn't there so I don't know the extenuating circumstances, in either case it sounds like a simple mistake that unfortunately doesn't look good on your part, keep your head up and realize that we all make mistakes.

 

The heavier the rig, the more effective the chock is at holding it in place on level ground.

As for setting trailer brakes at a dock, I never do that. The red brake release even has "not for parking" written on it. It is only to be used when dropping the trailer.

Using an automatic... you can still put it in reverse, get pressure against the dock, push and hold the foot brake, put it in park, and then pull the yellow knob before releasing the foot brake. This will hold the tires off the chock enough.

 

With the experience you claim to have, I'm utterly shocked that you would have even considered US xpress!

 

Really? Enlighten us on the rationale behind this.

 

I always pull both knobs when getting loaded. I always thought the "not for parking" writing meant it wasn't suppose to be used as a primary parking brake. But I never really thought about it to much. I would rather have as much braking while loading as I can.

With the automatics does it take it out of gear once the yellow knob is pulled? If it does how can you test it to make sure your parking brake does work?

 

Add your part of the story to your dac, Use hire right to do it just google it.