Noobie mistake costs me my job

That sucks, but it was a lesson learned. Hope you find another place that you like soon.

 

i say don't report it unless you Really Screw something up.. because the company will screw you over some spilled milk

 

I reported a ding I put in a door once with Swift. I thought it was no big deal. They treated it like I had turned the truck over on a loaded school bus. For a time there, I was somebody worse than Hitler, at least in Swift's eyes.

Never report minor dingers. These will become DACcidents, and when you have DACcidents dogging you, life isn't good. If you curb a rim, pay for a new one out of your own pocket. If you bend a trailer door 1/8", pay somebody to fix it. Don't let anyone know about it. Sure, repairs can be expensive, but you'll come out ahead later. A clean DAC report is priceless at quitting time.

Call any repair cost "tuition paid in full to the college of hard knocks".

 

Well that is the way it goes with alot of these large companies maybe you will have better luck with the next one

 

The real problem is if you have a "small" dac cidents and dont report it your also done.

I am with you just fix the small problem. Being a man means taking care of problems.

But its way worse if you dont report it? Right? And get caught or seen?

 

that sucks you tried to do the right thing and report it. but i hate to say it, you should G O A L get out and look dang man i made that mistake once last month. i didn't check the lock on the KP and just tugged against it. well when i went to pull out of the yard, the trailer hit the landing gear and i had to spend 15 minutes cranking it back up in a t-storm. it sucked BAD. always always always get out and check EVERYTHING

 

I agree Pan. When I get under a trailer before it even gets to the Kingpin, I get out and look to see if the fifth wheel is even touching the bottom of the trailer. If not, I crank the trailer down and look under to see that it is touching. Then after I am satisfied, I back up slowly until I hear the click, then I get out again and check by getting under the trailer between the rear drive and the landing gear and looking at the kingpin and making sure the jaw is around the pin. Then I raise landing gear and hook up the lines then tug on it (gently) both forward and backward. Never had a problem doing it this way.

 

We refer to that as battle damage. Usually it covers a ding on a trailer though. And it rarely gets reported by most drivers.

While I've never done it myself, I think it's total BS to fire a driver over something as simple as a scratch...just my opinion..your safety departments opinion does differ.

I've seen many a driver get fired over this...and for what? Being an honorable human being, with moral character. I would take 10 of these guys over 1 million miler that had lied to me about whether or not he bob tailed through town...hunting a bar.

But who am I ???

 

It's no different for a brand new driver than it is for a brand new employee in other businesses. Most companies have a 90 day policy so if you screw up during that 90 days, they will send you packing without the worry of having to pay unemployment, or be worried about being sued for wrongful termination, or anything else that people sue for these days.

The guy did the right thing by reporting the incident. He still got fired, but he did the right thing. The result of admitting something like this isn't always going to be a good result, but at least you know you did the right thing. It isn't the end of his career, just a bump in the road that hopefully teaches him/her to be much more careful next time.