Pretrip mishap

I've been in that situation before. Found damage I know I didn't make, but missed it on my initial inspection of the trailer. I simply called my driver leader/dispatcher and told them. I haven't had anything reflect back negatively on me for it yet.
But, I'm an honest idiot and have willingly copped to my screw ups before. I'm only human and make mistakes. I told them from the get go if I screw up, I'll fess up to it. My life experiences have repeatedly given me the lesson that it's better to admit my mistakes and take my lumps for it than to try and cover something up. In my life, trying to evade crap has always ended up much worse than just admitting and accepting the consequences from the get go. And, since I've been with my company long enough to have a good track record of honesty, I think that when I report something and let them know it wasn't me, they tend to believe me. If it was me, I would have told them.
I've found regarding honesty and safety that making the honest or safe choice is sometimes VERY inconvenient, but it has never been the wrong choice. But, that's me. Others have different perspectives and experiences. Not gonna judge others on such. We all have different experiences, perspectives and outcomes. Not about to be self-righteous that my crap is any more valid than someone else's.

 

I used to report damage to trailer,,have not for 25 years now as with the caliber of steering wheel holders its tough to find a trailer without scrapes, dent, tears, smashed door frames.

 

I've been in this situation before. If the next driver reports it before moving the trailer it will be assumed it was the last driver that's responsible for the damage.
A SOB lightly scratched a tanker trailer on the underside by hittinga pole at the SJ airport. I did my pretrip before the sun was up and the spot was covered in road muck from a rain storm the day before. You had to be looking for it to see it. I got lucky they switched me to taking the Jet-A to Chevron instead. I would of had to convince them it wasn't me when the evidence says it was. I would of been fired and locked out of Chevron permanently.

 

If you work for Roehl just get used to living in fear of everything being blamed on you. But whoever you work for just call it like you saw it. You missed it. Be more thorough next time. And figure out how to work for nicer people. Which also means truly giving a darn about the equipment. Relining those is expensive and your carrier is likely trying to push back on the ahole loaders/unloaders who were beating up the trailer and need your documentation on where/when it happened

 

If I worked in that kind of situation I would be spot-light-checking and taking photos of everything I hooked to.

 

This subject was on my mind a bit earlier this morning. I was thinking back to a situation I was involved in with a repower. The driver had an emergency back home and they needed my load as it would get him back to Atlanta and home. The only problem was this driver failed to do a pretrip. The trailer had missing registration AND there was no CAT scale weight ticket on a load the bills said was almost 35,000 pounds. The load origin point was over 500 miles away and I pitched a (redacted). I made it clear to my company I had no intention to back under that cluster(redacted) and if they forced me to take it to consider me to have given my notice. I flatly refused to pull out from under the load until I spoke to the head over operations. I told her clearly the stakes and she asked me to be calm and work with her. I agreed to do so provided the company did two things. First VIA the QC she agreed to pay for any overweight tickets I might get AND they sent me a PDF of the registration via email. Once I got this I gave the load away. I'm not a heartless (redacted) I know an emergency is just that, BUT it does NOT mean ANYBODY can take a dump on me as this driver did.

One of the MAJOR problems with this current drop&hook system is the majority of drivers don't give a dang! They only care about their tractors and the trailers EVEN with a problem once they are done with it, well it's no longer their problem. I hate this mentality! On that repower, had the company not guaranteed to pay for overweight fines I would NOT have give my load to that driver! If such a driver can't make it home in time, well it's their fault for halfarsed doing their jobs!

 

That's called "rear view mirror" syndrome. Once it's in their rear view mirror, they are no longer responsible.

 

What I really call it would get me banned in here!