Rookies mistakes happen take your time and breath

Whatever the reason, there's simply no excuse, that driver would be out the door. He also couldn't have had his wheels chocked either, a major sin in my book. I carried a tire chock with me, just in case someone dragged the dock one out the drive. When I removed the chock, a quick glance to see if the dock plate was up. Not rocket science, common sense, really. Shows where THAT went, huh.

 

I had some pretty messed up stuff I did as well, let’s see, first week of training I turned into the yard like a regular car and hit the fence pretty hard, 2nd: I backed into a dock with two metal poles sticking out as guides and my trailer door got hooked onto the poles and tore it apart. 3: I clipped another trailer at the shipper, 4: backed into a garage dock where the facility put pallets on my blindside (they had no place to put it and decided it would be fine to put it there) anyways my trailer doors once again got hooked on the trailer doors and yep, pallets got stuck on the door and everything came tumbling down, ripped out parts of the trailer door lol. And just a FYI always check your fuel cap before driving, let me tell you it was interesting driving 10 miles back to the yard with the fuel cap loose haha. Next time don’t listen to anybody but the dock worker, most facilities that we deliver to, if there’s space I try to peek in the dock under or on the side of the trailer to make sure the dock doors are closed, even if the light is green. Learned my lesson a few times haha.

 

If theres gonna be a fatal incident in a warehouse, the dock's where it will happen. An 8000# forklift falling 4 feet is a lot of force.

If you're on a dock, and safety is being observed, the brakes should be set on both the tractor and trailer, the trailer should be chocked and a gladhand lock installed before anything happens. Even better, they put a dock lock on your DOT bumper.

After loading/unloading, the driver should walk back to the dock opening and make sure the forklift operator is out of your trailer, and that they know you're pulling off the dock, BEFORE that rig moves an inch.

That said, theres lazy dockworkers and lazy truckdrivers who won't do these things. If they won't, its still on you driver to not be lazy. and to be safe. That way, you both can go home to your family at the end of the day/trip.

 

Not saying that I’ve done this but when you’re multi tasking while fueling make sure you hang up the passenger side hose.

 

Hehe I ain't sayin nothing. Confession needs a preacher.

 

I've been bumping docks with vans for over three decades, but only in Alaska. None of the warehouses care where my axles are. Why do they want you to slide your tandems? I've never seen a glad hand lock either. Chocks are normal and a good thing. All my stuff is LTL and I'm actually on the docks with the warehouse crew making sure they load my trailer correctly and I usually put the dock plate down and close the warehouse roll up door myself.

The only close call I've ever had was after I closed the warehouse door and walked back to my truck, grabbing the chock along the way. I went to pull out and I felt a slight bump in the trailer. I got out to take a look and the warehouse guy had re-opened the door and threw on a forgotten pallet. If I hadn't felt it I'd likely have pulled away and dropped him on the ground. I really didn't want to throw the guy under the bus, but I went and talked to his supervisor. The warehouse guy is still there, so I didn't get him fired. He's a lot more careful now.

 

Some docks I've been to, you HAD to slide the tandems back, it was just too steep of a dropoff.