Schneider

The kingpin wasn’t defective-she hit it hard enough to shear it off!! She was under the PROBATIONARY PERIOD when it happened!
The probationary period is/was 90 days(3 months).
When the incident happened it was her 10TH DAY on the job!!
And as I said at that time it was a brand new trailer involved! And it was heavily loaded(42,000 pounds).
It happened at one of our company terminals so it was caught on surveillance cameras from start to finish.
She was fired before she was even called into the office for the official firing by the terminal manager!

 

I would have fired you for childish behavior not the incident lol....
hanging up on someone is just disrespectful..

 

I'm not a perfect driver. Hell, My shame was put up here seven years ago and I still shudder when I go back to read it. Now I've high hooked a couple of trailers in my day. The first was like my second load at Stevens Transport and I still shudder and can smell the blood and feces in that IBP lot. I wasn't fired, just shamed and had to laugh at myself along with safety. The backing incident early in the morning. Just how tight was that place? I remember that I was assigned a load at a chemical plant about three years ago. No matter how I positioned that trailer, I was either going to hit that adjacent trailer or take down that light pole and fence. I took pictures and called dispatch to cover my tookus. I was assigned a different load and the trailer and surrounding property were still standing when I departed. Who told you to park there? If it were a safety issue, I'd have fought it. Just take this as a learning experience. I messed up majorly with Stevens and now I'm an O/O with a great company and doing great seven years later. If you can, try to find someone small. I know Coke and Pepsi are looking for drivers and starting at $25 an hour in some places.

 

I didn’t think it was possible to break a kingpin .
I’ve seen trailers dangling over bridges hanging by the kingpin

and I’ve seen entire fifth wheels gets sheared off the frame , and still hooked to the trailer while the tractor is off in the woods .

 

A driver got fired for overshooting the fifth wheel ?
Once ?

I’ve done that several times
every driver has done it .

this is THE most screwed up industry .
no other vehicles involved , no police involved , no injuries ,

and kingpins are impossible to break
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one broken

 

I jumped the 5th wheel.

Once you crank that bad dude up with 44K in it.................you'll never do that again lol.

 

Like I said,she was under probation at the time and she screwed up. When you’re under probation at ANY job that usually means “Don’t BREAK ANYTHING !!”
Also,just because you haven’t seen a broken kingpin doesn’t mean it can’t happen-there’s a first time of everything!

 

First, it's very possible to knock off the kingpin. The most common scenario is there is a kingpin lock on and the driver just keeps wailing at it with the 5th wheel. Second most common is the trailer is high, so the bottom of the shift hits just over the locking trip mechanism. Driver hits, does the tug test, and when that fails they try and couple again. Only takes about 3 hits like that to knock the kingpin loose.

Secondly, there is a difference between jumping the kingpin without damaging anything and tearing stuff up as you jump the kingpin. I've seen pictures where the driver (I use the term loosely) got the glad hands into the back of the cab. To do that, he had to tear off the bat wings first. Another tried to wiggle out the side, ended up jacking up the landing gear of his trailer, bending his bats wings, and hitting the trailwr next to his. We had to move three trailers and use 4 jack stands to get the idiot clear. Do you really want people like that working for you?

 

Im not throwing rocks, but you posted a video of Stone Age people, doing a very questionable “repair”, operation on a worn slap out king pin, to reinforce that a king pin can break? I don’t get it.