Should the driver pay for equipment damage?

Dice, I agree with you to a point. While a good driver should feel compelled to take responsibility for his screw up, it still isn't his equipment, it is Pavel's. If I screw up, I will step up and make it right. If I didn't screw up, and it was one of those things that just happen, beyond my control, all I am giving my boss is my heartfelt apology. I messed up a bumper, and a fender, in 2 separate incidents years apart. Paid them both to make it as right as I could. I hit a deer once. Stuff happens.....sorry. As far as the OP, we sure don't know the whole story about exactly how the rim and tire got damaged. All we do know is that Pavel owned it and hired the guy driving at the time it got damaged.

 

A good company driver? your kidding right i mean I'm a good company driver and i take responsibility for my actions but if the company took money from me with out my consent i would sure as heck raise cane and if not repaid i'd also file a small claims suit. I would also quit. Things happen out here on the road. Could it be the driver's fault of course but it also could be an unavoidable incident as well. If he wants to own a company and he needs to come on here and ask questions in order to make a business decision and then complains when he doesn't get the answer he wants to hear then it's his fault for not having the experience to own trucks.....there's risk in every thing in life especially trucking.

 

To deduct the damages from the driver's pay would raise the ire of the state labor board. They would see to it the driver got paid; this is a labor board issue not small claims.

How someone is "in business" and asks a question like this on a public forum......it just baffles me!!

 

I can see asking a question however when the op doen't get the answer he was looking for then it gets twisted to try and get the answer.there's nothing wrong with asking questions but you also have to make the decisions regardless of the answer's.

 

The only real thing I have deducted from drivers are when they run out of fuel (they pay for the service call) or if they take the truck to their house and they do not plug it in when it gets cold and it does not start (this happens every year the first cold weekend). These are both faults of the driver if you ask me and I will deduct from the driver not once have I ever had one complain.

 

BAD advice .

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(jb5fp03itekdyh45mlr5rn3q))/mileg.aspx?page=GetObject&objectname=mcl-408-477

 

Sence your coming here asking us how to run youre coany heres my tgoughts, fire that bum that was out thete trying to make you money, then hire johnny blowoff, to drive to the dearest ts and sett around" complaining about not making no mpney all day, and be sure you pay him by the hour and not mile, oh and give him a huge raise sence hes not wearing out the truck and saving you so much money. ,

 

Pavel, I really wonder if you're just a troll or you are that clueless. Did you hire a salesperson yet, or are all six truck still running off the load boards?

Paying for damage from road debris is the owner's responsibility. If the owner can find the party responsible for the road debris, then that party becomes responsible. As far as I'm concerned, road debris is a non-preventable without video evidence. Another vehicle hitting said debris can shift it into another lane, or sometimes it is far safer to just hit it and hope for the best in traffic vs causing a rollover, a chain reaction wreck, or possibly a fatality. Every company I've worked or leased to, when asked mainly about wildlife in the road, says if you can't stop safely, hit it. It's far better to kill Bambi, the deer, than Bambi, the stripper, on her way to work.

Part of my hiring package included taking pictures of the truck upon delivery to the driver, and a contract stating the truck will be returned in the same condition. The contract also stated if the driver was involved in a preventable accident, the driver was responsible for the insurance deductible. I only deducted money out of one company driver's check, and that was because he lied to me, otherwise I would have just eaten it. I'm easy going, and a few hundred dollars damage wouldn't have gotten the guy fired. Hell I even ate a few curbed tires. It was a cost of doing business with a spread axle.

I did deduct a cargo claim from an O/O after the customer sent me pics of the product not fully tarped. Of course, this was full specified in the O/O contract, and after he stated that it did not rain (yes it did, he changed his story later) and the load was fully tarped (it was not, and when confronted with the pics, he admitted it was not).

I had a driver who locked his keys in his truck. He called me expecting me to pay for a locksmith. Even after I said heck no, he sent in the bill, I guess expecting reimbursement.

 

No wonder MI is a mess and has high unemployment.

So it is OK for any driver to keep on damaging truck with out any personal responsibility.....bad business plan.

A good driver would man up and take resposibility or the company does not need drivers who don't care about or take care of their equipment.

 

Do you have any evidence that it was Pavels drivers fault?

How do you know he was following too close? Were you there?

Road debris is a fact of life. Idiots with pickup trucks are always dropping crap that they refuse to tie down securely. It could have been completely unavoidable, and the driver should still pay?