Terminated for a Safety issue from Ryder. Didn't secure trailer.

They fired him at 10am.. by 1300 he proved using their own video that he wasn't driving at the time so they unfired him.

He waited two weeks to guit so he would get a recurring bonus

 

I understand how you can high-hook a trailer but how can you low-hook a trailer?

 

Not sure what you mean by low hook, but assuming you're inquiring as to how the bad latch happened.

This one happened due to excess grease on the trip mechanism. At the time I was hooking to 6+ trailers a day and hadn't been as proactive in maintaining the 5th wheel as I should have been. Pulled about a billards ball amount of grease out, splashed some diesel on the jaws and no more issues.

This also happens a lot in the winter where the mechanism is just cold and doesn't snap over with enough speed/force. If I know I'm going to be sitting bobtail for a few days I will usually trip my 5th wheel so it freeze in the locked position.

The final usual way you get this is when the trailer and/or truck are on uneven ground when you try to couple. Everything just gets jostled enough that the jaws bind as they come over. If that's the case I leave the landing gear mostly down and creep over to better ground, uncompleted and try again.

 

I dropped a trailer once in 2006. Passed tug test. Passed half-hearted visual check. I pulled out of the slot and turned left towards the guard shack. That's when I heard a sickening thud and realized what I just did. It ripped the air lines off the back of my truck and damaged the trailer. Cranking the loaded trailer high enough for the yard truck to get under it was a great cardio workout. Facing the boss wasn't fun, but he was actually very reasonable about it. At the end of the day, I had a smudge on my safety record and learned a valuable lesson. 17 years later, I've never again gotten complacent with my visual check.

 

What I mean is if the landing gear is too high it would grab the kingpin at the bottom but if the landing gear is at the correct height or too low the fifth wheel plate should put the jaws in the middle of the kingpin where they should be every time. I don't see how the jaws could be that high up around the top.

 

Oh, that's much simpler:

1. I'm a lousy photographer
2. It's surprisingly hard to get the lighting correct so you can see the kingpin, the jaws, and the shinny bit all at once.
3. The minute extra space allows the jaws to sit just behind the kingpin, instead of underneath, so the perspective is off
4. I'm a lousy photographer and was working under time constraints.

 

I did that once. Once! It was Christmas and we were shuttling containers from Newark to our warehouse. I got there, and they had the lift truck trying to tow out one of our trucks. I dropped my empty, grabbed my load and went to see if I could help. The lift truck driver was running side to side of our truck trying to help it get traction in the snow. Our driver was on the phone while the guy trying to help him get unstuck was doing all the work. I tried to tell him what was wrong, but he told me to get lost. Next time, crank up the landing gear before you tell someone to get lost!