The load had to get there!

It is not right but it happens all the time. I hope you do not let this happen to yourself as you get more experience. it seems to me with 23 years in the industry that generally, not everyone but many, tend to get complacent as time goes by, they forget the lessons they learned in school or while developing their career however you got to where you are today. My time in a heavy wrecker has confirmed this, it is not just the rookies but just as many senior drivers make mistakes and it is usually more devastating when a senior driver does it because they have developed the "it can't happen to me" attitude and overlook basic safety precautions.

You are right to be appalled, and keep that in the back of your mind when you think about taking a short cut one day, remember how you feel about that senior driver right now and ask yourself "do I want to be that guy"?

No offence to you but if I was that senior driver I would have inspected the securement very closely, especially since a rookie did the work, maybe if it was another experienced driver that I trusted I wouldn't have looked at it as close, but it would have still been inspected. My favorite thing to do as a wrecker driver was correct bad securement on open deck loads before I would tow them in, I towed quite a few drivers from mega fleets that had no idea how to properly secure their cargo.

Good call to refuse the defective truck, someone has to take a stand for safety even if the company will give you crap about it later, it is your life and your responsibility to do it right.

 

He should buy a lottery ticket, cause that guys really lucky #so far. The rookie did the right thing and should document it. This type of shenanigans eventually shake out. CYA driver.

 

when you get out on the road, you will notice that very few drivers do a walk around, let alone a full observation of their load and vehicle. Just the sad truth of how little many drivers and bosses care. The pay check comes first for them.

 

I don't know, I have seen both, I can say I do notice other drivers do pre, mid and post trips. Walk arounds, securement and exercise. There's quickies and slowbees.

How does OP know for sure the senior driver didn't or did. Perhaps he missed it, maybe the whole thing was a test

 

The tug test is a debatable topic. I do it sometimes when the trailer is empty, and I didn't like the sound that the fifth wheel mechanism made when making the connection. Usually if the fifth wheel release handle resets all the way to the locked position its locked.

On the issue of the air leaks, I wouldn't have taken the trailer on the road before finding and solving the problem. You get into an accident and kill someone because you couldn't stop, had faulty brakes that you should have known about, you are toast.

 

Air leak ? Some how I missed that, on my last comment, I thought the problem was solved with a glad hand seal if you can't fix an air leak yourself then contact the shop or road service, something was over looked by someone .

 

all the rookie driver should be concerned about is his own actions,,he did what he was supposed to and the senior driver did what he wanted to,,some drivers do their job properly and others do not,,
As for the senior driver if he has an accident it puts him in a negligent legal position,
As good safe quality driver will do a good pre-trip and only drive a truck that is safe,,As for the Rookie "Be Proud That You Are Doing Your Job Right"
As for the statistics,,Only about 3-4% of all truck accidents are caused by defective equipment , about 70% are caused by a vehicle other than the truck (4 wheelers) not sure on how many are caused by careless or unskilled drivers but I would be a lot,
As drivers gain skills and experience many situations that lead to accidents can be avoided by skilled drivers . Many rookies do not have to skills or experience to see a dangerous situation ahead and even thought the commercial driver is not at fault more experience and a potential accident can be avoided,
Mr Rookie Driver you get a star for doing the right thing!

 

i'm confident if I reported a minor air leak on a trailer under load for local delivery, I would be told to keep a close watch on the air gauges and they would flag the unit to be checked out in the shop when empty.

I'm also sure if I refused to do it that they wouldn't force me to or anything, but find someone else.

There is a balance to achieve.

I once drove a truck with coolant gushing out of it and the hood in pieces, part of a windshield missing and a hole in the rad. We hit a moose 190mi from the nearest area to pull off a 2 lane remote highway and it was -45 at 2am. We had no heat, since the coolant emptied out of broken rad in minutes.

We would have frozen to death before the next vehicle approached us and there was no cell phone service until the town we could pull over in, 3 hours away.

It's true, if i had been involved in an accident with another vehicle after the moose, they could have sued me for operating the truck in deplorable, unroadworthy condition. It's also true that if I hadn't, I'd be dead.

 

Wow I'm surprised it kept going ... Usually when the coolant starts to get low the auto shutdown will kill it ... Maybe it was a very old truck and didn't have that?