Trailer backing

Abuse, yep.

 

It’s an “accident” if you jump a curb or drive on a bit of gravel just beyond a parking lot. Don’t even need to damage something.

 

You either get it or you don't. At the end of the day the bottom line is to get the box from point a to point whatever. Wear and tear is expected by the bean counters. Known fact. If you don't open the can the can is intact. Any who get their panties in a wad about some scritched paint need to park at the farthest possible point from the front door of their favorite ts and until they do S TF U!

 

The thing is we don't need to go off in the other direction either. It is deadly to develop a cavalier attitude about safety and accountability. There is no legit reason for all this damage. This is what concerns me. It don't matter if it is general abuse or not paying attention. I was watching bags being unloaded off an airplane. The baggage handler just carelessly took a curve to fast and dumped several on the ground. Needless stuff. This is what some of us in realville are trying to deal with. This my crap don't stink because I'm holier then you while I walk on water attitude is not fixing the problem. Because most of today's drivers don't have any respect for anything. When you do this in regard to them they turn you off and never listen to you again. These kinds of threads are very difficult and frustrating for me. I would love to be holier then thou but I'm forced to live here in realville!!

 

I taddle-tailed on myself as a kid for swearing.. got my mouth washed out with soap. Stopped snitching and the mouth washing stopped. Learned at a young age from the person I trust most that life is different from my Disney movies.

 

Well people make mistakes. We have clean or near clean driving records, so that’s already showing responsibilty and respect for rules and equipment.

 

I did some damage to one of our companies trailers , and it wasnt a scratch. It was going to require some shop time and materiels. I reported it to my company , my companies response - drop it off at the trailer shop and that was it. No further issues on my end. I have been invovled with comanies like that. They were great , no problems. Then i have been involved with companies like Werner , Knight and Marten ... not all of them as there drivers and most issues not about me , i was simply seeing what these companies were putting there poor drivers through. Yes some of these driver horror stories are true. The worst i feel from a stand point of evil was knight , they do some evil stuff to people. When i hear about a family christian company i think get the lawyers ready knight is about to start stealing again !!!! Werner - Werner was stupid on steriods. 25's for 25's. Hire 25 year old girls , pay them $25k a year and have them tell 25 year truck drivers they dont know how to operate hos logs. "Invest" $450 million to purchase rows and rows of brand new tractors then park them for months and months and they just cant figure out why they cant get enough drivers to drive all those hundreds of tractors they have parked ??? I can tell you stories about Knight and Werner you wouldnt believe. I could tell you stories about other companies on the flip side. They went that far out of there way and spent that much $$$ money to help that driver out like that !!! Wow. Interstate and transport america come to mind.

 

I am going to make this last post and back out of this subject for now. In the photo below I have went to maps and found this sat photo of the Mars plant in Elizabethtown Pa. If you take the time you will see near the center a road marked Brown. Just above and to the right you will see a line of trailers so close together you can't see space between them. Lets imagine it is 2AM and you are doing a drop and hook here. That area is where Mars wants empties dropped. It is not very well lit at night and I have dropped there many times. most of the time it is just like this photo. You are a green driver and faced with this you do a setup and hit a trailer. OK you hit it. Now you want to be honest and report it. Who are you going to report it to? Mars? They don't care it is not their trailer. Your company? In most situations your company is going to give you the bums rush and hangup! This leaves actually calling the company yourself! You have a number and get an answer. What are you going to tell the company? Now after you give the person on the phone all your information what do you think your company is going to say when they find out you just opened them up to liability on this. In the majority of the cases the result is not going to be pretty and trust me you might be able to go to sleep a bit easier at night, but this can of worms you have opened is not going to end well. I now go back to my origional question? Your confronted with this nightmare?

 

Please, tell your stories. Otherwise don’t say anything. You’re bashing companies that are incredibly successful with nothing to back up your claims. Without details, you’re claims are just the typical whining of malcontents

 

I have friends that work in both Operations/Human Resources and Safety for some of the top 25 carriers. I could tell you stories from them about stupid drivers and the money they have cost the company. Try a company that just cut a check for close to $100,000 for cleanup and emergency vehicle costs to a midwest state? Or another company that still can not locate a nearly new road tractor because the driver quit. My contact there told me the other day they fear it was driven off into a deep lake somewhere. I can tell more stories myself! For the record YOU need to develop the mental awareness to understand when you hear someone gripe and moan about getting screwed over YOU are only hearing one side of the story. Case in point? I have told this story in here before. I know a long ago retired Georgia Public Service Commission officer then for a while with the new agency that took its place in truck enforcement (The Georgia PSC was the Georgia MCSAP agency for many years) If I ever hear this man say gosh I would have been shocked. He was a church man that raised his kids and supported his family. Great friends of ours going all the way back to the 60s. I sit in the Carnesville GA Petro not long after it was built. I sit and heard a trucker talk about some diesel cop that cussed him and otherwise was abusive toward him and you could tell he hated truckers. I asked him if he would tell me this Officers name. When he did this idiot and I almost come to blows. So you go ahead and tell your stories that's OK. Just do us all a favor and make sure you tell both sides because truckers are well known to embellish and use hyperbole when they tell their horror stories!

Edited to add: This is one of the reasons it is so dang difficult to not be cynical when (especially new) members come in here with their tales of woe after a positive drug test OR asking what carrier does hair testing. Honestly at this point I have just about stopped trying!