What is the dumbest thing you've done while trucking?

Dollied down, pulled the 5th wheel and drove away. Would have helped to have disconnected the air and pigtail lines first. At least I had only been driving 10 years at the time .

 

A couple weeks ago I had to roll by 1230 am to make my appt. I was tired, been running hard for several days, and I set my alarm for 1230 PM. Got a call from dispatch that woke me up at 0400 wondering why the hell I wasn't rolling yet. I got a whole day to rest when they set my new appt. time for the next morning.

 

Dumbest thing was clearing a load through Port Huron when the customs invoice clearly said Detroit. D'oh! Was running late and wanted to get the paperwork sent off before I left the shipper. Got to Port Huron and they told me I had a port mismatch. I was so dumbfounded because I knew I cleared the load through Port Huron. Customs kept my FAST card and made me go for an x-ray/secondary. I mouthed off a little bit to the bald guy at x-ray (I call him Mr. Clean - what an a-hole) and started chuckling and smiling when he kept getting upset. I didn't really care, I refuse to let these power tripping maniacs satisfy their jollies. Anyway, after trying to explain my case and calling the broker and my dispatcher, I finally looked at the paperwork and saw the word DETROIT bolded on the invoice. Broker corrected the port, I got my FAST card back and crossed two hours later. Oops.

 

We'll let me see...I've only been doing this for about 14 years now and in that time I have managed to dolly down and pull away with my air lines connected not once but twice, went to hook up to a trailer that was too high and got the fifth wheel stuck behind the kingpin, twice, dropped a trailer once after dollying down and one of the legs proceeded to collapse...####eyed looking thing after that lol. Trust me if you're new to this give it time something will happen...hopefully minor.

 

Went to work for swift. J/K..

 

I used to do a flatbed shuttle run from Indy where I would meet in Columbus OH with a driver coming from Pittsburgh and we'd switch trailers. I had only been driving for a couple of months, so I was still extremely green.

One morning I met the other driver around 4 am. and we dropped and swapped. He had an ugly old trailer instead of one of our usual wagons, but I didn't think too much about it. The Pittsburgh guy hooked up and ran without even double checking my load securement. I hooked up to the dinosaur and walked around all full of myself for pretripping the trailer and inspecting the load. I added another strap or two, and finally got in to leave. I tried to pull out and felt what I thought was the brakes dragging. I watched the tires in the mirror and tried to move it again. Nope, the wheels were definitely not turning. I got out to figure out what was wrong, and almost filled my shorts. It was a stretch trailer. I had hooked the air line to the glad hand that released the chassis pins, and when I tried to pull out had extended the trailer by about 8 feet.

Luckily I was loaded with 20 ft. plates, so nothing fell off. They were only 1/4" thick though, so the front edge had drooped down into the now empty space and I couldn't close it back up. I finally managed to find a way with straps and dunnage to lift the front edge of the plate up enough to allow me to close the gap all the way.

I was really, really lucky. Nothing damaged, and I was able to fix my mess by myself (and without having to tell anyone what I'd done). It was a valuable lesson about how a careless mistake can lead to big problems. Now my truck doesn't move until I have checked and double checked EVERYTHING. I pull the same trailer every day so it's always hooked to my tractor, but I always crawl underneath and make sure the jaws are properly locked on the kingpin every day. Some of the other guys rib me for being overly cautious, but better safe than sorry.

 

I once spent the night at consignee for a morning delivery, then woke up and drove away without making the delivery. 10 miles later I realized. Not to many things a driver can do dumber than that. It was last load of the week though and my mind was on its way home.

 

ok I got a good one for ya,when I first started driving {almost 22 years now} my very first time into Canada from port huron mi to sarina on, I had a hazmat load on and back then you had to go into customs to be cleared , well I was so scared {you know listen to the heard} about all the crazy stuff customs can do and all, well I backed into my parking spot to go inside and was gone a good 45min, when I came out I seen that my truck was gone from where I parked it and I had the only key with me, well low and behold, I forgot one important thing you need to do when your park ,, like set the brakes lol well the truck rolled across the parking lot through the fence and hit 3 customs officers cars ,, well as that happened it took out both sets of headlights and just cracked the hood {was driving a freightliner fld } at the time, after getting all that taken care of with the police there, I still had to go to Milton on, to have the lights replaced , when I told the guy who was fixing the lights, what happened he laughed so hard I think he pissed his pants lol. he told me there was no charge cause I made his day when I told him about the customs officers cars being hit by a run away semi , so anything can happen ,,

 

Once dropped a trailer, mind you I hooked up too it pulled out of my spot drove through the yard got onto the scale then backed off the scale then pulled back on the scale then backed off again all with the trailer hooked up. when I went to turn right after leaving the scale that's when the trailer decided to fall. Right in front of the owner of the whole companies office mind you... to top it off it was loaded with 47,000 lbs. luckily for me everyone but me laughed it off. Also after driving for a whole 2 months and greener than my thumb I pulled into a store to deliver and I was attempting a 90 degree blindside with a 53' dry van. I was doing soooo good until I went to follow the trailer around but I ran out of room and was up against a curb. Being green I figured hey ill just jump the curb and the shrubs and get this trailer in the hole. So I jump the curb destroy all the shrubs for a good 12 ft stretch then finally get the trailer straight and backed in and I get out too look and see the left half of my front bumper peeled over on the right side of the bumper. That was not a good phone call to make but luckily for me it was a training company and I just had to take a class on backing after that. Could of all been avoided if I would of just used my head for 2 seconds

 

I was taking my thirty minute break at a rest stop one night. It was dark and rainy out with two other trucks parked on both sidesvof me. I was team driving so i just went to sleep in the driver seat so that i would not wake my partner.

When my alarm woke me up half an hour later i thought i had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving. I started pumping the brakes and death gripped the steering wheel.