Will he be fired?

Yep, they should have kept him there till the morning as was told to him earlier. And yes, LA isn't any fun for a newbie either. They may have an over zealous dispatcher.

 

Ok you see, you left out the details like they telling him to take pictures. This tells me now someone at the company WAS on top of this situation. Now he probably will still get his butt chewed out by the Safety Dept, just so that they can prove *on paper at least* that they did indeed explain the dangers of night driving and trying to take away a mailman's job

 

I got the impression the accident happened in Louisiana: not Los Angeles.

If he made it to Los Angeles from Jackson in one day - hitting a mailbox may be the least of his problems.

 

Sorry, once again I guess I messed up and used abbreviations instead of spelling out the state, it was indeed Louisiana.

I talked to him tonight. So far, so good, no one has relieved him of his load and fired him yet. He feels so horrible. I reassured him that everyone on this forum says that he should be okay (a little white lie doesn't hurt). He has been up straight since 4:00 AM Tuesday morning, so he is getting some much needed rest now and when he starts out fresh things should be better. What a horrible first day.

I apologize to all you experienced folks who think that I am making a big deal out of this incident. I know that he isn't hurt, no one else is hurt, and the truck isn't damaged. I am just very worried that his new career could be over before it really got started. And Lori, thanks for the PM. I wrote you a nice response, but then found out that I couldn't send it to you because I haven't posted enough. Thanks to everyone for their support. Anyone out there work for KLLM that might give me insight?

 

You did fine - anyone who actually READ your post would have known what you were talking about.

Again - this thing you described is a tiny, tiny problem. Get some rest.

 

Yea, he'll be ok, KLLM would rather pay for a goofy little mailbox rather than thousands of $$$ getting a new driver and training them. Its one of those #### happens type of deals. Tell him you kick his butt if he hits one again and I bet he'll be ok from now on, LOL. No wonder our stamps just went up! KIDDING, LOL. He'll be ok or they will have me to answer to, ahem...

 

Agree, that is true, pictures are worth GOLD in these situations. And, yes, he should call the safety dept at daybreak at least (if they aren't open at night). True.

 

He did take pictures, and talked to the business who owned the mailbox. Apparently, this mailbox has been killed multiple times in the past, and they were very surprised that he waited around and came in and told them about it. Most of the time, the driver is long gone and they are stuck with the repair bill (although if this has happened so often maybe they should relocate it). He said that the company policy stated that he was to call his Night Dispatcher, which he did. I reassured him that everyone has a dumb mistake when they start, so he just got his out of the way on the first day.