Let's Imagine it's 4:45 PM , your loading at a mill somewhere in Gary Indiana, it's raining ,or better yet it is snowing. yard boss says you have to get out in 15. its your last chain, at the last Truck stop, you attempted to purchase more chains, where denied because fuel card was not accepted to make purchase, called dispatch put on hold, time was of the essence due to appointment load time. you realize the pin is slightly bent, Ears of hook spread, however it is workable. do you tell yard boss to pull the load off, because of bad chain, or go ahead and use the bad chain. after 45 years on the road I can honestly say this has happened to me. This is called trucking, not an office job, where you can say, it will wait until tomorrow.
That is trucking, you are absolutely correct. Sometimes you are in situations where you have to make a decision like that. These videos are created with the intent to teach and to make sure that our drivers are doing things in the safest way possible as often as they can.
OK, so let's imagine that it's now 5:45 and at 5:15 you slammed on your brakes because a flip flop wearing driver pulled out in front of you and that one chain you took a chance on broke. Part of he load fell off and killed some kids in the mini van next to you. Your attempt to buy another chain will be part of the public record so you won't be able to deny some responsibility for their deaths. Those people who did not facilitate your chain purchase will not be the ones in the back of that patrol car. In the end, it's the driver who is responsible for proper load securement. Now you are thinking how easy it would have been to pull out your credit card and buy that chain instead of the cheeseburger meal. In this case, I would have loaded then parked the load and bobtailed to pick up another chain or two. And yes, I HAVE done just that... the families of everyone who shares the road with us deserves our best efforts and not our excuses.
Let's Imagine it's 4:45 PM , your loading at a mill somewhere in Gary Indiana, it's raining ,or better yet it is snowing. yard boss says you have to get out in 15. its your last chain, at the last Truck stop, you attempted to purchase more chains, where denied because fuel card was not accepted to make purchase, called dispatch put on hold, time was of the essence due to appointment load time. you realize the pin is slightly bent, Ears of hook spread, however it is workable. do you tell yard boss to pull the load off, because of bad chain, or go ahead and use the bad chain. after 45 years on the road I can honestly say this has happened to me. This is called trucking, not an office job, where you can say, it will wait until tomorrow.
That is trucking, you are absolutely correct. Sometimes you are in situations where you have to make a decision like that. These videos are created with the intent to teach and to make sure that our drivers are doing things in the safest way possible as often as they can.
OK, so let's imagine that it's now 5:45 and at 5:15 you slammed on your brakes because a flip flop wearing driver pulled out in front of you and that one chain you took a chance on broke. Part of he load fell off and killed some kids in the mini van next to you. Your attempt to buy another chain will be part of the public record so you won't be able to deny some responsibility for their deaths. Those people who did not facilitate your chain purchase will not be the ones in the back of that patrol car. In the end, it's the driver who is responsible for proper load securement. Now you are thinking how easy it would have been to pull out your credit card and buy that chain instead of the cheeseburger meal. In this case, I would have loaded then parked the load and bobtailed to pick up another chain or two. And yes, I HAVE done just that... the families of everyone who shares the road with us deserves our best efforts and not our excuses.