Profile For Frances F.

buying my own truck and dry van, can someone guide me to what I need to do to get it on the road with permits and all in Texas?

Thank you for your honest response...

Chalk it up as a hard lesson learned. I have plenty of empathy for you, but believe me, I've had my share of hard lessons in life. If your friend doesn't learn anything from this one, they will continue repeating this same type scenario and always be playing the victim.

My Dad had a lot of relevant sayings that he used to teach me life's lessons. One of them was: "Life is hard on ignorant folks." What he meant was: if you don't learn from your mistakes, you are destined to repeat them.

If You're Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough

how was he dumb, you are a hard working person, give your employer the benefit of the doubt. You try and be a loyal driver and get jacked up by one of the many that are corrupt...how was he to know, how did he know the other people where just not talking out spite. Question, what would you do, chalk it up? No, we pressed charges for labor theft, but want to discredit him in public, give me advice on what can be said and would you do it. It has really ****ed us up...and yes, lesson learned. He is looking closely into every little detail now.

I'm not even sure what the topic is anymore, but this thread is an obvious lesson in the benefits of working for the large national trucking companies where your good solid paycheck is never late and they take care of their equipment.

well, yes, lesson to learn....but in the mean time....ADVICE, what would you do?

Okay, so I hear that a trailer gets door damage while being loaded or unloaded by either another trailer or not sure who, so my friend was sleeping but was told to unhook the trailer and leave it, they will move it if needed, get it is over mid night, how can the driver be responsible for the damage to trailer door if he was not the one that did the damage and don't know as he was not their to witness it. I don't think its fair for that as how can the driver be watching the trailer 24/7 if driver has to sleep and load was not going to be ready at any given time.

Back on topic here, One time I broke some fancy hub covers on a too-tight scale, I owned up to it and paid for them. Another time I came out from lunch and a hub cover was broken, probably a car hit me, I offered to pay for half since it wasn't my fault, but the vehicle was my responsibility at the time. That was accepted. Next time if the dock wont admit to the damage in writing, call the police before moving the vehicle and get a report. Without a police report its often difficult to collect insurance, which is probably why your boss wants you to pay for it, he might be unable to collect insurance for it. IF I wanted to keep that job I would deny doing the damage and offer to pay for half the repairs.

Phil

So, since then, this man was MIA for a week, avoid my calls, and finally a day short of a week, he calls and says not avoiding him, but his wife in icu, and is going to pay him for load and no problem with the doors, but is avoiding him again, so he goes and presses charges for his belonging still in the truck and for theft of services. This man was actually on a otr trip and was telling my friend the truck was in repair shop for something mechanical [pins] and he could not get his stuff out, all the time he was on the road. He is avoiding my friend to not pay him for the trip he last made as he had to come back empty from Mississippi to Texas. The place where he was to load last had no chicken and he was detained for three days almost. What do you think about this? Now he wants to say, he left empty because he had no patience to wait and he owes him nothing, that they are even and if he wants to get money from his delayed time at the site, he needs to work it out with the brokers [and he has not knowledge regarding who the broker is] A damn character he ended up to be. My friend was told by two other drivers, that approached him when he just started that this man owed them pay and was avoiding their calls. One of the drivers, even still had personal belonging on the truck, seems that the man did exact same thing to him.

so my friend started working with a owner of a reefer, he worked 3 weeks all was well, one week he comes back from his trips and leaves truck at yard. gets a call from owner the next day saying he needs key to the back of the trailer, he takes it, they open doors and all is well. Later day, he gets call regarding some damage to doors on the inside. He did not know where damage came from. Owner says, he is looking into it, goes MIA FOR A WEEK, has not paid him for load, stated at one point his wife was in icu and that is why he would not answer the calls. Long story short, he did not get paid for trip, he pressed charges for theft of labor and has filed unemployment. We want to discredit this **** as he has done this to two prior drivers. While my friend was on the road, he was at truck stop and was approached by this driver that said this man owed him money from last trip and is still MIA and wont answer his calls. My friend gave him the benefit of doubt and continued on with him, until this last time.

Dutch, what about the tickets, is he liable to pay those even tho, he did all possible with the axels and had no way to unload the produce or shift them.

In the industry, we call that type damage "phantom damage." Someone is responsible for it, but with no witnesses, it gets filed into the phantom damage category.

You must adamantly deny any involvement, and if the accident dept. tries to file it against you, you need to immediately go over their head at company headquarters. Usually trailer damage is not near as serious or costly as tractor damage, but you don't want to be blamed for either when you are innocent of any involvement.

It helps tremendously if you don't have several accidents already on your record, as they are less likely to challenge your version of the story.

he has a clean record of 18 years and no accidents...also, was given two tickets same state for overload, he moved axels and still over load, says because the way it was loaded.

In the industry, we call that type damage "phantom damage." Someone is responsible for it, but with no witnesses, it gets filed into the phantom damage category.

You must adamantly deny any involvement, and if the accident dept. tries to file it against you, you need to immediately go over their head at company headquarters. Usually trailer damage is not near as serious or costly as tractor damage, but you don't want to be blamed for either when you are innocent of any involvement.

It helps tremendously if you don't have several accidents already on your record, as they are less likely to challenge your version of the story.

okay, so how should he handle that....they owner of the truck he drives, may charge him for the damage, we are talking about a small business owner of two trucks...

It might sound silly but i have a question. I do not want to be blamed for all the damage on this truck what should i do to protect myself? I got a truck today with alot of different damage and a missing catwalk light. qualcom wire is damaged. Hole in floor, fiberglass damage on passenger side by headlight and tire well, Damaged steps on both sides, Fifth wheel release arm really loose, Engine light on, PM light on. Catwalk handrail damaged, bunk heater vent broken and duck taped. I took it to service for the PM.

so, my question is what if damage is done to the trailer and you don't know who did it....my friend was sleeping when it happen and the trailer was unhooked. He was told to go unhook truck and move, they would let him know when loaded.