Got My First Service Failure Yesterday

Has the smoke cleared?

Amused...all relevant and good information. Unfortunately Paul took a "hit"for his mistake.

The day I docked a barn-door trailer (forgetting to open the doors) was after pulling about 900 roll-up door Walmart trailers before it. What can I say...pretrip and post trip and lock pulling,... opening the doors before I docked was overlooked. Yeah, dumb, embarrassing and laughable. In the end, fortunately no big deal and that's exactly what the terminal manager said after laughing at me (although it was caught in time to correct).

Occasionally I have a barn-door trailer this time of year, never made that mistake again.

IMO the true takeaway here is; "the devil is always in the details". Forget one, only one and it usually comes back to bite you. It almost goes without saying the good drivers learn from their mistakes. It's a must.

G town, you forgot to open the doors and I forgot to leave them closed once lol

Some of the cold storage facilities have you backed the closed and sealed doors against the dock and they open the doors from the inside.

I forgot and opened the doors. I realized I was wrong when the yard dog's eyes popped out. Another time I backed in but left the lock on hahahha stuff happens

G town, you forgot to open the doors and I forgot to leave them closed once lol

Some of the cold storage facilities have you backed the closed and sealed doors against the dock and they open the doors from the inside.

I forgot and opened the doors. I realized I was wrong when the yard dog's eyes popped out. Another time I backed in but left the lock on hahahha stuff happens

Yes about a year ago during Blitz week before Black Friday.

I shared the story to console Paul.

Sheesh!! My own boss was more understanding than some of you. She tried to give me the benefit of the doubt saying I was probably just distracted with the cold weather/wind we had.

Thanks G, Rainy, Tractor Man.

I reread my original post, and I realized what might be causing so much fuss (other than the fact some people have their head where the sun don't shine). I said,

...I didn't even think to check if this trailer was a roll door...

Clarification: I FORGOT.

When I picked up the trailer, I distinctly remember watching the yard hostler close and seal the doors after pulling it from the dock. I also obviously had to walk to the back and remove my lock and put the bills in the door. I just forgot to open the doors.

Tractor Man hit the nail on the head with his response, unlike Sue and Robert who say I must not have done a proper pre/post trip, which is complete garbage. I have been pulling roll doors first for Walmart and now for Target for over a month now. On both accounts, my job is to remove my lock and place the bills in the handle and drop the loaded trailer in the door WITHOUT removing the seal or opening the door(s). This was the first time I had swing doors, and I spaced.

Sue said,

Set routines are extremely helpful even on those stressful days that have been less than smooth.

Set routines are indeed very helpful. It's also the reason it was so easy for me to forget this critical step. Pre/post trips, sliding tandems , GOALs, etc, are all built into my routine, but opening the doors AIN'T!!

Thanks to those who had something worthwhile to say.

I'm done with this thread.

IMO the true takeaway here is; "the devil is always in the details". Forget one, only one and it usually comes back to bite you. It almost goes without saying the good drivers learn from their mistakes. It's a must.

Great takeaway. Thanks

One of the main reasons I keep returning to this website is the sheer moral courage that so many of you drivers muster to keep an open conversation which includes wisdom in the making. Wisdom comes from experience, and your willingness to boldly share your own experiences which include occasional human oversights in all humility make you champions in my heart because you are helping others by doing so. I know that the ones who do this are aware of it, and why they make the effort to keep doing so instead of choosing the relative ease of secretly riding silently on past successes. Healthy people are able to recount both successes and failures without being threatened by either. Remaining vulnerable and open is a sign of strength and courage.

Obviously, the OP is already a very good driver with very good habits and knew his mistake right away and what steps he immediately reinforced within himself, but he kindly took the additional time and energy, anyway, to share his oversight for the sake of others, to help us all reinforce against the same possible human error. That is hugely inspiring and commendable. The one thing we all truly believe we’ll never personally forget in reality could still be overlooked by none other than our own self. Realizing that is wisdom. Sharing that is greater wisdom.

If none of you were ever admitting mistakes, then I would know far, far less of the possibility of them, of the bigger picture going into this profession. I cherish the extra step of knowledge so freely given by the OP. That knowledge not being about the obvious need for pre and post checks, but the unobvious one about how easily and without warning human error can happen when you very least expect it. I appreciate this community where it’s not only safe but welcome to recount and shed errors, check or gently chide and challenge each other to grow, and staunchly move on together for the greater good.