On way home from work this evening and got a call from agency. Apparently I slammed the unit into the customers loading bay tonight, wrecked the buffers and smashed a tail light cluster?
I genuinely don’t recall feeling anything other than a slight nudge when I backed in■■? It was dark though. Thing is, I backed it into the same loading bay at lunchtime with no issue?
I now need to do some explaining in the morning before I start. I hope they don’t bin me off 
If your agency give you any liability forms to sign say NO until they can prove it was you.
ItsJoe:
If your agency give you any liability forms to sign say NO until they can prove it was you.
The agency were actually OK about it. Just told me to go in tomorrow, be honest, do the paperwork for the incident and then get back to work. It’s the work bit that worries me. I just hope they don’t ask me to leave.
The whole day went great as well. A morning & afternoon run without incident (OK so I was an hour late back due to trying to find new stores & service yards).
A ■■■■■■■ good day ruined by a moment of stupidity! I’m severely ■■■■■■ off with myself now.
I hope all goes well when you go back in tomorrow. Don’t be signing anything just in case it ends with you out of pocket.
Good luck
“The agency were actually OK about it. Just told me to go in tomorrow, be honest, do the paperwork for the incident and then get back to work. It’s the work bit that worries me. I just hope they don’t ask me to leave.”
Wouldn’t be doing any of that if if didn’t believe I’d done it!,how do you know someone else didn’t do it after you left and then blamed it on “the agency lad”
The agency telling you to “be honest” implies they think you were lying when you told them you knew nothing about it!!,Sure follow their advice be honest and accept absolutely no responsibility for it unless they can prove to you that no one else moved the vehicle after you.
nah sounds well fishy .Tell me you checked the truck when you finished ?Every time I leave a job i walk the truck .These agencies are not trustable.
Deny everything and sign nothing. What’s to say a 3rd party hasn’t done the damage and left it for the next driver to find on his checks. He’s reported it and you’re getting the blame.
I’ll ask to see CCTV in the morning.
I had a quick walk around before I backed on to the bay and there was no damage. I never checked after that though as it was dark and I was on the bay anyway so there wouldn’t have been much to see.
I’m just thinking out loud here, but it’s possible that you’re being called in tommorrow just for the paperwork !
What normally happens to the vehicle once you’ve handed back the keys? Is it possible in the time frame that someone else may have caused the damage & you’re just the fall guy?
As has been said, sign NOTHING unless you are 100% happy that they agree it wasn’t your fault.
In this industry you must have your back covered because there’s always somebody waiting to pass blame on. I have a notebook and I note anything and everything. For some companies I will even go to an extent of taking pictures of the trailer before I start and finish work because I know they want any excuse not to pay my boss.
The only thing I can tell you is to learn from this and always perform a thorough check before and after work.
Wrecked the buffers? They are designed to take it… (I’m assuming your talking about the plastic things that are on the rear lower end of the body)
I think you would remember if you was going fast enough to do any damage to them.
As for the lights see if its actually possible to damage the lights by reversing into the bay. The majority of bays are designed in such a way to make that impossible. (Assuming the bay was designed with your size of truck in mind.)
adam277:
Wrecked the buffers? They are designed to take it… (I’m assuming your talking about the plastic things that are on the rear lower end of the body)
I think you would remember if you was going fast enough to do any damage to them.
As for the lights see if its actually possible to damage the lights by reversing into the bay. The majority of bays are designed in such a way to make that impossible. (Assuming the bay was designed with your size of truck in mind.)
That’s what I’m thinking. I can’t understand how I could have ■■■■■■ them or the light cluster?
I’m beginning to think that someone is trying to stitch me up. I’ll be asking to see the CCTV tomorrow.
I smell a rat too, honestly if you’d done that damage the chances are you would know it.
A possibility could be that whoever picked it up reversed back hard onto the pin and kept the pressure of the unit still pushing against the trailer when they applied the parking brake, then when the trailer brakes were blown off that pushing pressure would be transmitted straight back, if the trailer suspension reacted as they sometimes do easy to see how damage could be caused.
I know my method is frowned on by the purists, my method being a closed drivers window and hold the drivers door open a fraction and look down the side of the trailer as you back up…its not as daft as it sounds, one of the reasons for this is that any sounds from the back are reflected off the closed window, in other words not only can you see how close you are more clearly you can also hear more.
Juddian:
I smell a rat too, honestly if you’d done that damage the chances are you would know it.A possibility could be that whoever picked it up reversed back hard onto the pin and kept the pressure of the unit still pushing against the trailer when they applied the parking brake, then when the trailer brakes were blown off that pushing pressure would be transmitted straight back, if the trailer suspension reacted as they sometimes do easy to see how damage could be caused.
I know my method is frowned on by the purists, my method being a closed drivers window and hold the drivers door open a fraction and look down the side of the trailer as you back up…its not as daft as it sounds, one of the reasons for this is that any sounds from the back are reflected off the closed window, in other words not only can you see how close you are more clearly you can also hear more.
Should have said. It was only a rigid.
I smell a rat too,only and only if I was to go anywhere near signing a form I would want a copy of the defect sheet from the next driver to see if said light cluster was reported broken if not they can chuff right off,
more like said company dont want to pay for a repair on a bay and think its funny to blag the cost from the agency meanwhile screwing the driver who has paid hard earned for the license and risks losing income near to christmas agencies make me sick bloody parasites the lot of em.
Quick edit and rethink would want photos of damage as you would have seen the bay before reversing on to see how much “damage” was allegedly caused then find another agency
The agency haven’t mentioned anything about me paying for damage. They just said I should be more careful and that the customer will want to go through an investigation tomorrow when I arrive for my shift.
It’s the investigation that worries me. I’m worried they try and pin any blame on me and then ask me to go.
The agency said that they will likely ask me what happened, get me to do some paperwork then send me out for my run. If there’s anything in there about me paying for damage then I’m out of there.
Good thing about being agency is you can tell them to do one.
Worse they can do is stop asking for you which isn’t a big deal.
I thought it might be a rigid somehow.
Buffers on bays do get damaged and eventually need replacing as they wear and get some abuse.
As for light clusters we have had a number smashed on our bays and bays elsewhere on rigids and trailers.
We had an issue with hired 18 ton rigids with our bays as they were too high and ramps were at too steep an angle and damage was caused to rear marker lights fitted to the body and a couple of smashed clusters if you backed on more than a nudge.
We had to request hire trucks with air suspension to be able to lower the rear end of them as the 18 ton LF trucks did not have air suspension.
The other issue we have is the 26 ton CF’s with lift axle sit higher than our 18 ton CF’s with air suspension. So the 26 ton trucks need the lift Acle raising and the suspension lowering otherwise the back end goes over the buffers and truck can hit the bay door and light clusters can get damaged.
So it can be possible dependant upon the bays and various types of trucks. The buffers will take a pounding most of the time anyway and will have to be replaced at some point.
It is easy enough to assume that you parked it on the bay and the next driver found the fault and had to defect it, chances are the only person who could or would have moved it after you would be a shunter or the next driver. If they have cctv then it is possible for them to prove it was when you backed it on the bay.
Easiest solution is to explain you don’t believe you hit the bay hard and backed on gently and are not aware you had damaged anything. And see what the response is from them.
Accident forms will likely need filling in if a big company like ours even for minor things like that.
I imagine they are trying to bill the agency for the damage.
I usually smack in to the bay full blast due to the turtle mode reversing on the automatic is about as responsive as my 10 year old computer.
Never damaged anything yet.
Ended up a storm in a teacup.
Spoke to the transport gaffer when I got off my run today and in a nutshell all that was said was “Just be vigilant when backing in to a loading bay”. I was still insistent that I couldn’t see how that damage could have been done backing on to a bay when all I felt was the slight ‘bump’ when you touch the buffers.
Nothing signed 