Blimey, what a trauma. You did right Matt to give the lad a chance so don’t beat yourself up over it.
Not contacting you for over 24 hrs is totally inexcusable.
Adding insult to injury that you have to pay him + holiday pay!
There’s just 1 thing I would have done differently. I would never let anybody drive a truck for me (not that I’m likely to be an o/d again) unless I had personally witnessed their driving. Might be revving the nuts off it, crunching the gears, harsh/late on the brakes and sudden steering input.
He may indeed not have been going very fast when it went over, catching a kerb wrong with the trl wheels can send them over at low speed. Initially the driver would not know the trl wheels were off the ground. Still, no excuse for this diabolical 4 day destruction mayhem.
It sounds like this lad had no respect for a loaded artic. As someone else said, who trained him? I probably wouldn’t be the one to tell him this, but possibly he has a claim against them.
Remember some of the most successful small (and large) hauliers will have been through similar in times past. You’ll have a tad less out of the job over the next few years due to increased insurance costs, but if the insurance was already that price you would be paying it anyway.
This time next year things will be much easier.
I did witness his driving and he was absolutely fine! He followed me around in the wagon for 4 days before I left him to it. Or are you meaning sitting in the cab with him to see what’s going on?
Driveroneuk:
Might be revving the nuts off it, crunching the gears, harsh/late on the brakes and sudden steering input.
I did witness his driving and he was absolutely fine! He followed me around in the wagon for 4 days before I left him to it. Or are you meaning sitting in the cab with him to see what’s going on?
Matt
Would you know if he was doing any of the above from watching him follow you?
Driveroneuk:
Might be revving the nuts off it, crunching the gears, harsh/late on the brakes and sudden steering input.
I did witness his driving and he was absolutely fine! He followed me around in the wagon for 4 days before I left him to it. Or are you meaning sitting in the cab with him to see what’s going on?
Matt
Would you know if he was doing any of the above from watching him follow you?
No, so you were talking about me sitting with him. At the end of the day hes ■■■■■■ up big time and its me whos got to pay for it.
I really do feel for you Matt.
I’m an inexperienced driver but at 38, not so young.
Hearing that there are people taking on new drivers was music to my ears. But that all unravelled reading the rest of the thread…
Just hope it doesn’t cost you too much in the long run…
Driveroneuk:
Might be revving the nuts off it, crunching the gears, harsh/late on the brakes and sudden steering input.
I did witness his driving and he was absolutely fine! He followed me around in the wagon for 4 days before I left him to it. Or are you meaning sitting in the cab with him to see what’s going on?
Matt
Would you know if he was doing any of the above from watching him follow you?
They all must be able to put on driving sensibly to get through the test, so I’m not sure what you think sitting with them will achieve, but this lad was just some ■■■■ end, who had no appreciation or respect for other people’s property or hard work who drove the truck like a knob as soon as he was left on his own. Similar ■■■■ end drivers have even uploaded videos of their antics to this site.
The only thing that could have been done differently was giving him the push when he was caught in a lie over the telegraph pole. Unfortunately, every driver who is honest will sympathise with someone that gets in a tight scrape when they’re starting out so is inclined to give a second chance but it was the lying that was the real indication if the sort of person this lad was.