A few weeks ago a colleage of mine who was covering shunter duties as a favour to cover staff shortages made a mistake and pulled a trailer off a bay while the red light was on. Fortunately no one was loading it but a dock loader saw the incident and reported it to the supervisor.
He continued working the rest of that day then on arrival at work the next day he was informed that he had been taken off driving pending an investigation into the incident. After a week sat around getting paid for nothing he was called in with a union rep to discuss the incident. Statements were taken and arguments were put forward but the result was he has been taken off driving for 3 months and apparently lucky it was not 6!
He is still being paid his drivers money but has to work on the ‘shop floor’ for the 3 months. He has however lost around £150 per week he would normally earn performing his normal driving duty.
Do you think this is a fair punishment for the offence? Bear in mind that he is an experienced driver with a previously perfect record for many years.
The main gripe a lot of us have is there is no set punishment throughout the fleet for this kind of mistake. Other depots will just slap a blokes wrist or take them off driving for a day; ours will ban you for 6 months…just dosen’t make sense to me. In fact the week after he did it an agency driver did the same thing and was told to finish his shift. We were told he would not be allowed back on the site but 2 weeks later he was back again!
What punishment would your company dish out for this kind of mistake?
Sounds [zb]ing harsh to me mate.
Will they keep his money up to snuff while he’s in the depot? I somehow think not. Who is it you work for? So other people can avoid it…
POSTIE; FIRST , the light was red ,yes nothing happened
,however ""What If “” A FORKLIFT was halfway out of the
trailer,IT;s only 3 months and by the end of this he
will remember not to make the same mistake again,
However if he upset at the way things have gone and is
therefore dissapointed with the job,HE could leave and
find a new one ■■? at least they are paying him
his full wage as a Driver less any extras one gets when
being out on the road, Fair I think,
I also say “fair”
it could have led to someone being injured or even killed.The driver failed to follow procedures and should have double checked etc. It would have been unfair to sack him but if an injury or death occurred the punishment would have been far greater than any company could dish out and the persons family of the injured or killed would have suffered a great deal more.
Harsh but thats the real world
I’d say fair. As a shunter, I never pulled off a red light. As a driver I’ve not either.
I have, however, seen it happen at Sara Lee in Bridlington with a forklift half on which then ended up falling 4ft to the ground. The forkie ended up quite badly injured.
With the punishment the driver has got, he’ll not make the same mistake again.
I agree, some punishment was deserved, but 3 months off the road?
Holy [zb] that’s damned harsh.
Sure, a week off, and then getting put in the oldest most junky shed they have, that sounds fairer to me. No-one got hurt this time. And looking down at that ■■■-ash encrusted dash would be a constant reminder not to [zb] up on docks.
I’m sure he knows what an IDIOT he has been. We all make mistakes. He should be punished but £150 per week loss, that’s not right he probably has a mortgage, family, etc. But the bloke he could have killed probably had the same.
The company he works for obviously wanted to put all the blame on him. They should learn from this also. Why wasn’t the trailers pin locked with the key in the loading bay for example.
postie:
was covering shunter duties as a favour to cover staff shortages
Difficult to decide whether fair or not. My decision would depend a lot on answers to the following questions.
1)has he been formally trained on shunting and assessed as fit to carry out that duty prior to this incident?
2)is he agency or permanent staff and what does his contract of employment states especially regarding duties?
3)is the punishment issued arbitrarily or part of standard procedure or conduct code?
4) is the £150 loss as a result of loss of overtime or reduction in his actual wages?
If he wasnt a normal shunter, but merely standing in…
if it wasnt in his contract of employment
if he wasnt an experienced driver
HE COULD HAVE BEEN SACKED…!!!
So i guess hes lucky…
What if through his negligence, the company was telling someones widow,her husband wont be coming home tonight.
Or telling the kids they wont see daddy anymore, and were burying him next week…Would you still see it as harsh punishment…i doubt it…
There are a lot of drivers who are trying to give this industry a good name, and they aim to do this by being professional, and although we all make mistakes from time to time…we do not jump red lights…
Agree…It puzzles me when asked for keys at RDC’s, i say i’m going nowhere mate til you’ve tipped me, and when they say well believe it or not some people do drive off early! i didn’t believe a professional driver would do this. But now by his own admission seems that some do!!!
Accidents, forgetfulness whatever… is why all get treated the way they do at some RDC’s.
There could be an argument that he was not trained but come on, red means danger, green means safe. Lets get back to personal responsibility.
That about hits the snail on the head
I can judge if im tipped by the amount of times the fork truck enters my trailer, if I lose count I get out and check that the plate has been lifted even if the green light is showing. I do this because I was loading in France, the guy came out and gave me my notes, told me it was finished and I pulled off. The plate was still down and it crashed even further down as it hit the stops rendering that bay unusable until it was repaired. In this particular place I even go inside the warehouse to check the plate is stowed away properly now.
When we are out driving on the road, we make errors, we are human after all, and usually those errors go unpunished but some COULD have had serious results.
If we learn from those errors then we are unlikely to do them again.
Would it be fair to punish every one of those errors
I would favour education and possible retraining over punishment every time unless the incident was repeated.
In the above senario about the red light, has the punishment actually improved the situation Making the driver fully aware of the possible consequences of his actions and then questioning him a little later to make sure they had sunk in would have been better IMO.
This is a bit strange ran out of time in a RDC on Wednesday night so the TM told me to pull out and park up
Went in got my notes and said to the chap on the desk I have still got a red light on the bay and don’t like pulling off while still red
Answer I got back was being you have docked the senser has put on the red light but we can’t give you a green light untill we open the loading bay door then close it again to reset the light
So he told me it was ok to pull off on red, but what would of happened if between me getting my keys and paper work someone decided to open the door to see what I had on board?
I checked the plate was up and the door was closed but it only takes a second for someone to open the door as I pull off then its too late
Was I right to pull off on red after being instructed to do so or should I have insistead that they reset the light to green
It was one of thoses do I don’t I moments would like to hear what you all would of done in that situation
Sounds fair to me. Maximum punishment at our place for a “driver fault” write-off is six months on dock shunting, at shunter rate (low). Doesn’t happen very often, but has been known, and is considered fair by all when it does.
i would have asked for the instruction in writing or for the light to be reset, if not then a supervisor to stand at the rear of the trailor. otherwise i would not move because if something did occur then it would be my fault cos man in office would deny any such conversation had taken place.
basicly whatever is said you would be accused of ignoring h and s rules and the company policy.
don,t forget under h&s rules you can be found guilty be “what you don’t do” as well as what you do do .
