Stop Destroying Our Property

[boringscreenname]

Ok as I've mentioned before, I work at a big food warehouse and we handle all their semis and the scale. Here are just a few reasons I give semis plenty of distance on the highway.

When you first pull in there's a huge driveway and a little grassy area that our guard shack and water house set on. The warehouse is behind this area.

Idiot #1 pulls in and somehow his trailer manages to hit our brick water house and he literally takes down an entire side of the building. He had to go over a concrete barrier and take down a guard rail to accomplish this. Insurance guy said there was over $10,000 in damage.

Idiot #2 is pulling away from the guard shack and makes a sudden sharp turn. He takes out the guard rail in front of the shack, slams on his brakes and hits the corner of the guard shack. If he wouldn't have hit the brakes at that moment he would have crashed through the entire thing, and there were two guards inside at the time.

Idiot #3 was checked in and assigned a door at the end of 2nd shift. About an hour into my shift (3rd), the Supervisor calls me.
Apparently this guy went to area the door was at but wasn't actually in the door. He's about 10 feet in front of it, parked crooked, and his doors are still locked. Supervisor went out to find out what was going on.

The guy practically fell out of the semi, and his eyes are rolling in his head, and he proceeds to piss all over himself. Supervisor tells him to back straight up into the door, and open his trailer doors, so they can unload him.

Guy gets back in the truck, proceeds to take down an entire fence, the trash compactor and a dumpster before he finally gets into the door, and the supervisor called me to ask what the hell he should do. So I call the cops, and apparently the guy wasn't drunk so they couldn't do anything. Don't know what happened to the guy but apparently he left our property without destroying anything else.

[justZu]

That is just scary. I'm kinda surprised the police didn't at least call some paramedics when they found out the guy wasn't drunk. He could kill somebody.

[Fawn]

Damn! I probably would have called an ambulance though, sounds more like a medical emergency (rolling eyes, loss of direction, peeing himself, etc.)...

Crazy stuff.. feel bad for the Supervisor :S

[boringscreenname]

I told the cops they might want to call in an ambulance, but left the final call up to them and they didn't. I honestly thought they were going to take the guy into the hospital themselves, but again they just let him be. I didn't get any updates about it until I called and asked 30 minutes later.

According to the guard who works 1st shifts, the guy came back over the next morning and was still acting odd. Then he left for our Drop Lot (aka parking lot) and dozed off and on while sitting up for 2 days.

All of this was told to me through several employees who basically say the same thing. I never actually saw the guy, beause he was in an area of the warehouse that's a mile or so from my post.

[Seshat]

I think that's irresponsible of the police. What if he was having some sort of seizure, or was suffering some condition that might kill him? Just from what you've said here, if it's not easily explained by being drunk, the guy needed to be checked out!

That really annoys me - that someone can be that obviously sick, and not taken to a hospital to get checked out.

[TheSnakeLady]

On the subject of semis destroying property, somewhere there is the unluckiest Blockbuster video in the world... It sits in a shopping center that is right next to the interstate. I never worked there, but I shopped at the grocery store that it was next to. Events are fuzzy, as I'm not sure which happened first (I think the kid happened first).

This Blockbuster had its windows smashed and the brick wall that was its back wall smashed, over two separate incidents less than a week apart. In one incident, a student driver parked out front put his car in the wrong gear and wound up zooming through the window instead of backing up. In the second incident, a semi went off-road from the interstate and wound up crashing through the back wall. I'm not aware of any injuries in either occurance, but if I had been working there, I'd have quit after the second incident!

[Der Cute]

Guy #3 sounds like he was having a full blown seizure.

WHY THE HELL DID THE SUPERS LET HIM BEHIND THE WHEEL AFTER HE CAME TO?????

When a person has a seizure, there is a state afterwards called post-ictal. Imagine fog in your head, worse than having a cold...yeah. Diminished function, thinking ability, processing....

Super should have 1. Called ambulance. 2. Found different person to drive rig. 3. Filled out incident report. 4. Called police to revoke CDL.

I have epilepsy. I wanted to drive semis since I was a kid. So I could be independent AND see America. Well, guess what. Taking certain drugs will NEVER allow you to have a CDL. And I do believe having seizures/ Epilepsy will cross you off the list for a CDL. This is due to the DOT - Federal regulations.

GET THAT GUY OFF THE ROADS!!!

Cutenoob

[BookstoreEscapee]

I agree...and after finding the guy sleeping upright in the parking lot? I'd have called the police back, and an ambulance, then. And they left him there for 2 days?

Not semis, but my dad started parking his car at the bottom of our driveway after asking the local Fed-Ex driver(s?) several times to stop using our driveway to turn around, because the driveway is meant for cars, not the repeated weight of a delivery truck. (And they weren't even delivering to our house!) Extra annoying because they could have just gone around the block and come back out on the highway on the next street.

*Cutenoob - is that supposed to be "post-dictal"?

[Kittish]

I drove a semi for several years, and any of the incidents mentioned, if reported to the companies these guys drove for, would have resulted in at the very LEAST- drug testing of the drivers and investigation of the cause of the incident. In that last one, the guy's company should have been called and informed that their driver was apparently having some medical episode which rendered him unfit to drive (and the police should have slapped an Out of Service on him as well (here's a hint for next time- have the cops check his log books!), plus maybe calling in the medical people).

That last guy sounds like he was quite possibly flying WAY too high on wake up pills and/or other drugs. Truck drivers are randomly drug tested, but there is still quite a lot of drug use among them, especially of stimulants. Part of this is because of the 'just in time' shipping policies of so many companies these days (freight customers, not the trucking companies), who want their freight delivered at the very last minute so they don't have to store it and often require the driver to actually unload it as well. That, plus rising operation costs (fuel prices, insurance, taxes, permits, and so forth) means that freight companies are pushing their drivers to work often far beyond what's permitted by Terms of Service laws.

[Der Cute]

BSE:

No, it is Post Ictal. Dictal would refer to dictation :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-ictal_sleep



Cutenoob

[boringscreenname]

I took down all of his information, wrote it all in an incident report then handed copies of everything to the Supervisor. I didn't have his company information, otherwise I would have called his company myself. I'm pretty sure his company was contacted by someone inside the warehouse though.

He was at our warehouse for a live unload. The warehouse really prefers it if the driver makes their appointment, if they don't we will accept them whenever they arrive though.

I think the reason no one was suspicious of him staying for 2 days is that he was in our Drop Lot and there are a lot of trucks and trailers over there at any given time. I've also been told that some people have had to sit around for a day or two, waiting on their trailer, because the warehouse gets so busy and backed up.

There's also another clerk over there who handles their drop and hooks, drops and moving trailers and keeps an eye on the Drop Lot. At my post we deal with processing live loads, live unloads and scaling tankers.

[boringscreenname]

Another story for you all. This truck driver shows up for a live load, we put all his info in the system, and assign him a door. Before every driver leaves we tell them what to do when they get there, and explain there's a light beside each dock door, when it's red stay put and don't try and leave, when it's green you're free to pull out. We also give them a copy of our rules, and policies and such before they leave, just in case what we say doesn't sink in.

Apparently this guy got tired of waiting and pulled his trailer out of the dock door while the light was still red, and his trailer was still locked into the door. He didn't let up untiil the trailer came free, and he completely destroyed the door, and ripped a bunch of equipment from his trailer. Then he has the nerve to come to me and demand our company fix his trailer for free.

I told him there was no way we could do that and he'd have to find someone else to fix his trailer.

[BookstoreEscapee]

BSE:

No, it is Post Ictal. Dictal would refer to dictation :P
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-ictal_sleep



Cutenoob

Huh...guess I saw it spelled wrong somewhere else, then...

[mattm04]

The most damage that I am aware of that semi has caused at my company was when one driver backed up to a door a little too quickly (and off center) destroying the dock plate, door and some cinder blocks. Maint. decided this wasn't an urgent issue as putting plywood over the door, wall and a few steel braces made the building "structurally sound" and therefore not needing any more repair.

[MonSqueek]

The guy practically fell out of the semi, and his eyes are rolling in his head, and he proceeds to piss all over himself. Supervisor tells him to back straight up into the door, and open his trailer doors, so they can unload him.

At this point someone, anyone, whomever was closest with access to a phone should have IMMEDIATLY called an ambulance and first aid proceedures such as lying him on his side in the recovery position ensuring clear airways ectra should have been commenced. I dont know how anyone could have NOT done this !?!??!?!?!!??!?!?!!? What if that was your father, your son, your uncle.... ??? What if that guy had then procceded to die on company property because no one rendered assistance???

Your Supervisor is the idiot in this scenario.