Unsafe Company?

It is legal to pull that trailer to the shop as long as it can be done safe, is there anything that might fall off, brakes work? Drive it a short distance and inspect it many times and if any questions call up the DOT and ask for a inspection and advice. Cover your rear to the max.

 

I've had to move an empty spread axle skateboard from Brownwood, TX to El Paso, TX with a busted front axle. Dumped the air took the tires, chained it up, aired it and rolled. No load no weight other then the four tires. Road through Odessa scale, officer asked where I was taking it, told him to our yard in El Paso for repairs. He checked it made sure nothing was going to fall off, gave me the ok. It's not illegal if it's an axle. More damage then that and it's questionable. You could have made a call to dot rather then arguing with your dispatcher. Ideally, it is a lot quicker, after all we are drivers, and time is money. Maybe got a decent load or even paid to move the trailer to begin with.

 

I would have taken it as long as it was chained up properly. I took a 48' van with 44,000 pounds of engine blocks in her like that, a chained up rear axle. We were having one heck of a snow storm when the bearing went in the passenger side rear axle, it caught the trailer on fire! This was on I-75 in Monroe MI, blinding snowstorm, could not even see the fire in my mirror, a four wheeler got my attention.

The fire department put out the fire, the state cops gave me a ticket for not having a load bar, me and the tow truck driver loaded up the tires and he chained up the axle, and off I went! It was near white out all the way to Brook Park, and I had to take the back roads to get there, as I was overweight for the Ohio Turnpike.

And yes, I was illegal, but the plant was going to go down, welcome to automotive.

I would have rolled with it.

 

It’s not that uncommon I don’t know why you thought it would be unsafe.

 

What defects did you find that made it unsafe?

 

If you feel unsafe about anything, document it in writing with an email to the safety manager. This will time stamp it and make it contemporaneous.

Write this complaint like you're going to be questioned about it later. You need to be explicit and note that you feel this is unsafe. Also, be profusely apologetic and polite in your written complaint.

Watch management very carefully after this. They'll probably violate your rights under Federal OSHAct 11(c), and you can look up a previous post I created about this. Long story short, your complaint to management about unsafe equipment is protected under both State and Federal laws, the State law generally offering more protections than Federal. The Federal law that protects you is the STAA, Surface Transportation Assistance Act.

If your boss takes any adverse action against you after making even your oral complaint, file a whistleblower complaint against them. They can't do this, they will lose eventually if they do. Just make sure you're prepared to fight them 100%

 

I'd be a little upset too. You wasted boss's time. Hourly wage and fuel to tell him NOPE. AIN'T DOING IT.

Dot don't care about towing damaged trailer back to yard. They care about damaged trailers hauling freight.

 

What part of unroadworthy do those yokels not understand?

 

Many of us have towed unroadworthy trailers back to yard.

I towed 1 of our burnt down trailers 150 miles back to yard last month. Scale didn't stop me.

 

We have two different lines of thought colliding here. 1. It is a common practice to chain up one axle. I have seen it done many times. 2. Driver feels it is unsafe.....end of story. Once the driver says it is unsafe or he feels it is unsafe, it does not matter. All actions stop. The safety issue trumps anything. Dispatch must, by law, find someone else to pull the load or calmly explain to the driver why it is safe. Only when the driver is convinced the action is safe for himself and the general public can he move the trailer.

So, the driver was wrong not to pull the trailer but was within his rights to refuse.