By: G. Ray Gompf, CD
There’s a great deal of trepidation within governments with respect to the damage to infrastructure from oversized loads striking bridges.
While the responsibility for ensuring safe travel on the roads is multileveled, the driver as the on-site responsible human party, it falls upon the driver to ensure no harm occurs to the load, the infrastructure, the equipment, and most of all, other humans who may happen to be in the vicinity.
The driver is the human being in the chain of responsibility to make the best decision at every decision point that could cause catastrophe.
No authority is going to allow the majority of blame to be shuffled off to those who may have contributed to such catastrophes, and there definitely are many other people making decisions that could have detrimental effects on every outcome.
The drivers’ consideration must be that they, and only they, have all the responsibility to make the appropriate decisions at every step along the way; from ensuring the load is properly loaded, to every minuscule decision along the way. The driver must never just hook up to a preloaded trailer and drive away unless and until they have opened the doors, inspected the load and are satisfied the load is safe to be considered roadworthy.
Oh, but there’s a seal on the door? Now what? Well, cut it off, examine the load, be satisfied it’s safe for travel, re-seal the trailer, hook up and leave. Most shippers will hand you a seal with your paperwork and if they do not, ask them for a seal. The point is, never ever fail to examine the load and if it isn’t right for you, either have them reload to your specifications or refuse to take the load. Sure, there may be some discussions, but since you are ultimately responsible for whatever happens make sure you know it’s loaded properly to your standards. Do not allow anyone to say to you “this is the way we do it” or “this is how it has to be loaded to accommodate the receiver”. Well, driver, the answer is that it will be loaded to accommodate the one and only person who is responsible to get this load to be unloaded at the other end damage free. This is you. Do not be bullied, especially by someone who bears no responsibility.
Never ever be ashamed to admit you’re not qualified to do a specific job. When you find situations where you’re uncomfortable with your knowledge base, ask that old hand for advice. Ask for help, ask to be shown, ask questions, but do not ever assume you know how to do a particular task especially if you’ve never done it before.
Truck drivers face new situations every minute of every day. They have to make thousands of decisions every day. Many of those decisions are based on experience, training, common sense, and combinations thereof. But decisions based on guessing may result in catastrophic outcomes. A truck driver who doesn’t learn something every single day of their career has wasted a day. Obviously, from the incident and wreck statistics happening on today’s highways, there are many wasted days.
When a driver accepts a load, they are certifying they are qualified to take that load and they know and will follow all the rules and regulations applicable to that load. It’s not just picking up the load and delivering the load without a claim. It’s really all those silly millimetres between the pick-up and delivery. It’s about compliance. It’s about skill and being totally aware of every detail requiring consideration.
If the driver feels even the slightest, their knowledge, their experience, their skill may have a negative outcome, then they must ask the questions to ensure no negative outcome happens.
Is that a big responsibility? No! It’s a huge responsibility. One that is never to be taken lightly. At the start of every task, the most culpable responsible person, the driver, must ask: Am I fit to complete this task? Is my equipment fit to complete this task? What rules, regulations and laws apply to this load for this particular trip? Are there any obstructions along the suggested route, and if so, what are the route variations available? What is plan B? Proper planning prevents poor performance. Remember that.
