We hear about it all time. Unsafe drivers causing accidents on the road, resulting in damaged cargo and spills, fatalities and injuries, violations, and smuggling crimes. Isn’t it about time you pay more attention to who is handling your trucks and freight?
Let’s take a look at two cases from the past week…
You’ve heard of it raining cats and dogs but what about chickens? That’s what happened Wednesday morning when an unsafe driver spilled his load of frozen chicken across Ga. 369.
Robert Eason was driving for Hunt & Sons, based in Alabama, when his truck “left the road,” causing Eason to quickly swerve the tractor trailer back onto the highway, resulting in the truck flipping over, ajc.com notes.
There could be a number of reasons why Eason’s vehicle exited the road. The driver could have been tired or distracted, perhaps reaching for something that caused the steering wheel to turn and the truck to leave the road, all of which demonstrate unsafe driving practices that could have turned into a larger accident. Police cited Eason with “failure to maintain lane,” the site notes.
Not only did the road need to be closed for over six hours so that the spill could be cleaned, along with the damage done to the tractor trailer, costing the carrier money, but the shipper loses out as well, for now their shipment has been contaminated and deemed useless, leading to one dissatisfied customer who was about to receive the cargo.
Then again, how often does a load of chickens get spilled on a highway right? Wrong! According to the site, this was the second chicken spill in north Georgia in a week!
Not only did your driver cost your company money in damages and potentially lose a customer, but the event draws attention to your company’s name as well and the last thing any company wants is a bad reputation.
Now let’s look at a California trucking company, the name yet to be released, whose driver (Armando Guzman) and co-driver (Javier Cruz) were pulled over last Saturday for a series of violations, including “following too closely to mile marker 306” and inconsistent log books, herald-citizen.com notes. But what police discovered turned out to be the biggest violation of all…
The drivers consented to the trooper’s request to have the trailer searched and a trained dog uncovered several duct-taped bundles of money totaling $4,078,713, “hidden inside sealed cases of bottled water,” in what turns out to have been a drug-trafficking scheme (http://www.herald-citizen.com/view/full_story/12376480/article-Breaking-news—4-million-in-cash-seized-from-alleged-drug-trafficking-case?instance=homefirstleft).
The drivers are now being charged and the tractor trailer was seized by authorities.
This case demonstrates the importance of background checks on all drivers, one of the reasons why Road Scholar Transport not only performs checks on all new hires, but conducts regular checks on drivers as well. Shippers can also easily verify a driver’s verification online at www.roadscholar.com, so you know that your cargo is in safe hands.
Imagine your freight being used as a decoy in a scheme? Your cargo could easily be tampered with during transport, which is why it is important to choose a carrier with advanced security features like Road Scholar.
With satellite tracking capabilities, Road Scholar monitors a driver’s progress and notes of any off route stops, keeping in contact with the driver at all times. With electronic door monitoring capabilities, Road Scholar is able to pinpoint every time a driver opened or closed the trailer door which, in the case above, the drivers would have needed to reopen the door to stash the money.
On a scale of 1-5, how confident are you in your drivers?
supposed to be transporting tomatoes.
