Feeder safety concern, looking for your opinion

[UPS4Life]

Like the title says interested in hearing what others think about transporting Dolly's in trailers. They are "secured" with those wood blocks so they don't slide forward or back stand them on end and wrap the chains underneath so when they come out there's a nice fresh load of grease all over the dolly chains. Just looking for input

 

[Dracula]

Are those blocks secured by anything? Are they screwed to the floor?

 

[UPS4Life]

Screwed to the floor with about an inch maybe 2 inches into the board

 

[QKRSTKR]

Is the safety concern getting grease on your gloves?

 

[UPS4Life]

Is the safety concern getting grease on your gloves?

No that's just a pain lol safety concern is what is keeping these Dolly's from going through the plywood trailer with an aluminum side if I slam on the brakes, or better yet I get into an accident and the dolly comes out of the trailer and hits another car because the dolly themselves are not secured in anyway except that tiny piece of wood

 

[QKRSTKR]

I get it. Didn't realize you had to pull them. I've seen the trailers around loaded like that.

Be nice if the tanks still had air in the and you could lock the brakes. Seems like that would help. Guess if they are packed in tight they should stay put. Of course all depends on scenarios.

 

[UPS4Life]

I get it. Didn't realize you had to pull them. I've seen the trailers around loaded like that.

Be nice if the tanks still had air in the and you could lock the brakes. Seems like that would help. Guess if they are packed in tight they should stay put. Of course all depends on scenarios.

They use to lock the brakes without wood blocks that was it. If you stop immediately or for some reason lay it over what is keeping them secure or in the trailer? I just think it's an accident waiting to happen. Maybe I'm too paranoid and always think of the worst case scenario.

 

[Jones]

I guess the trick would be to avoid situations where you have to slam on the brakes? Lotsa big heavy stuff gets transported in trailers every day that could do some serious damage if the rig is involved in an accident. Drive safe, it's what we get paid to do.

 

[UPS4Life]

I guess the trick would be to avoid situations where you have to slam on the brakes? Lotsa big heavy stuff gets transported in trailers every day that could do some serious damage if the rig is involved in an accident. Drive safe, it's what we get paid to do.

So everything that goes on a flat bed could get put in a dry van unsecured? I know what my job is I just think it's a safety concern. Here's a better question is this legal?

 

[Dracula]

If it were me, I'd bring it up with my safety committee. Our committee has a meeting every other week, and any driver can attend. In these meetings, something like this would get brought up and our managers would be pressed to explain if this were safe. If not, what else could be done about it? I know many places have worthless safety committees, but that is not the case here. We can actually get things done, because we put them on the spot about any safety issues. And, to our feeder manager's credit, they actually get things done.

Or, maybe talk to your stewards. Good luck with that.

Actually, if those dollies were properly secured, it would seem to be the best option. Chances are, those are red tagged dollies, and no driver should ever pull a red tag dolly. But UPS needs to secure those dollies. If you think that trailer is unsafe, grab a steward and tell them you don't think it is safe and you don't want to pull the trailer. It's not like this is a hot load, and anyway, if it is unsafe, it wouldn't matter if it were hot.

 

[Jones]

So everything that goes on a flat bed could get put in a dry van unsecured? I know what my job is I just think it's a safety concern. Here's a better question is this legal?

Articles of cargo that are likely to roll must be restrained by chocks, wedges, a cradle or other equivalent means to prevent rolling. The means of preventing rolling must not be capable of becoming unintentionally unfastened or loose while the vehicle is in transit. Articles of cargo placed beside each other and secured by transverse tiedowns must be:

1. Placed in direct contact with each other, or
2. Prevented from shifting towards each other while in transit.

- See more at: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/cargo-securement/cargo-securement-rules#sthash.h3HDiqx0.dpuf

 

[retiredTxfeeder]

That's the way UPS does when they have too many dollies at one location. Been shipping them that way for years. I doubt anything you say will change their minds about their procedure. Just work as directed and if anything happens, just say I told ya so.

 

[Myleftsideistan]

Welcome to trucking.

 

[Dracula]

I guess the trick would be to avoid situations where you have to slam on the brakes? Lotsa big heavy stuff gets transported in trailers every day that could do some serious damage if the rig is involved in an accident. Drive safe, it's what we get paid to do.

Yeah, but we have brakes for a reason. Sometimes you have no choice but to hit the anchors hard. Part of driving safe is determining what is safe BEFORE we leave.

So everything that goes on a flat bed could get put in a dry van unsecured? I know what my job is I just think it's a safety concern. Here's a better question is this legal?

Like I said, if the dollies were secured properly, I would imagine that it would be legal. I believe that is how we get our new dollies. But, if you're right, and these weren't secured, I would tell your on road sup that you were going to call the DOT to confirm how these were moved and who authorized it. Put the weight on management.

 

[Dracula]

That's the way UPS does when they have too many dollies at one location. Been shipping them that way for years. I doubt anything you say will change their minds about their procedure. Just work as directed and if anything happens, just say I told ya so.

Yeah, told you so with a few witnesses as being instructed to. If something happened and he didn't have any witnesses, this driver would be hung out with the dirty laundry.

 

[MoarTape]

They have had an outside company load them up on a flatbed and haul them out of newpa before.

 

[retiredTxfeeder]

I'll give you another example. Down here in the district I worked in, we had 3 or 4 flatbed trailers with rollers built in that were used to transport air containers. They were used only when necessary, but they saw a lot of use. During peak, they rented about 4 more flatbeds and bolted down sets of rollers like they used in the buildings to go between package cars during preload. They loaded air containers on those and strapped them down with nylon straps. They also came up with some angle iron to go over the bottom edges of the cans. About half my night was pulling air trailers. They asked my input to make them safer. I went to Lowe's and bought some hardware and put it together in my garage. For about 25 bucks/trailer it made them probably about 75% more safe to pull. They said good idea, but it takes too much time to secure the cans, so thanks, but no thanks. That year we had 3 cans roll off those trailers in traffic, and one caused a multi-car accident with injuries. That extra 5-10 minutes cost too much in labor to implement, in their opinion. They also wanted to strap only the rear can down and not the 3 towards the front. I finally convinced them to strap all 4 down, at least.

 

[UPS4Life]

They have had an outside company load them up on a flatbed and haul them out of newpa before.

We had brought it up in safety and told they can't force us to haul dolly trailers. Sooooo you would think that it's not safe? After it was brought up a couple times I did start seeing them flat bedded in and was impressed with that but after two or three times the flat beds were gone and the upsz's were back.

 

[Brown Now]

Common practice for carriers that deal with pups and dollies. You get too many in one location and that's how they get them moved. I've pulled many a trailer filled with dollies. Not a big deal.

 

[retiredTxfeeder]

I never had to pull a trailer with dollies in it in my 29 years in feeders, cause I was mainly local. Used to, we had our mechanics load them up with some kind of extension on the forklift. The last couple of years, they had some kind of contract with a wrecker company that came out and loaded them up that way.