Yet another example of abject corporate stupidity...

[soberups]

The policy regarding hitting animals and chargeable accidents in my building has always been the correct one...that hitting an animal on a public road is deemed to be unavoidable. The logic behind this is simple and sound; our #1 responsibility on a public road is to maintain our lane and mantain control of the car, even if it means hitting an animal.

We were just told in a meeting that Corporate, in its infinite wisdom, has changed that policy. The determining factor in avoidability vs unavoidability will now be whether or not the animal is domestic or wild.

Thats right...its OK to hit a deer or a chipmunk, but not a dog or a goat. The actual, real world circumstances (road conditions, traffic, speed, visibility, proximity to pedestrians) now mean nothing and the sole criterion for whether or not the accident is deemed "avoidable" will be the species of the animal and whether or not somebody has made it into a pet or was raising it to be eaten.

The frightening part to me is that, somewhere in the bowels of our corporate offices in Atlanta, there sits a human being who came up with this policy....and that human being is allowed to breed offspring, vote in elections, and operate dangerous items like staplers without any sort of oversight.

God help us all.

 

[curiousbrain]

[...]

The frightening part to me is that, somewhere in the bowels of our corporate offices in Atlanta, there sits a human being who came up with this policy....and that human being is allowed to breed offspring, vote in elections, and operate dangerous items like staplers without any sort of oversight.[...]

They might even be President some day.

 

[barnyard]

They tried to do that at our center 2ish years ago. I asked, "What are you going to do when you find a UPSer dead in a ditch?? That person will have swerved to avoid someone's dog in the road, instead that driver went in the ditch and broke his/her neck when the lap belt did not stop them from going into the windshield."

I then went on to add, "You can going to deem the crash avoidable, because you will never know about the dog that our dead driver swerved to avoid."

Very quietly, but loud enough for the center manager to hear I said, " all of you."

 

[Re-Raise]

If I don't feel I can continue safely with the dog running alongside my package car should I shut her down until management can arrive and instruct me on how to proceed?

 

[scratch]

They started charging us if we hit a dog in the street a couple of years ago. I guess it took a little while for this insanity to drift over to the West Coast.

 

[over9five]

If I don't feel I can continue safely with the dog running alongside my package car should I shut her down until management can arrive and instruct me on how to proceed?

Run over the damn dog unless you have run over two others within the past year.

I don't know if this is true, but I hear if you hit a dear or something HERE it is unavoidable unless the IVIS shows you were going 1 mph or more over the speed limit.

 

[What'dyabringmetoday???]

If I am going to run over something it won't be a dog.

 

[anonymous6]

you gonna swerve to miss a domestic animal and instead hit a little 6 year old girl getting ready to cross the street????

sober....who do I call???

I'll call the stupid sob first thing monday morning.

 

[Catatonic]

They might even be President some day.

May already be ...

 

[hubrat]

They may re-think this inane policy when pet owners realize our company is finding us at fault for this. There is a leash law in my county and if I hit a dog in the street the law is on my side. If the company holds me responsible they admit liability and HELLO LAWSUIT.

I went through this a couple years ago and posted about it here on the BC. The dog ran out beside my moving package car, bit a tire, and got flipped over a couple times. He was ok, and the owner took responsibility. Some idiot tried to charge me with an avoidable accident. I told my center manager I would be sure and let the owner know this and they could pay his vet bill and maybe even hear from his attorney. The issue was dropped. I was never charged.

Roads are built for vehicles. Too many people think they are an extension of their yard. If your kids/dogs need more room to roam, get off your lazy butt and take them to a park.

 

[Re-Raise]

What about a pet bird? I have many Falconers on my route.. I am just saying..

 

[Driveslayer]

What if I hit a pet Coyote who was eating a wild dog in the middle of the street?

 

[wornoutupser]

Crap!
Here in Florida its alligators....what if it was someones pet??? Would I be charged??

 

[hurricanegunner]

How about pet rocks the customer may have dropped in the road?

 

[hubrat]

OMG y'all are freaking hilarious!

No matter what it is I feel bad about it. That's punishment to me. I cried like a baby. I actually expected a pat on the back. Can't believe I was ever that green. If I hadn't been driving professionally that dog woulda been hurt bad or killed.

 

[soberups]

They tried to do that at our center 2ish years ago. I asked, "What are you going to do when you find a UPSer dead in a ditch?? ."

Somebody from Corporate would probably show up at the funeral, hand a warning letter to his wife, and ask her to recite the Ten Point Commentary so that they could "close out his file."

 

[moreluck]

Sorry, but I have to interject after mention of a funeral.......when my hubby was a preload mgr., a bunch of his preload guys were going hunting for the weekend. This was in Utah. They all stayed in a cabin in the woods there were 5 or 6 (i forget). They all died in their sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning. My hubby attended all the separate funerals for a week. It really tore him up to lose people so young and in such a tragic way. It was gut wrenching. Probably shouldn't joke about funerals!

 

[tourists24]

let em say avoidable or unavoidable all they want.... stupidity is still stupidity.... if they want to try and take a job then let me take something like that to panel.... short of that, keep your stupid safe driving recognition

 

[hubrat]

Here's another: guy approaches a dead end, turns left, never even looks to the right to see that I am turning left onto the street he's coming out of. He said the sun was in his eyes. Well, yeah, the sun was to his left. If he woulda bothered at all to look right he woulda seen me and shade. I was honking my horn the whole time. Cop faulted him but issued no citation. My center manager came out, didn't even take any pics because it was so clearly unavoidable. I finished the route no problem, and later when my on car was interviewing me he asked what I could have done to avoid it. I said nothing other than be at the bar around the corner. Everybody who actually talked to anyone involved agreed that this was unavoidable on my part.

Well some twit did an investigation which must have entailed only reading the police report and not comprehending what she read. I was charged with avoidable, didn't find out until the on-car had transfered and center manager had retired.

IMO the people making their stupid policies are the same idiots multitasking on the road and putting people in danger. They clearly know nothing about professional driving.

The guy that hit me was a nice old silver haired man, owned a business on my route. Lmao he was looking for his girlfriend's car to meet her for lunch when he hit me. He retired soon after. Now, if I were in his shoes and I found out that the company faulted their driver, I would let my insurance company know, perhaps a lawyer as well, so they could collect the money to fix my brand new BMW. Back then I never would've thought of telling him. I would've protected my company. I guess ignorance was bliss for a while, and I do still find the lack of concern for and trust in one's employees a bit shocking.

Btw I do take responsibility when it's mine. I scraped a nice eight foot line down the side on a mailbox tongue once. And I had one tier 3 that I could've easily avoided by not trying to drive with a broken ankle (an avoidable injury earlier that day...slipped on the wet steps of the package car). Hard to believe it took 'em years to demote the guy who sent me back out. Of course, by the time they did he had screwed up a whole lotta other stuff, including a couple careers.

Apologies for venting. I'm usually at least a little more diplomatic about the company. I enjoy my job immensely, but I'm tiring of being harassed with unfair production standards by "an entity" that cares nothing about my safety or comfort.

My caution here is dust in the wind. Just because you pay me well doesn't give you the right to treat me like crap. I have given you that permission thus far. I'm glad that so many ppl here feel they are treated so well that they can't identify with the rest of us. I am relieved to know that there is some integrity still around. Enjoy it. IMO, it's fleeting.

 

[stewardtwoniner]

This one ain't that hard to figure out. I'm surprised one of you didn't come up with the answer. Fido has an owner. When you run him over the owner sues us. Bambi is a wild animal with no owner. No owner no claim.