Another freak accident

RTURNSONLY

Well-Known Member
Another news link I saw had a Ground truck pic but that doesn't mean anything, they don't know the difference. It didn't specified any opco though.
 

xFed

Member
Switch off engine, place trans. in gear or Park, pull E-brake
Yep...follow procedure. As FedEx pushes harder, we all need to remember basic safety and not let them force us out of good safety habits.
Please don't automatically blame the driver, it could very easily have been a mechanical "malfunction"...
I don't know about the ground/HD trucks, but at express; While all sprinters and newer walk-ins (W-xxx) have actual E-brakes, The majority of W700 and W900 trucks in the express fleet do NOT have E-brakes. Most of these vehicles have a yellow diamond shaped "parking brake" pull-knob. This yellow knob is NOT an E-brake, in fact it is NOT any kind of brake at all. It is simply a secondary actuator to engage the transmission's PARK "gear". If the parking gear fails, then that heavy truck will easily roll down a hill regardless of whether or not you pulled up on that useless yellow knob. Personally, I have had a W700 parking gear fail on me 3 times in the 10 years I have worked for express, so it absolutely DOES happen.

To be fair, one could argue that the truck should always be parked with the tire facing into a curb, or a tree,etc. (if there is no curb).. but the point is that FedEx is aware of the issue, and has decided that the cost of retrofitting the fleet with actual E-brakes is too expensive. The safety of their employees (and everyone around them) is not as important as profits...
 
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