It wouldn't hurt the shifter to check for this as well.
But that would mean they would have to get down out of the tractor. And you know how likely that would be.....
d
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Very good gentleman, I knew I left that opening and you both saw it , and ran your points right through. I knew I left that opening but didn't have the time and energy to partially close it and I now I will attempt to do so.
You both are partially right, the guy in the shifter could take care of it. But to make himself aware of the problem, he has to take an extra 20 seconds and exert himself with a lot more effort than the unloader who initially handled the restraining strap. At some point that metal male bracket was in the unloader's hand as he disengaged it from the female bracket on the inside of the trailer. When he disengages the last one, instead of walking it over to the other side and reengaging it to another hole, he walks it over and throws it towards the side and towards the back so that the harness is out of the way. He can't throw it towards the front because there are boxes in the way.
So after it is unloaded , the shifter gets the call and comes hook up . He honks the horn, backs up, stops just before fifth wheel touches trailer and gets out and walks the driver's side of the trailer and yells "coupling" as he walks and bangs the side of the trailer and listens for signs of activity as well as voices protesting saying 'hold on, we ain't finished yet" or something to that effect. Now he is at the back of the trailer but because it is flush with the bay door, he is lucky if he able to be able to see a peak of the inside of the building through the crack between the trailer and cement blocks around the edge of the bay door, but he can't see into the trailer itself to see if there is a strap there and if it is close enough to the back to fall out.
Now that the driver is satisfied that there is no activity inside trailer, he steps back into the shifter and honks horn and backs up under the trailer, As he hooks up the glad hands of the air hoses, he might even bang one more time and yell "coupling". He hears no activity or voices yelling out and steps back into the shifter and raises the trailer and pulls out.
Now, if he really wanted to ascertain that there was a strap that might fall out , he would have to stop the shifter after moving 4 feet or so , get out and walk to the back and see and if so, he might simply throw the piece of metal with the accompanying strap towards the front. Sometimes that won't work as the strap is going to fall out anyway due to bumps, the incline of the trailer and any inclines he has drive over. So, now he would have to climb the dot bar on the back and use and potentially bang his knees to climb into the trailer and get uniform dirty(for which he would later get yelled at for having a dirty uniform ) and reattach the metal of the strap. We are talking about an extra 20 to 40 seconds and we all know some feeders can't make that climb. Plus this is not part of the methods and adds time to the "move" and the people in the yard control part of the feeder department have to now wonder why their "time per move" is going up.
The job would take three seconds for the unloader to do, with metal buckle already in hand and he doesn't have to climb and risk injuring himself to hook it up to the other side. 40 seconds for a feeder driver to do while dirtying himself and risking injury. Which one seems more time efficient and safe?
And yes, I have on occasion when just about to back a trailer with the truck and trailer on a slight angle and thus was able to see the yellow strap hanging, and then I got out and threw it right back in knowing that the 40 feet I needed to back up wasn't going to add enough force to have the buckle bounce back off the trailer. You can argue that this would be the time to look and take care of a potential strap problem. Still adds 15 second to 20 seconds to the process and at that point, you might be blocking the yard unnecessarily too long to do a task that could have easily be done by another person who once held that buckle in his hand