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Why is it the truckers always at fault?

by Mr. Shagg
(Illinois)

It's not the trucker's fault dude!

Why is it so important for companies to blame the truckers for everything when they are the ones making the company money?

By the way, I have a clean record.

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Feb 22, 2023
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What is the truckers fault?
by: The Crazy Trucker

lol, what exactly is the trucker's fault?

Whether they are the one's making the money or not has nothing to do with it.

Generally speaking people tend to want to blame other's. So that's the society we live in.

If you are supposed to be somewhere at 9 but the dispatcher told you 10. And he/she acts like you should have been there at 9 anyway instead of waiting until 10. Then it applies that they are shifting the blame.

A different scenario....

If at 0800 he DID say be there at 9 and you're 20 miles away and you got there at 9:10 because you stopped for 20 minutes and part of the trip was rural so you lost time. It's not his/her fault.

But many drivers might say it was dispatch or trucking companies fault for giving you the load with so little time to get there.

That's the driver shifting blame.

Another scenario:

Dispatcher sends you to a 0900 pickup at 0800. You are 20 miles away.

You head straight over there. Halfway there is an accident that holds you up for 30 minutes.

You arrive at shipper 09:15.

Dispatcher or trucking company is not there. But they may blame you for being late.

You might blame him/her for dispatching with so little time to get there.

The reality is no one is the blame. Life can be like that a lot. STILL we like to place blame on someone because by default many of us feel like someone HAS to be a fault.

Some times no one is a fault or deserves blame. It's just a matter of taking the time to see if from the other person's perspective.

And reserve the need to place blame.

Then you have to take into account of the people involved.

Are both individuals competent, reliable, effective at communicating, etc.

If one feel the other is failing at any of those it could be easy to see them at blame.

Also when it comes to accidents/incidents a dispatcher/safety/company representative might make a suggestion as to how a similar situation might be avoided in the future.

We this is not necessarily placing blame. It's an attempt to bring about awareness to help avoid the situation again because it reduces (theoritically) the potential liability. Of course they don't want incidents or accidents no matter WHO is at fault.

But sometimes we take offense very easily and interpret such feedback or suggestions as an attack.

So the question you ask is interesting however, there is a LOT of nuance required to address such a question.

It's too vague and general.

If you asked about a specific situation you might like the answer better. Feel free to ask again with a reference to a specific situation.

By the way if we're talking about accidents, yes we all know the driver will be heavily scrutinized and it's because we are supposed to be professionals and the 4wheelers are not.

Even though often they are at fault, sometimes because of our experience it is assumed that we should be better at anticipating, avoiding, maneuvering prior to or while in the middle of an accident.

Some times it's true. Some times it's not.

Life as a trucker is interesting is it not! lol

The professional truck driver

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