How stupid can people be?

[CanAmAndMore]

As the owner of a fleet of semis, and a lot of heavy equipment, plus many company pickups, cars, and suvs, the employees need to be cut some slack to.

They are also entitled to lunch and breaks, so if they stop somewhere that is their right.
Many of my drivers take the trucks home, instead of back to the work yards, if saves them driving their own vehicles back and forth. Between owners, and operators, there should be some give and take. Slavery was abolished long ago, but seems some business owners didn't get that memo! I'm really glad to be self employed, and not work for these jerks.
They probably pay crappy to.

 

[Pew]

As the owner of a fleet of semis, and a lot of heavy equipment, plus many company pickups, cars, and suvs, the employees need to be cut some slack to.

They are also entitled to lunch and breaks, so if they stop somewhere that is their right.
Many of my drivers take the trucks home, instead of back to the work yards, if saves them driving their own vehicles back and forth. Between owners, and operators, there should be some give and take. Slavery was abolished long ago, but seems some business owners didn't get that memo! I'm really glad to be self employed, and not work for these jerks.
They probably pay crappy to.

I absolutely agree that some slack has to be given to the employees but I think the issue (with what's being brought up in the OP) is when the employee with a company-owned vehicle abuses the use of the vehicle and starts using it for personal task; ie: driving to the bar or a friend's house.

Our employees take the vehicles home with them so our biggest issue is folks unplugging the GPS devices, thinking we don't know when they do, and using it for their own personal use. These vehicles are insured through the company so it becomes a huge risk if a car accident occurs, with people pointing fingers at one another, and killing our insurance and OHSA rates as well as trying to make us foot the extra gas bills. Our vehicles also have the company name and number on them and we have had some folks call in and complain. We've been playing around with the idea of installing dashcams in all of our vehicles as well because half the people we've been hiring in the past 5 years seem to crash on an occasional basis.

 

[97prizm]

I know.... Loaded question.

The place I work for has about 30 trucks and 50 or so pieces of equipment like bulldozers,excavators etc.

Everything has a gps tracker on it. Every employee knows this.

They have fired 3 guys this in the last 4 weeks or so for taking company vehicles to places they should not be.

Caught one guy doing side work on company time with company tractor. Another guy was going bar hopping on weekends in his assigned truck.

Now today they fired a guy for going out of route every day to the same house,every morning in the company truck on company time. Don't know if he has girl on the side or drugs or what.

How stupid does a person have to be to know they are being tracked but still does stuff to get caught?

What's the kicker is that the company does allow us to stop if on route to grab food as long as we don't take too long.

At this point im not surprised. I worked for a fairly large Lexus dealership a few years back. One of the Infotainment tech advisors (there are two per dealership) took a brand new RX350 home for about a month. He put 1200 miles on it. He would park it at the bottom of the corner from the service entrance. The only reason he was caught was that he left his jacket in the vehicle. We had a lot tech sent out to go pick up a customer in Wyoming. He took a cpo audi S3 off the lot and then hit a bird doing 110. It destroyed the hood and grill. He was also pulled over by Wyo State Patrol who was following him for 8 miles for doing over 90 mph.

 

[DuckRyder]

There are IRS rules around personal use as well, so even incidental personal use is reportable. Eating lunch isn’t personal use, but any little side trips could be. It goes without saying that using equipment for side jobs is straight into fired territory.

Whether you are in overnight status away from your domicile plays into it as well .

 

[sk_pete]

Can GPS track your speed ?

I‘m guilty of speeding on the highway if conditions are safe.

Even if not, you can calculate it, because distance/time=speed

 

[I<3oil]

Think of how stupid the average person is and then halve that.

 

[brianl703]

Seems local govt employees use municipal vehicles for personal errands, so it’s not outlandish that private employees might do the same.

Traffic signals supervisor employed by one city in Virginia was running his own LLC doing traffic signal work for a neighboring city...using that city's time and equipment. When I found out about it I let someone connected with his employer know. All they did was tell him not to do it anymore. Should've fired him, in addition to being unethical he's also incompetent.

 

[brianl703]

It goes without saying that using equipment for side jobs is straight into fired territory.

Unless you're employed by local government, apparently.

 

[CanAmAndMore]

I personally lowbedded a hoe and dozer of mine to an employees property, and dropped it off for him to use 2 months ago.
Gave him a week off work to excavate his land to build.

 

[dlundblad]

One answer.

Good help is hard to find.

 

[CanAmAndMore]

One answer.

Good help is hard to find.

And a good employer is even harder to find.

 

[fisher83]

About 15+ years ago I worked for a lawn service that did mostly granular treatments. Every year at least one or two guys would get fired for ghosting lawns. They would ring the doorbell and if nobody answered they would just fill out the invoice and not actually put down the fertilizer. It was glaringly obvious to the customers and to the service manager who went out there to check out the complaints.

 

[Chris142]

As the owner of a fleet of semis,

Don't get me me started on semi truck drivers! We have a clown that flat out won't adjust brakes. I'm up to my ears in work plus all the stuff that gets thrown in my lap daily that's an emergency.

Wonder how many red tags he will get at the scales before he decides to start carrying a 9/16 wrench?

 

[CanAmAndMore]

Don't get me me started on semi truck drivers! We have a clown that flat out won't adjust brakes. I'm up to my ears in work plus all the stuff that gets thrown in my lap daily that's an emergency.

Wonder how many red tags he will get at the scales before he decides to start carrying a 9/16 wrench?

I'm surprised that the automatic slack adjusters aren't working.
They need to be greased regularly, and don't use a really thick grease in them.
If not working, replace them, they are very easy to change.
When I find too much slack, the slack adjuster gets replaced asap.
Your company mechanics should also be catching most of them, when the trucks are going through the shop for regular maintenance.

 

[Chris142]

I'm surprised that the automatic slack adjusters aren't working.
They need to be greased regularly, and don't use a really thick grease in them.
If not working, replace them, they are very easy to change.
When I find too much slack, the slack adjuster gets replaced asap.
Your company mechanics should also be catching most of them, when the trucks are going through the shop for regular maintenance.

Ummm. They are manual adjusters. You need a 9/16 wrench to adjust them. They work as designed if someone actually does a pre trip and adjusts them which takes 10 seconds.

I'm the only mechanic. I'd check them out if I ever saw them. They leave the yard long before I get there and get in long after I'm home in bed.

 

[jeepman3071]

People think they can do whatever they want sometimes. We make it clear to our employees that all vehicles are GPS tracked and all IT equipment activity can be tracked as well. They all sign acceptable use agreements outlining this as well and they're surprised and act all innocent when caught.

Yep, a lot of it isn't stupidity but arrogance. I work in IT at a state university, and the arrogance of some of the faculty, staff and students feeling they are above the policies/above the law is mind blowing. Even when they are caught they don't act innocent, but instead claim that since they are Dr. So and so they don't have to follow the rules.

 

[zzyzzx]

Yep, a lot of it isn't stupidity but arrogance. I work in IT at a state university, and the arrogance of some of the faculty, staff and students feeling they are above the policies/above the law is mind blowing. Even when they are caught they don't act innocent, but instead claim that since they are Dr. So and so they don't have to follow the rules.

Can you provide any specific stories?

 

[CanAmAndMore]

Ummm. They are manual adjusters. You need a 9/16 wrench to adjust them. They work as designed if someone actually does a pre trip and adjusts them which takes 10 seconds.

I'm the only mechanic. I'd check them out if I ever saw them. They leave the yard long before I get there and get in long after I'm home in bed.

Here, those have been against the law for about 20 years now. A truck cannot pass inspection with manual slacks.
So I just assumed that was the same all over.

I'm old, so well aware of the old manual slacks to.

Every one of my 72 semi trucks, and trailers goes through my shop every 6 weeks for a full service as well.
The trucks and trailers don't make it back out the door until anything like that is fixed. The parts department always has plenty of slacks, S cam, shafts, bushings, shoes, drums, wheel seals, air pots, hoses, etc in it at all times.
Maintenance is more important than anything else at a trucking company.

 

[Chris142]

Here, those have been against the law for about 20 years now. A truck cannot pass inspection with manual slacks.
So I just assumed that was the same all over.

I'm old, so well aware of the old manual slacks to.

Every one of my 72 semi trucks, and trailers goes through my shop every 6 weeks for a full service as well.
The trucks and trailers don't make it back out the door until anything like that is fixed. The parts department always has plenty of slacks, S cam, shafts, bushings, shoes, drums, wheel seals, air pots, hoses, etc in it at all times.
Maintenance is more important than anything else at a trucking company.

Illegal? Not illegal but are required on stuff built after a certain year. Ours are older. I get it about maintenance. It's just that I'm it. I'm the mobil mechanic,in shop mechanic,mobil welder etc. Only so much I can do in a day

 

[PF52]

I kind of wish our company would put tracking equipment in our trucks. We have a couple guys who take their trucks home - it's against the rules because there is equipment in the trucks licensed by NRC and/or IEMA and the license stipulates it be stored at our facility when not in use. It mainly bugs me when I come in and "Chad"s car is covered in snow (because he left it there overnight) because he took his truck home instead. But then he lies when I call him out for doing so! I seem to be the only one that cares.