Week 24 – The Injury

Week Ending 1/27/07

Loads Delivered: 2

Total Miles: 2474
* Loaded: 1044
* Empty: 1430

Gross Pay: $1,049.60
* Mileage Pay: $989.60
* Accessorial: $60.00

Hours Logged: 68.75
* Driving: 49.5
* On-Duty: 19.25

$/Hour $15.27

Off-Duty - Not Logged: 7.25
* @ Customer: 1
* In Laurinburg: 6.25
* Waiting Assignment:

All Hours: 76

Actual $/Hour: $13.81
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Load 1:

Deadhead: Clayton, NC Thursday, January 18, 2007
Shipper: Laurinburg, NC Friday, January 19, 2007
Consignee: Owatonna, MN Monday, January 22, 2007
Commodity: glass

Uneventful trip.
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Load 2:

Deadhead: Owatonna, MN Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Shipper: Dewitt, IA Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Consignee: Laurinburg, NC Thursday, January 25, 2007
Commodity: Decked Trailers

My injury occurred on January 24th, when I was instructed to pick up 2 trailers in DeWitt, IA and take to Laurinburg. When I arrived, both trailers were in the A-frame position and had to be broken down, as well as the trailer I had with me. I was very fortunate to have another Driver help me. Both trailers at DeWitt had problems, and we worked for 4 hours on the 3 trailers, but finally had to stop, when one of the trailers had a bad actuator rod that was bent and wouldn't come down.

The Driver that helped me had a pigtail transformer lead that my truck didn't have. I was told there was a truck available at the yard with the lead I needed, so I called for a mechanic to meet me there the next morning to repair the hydraulic, but he never showed. In addition, the truck I was told I could use to bring down the transformer wouldn't start, and since my truck was not set up for pigtail transformer leads, I had to switch trailers and bring back a converter instead. It was also in the A-frame position, and it was the pneumatic rods that support the wings on that trailer that failed, causing my back injury. This is something I couldn’t have known until I was under the wing, but the person who put it into the A-frame position would have known, but ignored it.