Is Safety Your Call?

It seems like an easy answer but it's not. So you're a truck driver and you're assigned tractor 32 but you believe the brakes are not working properly.

Let's back up, (sorry, no pun intended) you know the brakes aren't working properly after the last time you drove the vehicle. Another common situation is when the truck doesn't have the proper licensing which could jeopardize your Commerical Driver's license. Do you drive the vehicle?

Let's take another scenario. You're a foreman and you're told to cut rebar without training or adequate safety gear.. do you proceed?

These are just a few examples of the problems employees encounter daily across the country.

The simple answer to the truck driver is contact your supervisor and have the truck sent to the garage. Things get a little complicated when the mechanic from the garage says there's nothing wrong with the brakes or the dispatcher says the licenses ARE updated. However, the weigh station says, technically the licenses the truck has are sufficient but if you get pulled over by the police, your CDL license is at risk. The next action is to contact the owner and explain the problem. This could be problematic because the owner doesn't want to be bothered, that's why they employ supervisors- to fix the problems.

Let's tackle the rebar cutter's situation. Whatever you do, don't walk off the job and wait until the problem is resolved. If you are told to go home, come back to work at your next scheduled shift. Don't wait for your employer to call you, they likely won't. Chances are they will have found another uninformed worker to do your job and you will be considered to have abandoned your job. Has this happened to you???