Over the years I've heard statistically that the first and the last hour are the most dangerous of a driver's shift. I tried to do some research on this subject and could not find any documentation to back it up. The deal here is, there is no way to eliminate the first or the last hour of any given duty cycle. It's understandable that the first hour can be full of situations that may encourage a driver to rush which could lead to an unfortunate incident and likewise the same situation could happen from either a driver rushing through the last hour or dropping their guard.
I had this very situation happen to me on the last hour of my last day on the road this last week. I deliver to a location near my home on a regular basis. And consequently, I have gotten myself into a routine. The normal procedure for me is to pull up to security, check-in, walk outside, close my trailer tail, open the trailer doors, pull around back, walk into the receiving area, get a dock assigned to me, dock the trailer and then go home. Having a routine can be a good thing. However, it can also mess things up if there is a change to the routine.
On this particular occasion, I delivered mid-Saturday morning instead of Friday night. There were trucks backed up all the way to the street. This was the beginning of my changed routine. When I walked out to my truck, I decided to drive around back before closing my trailer tail and opening the trailer doors giving another truck the opportunity to move out of the street. When I arrived at the back of the building, there was an overabundance of other trucks and trailers and I was not able to turn around at my normal location. I found an opening between the parked trailers to get turned around while I changed my position to be able to back into a dock. At this point, there was another trailer lined up with the back of my trailer that had not turned around yet. I stopped to allow him and give him time to get himself organized.
All this time I'm trying to keep inventory of where everyone is around my truck and trailer. I am positioned near the row of trailers opposite the docks and patiently waited for the other truck to move so that I could safely park along the side of the receiving area. My truck was stopped with the cab slightly to the left side of my trailer which made the right side mirror completely blind. While I was waiting, I had gotten a text message in which I received my dock assignment. I decided to move back just a little bit to give everyone else more room to safely park. As soon as I moved back I felt a crunch. It was then that my heart skipped a beat and I knew instantly something had gone wrong. I exited the truck to find out that while I was waiting, another trailer had backed up into my blind side. I had hit the back of that trailer and crushed my trailer tail. Fortunately, the other trailer's doors were open and received zero damage. The right side of my trailer tail, unfortunately, was completely destroyed.
The funny thing that happened next was when two other drivers came over to me and said “Hey! You're lucky that nothing happened to the other trailer and the only thing messed up on your trailer is the trailer tail.” The other driver added, “You can just take it to the drop yard and get another one!” I explained to him that it was my only trailer and “I own it!” The driver misunderstood me and thought I was saying I was owning up to my mistake, not that I owned the trailer. I explained to him I was owning up to my mistake and I actually own the trailer. I further explained to him I wasn't trying to get out of my mistake by simply dropping the trailer in another yard; I was taking responsibility for my mistake.
In the end, what
happened was a simple mistake on my part. In the last moments of my trip, I was out of my normal routine and I let my guard down. The lesson learned here is to have extra vigilance, not only in my last hour but when a normal routine is interrupted. In addition to that, I am going to miss my aerodynamic trailer tail which had proven to increase my fuel mileage by 5.7%. Now it's time to start shopping for new aerodynamic devices for the rear of my trailer. Because after over 900,000 miles, that particular trailer tail is no longer produced. The good news after all this is, neither trailer was damaged and no one was injured during this unfortunate event.